*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY FOR READY REFERENCE, VOLUME 6 ***
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MAIN SUBJECT TITLE IN UPPER CASE
Subheading one.
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See CROSS REFERENCE ONE.
See Also CROSS REFERENCE TWO.
John Smith,
External Citation Title,
Chapter 3, page 89.
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Map of Asia
HISTORY FOR READY REFERENCE.
FROM THE BEST HISTORIANS, BIOGRAPHERS, AND SPECIALISTS
THEIR OWN WORDS IN A COMPLETE SYSTEM OF HISTORY
FOR ALL USES, EXTENDING TO ALL COUNTRIES AND SUBJECTS,
AND REPRESENTING FOR BOTH READERS AND STUDENTS THE BETTER
AND NEWER LITERATURE OF HISTORY IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
BY
J. N. LARNED
WITH NUMEROUS HISTORICAL MAPS FROM ORIGINAL
STUDIES AND DRAWINGS BY
ALAN O. REILEY
REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION
IN SIX VOLUMES
VOLUME VI—RECENT HISTORY
1894-5 TO 1901
A to Z
SPRINGFIELD, MASS.
THE C. A. NICHOLS CO., PUBLISHERS
COPYRIGHT, 1901,
BY J. N. LARNED.
The Riverside Press,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U. S. A.
Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company.
PREFACE TO THE SIXTH VOLUME.
The six years that have passed since the original five volumes
of this compilation were published, in 1894-5, have been
filled with events so remarkable and changes so revolutionary
in political and social conditions that the work has seemed to
need an extension to cover them. The wish for such an
extension, expressed by many people, led to the preparation of
a new volume, in which all the lines of the historical record
are taken from the points at which they were dropped in the
early volumes, and are carried to the end of the Nineteenth
Century, and beyond it, into the opening months of the present
year.
In plan and arrangement this additional volume is uniform with
the preceding ones; but the material used in it is different
from that dealt with before, and a quite different character
is given consequently to the book. The former compilation
represented closet-studies of History—perspective views of a
past more or less remote from those who depicted it. This one,
on the contrary, exhibits History in the making,—the day by
day evolution of events and changes as they passed under the
hands and before the eyes and were recorded by the pens of the
actual makers and witnesses of them. If there is crudeness in the
story thus constructed, there is life in it, to quite make good
the lack of literary finish; and the volume is expected to
prove as interesting and as useful as its predecessors. It
sets forth, with the fulness which their present-day interest
demands, all the circumstances that led to the
Spanish-American war; the unforeseen sequences of that war, in
the Philippine Islands, in Cuba, in Porto Rico, and in
American politics; the whole controversy of Great Britain with
the South African Boers and the resulting war; the shameful
dealings of western nations with China, during late years,
which provoked the outbreak of barbaric hostility to
foreigners, and the dreadful experiences of the siege and
relief of Peking; the strange Dreyfus agitations in France;
the threatening race-conflicts in Austria; the change of
sovereign in England; the Peace Conference at The Hague and
its results; the federation of the Australian colonies; the
development of industrial combinations or trusts in the United
States; the archæological discoveries of late years in the
East, and the more notable triumphs of achievement in the
scientific world. On these and other occurrences of the period
surveyed, the record of fact is quoted from sources the most
responsible and authentic now available, and always with the
endeavor to present both sides of controverted matters with
strict impartiality.
For purposes of reference and study, a large number of
important documents—laws, treaties, new constitutions of
government, and other state papers—are given in full, and, in
most instances, from officially printed texts.
BUFFALO, NEW YORK; May, 1901.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.
I am indebted to the following named authors, editors, and
publishers, for permission kindly given me to quote from books
and periodicals, all of which are duly referred to in
connection with the passages severally borrowed from them:
The manager of The American Catholic Quarterly Review;
the editor of The American Journal of Archæology;
the editor of The American Monthly Review of Reviews;
General Thomas F. Anderson;
Messrs. D. Appleton & Company;
Messrs. Wm. Blackwood's Sons (Blackwood's Magazine);
Mr. Andrew Carnegie;
Messrs. Chapman & Hall (The Fortnightly Review);
Mr. Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain);
Hon. W. Bourke Cockran;
the editor of The Contemporary Review;
Prof. John Franklin Crowell;
the G. W. Dillingham Company;
Messrs. Dodd, Mead & Company;
Messrs. Doubleday, Page & Company;
The Ecumenical Conference on Foreign Missions;
Mr. J. Foreman;
The Forum Publishing Company;
Harper & Brothers (Harper's Magazine);
Mr. Howard C. Hillegas;
Prof. H. V. Hilprecht;
Hon. Frederick W. Holls;
Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Company (The Atlantic Monthly);
Mr. George Iles;
the editor of The Independent;
Prof. John H. Latané;
Messrs. Longmans, Green & Company (The Edinburgh Review);
Mr. Charles F. Lummis;
Messrs. McClure, Philips & Company (The Popular Science Monthly);
Messrs. MacMillan & Company (London);
The New Amsterdam Book Company;
the editor of The Nineteenth Century Review;
the editor of The North American Review;
the editors of The Outlook;
the managing editor of The Political Science Quarterly;
Mr. Edward Porritt;
Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons;
Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons;
George M. Sternberg, Surgeon-General, U. S. A.;
The Frederick A. Stokes Company;
the managing editor of The Sunday School Times;
Prof. F. W. Taussig;
Prof. Elihu Thomson;
the manager of The Times, London;
The University Press, Cambridge;
Mr. Herbert Welsh; the editors of The Yale Review.
My acknowledgments are likewise due to the Hon. D. S.
Alexander, Representative in Congress, and to many officials
at Washington, for courteous assistance in procuring
publications of the national government for my use.
LIST OF MAPS.
Map of Asia, Preceding the title page
Map of Africa, Following page 2
Map of Alaska, Following page 8
Map of Australia, Following page 30
Map of Central America,
showing the Isthmian Canal routes, Following page 66
Map of the East Coast of China, Following page 76
Map of Cuba and the West Indies, Following page 170
Map of Hawaii, Following page 254
Map of the Philippine Islands,
and of the seat of war in Luzon, Following page 368
Map of Porto Rico, Following page 410
Map of the Boer Republics
and their surroundings, Following page 492
Map illustrating the Santiago campaign
in the Spanish-American war, On page 603
LIST OF TABLES.
The descendants of Queen Victoria, Page 215
Protestant foreign missions
and missionary societies, Pages 311-313
Navies of the Sea Powers, Page 318
Philippine Islands, area and population, Pages 367-369
The Shipping of the World in 1900, Page 452
British military forces in South African war, Pages 509-510
Statistics of the Spanish-American War, Pages 628-631
Twelfth Census of the United States (1900), Pages 645-646
Revenues and expenditures of the government
of the United States for the fiscal
year ended June 30, 1900, Page 666
Losses from all causes in the armies
of the United States from
May 1, 1898, to May 20, 1900, Pages 666-667
Qualifications of the elective franchise
in the several States of the United States, Pages 676-677
Military and naval expenditures of
the greater Powers, Pages 694-697
Chronological record of events, 1895 to 1901, Pages 702-720
{1}
HISTORY FOR READY REFERENCE.
ABORIGINES, American.
See (in this volume)
INDIANS, AMERICAN.
ABRUZZI, the Duke of: Arctic expedition.
See (in this volume) POLAR EXPLORATION, 1899-1900, 1901.
ABYDOS, Archæological exploration at.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT: RESULTS.
ABYSSINIA: A. D. 1895-1896.
Successful war with the Italians.
See (in this volume) ITALY: A. D. 1895-1896.
ABYSSINIA: A. D. 1897.
Treaty with Great Britain.
A treaty between King Menelek of Abyssinia and the British
Government was concluded in May, 1897. It gives to British
subjects the privileges of the most favored nations in trade;
opens the port of Zeyla to Abyssinian importations; defines
the boundary of the British Somali Protectorate, and pledges
Abyssinia to be hostile to the Mahdists.
ACETYLENE GAS, Production of.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.
ADOWA, Battle of.
See (in this volume) ITALY; A. D. 1895-1896.
AFGHANISTAN: A. D. 1893-1895.
Relinquishment of claims over Swat, Bajaur and Chitral.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1895 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).
AFGHANISTAN: A. D. 1894.
The Waziri War.
See (in this volume) INDIA: A. D. 1894.
AFGHANISTAN: A. D. 1895.
Anglo-Russian Agreement.
Determination of the northern frontier.
The joint Anglo-Russian Commission for fixing the northern
frontier of Afghanistan, from Zulfikar on the Heri-Rud to the
Pamirs, finished its work in July, 1895. This was consequent
upon an Agreement between the governments of Great Britain and
Russia which had been reduced to writing on the previous 11th
of March. In part, that Agreement was as follows:
"Her Britannic Majesty's Government and the Government of His
Majesty the Emperor of Russia engage to abstain from
exercising any political influence or control, the former to
the north, the latter to the south, of the above line of
demarcation. Her Britannic Majesty's Government engage that
the territory lying within the British sphere of influence
between the Hindu Kush and the line running from the east end
of Lake Victoria to the Chinese frontier shall form part of
the territory of the Ameer of Afghanistan, that it shall not
be annexed to Great Britain, and that no military posts or
forts shall be established in it. The execution of this
Agreement is contingent upon the evacuation by the Ameer of
Afghanistan of all the territories now occupied by His
Highness on the right bank of the Panjah, and on the
evacuation by the Ameer of Bokhara of the portion of Darwaz
which lies to the south of the Oxus, in regard to which Her
Britannic Majesty's Government and the Government of His
Majesty the Emperor of Russia have agreed to use their
influence respectively with the two Ameers."
Great Britain, Papers by Command: Treaty Series,
Number 8, 1895.
AFGHANISTAN: A. D. 1896.
Conquest of Kafiristan.
By the agreement of 1893, between the Ameer of Afghanistan and
the government of India (see, in this volume, INDIA. A. D.
1895-MARCH-SEPTEMBER), the mountain district of Kafiristan was
conceded to the former, and he presently set to work to
subjugate its warlike people, who had never acknowledged his
yoke. By the end of 1896 the conquest of these Asiatic Kafirs
was believed to be complete.
AFGHANISTAN: A. D. 1897-1898.
Wars of the British with frontier tribes.
See (in this volume) INDIA: A. D. 1897-1898.
AFGHANISTAN: A. D. 1900.
Russian railway projects.
See (in this volume) RUSSIA-IN-ASIA: A. D. 1900.
----------AFRICA: Start--------
AFRICA: A. D. 1891-1900
(Portuguese East Africa).
Delagoa Bay Railway Arbitration.
See (in this volume)
DELAGOA BAY ARBITRATION.
AFRICA: A. D. 1893 (Niger Coast Protectorate).
Its growth.
See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1882-1899.
AFRICA: A. D. 1894 (The Transvaal).
The Commandeering question.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1894.
AFRICA: A. D. 1894 (The Transvaal).
Dissatisfaction of the Boers with the
London Convention of 1884.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1884-1894.
AFRICA: A. D. 1894-1895 (British South Africa Company).
Extension of charter and enlargement of powers.
Influence of Cecil J. Rhodes.
Attitude towards the Transvaal.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA
(BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY): A. D. 1894-1895.
AFRICA: A. D. 1894-1895 (Rhodesia).
Extended territory and enlarged powers of the British
South Africa Company.
Ascendancy of Cecil J. Rhodes.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA
(BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY): A. D. 1894-1895.
AFRICA: A. D. 1894-1898
(British Central Africa Protectorate: Nyassaland).
Administrative separation from British South Africa Company's
territory.
Conflicts with natives.
Resources and prospects.
See (in this volume)
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE.
{2}
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (Bechuanaland).
Partial conveyance to British South Africa Company.
Several Bechuana chiefs visited England to urge that their
country should not be absorbed by Cape Colony or the British
South Africa Company. An agreement was made with them which
reserved certain territories to each, but yielded the
remainder to the administration of the British South Africa
Company.
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (British East Africa).
Transfer of territory to the British Government.
The territories previously administered by the Imperial
British East Africa Company (excepting the Uganda
Protectorate, which had been transferred in 1894) were finally
transferred to the British Government on the 1st of July. At
the same time, the dominion of the Sultan of Zanzibar on the
mainland came under the administrative control of the British
consul-general at Zanzibar.
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (Cape Colony).
Annexation of British Bechuanaland.
Proceedings for the annexation of British Bechuanaland to Cape
Colony were adopted by the Cape Parliament in August.
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (French West Africa).
Appointment of a Governor-General.
In June, M. Chaudie was appointed Governor-General of French
West Africa, his jurisdiction extending over Senegal, the
Sudan possessions of France, French Guinea, Dahomey, and other
French possessions in the Gulf of Benin.
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (Orange Free State).
Proposed federal union of the Free State with the Transvaal.
A resolution making overtures for a federal union with the
Transvaal was passed by the Volksraad of the Orange Free State
in June.
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (Sierra Leone).
Establishment of a British Protectorate over the
Hinterland of Sierra Leone.
Anglo-French boundary agreement.
See (in this volume)
SIERRA LEONE PROTECTORATE.
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (Transvaal).
Action in Swaziland.
By a proclamation in February, the Transvaal Government
assumed the administration of Swaziland and installed King
Buna as paramount chief.
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (The Transvaal).
Closing of the Vaal River Drifts.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1895 (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER).
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (The Transvaal).
Discontent of the Uitlanders.
The Franchise question.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1895 (NOVEMBER).
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (The Transvaal).
Opening of Delagoa Bay Railway.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1895 (JULY).
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (Zululand).
Extension of Boundary.
A strip of territory west of Amatongaland, along the Pondoland
River to the Maputa was formally added to Zululand in May, the
South African Republic protesting.
AFRICA: A. D. 1895-1896 (Portuguese East Africa).
War with Gungunhana.
The Portuguese were involved in war with Gungunhana, king of
Gazaland, which lasted from September, 1895, until the
following spring, when Gungunhana was captured and carried a
prisoner, with his wives and son, to Lisbon.
AFRICA: A. D. 1895-1896 (The Transvaal).
Revolutionary conspiracy of Uitlanders at Johannesburg.
The Jameson raid.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1895-1896.
AFRICA: A. D. 1895-1897 (British East Africa Protectorate).
Creation of the Protectorate.
Territories included.
Subjugation of Arab chiefs.
Report of commissioner.
See (in this volume)
BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE:
A. D. 1895-1897.
AFRICA: A. D. 1896 (Ashanti).
British conquest and occupation.
See (in this volume)
ASHANTI.
AFRICA: A. D. 1896 (British South Africa Company).
Resignation of Mr. Rhodes.
Parliamentary movement to investigate.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY):
A. D. 1896 (JUNE); and (JULY).
AFRICA: A. D. 1896 (Cape Colony).
Investigation of the Jameson raid.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE COLONY): A. D. 1896 (JULY).
AFRICA: A. D. 1896 (Rhodesia).
Matabele revolt.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (RHODESIA):
A. D. 1896 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).
AFRICA: A. D. 1896 (Zanzibar).
Suppression of an usurper by the British.
On the sudden death (supposed to be from poison) of the Sultan
of Zanzibar, August 25, his cousin, Said Khalid, seized the
palace and proclaimed himself sultan. Zanzibar being an
acknowledged protectorate of Great Britain, the usurper was
summoned by the British consul to surrender. He refused, and
the palace was bombarded by war vessels in the harbor, with
such effect that the palace was speedily destroyed and about
500 of its inmates killed. Khalid fled to the German consul,
who protected him and had him conveyed to German territory. A
new sultan, Said Hamud-bin-Mahomed was at once proclaimed.
AFRICA: A. D. 1896-1899 (The Transvaal).
Controversies with the British Government.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1896 (JANUARY-APRIL), to 1899 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER).
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (Congo Free State).
Mutiny of troops.
The Congo troops of an expedition led by Baron Dhanis mutinied
and murdered a number of Belgian officers. Subsequently they
were attacked in the neighborhood of Lake Albert Edward Nyanza
and mostly destroyed.
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (Dahomey and Tongoland).
Definition of boundary.
By a convention concluded in July between Germany and France,
the boundary between German possessions in Tongoland and those
of France in Dahomey and the Sudan was defined.
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (Nigeria).
Massacre at Benin.
British expedition.
Capture of the town.
See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1897.
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (Nigeria).
Subjugation of Fulah slave-raiders.
In January and February, the forces of the Royal Niger Company
successfully invaded the strong Fulah states of Nupé and
Ilorin, from which slave raiding in the territory under
British protection was carried on. Bida, the Nupé capital, was
entered on the 27th of January, after a battle in which 800
Hausa troops, led by European officers, and using heavy
artillery, drove from the field an army of cavalry and foot
estimated at 30,000 in number. The Emir of Nupé was deposed,
another set up in his place, and a treaty signed which
established British rule. The Emir of Ilorin submitted after
his town had been bombarded, and bowed himself to British
authority in his government. At the same time, a treaty
settled the Lagos frontier. Later in the year, the stronghold
at Kiffi of another slave-raider, Arku, was stormed and
burned.
 |
 |
Map of Africa
{3}
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (Orange Free State and Transvaal).
Treaty defensive between the two republics.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (ORANGE FREE STATE AND TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1897 (APRIL).
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (Sudan).
Beginning of the Anglo-Egyptian conquest.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896.
A. D. 1897 (Zanzibar).
Abolition of slavery.
Under pressure from the British government, the Sultan of
Zanzibar issued a decree, on the 6th or April, 1897,
terminating the legal status of slavery, with compensation to
be awarded on proof of consequent loss.
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (Zululand).
Annexation to Natal.
By act of the Natal Parliament in December, 1897, Zululand
(with Amatongaland already joined to it) was annexed to Natal
Colony, and Dinizulu, son of the last Zulu king, was brought
from captivity in St. Helena and reinstated.
AFRICA: A. D. 1897-1898 (Sudan).
Completion of the Anglo-Egyptian conquest.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1897-1898.
AFRICA: A. D. 1897-1898 (Uganda).
Native insurrections and mutiny of Sudanese troops in Uganda.
See (in this volume)
UGANDA: A. D. 1897-1898.
AFRICA: A. D. 1898 (Abyssinia).
Treaty of King Menelek with Great Britain.
See (in this volume)
ABYSSINIA: A. D. 1898.
AFRICA: A. D. 1898 (British South Africa Company).
Reorganization.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (RHODESIA):
A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY).
AFRICA: A. D. 1898 (Egypt).
The Nile question between England and France.
Marchand's expedition at Fashoda.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1898 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).
AFRICA: A. D. 1898 (Nigeria and the French Sudan).
Definition of French and English possessions in
West and North Africa.
See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1882-1899.
AFRICA: A. D. 1898 (Rhodesia).
Reorganization of the British South Africa Company and
the administration of its territories.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA
(RHODESIA AND THE BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY):
A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY).
AFRICA: A. D. 1898 (Tunis).
Results of the French Protectorate.
See (in this volume)
TUNIS: A. D. 1881-1898.
AFRICA: A. D. 1899.
Railway development.
"Railroad development in Africa has been rapid in the past few
years and seems but the beginning of a great system which must
contribute to the rapid development, civilization, and
enlightenment of the Dark Continent. Already railroads run
northwardly from Cape Colony about 1,400 miles, and
southwardly from Cairo about 1,100 miles, thus making 2,500
miles of the 'Cape to Cairo' railroad complete, while the
intermediate distance is about 3,000 miles. Mr. Rhodes, whose
recent visit to England and Germany in the interest of the
proposed through line from the Cape to Cairo is a matter of
record, and whose visit to Germany was made necessary by the
fact that in order to pass from the southern chain of British
territory to the northern chain he must cross German or
Belgian territory, is reported as confident that the through
line will be completed by the year 1910. Certainly it may
reasonably be assumed that a continuous railway line will be
in operation from the southern to the northern end of Africa
in the early years of the twentieth century. Toward this line,
present and prospective, which is to stretch through the
eastern part of the continent, lateral lines from either coast
are beginning to make their way. A line has already been
constructed from Natal on the southeast coast: another from
Lourenço Marquez in Portuguese territory and the gold and
diamond fields: another from Beira, also in Portuguese
territory, but considerably farther north, and destined to
extend to Salisbury in Rhodesia, where it will form a junction
with the 'Cape to Cairo' road; still another is projected from
Zanzibar to Lake Victoria Nyanza, to connect, probably, at
Tabora, with the transcontinental line; another line is under
actual construction westward from Pangani just north of
Zanzibar, both of these being in German East Africa; another
line is being constructed northwestwardly from Mombasa, in
British territory, toward Lake Victoria Nyanza, and is
completed more than half the distance, while at the entrance
to the Red Sea a road is projected westwardly into Abyssinia,
and is expected to pass farther toward the west and connect
with the main line. At Suakim, fronting on the Red Sea, a road
is projected to Berber, the present terminus of the line
running southwardly from Cairo. On the west of Africa lines
have begun to penetrate inward, a short line in the French
Sudan running from the head of navigation on the Senegal
eastwardly toward the head of navigation on the Niger, with
the ultimate purpose of connecting navigation on these two
streams. In the Kongo Free State a railway connects the Upper
Kongo with the Lower Kongo around Livingstone Falls; in
Portuguese Angola a road extends eastwardly from Loanda, the
capital, a considerable distance, and others are projected
from Benguela and Mossamedes with the ultimate purpose of
connecting with the 'Cape to Cairo' road and joining with the
lines from Portuguese East Africa, which also touch that road,
thus making a transcontinental line from east to west, with
Portuguese territory at either terminus. Farther south on the
western coast the Germans have projected a road from Walfisch
Bay to Windhoek, the capital of German Southwest Africa, and
this will probably be extended eastwardly until it connects
with the great transcontinental line from 'Cape to Cairo,'
which is to form the great nerve center of the system, to be
contributed to and supported by these branches connecting it
with either coast. Another magnificent railway project, which
was some years ago suggested by M. Leroy Beaulieu, has been
recently revived, being no less than an east and west
transcontinental line through the Sudan region, connecting the
Senegal and Niger countries on the west with the Nile Valley
and Red Sea on the east and penetrating a densely populated
and extremely productive region of which less is now known,
perhaps, than of any other part of Africa. At the north
numerous lines skirt the Mediterranean coast, especially in
the French territory of Algeria and in Tunis, where the length
of railway is, in round numbers, 2,250 miles, while the
Egyptian railroads are, including those now under
construction, about 1,500 miles in length.
{4}
Those of Cape Colony and Natal are nearly 3,000 miles, and
those of Portuguese East Africa and the South African Republic
another thousand. Taking into consideration all of the roads
now constructed, or under actual construction, their total
length reaches nearly 10,000 miles, while there seems every
reason to believe that the great through system connecting the
rapidly developing mining regions of South Africa with the
north of the continent and with Europe will soon be pushed to
completion. A large proportion of the railways thus far
constructed are owned by the several colonies or States which
they traverse, about 2,000 miles of the Cape Colony system
belonging to the Government, while nearly all that of Egypt is
owned and operated by the State."
United States Bureau of Statistics,
Monthly Summary, August, 1899.
See, also, (in this volume),
RAILWAY, CAPE TO CAIRO.
AFRICA: A. D. 1899 (June).
International Convention respecting the liquor traffic.
Representatives of the governments of Great Britain, Germany,
Belgium, Spain, the Congo State, France, Italy, the
Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Sweden and Norway, and Turkey,
assembled at Brussels, in June, 1899, with due authorization,
and there concluded an international convention respecting the
liquor traffic in Africa. Subsequently the governments of
Austria-Hungary, the United States of America, Liberia and
Persia, gave their adhesion to the Convention, and
ratifications were deposited at Brussels in June, 1900. The
Convention is, in a measure, supplemental to what is known as
"the General Act of Brussels," relative to the African slave
trade, which was framed at a conference of the representatives
of European, American, African, and Asiatic states, at
Brussels. The treaty known as the General Act of Brussels was
signed July 2, 1890, but did not come into force until April
2, 1894. The text of it may be found in (United States) House
Doc. Number 276, 56th Congress, 3d Session. The Convention of
1899 provides:
"Article I.
From the coming into force of the present Convention, the
import duty on spirituous liquors, as that duty is regulated
by the General Act of Brussels, shall be raised throughout the
zone where there does not exist the system of total
prohibition provided by Article XCI, of the said General Act,
to the rate of 70 fr. the hectolitre at 50 degrees centigrade,
for a period of six years. It may, exceptionally, be at the
rate of 60 fr. only the hectolitre at 50 degrees centigrade in
the Colony of Togo and in that of Dahomey. The import duty
shall be augmented proportionally for each degree above 50
degrees centigrade; It may be diminished proportionally for
each degree below 50 degrees centigrade. At the end of the
above-mentioned period of six years, the import duty shall be
submitted to revision, taking as a basis the results produced
by the preceding rate. The Powers retain the right of
maintaining and increasing the duty beyond the minimum fixed
by the present Article in the regions where they now possess
that right.
Article II.
In accordance with Article XCIII of the General Act of
Brussels, distilled drinks made in the regions mentioned in
Article XCII of the said General Act, and intended for
consumption, shall pay an excise duty. This excise duty, the
collection of which the Powers undertake to insure as far as
possible, shall not be lower than the minimum import duty
fixed by Article I. of the present Convention.
Article III.
It is understood that the Powers who signed the General Act of
Brussels, or who have acceded to it, and who are not
represented at the present Conference, preserve the right of
acceding to the present Convention."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publication.
(Papers by Command: Treaty Series, Number 13, 1900).
AFRICA: A. D. 1899.
Progress of the Telegraph line from the Cape to Cairo.
See (in this volume)
TELEGRAPH, CAPE TO CAIRO.
AFRICA: A. D. 1899 (German Colonies).
Cost to Germany, trade, etc.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (JUNE).
AFRICA: A. D. 1899 (Nigeria).
Transfer of territory to the British Crown.
See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1899.
AFRICA: A. D. 1899 (Orange Free State).
Treaty of alliance with the Transvaal.
Making common cause.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (ORANGE FREE STATE):
A. D. 1897 (APRIL); and 1899 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER).
AFRICA: A. D. 1899 (The Sudan).
Anglo-Egyptian Condominium established.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY).
AFRICA: A. D. 1899 (Transvaal and Orange Free State).
Outbreak of war with Great Britain.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (TRANSVAAL AND ORANGE FREE STATE):
A. D. 1899 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER).
AFRICA: A. D. 1899 (West Africa).
Definition of British and German frontiers.
See (in this volume)
SAMOAN ISLANDS.
AFRICA: A. D. 1899 (Zanzibar).
Renunciation of rights of extra-territoriality by Germany.
See (in this volume)
SAMOAN ISLANDS.
AFRICA: A. D. 1899-1900.
Summary of the partition of the Continent.
"Seven European nations, as before remarked, now control
territories in Africa, two of them having areas equal in each
case to about the entire land area of the United States, while
a few small territories remain as independent States.
Beginning at the northeast, Egypt and Tripoli are nominally at
least tributaries of Turkey, though the Egyptian Government,
which was given large latitude by that of Turkey, has of late
years formed such relations with Great Britain that, in
financial matters at least, her guidance is recognized; next
west, Algeria, French; then Morocco on the extreme northwest,
an independent Government and an absolute despotism; next on
the south, Spain's territory of Rio de Oro; then the Senegal
territories, belonging to the French, and connecting through
the desert of Sahara with her Algeria; then a group of small
divisions controlled by England, along the Gulf of Guinea;
then Liberia, the black Republic; Togoland, controlled by the
Germans; Dahomey, a French protectorate; the Niger territory,
one-third the size of the United States, controlled by
England; Kamerun, controlled by Germany; French Kongo; then
the Kongo Free State, under the auspices of the King of
Belgium, and occupying the very heart of equatorial Africa;
then Portuguese Angola; next, German South west Africa; and
finally in the march down the Atlantic side, Cape Colony,
British.
{5}
Following up the eastern side comes the British colony of
Natal; then just inland from this the two Boer Republics, the
Orange Free State and the South African Republic, both of
which are entirely in the interior, without ocean frontage;
next, Portuguese Africa, and west of this the great territory
known as 'Rhodesia'; then German Africa, which extends almost
to the equator; north of these, British East Africa, fronting
on the Indian Ocean, and merging northwardly with the Egyptian
Sudan, which was recently recovered from the Mahdi by the joint
operation of British and Egyptian troops, and the British flag
placed side by side with that of Egypt; next north, upon the
coast, Italian territory and a small tract opposite the
entrance to the Red Sea controlled by England; and a few
hundred miles west of the entrance to the Red Sea, the
independent Kingdom of Abyssinia. This division of African
territory, nearly all of it made within the memory of the
present generation, forms the present political map of Africa.
With England and France controlling an area equal in each case
to that of the United States; Germany, a territory one-third
the size of the United States; Portugal, with an area somewhat
less; the Kongo Free State in the great equatorial basin, but
having a frontage upon the Atlantic with an area nearly
one-third that of the United States; Italy and Spain, each
with a comparatively small area of territory; Egypt, with
relations quite as much British as Turkish; Tripoli, Turkish,
and the five independent States of Morocco, Liberia,
Abyssinia, and the two Boer Republics—nothing remains
unclaimed, even in the desert wastes, while in the high
altitudes and subtropical climate of southeast Africa
civilization and progress are making rapid advancement."
United States Bureau of Statistics,
Monthly Summary, August, 1899.
The following table, given in an article in "The Forum,"
December, 1899, by Mr. O. P. Austin, Chief of the United
States Bureau of Statistics, shows the area, total population,
foreign population, and imports and exports of the territory
in Africa held by each European Government and by the
independent States of that continent, at the time of its
compilation so far as could be ascertained; but the statistics
of area and population, especially the latter, are in many
cases necessarily estimates:
POP.
TOTAL FOREIGN PER SQ.
AREA. POPULATION. POPULATION MILE IMPORTS. EXPORTS.
French Africa. 3,028,000 28,155,000 922,000 9.3 $70,116,000 $69,354,000
British Africa. 2,761,000 35,160,000 455,000 12.8 131,398,000 131,835,000
Turkish Africa. 1,760,000 21,300,000 113,000 12.2 54,091,000 62,548,000
German Africa. 944,000 11,270,000 4,000 12.0 4,993,000 2,349,000
Belgian Africa. 900,000 30,000,000 2,000 33.3 4,522,000 3,309,000
Portuguese Africa. 790,000 8,059,000 3,000 10.2 11,863,000 6,730,000
Spanish Africa. 243,000 36,000 … 0.5 … …
Italian Africa. 188,000 850,000 … 4.5 … …
Independent States.
Morocco. 219,000 5,000,000 … 22.8 6,402,000 6,261,000
Abyssinia. 150,000 3,500,000 … 23.3 … …
South African Republic. 120,000 1,096,000 346,000 9.2 104,703,000 53,532,000
Orange Free State. 48,500 208,000 78,000 4.3 5,994,000 8,712,000
Liberia. 48,000 1,500,000 25,000 31.3 1,217,000 1,034,000
Total. 11,189,500 146,133,000 1,948,000 … $395,299,000 $345,714,000
According to a statistical table in the twentieth volume of
Meyer's Konversations-Lexicon (third annual supplement), based
upon the latest data furnished by the boundary treaties
between the Powers, it would appear that all but about
one-seventh of the African continent is now (A. D. 1900)
included in some "protectorate" or "sphere of influence." The
French sphere is the largest, comprising about 3,700,000
square miles (about the extent of Europe) out of a total area
of 11,600,000. England comes next with 2,400,000 (including
the Boer territories). Then follow in order Germany, Belgium
(Congo Free State), and Portugal, each with somewhat less than
a million square miles. The Egyptian sphere (about 400,000
square miles) may properly be regarded as part of the British.
The extent of the French sphere will appear less imposing on
consulting the map of Africa here given, which shows that it
takes in the greater part of the sands of the Sahara. The
British sphere (including Egypt and her dependencies) is
estimated to contain in round numbers about 50,000,000 souls;
the French, 35,000,000; the Belgian, 17,000,000; the German,
9,000,000; the Portuguese, 8,000,000.
AFRICA: A. D. 1900 (Ashanti).
Revolt of the tribes.
Siege and relief of Kumasai.
See (in this volume)
ASHANTI.
AFRICA: A. D. 1900 (Togoland and Gold Coast).
Demarcation of the Hinterland.
Late in November it was announced from Berlin that conferences
regarding the British and German boundaries in West Africa
were then in progress in the Colonial Department of the German
Foreign Office, their principal object being the demarcation
of the Hinterland of Togoland and of the Gold Coast, and in
particular the partition of the neutral zone of Salaga as
arranged in Article 5 of the Samoa Agreement between Great
Britain and Germany.
See (in this volume)
SAMOAN ISLANDS.
AFRIDIS, British Indian war with the.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1897-1898.
AFRIKANDER BUND, The.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE, COLONY):
A. D. 1881-1888; 1898; and 1898 (MARCH-OCTOBER).
AFRIKANDER CONGRESS.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (Cape Colony): A. D. 1900 (DECEMBER).
AFRIKANDERS:
Joining the invading Boers.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER.).
AFRIKANDERS:
Opposition to the annexation of the Boer Republics.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE COLONY): A. D. 1900 (MAY).
{6}
AGRARIAN PROTECTIONISTS, The German.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1895-1898; 1899 (AUGUST); and 1901 (FEBRUARY).
AGRICULTURAL LAND BILL, The.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1896.
AGUINALDO y FAMY, Emilio.
First appearance in the Filipino insurrection.
His treaty with the Spaniards and departure from the Islands.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1896-1898.
AGUINALDO y FAMY, Emilio.
Circumstances in which he went to Manila to co-operate with
American forces.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (APRIL-MAY: PHILIPPINES).
AGUINALDO y FAMY, Emilio.
Arrival at Manila, May 19, 1898.
His organization of insurgent forces.
His relations with Admiral Dewey.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JULY).
AGUINALDO y FAMY, Emilio.
Correspondence with General Anderson.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: PHILIPPINES).
AGUINALDO y FAMY, Emilio.
Relations with American commander at Manila.
Declared President of the Philippine Republic.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
AGUINALDO y FAMY, Emilio.
Conflict of his army with American forces.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS:
A. D. 1898 (AUGUST-DECEMBER), and after.
ALABAMA: A. D. 1899.
Dispensary Laws.
Acts applying the South Carolina "dispensary" system of
regulation for the liquor traffic to seventeen counties, but
not to the State at large, were passed by the Legislature.
See, in this volume,
SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1892-1899.
ALASKA: A. D. 1898-1899.
Discovery of the Cape Nome gold mining region.
"The Cape Nome mining region lies on the western coast of
Alaska, just beyond the military reservation of St. Michael
and about 120 miles south of the Arctic Circle. It can be
reached by an ocean voyage of ten or twelve days from Seattle.
It has long been known that gold exists in the general vicinity
of Cape Nome, and during the last five or six years a few
adventurous miners have done more or less prospecting and
claim staking throughout the district lying between Norton and
Kotzebue sounds. During the winter of 1898-99, a large number
of miners entered the Kotzebue country, while others spent the
season in the vicinity of Golofnin Bay." On the 15th of
October, 1898, a party of seven men reached Snake River in a
schooner. "Between that date and the 18th a miners' meeting
was held, the boundaries of a district 25 miles square were
established, local mining regulations were formulated, and Dr.
Kittleson was elected recorder for a term of two years. After
organizing the district natives were hired to do the necessary
packing, and a camp was established on Anvil Creek. The
prospecting outfits were quickly brought into service. In one
afternoon $76 was panned out on Snow Creek. Encouraged by this
showing lumber was carried up from the schooner and two
rockers were constructed. … In four or five days over $1,800
was cleaned up with these two rockers. … The weather turned
cold and the water was frozen up. As it was impossible to do
any more work with the rockers the party broke camp on the 3d
of November and returned to the schooner, which they found
frozen solid in 2 feet of ice. They then made their way in a
small boat to an Indian village, near Cape Nome, where they
obtained dogs and sleds, and a little farther on they were met
by reindeer from the Swedish Mission, with which they returned
to Golofnin Bay.
"The lucky miners had agreed among themselves that their
discovery should be held secret, but the news was too good to
keep, and soon leaked out. A general stampede commenced at
once and continued all winter. Every available dog and
reindeer was pressed into the service, and they were soon
racing with each other for the valuable claims which had been
left unstaked in the vicinity of Anvil Creek. As soon as that
creek had been all taken up the stampede extended to the
neighboring streams and gulches, and Glacier and Dexter
creeks, as well as many others which have not proved equally
valuable, were quickly staked and recorded. By the 25th of
December a large party armed with numerous powers of attorney
had entered the district, and as the local regulations allowed
every man to stake on each creek one claim of the full legal
dimensions (660 by 1,320 feet), it was not long until the
whole district had been thoroughly covered, and nearly every
stream had been staked with claims, which in some cases were
'jumped' and the right of possession disputed.
"The news of a rich strike at Nome worked its way up the Yukon
River during the winter, and as soon as the ice broke in June
a large crowd came down from Rampart City, followed by a
larger crowd from Dawson. The 'Yukoners,' as these people were
called, were already disgusted with the hardships,
disappointments, and Canadian misgovernment which they had met
with on the upper river. … Those to whom enough faith had been
given to go over to Cape Nome were disgusted and angered to
find that pretty much the whole district was already staked,
and that the claims taken were two or three times as large as
those commonly allowed on the upper river. Another grievance
was the great abuse of the power of attorney, by means of
which an immense number of claims had been taken up, so that
in many cases (according to common report) single individuals
held or controlled from 50 to 100 claims apiece. …
"A miners' meeting was called by the newcomers to remedy their
grievances. Resolutions were prepared, in which it was
represented that the district had been illegally organized by
men who were not citizens of the United States and who had not
conformed with the law in properly defining the boundaries of
the district with reference to natural objects, in enacting
suitable and sufficient mining regulations, and in complying
with any of the details of organization required by law. It
was intended by the promoters of this meeting to reorganize
the district in such a way as would enable them to share the
benefits of the discovery of a new gold field with the men who
had entered it the previous winter, and, as they expressed it,
'gobbled up the whole country.' It is, of course, impossible
to say what would have been the result if their attempt had
not been interfered with. … On the 28th of June Lieutenant
Spaulding and a detachment of 10 men from the Third Artillery
had been ordered to the vicinity of Snake River, and on the
7th of July their numbers were increased by the addition of 15
more.
{7}
As soon as it was proposed to throw open for restaking a large
amount of land already staked and recorded an appeal was made
to the United States troops to prevent this action by
prohibiting the intended meeting, which was called to assemble
July 10. It was represented to them that if the newcomers
should attempt, under the quasi-legal guise of a miners'
meeting, to take forcible possession of lands already claimed
by others, the inevitable consequence would be a reign of
disorder and violence, with the possibility of considerable
bloodshed. On the strength of this representation and appeal
the army officers decided to prevent the adoption of the
proposed resolutions. The miners were allowed to call their
meeting to order, but as soon as the resolutions were read
Lieutenant Spaulding requested that they be withdrawn. He
allowed two minutes for compliance with his request, the
alternative being that he would clear the hall. The
resolutions were not withdrawn, the troops were ordered to fix
bayonets, and the hall was cleared quietly, without a
conflict. Such meetings as were subsequently attempted were
quickly broken up by virtue of the same authority. The light
in which this action is regarded by the people at Nome
depends, of course, upon the way in which their personal
interests were affected. …
"The great discontent which actually did exist at this time
found sudden and unexpected relief in the discovery of the
beach diggings. It had long been known that there was more or
less gold on the seashore, and before the middle of July it
was discovered that good wages could be taken out of the sand
with a rocker. Even those who were on the ground could hardly
believe the story at first, but its truth was quickly and
easily demonstrated. Before the month was over a great army of
the unemployed was engaged in throwing up irregular
intrenchments along the edge of the sea, and those who had
just been driven nearly to the point of desperation by the
exhaustion of all their resources were soon contentedly
rocking out from $10 to $50 each per day and even more than
that. This discovery came like a godsend to many destitute
men, and was a most fortunate development in the history of
the camp.
"Meantime the men who were in possession of claims on Anvil
and Snow creeks were beginning to sluice their ground and
getting good returns for their work, while others were
actively making preparations to take out the gold which they
knew they had discovered. More sluice boxes were constructed
and put into operation as rapidly as possible. A town site was
laid off at the mouth of Snake River, and on the 4th of July a
post-office was established. The town which has sprung so
suddenly into existence is called 'Nome' by the Post-Office
Department, but at a miners' meeting held February 28, it was
decided to call it 'Anvil City,' and this is generally done by
the residents of the district, as well as in all official
records. At a meeting held in September, however, the name was
again changed to 'Nome.'"
United States, 56th Congress, 1st session,
Senate Document Number 357, pages. 1-4.
"A year ago [that is, in the winter of 1898-1899] a few Eskimo
huts and one or two sod houses of white men were the only
human habitations along 60 miles of the present Nome coast.
Last June [1899] a dozen or score of tents contained the whole
population. By October a town of 5,000 inhabitants fronting
the ocean was crowded for a mile or more along the beach.
Hundreds of galvanized-iron and wooden buildings were
irregularly scattered along two or three thoroughfares,
running parallel with the coast line. There is every
description of building, from the dens of the poor
prospectors, built of driftwood, canvas, and sod, to the large
companies' warehouses, stores, and the army barracks—a city,
as it were, sprung up in the night, built under the most
adverse circumstances on the barren seacoast, a coast without
harbor, all the supplies being landed through the surf. … The
country contributes nothing toward the support of the
population except a few fish and a limited supply of
driftwood.
"The city is of the most cosmopolitan type and contains
representatives of almost every nationality on the globe:
Germans, Canadians, Frenchmen, Englishmen, Russians, Swedes,
Norwegians, Poles, Chinese, negroes, Italians, Spaniards,
Greeks, Jews, and Americans. The dominant type is the
American, through whose efforts, with that inherent talent of
the Anglo-Saxon race for self-government, this isolated
community at once organized a city government. Before the
close of the summer Nome had a mayor, councilmen, a police
force, a deputy United States marshal, a United States
post-office, a fire department with town well, a board of
health, a hospital corps, and charitable organizations. A
majority of the people consists of the shifting population of
the Yukon country, which, upon hearing the news of the
discovery of gold, poured itself into Nome. … Along with the
shifting population of the Yukon from Dawson and other camps
came also many would-be explorers, adventurers, and especially
gamblers, but good order prevails throughout. Drunkenness,
disorderly conduct, and theft are promptly tried before the
police justice and punished by fine and imprisonment. Copies
of the official rules and regulations are kept posted before
the city hall and in other conspicuous places, as a warning to
all: 'Ignorance of the law is no excuse.' Some of the well-known
'toughs' and most undesirable characters are reported to have
been rounded up by the authorities late in the fall and
exported to the States. … There are several printing presses
and three newspapers—the Nome News, Nome Herald, and Nome Gold
Digger. … There are at least 2,500 people now [February, 1900]
wintering at Nome, and, by estimate, at least several thousand
are on their way there by winter routes. …
"Since, according to the conservative estimate of those who
are best situated to judge, it is believed that the Nome
region will have a population of at least 30,000 or 40,000
people this year (1900), some public improvements there seem
not only commendable but urgently necessary. Among these the
most important are: Some municipal form of government, water
supply, land-office service, and harbor facilities. As the
General Government had never made provision for any form of
municipal government in Alaska, the people of Nome, in
response to the urgency of the hour, called a mass meeting,
and organized the present government of Nome, with a complete
corps of city officers, as aforesaid, though they were
conscious at the time that it was without authority from the
United States Government."
F. C. Schrader and A. H. Brooks,
Preliminary Report on the Cape Nome Gold Region, Alaska
(United States Geological Survey), pages 45-47.
{8}
ALASKA: A. D. 1900.
Civil Government.
Better provision for the civil government of Alaska was made
by an Act which passed Congress after much debate and was
approved by the President on the 6th of June, 1900. It
constitutes Alaska a civil and judicial district, with a
governor who has the duties and powers that pertain to the
governor of a Territory, and a district court of general
jurisdiction, civil and criminal, and in equity and admiralty,
the court being in three divisions, each with a district
judge. The act provides a civil code for the district.
ALASKA: A. D. 1900.
Exploration of Seward peninsula.
See (in this volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION, 1900.
ALASKA BOUNDARY QUESTION, The.
The boundary between Alaska, when it was Russian territory,
and the British possessions on the western side of the
American continent, was settled by an Anglo-Russian treaty in
1825. The treaty which ceded the Russian territory to the
United States, in 1867, incorporated the definition of
boundary given in Articles III. and IV. of the above-mentioned
convention, which (translated from French to English) read as
follows:
"III.
The line of demarcation between the possessions of the High
Contracting Parties upon the Coasts of the Continent and the
Islands of America to the North-West, shall be drawn in the
following manner: Commencing from the southernmost point of
the Island called Prince of Wales Island, which point lies in
the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, North Latitude, and
between the 131st and 133d Degree of West Longitude (Meridian
of Greenwich), the said line shall ascend to the North along
the Channel called Portland Channel, as far as the Point of
the Continent where it strikes the 56th Degree of North
Latitude; from this last mentioned Point the line of
demarcation shall follow the summit of the mountains situated
parallel to the coast, as far as the point of intersection of
the 141st Degree of West Longitude (of the same meridian),
and, finally, from the said point of intersection, the said
Meridian Line of the 141st Degree, in its prolongation as far
as the Frozen Ocean, shall form the limit between the Russian
and British Possessions on the Continent of America to the
North West.
"IV.
With reference to the line of demarcation laid down in the
preceding Article, it is understood:
1st.
That the Island called Prince of Wales Island shall belong
wholly to Russia.
2d.
That wherever the summit of the mountains which extend in a
direction parallel to the Coast, from the 56th Degree of North
Latitude to the point of intersection of the 141st Degree of
West Longitude, shall prove to be at the distance of more than
ten marine leagues from the Ocean, the limit between the
British Possessions and the line of Coast which is to belong
to Russia, as above mentioned, shall be formed by a line
parallel to the windings of the Coast, and which shall never
exceed the distance of ten marine leagues therefrom."
When attempts to reduce this description in the treaty to an
actually determined boundary-line were begun, disagreements
arose between Canada and the United States, which became
exceedingly troublesome after the Klondike gold discoveries
had given a new importance to that region and to its
communications with the outside world. The Alaska boundary
question proved, in fact, to be considerably the most
difficult of settlement among all the many subjects of
disagreement between the United States and Canada which a
Joint High Commission was created in 1898 (see—in this
volume—CANADA: A. D. 1898-1900) to adjust. It was the one
question on which no ground of compromise could then be found,
and which compelled the Commission to adjourn in February,
1899, with its labors incomplete. The disputable points in the
definition of the boundary by the Anglo-Russian treaty of 1825
are explained as follows by Professor J. B. Moore,
ex-Assistant Secretary of State, in an article contributed to
the "North American Review" of October, 1899: "An examination
of the boundary defined in Articles III. and IV. of the
convention of 1825 shows," says Professor Moore, "that it is
scientifically divisible into two distinct sections, first,
the line from the southernmost point of Prince of Wales
Island, through Portland Channel and along the summit of the
mountains parallel to the coast, to the point of intersection
of the 141st meridian of longitude; and, second, the line from
this point to the Arctic Ocean. With the latter section, which
is merely a meridian line, and as to which the United States
and Canadian surveys exhibit no considerable difference, we
are not now concerned. The section as to which material
differences have arisen is the first. The principal
differences in this quarter are two in number, first, as to
what channel is meant by Portland Channel (sometimes called
Portland Canal); and, second, as to what is the extent of the
line or strip of coast (la lisière de côte) which was assigned
to Russia."
Map of Alaska.
The following is an English statement of the situation of the
controversy at the time the Joint High Commission adjourned:
"The adjournment of the Commission with nothing accomplished
is fresh in all our memories. Nor is it easy to determine on
whose shoulders lies the blame of this unfortunate break down.
America has been blamed for her stubbornness in refusing to
submit to an arbitration which should take into consideration
the possession of the towns and settlements under the
authority of the United States and at present under their
jurisdiction; while they have also been charged with having
made no concessions at all to Canada in the direction of
allowing her free access to her Yukon possessions. I am
enabled to say, however, in this latter respect the Americans
have not been so stiff-necked as has been made to appear.
Although it was not placed formally before the Commission, it
was allowed clearly to be understood by the other side, that
in regard to Skagway, America was prepared to make a very
liberal concession. They were ready, that is, to allow of the
joint administration of Skagway, the two flags flying side by
side, and to allow of the denationalisation, or
internationalisation as it might otherwise be termed, of the
White Pass and the Yukon Railroad, now completed to Lake
Bennett, and the only railroad which gives access to the
Yukon. They were even prepared to admit of the passage of
troops and munitions of war over this road, thus doing away
with the Canadian contention that, should a disturbance occur
in the Yukon, they are at present debarred from taking
efficient measures to quell it.
{9}
This proposition, however, does not commend itself to the
Canadians, whose main object, I think I am justified in
saying, is to have a railroad route of their own from
beginning to end, in their own territory, as far north as
Dawson City. At one time, owing to insufficient information
and ignorance of the natural obstacles in the way, they
thought they could accomplish this by what was known as the
Stikine route. They even went so far as to make a contract
with Messrs. McKenzie and Mann to construct this road, the
contractors receiving, as part of their payment, concessions
and grants of territory in the Yukon, which would practically
have given them the absolute and sole control of that
district. The value of this to the contractors can hardly be
overestimated. However, not only did the natural obstacles I
have referred to lead to the abandonment of the scheme, but
the Senate at Ottawa threw out the Bill which had passed
through the Lower House, affording a striking proof that there
are times when an Upper House has its distinct value in
legislation. It has been suggested (though I am the last to
confirm it) that it was the influence of the firm of railroad
contractors, to whose lot it would probably fall to construct
any new line of subsidised railway, which caused the Canadian
Commission to reject the tentative American proposal regarding
Skagway, and to put forward the counter claim to the
possession of Pyramid Harbour (which lies lower down upon the
west coast of the Lynn Canal), together with a two mile wide
strip of territory reaching inland, containing the Chilcat
Pass, and through it easy passage through the coast ranges,
and so by a long line of railroad to Fort Selkirk, which lies
on the Yukon River, to the south and east of Dawson City. It
is said also, though of this I have no direct evidence, that
the Canadians included the right to fortify Pyramid Harbour.
It is not surprising that the Americans rejected this
proposal, for they entered into the discussion convinced of
the impossibility of accepting any arrangement which would
involve the surrender of American settlements, and though it
is not so large or important as Skagway or Dyea, Pyramid
Harbour is nevertheless as much an American settlement as the
two latter. I am bound to point out that just as the Dominion
of Canada, as a whole, has a keener interest in this dispute
than has the Home Government, so the Government of British
Columbia is more closely affected by any possible settlement
than is the rest of the Dominion. And British Columbia is as
adverse to the Pyramid Harbour scheme as the United States
themselves. This is due to the fact that when finished the
Pyramid Harbour and Fort Selkirk railroad would afford no
access to the British Columbia gold fields on Atlin Lake,
which would still be reached only by way of Skagway and the
White Pass, or by Dyea and the Chilcat Pass. But quite apart
from this view of the matter, we may take it for granted that
the United States will never voluntarily surrender any of
their tide-water settlements, while the Canadian Government,
on the other hand, are no more disposed to accept any
settlement based on the internationalisation of Skagway, their
argument probably being that, save as a temporary 'modus
vivendi,' this would be giving away their whole case to their
opponents."
H. Townsend,
The Alaskan Boundary Question
(Fortnightly Review, September, 1899).
Pending further negotiations on the subject, a "modus vivendi"
between the United States and Great Britain, "fixing a
provisional boundary line between the Territory of Alaska and
the Dominion of Canada about the head of Lynn Canal," was
concluded October 20, 1899, in the following terms:
"It is hereby agreed between the Governments of the United
States and of Great Britain that the boundary line between
Canada and the territory of Alaska in the region about the
head of Lynn Canal shall be provisionally fixed as follows
without prejudice to the claims of either party in the
permanent adjustment of the international boundary: In the
region of the Dalton Trail, a line beginning at the peak West
of Porcupine Creek, marked on the map No. 10 of the United
States Commission, December 31, 1895, and on Sheet No. 18 of
the British Commission, December 31, 1895, with the number
6500; thence running to the Klehini (or Klaheela) River in the
direction of the Peak north of that river, marked 5020 on the
aforesaid United States map and 5025 on the aforesaid British
map; thence following the high or right bank of the said
Klehini river to the junction thereof with the Chilkat River,
a mile and a half, more or less, north of Klukwan,—provided
that persons proceeding to or from Porcupine Creek shall be
freely permitted to follow the trail between the said creek
and the said junction of the rivers, into and across the
territory on the Canadian side of the temporary line wherever
the trail crosses to such side, and, subject to such
reasonable regulations for the protection of the Revenue as
the Canadian Government may prescribe, to carry with them over
such part or parts of the trail between the said points as may
lie on the Canadian side of the temporary line, such goods and
articles as they desire, without being required to pay any
customs duties on such goods and articles; and from said
junction to the summit of the peak East of the Chilkat river,
marked on the aforesaid map No. 10 of the United States
Commission with the number 5410 and on the map No. 17 of the
aforesaid British Commission with the number 5490. On the Dyea
and Skagway Trails, the summits of the Chilcoot and White
Passes. It is understood, as formerly set forth in
communications of the Department of State of the United
States, that the citizens or subjects of either Power, found
by this arrangement within the temporary jurisdiction of the
other, shall suffer no diminution of the rights and privileges
which they now enjoy. The Government of the United States will
at once appoint an officer or officers in conjunction with an
officer or officers to be named by the Government of Her
Britannic Majesty, to mark the temporary line agreed upon by
the erection of posts, stakes, or other appropriate temporary
marks."
In his Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1900, the
President of the United States stated the situation as
follows:
"The work of marking certain provisional boundary points, for
convenience of administration, around the head of Lynn Canal,
in accordance with the temporary arrangement of October, 1899,
was completed by a joint survey in July last.
{10}
The modus vivendi has so far worked without friction, and the
Dominion Government has provided rules and regulations for
securing to our citizens the benefit of the reciprocal
stipulation that the citizens or subjects of either Power
found by that arrangement within the temporary jurisdiction of
the other shall suffer no diminution of the rights and
privileges they have hitherto enjoyed. But however necessary
such an expedient may have been to tide over the grave
emergencies of the situation, it is at best but an
unsatisfactory makeshift, which should not be suffered to
delay the speedy and complete establishment of the frontier
line to which we are entitled under the Russo-American treaty
for the cession of Alaska. In this relation I may refer again
to the need of definitely marking the Alaskan boundary where
it follows the 141st meridian. A convention to that end has
been before the Senate for some two years, but as no action
has been taken I contemplate negotiating a new convention for
a joint determination of the meridian by telegraphic
observations. These, it is believed, will give more accurate
and unquestionable results than the sidereal methods
heretofore independently followed, which, as is known, proved
discrepant at several points on the line, although not varying
at any place more than seven hundred feet."
ALEXANDRIA:
Discovery of the Serapeion.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH:
EGYPT: DISCOVERY OF THE SERAPEION.
ALEXANDRIA:
Patriarchate re-established.
See (in this volume)
PAPACY: A. D. 1896 (MARCH).
ALIENS IMMIGRATION LAW, The Transvaal.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1896-1897 (MAY-APRIL).
ALPHABET, Light on the origin of the.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: CRETE.
AMATONGALAND:
Annexed, with Zululand, to Natal.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (ZULULAND).
AMERICA:
The Projected Intercontinental Railway.
See (in this volume)
RAILWAY, THE INTERCONTINENTAL.
AMERICA, Central.
See (in this volume)
CENTRAL AMERICA.
AMERICAN ABORIGINES.
See (in this volume)
INDIANS, AMERICAN.
AMERICAN REPUBLICS, The Bureau of the.
"The idea of the creation of an international bureau, or
agency, representing the Republics of the Western Hemisphere,
was suggested to the delegates accredited to the International
American Conference held in Washington in 1889-90, by the
conference held at Brussels in May, 1888, which planned for an
international union for the publication of customs tariffs,
etc. … On March 29, 1890, the International American
Conference, by a unanimous vote of the delegates of the
eighteen countries there represented, namely: The Argentine
Republic, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica,
Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua,
Paraguay, Peru, Salvador, United States, Uruguay, and
Venezuela, provided for the establishment of an association to
be known as 'The International Union of American Republics for
the Prompt Collection and Distribution of Commercial
Information,' which should be represented at the capital of
the United States by a Bureau, under the title of 'The Bureau
of the American Republics.' This organ, so to speak, of the
independent governments of the New World was placed under the
supervision of the Secretary of State of the United States,
and was to continue in existence for a period of ten years,
and, if found profitable to the nations participating in its
advantages, it was to be maintained for successive periods of
ten years indefinitely. At the first session of the
Fifty-first Congress of the United States, that body, in an
'Act making appropriations for the support of the Diplomatic
and Consular Service, etc.,' approved July 14, 1890, gave the
President authority to carry into effect the recommendations
of the Conference so far as he should deem them expedient, and
appropriated $36,000 for the organization and establishment of
the Bureau, which amount it had been stipulated by the
delegates in the Conference assembled should not be exceeded,
and should be annually advanced by the United States and
shared by the several Republics in proportion to their
population. … The Conference had defined the purpose of the
Bureau to be the preparation and publication of bulletins
concerning the commerce and resources of the American
Republics, and to furnish information of interest to
manufacturers, merchants, and shippers, which should be at all
times available to persons desirous of obtaining particulars
regarding their customs tariffs and regulations, as well as
commerce and navigation."
Bulletin of the Bureau of American Republics,
June, 1898.
A plan of government for the International Union, by an
executive committee composed of representatives of the
American nations constituting the Union, was adopted in 1896,
but modified at a conference held in Washington, March 18,
1899. As then adopted, the plan of government is as follows:
"The Bureau of the American Republics will be governed under
the supervision of the Secretary of State of the United
States, with the cooperation and advice of four
representatives of the other Republics composing the
International Union, the five persons indicated to constitute
an Executive Committee, of which the Secretary of State is to
be ex-officio Chairman, or, in his absence, the Acting
Secretary of State. The other four members of the Executive
Committee shall be called to serve in turn, in the
alphabetical order of the official names of their nations in
one of the four languages of the Union, previously selected by
lot at a meeting of the representatives of the Union. At the
end of each year the first of these four members shall retire,
giving place to another representative of the Union, in the
same alphabetical order already explained, and so on until the
next period of succession."
{11}
"The interest taken by the various States forming the
International Union of American Republics in the work of its
organic bureau is evidenced by the fact that for the first
time since its creation in 1890 all the republics of South and
Central America are now [1899] represented in it. The unanimous
recommendation of the International American Conference,
providing for the International Union of American Republics,
stated that it should continue in force during a term of ten
years from the date of its organization, and no country
becoming a member of the union should cease to be a member
until the end of said period of ten years, and unless twelve
months before the expiration of said period a majority of the
members of the union had given to the Secretary of State of
the United States official notice of their wish to terminate
the union at the end of its first period, that the union
should continue to be maintained for another period of ten
years, and thereafter, under the same conditions, for
successive periods of ten years each. The period for
notification expired on July 14, 1899, without any of the
members having given the necessary notice of withdrawal. Its
maintenance is therefore assured for the next ten years."
Message of the President of the United States.
December 5, 1899.
AMERICANISM:
Pope Leo XIII. on opinions so called.
See (in this volume)
PAPACY: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY).
AMNESTY BILL, The French.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (DECEMBER).
ANARCHIST CRIMES:
Assassination of Canovas del Castillo.
See (in this volume)
SPAIN: A. D. 1897 (AUGUST-OCTOBER).
Assassination of the Empress of Austria.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1898 (SEPTEMBER).
Assassination of King Humbert.
See (in this volume)
ITALY: A. D. 1899-1900;
and 1900 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
ANATOLIAN RAILWAY, The.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1899 (NOVEMBER).
ANCON, The Treaty of.
See (in this volume)
CHILE: A. D. 1894-1900.
ANDERSON, General Thomas M.:
Correspondence with Aguinaldo.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: PHILIPPINES).
ANDRÉE, Salamon August:
Arctic balloon voyage.
See (in this volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900-.
ANGLO-AMERICAN POPULATION.
See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY: EXPANSION.
ANGONI-ZULUS, The.
See (in this volume)
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE.
ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION.
See (in this volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION.
ANTEMNÆ, Excavations at.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: ITALY.
ANTIGUA: Industrial condition.
See (in this volume)
WEST INDIES, THE BRITISH: A. D. 1897.
ANTITOXINE, Discovery of.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: MEDICAL AND SURGICAL.
ANTI-IMPERIALISTS, The League of American.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
ANTI-REVOLUTIONARY BILL, The German.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1894-1895.
ANTI-SEMITIC AGITATIONS.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1895-1896, and after;
and FRANCE: A. D. 1897-1899, and after.
ANTI-SEMITIC LEAGUE, Treasonable conspiracy of the.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1899-1900 (AUGUST-JANUARY).
APPORTIONMENT ACT.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).
ARBITRATION, Industrial:
In New Zealand.
See (in this volume)
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1891-1900.
ARBITRATION, Industrial:
In the United States between employees and employers
engaged in inter-state commerce.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE).
ARBITRATION, International: A. D. 1896-1900.
Boundary dispute between Colombia and Costa Rica.
See (in this volume)
COLOMBIA: A. D. 1893-1900.
ARBITRATION, International: A. D. 1897.
Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
See (in this volume)
CENTRAL AMERICA (NICARAGUA-COSTA RICA): A. D. 1897.
ARBITRATION, International: A. D. 1897-1899.
Venezuela and Great Britain.
Guiana boundary.
See (in this volume)
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1896-1899.
ARBITRATION, International: A. D. 1898.
Argentine Republic and Chile.
See (in this volume)
ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1898.
ARBITRATION, International: A. D. 1898.
Treaty between Italy and the Argentine Republic.
See (in this volume)
ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1898.
ARBITRATION, International: A. D. 1899.
The Treaty for the Pacific Settlement of International
Disputes concluded at the Peace Conference at the Hague (Text).
The Permanent Court created.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
ARBITRATION, International: A. D. 1900.
Brazil and French Guiana boundary dispute.
See (in this volume)
BRAZIL: A. D. 1900.
ARBITRATION, International: A. D. 1900.
Compulsory arbitration voted for at Spanish-American Congress.
See (in this volume)
SPAIN: A. D. 1900 (NOVEMBER).
ARBITRATION TREATY, Great Britain and the United States.
Its defeat.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (JANUARY-MAY).
----------ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Start--------
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH:
The Oriental Field.
Recent achievements and future prospects.
"Three successive years have just added to the realm of
Egyptian archaeology, not only the period of the first two
dynasties, hitherto absolutely unrecognized from contemporary
remains, but also a long prehistoric period. Assyriology
likewise has lately been pushed back into antiquity with
almost equal rapidity. Though the subjects will probably
always have their limitations, yet the insight of scholars and
explorers is opening up new vistas on all sides. … Our
prospect for the future is bright. Egypt itself seems
inexhaustible. Few of the cities of Babylonia and Assyria have
yet been excavated, and each of them had its library and
record office of clay-tablets as well as monuments in stone
and bronze. In Northern Mesopotamia are countless sites still
untouched; in Elam and in Armenia monuments are only less
plentiful.
{12}
In Arabia inscriptions are now being read which may perhaps
date from 1000 B. C. The so-called Hittite hieroglyphs still
baffle the decipherer; but as more of the documents become
known these will in all likelihood prove a fruitful source for
the history of North Syria, of Cappadocia, and of Asia Minor
throughout. Occasionally, too, though it is but rarely, an
inscription in the Phaenician type of alphabet yields up
important historical facts. When all is done, there is but
scant hope that we shall be able to construct a consecutive
history of persons and events in the ancient world. All that
we can be confident of securing, at any rate in Egypt, is the
broad outline of development and change, chronologically
graduated and varied by occasional pictures of extraordinary
minuteness and brilliancy."
F. LL. Griffith,
Authority and Archaeology Sacred and Profane,
part 2, pages. 218-219
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons).
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: In Bible Lands:
General results as affecting our knowledge
of the ancient Hebrews.
"The general result of the archaeological and anthropological
researches of the past half-century has been to take the
Hebrews out of the isolated position which, as a nation, they
seemed previously to hold, and to demonstrate their affinities
with, and often their dependence upon, the civilizations by
which they were surrounded. Tribes more or less closely akin
to themselves in both language and race were their neighbours
alike on the north, on the east, and on the south; in addition
to this, on each side there towered above them an ancient and
imposing civilization,—that of Babylonia, from the earliest
times active, enterprising, and full of life, and that of
Egypt, hardly, if at all, less remarkable than that of
Babylonia, though more self-contained and less expansive. The
civilization which, in spite of the long residence of the
Israelites in Egypt, left its mark, however, most distinctly
upon the culture and literature of the Hebrews was that of
Babylonia. It was in the East that the Hebrew traditions
placed both the cradle of humanity and the more immediate home
of their own ancestors; and it was Babylonia which, as we now
know, exerted during many centuries an influence, once
unsuspected, over Palestine itself.
"It is true, the facts thus disclosed, do not in any degree
detract from that religious pre-eminence which has always been
deemed the inalienable characteristic of the Hebrew race: the
spiritual intuitions and experiences of its great teachers
retain still their uniqueness; but the secular institutions of
the nation, and even the material elements upon which the
religious system of the Israelites was itself constructed, are
seen now to have been in many cases common to them with their
neighbours. Thus their beliefs about the origin and early
history of the world, their social usages, their code of civil
and criminal law, their religious institutions, can no longer
be viewed, as was once possible, as differing in kind from
those of other nations, and determined in every feature by a
direct revelation from Heaven; all, it is now known, have
substantial analogies among other peoples, the distinctive
character which they exhibit among the Hebrews consisting in
the spirit with which they are infused and the higher
principles of which they are made the exponent. …
"What is called the 'witness of the monuments' is often
strangely misunderstood. The monuments witness to nothing
which any reasonable critic has ever doubted. No one, for
instance, has ever doubted that there were kings of Israel (or
Judah) named Ahab and Jehu and Pekah and Ahaz and Hezekiah, or
that Tiglath-Pileser and Sennacherib led expeditions into
Palestine; the mention of these (and such like) persons and
events in the Assyrian annals has brought to light many
additional facts about them which it is an extreme
satisfaction to know: but it has only 'confirmed' what no
critic had questioned. On the other hand, the Assyrian annals
have shewn that the chronology of the Books of Kings is, in
certain places, incorrect: they have thus confirmed the
conclusion which critics had reached independently upon
internal evidence, that the parts of these books to which the
chronology belongs are of much later origin than the more
strictly historical parts, and consequently do not possess
equal value.
"The inscriptions, especially those of Babylonia, Assyria, and
Egypt, have revealed to us an immense amount of information
respecting the antiquities and history of these nations, and
also, in some cases, respecting the peoples with whom, whether
by commerce or war, they came into contact: but (with the
exception of the statement on the stele of Merenptah that
'Israel is desolated') the first event connected with Israel
or its ancestors which they mention or attest is Shishak's
invasion of Judah in the reign of Rehoboam; the first
Israelites whom they specify by name are Omri and his son
Ahab. There is also indirect illustration of statements in the
Old Testament relating to the period earlier than this; but
the monuments supply no 'confirmation' of any single fact
recorded in it, prior to Shishak's invasion."
S. R. Driver,
Authority and Archaeology Sacred and Profane,
part 1, pages 150-151
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons).
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Babylonia:
Earlier explorations in.
For some account of the earlier archæological explorations in
Babylonia and their results,
See (in volume 1) BABYLONIA, PRIMITIVE;
and (in volume 4) SEMITES.
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Babylonia:
American exploration of the ruins of ancient Nippur.
[Footnote: Quotations in this account from Professor
Hilprecht's copyrighted reports in the "Sunday School Times"
are used with permission from the publishers of that journal.]
"In the summer of 1888, the University of Pennsylvania fully
equipped and sent out the first American expedition to the
northern half of the plains of Babylonia to effect a thorough
exploration of the ruins of Nippur—the modern Niffer, or, more
correctly, Nuffar—on the border of the unwholesome swamps of
the Affej, and to undertake extensive excavations. A few
intelligent citizens of Philadelphia had met in the house of
Ex-Provost Dr. William Pepper, and formed 'The Babylonian
Exploration Fund,' a short time before this with the purpose
of effecting a systematic exploration of ancient Babylonia.
What science owes to this unselfish undertaking can be
adequately estimated only by posterity. … Two professors,
Peters and Hilprecht, were entrusted with the management of
the expedition, Dr. Peters as director, and Dr. Hilprecht as
Assyriologist."
H. V. Hilprecht, editor,
Recent Research in Bible Lands,
page 47.
{13}
Professor Hilprecht, who conducts for the "Sunday School
Times" a most interesting and important department, in which
the proceedings and principal results of archæological
exploration in Bible Lands have been currently chronicled
during several years past, gave, in that journal of December
I, 1900, the following description of the scene and the
historical importance of the ruins in which the excavations
above mentioned have been carried on: "Nuffar is the modern
Arabic name of an old Babylonian ruin situated about half-way
between the Euphrates and Tigris, at the northeastern boundary
of the great Affej swamps, which are formed by the regular
annual inundations of the Euphrates. In a straight line, it is
nearly eighty miles to the southeast from Baghdad. A large
canal, now dry, and often for miles entirely filled with
rubbish and sand, divides the ruins into two almost equal
parts. On an average about fifty or sixty feet high, these
ruins are torn up by frequent gulleys and furrows into a
number of spurs and ridges, from the distance not unlike a
rugged mountain range on the bank of the upper Tigris. In the
Babylonian language, the city buried here was called Nippur.
According to Jewish tradition, strongly supported by arguments
drawn from cuneiform texts and archaeological objects found at
the ruins themselves, Nippur was identical with the Biblical
Calneh, mentioned in Genesis 10: 10, as one of the four great
cities of the kingdom of Nimrod. It was therefore natural that
the public in general should take a warm interest in our
excavations at Nuffar. This interest grew considerably in
religious circles when, a few years ago, I announced my
discovery of the name of the 'river Chebar' in two cuneiform
texts from the archives of Nippur. It became then evident that
this 'river Chebar,' which hitherto could not be located, was
one of the four or five large canals once bringing life and
fertility to the fields of Nippur; that, furthermore, a large
number of the Jewish captives carried away by Nebuchadrezzar
after the destruction of Jerusalem were settled in the plains
around this city; and that even Ezekiel himself, while
admonishing and comforting his people, and holding out to them
Jehovah's mercy and never-failing promise of a brighter
future, stood in the very shadow of Babylonia's ancient
national sanctuary, the crumbling walls of the great temple of
Bêl at Nippur. The beginning and end of Old Testament history
thus point to Nippur as the background and theater for the
first and final acts in the great drama of divine selection
and human rejection in which Israel played the leading role."
In the same article, Professor Hilprecht indicated in a few
words what was done at Nuffar by the first three of the four
expeditions sent out from Philadelphia since 1888. "It was
comparatively easy," he said, "to get a clear idea of the
extent of the city and the life in its streets during the last
six centuries preceding our era. Each of the four expeditions
to Nuffar contributed its peculiar share to a better knowledge
of this latest period of Babylonian history, particularly,
however, the third and the present campaigns. But it was of
greater importance to follow up the traces of a very early
civilization, which, accidentally, we had met during our first
brief campaign in 1889. By means of a few deep trenches, the
second expedition, in the following year, had brought to light
new evidence that a considerable number of ancient monuments
still existed in the lower strata of the temple mound. The
third expedition showed that the monuments, while numerous,
are mostly very fragmentary, thereby offering considerable
difficulties to the decipherer and historian. But it also
showed that a number of platforms running through the temple
mound, and made of baked bricks, frequently bearing
inscriptions, enable us to fix the age of the different strata
of this mound with great accuracy. The two lowest of these
platforms found were the work of kings and patesis
(priest-kings) of 4000-3800 B. C., but, to our great
astonishment, they did not represent the earliest trace of
human life at Nippur. There were not less than about thirty
feet of rubbish below them, revealing an even earlier
civilization, the beginning and development of which lie
considerably before the times of Sargon the Great (3800 B. C.)
and Narâm-Sin, who had been generally regarded as
half-mythical persons of the first chapter of Babylonian
history."
Of the results of the work of those three expeditions of the
University of Pennsylvania, and of the studies for which they
furnished materials to Professor Hilprecht, Professor Sayce
wrote with much enthusiasm in the "Contemporary Review" of
January, 1897, as follows: "In my Hibbert Lectures on the
'Religion of the Ancient Babylonians' I had been led by a
study of the religious texts of Babylonia to the conclusion
that Nippur had been a centre from which Babylonian culture
was disseminated in what we then regarded as prehistoric
times. Thanks to the American excavations, what were
prehistoric times when my Hibbert Lectures were written have
now become historic, and my conclusion has proved to be
correct. … For the first time in Babylonia they have
systematically carried their shafts through the various strata
of historical remains which occupy the site, carefully noting
the objects found in each, and wherever possible clearing each
stag away when once it had been thoroughly examined. The work
began in 1888, about two hundred Arabs being employed as
labourers. … The excavations at Nippur were carried deeply and
widely enough not only to reveal the history of the city
itself but also to open up a new vista in the forgotten
history of civilised man. The history of civilisation has been
taken back into ages which a short while since were still
undreamed of. Professor Hilprecht, the historian of the
expedition, upon whom has fallen the work of copying,
publishing, and translating the multitudinous texts discovered
in the course of it, declares that we can no longer 'hesitate
to date the founding of the temple of Bel and the first
settlements in Nippur somewhere between 6000 and 7000 B. C.,
possibly even earlier.' At any rate the oldest monuments which
have been disinterred there belong to the fifth or sixth
millennium before the Christian era. Hitherto we have been
accustomed to regard Egypt as the land which has preserved for
us the earliest written monuments of mankind, but Babylonia
now bids fair to outrival Egypt. The earliest fixed date in
Babylonian history is that of Sargon of Akkael and his son
Naram-Sin. It has been fixed for us by Nabonidos, the royal
antiquarian of Babylonia. In one of his inscriptions he
describes the excavations he made in order to discover the
memorial cylinders of Naram-Sin, who had lived '3200 years'
before his own time. In my Hibbert Lectures I gave reasons for
accepting this date as approximately correct. The recent
discoveries at Niffer, Telloh, and other places have shown
that my conclusion was justified. …
{14}
"Assyriologists have long had in their possession a cuneiform
text which contains the annals of the reign of Sargon, and of
the first three years of the reign of his son. It is a late
copy of the original text, and was made for the library of
Nineveh. Our 'critical' friends have been particularly merry
over the credulity of the Assyriologists in accepting these
annals as authentic. … So far from being unhistorical, Sargon
and Naram-Sin prove to have come at the end of a
long-preceding historical period, and the annals themselves
have been verified by contemporaneous documents. The empire of
Sargon, which extended from the Persian Gulf to the
Mediterranean, was not even the first that had arisen in
Western Asia. And the art that flourished under his rule, like
the art which flourished in Egypt in the age of the Old
Empire, was higher and more perfect than any that succeeded it
in Babylonia. … Henceforward, Sargon and Naram-Sin, instead of
belonging to 'the grey dawn of time,' must be regarded as
representatives of 'the golden age of Babylonian history.'
That they should have undertaken military expeditions to the
distant West, and annexed Palestine and the Sinaitic Peninsula
to the empire they created need no longer be a matter of
astonishment. Such campaigns had already been undertaken by
Babylonian kings long before; the way was well known which led
from one extremity of Western Asia to the other. …
"It is Mr. Haynes [Director of the explorations from 1893] who
tells us that we are henceforth to look upon Sargon of Akkad
as a representative of 'the golden age of Babylonian history,'
and his assertion is endorsed by Professor Hilprecht. In fact,
the conclusion is forced upon both the excavator and the
palæographist. Professor Hilprecht, who, thanks to the
abundant materials at his disposal, has been able to found the
science of Babylonian palæography, tracing the development of
the cuneiform characters from one stage of development to
another, and determining the age of each successive form of
writing, has made it clear to all students of Assyriology that
many of the inscriptions found at Niffer and Telloh belong to
a much older period than those of the age of Sargon. The
palæographic evidence has been supplemented by the results of
excavation. … As far back as we can penetrate, we still find
inscribed monuments and other evidences of civilisation. It is
true that the characters are rude and hardly yet lifted above
their pictorial forms. They have, however, ceased to be
pictures, and have already become that cursive script which we
call cuneiform. For the beginnings of Babylonian writing we
have still to search among the relics of centuries that lie
far behind the foundation of the temple of Nippur.
"The first king whom the excavations there have brought to
light is a certain En-sag(sak)-ana who calls himself 'lord of
Kengi' and conqueror of Kis 'the wicked.' Kengi—'the land of
canals and reeds,' as Professor Hilprecht interprets the
word—was the oldest name of Babylonia, given to it in days
when it was still wholly occupied by its Sumerian population,
and when as yet no Semitic stranger had ventured within it.
The city of Kis (now El-Hy-mar) lay outside its borders to the
north, and between Kis and Kengi there seems to have been
constant war. … Nippur was the religious centre of Kengi, and
Mul-lil, the god of Nippur, was the supreme object of Sumerian
worship. … A king of Kis made himself master of Nippur and its
sanctuary, and the old kingdom of Kengi passed away. The final
blow was dealt by the son of the Sumerian high priest of the
'Land of the Bow.' Lugal-zaggi-si was the chieftain who
descended from the north upon Babylonia and made it part of
his empire. … Lugal-zaggi-si lived centuries before Sargon of
Akkad in days which, only a year ago, we still believed to lie
far beyond the horizon of history and culture. We little
dreamed that in that hoar antiquity the great cities and
sanctuaries of Babylonia were already old, and that the
culture and script of Babylonia had already extended far
beyond the boundaries of their motherland. The inscriptions of
Lugal-zaggi-si are in the Sumerian language, and his name,
like that of his father, is Sumerian also. … The empire of
Lugal-zaggi-si seems to have passed away with his death, and
at no long period subsequently a new dynasty arose at Ur. …
According to Professor Hilprecht, this would have been about
4000 B. C. How long the first dynasty of Ur lasted we cannot
tell. It had to keep up a perpetual warfare with the Semitic
tribes of northern Arabia, Ki-sarra, 'the land of the hordes,'
as it was termed by the Sumerians. Meanwhile a new state was
growing up on the eastern side of the Euphrates in a small
provincial city called Lagas, whose ruins are now known as
Telloh. Its proximity to Eridu, the seaport and trading depot
of early Babylonia, had doubtless much to do with its rise to
power. At all events the kings of Telloh, whose monuments have
been brought to light by M. de Sarzec, became continually
stronger, and the dynasty of Lagas took the place of the
dynasty of Ur. One of these kings, E-Anna-gin, at length
defeated the Semitic oppressors of northern Chaldæa in a
decisive battle and overthrew the 'people of the Land of the
Bow.' …
"The kings of Lagas represent the closing days of Sumerian
supremacy. With Sargon and his empire the Semitic age begins.
The culture of Chaldæa is still Sumerian, the educated classes
are for the most part of Sumerian origin, and the literature of
the country is Sumerian also. But the king and his court are
Semites, and the older culture which they borrow and adopt
becomes Semitised in the process. … For many generations
Sumerians and Semites lived side by side, each borrowing from
the other, and mutually adapting and modifying their own forms
of expression. … Sumerian continued to be the language of
religion and law—the two most conservative branches of human
study—down to the age of Abraham. … The new facts that have
been disinterred from the grave of the past furnish a striking
confirmation of Professor Hommel's theory, which connects the
culture of primitive Egypt with that of primitive Chaldæa, and
derives the language of the Egyptians, at all events in part,
from a mixed Babylonian language in which Semitic and Sumerian
elements alike claimed a share. We now know that such a mixed
language did once exist, and we also know that this language
and the written characters by which it was expressed were
brought to the shores of the Mediterranean and the frontiers
of Egypt in the earliest age of Egyptian history."
A. H. Sayce,
Recent Discoveries in Babylonia
(Contemporary Review, January, 1897).
{15}
The third of the Pennsylvania expeditions closed its work at
Nippur in February, 1896. There was then an interval of three
years before a fourth expedition resumed work at the ruins in
February, 1899. In the "Sunday School Times" of April 29 and
May 27, 1899, Professor Hilprecht (who did not go personally
to Nuffar until later in the year) gave the following account
of the friendly reception of the exploring party by the Arabs
of the district, from whom there had been formerly much
experience of trouble: "The Affej tribes, in whose territory
the large mounds are situated, had carefully guarded the
expedition's stronghold,—a mud castle half-way between the
ruins and the marshes, which had been sealed and entrusted to
their care before we quitted the field some years ago. They
now gave to the expedition a hearty welcome, accompanied by
shooting, shouting, dancing, and singing, and were evidently
greatly delighted to have the Americans once more in their
midst. In the presence of Haji Tarfa, their
commander-in-chief, who was surrounded by his minor shaykhs
and other dignitaries of the El-Hamza tribes, the former
arrangements with the two shaykhs Hamid el-Birjud and Abud
el-Hamid were ratified, and new pledges given for the security
and welfare of the little party of explorers, the question of
guards and water being especially emphasized. In accordance
with the Oriental custom, the expedition showed its
appreciation of the warm reception by preparing for their
hosts in return a great feast, at which plenty of mutton and
boiled rice were eaten by some fifty Arabs, and the old bond
of friendship was cemented anew with 'bread and salt.'" …
"Doubtless all the advantages resulting for the Affej Bed'ween
and their allies from the presence of the Americans were
carefully calculated by them in the three years (February,
1896-1899) that we had withdrawn our expedition from their
territory. They have apparently found out that the
comparatively large amount of money brought into their country
through the wages paid to many Arabs employed as workmen, and
through the purchase of milk, eggs, chicken, mutton, and all
the other material supplied by the surrounding tribes for our
camp, with its about two hundred and fifty persons, has done
much to improve their general condition. The conviction has
been growing with them that we have not come to rob them of
anything to which they attach great value themselves, nor to
establish a new military station for the Turkish government in
order to gather taxes and unpaid debts. Every Arab engaged by
the Expedition has been fairly treated, and help and
assistance have always been given cheerfully and gratis to the
many sick people who apply daily for medicine, suffering more
or less during the whole year from pulmonary diseases, typhoid
and malarial fevers, easily contracted in the midst of the
extended marshes which they inhabit."
In the "Sunday School Times" of August 5, in the same year,
Professor Hilprecht reported: "The mounds of Nippur seem to
conceal an almost inexhaustible treasure of inscribed
cuneiform tablets, by means of which we are enabled to restore
the chronology, history, religion, and the high degree of
civilization, obtained at a very early date by the ancient
inhabitants between the lower Euphrates and Tigris. More than
33,000 of these precious documents were found during the
previous campaigns. Not less than 4,776 tablets have been
rescued from February 6 to June 10 this year, averaging,
therefore, nearly 1,200 'manuscripts in clay,' as we may style
them, per month. About the fourth part of these tablets is in
perfect condition, while a very large proportion of the
remaining ones are good-sized fragments or tablets so
fortunately broken that their general contents and many
important details can be ascertained by the patient
decipherer."
In November, 1899, Professor Hilprecht started for the field,
to superintend the explorations in person, and on the way he
wrote to the "S. S. Times" (published December 13): "The
deeper the trenches of the Babylonian Expedition of the
University of Pennsylvania descend into the lower strata of
Nippur, the probable site of the biblical Calneh, the more
important and interesting become the results obtained. The
work of clearing the northeastern wall of the high-towering
temple of Bel was continued with success during the summer
months. Particularly numerous were the inscribed vase
fragments brought to light, and almost exclusively belonging
to the pre-Sargonic period,—3800 B. C. and before. As I showed
in the second part of Volume I of our official University
publication, this fragmentary condition of the vases is due to
the wilful destruction of the temple property by the
victorious Elamitic hordes, who, towards the end of the third
pre-Christian millennium, ransacked the Babylonian cities,
extending their conquest and devastation even as far as the
shores of the Mediterranean Sea (comp. Gen. 14). From the
earliest historical period down to about 2200 B. C., when this
national calamity befell Babylonia, the large temple
storehouse, with its precious statues, votive slabs and vases,
memorial stones, bronze figures, and other gifts from powerful
monarchs and governors, had practically remained intact. What,
therefore, is left of the demolished and scattered contents of
this ancient chamber as a rule is found above the platform of
Ur-Ninib (about 2500 B. C.), in a layer several feet thick and
about twenty-five feet wide, surrounding the front and the two
side walls of the temple. The systematic clearing and
examination of this layer, and of the huge mass of ruins lying
above it, occupied the attention of the expedition
considerably in the past years, and was continued with new
energy during the past six months." At the end of January,
1900, Professor Hilprecht arrived in Babylonia, and wrote some
weeks later to the "Sunday School Times" (May 3): "As early as
eleven years ago, the present writer pointed out that the
extensive group of hills to the southwest of the temple of Bel
must be regarded as the probable site of the temple library of
ancient Nippur. About twenty-five hundred tablets were rescued
from the trenches in this hill during our first campaign.
Later excavations increased the number of tablets taken from
these mounds to about fifteen thousand. But it was only within
the last six weeks that my old theory could be established
beyond any reasonable doubt.
{16}
During this brief period a series of rooms was exposed which
furnished not less than over sixteen thousand cuneiform
documents, forming part of the temple library during the
latter half of the third millennium B. C. In long rows the
tablets were lying on ledges of unbaked clay, serving as
shelves for these imperishable Old Babylonian records. The
total number of tablets rescued from different parts of the
ruins during the present campaign amounts even now to more
than twenty-one thousand, and is rapidly increased by new
finds every day. The contents of this extraordinary library
are as varied as possible. Lists of Sumerian words and
cuneiform signs, arranged according to different principles,
and of fundamental value for our knowledge of the early
non-Semitic language of the country, figure prominently in the
new 'find.' As regards portable antiquities of every
description, and their archeological value, the American
expedition stands readily first among the three expeditions at
present engaged in the exploration of Ancient Babylonia and
the restoration of its past history."
Three weeks later he added: "The Temple Library, as indicated
in the writer's last report, has been definitely located at
the precise spot which, in 1889, the present writer pointed
out as its most probable site. Nearly eighteen thousand
cuneiform documents have been rescued this year from the
shelves of a series of rooms in its southeastern and
northwestern wings. The total number of tablets (mostly of a
didactic character) obtained from the library up to date is
from twenty-five thousand to twenty-six thousand tablets
(whole and broken). In view, however, of more important other
duties to be executed by this expedition before we can leave
Nippur this year, and in consideration of the enormous amount
of time and labor required for a methodical exploration of the
whole mound in which it is concealed, I have recently ordered
all the gangs of Arabic workmen to be withdrawn from this
section of ancient Nippur, and to be set at work at the
eastern fortification line of the city, close to the
temple-complex proper. According to a fair estimate based upon
actual finds, the unique history of the temple, and
topographical indications, there must be hidden at least from
a hundred thousand to a hundred and fifty thousand tablets
more in this ancient library, which was destroyed by the
invading Elamites about the time of Abraham's emigration from
Ur of the Chaldees. Only about the twentieth part of this
library (all of Dr. Haynes's previous work included) has so
far been examined and excavated."
In the same letter the Professor described the uncovering of
one façade of a large pre-Sargonic palace—"the chief
discovery," in his opinion, "of this whole campaign." "A
thorough excavation of this large palace," he wrote, "will
form one of the chief tasks of a future expedition, after its
character, age, and extent have been successfully determined
by the present one. Important art treasures of the Tello type,
and literary documents, may reasonably be expected to be
unearthed from the floor-level of its many chambers. It has
become evident, from the large number of pre-Sargonic
buildings, walls, and other antiquities discovered on both
sides of the Shatt-en-Nil, that the pre-Sargonic Nippur was of
by far greater extent than had been anticipated. This
discovery, however, is only in strict accord with what we know
from the cuneiform documents as to the important historical
rôle which the temple of Bel ('the father of the gods'), as
the central national sanctuary of ancient Babylonia, played at
the earliest period, long before Babylon, the capital of the
later empire, achieved any prominence."
The work at Nippur was suspended for the season about the
middle of May, 1900, and Professor Hilprecht, after his return
to Philadelphia, wrote of the general fruits of the campaign,
in the "Sunday School Times" of December 1: "As the task of
the fourth and most recent expedition, just completed, I had
mapped out, long before its organization, the following work.
It was to determine the probable extent of the earliest
pre-Sargonic settlement at ancient Nippur; to discover the
precise form and character of the famous temple of Bêl at this
earliest period; to define the exact boundaries of the city
proper; if possible, to find one or more of the great city
gates frequently mentioned in the inscriptions; to locate the
great temple library and educational quarters of Nippur; to
study the different modes of burial in use in ancient
Babylonia; and to study all types and forms of pottery, with a
view to finding laws for the classification and determination
of the ages of vases, always excavated in large numbers at
Nuffar. The work set before us has been accomplished. The task
was great,—almost too great for the limited time at our
disposal. … But the number of Arab workmen, busy with pickax,
scraper, and basket in the trenches for ten to fourteen hours
every day, gradually increased to the full force of four
hundred. … In the course of time, when the nearly twenty-five
thousand cuneiform texts which form one of the most
conspicuous prizes of the present expedition have been fully
deciphered and interpreted; when the still hidden larger mass
of tablets from that great educational institution, the temple
library of Calneh-Nippur, discovered at the very spot which I
had marked for its site twelve years ago, has been brought to
light,—a great civilization will loom up from past
millenniums before our astonished eyes. For four thousand
years the documents which contain this precious information
have disappeared from sight, forgotten in the destroyed rooms
of ancient Nippur. Abraham was about leaving his ancestral
home at Ur when the great building in which so much learning
had been stored up by previous generations collapsed under the
ruthless acts of the Elamite hordes. But the light which
begins to flash forth from the new trenches in this lonely
mound in the desert of Iraq will soon illuminate the world
again. And it will be no small satisfaction to know that it
was rekindled by the hands of American explorers."
{17}
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Babylonia:
German exploration of the ruins of Babylon.
An expedition to explore the ruins of Babylon was sent out by
the German Orient Society, in 1899, under the direction of Dr.
Koldewey, an eminent architect and archæologist, who had been
connected with previous works of excavation done in Babylonia
and northern Syria. In announcing the project, in the "Sunday
School Times" of January 28, 1899, Professor Hilprecht
remarked: "These extended ruins will require at least fifty
years of labor if they are to be excavated as thoroughly and
systematically as the work is done by the American expedition
at Nippur, which has employed in its trenches never less than
sixty, but frequently from two hundred to four hundred, Arabic
workmen at the same time during the last ten years. Certain
parts of the ruins of Babylon have been previously explored
and excavated by Layard, Rawlinson, and the French expedition
under Fresnel and Oppert, to which we owe the first accurate
details of the topography of this ancient city." Writing
somewhat more than a year later from Nippur, after having
visited the German party at Babylon, Professor Hilprecht said
of its work: "The chief work of the expedition during the past
year was the exploration of the great ruin heap called
El-Kasr, under which are hidden the remains of the palace of
Nebuchadrezzar, where Alexander the Great died after his
famous campaign against India. Among the few important
antiquities so far obtained from this imposing mound of
Ancient Babylon is a new Hittite inscription and a
neo-Babylonian slab with an interesting cuneiform legend. Very
recently, Dr. Koldewey, whose excellent topographical surveys
form a conspicuous part of the results of the first year, has
found the temple of the goddess Nin-Makh, so often mentioned
in the building inscriptions of the neo-Babylonian rulers, and
a little terra-cotta statue of the goddess. The systematic
examination of the enormous mass of ruins covering Ancient
Babylon will require several decenniums of continued hard
labor. To facilitate this great task, a bill has been
submitted to the German Reichstag requesting a yearly
government appropriation of over fifteen thousand dollars,
while at the same time application has been made by the German
Orient Committee to the Ottoman Government for another firman
to carry on excavations at Warka, the biblical Erech, whose
temple archive was badly pillaged by the invading Elamites at
about 2280 B. C."
Some account of results from the uncovering of the palace of
Nebuchadrezzar are quoted from "Die Illustrirte Zeitung" in
the "Scientific American Supplement," December 16, 1899, as
follows: "According to early Babylonian records,
Nebuchadnezzar completed the fortifications of the city, begun
by his father Narbolpolassar, consisting of a double inclosure
of strong walls, the inner called Imgur-Bel ('Bel is
gracious'), the outer Nemitti-Bel ('foundation of Bel'). The
circumference of the latter according to Herodotus was 480
stades (55 miles), its height 340 feet, and its thickness 85
feet. At the inner and outer peripheries, one-story houses
were built, between which was room enough for a chariot drawn
by four horses harnessed abreast. When Koldewey cut through
the eastern front of Al Kasr, he came upon a wall which was
undoubtedly that described by Herodotus. The outer eastern
shell was composed of burnt brick and asphalt, 24 feet in
thickness; then came a filling of sand and broken stone 70½
feet in thickness, which was followed by an inner western
shell of 43 feet thickness. The total thickness was,
therefore, 137.5 feet. By dint of hard work this wall was cut
through and the entrance to Nebuchadnezzar's palace laid bare.
Koldewey and his men were enabled to verify the description
given by Diodorus of the polychromatic reliefs which graced
the walls of the royal towers and palaces. It still remains to
be seen how trustworthy are the statements of other ancient
historians. The city itself, as previous investigators have
found, was adorned with many temples, chief among them Esaglia
('the high towering house'), temple of the city, and the national
god Marduk (Merodach) and his spouse Zirpanit. Sloping toward
the river were the Hanging Gardens, one of the world's seven
wonders, located in the northern mound of the ruins of Babel.
The temple described by Herodotus is that of Nebo, in
Borsippa, not far from Babylon, which Herodotus included under
Babylon and which the cuneiform inscriptions term 'Babylon the
Second.' This temple, which in the mound of Birs Nimrûd is the
most imposing ruin of Babylon, is called the 'eternal house'
in the inscriptions; it was restored by Nebuchadnezzar with
great splendor. In form, it is a pyramid built in seven
stages, for which reason it is sometimes referred to as the
'Temple of the Seven Spheres of Heaven and Earth.' The Tower
of Babel, described in Genesis x., is perhaps the same
structure. It remains for the German expedition to continue
its excavations in Nebuchadnezzar's palace."
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Babylonia:
Discovery of an inscription of Nabonidos,
the last of the Babylonian kings.
"A discovery of the greatest importance has just been made by
Father Scheil, who has for some time been exploring in
Babylonia. In the Mujelibeh mound, one of the principal heaps
of ruins in the 'enciente' of Babylon, he has discovered a
long inscription of Nabonidos, the last of the Babylonian
Kings (B. C. 555-538), which contains a mass of historical and
other data which will be of greatest value to students of this
important period of Babylonian history. The monument in
question is a small 'stela' of diorite, the upper part of
which is broken, inscribed with eleven columns of writing, and
which appears to have been erected early in the King's reign.
It resembles in some measure the celebrated India-House
inscription of Nebuchadnezzar, but is much more full of
historical matter. Its value may be estimated when it is
stated that it contains a record of the war of revenge
conducted by the Babylonians and their Mandian allies against
Assyria, for the destruction of the city by Sennacherib, in B.
C. 698; an account of the election and coronation of Nabonidos
in B. C. 555, and the wonderful dream in which Nebuchadnezzar
appeared to him; as well as an account of the restoration of
the temple of the Moon god at Kharran, accompanied by a
chronological record which enables us to fix the date of the
so-called Scythian invasion. There is also a valuable
reference to the murder of Sennacherib by his son in Tebet, B.
C. 681."
American Journal of Archœology,
January-March, 1896.
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Persia:
French exploration of the ruins of Susa,
the capital of ancient Elam.
"In 1897 an arrangement was completed between the French
Government and the Shah of Persia by which the former obtained
the exclusive right of archeological explorations in the
latter's empire, coupled with certain privileges for the
exportation of different kinds of antiquities that might be
unearthed. Soon afterwards, M. J. de Morgan, late director of
excavations in Egypt, who had made archeological researches in
the regions east of the Tigris before, was placed at the head
of a French expedition to Susa, the ancient capital of Elam,
the upper strata of which had been successfully explored by M.
Dieulafoy.
{18}
In the Babylonian cuneiform inscriptions Elam appears as the
most terrible foe of the Babylonian empire from the earliest
time: and the name of its capital, Susa, or Shâsha, was
discovered by the present editor several years ago on a small
votive object in agate, originally manufactured and inscribed
in southern Babylonia, in the first half of the third
pre-christian millennium, several hundred years afterwards
carried away as part of their spoil by the invading Elamites,
and in the middle of the fourteenth century B. C. recaptured,
reinscribed, and presented to the temple of Nippur by King
Kurigalzu, after his conquest of Susa. It was therefore
evident that, if the same method of excavating was applied to
the ruins of Susa as had been applied so successfully by the
University of Pennsylvania's expedition in Nippur, remarkable
results would soon be obtained, and amply repay all labor and
money expended. M. de Morgan, accompanied by some engineers
and architects, set hopefully to work, cutting his trenches
more than fifty feet below the ruins of the Achæmenian
dynasty. The first campaign, 1897-98, was so successful, in
the discovery of buildings and inscribed antiquities, that in
October of last year the French government despatched the
Assyriologist Professor Scheil, in order to decipher the new
cuneiform documents, and to report on their historical
bearings.
"Among the more important finds so far made, but not yet
published, maybe mentioned over a thousand cuneiform tablets
of the earlier period, a beautifully preserved obelisk more
than five feet high, and covered with twelve hundred lines of
Old Babylonian cuneiform writing. It was inscribed and set up
by King Manishtusu, who left inscribed vases in Nippur and
other Babylonian cities. A stele of somewhat smaller size,
representing a battle in the mountains, testifies to the high
development of art at that remote period. On the one end it
bears a mutilated inscription of Narâm-Sin, son of Sargon the
Great (3800 B. C.); on the other, the name of Shimti-Shilkhak,
a well-known Elamitic king, and grandfather of the biblical
Ariokh (Genesis 14). These two monuments were either left in
Susa by the two Babylonian kings whose names they bear, after
successful operations against Elam, or they were carried off
as booty at the time of the great Elamitic invasion, which
proved so disastrous to the treasure-houses and archives of
Babylonian cities and temples [see above: BABYLONIA]. The
latter is more probable to the present writer, who in 1896
('Old Babylonian Inscriptions,' Part II, page 33) pointed out,
in connection with his discussion of the reasons of the
lamentable condition of Babylonian temple archives, that on
the whole we shall look in vain for well-preserved large
monuments in most Babylonian ruins, because about 2280 B. C.
'that which in the eyes of the national enemies of Babylonia
appeared most valuable was carried to Susa and other places:
what did not find favor with them was smashed and scattered on
Babylonian temple courts.'"
Prof. H. V. Hilprecht,
Oriental Research
(Sunday School Times, January 28, 1809).
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Egypt:
Earlier explorations.
For some account of earlier archæological explorations in
Egypt,
See, in volume 1,
EGYPT.
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Egypt:
Results of recent exploration.
The opening up of prehistoric Egypt.
The tomb of Mena.
The funeral temple of Merenptah.
Single mention of the people of Israel.
"During all this century in which Egyptian history has been
studied at first hand, it has been accepted as a sort of axiom
that the beginnings of things were quite unknown. In the
epitome of the history which was drawn up under the Greeks to
make Egypt intelligible to the rest of the world, there were
three dynasties of kings stated before the time of the great
pyramid builders; and yet of those it has been commonly said
that no trace remained. Hence it has been usual to pass them
by with just a mention as being half fabulous, and then to
begin real history with Senefern or Khufu (Cheops), the kings
who stand at the beginning of the fourth dynasty, at about
4000 B. C. The first discovery to break up this habit of
thought was when the prehistoric colossal statues of Min, the
god of the city of Koptos, were found in my excavations in his
temple. These had carvings in relief upon them wholly
different from anything known as yet in Egypt, and the
circumstances pointed to their being earlier than any carvings
yet found in that country. In the same temple we found also
statues of sacred animals and pottery which we now know to
belong to the very beginning of Egyptian history, many
centuries before the pyramids, and probably about 5000 B. C.
or earlier.
"The next step was the finding of a new cemetery and a town of
the prehistoric people, which we can now date to about 5000 B.
C., within two or three centuries either way. This place lay
on the opposite side of the Nile to Koptos—that is to say,
about 20 miles north of Thebes. At first we were completely
staggered by a class of objects entirely different from any
yet known in Egypt. We tried to fit them into every gap in
Egyptian history, but found that it was impossible to put them
before 3000 B. C. Later discoveries prove that they are really
as old as 5000 B. C. They show a very different civilization
from that of the Egyptians whom we already know—far less
artistic, but in some respects even more skillful in
mechanical taste and touch than the historical Egyptians. They
built brick houses to live in, and buried their dead in small
chambers sunk in the gravels of the water courses, lined with
mats, and roofed over with beams. They show several points of
contact with the early Mediterranean civilization, and appear
to have been mainly north African tribes of European type.
Their pottery, in its patterns and painting, shows designs
which have survived almost unchanged unto the present day
among the Kabyles of the Algerian Mountains. And one very
peculiar type of pottery is found spread from Spain to Egypt,
and indicates a widespread commercial intercourse at that
remote day. The frequent figures upon the vases of great
galley ships rowed with oars show that shipping was well
developed then, and make the evidences of trading between
different countries easy to be accepted.
{19}
"An of the above belongs to the age probably before 4700 B.
C., which is the age given for the first historical king of
Egypt by the Greek history of Manetho. A keystone of our
knowledge of the civilization is the identification of the
tomb of Mena, the first name in Egyptian history, the
venerated founder of all the long series of hundreds of
historic kings. This tomb, about 15 miles north of Thebes, was
found by some Arabs, and shown to Dr. De Morgan, the director
of the Department of Antiquities. It was a mass of about
thirty chambers, built of mud brick and earth. Each chamber
contained a different class of objects, one of stone vases,
one of stone dishes, one of copper tools, one of water jars,
etc. And among the things are carvings of lions and vases in
rock crystal and obsidian, large hard-stone vases, slate
palettes for grinding paint, pottery vases, and, above all, an
ivory tablet with relief carvings which show the names of the
king. Besides this, M. Amelineau has found sixteen tombs of
this same general character at Abydos, which we can hardly now
doubt belong to the early kings of the first three dynasties,
and some four or five have been actually identified with the
names of these kings in the Greek history. So now instead of
treating the first three dynasties as half fabulous and saying
that Egyptian art and civilization begin full blown at 4000 B.
C., we have the clear and tangible remains of much of these
early kings back to 4700 B. C., and a stretch of some
centuries of the prehistoric period with a varied and
distinctive civilization, well known and quite different from
anything later, lying before 4700 B. C. To put the earlier
part of this to 5500 B. C. is certainly no stretch of
probability. …
"We now pass entirely from these early times, with their
fascinating insight into the beginnings of things, long before
any other human history that we possess, until we reach down
to what seems quite modern times in the record of Egypt, where
it comes into contact with the Old Testament history. On
clearing out the funereal temple of King Merenptah I found in
that the upper half of a fine colossal statue of his, with all
the colors still fresh upon it. As this son of Rameses the
Great is generally believed to be the Pharaoh of the exodus,
such a fine portrait of him is full of interest. Better even
than that—I found an immense tablet of black granite over 10
feet high and 5 feet wide. It had been erected over two
centuries before and brilliantly carved by an earlier king,
whose temple was destroyed for materials by Merenptah. He took
this splendid block and turned its face inward against the
wall of his temple and carved the back of it with other scenes
and long inscriptions. Most of it is occupied with the history
of his vanquishing the Libyans, or North African tribes, who
were then invading Egypt. But at the end he recounts his
conquests in Syria, among which occurs the priceless passage:
'The people of Israel are spoiled; they have no seed.' This is
the only trace yet found in Egypt of the existence of the
Israelites, the only mention of the name, and it is several
centuries earlier than the references to the Israelite and
Jewish kings in the cuneiform inscriptions of Assyria. "What
relation this has to our biblical knowledge of the Israelites
is a wide question, that has several possible answers. Without
entering on all the openings, I may here state what seems to
me to be the most probable connection of all the events,
though I am quite aware that fresh discoveries might easily
alter our views. It seems that either all the Israelites did
not go into Egypt or else a part returned and lived in the
north of Palestine before the exodus that we know, because we
here find Merenptah defeating Israelites at about 1200 B. C.
Of his conquest and of those of Rameses III in Palestine there
are no traces in the biblical accounts, the absence of which
indicates that the entry into Canaan took place after 1160 B.
C., the last war of Rameses III. Then the period of the Judges
is given in a triple record—(l) of the north, (2) of the east
of the Jordan, (3) of Ephraim and the west; and these three
accounts are quite distinct and never overlap, though the
history passes in succession from one to another. Thus the
whole age of Judges is but little over a century. And to this
agree the priestly genealogies stretching between the
tabernacle and temple periods.
"Leaving now all the monumental age, we come lastly to the
evidences of the Christian period, preserved in the papyri or
miscellaneous waste papers left behind in the towns of the
Roman times. Last winter my friends, Mr. Grenfell and Mr.
Hunt, cleared out the remains of the town Behnesa, about 110
miles south of Cairo. There, amid thousands of stray papers,
documents, rolls, accounts, and all the waste sweepings out of
the city offices, they found two leaves which are priceless in
Christian literature—the leaf of Logia, or sayings of Jesus,
and the leaf of Matthew's Gospel. The leaf of the Logia is
already so widely known that it is needless for me to describe
it. … The leaf of Matthew's Gospel is of great interest in the
literary history of the Gospels. Hitherto we have had no
manuscripts older than the second great ecclesiastical
settlement under Theodosius. Now we have a piece two ages
earlier—before the first settlement of things under
Constantine at the council of Nicea. Here, in the middle of
the third century, we find that the beginning of the Gospel,
the most artificial, and probably the latest, part, the
introductory genealogy and account of the Nativity, was
exactly in its present form. This gives us the greatest
confidence that the Gospel as we have it dates from the time
of the great persecutions. Such are some of the astonishing
and far-reaching results that Egypt has given us within three
years past."
W. M. Flinders Petrie,
Recent Research in Egypt
(Sunday School Times, February 19, 1898.)
In a later article, contributed to the "Popular Science
Monthly," Professor Petrie has described more fully the
results of recent exploration in Egypt, especially with
reference to the discovery and study of prehistoric remains.
The following are passages from the article: "The great stride
that has been made in the last six years is the opening up of
prehistoric Egypt, leading us back some 2000 years before the
time of the pyramid builders. Till recently nothing was known
before the age of the finest art and the greatest buildings,
and it was a familiar puzzle how such a grand civilization
could have left no traces of its rise. This was only a case of
blindness on the part of explorers. Upper Egypt teems with
prehistoric remains, but, as most of what appears is dug up by
plunderers for the market, until there is a demand for a class
of objects, very little is seen of them. Now that the
prehistoric has become fashionable, it is everywhere to be
seen. The earlier diggers were dazzled by the polished
colossi, the massive buildings, the brilliant sculptures of
the well-known historic times, and they had no eyes for small
graves, containing only a few jars or, at best, a flint knife.
{20}
"The present position of the prehistory of Egypt is that we
can now distinguish two separate cultures before the beginning
of the Egyptian dynasties, and we can clearly trace a sequence
of manufactures and art throughout long ages before the pyramid
builders, or from say 6000 B. C., giving a continuous history
of 8000 years for man in Egypt. Continuous I say advisedly,
for some of the prehistoric ways are those kept up to the
present time. In the earliest stages of this prehistoric
culture metal was already used and pottery made. Why no ruder
stages are found is perhaps explained by the fact that the
alluvial deposits of the Nile do not seem to be much older
than 8000 years. The rate of deposit is well known—very
closely one metre in a thousand years—and borings show only
eight metres thick of Nile mud in the valley. Before that the
country had enough rain to keep up the volume of the river,
and it did not drop its mud. It must have run as a rapid
stream through a barren land of sand and stones, which could
not support any population except paleolithic hunters. With
the further drying of the climate, the river lost so much
velocity that its mud was deposited, and the fertile mud flats
made cultivation and a higher civilization possible. At this
point a people already using copper came into the country. …
"The second prehistoric civilization seems to have belonged to
a people kindred to that of the first age, as much of the
pottery continued unchanged, and only gradually faded away.
But a new style arose of a hard, buff pottery, painted with
patterns and subjects in red outline. Ships are represented
with cabins on them, and rowed by a long bank of oars. The use
of copper became more general, and gold and silver appear
also. … Though this civilization was in many respects higher
than that which preceded it, yet it was lower artistically,
the figures being ruder and always flat, instead of in the
round. …
"The separation of these two different ages has been entirely
reached by the classification of many hundreds of tombs, the
original order of which could be traced by the relation of
their contents. … The material for this study has come
entirely from excavations of my own party at Nagada (1895),
Abadiyeh, and Hu (1899); but great numbers of tombs of these
same ages have been opened without record by Dr. de Morgan
(1896-1897), and by French and Arab speculators in
antiquities. The connection between these prehistoric ages and
the early historic times of the dynastic kings of Egypt is yet
obscure. The cemeteries which would have cleared this have
unhappily been looted in the last few years without any
record, and it is only the chance of some new discoveries that
can be looked to for filling up the history.
"We can at least say that the pottery of the early kings is
clearly derived from the later prehistoric types, and that
much of the civilization was in common. But it is clear that
the second prehistoric civilization was degrading and losing
its artistic taste for fine work before the new wave of the
dynastic or historic Egyptians came in upon it. These early
historic people are mainly known by the remains of the tombs
of the early kings, found by M. Amelineau at Abydos
(1896-1899), and probably the first stage of the same race is
seen in the rude colossi of the god Min, which I found at
Koptos (1894). … In these great discoveries of the last few
years we can trace at least three successive peoples, and see
the gradual rise of the arts, from the man who was buried in
his goat skins, with one plain cup by him, up to the king who
built great monuments and was surrounded by most sumptuous
handiwork. We see the rise of the art of exquisite flint
flaking, and the decline of that as copper came more commonly
into use. We see at first the use of signs, later on disused
by a second race, and then superseded by the elaborate
hieroglyph system of the dynastic race. …
"Turning now to the purely classical Egyptian work, the
principal discoveries of the last few years have given us new
leading examples in every line. The great copper statue of
King Pepy, with his son, dates from before 3000 B. C. It is
over life size, and entirely wrought in hammered copper,
showing a complete mastery in metal work of the highest
artistic power. … Many of the royal temples of the 19th
dynasty at Thebes were explored by the English in 1896. The
Ramesseum was completely examined, through all the maze of
stone chambers around it. But the most important result was
the magnificent tablet of black granite, about 10 feet high
and 5 wide, covered on one side with an inscription of Amen
Hotep III, and on the other side with an inscription of
Merenptah. The latter account, of about 1200 B. C., mentions
the war with the 'People of Israel'; this is the only naming
of Israel on Egyptian records, and is several centuries
earlier than any Assyrian record of the Hebrews. …
"One of the most important results of historical Egyptian
times is the light thrown on prehistoric Greek ages. The
pottery known as 'Mykenæan' since the discoveries of
Schliemann in the Peloponnesus was first dated in Egypt at
Gurob in 1889; next were found hundreds of vase fragments at
Tell el Amarna in 1892; and since then several Egyptian kings'
names have been found on objects in Greece, along with such
pottery. The whole of this evidence shows that the grand age
of prehistoric Greece, which can well compare with the art of
classical Greece, began about 1600 B. C., was at its highest
point about 1400 B. C., and became decadent about 1200 B. C.,
before its overthrow by the Dorian invasion. Besides this
dating, Greece is indebted to Egypt for the preservation of
the oldest texts of its classics."
W. M. Flinders Petrie,
Recent Years of Egyptian Exploration
(Appleton's Popular Science Monthly, April, 1900).
Still later, in an address at the annual meeting of the Egypt
Exploration Fund, November 7, 1900, Professor Petrie summed up
with succinctness the gains to our knowledge of early man from
the later researches in Egypt. "How many controversies," he
said, "had waged over Manetho! And now from the Royal tombs of
Abydos we had seen and handled this summer the drinking bowls and
furniture of the Kings of the first dynasty, even the property
of Menes himself, the first King of United Egypt. The early
Kings, whom we had scarcely believed in, even Mena who had
been proclaimed a mythical version of the Cretan Minos and the
Indian Manu, came now before us as real and as familiarly as
the Kings of the 30th dynasty or of Saxon England; and never
before had so remote a period been brought so completely
before us as it had been in the work this year at Abydos.
{21}
And how did Manetho and the State history of Seti bear the
test? Five Kings we could already identify out of the eight
recorded for the first dynasty. Those five are proved to have
been recorded in their correct order, although the time of the
first dynasty was so remote from even that of Seti that all
the names had become slightly altered by transmission. It was
to be remembered that the first dynasty was older to Seti than
the Exodus was to us. Now that we were no longer afraid of our
own rashness in assigning anything to a date before the fourth
dynasty, and could deal with the earliest periods back to the
first entry of agricultural man into Egypt, we could see more
of the perspective of history. We saw palæolithic man
scattering his massive flint weapons until the age of Nile mud
(beginning about 7000 B. C.) made agriculture possible, and a
Caucasian race ousted the palæolithic folks, whose portraits
were left us in the figures found in the earliest graves. We
saw this oldest race of man to have been of the Hottentot
type, but even more hairy than the Hottentot, with the traces
of his original Northern habitation not yet wiped off by
tropical suns. Then we saw a rapidly rising civilization
already knowing metals linked with the modern Kabyle both by
bodily formation and by existing products. Next after some
dozen generations we could trace strong Eastern or Semitic
influence, which carried on this civilization to a higher
point in many respects; and then decay set in and the first
cycle that we could trace was completed. The next cycle began
with the entry of the dynastic race from the Red Sea,
possessing the elements of hieroglyphic writing and far more
artistic sense and power than the earlier people. In some
three or four centuries they had gradually conquered and
invaded all the races scattered through Egypt—long-haired,
short-haired, bearded and unbearded, clothed and unclothed;
and the first King of all Egypt, who founded his new capital
at the mouth of the valley, was Mena. The era of consolidation
which preceded him was stated by Manetho as the dynasty of ten
Kings of Abydos, who reigned for 300 years; it was a time of
rapidly increasing civilization, during which most of the main
features of Egyptian language, life, and art were stamped for
5,000 years to come. From the Royal tombs of Abydos we could
see now how this art rose to its finest age in the middle of
the first dynasty, and was decaying and becoming cheaper and
more common by the end of that time. Probably we should see
that this cycle was fading when some new impetus gave birth to
the colossal ages of the pyramid builders. That grand period
we now see to have been the third cycle of civilization and
art, which was renewed again and again until we might see in
the brilliance of the Fatimite dynasty the seventh of the
great eras of Egypt. Such was the wider aspect of human
history which the work solely of English exploration in Egypt
now put before us. It might be safely said that there had
never been a greater extension of knowledge of man's past in
any decade than the discoveries of the last five years had
unfolded. Details yet awaited us, but the main lines were all
marked out, and their work of the future was to complete the
picture of which we now had the full extent before us. What,
now, would occupy the coming winter was the exploration of the
remaining Royal tombs."
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Egypt:
Discovery of a fragment of the Logia, or Sayings of Jesus.
During the winter of 1896-1897, Messrs. Bernard P. Grenfell
and Arthur S. Hunt conducted excavations for the Egypt
Exploration Fund on the site of Oxyrhynchus, which was a
flourishing city in the time of Roman rule in Egypt. Large
quantities of papyri were found in the rubbish heaps of the
town, and among them one fragment of special and remarkable
interest,—as thus described by the discoverers, in a brief
report, entitled "Sayings of Our Lord," published by the Egypt
Exploration Fund in 1897: "The document in question is a leaf
from a papyrus book containing a collection of Logia or
Sayings of our Lord, of which some, though presenting several
novel features, are familiar, others are wholly new. It was
found at the very beginning of our work upon the town, in a
mound which produced a great number of papyri belonging to the
first three centuries of our era, those in the immediate
vicinity of our fragment belonging to the second and third
centuries. This fact, together with the evidence of the
handwriting, which has a characteristically Roman aspect,
fixes with certainty 300 A. D. as the lowest limit for the
date at which the papyrus was written. The general
probabilities of the case, the presence of the usual
contractions found in biblical MSS., and the fact that the
papyrus was in book, not roll, form, put the first century out
of the question, and made the first half of the second
unlikely. The date therefore probably falls within the period
150-300 A. D. More than that cannot be said with any approach
to certainty. … The fragment measures 5¾X3¾ inches, but its
height was originally somewhat greater, as it is unfortunately
broken at the bottom."
The following is a translation of the fragmentary sayings
inscribed on the leaf:
"… and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote that
is in thy brother's eye."
"Jesus saith, Except ye fast to the world, ye shall in no wise
find the kingdom of God; and except ye keep the sabbath, ye
shall not see the Father."
"Jesus saith, I stood in the midst of the world, and in the
flesh was I seen of them, and I found all men drunken, and
none found I athirst among them, and my soul grieveth over the
sons of men, because they are blind in their heart. …"
"Jesus saith, Wherever there are … and there is one … alone, I
am with him. Raise the stone and there thou shalt find me,
cleave the wood and there am I."
"Jesus saith, A prophet is not acceptable in his own country,
neither doth a physician work cures upon them that know him."
"Jesus saith, A city built upon the top of a high hill, and
stablished, can neither fall nor be hid."
{22}
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH:Egypt:
New discoveries in the tombs of the Valley of the Kings.
In the Valley of the Kings, which extends along the west bank
of the Nile, in the Libyan Mountains, opposite Luxor, M.
Loret, director of the Egyptian explorations, discovered in
1898 the tombs of Thutmosis III. and Amenophis II., and in the
following year made the more important discovery of the tomb of
Thutmosis I., "the real founder of the eighteenth dynasty, who
made Egypt one of the great empires of the ancient world."
Professor Steindorf of the University of Leipsic, writing of
this discovery to Professor Hilprecht of the University of
Pennsylvania, remarked that its special importance "lies in
the fact that Thutmosis I, the earliest king of the eighteenth
dynasty, was also the first ruler to depart from the ancient
custom of the Pharaohs, that of building in the desert lowland
pyramidal tombs. For himself he had a tomb hewn out of rock in
the mountains. His predecessor, Amenophis I, according to
custom, built his tomb in the plain, near the present site of
Drah-abul-negge, as we know from written records. Thutmosis I,
on the contrary, chose for his last dwelling-place the lonely
and majestic valley in the Libyan Mountains. For centuries the
Pharaohs followed his example, and during the eighteenth,
nineteenth, and twentieth dynasties were built those
magnificent sepulchers which in Roman times were still among
the greatest curiosities of ancient Thebes. …
"Chief among the articles that Mr. Loret found in the tomb is
a remarkably well-preserved papyrus containing texts from the
Book of the Dead, with colored pictures finely executed; also
a chest in which were kept a draught-board, with a full set of
draughtmen, and some garlands; likewise fruit, food, poultry,
and beef. The last-mentioned articles, being intended for the
sustenance of the dead, each one was wrapped in linen and
enclosed in a wooden case, exactly corresponding to its form.
Thirteen large earthen beer jars, most of which, with their
seals, stood there unmarred, and a large number of other
vessels, had contained the beverages necessary for the
refreshment of the dead. Weapons, among others two
artistically wrought leathern quivers containing arrows, and
two beautiful armchairs, completed this strange stock of
equipments. The most remarkable piece of all is a large and
beautifully preserved couch, the like of which has never been
found in any other tomb. It consists of a quadrangular wooden
frame, overspread with a thick rush mat, and over this were
stretched three layers of linen with a life-size figure of the
god of death, Osiris, drawn upon the outer layer. The figure
itself was smeared with some material intended to make the
under layer waterproof. Over this, mingled with some adhesive
substance, soil had been spread, in which barley was planted.
The grains had sprouted, and had grown to the height of from
two and a half to three inches. The whole, therefore,
represented a couch whereon the dead Osiris lay figured in
greensward. Verily, a striking poetical idea, the resurrection
of the dead symbolized by the picture of the barley springing
up. The whole tomb, with its numerous equipments, furnishes a
very important contribution to the history of the methods of
burial among the ancient Egyptians."
Sunday School Times,
July 8, 1899.
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Egypt:
Fall of eleven columns of the great temple at Karnak.
"From Professor Georg Steindorff, of the University of
Leipsic, comes the following: 'In the covered colonnade of the
great temple at Karnak extensive restorations have lately been
undertaken, rendered necessary by a most deplorable accident,
which, about a year ago, befell this grandest of all Egyptian
edifices. It occurred on the morning of October 3, 1899, in
the colonnade which was built by Ramses I, Sethos I, and
Ramses II, and which is doubtless familiar to all in
engravings and photographs. In the northeastern part of this
structure as many as eleven immense columns fell, and were
totally wrecked, while several others are leaning over so that
they might fall at any time. By this event the magnificent
structure has been utterly ruined, and it now presents a
dreary aspect. The cause of this catastrophe has not been
definitely ascertained. The first thought was of an
earthquake, but nothing of the sort was experienced elsewhere
in Egypt on the morning of the day above mentioned. It is more
likely that during the thirty-two hundred years of the
building's existence, the material used in its construction
had greatly deteriorated, and that this fact increased the
possibility of a collapse. Then, also, in the main hall during
recent years, the work of excavation and restoration was carried
on with little regard for the dilapidated condition of the
temple, which was weakened rather than strengthened by this
work. But especially for the last four years, during the
inundation of the Nile, the hall, by artificial means, has
been flooded in order to extract and remove the salt which had
formed. By this periodical flooding and drying of the ground
the foundations have been very badly damaged. This, according
to Dr. Borchardt, is the prime cause of the ruin. First the
ground gave way under a column, which then toppled, and, in
falling, brought down the others with it.
"We must recognize the zeal with which the Egyptian
Government, especially the department of Egyptian Antiquities,
with its Director-General, Professor Maspero, came to the
rescue of the ill-fated edifice. To prevent further
catastrophe, they first proceeded to remove the architraves
from five of the endangered columns, and to reduce the height
of the columns to about twenty feet. This was accomplished by
filling with sand that portion of the hall in which the
columns stood, and then rolling the separate parts down the
inclined plane formed by the sand. The north portion of the
pylon terminating the colonnade toward the east—that is,
toward the Nile—had badly suffered by the disaster. There were
cracks in it so large as to cause the fear that it might some
day collapse. After prompt and thorough work this danger also
was obviated. Later on the ruins of the eleven fallen columns
are to be removed, and the foundations of the hall examined.
Then everything possible will be done to make the ground
solid, and the attempt will be made to erect again the ruined
columns. But whether the beautiful colonnade will ever resume
its former appearance, whether it will ever again make upon
the visitor such an overpowering impression as formerly, may
well be a matter of serious doubt. Ancient Thebes has lost one
of its most beautiful monuments.'"
Sunday School Times,
December 1, 1900.
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Egypt:
Discovery of the Serapeion at Alexandria.
"The excavations by Dr. Botti, the Director of the Alexandrian
Museum, in the neighborhood of Pompey's Pillar, have resulted
in the discovery of the Serapeion, where the last of the great
libraries of Alexandria was preserved. An elaborate account of
his researches, with an admirable plan, has been given by the
discoverer in a memoir on 'L'Acropole d'Alexandrie et le
Sérapeum,' presented to the Archæological Society of
Alexandria. … Dr. Botti was first led to make his explorations
by a passage in the orator Aphthonios, who visited Alexandria
about A. D. 315."
American Journal of Archœology,
January-arch, 1896.
{23}
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Crete:
Recent explorations.
Supposed discovery of the Palace of Minos
and the Cretan Labyrinth.
Fresh light on prehistoric Greece
and the origin of the alphabet.
Results of extraordinary importance have been already obtained
from explorations in Crete, carried on during 1899 and 1900 by
the British School at Athens, under the direction of Mr. D. G.
Hogarth, and by Mr. Arthur J. Evans, of the Ashmolean Museum,
working with the aid of a small Cretan Exploration Fund,
raised in England. The excavations of both parties were
carried on at Knossos, but the latter was the most fortunate,
having opened the site of a prehistoric palace which is
yielding remarkable revelations of the legendary age in Crete.
In a communication to the "London Times" of October 31, 1900,
Mr. Evans gave the following account of the results so far as
then obtained:
"The discoveries made at Knossos throw into the shade all the
other exploratory campaigns of last season in the Eastern
Mediterranean, by whatever nationality conducted. It is not
too much to say that the materials already gathered have
revolutionized our knowledge of prehistoric Greece, and that
to find even an approach to the results obtained we must go
back to Schliemann's great discovery of the Royal tombs at
Mycenae. The prehistoric site, of which some two acres have
now been uncovered at Knossos, proves to contain a palace
beside which those of Tiryns and Mycenae sink into
insignificance. By an unhoped-for piece of good fortune the
site, though in the immediate neighbourhood of the greatest
civic centres of the island in ancient, medieval, and modern
times, had remained practically untouched for over 3,000
years. At but a very slight depth below the surface of the
ground the spade has uncovered great courts and corridors,
propylaea, a long succession of magazines containing gigantic
store jars that might have hidden the Forty Thieves, and a
multiplicity of chambers, pre-eminent among which is the
actual throne-room and council-chamber of Homeric kings. The
throne itself, on which (if so much faith be permitted to us)
Minos may have declared the law, is carved out of alabaster,
once brilliant with coloured designs and relieved with curious
tracery and crocketed arcading which is wholly unique in
ancient art and exhibits a strange anticipation of 13th
century Gothic. In the throne-room, the western entrance
gallery, and elsewhere, partly still adhering to the walls,
partly in detached pieces on the floors, was a series of
fresco paintings, excelling any known examples of the art in
Mycenaean Greece. A beautiful life-size painting of a youth,
with a European and almost classically Greek profile, gives us
the first real knowledge of the race who produced this
mysterious early civilization. Other frescoes introduce us to
a lively and hitherto unknown miniature style, representing,
among other subjects, groups of women engaged in animated
conversation in the courts and on the balconies of the Palace.
The monuments of the sculptor's art are equally striking. It
may be sufficient to mention here a marble fountain in the
shape of a lioness's head with enamelled eyes, fragments of a
frieze with beautifully cut rosettes, superior in its kind to
anything known from Mycenae; an alabaster vase
naturalistically copied from a Triton shell; a porphyry lamp
with graceful foliation supported on an Egyptianising lotus
column. The head and parts of the body of a magnificent
painted relief of a bull in gesso duro are unsurpassed for
vitality and strength.
"It is impossible here to refer more than incidentally to the
new evidence of intercourse between Crete and Egypt at a very
remote period supplied by the Palace finds of Knossos. It may
be mentioned, however, as showing the extreme antiquity of the
earlier elements of the building that in the great Eastern
Court was found an Egyptian seated figure of diorite, broken
above, which can be approximately dated about 2000 B. C. Below
this again extends a vast Stone Age settlement which forms a
deposit in some places 24 ft. in thickness.
"Neither is it possible here to dwell on the new indications
supplied by some of the discoveries in the 'House of Minos' as
to the cult and religious beliefs of its occupants. It must be
sufficient to observe that one of the miniature frescoes found
represents the façade of a Mycenaean shrine and that the
Palace itself seems to have been a sanctuary of the Cretan God
of the Double Axe, as well as a dwelling place of prehistoric
kings. There can be little remaining doubt that this huge
building with its maze of corridors and tortuous passages, its
medley of small chambers, its long succession of magazines
with their blind endings, was in fact the Labyrinth of later
tradition which supplied a local habitation for the Minotaur
of grisly fame. The great figures of bulls in fresco and
relief that adorned the walls, the harem scenes of some of the
frescoes, the corner stones and pillars marked with the labrys
or double axe—the emblem of the Cretan Zeus, explaining the
derivation of the name 'Labyrinth' itself—are so many details
which all conspire to bear out this identification. In the
Palace-shrine of Knossos there stands at last revealed to us
the spacious structure which the skill of Daedalus is said to
have imitated from the great Egyptian building on the shore of
Lake Moeris, and with it some part at least of his fabled
masterpieces still clinging to the walls.
"But, brilliant as are the illustrations thus recovered of the
high early civilization of the City of Minos and of the
substantial truth of early tradition, they are almost thrown
into the shade by a discovery which carries back the existence
of written documents in the Hellenic lands some seven
centuries beyond the first known monuments of the historic
Greek writing. In the chambers and magazines of the Palace
there came to light a series of deposits of clay tablets, in
form somewhat analogous to the Babylonian, but inscribed with
characters in two distinct types of indigenous prehistoric
script—one hieroglyphic or quasi-pictorial, the other linear.
The existence of a hieroglyphic script in the island had been
already the theme of some earlier researches by the explorer
of the Palace, based on the more limited material supplied by
groups of signs on a class of Cretan seal-stones, and the
ample corroboration of the conclusions arrived at was,
therefore, the more satisfactory. These Cretan hieroglyphs
will be found to have a special importance in their bearing on
the origin of the Phoenician alphabet.
{24}
"But the great bulk of the tablets belonged to the linear
class, exhibiting an elegant and much more highly-developed
form of script, with letters of an upright and singularly
European aspect. The inscriptions, over 1,000 of which were
collected, were originally contained in coffers of clay, wood,
and gypsum, which had been in turn secured by clay seals
impressed with finely-engraved signets and counter-marked and
counter-signed by controlling officials in the same script
while the clay was still wet. The clay documents themselves
are, beyond doubt, the Palace archives. Many relate to
accounts concerning the Royal Arsenal, stores, and treasures.
Others, perhaps, like the contemporary cuneiform tablets,
refer to contracts or correspondence. The problems attaching
to the decipherment of these clay records are of enthralling
interest, and we have here locked up for us materials which
may some day enlarge the bounds of history."
In an earlier communication to "The Times" (September 15), Mr.
Evans had explained more distinctly the importance of the clay
tablets found at Knossos, as throwing light on the origin of
the alphabet: "In my excavation of the pre-historic Palace at
Knossos," he wrote, "I came upon a series of deposits of clay
tablets, representing the Royal archives, the inscriptions on
which belong to two distinct systems of writing—one
hieroglyphic and quasi-pictorial; the other for the most part
linear and much more highly developed. Of these the
hieroglyphic class especially presents a series of forms
answering to what, according to the names of the Phoenician
letters, we must suppose to have been the original pictorial
designs from which these, too, were derived. A series of
conjectural reconstructions of the originals of the Phoenician
letters on this line were in fact drawn out by my father, Sir
John Evans, for a lecture on the origin of the alphabet given
at the Royal Institution in 1872, and it may be said that
two-thirds of these resemble almost line for line actual forms
of Cretan hieroglyphics. The oxhead (Aleph), the house (Beth),
the window (He), the peg (Vau), the fence (Cheth), the hand
(Yod) seen sideways, and the open palm (Kaph), the fish (Nun),
the post or trunk (Samekh), the eye (Ain), the mouth, (Pe),
the teeth (Shin), the cross-sign (Tau), not to speak of
several other probable examples, are all literally reproduced.
"The analogy thus supplied is indeed overwhelming. It is
impossible to believe that, while on one side of the East
Mediterranean basin these alphabetic prototypes were naturally
evolving themselves, the people of the opposite shore were
arriving at the same result by a complicated process of
selection and transformation of a series of hieratic Egyptian
signs derived from quite different objects. The analogy with
the Cretan hieroglyphic forms certainly weighs strongly in
favour of the simple and natural explanation of the origin of
the Phoenician letters which was held from the time of
Gesenius onwards, and was only disturbed by the extremely
ingenious, though over-elaborate, theory of De Rougé."
At the annual meeting of the subscribers to the British School
at Athens, held in London, October 30, 1900, Mr. Hogarth, the
Director, spoke with great enthusiasm of the significance of
the Cretan discoveries already made, and of the promise of
enlarged knowledge which they gave. He said: "The discovery
made 25 years ago [by Schliemann] that no barbarians, but
possessors of a very high and individual culture, preceded the
Hellenic period in Greece—a culture which could not but have
affected the Hellenic—had been developed in various ways
since. It had been established that this culture had had a
very long existence and development; it covered completely a
large geographical area; it developed various local
characteristics in art production which seemed to be gathered
again into one by the typical art of Mycenae. But the most
important historical points remained obscure. Where was the
original home of this new civilization; what family did the
race or races belong to; of what speech were they and what
religions; what was the history of their societies and art
during their dominance, and what became of them after? Neither
mainland Greece nor the Aegean islands answered these. But
there were two unknown quantities, Crete and Asia Minor, with
Rhodes. One of these we have now attacked. Crete by its great
size and natural wealth, its position, and its mythologic fame
was bound to inform us of much. It is too early to say that
the questions will all be answered by Crete, but already we
have much light. The discovery of written documents and of
shrines has told us more than any other evidence of the origin
and family. The Knossos frescoes show us the racial type; the
Dictaean, Cave, and Knossos houses illuminate the religion.
New arts have been discovered, and the relation to Egypt and
Asia are already far better understood. It remains now to find
the early tombs, and clear the lower stratum of the Palace
ruins at Knossos, to know more of the earliest Cretan race, to
explore the cast or 'Eteocretan' end of the island, to obtain
light on the language and relations to Egypt and Asia, and to
investigate the 'Geometric' period, which is the transition to
the Hellenic."
Commenting in another place on the discoveries in Crete, Mr.
Hogarth has pointed out their effect in modifying the ideas
heretofore entertained of the importance of Phoenician
influence in the rise of European civilization. "For many
years now," he writes, "we have had before our eyes two
standing protests against the traditional claim of Phoenicia
to originate European civilization, and those protests come
from two regions which Phoenician influence, travelling west,
ought first to have affected, namely, Cyprus and Asia Minor.
In both these regions exist remains of early systems of
writing which are clearly not of Phoenician descent. Both the
Cypriote syllabic script and the 'Hittite' symbols must have
been firmly rooted in their homes before ever the convenient
alphabet of Sidon and Tyre was known there. And now, since Mr.
Evans has demonstrated the existence of two non-Phoenician
systems of writing in Crete also, the use of one of which has
been proved to extend to the Cyclades and the mainland of
Greece, it has become evident that we have to deal in
south-eastern Europe, as well as in Cyprus or Asia Minor, with
a non-Phoenician influence of civilization which, since it
could originate that greatest of achievements, a local script,
was quite powerful enough to account by itself also for the
local art.
{25}
"Those who continue to advocate the Phoenician claim do not
seem sufficiently to realize that nowadays they have to take
account neither only of the Homeric age nor only of even half
a millennium before Homer, but of an almost geologic
antiquity. Far into the third millennium B. C. at the very
least, and more probably much earlier still, there was a
civilization in the Aegean and on the Greek mainland which,
while it contracted many debts to the East and to Egypt, was
able to assimilate all that it borrowed, and to reissue it in
an individual form, expressed in products which are not of the
same character with those of any Eastern civilization that we
know."
D. G. Hogarth,
Authority and Archaeology Sacred and Profane,
part 2, pages 237-238
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons).
"During the past season, Evans, discoverer of the now famous
early Cretan systems of writing, Halbherr and other Italians,
as well as the French, have been proving what was already
foreshadowed, that in Crete we find in its purest form and in
all its historic and racial phases that Mediterranean
civilization,—Pelasgic and Achæan,—that culminated in Tiryns
and Mykenae. We now see that Homer sings of the closing years
of a culture that dates back of the 'Trojan 'War' at least for
fifteen hundred years. Crete is found to be covered with
ruined Pelasgic cities, surrounded by gigantic polygonal
walls, crowned by acropoli, adorned with royal palaces,
defended by forts, connected by artificial highways, and with
necropoli of vaulted tombs like those discovered by Schliemann
at Mykenae. Already the royal palaces and libraries are being
unearthed at Cnossos and 'Goulâs' with sculptures and
decoration of the most novel description and early date. A
literature in an unknown tongue and in undeciphered scripts is
being found, to puzzle scholars as much perhaps as the Hittite
and Etruscan languages. Some day these 'Pelasgic' documents
will disclose the secrets of a neglected civilization and fill
up the gap between early Eastern and Hellenic cultures."
A. L. Frothingham, Jr.,
Archæological Progress
(International Monthly, December, 1900).
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: India:
Discovery of the birthplace, tomb and relics of Gautama Buddha,
See (in this volume)
BUDDHA.
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Troy:
Later researches on the site.
"Dr. Doerpfeld finished in 1894 the exploration which he had
begun in 1893 on the site of the excavations of Schliemann at
Hissarlik (Troia). It appears to be established that
Schliemann, carried away by his zeal, had overlooked the very
end which he wished to attain, and that the burnt city, which
he thought to be the real Troia, is a more ancient foundation
going back beyond the year 2000 B. C. M. Doerpfeld discerned,
in one of the layers of ruins (discovered but disregarded by
Schliemann), a city which must be the Ilios of Priam
contemporaneous with the Mykenai of Agamemnon; he removed the
surrounding walls, the towers, and some of the houses that
filled it. It is to be understood that this little acropolis,
analogous to that of Tiryns, is not the whole of the city but
simply its citadel, which Homer called 'Pergamos.' It was
surrounded, lower down, by a city reserved for the habitation
of the common people, some traces of which also have been
found."
American Journal of Archœology, 1896.
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Italy:
Excavations at Antemnæ disclose what early Rome
was probably like.
"We can show what the earliest Rome was, the Rome of Romulus
on the Palatine, and how it grew to be the City of the Seven
Hills. The City itself, crowded with the wrecks of twenty-five
centuries, preserves to-day few memorials of its earliest age;
but excavations made on two sites, one close to Rome, one a
little further north in Etruria, explain the process very
clearly. The traveller who approaches Rome by the Via Salaria
sees, just where Tiber and Anio join, a modern fort on an
isolated rock. Here was Antemnae, destroyed (according to
legend) by Roman jealousy very soon after Rome itself was
founded. The legend seems to be true, at least in substance.
On this hilltop excavations have shown a little village within
a wall of stone: it had its temple and senate-house, its
water-cistern, and square huts, thatched or timbered, for
dwelling-houses. The relics found there shew that the site was
abandoned, never to be again inhabited, about the time at
which the legend fixes the fall of Antemnae. Here we have
Rome's earliest rival. From the rival we may guess what the
earliest Rome was like on the Palatine rock, and what all the
little Italian towns were in their infancy."
F. Haverfield,
Authority and Archaeology Sacred and Profane,
part 2, pages 302-303
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons).
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Italy:
The Etruscans.
"During the decade which is now ending, archaeology has thrown
some light on this strange people. Researches in North Italy
prove that it never entered the Peninsula from the north.
Researches in Etruria itself prove that the earliest Etruscan
civilization resembled that which prevailed in the Eastern
Mediterranean in the last days of the Aegean period. After
all, the old legends were right. The ancients told how the
Etruscans came from the east: archaeological evidence is now
accumulating to confirm the legends. Precisely when they came
or why is still obscure, nor can we identify them yet with any
special tribe in pre-historic Greece, Pelasgian or other.
Probably they were driven from their old homes, like the
Phoenicians who built Carthage and the Phocaeans who built
Marseilles."
F. Haverfield,
Authority and Archaeology Sacred and Profane,
part 2, page 305
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons).
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Italy:
Sunken Roman vessels in Lake Nemi.
"A discovery during 1895 which made a great sensation
throughout Italy, was that of the famous Roman vessels which
had been sunk for so many centuries at the bottom of Lake
Nemi, the existence of which has been known or suspected ever
since the fifteenth century, notwithstanding many sceptics."
American Journal of Archœology
July-September, 1896.
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Syria:
Ruined cities of the Roman Province.
An important exploration of ruined cities in the old Roman
provinces of Syria and Arabia was conducted by an American
archæological expedition organized in 1899. Mr. Howard Crosby
Butler, of Princeton, was in charge of the studies made in
architecture, sculpture and archæological matters generally;
Professor William K. Prentice devoted attention to classical
inscriptions, of which a great number were found, while
Semitic inscriptions were the subjects of the study of Dr.
Enno Littmann, of the University of Halle. The ruins of
thirty-three cities, nearly all of them evident places of
large population in their day, were visited in regions now too
bare of productive soil to support even the small nomadic
population of the present day. "The desert conditions have
preserved the cities intact as they stood at the time when
they appear to have been abandoned, in the beginning of the
seventh century." Some account of the expedition and its work
is given in the "New York Tribune" of February 3, 1901.
----------ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: End--------
{26}
ARCTIC EXPLORATION, Recent.
See (in this volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION.
----------ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: Start--------
ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1895.
Census.
"According to the census, the number of persons in the
Argentine Republic on May 10, 1895, was 4,042,990; the
estimated number of Argentines outside the boundaries of the
Republic on that day is placed at 50,000, thus making the
total population 4,092,990." Of this population 663,854 is in
the city of Buenos Ayres. "The increase in the population
between September 15, 1869 (the last census), and May 10, 1895
(the date on which the present census was taken), has been
2,218,776, equivalent to an increase of 120 per cent, or an
annual increase of 4.6 per cent. The urban population of the
Republic has increased 1,045,944. … It is estimated that there
are 345,393 foreigners in the city of Buenos Ayres, and that
the total number of foreigners in the Republic is about
1,000,000. … Among the Argentine portion of the population,
the females exceed the males in number, while it is estimated
that two-thirds of the foreign population are males."
United States Consular Reports,
November, 1896, page 438.
ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1895.
Resignation of President Peña.
President Saenz Peña having refused to issue, at the request
of Congress, a decree of amnesty, extended to all persons
implicated in the last revolution, his Cabinet resigned
(January 16), and he found it impossible to form another.
Thereupon the President himself resigned his office, on the
22d of January, and his resignation was accepted by the
Congress. Señor Uriburu was elected President on the following
day, and promptly issued the desired decree.
ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1898.
Settlement of boundary dispute with Chile.
Election of President.
"A long unsettled dispute as to the extended boundary between
the Argentine Republic and Chile, stretching along the Andean
crests from the southern border of the Atacama Desert to
Magellan Straits, nearly a third of the length of the South
American continent, assumed an acute stage in the early part
of the year, and afforded to this Government occasion to
express the hope that the resort to arbitration, already
contemplated by existing conventions between the parties,
might prevail despite the grave difficulties arising in its
application. I am happy to say that arrangements to this end
have been perfected, the questions of fact upon which the
respective commissioners were unable to agree being in course
of reference to Her Britannic Majesty for determination. A
residual difference touching the northern boundary line across
the Atacama Desert, for which existing treaties provided no
adequate adjustment, bids fair to be settled in like manner by
a joint commission, upon which the United States Minister at
Buenos Aires has been invited to serve as umpire in the last
resort."
Message of the President of the United States of America,
December, 1898.
The arbitration of the United States Minister, Honorable
William I. Buchanan, proved successful in the matter last
referred to, and the Atacama boundary was quickly determined.
In June, 1898, General Julio Roca was elected President and
assumed the office in October. In July a treaty of arbitration
was concluded with the government of Italy, which provides
that there shall be no appeal from the decision of the
arbitrators.
----------ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: End--------
ARGON, The Discovery of.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.
ARICA, The question concerning.
See (in this volume)
CHILE: A. D. 1894-1900.
ARMENIA: A. D. 1895-1899.
Revolt against Turkish oppression.
Massacres and atrocities of the conflict.
Final concessions.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1895; 1896 (JANUARY-MARCH);
1896 (AUGUST); 1899 (OCTOBER).
ARMENIA: A. D. 1896.
Attack of Armenian revolutionists on the Ottoman Bank
and subsequent massacre of Armenians in Constantinople.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY; A. D. 1896 (AUGUST).
ARMIES, European and American:
Their numbers and cost compared.
See (in this volume)
WAR BUDGETS.
ARMY ADMINISTRATION, American:
Investigation of.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898-1899.
ARMY CANTEEN, Abolition of the American.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
ARMY, United States:
Act to increase to 100,000 men.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
ASHANTI:
British occupation of the country.
Rising of the tribes.
Siege and relief of Kumassi.
In 1895, King Prempeh, of Ashanti, provoked a second
expedition of British troops against his capital, Kumassi, or
Coomassie, by persistence in slave-catching raids and in human
sacrifices, and by other violations of his treaty engagements.
For some account of the former expedition
See, in volume 2,
ENGLAND: A. D. 1873-1880)
Late in the year a strong force was organized in Gold Coast
Colony, mostly made up of native troops. It marched without
resistance to Kumassi, which it entered on the 17th of
January, 1896. Prempeh made complete submission, placing his
crown at the feet of the Governor of the Gold Coast; but he
was taken prisoner to Sierra Leone. A fort was built, and
garrisoned in the center of the town, and the country was then
definitely placed under British protection, politically
attached to the Gold Coast Colony. It submitted quietly to the
practical conquest until the spring of 1900, when a fierce and
general rising of the tribes occurred. It was said at the time
that the outbreak was caused by efforts of the British to
secure possession of a "golden stool" which King Prempeh had
used for his throne, and which had been effectually concealed
when Kumassi was taken in 1896; but this has been denied by
Sir Frederic Hodgson, the Governor of the Gold Coast. "The
'golden stool,'" he declared, "was only an incident in the
affair and had nothing to do with the cause of the rising,
which had been brewing for a long time.
{27}
In his opinion the Ashantis had been preparing ever since the
British occupation in 1896 to reassert their independence."
The Governor was, himself, in Kumassi when the Ashantis first
attacked it, on the 25th of March, and he has given an account
of the desperate position in which the few British officials,
with their small native garrison and the refugees whom they
tried to protect, were placed. "Our force," said Sir Frederic
Hodgson, "consisted of only some 200 Hausas, while there is
reason to believe that we had not less than 15,000 Ashantis
surrounding us. In addition to our own force we had to protect
some 3,500 refugees, chiefly Mahomedan traders, Fantis, and loyal
Kumassis, none of whom we were able to take into the fort,
where every available bit of space was required for military
purposes. It was heartrending to see the efforts of these poor
people to scale the walls or break through the gate of the
fort, and we had to withdraw the Hausas from the cantonments
and draw a cordon round the refugees. It is impossible to
describe the horror of the situation with these 3,500 wretched
people huddled together without shelter under the walls of the
fort. That same night a tornado broke over Kumassi, and the scene
next morning with over 200 children was too terrible for
words. Afterwards they were able to arrange shelters for
themselves." Near the end of April, two small reinforcements
from other posts reached Kumassi; but while this strengthened
the numbers for defence, it weakened the food supply. Taking
stock of their food, the besieged decided that they could hold
out until June 23, and that if the main body then marched out,
to cut, if possible, their way through the enemy, leaving a
hundred men behind, the latter might keep the fort until July
15. This, accordingly, was done. On the 23d of June Governor
Hodgson, with all but 100 men, stole away from Kumassi, by a
road which the Ashantis had not guarded, and succeeded in
reaching the coast, undergoing great hardships and dangers in
the march. Meantime, an expedition from Cape Coast Castle was
being energetically prepared by Colonel Sir J. Willcocks, who
overcame immense difficulties and fought his way into Kumassi
on Ju]y 15, the very day on which the food-supply of the
little garrison was expected to give out. The following
account of his entry into Kumassi is from Colonel Willcocks'
official report: "Forming up in the main road, we marched
towards Kumassi, a mile distant, the troops cheering wildly
for the Queen and then followed silence. No sound came from
the direction of the fort, which you cannot see till quite
close. For a moment the hideous desolation and silence, the
headless bodies lying everywhere, the sickening smell, &c.,
almost made one shudder to think what no one dared to
utter—'Has Kumassi fallen? Are we too late?' Then a bugle
sound caught the ear—'the general salute'—the tops of the
towers appeared, and again every man in the column, white and
black, broke into cheers long sustained. The brave defenders
had at last seen us; they knew for hours' past from the firing
growing ever nearer that we were coming, yet they dared not
open their only gate; they perforce must wait, for even as we
appeared the enemy were making their last efforts to destroy
the outlying buildings, and were actually setting them on fire
until after dark, when a party of 100 men went out and treated
them to volleys and cleared them out. If I have gone too fully
into details of the final scene, the occasion was one that
every white man felt for him comes perhaps but once, and no
one would have missed it for a kingdom."
ASPHYXIATING SHELLS: Declaration against.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
ASSASSINATIONS:
Of President Barrios.
See (in this volume)
CENTRAL AMERICA (GUATEMALA): A. D. 1897-1898.
Of President Borda.
See (in this volume)
URUGUAY: A. D. 1896-1899.
Of Canovas del Castillo.
See (in this volume)
SPAIN: A. D. 1897 (AUGUST-OCTOBER).
Of Empress Elizabeth of Austria.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1898 (SEPTEMBER).
Of Governor Goebel.
See (in this volume)
KENTUCKY: A. D. 1895-1900.
Of President Heureaux.
See (in this volume)
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: A. D. 1899.
Of King Humbert.
See (in this volume)
ITALY: A. D. 1899-1900;
and 1900 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
Of Professor Mihaileano.
See (in this volume)
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.
Of Nâsr-ed-din, Shah of Persia.
See (in this volume)
PERSIA: A. D. 1896.
Of M. Stambouloff.
See (in this volume)
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES (BULGARIA).
ASSIOUT, Nile barrage at.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1898-1901.
ASSOCIATIONS BILL, The French.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1901.
ASSOUAN. Nile barrage at.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1898-1901.
ASSUMPTIONIST FATHERS, Dissolution of the Society of the.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1899-1900 (AUGUST-JANUARY).
ATACAMA, The question concerning.
See (in this volume)
CHILE: A. D. 1894-1900.
ATBARA, Battle of the.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1897-1898.
ATHENS: A. D. 1896.
The revival of Olympic games.
As the result of a movement instituted in France by the Baron
de Coubertin, an interesting attempt to give athletic sports
the spirit and semblance of the ancient Olympic games was made
at Athens in the spring of 1896. A number of wealthy Greeks in
different parts of the world joined generously in the
undertaking, one gentleman especially, M. Averoff, of
Alexandria, bearing the cost of a restoration in marble of the
stadium at Athens, for the occasion. The games were held in
April, from the 6th to the 15th, and were witnessed by a great
number of people. Besides Greek competitors, there were 42 from
Germany, 23 from England, 21 from America, 15 from France. The
great event of the occasion was the long foot-race from
Marathon to Athens, which was won by a young Greek.
The U. S. Consul at Athens, writing of the reconstruction of
the ancient stadium for the games, described the work as
follows:
{28}
"The stadium may be described as an immense open air
amphitheater constructed in a natural ravine, artificially
filled in at the end. It is in the shape of an elongated
horseshoe. The spectators, seated upon the sloping sides of
the ravine, look down into the arena below, which is a little
over 600 feet in length and about 100 feet wide at the widest
part. … The stadium, as rebuilt for the games, will consist of
(1) the arena, bounded by a marble curbing, surmounted by an
iron railing adorned with Athenian owls;
(2) a walk between this curbing and the first row of seats;
(3) a low retaining wall of marble on which rests the first
row of seats, the entire row being of marble;
(4) the seats;
(5) the underground tunnel.
In addition to these features there will be an imposing
entrance, a surrounding wall at the top of the hill, and two
supporting walls at the entrance. As far as possible, in the
reconstruction of the stadium, the old portions will be used,
where these are in a sufficient state of preservation, and an
effort will be made to reproduce, as nearly as practicable,
the ancient structure. The seats at present will not all be
made of pentelic marble, as there is neither time nor money
for such an undertaking. At the closed end of the arena,
seventeen rows will be made of pentelic marble, as well as the
first row all the way around. The remaining rows up to the
first aisle are being constructed of Pincus stone. These will
accommodate 25,000 seated spectators. From this aisle to the
top will be placed wooden benches for 30,000 seated
spectators. Add to these standing room for 5,000, and we have
the holding capacity of the stadium 60,000 without crowding."
United States Consular Reports,
March, 1896, pages 353-354.
ATLANTA: A. D. 1895.
The Cotton States and International Exposition.
An important exposition, named as above, was held with great
success at Atlanta, Georgia, from the 18th of September until
the end of the year 1895. The exhibits from Mexico and many of
the Central and South American States were extensive and
interesting; but the main interest and value of the exposition
were in its showing of the industrial resources of the
Southern States of the American Union, and of the recent
progress made in developing them.
AUSGLEICH, The.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: FINANCIAL RELATIONS;
and A. D. 1897 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
AUSTRAL ISLANDS:
Annexation to France.
The Austral or Tubuai Islands were formally annexed to France
by the Governor of Tahiti, on the 21st of August, 1900.
----------AUSTRALIA. Start--------
AUSTRALIA:
Recent extensions of Democracy in the Australian Colonies
and New Zealand.
Social experiments.
"The five colonies of the Australian continent, Tasmania, and
New Zealand constitute seven practically independent
commonwealths under the British crown. Australians and New
Zealanders have therefore been able to develop their countries
along their own lines, and have surpassed all other
Anglo-Saxon nations in the number and variety of functions
which the state is called upon to perform. … The railways
almost without exception, and all the telegraph and telephone
lines, are in the hands of the community. In the few cases in
which there is private ownership of railways, a particular
line was demanded at a certain time, and the government were
not then in a position to borrow the funds required for its
construction. Western Australia has recently purchased the
entire property of one of the two private undertakings in the
colony. A mass of sanitary and industrial legislation also has
been placed upon the statute book.
"Again, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, and New
Zealand lend money to settlers at low rates of interest; South
Australia sells its wines in London; Queensland facilitates
the erection of sugar mills; Victoria and South Australia have
given a bonus upon the exportation of dairy produce; South
Australia, New Zealand, and Victoria receive the produce,
grade and freeze it free of charge, or at a rate which barely
covers the expenses; Victoria contributes toward the erection
of butter factories; Victoria and New Zealand have subsidized
the mining industry; and Western Australia has adopted a
comprehensive scheme for the supply of water to the Coolgardie
gold fields. In all the colonies the national system of
primary education is compulsory and undenominational. In South
Australia, Victoria, Queensland, and New Zealand it is also free.
In the other colonies fees are charged, which may be remitted
wholly or partly if parents are unable to pay them. Assistance
is given in most cases for the promotion of secondary,
technical, and university education. New Zealand and South
Australia have appointed public trustees. New Zealand has long
possessed a department of life insurance.
"Finally, … New Zealand has adopted a system of old-age
pensions. A pension of seven shillings a week is to be given
to every person above the age of sixty-five years, provided he
or she has lived in the colony for twenty-five years, and is
able to pass a certain test in regard to sobriety and general
good conduct. … In South Australia direct taxation takes two
forms. There is an income tax at the rate of four and a half
pence in the pound up to £800, and of six-pence in the pound
above £800 of taxable amount resulting from personal
exertions, and at the rate of ninepence and one shilling in
the pound respectively on incomes from property. Incomes
between £125 and £425 enjoy exemption on £125 of the amount.
Again, there is a tax on the unimproved value of land of one
half-penny in the pound up to, and one penny above, the
capital value of £5000. …
"Similar taxation is to be found in New Zealand, and includes
both a progressive income tax and a tax on land values which
is more highly graduated than that of South Australia. … All
improvements are excluded from the assessment of the taxable
amount. … If the owner of the property is dissatisfied with
the assessment of the government, he can call upon them to buy
it of him at their own valuation. In only one case has such an
extreme step been taken; and it is pleasant to find that it
has resulted in an annual profit of nearly five per cent upon
the outlay, and that the land which formerly gave employment
to a few shepherds is now occupied by a large number of
thriving settlers.
{29}
I may add that when the government deem that an estate is not
being developed as it should be by its owners, they are
authorized by statute to purchase it—by negotiation if
possible, otherwise at a price paid by an impartial
tribunal—with a view to its subdivision into small holdings
suitable to the requirements of the community. This system of
taxation, it will be said with some truth, is based upon the
teachings of Henry George. He travelled in Australia and New
Zealand, and was listened to with attention; but, while he
looked to the ultimate absorption of the whole unearned
increment, his hearers in the antipodes dissociated themselves
from his conclusions, though they appreciated the value of his
premises. Consequently, while accepting his principles, they
did not hesitate to exempt small properties from the tax, and
to increase its rate progressively in relation to the amount
of the unimproved value. …
"One of the most hopeful signs of the day is that, with the
help of the representatives of labor in Parliament, Australian
governments have done much within recent years to mitigate the
excess of population in the large towns, and to replace the
unemployed upon the land. Of course mistakes have been made.
In some cases settlers have failed through lack of
agricultural knowledge; in others, on account of the
barrenness of the soil. In South Australia, the village
settlements, which were avowedly started as an alternative to
relief works, have been only a modified success. In New
Zealand, village settlements have produced very satisfactory
results. … In Victoria, a labor colony has been established,
with the entire support of the trades-unionists, to which the
unemployed may be sent, and at which they receive, at a very
low rate of wages, a course of instruction in agricultural
pursuits which enables them subsequently to obtain private
employment with farmers or others. In New Zealand, I found a
very strong feeling among trades-unionists that it would be to
the interest of the workingmen themselves if a penal colony
were established, on the lines of those which exist in
Germany, to which loafers might be sent, and at which they
would be compelled to work, with the alternative of
starvation."
H. De R. Walker,
Australasian Extensions of Democracy
(Atlantic Monthly, May, 1899).
See also (in this volume),
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1891-1900.
AUSTRALIA: Western Australia:
The Outlander problem in Australia.
"Here we have a problem in many respects similar to that which
has distracted South Africa. In several particulars the
resemblance is startlingly close. … Many of the elements of
disorder in the two continents are the same. In Western
Australia, as in the Transvaal, there is a large population of
mining residents, who complain that they are treated like
'helots'—to use Sir Alfred Milner's term—by the privileged
agricultural burghers. They urge that they are denied fair
representation, so that the burghers monopolise political
power; that the administration is in the hands of a knot of
politicians and place-hunters at Perth—I had almost written
Pretoria; that they have made the colony wealthy by their
enterprise and capital, only to see a large part of the fruits
of their industry drawn from them by excessive taxation, which
is expended mainly outside their own district; that they are
burdened by oppressive railway rates and denied access to the
port which is the natural outlet to the Goldfields, and so on.
The Kalgoorlie 'Uitlanders,' like the Johannesburgers, have
sent a petition to the Queen, signed by a larger number of
persons than those who forwarded the famous memorial which set
the ball rolling in South Africa and led to the Bloemfontein
Conference. The case is fully and temperately set forth in
this petition, and in the Manifesto of the Eastern Goldfields
Reform League of Western Australia, both of which documents
are in the last Bluebook relating to Australian Federation.
The same official compilation contains a statement to Mr.
Chamberlain from Dr. Paget Thurston, in which the parallel
between West Australia and the Transvaal is asserted with the
most uncompromising directness. 'We have here,' says the
writer, 'a Boer and Outlander question almost parallel to that
in the Transvaal. As an Outlander I appeal to you.' Dr.
Thurston adds: 'The old West Australians openly speak as if
the colony was theirs, and we were interlopers who have no
course open to us but to leave the colony if we are
dissatisfied.' This has a very familiar sound, and so has the
following: 'The great bulk of the taxation is levied through
duties on food and drink. As the Boer party includes all the
agricultural producers, and the Outlanders include the great
bulk of the consumers, this acts injuriously on us in two
ways. It puts a frightful load on the Outlander taxpayer, and
enables the Boer producer to command a very high price for his
food-stuffs. Owing to the limitation of the market by
excessive protection, many articles of common use reach famine
prices at times. In the three years I have been here, for
instance, potatoes have been £22 10s. a ton; apples, 2s. 6d. a
pound; oranges, 5s. a dozen; new-laid eggs, 4s. a dozen (at
the time of writing, 3s. 6d.). Fresh butter is practically
unobtainable for ten months in the year, and common country
wine (such as I used to buy for 3d. and 4d. a bottle in the
Canary Islands) is here 2s. a bottle. I ask you, Sir, whether
any other place in Her Majesty's Empire (not physically
inaccessible) can show prices one half as high during the past
three years?'
"Nor does the ominous kind of hint that preceded the Jameson
Raid fail to be uttered. Only three terminations, according to
Dr. Thurston, are possible if Sir John Forrest does not modify
his Krugerite policy towards the mining settlers:
'(1) Separation of the goldfields.—This would be only fair to
the goldfields; but thousands of Outlanders have settled in
the other parts of the colony, and this step would not redress
their wrongs. The practical result of this step would be
prosperity for the goldfields, but almost ruin for the rest of
the colony.
(2) Revolution.—I fear this is much more probable than is
generally thought. Unless a material change takes place
quickly there will be bloodshed in this colony.
(3) General depression, practically equivalent to bankruptcy.'
Separation, however, and the creation of a new colony, which
would include the Goldfields district and come down to the
sea, and would immediately join the Australian Federation, is
the remedy officially proposed by the representatives of the
Outlanders. …
{30}
"The Colonial Secretary has deferred his final answer to the
Goldfields Petition until the comments of the Perth Ministry
upon that document have been received and considered. But he
has sent a provisional reply to the representatives of the
petitioners in London. He sees the solution of the matter in
getting Western Australia somehow into the new Commonwealth.
In a communication to Mr. Walter Griffiths, one of the
Goldfields delegates, the Colonial Secretary says: 'The
decision of the Government of Western Australia to summon
Parliament immediately with the view to the passing of a
measure for the submission of the Commonwealth Bill to the
electors of the colony has removed the chief of the grievances
put forward in the petition and has opened up an early
prospect of obtaining the object which the petitioners had in
view. An answer will be returned to the petition after a
careful consideration of its terms and of the comments of the
Government of the colony thereon, but Mr. Chamberlain trusts
that before an answer can be returned the people of the colony
will have decided to join the Commonwealth, for the government of
which, in that event, it will be to deal with the grievances
alleged in the petition in so far as they are not exclusively
within the province of the Parliament and Government of
Western Australia.' In other words, let the Federation dispose
of the matter. But the delegates point out that this might not
remove their grievances. The Federal Parliament would have no
power to compel the dominant party in the Perth Assembly
either to redistribute seats fairly, or divide the colony, so
as to create 'Home Rule for the Rand.' True, we should have
washed our hands of the affair, and could tell the malcontent
Uitlanders that it was none of our business. But if Perth
still remained obstinate, and Coolgardie in consequence began
to carry out some of those ugly projects hinted at by Dr.
Thurston, it might become our business in an embarrassing
fashion. At any rate, it does not seem quite fair to the new
Commonwealth to start it in life with this grave question,
still unsettled, upon its hands."
S. Low,
Enigmas of Empire
(Nineteenth Century, June, 1900).
AUSTRALIA: New South Wales: A. D. 1894-1895.
Defeat of the Protectionist policy.
Adoption of a liberal tariff.
At the general elections of July, 1894, in New South Wales,
the tariff issue was sharply defined. "'Protection' was
inscribed on the banners of the ministerial party, led by the
then Premier, Sir George Dibbs, while the aggressive
opposition, led by Mr. Reid, … fought under the banner of
'free trade.' The Free Traders won the battle in that
election, as there were 63 Free Traders, 40 Protectionists,
and 22 labor members, mostly with free-trade leanings,
returned. On the reassembling of Parliament, Sir George Dibbs
was confronted with a large majority, and Mr. George H. Reid
was called to form a government on the lines suggested by the
issues of the campaign. The Council or 'upper house,'
consisting of Crown nominees for life, rejected the measures
suggested by Mr. Reid and passed by the Assembly by an
overwhelming majority, and Mr. Reid dissolved Parliament on
July 6, 1895, and appealed to the country. The election was
held on July 24, and again the issues, as set forth in the
measures, were fought out vigorously. The great leader of
protection, Sir George Dibbs, with several of his ablest
followers, was defeated, and the so-called Free Trade party
came back, much stronger than before. Thus, it was claimed
that the mandate of the people, declaring for free trade and
direct taxation, had been reaffirmed, and on the reassembling
of Parliament, on August 13, the same measure, as passed by
the Assembly and rejected by the Council, was again presented
and passed by the Assembly by a majority of 50 to 26, and
again went to the upper house. Again it was met with great
hostility, but the Government party in that chamber, having
been augmented by ten new appointments, the temper of the
house was softened and the bill was passed with some two
hundred and fifty amendments. As, the Assembly could only
accept some eighty of these without, yielding material points
… a conference was suggested, which, after several days of
discussion, agreed to a modified measure, embracing the
principle of free trade, as interpreted in this colony, and
direct taxation, and the new law goes into effect as above
stated, on January 1, 1896.
"It may be well here to remark that there are a few articles,
notably raw sugar, glucose, molasses, and treacle, upon which
the duty will be removed gradually, so as not to wantonly
disturb vested interests, but, with these exceptions, the
change is a very sweeping one."
United States Consular Reports,
June, 1896, page 299.
AUSTRALIA: New South Wales: A. D. 1896.
Change in the government of Norfolk Island.
Its re-annexation to New South Wales.
A change in the government of Norfolk Island was proclaimed in
November, 1896, by the Governor of New South Wales, who came
to the island, acting under directions from the British
Colonial Office, and announced that "Her Majesty's Government
has decided to appoint a resident magistrate. The object
sought is to secure the impartial administration of justice,
while leaving the local and municipal affairs of the island to
be conducted by a council representing the inhabitants. In
consideration of the fact that the Norfolk Island settlement
originally formed part of the administrative colony of New
South Wales, and that the legal business of the island and the
registration of all land titles and transfers have uniformly
been conducted by the Government departments at Sydney, Her
Majesty's Government has decided to transfer the
administration of the island to the Government of New South
Wales. The Government of New South Wales has accepted the
charge and as soon as the necessary arrangements have been
completed Norfolk Island will be administered by the governor
of New South Wales in council." "It will thus be seen that the
Pitcairn community, which, for more than one hundred years,
has governed itself by its own laws, is now abolished and that
a new era has begun. The governor's legal right to annul the
constitution given by the Queen when the community emigrated
from Pitcairn was questioned. A deputation was appointed to
wait on the governor, but he refused
to discuss the subject further."
United States Consular Reports,
May, 1897, page 37.
AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1897.
Conference of colonial premiers with
the British Colonial Secretary.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (JUNE-JULY).
 |
 |
Map of Australia and Islands of the Pacific.
{31}
AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1900.
Federation of the Australian Colonies.
The steps by which the Union was accomplished.
Passage of the "Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act" by
the Imperial Parliament.
"The first indication of a plan for united action among the
colonies is to be found in a proposal of Earl Grey in 1850.
The main object of the proposal was to bring about uniformity
in colonial tariffs; but, though partially adopted, it came to
nothing. From 1850 to 1860 the project of federation was
discussed from time to time in several of the colonial
legislatures, and committees on the subject were appointed.
But there seems to have been little general interest in the
question, and up to 1860 all efforts in the direction of
federation met with complete failure. Shortly after, however,
a new form of united action, less ambitious but more likely of
success, was suggested and adopted. From 1863 to 1883
conferences of colonial ministers were held at various times
to discuss certain specified topics, with a view to
introducing identical proposals in the separate colonial
legislatures. Six of these conferences were held at Melbourne
and three at Sydney; and one also was held at Hobart in 1895,
though the period of the real activity of the conference
scheme practically closed in 1883. The scheme proved a
failure, because it was found impossible to carry out the
measures concerted in the conferences. But material events
were doing more than could any public agitation to draw
attention to the advantages of closer union. The colonies were
growing in population and wealth, railroads were building and
commerce was extending. The inconveniences of border customs
duties suggested attempts at something like commercial
reciprocity between two or more colonies. New political
problems also helped to arouse public interest. Heretofore
there had been little fear of foreign aggression and, hence,
no feeling of the need of united action for common defense;
nor had there been any thought of the extension of Australian
power and interests beyond the immediate boundaries of the
different colonies. But the period from 1880 to 1890 witnessed
a change in this respect. It was during this period that much
feeling was aroused against the influx of French criminals,
escaped from the penal settlements in New Caledonia. The
difficulties in regard to New Guinea belong also to this
decade. Suspicion of the designs of Germany upon that part of
the island of New Guinea nearest the Dutch boundary led to the
annexation of its eastern portion by the Queensland
government. This action was disavowed by the British
government under Gladstone, and the fears of the colonists
were ridiculed; but almost immediately after the northern half
of New Guinea was forcibly taken possession of by Germany. The
indignation of Australians was extreme, and the opinion was
freely expressed that the colonies would have to unite to
protect their own interests. Finally, this was the time of the
French designs on the New Hebrides Islands and of German
movements with reference to Samoa. These conditions, economic
and political, affected all the colonies more or less
intimately and resulted in the first real, though loose, form
of federal union. At the instigation of the Honorable James
Service, premier of Victoria, a convention met at Sydney,
November, 1883, composed of delegates from all the colonial
governments. This convention adopted a bill providing for the
establishment of a Federal Council, with power to deal with
certain specified subjects and with such other matters as
might be referred to it by two or more colonies. … New South
Wales and New Zealand refused to agree to the bill, but it was
adopted by the other colonies; and the Imperial Parliament, in
1885, passed an act permitting such a Council to be called
into existence at the request of any three colonies, to be
joined by other colonies as they saw fit. Meetings of the
Council took place in 1886, 1888, 1889 and 1891, but very
little was accomplished. That the Federal Council was a very
weak affair is obvious. … Meanwhile, interest in a more
adequate form of federation was growing. In 1890 Sir Henry
Parkes proposed a plan for federal union of a real and
vigorous sort. At his suggestion, a conference met at
Melbourne, February 6, 1890, to decide on the best method of
getting the question into definite shape for consideration. …
Provision was made … for the calling of a convention to draw
up a constitution. … In accordance with the decision of the
conference, delegates from the several colonies convened at
Sydney, March 2, 1891; and with the work of this convention
began the third and final stage in the federation movement.
The Sydney convention formulated a bill, embodying a draft of
a federal constitution, and then resolved that provision
should be made by the several parliaments to submit it to the
people in such manner as each colony should see fit. … But
there was no sufficient external pressure to bring about an
immediate discussion and an early settlement. … The result was
that nothing was done. … Meanwhile, federation leagues had
been organized in different colonies, and in 1893 delegates
from a number of these leagues met at Bendigo, Victoria. …
After adopting the bill of 1891 as a basis of discussion, the
Bendigo conference resolved to urge the colonial governments
to pass uniform enabling acts for a new convention—its members
to be elected by popular vote—to frame a constitution which
should be submitted to the people for approval. This proposal
met with general favor and resulted in the calling of a
meeting of the premiers of all the colonies at Hobart in
January, 1895. There an enabling bill was drafted which five
premiers agreed to lay before their respective parliaments. …
It took two years to get this machinery into working order. At
length, however, the requisite authority was granted by five
colonies: New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western
Australia and Tasmania, Queensland and New Zealand declining
to participate. On March 22, 1897, the second constitutional
convention assembled at Adelaide. This convention drew up a
new federal constitution, based upon the draft of 1891.
Between May 5 and September 2 the constitution was discussed
in each of the parliaments. When the convention reassembled at
Sydney on March 2, as many as 75 amendments were reported as
suggested by the different colonies. Many were of an
insignificant character and many were practically identical.
The constitution and proposed amendments were discussed in two
sessions of the convention, which finally adjourned March 16,
1898, its work then being ready to submit to the people.
{32}
In June a popular vote resulted in the acceptance of the
constitution by Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia; but
the failure of the parent colony, New South Wales, to adopt it
blocked all hope of federal union for the moment. Recently,
however, at a conference of colonial premiers certain
amendments demanded by New South Wales were agreed to in part,
and upon a second vote the constitution, as amended, was
accepted by that colony."
W. G. Beach,
The Australian Federal Constitution
(Political Science Quarterly, December, 1899).
In August, 1899, the draft of a Constitution thus agreed upon
was transmitted to England, with addresses from the provincial
legislatures, praying that it be passed into law by the
Imperial Parliament. Early in the following year delegates
from the several colonies were sent to England to discuss with
the Colonial Office certain questions that had arisen, and to
assist in procuring the passage by Parliament of the necessary
Act. Looked at from the Imperial standpoint, a number of
objections to the draft Constitution were found, but all of
them were finally waived excepting one. That one related to a
provision touching appeals from the High Court of the
Australian Commonwealth to the Queen in Council. As framed and
adopted in Australia, the provision in question was as
follows:
"74. No appeal shall be permitted to the Queen in Council in
any matter involving the interpretation of this Constitution
or of the Constitution of a State, unless the public interests
of some part of Her Majesty's Dominions, other than the
Commonwealth or a State, are involved. Except as provided in
this section, this Constitution shall not impair any right
which the Queen may be pleased to exercise, by virtue of Her
Royal Prerogative, to grant special leave of appeal from the
High Court to Her Majesty in Council. But The Parliament may
make laws limiting the matters in which such leave may be
asked."
This was objected to on several grounds, but mainly for the
reasons thus stated by Mr. Chamberlain: "Proposals are under
consideration for securing a permanent and effective
representation of the great Colonies on the Judicial
Committee, and for amalgamating the Judicial Committee with
the House of Lords, so as to constitute a Court of Appeal from
the whole British Empire. It would be very unfortunate if
Australia should choose this moment to take from the Imperial
Tribunal the cognizance of the class of cases of greatest
importance, and often of greatest difficulty. Article 74
proposes to withdraw from the Queen in Council matters
involving the interpretation of the Constitution. It is
precisely on questions of this kind that the Queen in Council
has been able to render most valuable service to the
administration of law in the Colonies, and questions of this
kind, which may sometimes involve a good deal of local
feeling, are the last that should be withdrawn from a Tribunal
of appeal with regard to which there could not be even a
suspicion of prepossession. Questions as to the constitution
of the Commonwealth or of a State may be such as to raise a
great deal of public excitement as to the definition of the
boundaries between the powers of the Commonwealth Parliament
and the powers of the State Parliaments. It can hardly be
satisfactory to the people of Australia that in such cases,
however important and far-reaching in their consequences, the
decision of the High Court should be absolutely final. Before
long the necessity for altering the Constitution in this
respect would be felt, and it is better that the Constitution
should be enacted in such a form as to render unnecessary the
somewhat elaborate proceedings which would be required to
amend it."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command, April and May, 1900,
Australia—Cd. 124 and 158).
In reply, the Australian delegates maintained that they had no
authority to amend, in any particular, the instrument which
the people of the several colonies had ratified by their
votes; but the Imperial authorities were inflexible, and the
article 74 was modified in the Act which passed Parliament, on
the 7th of July, 1900, "to constitute the Commonwealth of
Australia," as may be seen by reference to the text, published
elsewhere.
See (in this volume)
CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRALIA.
AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1900.
The question of the Federal Capital.
By the Constitution of the Commonwealth, it is required that
the seat of government "shall be determined by the Parliament,
and shall be within territory which shall have been granted to
or acquired by the Commonwealth, and shall be vested in and
belong to the Commonwealth, and shall be in the State of New
South Wales, and be distant not less than one hundred miles
from Sydney;" and "such territory shall contain an area of not
less than one hundred square miles." "New South Wales," says a
correspondent, writing from Sydney, "is naturally anxious to
get the question decided as quickly as possible; but Victoria
will equally be inclined to procrastinate, and the new
Parliament—which cannot be more comfortable than it will be
at Melbourne—will not be in a hurry to shift. The necessity
for a new and artificial capital arises entirely out of our
provincial jealousies, and it would have been a great saving
of initial expense and a great diminution of inconvenience if
we could have used one of the old capitals for a quarter of a
century." To remove preliminary difficulties and avoid delay,
the government of New South Wales appointed a commissioner to
visit and report on the most likely places. The report of this
commissioner, made early in October, "reduces the possible
positions to three—one near Bombala in the south-east corner
of the colony at the foot of the Australian Alps, one near
Yass on the line of the railway between Sydney and Melbourne,
and one near Orange on our western line. On the whole he gives
the preference to the first named."
AUSTRALIA: New South Wales: A. D. 1900.
Old-Age Pension Act.
A letter from Sydney, November 29, 1900, announced: "The
question of the establishment of an old age pension system,
similar to that now in successful operation in New Zealand
[see (in this volume) NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1899], has been
agitating New South Wales for several months, and to-day the
bill for that purpose became a law. There has been a desire on
the part of some members of the Legislature to hold over the
bill until the convening of the Federal Parliament, in the
hope that the measure would become universal throughout the
continent, but the majority, including the Premier, wished the
bill to be pushed through without loss of time. There is no
opposition worth mentioning. … At a mass meeting in favor of
the bill representatives of every political party, of every
Church and of every profession and trade in the community were
present.
{33}
The sentiment of the colony has never been more unanimous. …
The estimated cost of the scheme is something like £250,000 or
£300,000 a year, but this does not take into consideration the
amount which will be saved by doing away with the charitable
institutions now draining the pockets alike of the state and
of the individual. Private contributions alone amount to
£600,000 a year; all this will be saved, together with a part
of the Government's annual expenditure—about £400,000—for
public institutions. Not all pauper institutions can be
abolished, for many of the aged and friendless poor are ailing
or slightly feeble minded, and will continue to need medical
attention."
AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1900 (March).
New Zealand looking toward federation with the Australian
Commonwealth.
See (in this volume)
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1900 (MARCH).
AUSTRALIA: West Australia: A. D. 1900 (August).
Vote to join the Commonwealth.
The question of union with the other colonies in the
Commonwealth, from which the West Australians had previously
held aloof, was submitted to them in August (women voting for
the first time), and decided affirmatively by 44,704 against
19,691. Adding the West Australian totals to the aggregate
vote at the decisive referendum in each of the other
federating colonies, the following is the reported result:
For federation. 422,647
Against federation. 161,024
Majority. 261,623
AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1900 (September-December).
The Queen's Proclamation of the Australian Commonwealth.
Contemplated visit of the Duke and Duchess of York
to open the first session of the Federal Parliament.
Appointment of Lord Hopetoun to be Governor-General.
The first Federal Cabinet.
On the 17th of September the following proclamation of the
Australian Commonwealth was issued by the Queen:
"Whereas by an Act of Parliament passed in the sixty-third and
sixty-fourth years of Our reign, intituled 'An Act to
constitute the Commonwealth of Australia,' it is enacted that
it shall be lawful for the Queen, with the advice of the Privy
Council, to declare by Proclamation that, on and after a day
therein appointed, not being later than one year after the
passing of this Act, the people of New South Wales, Victoria,
South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, and also, if Her
Majesty is satisfied that the people of Western Australia have
agreed thereto, of Western Australia, shall be united in a
Federal Commonwealth, under the name of the Commonwealth of
Australia. And whereas We are satisfied that the people of
Western Australia have agreed thereto accordingly. We
therefore, by and with the advice of Our Privy Council, have
thought fit to issue this Our Royal Proclamation, and We do
hereby declare that on and after the first day of January, one
thousand nine hundred and one, the people of New South Wales,
Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, and Western
Australia shall be united in a Federal Commonwealth under the
name of the Commonwealth of Australia. Given at Our Court at
Balmoral, this seventeenth day of September, in the year of
our Lord one thousand nine hundred, and in the sixty-fourth
year of Our reign. God save the Queen."
At the same time, the following announcement, which caused
extreme delight in Australia, was published officially from
the Colonial Office:
"Her Majesty the Queen has been graciously pleased to assent,
on the recommendation of the Marquis of Salisbury, to the
visit of their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of York
to the colonies of Australasia in the spring of next year. His
Royal Highness the Duke of York will be commissioned by her
Majesty to open the first Session of the Parliament of the
Australian Commonwealth in her name. Although the Queen
naturally shrinks from parting with her grandson for so long a
period, her Majesty fully recognizes the greatness of the
occasion which will bring her colonies of Australia into
federal union, and desires to give this special proof of her
interest in all that concerns the welfare of her Australian
subjects. Her Majesty at the same time wishes to signify her
sense of the loyalty and devotion which have prompted the
spontaneous aid so liberally offered by all the colonies in
the South African war, and of the splendid gallantry of her
colonial troops. Her Majesty's assent to this visit is, of
course, given on the assumption that at the time fixed for the
Duke of York's departure the circumstances are as generally
favourable as at present and that no national interests call
for his Royal Highness's presence in this country."
To manifest still further the interest taken by the British
government in the event, it was made known in October that
"when the Duke of York opens the new Commonwealth Parliament,
the guard of honour, it is directed, shall be so made up as to
be representative of every arm of the British Army, including
the Volunteers. To the Victoria and St. George's Rifles has
fallen the honour of being selected to represent the entire
Volunteer force of the country. A detachment of the regiment,
between 50 and 60 strong, will accordingly leave for Australia
in about a month and will be absent three or four months."
The honor of the appointment to be the first Governor-General
of the new Commonwealth fell to a Scottish nobleman, John
Adrian Louis Hope, seventh Earl of Hopetoun, who had been
Governor of Victoria from 1889 to 1895, and had held high
offices at home, including that of Lord Chamberlain in the
household of the Queen. Lord Hopetoun landed at Sydney on the
15th of December and received a great welcome. On the 30th,
his Cabinet was formed, and announced, as follows:
Mr. Barton, Prime Minister and Minister for External Affairs;
Mr. Deakin, Attorney-General;
Sir William Lyne, Minister for Home Affairs;
Sir George Turner, Treasurer;
Mr. Kingston, Minister of Trade and Commerce;
Mr. Dickson, Minister of Defence;
Sir John Forrest, Postmaster-General.
AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1901 (January).
Inauguration of the Federal Government.
The government of the Commonwealth was inaugurated with
splendid ceremonies on the first day of the New Year and the
New Century, when the Governor-General and the members of the
Federal Cabinet were sworn and assumed office. Two messages
from the British Secretary of State for the Colonies were
read, as follows:
{34}
"The Queen commands me to express through you to the people of
Australia her Majesty's heartfelt interest in the inauguration
of the Commonwealth, and her earnest wish that, under divine
Providence, it may ensure the increased prosperity and
well-being of her loyal and beloved subjects in Australia."
"Her Majesty's Government send cordial greetings to the
Commonwealth of Australia. They welcome her to her place among
the nations united under her Majesty's sovereignty, and
confidently anticipate for the new Federation a future of
ever-increasing prosperity and influence. They recognize in
the long-desired consummation of the hopes of patriotic
Australians a further step in the direction of the permanent
unity of the British Empire, and they are satisfied that the
wider powers and responsibilities henceforth secured to
Australia will give fresh opportunity for the display of that
generous loyalty and devotion to the Throne and Empire which
has always characterized the action in the past of its several
States."
AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1901 (May).
Opening of the first Parliament of the Commonwealth
by the heir to the British crown.
The programme of the Federal Government.
The Duke of Cornwall and York, heir to the British crown (but
not yet created Prince of Wales), sailed, with his wife, from
England in March, to be present at the opening of the first
Parliament of the federated Commonwealth of Australia, which
is arranged to take place early in May. He makes the voyage in
royal state, on a steamer specially fitted and converted for
the occasion into a royal yacht, with an escort of two
cruisers.
Preliminary to the election and meeting of Parliament, the new
federal government has much organizing work to do, and much
preparation of measures for Parliament to discuss. The
Premier, Mr. Barton, in a speech made on the 17th of January,
announced that the Customs were taken over from the several
States on January 1, and the defences and post-offices would
be transferred as soon as possible. " Probably the railways
would be acquired by the Commonwealth at an early date.
Whether the debts of the several States would be taken over
before the railways was a matter which had to be decided, and
was now engaging the attention of the Treasurer. The Ministry
would not consider the appointment of a Chief Justice of the
High Court until Parliament had established that tribunal." In
the same speech, the main features of the programme and policy
of the federal government were indicated. "The Commonwealth,"
said the Premier, "would have the exclusive power of imposing
Customs and excise duties, and it would, therefore, be
necessary to preserve the States' power of direct taxation.
There must be no direct taxation by the Commonwealth except
under very great pressure. Free trade under the Constitution
was practically impossible; there must be a very large Customs
revenue. … The policy of the Government would be protective, not
prohibitive, because it must be revenue-producing. No one
colony could lay claim to the adoption of its tariff, whether
high or low. The first tariff of Australia ought to be
considerate of existing industries. The policy of the
Government could be summed up in a dozen words. It would give
Australia a tariff that would be Australian. Regarding a
preferential duty on British goods, he would be glad to
reciprocate where possible, but the question would have to
receive very serious consideration before final action could
be taken. Among the legislation to be introduced at an early
date, Mr. Barton continued, were a Conciliation and
Arbitration Bill in labour disputes, and a Bill for a
transcontinental railway, which would be of great value from
the defence point of view. He was in favour of womanhood
suffrage. Legislation to exclude Asiatics would be taken in
hand as a matter of course."
----------AUSTRALIA: End--------
----------AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: Start--------
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:
Financial relations of the two countries
forming the dual Empire.
"The financial relations of Austria and Hungary fall under
three main heads. Firstly, the Quota, or proportionate
contribution to joint expenditure. The Quota is an integral
portion of the compact of 1867 [see—in volume 1—AUSTRIA: A. D.
1866-1867], but is revised every ten years. Failing an
agreement on the proportion to be paid by each half of the
monarchy, the Quota is fixed from year to year by the Emperor
till an agreement is arrived at. Secondly, the so-called
commercial 'Ausgleich' treaty, which provides for a customs
union, postal and telegraphic union, commercial equality of
citizens of one state in the other, identical excise duties,
&c. Thirdly, the Bank Union, by which Austria and Hungary have
a common Austro-Hungarian bank, and common paper money. The
Ausgleich and Bank Union are not essential parts of the 1867
compact; they are really only treaties renewable every ten
years, and if no agreement is come to, they simply lapse, and
each state makes its own arrangements, which seems very likely
to be the fate of the Ausgleich unless the present crisis can
be got over. The proceeds of the joint customs are applied
directly to common expenses, and only the difference is made
up by Quota. But if the Ausgleich falls through, the whole of
the joint expenditure will have to be settled by quota
payments. The joint expenditure goes almost wholly to the
up-keep of the army, navy, and consular and diplomatic
services. It amounts on an average to about 150 million
florins or 12½ million £, falling as low as 124½ million
florins in 1885 and rising to nearly 167 million in 1888. Of
this total the customs revenues have, in the last few years,
accounted for nearly a third, usually about 31 per cent. The
Quota was fixed in 1867 at 70 per cent. for Austria and 30 per
cent. for Hungary, based on a very rough calculation from the
yield of common taxation in the years 1860-1865, the last few
years preceding the restoration of Hungarian independence. On
the incorporation of the so-called Military Frontier in
Hungary, the Hungarian proportion was increased to 31.4.
Hitherto the Hungarians have resisted any attempt to increase
their quota. This 'non possumus' attitude has provoked great
resentment in Austria, especially when it is compared with the
self-complacent tone with which the Magyars dwell on the enormous
progress made by Hungary since 1867. That progress is
indubitable. Hungary has not only developed as an agricultural
state, but is in a very fair way of becoming an industrial and
manufacturing state as well. …
{35}
"On all these grounds the Austrians declare that they can no
longer go on paying the old Quota of 68.6 per cent. The
Hungarians admit the great progress made by Hungary, but with
some qualifications. In spite of the growth of Budapest,
Fiume, and a few other towns, Hungary is still, on the whole,
very backward when compared with Austria. The total volume of
her manufactures is very small, in spite of the rapid increase
of recent years. Hungary is still, to all intents and
purposes, an agricultural country, and as such, has suffered
largely from the fall in prices."
L. S. Amery,
Austro-Hungarian Financial Relations
(Economic Journal, September, 1898).
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1894-1895.
The Hungarian Ecclesiastical Laws.
Conflict with the Church.
Resignation of Count Kalnoky.
In the last month of 1894 royal assent was given to three
bills, known as the Ecclesiastical Laws, which marked an
extraordinary departure from the old subserviency of the State
to the Church. The first was a civil marriage law, which made
civil marriage compulsory, leaving religious ceremonies
optional with the parties, and which modified the law of
divorce; the second annulled a former law by which the sons of
mixed marriages were required to follow the father's religion,
and the daughters to follow that of the mother; the third
established an uniform State registration of births, deaths
and marriages, in place of a former registration of different
creeds, and legalized marriages between Christians and Jews
without change of faith. These very radical measures, after
passing the lower house of the Hungarian legislature, were
carried with great difficulty through the aristocratic and
clerical upper house, and only by a strong pressure of
influence from the emperor-king himself. They were exceedingly
obnoxious to the Church, and the Papal Nuncio became active in
a hostility which the Hungarian premier, Baron Banffy, deemed
offensive to the State. He called upon the Imperial Minister
of Foreign Affairs, Count Kalnoky, to address a complaint on
the subject to the Vatican. This led to disagreements between
the two ministers which the Emperor strove without success to
reconcile, and Count Kalnoky, in the end, was forced to retire
from office. The Pope was requested to recall the offending
Nuncio, and declined to do so.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1895-1896.
Race-jealousies and conflicts.
The position of Bohemia in the part of the dual Empire
called Austria.
Anti-Semitic agitation in Vienna.
Austrian Ministry of Count Badeni.
Enlarged parliamentary franchise.
In the constitutional reconstruction of the Empire after the
war of 1866, almost everything was conceded to the Magyars of
Hungary, who acquired independence in matters of internal
administration, and ascendancy over the other races subject to
the Hungarian crown. "On the other hand, absolute equality was
established between the different countries that are not
connected with Hungary. No greater privileges were granted to
an ancient historical kingdom such as Bohemia than were given,
for instance, to the small Alpine district situated between
the Tyrol and the Boden See (Lake of Constance) known as
Vorarlberg. … The representatives of these countries were to
meet at Vienna, and a ministry for 'Cisleithania' was
appointed. That these measures were injudicious is now the
opinion of almost all Austrians. Beust [the Saxon statesman
who was called in to conduct the political reconstruction of
1867—see, in volume 1, AUSTRIA: A. D. 1866-1867; and
1866-1887], created a new agglomeration of smaller and larger
countries, entirely different as regards race, history, and
culture. It is characteristic of the artificiality of Count
Beust's new creation that up to the present day no real and
generally accepted name for it has been found. The usual
designation of Cisleithania is an obvious absurdity. A glance
at the map will suffice to show how senseless such a name is
when applied, for instance, to Dalmatia, one of the countries
ruled from Vienna. The word 'Austria' also can correctly be
applied only either to all the countries ruled by the house of
Habsburg-Lorraine or to the archduchies of Upper and Lower
Austria, which are the cradle of the dynasty. The official
designation of the non-Hungarian parts of the empire is 'the
kingdoms and lands represented in the parliament' (of
Vienna)—'Die im Reichsrathe vertretenen Königreiche und
Länder.'
"Though the Germans willingly took part in the deliberations
of the Parliament of 'Cisleithania,' the Slavs of Bohemia and
Poland were at first violently opposed to the new institution.
They might perhaps have willingly consented to take part in a
Vienna parliament that would have consisted of representatives
of the whole empire. But when the ancient historical rights of
Hungary were fully recognized, countries such as Bohemia and
Poland … naturally felt offended. Count Beust dealt
differently with these two divisions of the empire. The partly
true, partly imaginary, grievances of the Poles were more
recent and better known thirty years ago than they are now.
Beust was impressed by them and considered it advisable to
make large concessions to the Poles of Galicia with regard to
autonomy, local government, and the use of the national
language. The Poles, who did not fail to contrast their fate
with that of their countrymen who were under Russian or
Prussian rule, gratefully accepted these concessions, and
attended the meetings of the representative assembly at
Vienna. Other motives also contributed to this decision of the
Galician Poles. Galicia is a very poor country, and the Germans
who then ruled at Vienna, naturally welcoming the
representatives of a large Slav country in their Parliament,
proved most generous in their votes in favour of the Galician
railways. Matters stood differently in Bohemia, and the
attitude of Count Beust and the new 'Cisleithanian' ministers
was also here quite different. They seem to have thought that
they could break the resistance of the Bohemians by military
force, and with the aid of the German minority of the
population. A long struggle ensued. … Bohemia is … the
'cockpit' of Austrian political warfare, and almost every
political crisis has been closely connected with events that
occurred in Bohemia. The Bohemian representatives in 1867
refused to take part in the deliberations of the Vienna
Parliament, the existence of which they considered contrary to
the ancient constitution of their country.
{36}
In 1879 they finally decided to take part in the deliberations
of the Vienna assembly. … The Bohemians, indeed, entered the
Vienna Parliament under protest, and declared that their
appearance there was by no means to be considered as a
resignation of the special rights that Bohemia had formerly
possessed. The Bohemian deputies, however, continued
henceforth to take part in the deliberations of the
Cisleithanian Parliament and loyally supported those of the
many Austrian ministers who were not entirely deaf to their
demands. Some of these demands, such as that of the foundation
of a national university at Prague, were indeed granted by the
Vienna ministers. Though a German university continued to exist
at Prague, this concession was vehemently opposed by the
Germans, as indeed every concession to appease the Bohemian
people was."
Francis Count Lutzow,
Austria at the End of the Century
(Nineteenth Century Review, December, 1899).
During recent years, government in the dual empire has been
made increasingly difficult, especially on the Austrian side,
by the jealousy, which grows constantly more bitter, between
the German and Slavic elements of the mixed population, and by
the rising heat of the Anti-Semitic agitation. The latter was
brought to a serious crisis in Vienna during 1895 by the
election of Dr. Lueger, a violent leader of Anti-Semitism, to
the office of First Vice-Burgomaster, which caused the
resignation of the Burgomaster, and led to such disorders in
the municipal council that the government was forced to
intervene. The council was dissolved and an imperial
commissioner appointed to conduct the city administration
provisionally; but similar disorders, still more serious,
recurred in October, when elections were held and the
Anti-Semites won a majority in the council. Dr. Lueger was
then elected Burgomaster. The government, supported by a
majority in the Austrian Reichsrath, refused to confirm the
election. A second time Dr. Lueger was elected; whereupon the
municipal council was again dissolved and the municipal
administration transferred to an imperial commissioner. This
measure was followed by scenes of scandalous turbulence in the
Reichsrath and riotous demonstrations in the streets, which
latter were vigorously suppressed by the police. Some
considerable part of the temper in these demonstrations was
directed against the Austrian premier, Count Badeni, and still
more against the Polish race, to which he belonged. Count
Badeni, who had been Governor of Galicia, had just been called
to the head of affairs, and gave promise of an administration
that would be strong; but several other members of his cabinet
were Poles, and that fact was a cause of offense. He gave an
early assurance that the demand for an enlargement of the
parliamentary franchise should be satisfactorily met, and that
other liberal measures should be promptly taken in hand. These
promises, with the show of firmness in the conduct of the
government, produced a wide feeling in its favor. The promise
of an enlargement of the parliamentary franchise in Austria
was redeemed the following February (1896), by the
introduction and speedy passage of a parliamentary reform
bill, which embodied an important revision of the Austrian
constitution. Seventy-two new members were added to the 353
which formerly constituted the lower or Abgeordneten House of
the Austrian Reichsrath. The original body of 353 remained as
it had been, made up in four sections, elected by four classes
in the community, namely: owners of large estates, electing 85
members; doctors of the universities and town taxpayers who
pay five florins of direct taxation yearly, these together
electing 115; chambers of commerce and industry, electing 22;
country taxpayers who pay five florins of direct taxation
yearly, electing 131. The number of voters in these four
privileged classes were said to number 1,732,000 when the
Reform Bill passed. The new voters added by the bill were
estimated to number about 3,600,000. But the latter would
elect only the 72 new members added to the House, while the
former continued to be exclusively represented by the 353
members of its former constitution. In other words, though the
suffrage was now extended to all male adults, it was not with
equality of value to all. For about one-third of the political
community, the franchise was given five times the weight and
force that it possessed for the remaining two-thirds.
Nevertheless, the bill seems to have been accepted and passed
with no great opposition. In Vienna, the Anti-Semitic
agitation was kept up with violence, Dr. Lueger being elected
four times to the chief-burgomastership of the city, in
defiance of the imperial refusal to sanction his election.
Finally the conflict was ended by a compromise. Lueger
resigned and was permitted to take the office of Vice
Burgomaster, while one of his followers was chosen to the
Chief Burgomaster's seat.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1896.
Celebration of the Millennium of the Kingdom of Hungary.
The millennial anniversary of the Kingdom of Hungary was
celebrated by the holding of a great national exposition and
festival at Buda-Pesth, from the 2d of May until the end of
October, 1896. Preparations were begun as early as 1893, and
were carried forward with great national enthusiasm and
liberality, the government contributing nearly two millions of
dollars to the expense of the undertaking. The spirit of the
movement was expressed at the beginning by the Minister of
Commerce, Bela Lukács, by whose department it was specially
promoted. "The government," he said, "will take care that the
national work be exhibited in a worthy frame, so as to further
the interests of the exhibitors. May everyone of you, its
subjects, therefore show what he is able to attain by his
diligence, his taste, and his inventive faculty. Let us all,
in fact, compete—we who are working, some with our brains,
others with our hands, and others with our machines—like one
man for the father-land. Thus the living generation will be
able to see what its fore-fathers have made in the midst of
hard circumstances, and to realize what tasks are awaiting us
and the new generations in the path which has been smoothed by
the sweat, labor, and pain of our ancestors. This will be a
rare family festival, the equal of which has not been granted
to many nations. Let the people gather, then, round our august
ruler, who has guided our country with fatherly care and
wisdom in the benevolent ways of peace to the heights which
mark the progress of to-day, and who—a faithful keeper of the
glorious past of a thousand years—has led the Hungarian people
to the threshold of a still more splendid thousand years to
come!"
{37}
Writing shortly before the opening, the United States Consul
at Buda-Pesth, Mr. Hammond, gave the following description of
the plans and preparations then nearly complete: "The series
of official festivities will be diversified by those of a
social and popular character. These will be the
interparliamentary conference for international courts of
arbitration; the congress of journalists, with the view to
constitute an international journalistic union; international
congresses of art and history, of actors, tourists, athletes,
etc.; numerous national congresses embracing every
intellectual and material interest of the country, in which
the leading personages of all groups and branches of national
production, the highest authorities in the field of commerce,
industry, communication, etc., as well as those who are in the
forefront of the literary, spiritual, and philanthropic
movements of the country will take part.
"There is activity in all classes of Hungarian society, with a
view to carrying out the ingenious project of the artist Paul
Vágó—the great historical pageant. Several municipal bodies
have already promised their cooperation, while scores of men
and women, bearers of historic names, have declared their
readiness to take part at their own expense. All the costumes
of all the races and social classes who have inhabited this
country during ten centuries will pass before our eyes in this
beautiful cortege. The genius of the artist will call into life
in their descendants the warriors who conquered Pannonia under
Arpad, and, during the reign of Louis the Great, annexed to
this realm all the neighboring countries; all the dignitaries,
both civil and ecclesiastical, who, under Stephen the Saint, King
Kálman, and Mathias Corvinus, spread Christianity,
enlightenment, liberty, and wealth to the extreme confines of
this part of Europe; all the crusaders of Joannes Hunyady, who
drove back the Crescent for a century and thus defended
western civilization against eastern fanaticism; all the
kings, princes, noblemen, and poets of modern times who have
led the nation in her struggle for modern ideas. These
historical figures will be followed by their retainers or
surrounded by the popular types of the respective epochs. To
judge by the sketches of the artist, this pageant promises to
surpass anything that has hitherto been offered on similar
occasions.
"All these festivals will move, as it were, within the fixed
frame of the Millennial National Exhibition, which will cover
an area of 500,000 square meters (5,382,100 square feet) and
consist of 169 buildings and pavilions, erected at a total
cost (including private expenses) of 10,000,000 florins
($4,020,000). This exhibition is divided into two sections,
viz:
(1) The historical section, containing art treasures, relics,
and antiquities of the past, which will illustrate the
political, religious, military, and private life of each
principal period in the history of the nation. …
(2) The section of modern times will embrace everything offered
by similar exhibitions.
Nevertheless, the visitor's mind will here, too, be impressed
with the solemnity of the millennium and the enthusiasm
inspiring the nation at this momentous period of its history.
The programme embraces the national life in all its
manifestations. Not only will the present condition of Hungary
be laid open to general view, but the world will also be
impressed with the great progress Hungary has made since the
reestablishment of her constitution in 1867."
United States Consular Reports,
April, 1896.
By every possible arrangement of facilitation and cheapening,
a visit to the Exposition was placed within the means of all
the inhabitants of the kingdom; and especial provision was
made for bringing schools and teachers to receive the
object-lessons which it taught.
Among the ceremonies which attended the ending of the great
national festival, was the formal opening, at Orsova, of a
ship channel through the rocky obstructions that have been
known since the days when they troubled the Romans as the
"Iron Gates of the Danube."
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897.
Industrial combinations.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897.
The forces of feudalism and clericalism in Austria.
Austrian parties in the Reichsrath.
Their aims, character and relative strength.
Count Badeni's language decrees for Bohemia.
"In no European country have the forces of feudalism and
clericalism such an enormous influence as they have in
Austria. The Austrian nobility is supreme at Court and in the
upper branches of the Administration. In Hungary the small
nobility and landed gentry exercise a preponderating
influence, but they are a wide class and filled with the
national spirit. The Austrian nobility forms a narrow,
intensely exclusive and bigoted caste, whose only political
interest is the maintenance of its own class supremacy. The
large Protestant element in Hungary has in no small degree
contributed to the success of the Magyars, both in its effect
on the national character and by the secondary position to
which the mixture of creeds has relegated the Church. In
Austria the Church of Rome is all-powerful. The House of
Habsburg has always been bigotedly Catholic: Francis Joseph
himself was a pupil of the Jesuits. The triumph of the
reaction after 1848 was the establishment in 1855 of that
'written Canossa' the Concordat, which made the Church
absolute in all matters relating to education and marriage.
And even though the Concordat was got rid of in 1870, the
energies of the clerical party have been but little weakened.
The real explanation of the whole course of Austrian politics
lies in the interaction of the two conflicts—of reaction,
clerical or aristocratic, against liberalism, and of Slav
against German. …
"In March 1897 came the general elections, to which a special
interest was lent by the first appearance of the fifth class
of voters. The most striking feature of the elections was the
complete and final break up of the German Liberal party. … The
history of the German Liberal party has been one of a
continuous decline both in numbers and importance. It counted
200 members in 1873, 170 in 1879, 114 in 1885-1891, and only
77 out of a total of 425 in 1897. … Their political theories
are those of moderate constitutional liberalism as understood
on the Continent in the middle of the century—i. e. belief in
the efficacy of parliamentary government, in commercial and
industrial freedom, hostility to military bureaucracy and
clericalism. … The most radical group among them, the
Progressists, an offshoot of the last election, is about as
radical as the ordinary English Conservative of to-day. The
views of the Verfassungstreue Grossgrundbesitz are those of
the English Tory of fifty years ago.
{38}
"Of the fractions into which the Liberal party is now divided
the most important is the Deutsch Fortschrittliche, or
Progressive, which split off from the main body in November
1896. Its chief object was to direct a stronger opposition on
national and liberal lines to Count Badeni. Its 35 members are
almost exclusively recruited from Bohemia and Moravia. They
differ from the German 'Volkspartei' mainly in their refusal
to accept anti-Semitism, which would be both against their
liberal professions and their economic convictions as
representatives of the commercial and manufacturing classes.
The constitutional landowners (Verfassungstreue
Grossgrundbesitz, 30 seats) represent the most conservative
element of the old Liberal party. … The 12 members of the Free
German Union (Freie Deutsche Vereinigung) may perhaps consider
themselves the most authentic remnant of the great Liberal
party—it is their chief claim to distinction. The German
National or People's party (Deutsche Volkspartei, 43 seats)
first made its appearance at the elections of 1885. It
rejected the old idea of the Liberals that the Germans were
meant, as defenders of the State, to look to State interests
alone without regard to the fate of their own nationality, and
took up a more strictly national as well as a more democratic
attitude. It has also of late years included anti-Semitism in
its programme. Its main strength lies in the Alpine provinces,
where it heads the German national and Liberal opposition to
the Slovenes on the one side, and the German clericals on the
other. It is at present the largest of the German parties. …
"Least but not last of the German parties comes the little
group of five led by Schönerer and Wolf. Noisy, turbulent, and
reckless, this little body of extremists headed the
obstruction in the Reichsrath, the disorganised larger German
parties simply following in its wake. The object these men aim
at is the incorporation of German Austria in the German
Empire, the non-German parts being left to take care of
themselves. Both the German National party and Schönerer's
followers are anti-Semitic, but anti-Semitism only plays a
secondary part in their programme. The party that more
specially claims the title of anti-Semite is the Christian
Social (Christlich-Soziale, 27 seats). The growth of this
party in the last few years has been extraordinarily rapid. In
Dr. Lueger and Prince Alois Liechtenstein it has found leaders
who thoroughly understand the arts of exciting or humouring
the Viennese populace. … The characteristic feature of
Austrian anti-Semitism, besides the reaction against the
predominance of the ubiquitous Jew in commerce, journalism,
and the liberal professions, is that it represents the
opposition of the small tradesman or handicraftsman to the
increasing pressure of competition from the large Jewish shops
and the sweating system so frequently connected with them. The
economic theories of the party are of the crudest and most
mediæval kind; compulsory apprenticeship, restricted trade
guilds, penalties on stock exchange speculation, &c., form the
chief items of its programme. …
"The German Clericals and the Clerical Conservatives
(Katholische Volkspartei and Centrum) number some 37 votes
together; but their importance has always been increased by
the skilful and unscrupulous parliamentary tactics of the
party. The strength of the Clerical party lies in the ignorant
and devotedly pious peasantry of Upper Austria and the Alpine
provinces. The defence of agrarian interests is included in
its programme; but its only real object is the maintenance of
the moral and material power of the Church. Its policy looks
solely to the interests of the Vatican. …
"The best organised of the national parties is the Polish Club
(59 seats). It represents the national and social interests of
the Polish nobility and landed gentry. … Standing outside of
Austrian interests, they exercise a controlling voice in
Austrian affairs. The three-score well-drilled Polish votes
have helped the Government again and again to ride roughshod
over constitutional opposition. The partition of Poland has
thus avenged itself on one at least of its spoilers. The
Germans have long resented this outside interference which
permanently keeps them in a minority. … The Czechs are a party
of 60, and together with the 19 representatives of the Czech
landed aristocracy, form the largest group in the Reichsrath.
The Young Czech party began in the seventies as a reaction
against the Old Czech policy of passive resistance. In
contra-distinction to the Old Czechs, they also professed
radical and anti-clerical views in politics generally. … In
1897 the Old Czechs finally withdrew from the contest or were
merged in the victorious party. … Of the other nationalist
parties the most important is the Slav National Christian
Union (35 seats), comprising the Slovenes, Croatians, and some
of the more moderate Ruthenians from Galicia. Their programme
is mainly national, though tinged with clericalism; equality
of the Slav languages with German and Italian in mixed
districts; and ultimately a union of the southern Slavs in an
autonomous national province. The Italians are divided into 5
Clerical Italians from the Tirol and 14 Liberals from Trieste,
Istria, &c. The Tirolese Italians desire a division of the
Tirol into a German and an Italian part. …
"The most interesting, and in some ways the most respectable,
of all Austrian parties is the Socialist or Social Democratic
party (15 seats). It is the only one that fights for a living
political theory—German liberalism being to all intents and
purposes defunct—and not for mere national aggression. The
Social Democrats hold the whole national agitation to be an
hysterical dispute got up by professors, advocates, and other
ne'er-do-weels of the unemployed upper classes. … Their
support is derived from the working classes in the industrial
districts, and not least from the poorer Jews, who supply
socialism with many of its keenest apostles. …
"Altogether a most hopeless jumble of incoherent atoms is this
Austrian Reichsrath. The chariots driving four-ways on the
roof of the Houses of Parliament are a true symbol of the
nature of Austrian politics. To add to the confusion, all the
parties are headless. Able men and men of culture, there are a
good many in the House; but political leaders there are none.
The general tone of the House is undignified, and has been so
for some time. …
{39}
"On April 5, 1897, Count Badeni published the notorious
language decrees for Bohemia. This ordinance placed the Czech
language on an absolute equality with the German in all
governmental departments and in the law courts all over
Bohemia. … After 1901 all officials in every part of Bohemia
were to be obliged to know both languages. The refusal of the
Germans to admit the language spoken by 62 per cent. of the
population of Bohemia to an equality with their own is not
quite so preposterous as would at first sight appear. Without
subscribing to Professor Mommsen's somewhat insolent dicta
about 'inferior races,' one must admit that the Czech and
German languages do not stand on altogether the same footing.
German is a language spoken by some 60,000,000 of people, the
language of a great literature and a great commerce. Czech is
difficult, unpronounceable, and spoken by some 5,000,000 in
all. It must be remembered, too, that the two nations do not
really live together in Bohemia, but that the Germans live in
a broad belt all round the country, while the Czechs inhabit
the central plain. There is no more reason for a German
Bohemian to acquire Czech than there is for a citizen of
Edinburgh to make himself master of Gaelic. On the other hand,
every educated Czech naturally learns German, even in a purely
Czech-speaking district. … It must also be remembered that the
decrees, as such, were of doubtful constitutionality; the
language question was really a matter for the Legislature to
settle. The decrees at once produced a violent agitation among
the Germans, which rapidly spread from Bohemia over the whole
Empire."
The Internal Crisis in Austria-Hungary
(Edinburgh Review, July, 1898).
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897 (October-December).
Scenes in the Austrian Reichsrath described by Mark Twain.
"Here in Vienna in these closing days of 1897 one's blood gets
no chance to stagnate. The atmosphere is brimful of political
electricity. All conversation is political; every man is a
battery, with brushes overworn, and gives out blue sparks when
you set him going on the common topic. … Things have happened
here recently which would set any country but Austria on fire
from end to end, and upset the government to a certainty; but
no one feels confident that such results will follow here.
Here, apparently, one must wait and see what will happen, then
he will know, and not before; guessing is idle; guessing
cannot help the matter. This is what the wise tell you; they
all say it; they say it every day, and it is the sole detail
upon which they all agree. There is some approach to agreement
upon another point: that there will be no revolution. … Nearly
every day some one explains to me that a revolution would not
succeed here. 'It couldn't, you know. Broadly speaking, all
the nations in the empire hate the government—but they all
hate each other too, and with devoted and enthusiastic
bitterness; no two of them can combine; the nation that rises
must rise alone; then the others would joyfully join the
government against her, and she would have just a fly's chance
against a combination of spiders. This government is entirely
independent. It can go its own road, and do as it pleases; it
has nothing to fear. In countries like England and America,
where there is one tongue and the public interests are common,
the government must take account of public opinion; but in
Austria-Hungary there are nineteen public opinions—one for
each state. No—two or three for each state, since there are
two or three nationalities in each. A government cannot
satisfy all these public opinions; it can only go through the
motions of trying. This government does that. It goes through
the motions, and they do not succeed; but that does not worry
the government much.' …
"The recent troubles have grown out of Count Badeni's
necessities. He could not carry on his government without a
majority vote in the House at his back, and in order to secure
it he had to make a trade of some sort. He made it with the
Czechs—the Bohemians. The terms were not easy for him: he must
pass a bill making the Czech tongue the official language in
Bohemia in place of the German. This created a storm. All the
Germans in Austria' were incensed. In numbers they form but a
fourth part of the empire's population, but they urge that the
country's public business should be conducted in one common
tongue, and that tongue a world language—which German is.
However, Badeni secured his majority. The German element was
apparently become helpless. The Czech deputies were exultant.
Then the music began. Badeni's voyage, instead of being
smooth, was disappointingly rough from the start. The
government must get the 'Ausgleich' through. It must not fail.
Badeni's majority was ready to carry it through; but the
minority was determined to obstruct it and delay it until the
obnoxious Czech-language measure should be shelved.
"The 'Ausgleich' is an Adjustment, Arrangement, Settlement,
which holds Austria and Hungary together [see above; also, in
volume 1, AUSTRIA: A. D. 1866-1867]. It dates from 1867, and
has to be renewed every ten years. It establishes the share
which Hungary must pay toward the expenses of the imperial
government. Hungary is a kingdom (the Emperor of Austria is
its King), and has its own parliament and governmental
machinery. But it has no foreign office, and it has no army—at
least its army is a part of the imperial army, is paid out of
the imperial treasury, and is under the control of the
imperial war office. The ten-year rearrangement was due a year
ago, but failed to connect. At least completely. A year's
compromise was arranged. A new arrangement must be effected
before the last day of this year. Otherwise the two countries
become separate entities. The Emperor would still be King of
Hungary—that is, King of an independent foreign country. There
would be Hungarian custom-houses on the Austrian frontier, and
there would be a Hungarian army and a Hungarian foreign
office. Both countries would be weakened by this, both would
suffer damage. The Opposition in the House, although in the
minority, had a good weapon to fight with in the pending
'Ausgleich.' If it could delay the 'Ausgleich' a few weeks,
the government would doubtless have to withdraw the hated
language bill or lose Hungary.
"The Opposition began its fight. Its arms were the Rules of
the House. It was soon manifest that by applying these Rules
ingeniously, it could make the majority helpless, and keep it
so as long as it pleased. It could shut off business every now
and then with a motion to adjourn. It could require the ayes
and noes on the motion, and use up thirty minutes on that
detail. It could call for the reading and verification of the
minutes of the preceding meeting, and use up half a day in
that way.
{40}
It could require that several of its members be entered upon
the list of permitted speakers previously to the opening of a
sitting; and as there is no time limit, further delays could
thus be accomplished. These were all lawful weapons, and the
men of the Opposition (technically called the Left) were
within their rights in using them. They used them to such dire
purpose that all parliamentary business was paralyzed. The
Right (the government side) could accomplish nothing. Then it
had a saving idea. This idea was a curious one. It was to have
the President and the Vice-Presidents of the parliament
trample the Rules under foot upon occasion! …
"And now took place that memorable sitting of the House which
broke two records. It lasted the best part of two days and a
night, surpassing by half an hour the longest sitting known to
the world's previous parliamentary history, and breaking the
long-speech record with Dr. Lecher's twelve-hour effort, the
longest flow of unbroken talk that ever came out of one mouth
since the world began. At 8.45, on the evening of the 28th of
October, when the House had been sitting a few minutes short
of ten hours, Dr. Lecher was granted the floor. … Then burst
out such another wild and frantic and deafening clamor as has
not been heard on this planet since the last time the
Comanches surprised a white settlement at midnight. Yells from
the Left, counter-yells from the Right, explosions of yells
from all sides at once, and all the air sawed and pawed and
clawed and cloven by a writhing confusion of gesturing arms
and hands. Out of the midst of this thunder and turmoil and
tempest rose Dr. Lecher, serene and collected, and the
providential length of him enabled his head to show out above
it. He began his twelve-hour speech. At any rate, his lips
could be seen to move, and that was evidence. On high sat the
President imploring order, with his long hands put together as
in prayer, and his lips visibly but not hearably speaking. At
intervals he grasped his bell and swung it up and down with
vigor, adding its keen clamor to the storm weltering there
below. Dr. Lecher went on with his pantomime speech,
contented, untroubled. … One of the interrupters who made
himself heard was a young fellow of slight build and neat
dress, who stood a little apart from the solid crowd and
leaned negligently, with folded arms and feet crossed, against
a desk. Trim and handsome; strong face and thin features;
black hair roughed up; parsimonious mustache; resonant great
voice, of good tone and pitch. It is Wolf, capable and
hospitable with sword and pistol. … Out of him came early this
thundering peal, audible above the storm:
"'I demand the floor. I wish to offer a motion.'
"In the sudden lull which followed, the President answered,
'Dr. Lecher has the floor.'
"Wolf. 'I move the close of the sitting!'
"President. 'Representative Lecher has the floor.'
[Stormy outburst from the Left—that is, the Opposition.]
"Wolf. 'I demand the floor for the introduction of a
formal motion. [Pause.] Mr. President, are you going to grant
it, or not? [Crash of approval from the Left.] I will keep on
demanding the floor till I get it.'
"President. 'I call Representative Wolf to order. Dr.
Lecher has the floor.' …
"'Which was true; and he was speaking, too, calmly, earnestly,
and argumentatively; and the official stenographers had left
their places and were at his elbows taking down his words, he
leaning and orating into their ears—a most curious and
interesting scene. … At this point a new and most effective
noisemaker was pressed into service. Each desk has an
extension, consisting of a removable board eighteen inches
long, six wide, and a half-inch thick. A member pulled one of
these out and began to belabor the top of his desk with it.
Instantly other members followed suit, and perhaps you can
imagine the result. Of all conceivable rackets it is the most
ear-splitting, intolerable, and altogether fiendish. … Wolf
went on with his noise and with his demands that he be granted
the floor, resting his board at intervals to discharge
criticisms and epithets at the Chair. … By-and-by he struck
the idea of beating out a tune with his board. Later he
decided to stop asking for the floor, and to confer it upon
himself. And so he and Dr. Lecher now spoke at the same time,
and mingled their speeches with the other noises, and nobody
heard either of them. Wolf rested himself now and then from
speech-making by reading, in his clarion voice, from a
pamphlet.
"I will explain that Dr. Lecher was not making a twelve-hour
speech for pastime, but for an important purpose. It was the
government's intention to push the 'Ausgleich' through its
preliminary stages in this one sitting (for which it was the
Order of the Day), and then by vote refer it to a select
committee. It was the Majority's scheme—as charged by the
Opposition—to drown debate upon the bill by pure noise—drown
it out and stop it. The debate being thus ended, the vote upon
the reference would follow—with victory for the government.
But into the government's calculations had not entered the
possibility of a single-barrelled speech which should occupy
the entire time-limit of the sitting, and also get itself
delivered in spite of all the noise. … In the English House an
obstructionist has held the floor with Bible-readings and
other outside matters; but Dr. Lecher could not have that
restful and recuperative privilege—he must confine himself
strictly to the subject before the House. More than once, when
the President could not hear him because of the general
tumult, he sent persons to listen and report as to whether the
orator was speaking to the subject or not.
"The subject was a peculiarly difficult one, and it would have
troubled any other deputy to stick to it three hours without
exhausting his ammunition, because it required a vast and
intimate knowledge—detailed and particularized knowledge—of
the commercial, railroading, financial, and international
banking relations existing between two great sovereignties,
Hungary and the Empire. But Dr. Lecher is President of the
Board of Trade of his city of Brünn, and was master of the
situation. … He went steadily on with his speech; and always
it was strong, virile, felicitous, and to the point. He was
earning applause, and this enabled his party to turn that fact
to account. Now and then they applauded him a couple of
minutes on a stretch, and during that time he could stop
speaking and rest his voice without having the floor taken
from him. …
{41}
"The Minority staid loyally by their champion. Some
distinguished deputies of the Majority staid by him too,
compelled thereto by admiration of his great performance. When
a man has been speaking eight hours, is it conceivable that he
can still be interesting, still fascinating? When Dr. Lecher had
been speaking eight hours he was still compactly surrounded by
friends who would not leave him and by foes (of all parties)
who could not; and all hung enchanted and wondering upon his
words, and all testified their admiration with constant and
cordial outbursts of applause. Surely this was a triumph
without precedent in history. …
"In consequence of Dr. Lecher's twelve-hour speech and the
other obstructions furnished by the Minority, the famous
thirty-three-hour sitting of the House accomplished nothing. …
Parliament was adjourned for a week—to let the members cool
off, perhaps—a sacrifice of precious time, for but two months
remained in which to carry the all-important 'Ausgleich' to a
consummation. …
"During the whole of November things went from bad to worse.
The all-important 'Ausgleich' remained hard aground, and could
not be sparred off. Badeni's government could not withdraw the
Language Ordinance and keep its majority, and the Opposition
could not be placated on easier terms. One night, while the
customary pandemonium was crashing and thundering along at its
best, a fight broke out. … On Thanksgiving day the sitting was
a history-making one. On that day the harried, bedeviled and
despairing government went insane. In order to free itself
from the thraldom of the Opposition it committed this
curiously juvenile crime: it moved an important change of the
Rules of the House, forbade debate upon the motion, put it to
a stand-up vote instead of ayes and noes, and then gravely
claimed that it had been adopted. … The House was already
standing up; had been standing for an hour; and before a third
of it had found out what the President had been saying, he had
proclaimed the adoption of the motion! And only a few heard
that. In fact, when that House is legislating you can't tell
it from artillery-practice. You will realize what a happy idea
it was to sidetrack the lawful ayes and noes and substitute a
stand-up vote by this fact: that a little later, when a
deputation of deputies waited upon the President and asked him
if he was actually willing to claim that that measure had been
passed, he answered, 'Yes—and unanimously.' …
"The 'Lex Falkenhayn,' thus strangely born, gave the President
power to suspend for three days any deputy who should continue
to be disorderly after being called to order twice, and it
also placed at his disposal such force as might be necessary
to make the suspension effective. So the House had a
sergeant-at-arms at last, and a more formidable one, as to
power, than any other legislature in Christendom had ever
possessed. The Lex Falkenhayn also gave the House itself
authority to suspend members for thirty days. On these terms
the 'Ausgleich' could be put through in an hour—apparently.
The Opposition would have to sit meek and quiet, and stop
obstructing, or be turned into the street, deputy after
deputy, leaving the Majority an unvexed field for its work.
"Certainly the thing looked well. … [But next day, when the
President attempted to open the session, a band of the
Socialist members made a sudden charge upon him, drove him and
the Vice President from the House, took possession of the
tribune, and brought even the semblance of legislative
proceedings to an end. Then a body of sixty policemen was
brought in to clear the House.] Some of the results of this
wild freak followed instantly. The Badeni government came down
with a crash; there was a popular outbreak or two in Vienna;
there were three or four days of furious rioting in Prague,
followed by the establishing there of martial law; the Jews
and Germans were harried and plundered, and their houses
destroyed; in other Bohemian towns there was rioting—in some
cases the Germans being the rioters, in others the Czechs—and
in all cases the Jew had to roast, no matter which side he was
on. We are well along in December now; the new
Minister-President has not been able to patch up a peace among
the warring factions of the parliament, therefore there is no
use in calling it together again for the present; public
opinion believes that parliamentary government and the
Constitution are actually threatened with extinction, and that
the permanency of the monarchy itself is a not absolutely
certain thing!
"Yes, the Lex Falkenhayn was a great invention, and did what
was claimed for it—it got the government out of the
frying-pan."
S. L. Clemens (Mark Twain),
Stirring Times in Austria
(Harper's Magazine, March, 1898).
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897 (December).
Imperial action.
On the last day of the year the Emperor closed the sittings of
the Austrian Reichsrath by proclamation and issued a rescript
continuing the "Ausgleich" provisionally for six months.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1898.
Prolongation of factious disorders.
Paralysis of constitutional government.
Though scenes in the Austrian Chamber were not quite so
violent, perhaps, as they had become near the close of 1897,
the state of factious disorder continued much the same
throughout the year, and legislation was completely stopped.
The work of government could be carried on only by imperial
decrees. The ministry of Baron von Gautsch, which had
succeeded that of Count Badeni, attempted a compromise on the
language question in Bohemia by dividing the country into
three districts, according to the distribution of the several
races, in one of which German was to be the official tongue,
in another Czech, while both languages were to be used in the
third. But the Germans of the empire would accept no such
compromise. In March, Baron von Gautsch retired, and Count
Thun Hohenstein formed a Ministry made up to represent the
principal factions in the Reichsrath; but, the scheme brought
no peace. Nor did appeals by Count Thun, "in the name of
Austria," to the patriotism and the reason of all parties, to
suspend their warfare long enough for a little of the
necessary work of the state to be done, have any effect. The
turbulence in the legislature infected the whole community,
and especially, it would seem, the students in the schools,
whose disorder caused many lectures to be stopped. In Hungary,
too, there was an increase of violence in political agitation.
A party, led by the son of Louis Kossuth, struggled to improve
what seemed to be an opportunity for breaking the political
union of Hungary with Austria, and realizing the old ambition
for an independent Hungarian state.
{42}
The ministry of Baron Banffy had this party against him, as
well as that of the clericals, who resented the civil marriage
laws, and legislation came to a deadlock nearly as complete in
the Hungarian as in the Austrian Parliament. There, as well as
in Austria, the extension of the Ausgleich, provisionally for
another year, had to be imposed by imperial decree.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1898 (April).
Withdrawal from the blockade of Crete and
the "Concert of Europe."
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1897-1899.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1898 (June).
The Sugar Conference at Brussels.
See (in this volume)
SUGAR BOUNTIES.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1898 (September).
Assassination of the Empress.
Jubilee of the Emperor's reign.
On the 10th of September, Elizabeth, Empress of Austria and
Queen of Hungary, was assassinated at Geneva by an Italian
anarchist, named Luigi Luccheni, who stabbed her with a small
stiletto, exceedingly thin and narrow in the blade. The
murderer rushed upon her and struck her, as she was walking,
with a single attendant, on the quay, towards a lake steamer
on which she intended to travel to Montreux. She fell, but
arose, with some assistance, and walked forward to the
steamer, evidently unaware that she had suffered worse than a
blow. On the steamer, however, she lost consciousness, and
then, for the first time, the wound was discovered. It had
been made by so fine a weapon that it showed little external
sign, and it is probable that the Empress felt little pain.
She lived nearly half an hour after the blow was struck. The
assassin attempted to escape, but was caught. As Swiss law
forbids capital punishment, he could be only condemned to
solitary confinement for life. This terrible tragedy came soon
after the festivities in Austria which had celebrated the
jubilee year of the Emperor Francis Joseph's reign. The
Emperor's marriage had been one of love: he had suffered many
afflictions in his later life; the state of his realm was such
as could hardly be contemplated without despair; men wondered
if he could bear this crowning sorrow and live. But he had the
undoubted affection of his subjects, much as they troubled him
with their miserably factious quarrels, and that consciousness
seems to have been his one support.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1899-1900.
Continued obstruction by the German parties in Austria.
Extensive secession of German Catholics from their
Church, and its significance.
Withdrawal of the Bohemian language decrees.
Obstruction taken up by the Czechs.
During most of the year the German parties in the Austrian
Reichsrath continued to make legislation impossible by
disorderly obstruction, with the avowed purpose of compelling
the government to withdraw the language decrees in Bohemia. A
still more significant demonstration of German feeling and
policy appeared, in a wide-spread and organized movement to
detach German Roman Catholics from their church, partly, it
would seem, as a proceeding of hostility to the Clerical
party, and partly as a means of recommending the Germans of
the Austrian states to the sympathy of the German Empire, and
smoothing the approach to an ultimate union of some of those
states with the Germanic federation. The agitation against the
Catholic Church is called "Los von Rom," and is said to have
had remarkable results. "Those acquainted with the situation
in Austria," says a writer in the "Quarterly Review," "do not
wonder that in various parts of the Empire there is a marked
tendency among the German Catholics to join Christian
communions separated from Rome. Many thousand Roman Catholics
have recently renounced their allegiance to the Holy See.
Further secessions are announced as about to take place. The
movement is especially strong in great centres like Eger,
Asch, and Saatz, but has made itself felt also in Carinthia,
and even in coast districts. This is a grave political fact,
for it is a marked indication of serious discontent, and a
sure sign that some arrangement under which certain districts
of Austria might be joined to Germany would not be unwelcome
to a section of the people."
Quarterly Review,
January, 1899.
In September the Austrian Ministry of Count Thun resigned, and
was succeeded by one formed under Count Clary-Aldingen. The
new premier withdrew the language decrees, which quieted the
German obstructionists, but provoked the Czechs to take up the
same rôle. Count Clary-Aldingen resigned in December, and a
provisional Ministry was formed under Dr. Wettek, which lasted
only until the 10th of January, 1900, when a new Cabinet was
formed by Dr. von Körber. In Hungary, Baron Banffy was driven
from power in February, 1899, by a state of things in the
Hungarian Parliament much like that in the Austrian. M.
Koloman Szell, who succeeded him, effected a compromise with
the opposition which enabled him to carry a measure extending
the Ausgleich to 1907. This brought one serious difficulty of
the situation to an end.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1899-1901.
Attitude towards impending revolt in Macedonia.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1899-1901;
and BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1900.
Military and naval expenditure.
See (in this volume)
WAR BUDGETS.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1900 (February).
Attempted pacification of German and Czech parties by a
Conciliation Board.
"On Monday last [February 5] the German and Czech Conciliation
Board met for the first time in Vienna, under the presidency of
the Austrian Premier, Dr. von Körber, and conferred for two
hours. … Dr. von Körber is at the head of what may be called a
'business' Ministry, composed largely of those who had filled
subordinate offices in previous Ministries. It was hoped,
perhaps, that, since the leading politicians with a political
'past' could apparently do nothing to bring about a
settlement, men with no past, but with a capacity for
business, and in no way committed on the racial question,
might do better in effecting a working arrangement. The
appointment of this Conciliation Board seemed a promising way
of attempting such a settlement. Dr. von Körber opened
Monday's proceedings with a strong appeal to both sides,
saying: 'Gentlemen, the Empire looks to you to restore its
happiness and tranquillity.' It cannot be said that the Empire
is likely to find its wishes fulfilled, for when the Board came
down to hard business, the old troubles instantly revealed
themselves.
{43}
The Premier recommended a committee for Bohemia of twenty-two
members, and one for Moravia of fifteen members, the two
sitting in joint session in certain cases. Dr. Engel then set
forth the historical claims of the Czechs, which immediately
called forth a demand from Dr. Funke, of the German party,
that German should be declared the official language
throughout Austria. Each speaker seems to have been supported
by his own party, and so no progress was made, and matters
remain in 'statu quo ante.' The singularly deficient
constitution of this Board makes against success, for it seems
that the German Nationalists and Anti-Semites have only one
delegate apiece, the Social Democrats were not invited at all,
while the extreme Germans and extreme Czechs, apparently
regarding the Board as a farce, declined to nominate delegates
to its sittings. … There is unhappily little reason for
believing that the Board of Conciliation will effect what the
Emperor himself has failed to accomplish."
Spectator (London),
February 10, 1900.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1900 (June-December).
Co-operation with the Powers in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1900 (September-December).
Warnings by the Emperor.
Clerical interference in politics.
The attitude of Hungary.
Economic decline of Austria.
Pessimistic views in Vienna.
The pending elections.
The Vienna correspondence of the "London Times" seems to be
the best source of information concerning the critical
conditions that are prevailing in the composite Empire, as the
Nineteenth Century closes, and the events by which those
conditions are from time to time revealed. The writer, whose
reports we shall quote, is evidently well placed for
observation, and well prepared for understanding what he sees.
In a dispatch of September 14, he notes the significance of a
reprimand which the Emperor had caused to be administered to
the Archbishop of Sarajevo, for interference in political
affairs:
"The chief of the Emperor's Cabinet called the Archbishop's
attention to newspaper reports of a speech made by him at the
close of the Catholic Congress recently held at Agram, in
which he was represented to have expressed the hope that
Bosnia would be incorporated with Croatia at the earliest
possible date. As that question was a purely political one and
foreign to the sacred vocation of the Archbishop, and as its
solution fell exclusively within the jurisdiction of certain
lay factors, and more especially within the Sovereign
prerogatives of his Majesty, the chief of the Cabinet was
instructed, in case the reports were correct, to communicate
to his Grace the serious warning and firm expectation of the
Emperor that his Grace would abstain in future, both in word
and deed, from interference in political questions. As was to
be expected, this sharp reprimand to an ecclesiastic of such
high position and repute has made a great sensation. It meets
with warm approval from the entire Hungarian Press. … There
is, on the other hand, bitter mortification in Clerical
circles. It is evidently felt that the warning to abstain from
politics may be of more than mere local and individual
significance."
In another dispatch on the same day the correspondent reported
a still more significant imperial utterance, this time from
the Emperor's own lips: "Yesterday the Emperor, who is
attending the manœuvres in Galicia, received the Polish
Parliamentary Deputation and, addressing their president,
informed him that the dissolution of the Reichsrath and the
coming elections were the last constitutional means which
would be employed by his Government. That implies that, if the
new Parliament will not work, the Constitution will be
suspended. … The dissolution of the Reichsrath takes place in
opposition to the wish of the moderate element of all parties,
who did their utmost to dissuade the Prime Minister from
taking such a drastic measure. The opinion of those who did
not approve of dissolution is that in the absence of a new
suffrage the next Parliament will prove more unruly than the
last. … Yesterday's Imperial warning requires no comment.
It means no more than it says—namely, an eventual suspension
of the Constitution. It does not point to any alternative
regime in case the Parliamentary system should break down.
Indeed, there is nothing to show that any such alternative has
been under the consideration of the Emperor and his Ministers. No
less an authority than Dr. Lueger, the Anti-Semitic
burgomaster of Vienna, has just expressed his opinion on the
subject to a local journalist in the following words:
'I am firmly convinced that nobody, not a single man in
Austria, including all statesmen and Parliamentary
politicians, has the faintest idea of how the situation will
develop.'"
A few days later (September 25) the "Times" correspondence
summarized an important speech by the Hungarian statesman,
Count Apponyi, to his constituents, in which the same forecast
of a political catastrophe in Austria was intimated. Count
Apponyi,—"after dwelling upon the importance of maintaining
the Ausgleich, remarked that affairs in Austria might take a
turn which would render its revision indispensable owing
either to a complete suspension of the constitutional system
in Austria, the maintenance of which was one of the conditions
of the arrangement of 1867, or such modifications thereof as
would make the existing form of union between the two
countries technically untenable or politically questionable.
In either case the revision could only confirm the
independence of Hungary. But even then Count Apponyi believed
that by fallowing the traditions of Francis Deák it would be
possible to harmonize the necessary revision with the
fundamental principles of the Dual Monarchy. It would,
however, be a great mistake to raise that question unless
forced to do so by circumstances. Count Apponyi went on to say
that the importance of Hungary, not only in the Monarchy but
throughout the civilized world, was enormously increased by
the fact that it secured the maintenance of Austria-Hungary,
threatened by the destructive influence of the Austrian chaos,
and thus constituted one of the principal guarantees of
European tranquillity. The peace-abiding nations recognized
that this service to the dynasty, the Monarchy, and the
European State system was only possible while the
constitutional independence and national unity of Hungary was
maintained. It was clear to every unprejudiced mind that
Hungarian national independence and unity was the backbone of
the Dual Monarchy and one of the most important guarantees of
European peace. But the imposing position attained by Hungary
through the European sanction of her national ideal would be
imperilled if they were of their own initiative to raise the
question of the union of the two countries and thus convert
the Austrian crisis into one affecting the whole Monarchy."
{44}
An article in the "Neue Freie Presse," of Vienna, on the
hostility of the Vatican to Austria and Hungary was partially
communicated in a despatch of October 11. The Vienna journal
ascribes this hostility in part to resentment engendered by
the alliance of Catholic Austria with Italy, and in part to
the Hungarian ecclesiastical laws.
See above: A. D. 1894-1895.
It remarked: "Never has clericalism been so influential in the
legislation and administration of this Empire. The most
powerful party is the one that takes its 'mot d'ordre' from
the Papal Nunciature. It guides the feudal nobility, it is the
thorn in the flesh of the German population, it has provoked a
20 years' reaction in Austria, and, unhindered and protected,
it scatters in Hungary that seed which has thriven so well in
this half of the Monarchy that nothing is done in Austria
without first considering what will be said about it in Rome."
A day or two later some evidence of a growing resentment in
Austria at the interference of the clergy in politics was
adduced: "Thus the Czech organ, inspired by the well-known
leader of the party, Dr. Stransky, states that a deputation of
tradespeople called on the editor and expressed great
indignation at the unprecedented manner in which the priests
were joining in electoral agitation. They added that they
'could no longer remain members of a Church whose clergy took
advantage of religious sentiment for political purposes.' The
Peasants' Electoral Association for Upper Austria has just
issued a manifesto in which the following occurs:—'We have for
more than 20 years invariably elected the candidates proposed by
the Clerical party. What has been done during that long period
for us peasants and small tradespeople? What have the Clerical
party and the Clerical members of Parliament done for us? How
have they rewarded our long fidelity? By treason. … We have
been imposed upon long enough. It is due to our self-respect
and honour to emancipate ourselves thoroughly from the
mamelukes put forward by the Clerical wirepullers. We must
show that we can get on without Clerical leadingstrings.'"
On the 26th of October the writer summarized a report that day
published by the Vienna Stock Exchange Committee, as
furnishing "fresh evidence of the disastrous effects of the
prolonged internal political crisis." "The report begins by
stating that the Vienna Stock Exchange, formerly the leading
and most important one in Europe, and which, in consequence of
the geographical situation of the town, was called upon to be
the centre of financial operations with the Near East, has for
years past been steadily declining. Every year the number of
those frequenting the Bourse diminishes, and there has been an
annual decrease in the amount of capital that has changed
hands. Of late years, and particularly within the last few
months, this has assumed such dimensions that it has become an
imperative duty for the competent authorities to investigate the
causes of the evil and to seek a remedy. It is recognized that
the deplorable domestic situation has largely contributed to
the decline of the Bourse. The deadlock in the Legislative
Assembly has occasioned stagnation in industry and commerce,
whereas outside the Monarchy there has been an unprecedented
development of trade. Further prejudice has been caused by
what is called in the report the anti-capitalist tendencies,
which represent all gains and profits to be ill-gotten. The
profession of merchant has been held up by unprincipled
demagogues as disreputable. The authorities are reproached
with having encouraged those tendencies by undue tolerance."
Early in November, the Vienna letters began accounts of the
electioneering campaign then opening, though elections for the
new House were not to take place until the following January:
"Every day," wrote the correspondent, "brings its contingent
of electoral manifestos, and all parties have already had
their say. Unfortunately, nothing could be less edifying. It
may be said of them all that they have profited little by
experience, and it is vain to search for any indication of a
conciliatory disposition among Czechs or Germans, Liberals or
Clericals. One and all are as uncompromising as ever, and
neither the leaders nor the rank and file are prepared to
reckon with the real exigencies of the situation, even to save
their own Parliamentary existence. The feudal nobility, who
stand aloof from Parliamentary strife, have alone lost nothing
of their position and influence. They disdainfully refuse to
take either the requirements of the State or the legitimate
wishes of the Crown into account. They are preparing in
alliance with Ultramontanism to hold their own against the
coming storm. Their action in the pending electrical campaign
is of an occult nature; their proceedings are seldom reported
by the newspapers, and when they meet it is by groups and
privately.
"The political speeches which have hitherto been delivered in
various parts of the country are bewildering. The Germans are
split up into several fractions, and even on the other side
there have been separate manifestos from the Young Czechs and
also from the Old Czechs, who have long ceased to play a part
in the Reichsrath. It is confusion worse confounded, in fact
complete chaos. The prospect of a rallying of the
heterogeneous and mutually antagonistic groups on the basis of
resistance to Hungarian exigencies, though possible, is not
yet at hand, whatever the future may reserve. … The words of
warning that came from the Crown as to this being the last
attempt that would be made to rule by constitutional methods
has clearly failed to produce that impression among
Parliamentary politicians which might justly have been
anticipated. Not even the most experienced and best informed
among the former members of the Reichsrath are disposed to
make any prophecy as to what will follow the dissolution of
the next Chamber."
{45}
In the following month, a significant speech in the Reichsrath
at Buda-Pesth, by the very able Hungarian Prime Minister, M.
Szell, WIIS reported. "He foreshadowed the possibility of a
situation in which Austria would not be able to fulfil the
conditions prescribed in the Ausgleich Act of 1867 with regard
to the manner of dealing with the affairs common to both halves
of the Monarchy. He himself had, however, made up his mind on
the subject, and was convinced that even in those
circumstances the Hungarians would by means of provisional
measures regulate the common affairs and interests of the two
States, 'while specially asserting the rights of Hungary and
its independence.' Another version of this somewhat oracular
statement runs as follows:—'Hungary, without infringing the
Ausgleich law, will find ways and means of regulating those
affairs which, in virtue of the Pragmatic sanction, are common
to both States, while at the same time protecting her own
interests and giving greater emphasis to her independence.'
Dr. Szell added:—'When the right time comes I shall explain my
views, and eventually submit proposals to the House.
Meanwhile, let us husband our strength and keep our powder
dry.' The self-confident and almost defiant tone of this
forecast, coming from a responsible statesman accustomed to
display such prudence and moderation of language as M. Szell,
has made a profound impression in Austria. It assumes the
breakdown of the Austrian Parliamentary system to be a
certainty, and anticipates the adoption by Hungary of
one-sided measures which, according to M. Szell, will afford
more effective protection to its interests and confirm its
independence. This seems to be interpreted in Vienna as an
indication that the Hungarian Premier has a cut and dry scheme
ready for the revision of the Ausgleich in a direction which
bodes ill for Austria. The gravity of the Ministerial
statement is recognized by journals of such divergent views as
the semi-official 'Fremdenblatt,' the pan-Germanic and
Anti-Semitic 'Deutsche Zeitung,' and the 'Neues Wiener
Tagblatt,' which is the organ of the moderate German element.
The 'Neues Wiener Tagblatt' frankly acknowledges that, in
addition to all her other cares, Austria has now to consider
the crucial question of the form which her relations with
Hungary will assume at no distant date. Commercial severance
and declarations of independence are, it says, being discussed
by the initiated sections of the community in both countries,
as if it were a matter of merely economic concern, instead of
the greatest and most perilous political problem that the
Monarchy has been called upon to solve since the establishment
of the Dual system, which, in spite of its complexity, has
worked well for such a long period. The 'Neues Wiener
Tagblatt,' nevertheless, admits that things have now reached a
stage at which economic severance is no longer impossible." In
a subsequent speech on New Year's Day, M. Szell declared that
it "would be a fatal mistake to sever the ties which had so
long connected the two countries, as the objects for which
they were called into existence still remained and their
fundamental basis was not shaken."
The Vienna journals, on that New Year's Day of 1901, reviewed
the past and surveyed the prospects of the future in gloomy
and pessimistic tones. Heading its article "Progress
Backward," the "Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung" said: "It is true
that Austria has at her disposal a larger and more efficiently
trained army than ever. The natural resources of the country
have been better developed than in the past. The progress of
the century has not been without influence upon ourselves.
But, whereas other nations are more vigorous, greater, and
mightier, we have become weaker, smaller, and less important.
The history of the world during the second half of the past
century has been made at our expense. … In the new partition
of the world no room has been reserved for Austria. The most
important events which will perhaps give the world a new
physiognomy are taking place without Austria's being able to
exercise the slightest influence thereon. We are living upon
our old reputation, but in the long run that capital will
prove insufficient."
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1900 (December).
Census of Vienna.
See (in this volume)
VIENNA: A. D. 1900.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1901.
Parliamentary elections.
Weakening of the Clerical and Anti-Semitic parties.
Gains for the ultra-radical German parties.
Disorderly opening of the Reichsrath.
Speech of the Emperor from the throne.
From the parliamentary elections held in January the Clerical
and Anti-Semitic parties came back to the Reichsrath shorn of
about one-third of their strength, while the various radical
factions, especially those among the Germans, appear to have
made considerable gains. Even in the Tyrol, one of the
strongest of the Clerical leaders, Baron Di Pauli, was
defeated, and in Vienna the Anti-Semitic majority was cut to
less than one-fourth of what it had been three years before.
"The Pan-Germanic group," writes "The Times" correspondent
from Vienna, "which only numbered five in the last Parliament,
now musters 21. It will be remembered that it openly advocates
incorporation with the German Empire, and as a preparatory
measure the wholesale conversion of the German population of
Austria to Protestantism. It has hitherto been to a certain
extent boycotted by the other German parties, being excluded
from their so-called union for mutual defence and joint
action." "But the programme which had thus been boycotted by
the bulk of the German members has been the most successful of
all in the recent general election. The position of its
leading representative, Herr Schönerer, has been so
strengthened that he has been able to impose upon the whole
group the title of Pan-Germanic Union, and to enforce the
acceptance of the principle of 'emancipation from Rome.' The
latter demand caused a certain hesitation on the part of some
of his new followers, who, however, ultimately decided to
adopt it, although not to the full extent of renouncing the
Roman Catholic faith, as Herr Schönerer and his principal
lieutenant, Herr Wolf, themselves had done. At a conference of
the party its programme was declared to be the promotion of
such a federal connexion of the German provinces of Austria
with the German Empire as would furnish a permanent guarantee
for the maintenance of the German nationality in this country.
The party would oppose every Government that resisted the
realization of that object, and it could not participate in
any manifestations of loyalty while such a Government policy
was maintained. At the same time, the party regarded it as
their obvious duty to emancipate themselves from Rome in a
political but not religious sense—that is to say, to free
themselves from the influence of the Roman Curia in affairs of
State.
{46}
"This boycotted party and programme now threatens to win the
voluntary or enforced adherence of the advanced section of the
other German groups which had hitherto declined to commit
themselves to such an extreme policy. The most moderate of all
the German parties, that of the constitutional landed
proprietors, has felt called upon to enter an energetic and
indignant protest against the foregoing Pan-Germanic
programme. While they are convinced supporters of the
Austro-German alliance, they unconditionally reject
aspirations which they hold to be totally inconsistent with
the tried and reliable basis of that agreement, and which
would constitute an undignified sacrifice of the independence
of the Monarchy. They further decline to make their
manifestations of loyalty to the Sovereign dependent upon any
condition; and they strongly condemn the emancipation from
Rome movement as a culpable confusion of the spheres of
religion and politics, and an infringement of the liberty of
conscience which is calculated to sow dissension among the
German nationality in Austria.
"It now remains to be seen to which side the bulk of the
German representatives will rally; to that of the Moderates,
who have re-affirmed their devotion to the Dynasty and the
existing Constitution, or to that of the Pan-Germanic
revolutionaries, who have decided to make their manifestations
of loyalty dependent upon the adoption by the Crown of their
programme.
"The outlook has thus undergone, if anything, a change for the
worse since the last Reichsrath was dissolved. The only
reassuring feature of the situation is that the fall of the
Ministry is not a primary end with any of the parties in the
Reichsrath. Dr. von Körber, who is a politician of great tact
and experience, has avoided friction on all sides."
The opening session of the newly elected Reichsrath was held
on the 31st of January, and the disorderly temper in it was
manifested upon a reference by the President to the death of
Queen Victoria, which called out cries of hostility to England
from both Germans and Czechs.
"In the course of the proceedings some of the members of the
Extreme Czech fraction warned the Prime Minister in
threatening terms against introducing a single word hostile to
the Czech nation in the coming Speech from the Throne. They
also announced their intention of squaring accounts with him
so soon as the Speech from the Throne should be delivered. The
whole sitting did not last an hour, but … what happened
suffices to show that not only the Pan-Germanic Union, but
also the Extreme section of the German People's party and a
couple of Radical Czechs, are ready at a moment's notice to
transform the Reichsrath into a bear garden."
On the 4th of February the two Houses of the Reichsrath were
assembled at the Palace and addressed by the Emperor, in a
speech from the throne of which the following is a partial
report: "His Majesty referred to various features of
legislation, including the Budget, the revision of the Customs
tariff, the promotion of trade, industry, and navigation, the
protection of the working classes and the regulation of the
hours of labour, the Government railway projects and the
Bosnian lines, and Bills for the regulation of emigration, the
construction of dwellings for the lower classes, the
repression of drunkenness, the development of the University
system and other educational reforms, and a revision of the
Press laws—in fact a whole inventory of the important
legislative arrears consequent upon the breakdown of
Parliament.
"The following passage occurs in the further course of the
speech: 'The Constitution which I bestowed upon my dominions
in the exercise of my free will ought to be an adequate
guarantee for the development of my people. The finances of
the State have been put in order in exemplary fashion and its
credit has been raised to a high level. The freedom of the
subject reposes upon a firm foundation, and thanks to the
scholastic organization and the extraordinary increase of
educational establishments general culture has reached a
gratifying standard, which has more especially contributed to
the efficiency and intelligence of my army. The Provincial
Diets have been able to do much within the limits of their
jurisdiction. The beneficial influence of the constitutional
system has penetrated as far as the communal administrations.
I am thus justified in saying that the fundamental laws of the
State are a precious possession of my loyal people.
Notwithstanding the autonomy enjoyed by certain kingdoms and
provinces, they constitute for foreigners the symbol of the
strength and unity of the State. I was, therefore, all the
more grieved that the last sessions of the Legislature should
have had no result, even if I am prepared to acknowledge that
such business as affected the position of the Monarchy was
satisfactorily transacted by all parties.'
"The Emperor then expressed his regret that other matters of
equal importance affecting the interests of Austria had not
been disposed of. His Majesty made an appeal to the
representatives of the Reichsrath to devote their efforts to
the necessary and urgent work awaiting them, and assured them
that they might count upon the Government. All attempts at the
moral and material development of the Empire were, he said,
stultified by the nationality strife. Experience had shown
that the efforts of the Government to bring about a settlement
of the principal questions involved therein had led to no
result and that it was preferable to deal with the matter in
the Legislature. The Government regarded a generally
satisfactory solution of the pending language question as
being both an act of justice and a necessity of State.
Trusting in the good will manifested by all parties, the
Ministry would do its utmost to promote a settlement which
would relieve the country of its greatest evil. At the same
time, the Cabinet was under the obligation of maintaining
intact the unity of language in certain departments of the
Administration, in which it constituted an old and well-tested
institution. Success must never again be sought through
paralysing the popular representation. The hindrance of
Parliamentary work could only postpone or render quite
impossible the realization of such aspirations as most deeply
affected the public mind. The Sovereign then referred to the
damage done to the interests of the Empire by the obstacles
placed in the way of the regular working of the Constitution,
and pointed to the indispensable necessity of the vigorous
co-operation of Parliament in the approaching settlement of
the commercial relations between the two halves of the
Monarchy. The speech concluded with a warmly-worded appeal to
the representatives to establish a peace which would
correspond to the requirements of the time and to defend as
their fathers had defended 'this venerable State which accords
equal protection to all its peoples.'"
{47}
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1901 (March).
Continued turbulence of the factions
in the Austrian Reichsrath.
Outspoken aim of the Pan-Germans.
At this writing (late in March), the disgraceful and
destructive conflict of reckless factions is still raging in
the Austrian Reichsrath, and the parties have come to blows
several times. The hope of the German extremists for a
dissolution of the Empire seems to be more and more openly
avowed. On one occasion, "a Czech member, Dr. Sieleny, having
accused the Pan-Germans of wistfully glancing across the
frontier, Herr Stein, a member of the Pan-Germanic group,
replied, 'We do not glance, we gaze.' Being reproached with
looking towards Germany with an ulterior motive, the same
gentleman answered, 'You Czechs want to go to Russia, and we
Germans want to go to Germany.' Again, on being told that he
would like to become a Prussian, he exclaimed, 'I declare
openly that we want to go to the German Empire.' Finally, in
reply to another remark, Herr Stein observed that everybody in
the country who was an Austrian patriot was stupid."
----------AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: End--------
AUTONOMY, Constitutional:
Granted by Spain to Cuba and Porto Rico.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1897 (NOVEMBER);
and 1897-1898 (NOVEMBER-FEBRUARY).
AYUNTAMIENTOS.
Town councillors in Spain and in the Spanish American states.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).
B.
BABYLON: Exploration of the ruins of the city.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH:
BABYLONIA: GERMAN EXPLORATION.
BABYLON: Railway to the ruins.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1899 (NOVEMBER).
BABYLONIA: Archæological Exploration in.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.
BACHI,
BASHEE ISLANDS, The American acquisition of.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).
BACTERIAL SCIENCE, Recent.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: MEDICAL AND SURGICAL.
BADENI, Count: Austrian ministry.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1895-1896.
BADEN-POWELL, General R. S. S.: Defense of Mafeking.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER); and 1900 (MARCH-MAY).
BAGDAD, Railways to.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1899 (NOVEMBER); and JEWS: A. D. 1899.
BAJAUR.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A.D. 1895 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).
BALFOUR, Arthur J.:
First Lord of the Treasury in the British Cabinet.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1894-1895; and 1900 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER).
BALFOUR, Arthur J.:
Tribute to Queen Victoria.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES, The.
"The States of the Balkan Peninsula, ever since the practical
disruption of European Turkey after the war of 1877-78, have
been in a condition of chronic restlessness. Those who desire
the repose of Europe have hoped against hope that the new
communities which were founded or extended on the ruins of the
Ottoman dominion in Europe would be able and willing to keep
the peace among themselves and to combine in resisting the
intrusion of foreign influences. These expectations have been
too frequently disappointed. The lawlessness of Bulgaria and
the unsettled state of Servia, more especially, continue to
constitute a periodical cause of anxiety to the diplomacy of
Europe. The recent murder at Bukharest of Professor
Mihaileano, a Macedonian by birth and a Rumanian by
extraction, appears to be a shocking example of the teaching
of a school of political conspirators who have their centre of
operations at Sofia. These persons had already combined to
blackmail and terrorise the leading Rumanian residents in the
capital of Bulgaria, where the most abominable outrages are
stated to have been committed with impunity. Apparently, they
have now carried the war, with surprising audacity, into the
Rumanian capital itself. Two persons marked out for vengeance
by the terrorists of Sofia had previously been murdered in
Bukharest, according to our Vienna Correspondent, but these
were Bulgarians by birth. It is a further step in this
mischievous propaganda that a Rumanian subject, the occupant
of an official position at the seat of the Rumanian
government, should be done to death by emissaries from the
secret society at Sofia. His crime was that, born of Rumanian
parents in Macedonia, he had the boldness to controvert in the
Press the claims of the Bulgarians to obtain the upper hand in
a Turkish province, where Greeks, Turks, Bulgarians,
Albanians, and Serbs are inextricably mixed up. Professor
Mihaileano had probably very good reasons for coming to the
conclusion that, whatever may be the evils of Ottoman rule,
they are less than those which would follow a free fight in
the Balkans, ending, it may be, in the ascendency of Bulgarian
ruffianism.
"It is for this offence that M. Mihaileano suffered the
penalty of death by the decree of a secret tribunal, and at
the hands of assassins sent out to do their deadly work by
political intriguers who sit in safety at Sofia. The most
serious aspect of the matter, however, is the careless and
almost contemptuous attitude of the Bulgarian Government. The
reign of terror at Sofia and the too successful attempts to
extend it to Rumania have provoked remonstrances not only from
the government at Bukharest, but from some of the Great
Powers, including Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Italy. … There
is only too much reason to fear, even now, that both the
Bulgarian Government and the ruler of the Principality are
afraid to break with the terrorists of Sofia.
{48}
Political assassination is unfortunately among the traditions
of the Bulgarian State, but it has never been practised with
such frequency and impunity as under the rule of Prince
Ferdinand. … His own conduct as a ruler, coupled with the
lamentable decline of the spirit of Bulgarian independence,
which seemed to be vigorous and unflinching before the
kidnapping of Prince Alexander, has steadily lowered his
position. The Bulgarian agitation—to a large extent a sham
one—for the 'redemption,' as it is called, of Macedonia is a
safety-valve that relieves Prince Ferdinand and those who
surround him from much unpleasant criticism. …
"The situation in the Balkans is in many respects disquieting.
The Bulgarian agitation for the absorption of Macedonia is not
discouraged in high quarters. The hostility of the Sofia
conspirators to the Koutzo-Wallachs, the Rumanians of
Macedonia, is due to the fact that the latter, being a small
minority of the population, are ready to take their chance of
equal treatment under Turkish rule, subject to the supervision
of Europe, rather than to be swallowed up in an enlarged
Bulgaria, dominated by the passions that now prevail in the
Principality and that have been cultivated for obvious
reasons. Russia, it is believed, has no wish to see Bulgarian
aspirations realized, and would much rather keep the
Principality in a state of expectant dependence. Servia and
Greece would be as much embarrassed as Rumania by the success
of the Bulgarian propaganda, and Austria-Hungary would regard
it as a grave menace. Of course the Turkish government could
not be expected to acquiesce in what would, in fact, be its
knell of doom. … In Greece, the insubordination in certain
sections of the army is a symptom not very alarming in itself,
but unpleasantly significant of latent discontent. In Turkey,
of course, the recrudescence of the fanaticism which
periodically breaks out in the massacres of the Armenians
cannot be overlooked. A more unfortunate time could not be
chosen for endeavouring to reopen the Eastern question by
pressing forward the Bulgarian claim to Macedonia. Nor could a
more unfortunate method be adopted of presenting that claim than
that of the terrorists who appear to be sheltered or screened
at Sofia."
London Times, August 23, 1900.
See, also (in this volume),
TURKEY: A. D. 1899-1901.
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES:
Bulgaria.
On the 15th of July, 1895, M. Stambouloff, lately the powerful
chief minister in the Bulgarian government, but now overthrown
and out of favor, was attacked by four assassins, in the
streets of Sofia, and received wounds from which he died three
days afterwards.
The increasing influence of Russia in Bulgaria was manifested
unmistakably on the 14th of February, 1896, when Prince Boris,
the infant son and heir of the reigning Prince Ferdinand, was
solemnly baptised into the Orthodox Greek Church, the Tzar of
Russia, represented by proxy at the ceremony, acting as
sponsor. This is understood to have been done in opposition to
the most earnest remonstrances of the mother of the child, who is
an ardent Roman Catholic, the father being nominally the same.
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: Montenegro:
Recent changes.
"The accession of territory obtained under the Berlin Treaty
has already begun to alter the character of the country. The
area of the Principality has been almost doubled, and fertile
valleys, tracts of rich woodland and a strip of sea-coast have
been added to the realm of Prince Nikolas. Montenegro is now
something more than the rocky eyrie of a warlike clan, and the
problem of its commercial development constantly occupies the
mind of its ruler. The state of transition is reflected in the
aspect of the capital. A tiny hamlet in 1878, Tzetinye now
bears witness to the growth of civilisation and to the
beneficent influence of a paternal despotism. … Nikolas I.,
'Prince and Gospodar of free Tzrnagora and the Berda,' is the
most picturesque and remarkable figure in the South Slavonic
world. Descended from a long line of heroes, the heir of the
Vladikas, he has, like them, distinguished himself in many a
hard-fought conflict with the hereditary foe. In the field of
poetry he has also won his triumphs; like his father Mirko,
'the Sword of Montenegro,' he has written lyric odes and
ballads; like his ancestor, the Vladika Petar II., he has
composed historical dramas, and his poems and plays hold a
recognised place in contemporary Slavonic literature. The
inheritor of a splendid tradition, a warrior and a bard,
gifted by nature with a fine physique and a commanding
presence, he forms the impersonation and embodiment of all
that appeals most to the imagination of a romantic and
impressionable race, to its martial instinct, its poetic
temperament, and its strange—and to us
incomprehensible—yearning after long-vanished glories. … Any
attempt to describe Prince Nikolas' work as an administrator
and a reformer would lead me too far. The codification of the
law, which was begun by his ancestors, Danilo I. and Petar I.,
has been almost completed under his supervision. … The
suppression of the vendetta is one of the greatest of the
Prince's achievements. … Crime is now rare in the
Principality, except in the frontier districts, where acts of
homicide are regarded as justifiable, and indeed laudable, if
perpetrated in payment of old scores, or if the victim is an
Albanian from over the border. Primary education has been made
universal, schools have arisen in every village, and lecturers
have been appointed to explain to the peasants the advantages
of learning. Communications are being opened up, and the
Principality, which a few years since possessed nothing but
mule-tracks, can now boast of 138 miles of excellent
carriage-road, better engineered and maintained than any I
have seen in the Peninsula. The construction of roads is
viewed with some apprehension by the more conservative
Montenegrins, who fear that their mountain stronghold may lose
its inaccessible character. But the Prince is determined to
keep abreast of the march of civilisation. Nine post-offices
and thirteen telegraph stations have been established. The
latter, which are much used by the people, will play an
important part in the next mobilization of the Montenegrin
army. Hitherto the forces of the Principality have been called
together by stentorian couriers who shouted from the tops of
the mountains. A great reform, however, still remains to be
attempted—the conversion of a clan of warriors into an
industrial nation. The change has been rendered inevitable by
the enlargement of the bounds of the Principality, and its
necessity is fully recognised by the Prince.
{49}
Once the future of the country is assured, his order will be
'à bas les armes.' He is aware that such an edict would be
intensely unpopular, but he will not flinch when the time for
issuing it arrives. Every Montenegrin has been taught from his
cradle to regard warfare as his sole vocation in life, and to
despise industrial pursuits. The tradition of five hundred
years has remained unbroken, but the Prince will not hesitate
to destroy it. So enormous is his influence over the people,
that he feels confident in his ability to carry out this
sweeping reform."
J. D. Bourchier,
Montenegro and her Prince
(Fortnightly Review, December, 1898).
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: Montenegro:
New title of the Prince.
On the 19th of December, 1900, at Tzetinye, or Cettigne, "the
President of the Council of State, in the presence of the
other Ministers and dignitaries and of the members of the
Diplomatic Corps, presented an address to the Prince of
Montenegro praying him, in token of the gratitude of the
Montenegrin people for the benefits which he had conferred on
them during his 40 years' reign, to take the title of Royal
Highness. The Prince acceded to the request, and, replying to
the President, thanked all the European rulers who on this
occasion had given him a fresh proof of their friendship by
their recognition of his new title. After the ceremony a Te
Deum was celebrated in the Cathedral, and the Prince
subsequently reviewed the troops, receiving a great welcome
from the people."
Telegram,
Reuter's Agency.
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES:
Servia.
In January, 1894, the young king, Alexander, called his
father, the ex-king, Milan (abdicated in 1889—see, in volume
1. BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: A. D. 1879-1889), to Belgrade
to give him help against his Radical ministers, who had been
taking, the latter thought, too much into their own hands. The
first result was a change of ministry, soon followed by a
decision from the synod of Servian bishops annulling the
divorce of ex-King Milan and Queen Natalie; by a public
announcement of their reconciliation, and by an ukase from
King Alexander, cancelling all laws and resolutions which
touched his parents and restoring to them their rights and
privileges as members of the royal house. This, again, was
followed, on the 21st of May, by a royal proclamation which
abolished the constitution of December, 1888, and restored the
old constitution of 1869. This was a tremendous step backward, to
a state of things in which almost no protection against
arbitrary kingship could be found.
For some years the ex-king exercised considerable influence
over his son, and was again an uncertain and much distrusted
factor in the troubled politics of southeastern Europe. In
1898 the son appointed him commander-in-chief of the Servian
army, and he is said to have ably and energetically improved
its efficiency during the brief period of his command. A
breach between father and son was brought about before long,
however, by the determination of the latter to marry a lady,
Madame Draga Maschin, considerably older than himself, who had
been lady-in-waiting to his mother; while the father was
arranging a political marriage for him with a German princess.
The young king married his chosen bride in August, 1900, and
guarded his frontier with troops to bar the return of his
father, then sojourning at a German watering place, to the
kingdom. It was a final exile for the ex-king. He visited
Paris for a time; then went to Vienna, and there, on the 11th
of February, 1901, he died, at the age of 47.
BALLOONS, Declaration against explosives from.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
BALTIC and NORTH SEA CANALS.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1895 (JUNE); and 1900 (JUNE).
BANK OF FRANCE: Renewal of privileges.
See (in this volume)
MONETARY QUESTIONS: A. D. 1897.
BANKING: Its effect on the Nineteenth Century.
See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY: THE TREND.
BANKRUPTCY LAW, National.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY 1).
BARBADOS: Condition and relief measures.
See (in this volume)
WEST INDIES, THE BRITISH: A. D. 1897.
BARCELONA: A. D. 1895.
Student riots.
See (in this volume)
SPAIN: A. D. 1895-1896.
BAROTSILAND:
British Protectorate proclaimed.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (RHODESIA): A. D. 1900 (SEPTEMBER).
BARRAGE WORKS, Nile.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1898-1901.
BARRIOS, President: Assassination.
See (in this volume)
CENTRAL AMERICA (GUATEMALA): A. D. 1897-1898.
BARTON, Miss Clara, and the Red Cross Society.
Relief work in Armenia and Cuba.
See (in this volume)
ARMENIA: A. D. 1896 (JANUARY-MARCH);
and CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897.
BASHEE,
BACHI ISLANDS, The American acquisition of.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).
BECHUANALAND, British:
Annexation to Cape Colony.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (CAPE COLONY).
BECHUANALAND, British:
Partial conveyance to the British South Africa Company.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (BECHUANALAND).
BEEF INVESTIGATION, The American Army.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898-1899.
BEET SUGAR.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1896 (MAY);
and SUGAR BOUNTIES.
BEHRING SEA.
See (in this volume)
BERING SEA.
BÊL, Temple of:
Exploration of its ruins at Nippur.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.
BELGIAN ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION.
See (in this volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION, 1897-1899.
{50}
BELGIUM: A. D. 1894-1895.
The first election under the new constitution.
Victory of the Catholics and surprising Socialist gains.
Elsewhere in this work the full text of the Belgian
constitution as it was revised in 1893;
See in volume 1
CONSTITUTION OF BELGIUM).
The peculiar features of the new constitution, especially in
its provision of a system of cumulative or plural voting, are
described.
See in volume 3
NETHERLANDS (BELGIUM): A. D. 1892-1893)
The singularity of the experiment thus introduced caused the
elections that were held in Belgium in 1894 and 1895 to be
watched with an interest widely felt. Elections for the
Chamber of Representatives and the Senate occurred on the same
day, October 14, 1894. Previously the Belgian suffrage had
been limited to about 130,000 electors. Under the new
constitution the electors numbered no less than 1,370,000, and
the working of the plural system gave them 2, 111,000 votes.
The result was a more crushing victory for the Catholics than
they had ever won before. Of 152 Representatives they elected
no less than 104. The Liberal party was almost annihilated,
securing but 20 seats in the Chamber; while the Socialists
rose to political importance, winning 28 seats. This
representation is said to be not at all proportioned to the
votes cast by the several parties, and it lent force to the
demand for a system of proportional representation, as the
needed accompaniment of plural voting, which had been urged
when the constitution was revised. In the Senate the
Conservatives obtained 52 seats and the Liberals 24. In the
next year an electoral law relating to communal councils was
passed. In this law, the principle of proportional
representation was introduced, along with that of cumulative
or plural voting. Compulsory voting, enforced by penalties
more or less severe, was also a feature of the law. In
November, the first election under it was held, and again the
Socialists made surprising gains, at the expense of the
Radical party, the Catholics and Liberals generally holding
their ground.
BELGIUM: A. D. 1895.
New School Law.
Compulsory religious teaching restored.
See (in this volume)
EDUCATION: A. D. 1895 (BELGIUM).
BELGIUM: A. D. 1897.
Industrial combinations.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.
BELGIUM: A. D. 1897 (July).
British notice to terminate existing commercial treaties.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (JUNE-JULY).
BELGIUM: A. D. 1898 (June).
The Sugar Conference at Brussels.
See (in this volume)
SUGAR BOUNTIES.
BELGIUM: A. D. 1898 (July-December).
In the Chinese "battle of concessions."
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-DECEMBER).
BELGIUM: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
BELGIUM: A. D. 1899-1900.
Threatened revolution.
An explosion of discontent with the working of the electoral
provisions of the new constitution (see above) occurred in
June, and created for a time an exceedingly dangerous
situation. It was precipitated by an attempt on the part of
the government to pass a bill providing for proportional
representation in certain districts, which was expected to
increase the advantage already possessed by the Clerical or
Catholic party. Excitement in the Chamber of Deputies reached
such a height on the 28th of June that fighting among the
members occurred, and soldiers were called in. That night and
the next day there was serious rioting in Brussels; barricades
were built; sharp battles between citizens and soldiers were
fought, and a general strike of working men was proposed. On
the 30th, the government arranged a compromise with the
Socialist and Liberal leaders which referred the question of
proportional representation to a committee in which all
parties were represented. This quieted the disorder. In due
time the committee reported against the measure which the
government had proposed; whereupon a change of ministry was
made, the new ministry being expected to bring forward a more
satisfactory plan of proportional representation. It produced
a bill for that purpose, the provisions of which failed to
give satisfaction, but which was passed, nevertheless, near
the end of the year.
Commenting, in July, on the disturbances then just quieted in
Belgium, the "Spectator," of London, remarked: "The recent
explosion of political feeling in Belgium was a much more
serious event than was quite understood in this country. It
might have involved all Europe, as, indeed, it may even yet.
There was revolution in the air, and a revolution in Belgium
would gravely affect the military position both of France and
Germany, would rouse keen suspicions and apprehensions in this
country, and would perturb all the dynasties with fears of
coming change. The new electoral bill drove the Liberals and
Socialists of the little kingdom into one another's arms—both
believing that it would give the Clericals a permanent hold on
power—and whenever these two parties are united they control
the majority of the Belgian people. That majority is a most
dangerous one. It controls all the cities, and it includes
hundreds of thousands of men who resent their economic
condition with justifiable bitterness, and who are penetrated
with a tradition of victories achieved by insurrection. At the
same time they have no pacific vent for their discontents, for
the suffrage gives double votes to the well-to-do, and secures
to both Liberals and laborers on all economic or religious
questions a certainty of defeat. With the inhabitants of the
cities all rioting and killing the officials, the government
would have been compelled to resort to force, and it is by no
means clear that force was decidedly on their side. The
Belgian army is not a caste widely separated in feeling from
the people; it has no instinctive devotion to the Clerical
party, and it has no great soldier whom it admires or to whom
it is attached. The king is distrusted and disliked both
personally and politically; and the dynasty, which has no
historic connection with Belgium, has never taken root in the
soil as the Bernadottes, for example, have done in Sweden. If
the revolutionists had been beaten, they would have appealed
to France, where Belgium is regarded as a reversionary estate;
while if they had been victorious, they might—in our judgment,
they certainly would—have proclaimed a republic. … The danger
has, we suppose, for the moment been smoothed away; but it has
not been removed, probably can not be removed, while the
conditions which produce it continue to exist. The Belgians,
who are commonly supposed to be so prosperous and pacific, are
divided by differences of race, creed, and social condition
more violent than exists in Ireland, where at all events, all
alike, with insignificant exceptions, speak one tongue.
{51}
The French-speaking Belgians despise the Flemish-speaking
Belgians, and the Flemish speaking Belgians detest the
French-speaking Belgians, with a rancor only concealed by the
long habit of living and acting together,—a habit which,
remember, has not prevented the same contempts and aversions
from continuing to exist in Ireland. The Clericals and the
Secularists hate each other as only religious parties can
hate; far more than Catholics and Protestants in any of the
countries where the two creeds stand side by side. The
Secularist seems to the Clerical a blasphemer, against whom
almost all devices are justifiable, while the Clerical is held
by the Secularist to be a kind of evil fool, from whom nothing is
to be expected except cunningly concealed malignity. The
possessors of property expect that the 'ugly rush' which used
to be talked of in England will occur tomorrow, while the wage
receivers declare that they are worked to death for the
benefit of others, who will not leave them so much as a living
wage. All display when excited to a noteworthy fierceness of
temper, a readiness to shed blood, and a disposition to push
every quarrel into a sort of war,—tendencies visible
throughout the history of the country."
At the parliamentary election in June, 1900, under the new law
providing for proportional representation, the Socialists
gained seventeen seats from the Clerical party.
BELGIUM: A. D. 1900.
Relations with the Congo State.
See (in this volume)
CONGO FREE STATE: A. D. 1900.
BELL TELEPHONE SYSTEM, Recent development of.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: ELECTRICAL.
BELMONT, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
BENIN:
Massacre of British officials.
Capture of the town.
See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1897.
BERGENDAL FARM, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1900 (JUNE-DECEMBER).
BERING SEA QUESTIONS.
"Several vexatious questions were left undetermined by the
decision of the Bering Sea Arbitration Tribunal.
See, in volume 5,
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1886-1893.
The application of the principles laid down by that august
body has not been followed by the results they were intended
to accomplish, either because the principles themselves lacked
in breadth and definiteness or because their execution has
been more or less imperfect. Much correspondence has been
exchanged between the two Governments [of Great Britain and
the United States] on the subject of preventing the
exterminating slaughter of seals. The insufficiency of the
British patrol of Bering Sea under the regulations agreed on
by the two Governments has been pointed out, and yet only two
British ships have been on police duty during this season in
those waters. The need of a more effective enforcement of
existing regulations as well as the adoption of such
additional regulations as experience has shown to be
absolutely necessary to carry out the intent of the award have
been earnestly urged upon the British Government, but thus far
without effective results. In the meantime the depletion of
the seal herds by means of pelagic hunting [that is, in the
open sea] has so alarmingly progressed that unless their
slaughter is at once effectively checked their extinction
within a few years seems to be a matter of absolute certainty.
The understanding by which the United States was to pay and Great
Britain to receive a lump sum of $425,000 in full settlement
of all British claims for damages arising from our seizure of
British sealing vessels unauthorized under the award of the
Paris Tribunal of Arbitration was not confirmed by the last
Congress, which declined to make the necessary appropriation.
I am still of the opinion that this arrangement was a
judicious and advantageous one for the Government, and I
earnestly recommend that it be again considered and
sanctioned. If, however, this does not meet with the favor of
Congress, it certainly will hardly dissent from the
proposition that the Government is bound by every
consideration of honor and good faith to provide for the
speedy adjustment of these claims by arbitration as the only
other alternative. A treaty of arbitration has therefore been
agreed upon, and will be immediately laid before the Senate,
so that in one of the modes suggested a final settlement may
be reached."
Message of the President of the United States to Congress,
December, 1895.
The treaty thus referred to by the President was signed at
Washington, February 8, 1896, and ratifications were exchanged
at London on the 3d of June following. Its preamble set forth
that, whereas the two governments had submitted certain
questions to a tribunal of arbitration, and "whereas the High
Contracting Parties having found themselves unable to agree
upon a reference which should include the question of the
liability of each for the injuries alleged to have been
sustained by the other, or by its citizens, in connection with
the claims presented and urged by it, did, by Article VIII of
the said Treaty, agree that either party might submit to the
Arbitrators any questions of fact involved in said claims, and
ask for a finding thereon, the question of the liability of
either Government on the facts found to be the subject of
further negotiation: And whereas the Agent of Great Britain
did, in accordance with the provisions of said Article VIII,
submit to the Tribunal of Arbitration certain findings of fact
which were agreed to as proved by the Agent of the United
States, and the Arbitrators did unanimously find the facts so
set forth to be true, as appears by the Award of the Tribunal
rendered on the 15th day of August, 1893: And whereas, in view
of the said findings of fact and of the decision of the
Tribunal of Arbitration concerning the jurisdictional rights
of the United States in Behring Sea, and the right of
protection of property of the United States in the fur-seals
frequenting the islands of the United States in Behring Sea,
the Government of the United States is desirous that, in so
far as its liability is not already fixed and determined by
the findings of fact and the decision of said Tribunal of
Arbitration, the question of such liability should be
definitely and fully settled and determined, and compensation
made, for any injuries for which, in the contemplation of the
Treaty aforesaid, and the Award and findings of the Tribunal
of Arbitration, compensation may be due to Great Britain from
the United States: And whereas it is claimed by Great Britain,
though not admitted by the United States, that prior to the
said Award certain other claims against the United States
accrued in favour of Great Britain on account of seizures of
or interference with the following named British
sealing-vessels, to wit: the 'Wanderer,' the 'Winifred,' the
'Henrietta,' and the 'Oscar and Hattie,' and it is for the
mutual interest and convenience of both the High Contracting
Parties that the liability of the United States, if any, and
the amount of compensation to be paid, if any, in respect to
such claims, and each of them should also be determined under
the provisions of this Convention—all claims by Great Britain
under Article V of the modus vivendi of the 18th April, 1892,
for the abstention from fishing of British sealers during the
pendency of said arbitration having been definitely waived
before the Tribunal of Arbitration"—therefore the two nations
have concluded the Convention referred to, which provides that
"all claims on account of injuries sustained by persons in
whose behalf Great Britain is entitled to claim compensation
from the United States, and arising by virtue of the Treaty
aforesaid, the Award and the findings of the said Tribunal of
Arbitration, as also the additional claims specified in the
5th paragraph of the preamble hereto, shall be referred to two
Commissioners, one of whom shall be appointed by Her Britannic
Majesty, and the other by the President of the United States,
and each of whom shall be learned in the law."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: Treaty Series, Number 10, 1896).
{52}
Judges William L. Putnam, of the United States, and George E.
King, of Canada, were subsequently appointed to be the two
commissioners provided for in the treaty. Meantime each
government had appointed a number of men of science to
investigate the condition of the herds of fur-seals on
Pribilof Islands, President David S. Jordan, of Leland
Stanford Junior University being director of the American
investigation and Professor D'Arcy W. Thompson having charge
of the British. The two bodies of investigators reached quite
different conclusions. Professor Jordan, in a preliminary
statement, announced; "There is still a vast body of fur seals
on the islands, more than the commissioners were at first led
to expect, but the number is steadily declining. The only
cause of this decline is the killing of females through
pelagic sealing. The females are never molested on the
islands, but three-fourths of those killed in Bering sea are
nursing females. The death of the mother causes the death of
the young on shore, so that for every four fur seals killed at
sea three pups starve to death on shore. As each of those
females is also pregnant, a like number of unborn pups is
likewise destroyed." His formal report, made in January, 1897,
was to the same effect, and led to the following conclusion:
"The ultimate end in view should be an international
arrangement whereby all skins of female fur seals should be
seized and destroyed by the customs authorities of civilized
nations, whether taken on land or sea, from the Pribilof herd,
the Asiatic herds, or in the lawless raiding of the Antarctic
rookeries. In the destruction of the fur seal rookeries of the
Antarctic, as well as those of the Japanese islands and of
Bering sea, American enterprise has taken a leading part. It
would be well for America to lead the way in stopping pelagic
sealing by restraining her own citizens without waiting for
the other nations. We can ask for protection with better grace
when we have accorded, unasked, protection to others." The
report of Professor Thompson, made three months later, agreed
but partially with that of the American experts. He admitted
the extensive starving of the young seals, caused by the
killing of the mothers, but contended that the herd was
diminishing slightly, if at all, and he did not favor drastic
measures for the suppression of pelagic sealing.
The government of the United States adopted measures in
accordance with the views of Professor Jordan, looking to an
international regulation of the killing of seals. Hon. John W.
Foster was appointed a special ambassador to negotiate
arrangements to that effect. Through the efforts of Mr.
Foster, an international conference on the subject was agreed
to on the part of Russia and Japan, but Great Britain declined
to take part. While these arrangements were pending, the
American Secretary of State, Mr. Sherman, addressed a letter
to the American Ambassador at London, Mr. Hay, criticising the
conduct of the British government and its agents in terms that
are not usual among diplomats, and which excited much feeling
when the letter was published in July. This called out a reply
from the British Colonial Secretary, Mr. Chamberlain, in which
he wrote: "When Her Majesty's government sent their agents to
inquire into the actual facts in 1896, it was found that, in
spite of the large catch of 1895, the herd actually numbered
more than twice as many cows as it had been officially
asserted to contain in 1895. The result of these
investigations, as pointed out in Lord Salisbury's dispatch of
May 7, has further been to show that pelagic sealing is much
less injurious than the practice pursued by the United States'
lessees of killing on land every male whose skin was worth
taking. If the seal herd to-day is, as Professor Jordan
estimates, but one-fifth of what it was in 1872-74, that
result must be, in great measure, due to the fact that, while
the islands were under the control of Russia, that power was
satisfied with an average catch of 33,000 seals; subsequently
under the United States' control more than three times that
number have been taken every year, until the catch was,
perforce, reduced because that number of males could no longer
be found.
"Last year, while the United States government were pressing
Her Majesty's government to place further restrictions on
pelagic sealing, they found it possible to kill 30,000 seals
on the islands, of which Professor Jordan says (in one place
in his report) 22,000 were, to the best of his information,
three-year-olds, though (in another place) he estimated the
total number of three-year-old males on the islands as 15,000
to 20,000. If such exhaustive slaughter is continued, it will,
in the light of the past history of the herd, very quickly bring
about that commercial extermination which has been declared in
the United States to be imminent every year for the last
twelve years. Enough has perhaps been said to justify the
refusal of Her Majesty's government to enter on a precipitate
revision of the regulations."
{53}
The two countries were thus being carried into serious
opposition, on a matter that looks contemptible when compared
with the great common interests which ought to bind them in
firm friendship together. But, while the government of Great
Britain declined to enter into conference with those of
Russia, Japan and the United States, on general questions
relating to the seals, it assented at length to a new
conference with the United States and Canada, relative to the
carrying out of the regulations prescribed by the Paris
tribunal of 1893. Both conferences were held at Washington in
October and November of 1897. The first resulted in a treaty
(November 6) between Russia, Japan, and the United States,
providing for a suspension of pelagic sealing during such time
as might be determined by experts. The other conference led,
after some interval, to the creation of a Joint High
Commission for the settlement of all questions in dispute
between the United States and Canada, the sealing question
included.
See (in this volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1898-1899.
So far as concerned its own citizens, the American government
adopted vigorous measures for the suppression of pelagic
sealing. An Act of Congress, approved by the President on the
29th December, 1897, forbade the killing of seals, by any
citizen of the United States, in any part of the Pacific Ocean
north of 35 degrees north latitude. The same act prohibited
the importation into the United States of sealskins taken
elsewhere than in the Pribilof Islands, and very strict
regulations for its enforcement were issued by the Treasury
Department. No sealskins, either in the raw or the
manufactured state, might be admitted to the country, even
among the personal effects of a traveller, unless accompanied
by an invoice, signed by an United States Consul, certifying
that they were not from seals killed at sea. Skins not thus
certified were seized and destroyed.
In his annual report for 1898, the United States Secretary of
the Treasury stated that no pelagic sealing whatever had been
carried on by citizens of the United States during the season
past; but that 30 British vessels had been engaged in the
work, against 32 in the previous year, and that their total
catch had been 10,581, against 6,100 taken by the same fleet
in 1897. The number of seals found on the Islands was reported
to be greatly reduced.
BERLIN: A. D. 1895.
Census.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1895 (JUNE-DECEMBER).
BERLIN: A. D. 1896.
Industrial exposition.
An exposition of German industries and products was opened at
Berlin on the 1st of May, 1896. which excited wide interest
and had an important stimulating effect in Germany.
BERLIN: A. D. 1900.
Growth shown by the latest census.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (DECEMBER).
BERLIN: A. D. 1901.
The Berlin and Stettin Ship Canal.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).
BETHLEHEM, Capture of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1900 (JUNE-DECEMBER).
BIAC-NA-BATO, Treaty of.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1896-1898.
BIBLE LANDS, Archæological exploration in.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.
BICOLS, The.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: THE NATIVE INHABITANTS.
BIDA, British subjugation of.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (NIGERIA).
BIG SWORD,
BIG KNIFE SOCIETY.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH).
BISMARCK, Prince Otto von: Death.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (JULY).
BLACK FLAG REBELLION.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JULY).
BLANCO, General Ramon, Captain-General of Cuba.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897.
BLANCOS.
See (in this volume)
URUGUAY: A. D. 1896-1899.
BLOEMFONTEIN:
Taken by the British.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1900 (MARCH—MAY).
BLOEMFONTEIN CONFERENCE, The.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1899 (MAY-JUNE).
BLUEFIELDS INCIDENT, The.
See (in this volume)
CENTRAL AMERICA (NICARAGUA): A. D. 1894-1895.
BOARD SCHOOLS, English.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1896-1897.
BOERS.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL).
BOHEMIA:
Recent situation in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1895-1896, and after.
BOHEMIA: A. D. 1897.
The language decrees.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897; and 1898.
BOLIVIA: A. D. 1894-1900.
The dispute with Chile concerning Atacama.
See (in this volume) CHILE: A. D. 1894-1900.
BOLIVIA: A. D. 1899.
Revolution.
The government of President Alonzo (elected in 1896) was
overthrown in April, 1899, by a revolutionary movement
conducted by General José Manuel Pando, who was elected
President by the legislative chambers in the following
October.
BOMBAY: A. D. 1896-1901.
The Bubonic Plague.
See (in this volume)
PLAGUE.
BOMBAY: A. D. 1901.
Census returns.
Decrease of population.
A telegram from Bombay, March 6, 1901, reports that "the
census returns show the city of Bombay has 770,000
inhabitants, a decrease of over fifty thousand in ten years,
mainly due to the exodus of the last two months on account of
the plague. Partial returns from the rural districts show
terrible decreases in population through famine."
BORDA, President: Assassination.
See (in this volume)
URUGUAY: A. D. 1896-1899.
BORIS, Prince: Conversion.
See (in this volume)
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES (BULGARIA).
{54}
BOSTON: A. D. 1895-1899.
The municipal experiments of Mayor Quincy.
First elected Mayor of Boston in 1895, and reelected in 1897,
the two terms of the administration of Mayor Josiah Quincy
were made remarkable by the number, the originality and the
boldness of the experiments which he introduced in extension
of the functions of municipal government. They consisted on
the one hand in the substitution, in certain branches of
public work, of direct labor for the contract system, and on
the other in the provision of new facilities for promoting
popular health, recreation, and instruction. He established a
municipal printing office, a municipal department of
electrical construction, and another municipal department
which conducts every kind of repairing work that the city
requires; all of these to supersede the old system of
contracts and jobs. He instituted a great number and variety
of public baths,—floating baths, beach baths, river baths and
swimming pools. He opened playgrounds and gymnasiums, both
outdoor and indoor. He carried the city into the work of the
fresh air missions for poor children. He reorganized the
administration of public charities. He placed the artistic
undertakings of the city under the supervision of a competent
board. He instituted cheap concerts of a high order, as well
as popular lectures. Boston at length took alarm at the extent
of the ventures of Mayor Quincy, complained of the cost, and
refused him reelection for a third term. But the Boston
correspondent of a New York journal opposed in politics to
Mayor Quincy, writing on the 15th of December, 1900, testifies
that "most of the experiments are working well, and a study of
them cannot fail to be beneficial to those who have the
government of other cities in their hands. … The madness of
Mayor Quincy had evidently a method. It seems to have made
permanent a good many excellent institutions. Some good
citizens say that things were done too quickly, that they cost
too much money, that the Mayor was always robbing Peter to pay
Paul, as it were. But, after all, it seems cause for
thankfulness that they were done at all."
BOSTON: A. D. 1899.
Completion of the Subway.
In this year the city of Boston completed a very important
public improvement, undertaken in 1895, and carried out under
the direction of a commission appointed that year. This was
the construction of a Subway under Boylston and Tremont
streets, and under various streets in the northern district,
for the transit of electric cars through the crowded central
parts of the city. The section of Subway from Park Square to
Park Street was finished in the fall of 1897; the remainder in
1899. The entire length of underground road is one and
two-thirds miles. The cost of work done was $4,686,000: cost
of real estate taken, $1,100,000. The legislative Act
authorizing the work provided further for the construction of
a tunnel to East Boston, and for the purchase of rights of way
for an elevated road to Franklin Park, with new bridges to
Charlestown and West Boston.
BOWER, Sir Graham:
Testimony before British Parliamentary Committee on
the Jameson Raid.
See (in this volume))
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY-JULY).
BOXERS, The Chinese:
The secret society and the meaning of its name.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH), and after.
BRADFORD'S HISTORY:
Return of the manuscript to Massachusetts.
See (in this volume)
MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1897.
BRAZIL: A. D. 1897.
Conflict with the "Fanatics."
A religious enthusiast, called Conselheiro (Counsellor), who
had made his appearance in the State of Bahia and gathered a
great number of followers, began in 1897 to become dangerous
to the government, which he denounced as atheistic; his
following grew disorderly, and political malcontents were
taking advantage of the disturbance which he caused. Attempts
on the part of the government to stop the disorder were
fiercely resisted, and its conflict with "the Fanatics," as
Conselheiro and his followers were known, soon became a very
serious war, demanding many thousands of troops, and spreading
over wide regions of the country. Amazonian bands of women
fought with "the Fanatics," and were among the most dreaded
forces on their side. The headquarters and stronghold of the
movement were finally taken in July, after an obstinate
defense, and in October Conselheiro was killed; after which
the rebellion came to an end.
BRAZIL: A. D. 1898.
Election of Dr. Campos Salles to the Presidency.
The nomination and election of Dr. M. F. de Campos Salles, who
was inaugurated President of the United States of Brazil on
the 15th of November, 1898, "marks the decided distinction of
parties in Brazil. Previously, there had been various
divergencies among the Republicans, but no distinct party
differences. But at that time there arose a party advocating
the selection of a candidate who would favor the national
against the foreign (naturalized) element; one who would have
influence with the few remaining advocates of the monarchical
government; who would give preference to a military over a
civil government; finally, one who would introduce into the
government the system called 'Jacobinism,' a designation which
the new party did not refuse to accept. Dr. Campos Salles was
the candidate of the moderate Republicans or Conservatives,
who were organized under the name of the Republican party,
with a platform demanding respect for the constitution and
declaring for the institution of such reforms as only reason
and time should dictate. The sympathies of the conservative
element and of foreigners who had interests in the country
were with the candidate of this party and gave him their
support. The election of Dr. Campos Salles inspired renewed
confidence in the stability of Brazil, a confidence which was
at once manifested by the higher quotation of the national
bonds, by an advance in the rate of exchange, and by greater
activity in business throughout the country. Brazil, in spite
of all hindrances, has prospered since 1889."
Bulletin of the Bureau of American Republics,
December, 1898.
{55}
BRAZIL: A. D. 1900.
Arbitration of the French Guiana boundary dispute.
Award of the Swiss Government.
A dispute with France concerning the boundary of the French
possessions in Guiana, which Brazil inherited from Portugal,
and which dates back to the 17th century, was submitted at
last to the Swiss Federal Council, as a tribunal of
arbitration, and settled by the award of the Council on
December 1, 1900. The decision fixes the River Oyapok and the
watershed of the Tumuc Humac Mountains as the boundary. It is
practically in favor of Brazil, for France had claimed, a year
before, a territory of not less than 400,000 square
kilomètres, ten times the area of Switzerland itself. Even
after a large abatement had been made, the claim was still for
260,000 square kilometres, or 100,000 square miles, much more
than the area of Great Britain. The actual territory allotted
to France by the Federal Government of Switzerland is about
3,000 square miles. The arbitrators had no excuse for saying
that the case was not brought before them in all its length
and breadth. The documents presented by France formed four
large volumes, supplemented by an atlas of 35 maps, while
Brazil, not to be outdone, put in 13 volumes of documents and
three atlases, with about 200 maps.
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE:
Administrative separation from British
South Africa Company's territory.
Conflicts with natives.
Resources and prospects of the country.
Until 1894, the territory north of the Zambezi over which the
British South Africa Company claimed a "sphere of influence,"
and the region covered by the British Protectorate that was
declared in 1889-1890 over Nyassaland and the Shiré Highlands,
were administered together by Sir Harry Johnston. But in that
year the South Africa Company undertook the administration of
its own portion of British Central Africa, and Commissioner
Johnston became the Administrator of the remaining "British
Central Africa Protectorate." In his report for 1895-1896
(April to April) the Commissioner estimated the native
population of the Protectorate at 844,420; British subjects,
259; other Europeans, 30; Indians, 263; half-castes, 23. Of
hostilities with the natives, Commissioner Johnston gave the
following report:
"In the autumn of 1895, … a campaign lasting four months was
commenced and carried to a successful conclusion against all
the independent Yao Chiefs who dwelt on the south-eastern
border of the Protectorate, and who continued to raid our
territories for slaves. This campaign culminated in the
complete defeat and death or expulsion of those Arabs who had
created an independent power in the North Nyasa district.
Action was also taken against the Angoni Chief, Mwasi Kazungu,
in the interior of the Marimba district, who had made common
cause with the Arabs, and was attempting to form against us a
league of the Angoni-Zulus. … The only people likely now to
give trouble in any way are the Angoni-Zulus, who are to the
west of the Protectorate what the Yaos and Arabs have been to
the north. For the past 40 years the western portions of the
Protectorate have been the happy hunting-ground of the
descendants of the Zulu bands who quitted Matabeleland at
various periods during the last 70 years, and who penetrated
into Central Africa as far as the eastern part of Tanganyika
and the south shores of the Victoria Nyanza. They established
themselves strongly as a ruling caste on the high plateaux to
the west and to the north-east of Lake Nyasa. From these
plateaux they raided perseveringly for slaves, chiefly in the
regions of the Great Luangwa valley, but also to some extent
the coast lands of Lake Nyasa.
"Not a few of the Angoni Chiefs are friendly and well disposed
towards the British, and seem likely to settle down quietly as
they appreciate the futility of continued defiance of our
power; but we may have yet a little trouble from the Western
Angoni, and also from an ill-conditioned young Chief
ordinarily known by his father's name, Chikusi, but whose
private appellation is Gomanikwenda. Chikusi lives on the
wedge of Portuguese territory which penetrates the
southwestern part of the Protectorate. Secure in the knowledge
that our forces cannot infringe the Portuguese border, he
occasionally makes raids for slaves into the Upper Shire and
Central Angoniland districts."
Sir Harry Johnston,
Report
(Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications:
Papers by Command, Africa, Number 5, 1896),
pages 12-13.
In the autumn of 1896, Chikusi raided one of the mission
stations at Ntonda, killing many native Christians. An
expedition was then sent against him, which pursued him to his
chief kraal, and took him prisoner. He was tried for murder,
condemned and shot.
"Nyasaland, or British Central Africa as it is officially
called, is now [1898] in a fair way of becoming one of the
richest coffee and tobacco growing districts of the world. It
enjoys the immense advantage of direct water communication
with the coast and, with the exception of a stretch of one
hundred miles, the River Shiré, which runs out of Lake Nyasa,
is navigable along its whole course. Before long the Upper and
Lower Shiré will be connected by a railway line, and goods
will then be landed at the northern extremity of Lake Nyasa—a
distance of 700 miles from the mouth of the Zambezi—at a
trifling cost. At present the journey can already be
accomplished in a week. Ten steamers navigate Lake Nyasa, and
double that number run on the Zambezi and the Shiré Rivers.
This mighty task—accomplished, we must not forget it, without
the cost of a single penny to the British tax-payer—did not
benefit Great Britain alone. The Portuguese, who, for the last
three centuries were slumbering in their East African
possessions, were aroused by the extraordinary activity which
was displayed at their door. At first they raised objections,
but they soon understood what advantages they would derive
from the situation, and gave their hearty co-operation to
Great Britain. It brought more wealth than they had ever
dreamt of to their Zambezi provinces, now a busy centre of
trade, in telegraphic communication with the Cape in the South
and Lake Nyasa in the North. The Portuguese port of Beira, a
sandbank some years ago, has become the most important harbour
between Zanzibar and Delagoa Bay, and owes its present
position to the railway line which runs to Mashonaland."
L. Decle,
The Fashoda Question
(Fortnightly Review, November, 1898).
BRITISH COLUMBIA.
See (in this volume)
CANADA.
BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1895.
Territory transferred to the British Government.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (BRITISH EAST AFRICA).
{56}
BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1895-1897.
Its creation and extent.
Existence of slavery.
War in the Province of Seyyidieh.
Report of the commissioner.
"The British East Africa Protectorate is bounded on the east
by the Indian Ocean, on the west by the Uganda Protectorate,
and on the south-west by the Anglo-German frontier, which,
starting from the mouth of the River Umba, runs in a generally
north-west direction till it strikes the eastern shore of Lake
Victoria Nyanza at the point at which it is intersected by the
1st parallel of south latitude. To the north and north-east it
is bounded by the Italian sphere of influence from which it is
divided by the River Juba up to parallel 6° of north latitude,
and thence by a line running along that parallel until it
reaches the Blue Nile. The frontier between the East Africa
and Uganda Protectorates is only partially defined: starting
from the German frontier, it follows the Guaso Masai River as
far as Sosian, thence strikes north-cast to the Kedong River,
which it follows to its source, and thence runs in a northerly
direction along the Likipia escarpment or eastern lip of the
great 'meridional rift.' It is, however, still undecided
whether or not it should be deflected, for greater convenience
in dealing with the Uganda Masai, so as to leave to Uganda the
region between the southern portion of the Likipia escarpment
and the so-called Aberdare range. In view of the uncertainty
existing as to the inland boundaries, it is impossible to give
the exact area of the territory, though it may be estimated
roughly at 280,000 square miles. It will be sufficient here to
state that its coast-line, including in the term the Islands
of Lamu, Manda, and Patta, which are separated from the
mainland by narrow channels, is 405 miles long, whilst its
greatest breadth, measured from the centre of the district of
Gosha on the Juba, to the Likipia escarpment, is 460 miles.
"The Protectorate in its present form was constituted on the
1st July, 1895. Previous to that date a Protectorate had been
declared on the 4th November, 1890, over those portions of the
territory which formed part of the Zanzibar Sultanate, and on
the 19th November of the same year over Witu and the whole of
the coast between the Tana and Juba Rivers. The administration
of this second Protectorate was confided in 1893, with the
exception of those portions of the coast between the Tana and
Juba which belonged to the Zanzibar Sultanate and were rented
by the Imperial British East Africa Company from him, to the
Sultan of Zanzibar, but without being fused in or united to
the Sultanate. In September, 1894, a Protectorate was
established under an independent Commissioner over Uganda, and
was subsequently defined as extending over the whole of the
intervening territory from which the Imperial British East
Africa Company had withdrawn its effective control, that is,
as far as the western limits of its district of Kikuyu, which
still constitutes the frontier between the East Africa and
Uganda Protectorates. The remainder of the British sphere
between the Zanzibar and Uganda boundaries and the Tana River
and German frontier was placed under Her Majesty's protection
on the 1st July, 1895, and the whole of the above-described
territories to the east of the Uganda Protectorate were at the
same time fused into one administrative whole under the title
of the' East Africa Protectorate.'
"British East Africa includes three district sovereignties, i.
e.: 1. The mainland territories of the Sultan of Zanzibar. 2.
The Sultanate of Witu. 3. The remainder of the Protectorate
consisting of the old 'chartered territory' of the Imperial
British East Africa Company and of the region between the Tana
and the Juba not included either in Zanzibar or Witu. This
division, which I propose for the sake of convenience to style
British East Africa proper, is not, of course, technically
under Her Majesty's sovereignty, and is divided among a number
of tribes and races under our Protectorate, but it differs from
Zanzibar and Witu in that the status of the Chiefs exercising
authority there is not recognized by international law or at
least by any international engagement.
"The mainland dominions of the Sultan of Zanzibar included in
the Protectorate (for he possesses certain coast ports to the
north of it now leased to Italy) consist—(1.) Of a strip of
coast 10 miles deep from high-water mark, extending from the
mouth of the River Umba on the south to Kipini on the Ozi on
the north; and (2.) Of a series of islands off the coast
between the Ozi and the Juba and of the mainland town of
Kismayu with a radius of 10 miles around it. … The State of
Witu extends along the coast from Kipini to Kwyhoo, its
northern boundary being a straight line drawn in 1887 by
Commissioners representing the German and Zanzibar Governments
due west from Kwyhoo to a point a few miles east of the Ozi
River. It was founded, or rather gradually grew up, in the
years from 1860 to 1885, round a colony of outlaws. … When the
German Government first interested itself, about a decade ago,
in East African affairs, it recognized the little colony of
outlaws and refugees from the coast towns which had grown up
in Witu, as an independent State. … Accordingly, on
transferring this Protectorate by the Treaty of 1890 to Great
Britain, it stipulated by Article II of that Agreement, that
the sovereignty of the Sultan of Witu over the territory
formally defined as his in 1887 should be recognized by the
new Protecting Power. …
"Beyond the Zanzibar and Witu limits, the territories
comprised in the Protectorate are ruled directly under Her
Majesty by the British officers in charge of them. All the
various tribes, Mahommedan and heathen, retain, however, their
respective native Rulers and institutions. … For a period of ten
months from the transfer from the Imperial British East Africa
Company to Her Majesty's Government, the country now forming
the Province of Seyyidieh, was the theatre of disturbances,
which for a time retarded the development of the territory,
and diverted the attention of the Administration from useful
schemes of improvement that might otherwise have been
immediately set on foot. These disturbances began under the
Administration of the Imperial British East Africa Company,
their immediate cause being a dispute over the succession to
the Chieftainship of Takaungu between Rashid-bin-Salim, the
son, and Mubarak-bin-Rashid, the nephew of the former Chief. …
The Company supported Rashid, who, though younger in years
than Mubarak, was friendly to the English. … Though the
rebellion of the Mazrui Chiefs retarded to some extent the
development of the province, and entailed in its suppression
considerable expense, its occurrence, under the special
circumstances which attended it, has not been an unmixed evil.
We have broken once for all the power of several influential
Arab potentates, who were never thoroughly subjugated either
by the Sultans or the Company, and whose ambitions and
semi-independent position would sooner or later have involved
us in trouble with them had we attempted to make the authority
of our Administration effective, and to interfere with the
slavery, and even Slave Trade, which flourished under their
protection."
Sir A. Hardinge,
Report
(Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications:
Papers by Command, Africa, Number 7, 1897),
page 1-3, and 65.
{57}
BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1900-1901.
Rising of Ogaden Somalis.
In the later part of November, 1900, news reached Zanzibar of
a rising of the Somali tribe called Ogadens in the Jubaland
province of the British East Africa Protectorate, and that the
British Sub-Commissioner, Mr. Jenner, had probably been killed.
The Somalis are a very war-like race, supposed to be Gallas by
descent, with an admixture of Arab blood. In the following
February it was announced that Aff-Madu, the headquarters of
the Ogaden Somalis, had been occupied without opposition by
the British punitive expedition sent to exact reparation for
the murder of Mr. Jenner, and that the Ogaden Sultan was a
prisoner.
BRITISH EMPIRE, Penny postage in.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (DECEMBER).
BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY: A. D. 1889.
The founding of the Company.
See (in volume 4)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1885-1893.
BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1894-1895.
Extended charter and enlarged powers.
Its master spirit, Mr. Rhodes.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY):
A. D. 1894-1895.
BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1895.
Arrangements in Bechuanaland.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (BECHUANALAND).
BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1896.
Revocation of the Company's charter called for
by President Kruger.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1896 (JANUARY-APRIL).
BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1896.
Resignation of Mr. Rhodes.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY):
A. D. 1896 (JUNE).
BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1896.
Parliamentary investigation of its administration.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY):
A. D. 1896 (JULY).
BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1896.
Complicity of officials in the Jameson Raid.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE COLONY): A. D. 1896 (JULY).
BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1896-1897.
Demands from President Kruger for proceedings
against the Directors.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1896-1897 (MAY-APRIL).
BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1897.
Convicted of subjecting natives to forced labor.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY):
A. D. 1897 (JANUARY).
BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1898.
Reorganization.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA
(RHODESIA AND THE BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY):
A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY).
BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1900.
Administration extended over Barotsiland.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (RHODESIA): A. D. 1900 (SEPTEMBER).
BRONX, The Borough of the.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1896-1897.
BROOKE, General John R.: Military Governor of Cuba.
Report.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1898-1899 (DECEMBER-OCTOBER).
Commanding in Porto Rico.
See (in this volume)
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898-1899 (OCTOBER-OCTOBER).
BROOKLYN:
Absorption in Greater New York.
See (in this volume) NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1896-1897.
Tunnel from New York.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-SEPTEMBER).
BRUGES: A. D. 1900.
The new canal from the city to the sea.
"On the 25th day of February, the inauguration of the new
canal was celebrated at Bruges. … The canal runs from
Zeebrugge, a port on the North Sea 14.29 miles north of
Ostend, to the city of Bruges, a total distance of 7.46 miles.
The work is now so far completed that vessels of a draft of 25
feet can enter and pass to the port of Bruges. The locks are
fully completed, as well as three-fifths of the wharf wall at
Bruges; when finished, the wharf wall will have a total length
of 1,575 feet. The canal has a width of 72 feet 6 inches at
the bottom and 229 feet 4 inches at the water level and will
have, when completed, a depth of 26 feet 3 inches; this will
also be the depth of the interior port and of the great basin
of Bruges. Bruges is an old, inland deep-water port, having
connection with the sea by canal from Ostend, but this only
for vessels of very light draft."
United States Consular Reports,
July, 1900, page 346.
BRUSSELS: A. D. 1898.
Sugar Conference.
See (in this volume)
SUGAR BOUNTIES.
BRUSSELS:
The General Act of.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1899 (JUNE).
BRYAN, William J.:
Candidacy for the American Presidency.
His speech of acceptance, 1900.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER);
and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
BUBONIC PLAGUE, The.
See (in this volume)
PLAGUE.
BUDA-PESTH: A. D. 1896.
Celebration of the Hungarian Millennium.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1896.
BUDDHA, Gautama:
Discovery of his birthplace and his tomb, with personal relics.
"Mr. Vincent Smith, of the Bengal Civil Service, a learned
antiquary, has published in the Allahabad 'Pioneer' a
statement as to the nature and significance of recent
discoveries of Buddhist antiquities in India. The first of
these is the home of Gautama Buddha, who lived about 500 B.
C., and who is known to have been the son of the Raja of
Kapilavastu, a small state in the Nepal Terai, bordering on
the modern Oudh. The site of Kapilavastu has long been eagerly
sought for, and it is only within the past three years that
the accidental discovery of an inscribed pillar erected by the
Emperor Asoka, in the third century B. C., fixed with
certainty the site of the city. The ruins, which were lately
visited by Mr. Smith, are, so far as is yet known, all of
brick; they are for the most part buried in jungle, and are so
extensive that many years would be required for their
exploration. The city was destroyed during the lifetime of
Gautama, and when the first of the famous Chinese pilgrims
visited the place, in 410 A. D., it was a mass of desolate
ruins, and there is no indication that it has since been
occupied. This fact gives exceptional interest to the
excavations now in progress, for they are bringing to light
buildings more ancient than any previously known in India.
{58}
More interesting even than Kapilavastu is the discovery of the
Lumbini Garden, the traditional birthplace of Gautama. The
sacred spot has been found marked by another of Asoka's
pillars, on which the inscription is perfect. This is also in
Nepalese territory, five miles from the British frontier. The
pillar stands on the western edge of a mound of ruins, about a
hundred yards in diameter, and on the south side of the mound
is the tank in which the child's mother bathed after his
birth. Another discovery which was made in a stupa, or brick
tumulus, close to the British frontier, is that of relics of
Buddha himself. These consist only of fragments of bone, which
were deposited in a wooden vessel that stood on the bottom of
a massive coffer, more than four feet long and two feet deep,
cut out of a solid block of fine sandstone. This coffer was
buried under eighteen feet of masonry, composed of huge
bricks, each sixteen inches long. The wooden vessel was
decayed, and with it was an exquisitely finished bowl of rock
crystal, the largest yet discovered in India, and also five
small vases of soapstone. All these vessels were partially
filled, in honor of the relics, with a marvellous collection
of gold stars, pearls, topazes, beryls, and other jewels, and
of various objects delicately wrought in crystal, agate, and
other substances. An inscription on the lid of one of the
soapstone vases declares the relics to be those of Buddha
himself, and the characters in which the inscription is
written are substantially the same as those of the Asoka
inscriptions, and indicate that the tumulus was constructed
between 300 and 250 B. C."
London Times,
May, 1898.
The relies discovered, as described above, were presented by
the Indian government to the King of Siam, he being the only
existing Buddhist monarch, with the proviso that he offer a
portion of them to Buddhists of Ceylon and Burmah.
BUENOS AYRES: A. D. 1895.
Population.
See (in this volume)
ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1895.
BUFFALO: A. D. 1896.
First reception of electric power from Niagara Falls.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: ELECTRICAL.
BUFFALO: A. D. 1901.
The Pan-American Exposition.
As this volume goes to press, the preparations are about
completed for holding a great Exposition at Buffalo, which
promises to be second in importance only to the Columbian
Exposition at Chicago, in 1893, so far as concerns
undertakings of like character in America. The Columbian
Exposition was a "World's Fair"; this at Buffalo is
"Pan-American,"—an exhibition, that is, of the arts, the
industries, and all the achievements in civilization of the
peoples of the Western hemisphere, from Bering Strait to Cape
Horn. Very nearly every country in North, South and Central
America has taken a warmly interested part in the preparations
for the Exposition, and many have erected special buildings
for their exhibits. The States of the Union have likewise been
active, and few of them will be unrepresented in the numerous
buildings on the grounds. Cuba, Porto Rico, and the West
Indies generally, as well as Hawaii and the Philippine
Islands, in their new character as dependencies of the United
States, are brought importantly into the scheme.
The enterprise received official endorsement from the Federal
Government when Congress in July, 1898, by resolution declared
that "A Pan-American Exposition will undoubtedly be of vast
benefit to the commercial interests of the countries of North,
South and Central America, and it merits the approval of
Congress, and of the people of the United States." In March,
1899, Congress appropriated $500,000, and declared that "it is
desirable to encourage the holding of a Pan-American Exposition
on the Niagara Frontier in the City of Buffalo, in the year
1901, fittingly to illustrate the marvelous development of the
Western Hemisphere during the Nineteenth Century, by a display
of the arts, industries, manufactures and the products of the
soil, mine and sea," and also declared that "the proposed
Pan-American Exposition being confined to the Western
Hemisphere, and being held in the near vicinity of the great
Niagara Cataract, within a day's journey of which reside forty
million people, would unquestionably be of vast benefit to the
commercial interests, not only of this country, but of the
entire hemisphere, and should therefore have the sanction of
the Congress of the United States."
The grounds of the Exposition are in the northern part of the
city of Buffalo, taking in a portion of its most beautiful
public park. They extend about one mile in length, from north
to south, and about half a mile in width, containing 350
acres. A general plan of landscape and building architecture,
with which every detail of form and color should be made to
harmonize, was worked out at the beginning by a board of the
leading architects of the United States, and has been adhered
to with beautifully harmonious effects.
In one of the circular announcements of the Exposition it is
said: "In planning the Exposition the management early decided
upon giving to electricity special homage. The progress of the
electrical science has been so marked in recent years as to
excite the wonderment of the scientific world. Buffalo is,
perhaps, more than any other city on the globe, interested in
this science, owing to the nearness of Niagara Falls, where
the greatest electric power plants known to this class of
engineering have been installed. In fact the electrical
displays here contemplated would be impossible except where a
large volume of power is available, such as Buffalo receives
from the great Falls of Niagara. … The Pan-American Exposition
will far surpass former enterprises of this kind in six
important features:
First, the electrical effects:
second, the hydraulic and fountain effects;
third, the horticultural, floral and garden effects;
fourth, the original sculptural ornamentation;
fifth, the color decorations;
sixth, the court settings.
Particular attention has been given by the designers in the
arrangement of its court settings, to provide unusually large
vistas, both for the purpose of providing a memorable picture
and for the utility reason of accommodating large crowds of
people."
The Pan-American Exposition is under the management of a
strong company of professional and business men in Buffalo,
with Mr. John G. Milburn for its President. The
Director-General is Honorable William I. Buchanan, former
United States Minister to the Argentine Republic.
{59}
BULGARIA: A. D. 1895-1900.
Condition.
See (in this volume)
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES;
and TURKEY: A. D. 1899-1901.
BULGARIA: A. D. 1899(May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
BULLER, General Sir Redvers:
In the South African War.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER), and after.
BULLETS, Declaration against certain.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
BULLETS, Dum-dum.
See (in this volume)
DUM-DUM BULLET.
BUREAU OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLICS.
See (in this volume)
AMERICAN REPUBLICS, BUREAU OF THE.
BURMAH: A. D. 1897.
Raised in status as a British dependency.
Burmah was raised in status as a British dependency, under the
government of India, by royal proclamation in 1897. The chief
commissioner became lieutenant-governor, and a local
legislative council was to be created.
C.
CAGAYAN,
KAGAYAN: The American acquisition.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).
CAGAYANS, The.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: THE NATIVE INHABITANTS.
CALCIUM CARBIDE, The production of.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.
CALNEH, The ancient city of:
Its identity with Nippur.
Exploration of its ruins.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL, RESEARCH:
BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.
CAMBON, M. Jules:
Action for Spain in making overtures for peace
with the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).
CAMEROONS,
KAMERUNS, The:
Cost of maintenance.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (JUNE).
----------CANADA: Start--------
CANADA: A. D. 1890-1896.
The Manitoba School Question.
"When Manitoba in 1870 passed from the position of a Crown
territory, managed by the Hudson's Bay Company, into that of a
province of Canada, its area, which is considerably greater than
that of England and Wales, was peopled by about 12,000
persons, whites and half-breeds. In religion this population
was about equally divided into Catholics and Protestants.
Previous to the Union there was no State system of education.
A number of elementary schools existed, but they owed their
foundation entirely to voluntary effort, and were supported
exclusively by private contributions, either in the form of
fees paid by some of the parents or of funds supplied by the
Churches. In every case these schools were conducted and
managed on strictly denominational lines. When the Act of
Union was passed it was sought to secure the continuance of
this state of things, and to safeguard the rights of whichever
Church should in the hereafter be in the minority by the
following sub-sections in the 22nd section, which gave to the
legislature of the province the power to make laws in relation
to education: '(1) Nothing in any such law shall prejudicially
affect any right or privilege with respect to denominational
schools which any class of persons have by law or practice in
the province at the Union. (2) An appeal shall lie to the
Governor-General in Council from any act or decision of the
legislature of the province, or of any provincial authority,
affecting any right or privilege of the Protestant or Roman
Catholic minority of the Queen's subjects in relation to
education.' Those two clauses of the Manitoba Act, 1870,
govern the whole situation.
"The attention of the new provincial legislature was at once
directed to the condition of the elementary schools. The
Government decided to supersede the old voluntary system by
one of State-aided schools, which, however, were still to be
scrupulously denominational in character. The legislature
simply took the educational system as it found it and improved
it by assistance from public funds. Thus it was arranged that
the annual public grant for common school education was to be
appropriated equally between the Protestant and the Catholic
schools. … The only important amendment to this Act was passed
in 1875, and provided that the legislative grant, instead of
being divided between the Protestant and Catholic schools as
heretofore, should in future be distributed in proportion to
the number of children of school age in the Catholic and
Protestant districts. Already immigration had begun to upset
the balance of numbers and power, and as the years went on it
became evident that the Catholics were destined to be in a
permanent minority in Manitoba. This trend of immigration,
which in 1875 made legislation necessary, has continued ever
since; and to-day the Catholics of the province number only
20,000 out of a total population of 204,000. No further change
was made in the educational system of Manitoba until the
memorable year of 1890. In that year the provincial
legislature boldly broke all moorings with the past, and,
abolishing the separate denominational schools, introduced a
system of free compulsory and unsectarian schools, for the
support of which the whole community was to be taxed. … To
test the legality of the change, what is known as Barrett's
case was begun in Winnipeg. It was carried to the Supreme
Court of Canada, and the Canadian judges by a unanimous
decision declared that the Act of 1890 was ultra vires and
void.
{60}
The city of Winnipeg appealed to the Privy Council, and that
tribunal in July 1892 reversed the decision of the Canadian
Court and affirmed that the Act was valid and binding. … The
second subsection of the 22nd section of the Manitoba Act
already quoted says: 'An appeal shall lie to the
Governor-General in Council from any Act or decision of the
legislature of the province, or of any provincial authority,
affecting any right or privilege of the Protestant or Roman
Catholic minority of the Queen's subjects in relation to
education.' But if the legislation of 1890 was intra vires,
and expressly declared to be so on the ground that it had not
prejudicially affected the position which the minority held at
the time of the Union, how could there be an appeal from it? …
The Governor-General, however, consented to refer the question
as to his jurisdiction to the courts of justice. What is known
as Brophy's case was begun, and in due course was carried to
the Supreme Court of Canada. The decision of that tribunal,
though not unanimous, was in accord with public expectation.
The majority of the judges felt that the previous judgment of
the Privy Council had settled the matter beforehand. The Act
of 1890 had been declared intra vires on the ground that it
had not interfered with the rights which the minority
possessed before the Union, and therefore there could be no
appeal from it. …
"Still the undaunted Archbishop of St. Boniface went on, and
for a last time appealed to that Judicial Committee of the
Privy Council which two years and a half before had so spoiled
and disappointed the Catholic hopes. In January 1894 the final
decision in Brophy's case was read by the Lord Chancellor. For
a second time the Lords of the Council upset the ruling of the
Supreme Court of Canada, and treated their reasoning as
irrelevant. It will be remembered that both the appellant
prelates and the Canadian judges had assumed that the clause
in the Manitoba Act, which conferred the right of appeal to
the Governor-General, was limited to one contingency, and
could be invoked only if the minority were robbed at any time
of the poor and elementary rights which they had enjoyed
before the Act of Union. But was the clause necessarily so
limited? Could it not be used to justify an appeal from
legislation which affected rights acquired after the Union? …
In the words of the judgment: 'The question arose: Did the
sub-section extend to the rights and privileges acquired by
legislation subsequent to the Union? It extended in terms to
"any" right or privilege of the minority affected by any Act
passed by the legislature, and would therefore seem to embrace
all the rights and privileges existing at the time when such
Act was passed. Their lordships saw no justification for
putting a limitation on language thus unlimited. There was
nothing in the surrounding circumstances or in the apparent
intention of the legislature to warrant any such limitation.'
… In other words, the dispute was referred to a new tribunal,
and one which was free to consider and give effect to the true
equities of the case. The Governor-General and his responsible
advisers, after considering all the facts, found in favour of
the Catholic minority, and at once issued a remedial Order to
the Government of Manitoba, which went far beyond anything
suggested in the judgment in Brophy's case. The province was
called upon to repeal the legislation of 1890, so far as it
interfered with the right of the Catholic minority to build
and maintain their own schools, to share proportionately in
any public grant for the purposes of education, and with the
right of such Catholics as contributed to Catholic schools to
be held exempt from all payments towards the support of any
other schools. In a word, the Governor-General and Sir
Mackenzie Bowell's Administration, exercising, as it were,
appellate jurisdiction, decided that the minority were
entitled to all they claimed. The Government of Manitoba,
however, had hardened their hearts against the minority in the
province, and refused to obey the remedial Order. …
"The refusal of the provincial Government 'to accept the
responsibility of carrying into effect the terms of the
remedial Order' for the first time brought the Parliament of
Canada into the field, and empowered them to pass coercive
legislation. A remedial Bill was accordingly, after an
inexplicable delay, brought into the Federal Parliament to
enforce the remedial Order. … The Cabinet recognised that the
Federal Parliament had no power to spend the money of the
province, and so all they could do was to exempt the minority
from the obligation to contribute to the support of schools
other than their own. The Bill bristled with legal and
constitutional difficulties; it concerned the coercion of a
province; it contained no less than 116 clauses; it was
introduced on the 2nd of March 1896, when all Canada knew that
the life of the Federal Parliament must necessarily expire on
the 24th of April. Some fifteen clauses had been considered
when the Government admitted, what all men saw, the
impossibility of the task, and abandoned the Bill. … While the
fate of the remedial Bill was still undecided, Sir Donald
Smith and two others were commissioned by the Federal
Government to go to Winnipeg and see if by direct negotiations
some sort of tolerable terms could be arranged. … Sir Donald
Smith proposed that the principle of the separate school
should be admitted wherever there were a reasonable number of
Catholic children—thus, wherever in towns and villages there
are twenty-five Catholic children of school age, and in
cities where there are fifty such children, they should have
'a school-house or school-room for their own use,' with a
Catholic teacher. … In the event the negotiations failed; the
baffled Commissioners returned to Ottawa, and on the 24th of
April 1896 Parliament was dissolved. The Government went to
the country upon the policy of the abandoned Bill. On the
other hand, many of the followers of Mr. Laurier in the
province of Quebec pledged themselves to see justice done to
the Catholics of Manitoba, and let it be understood that they
objected to the remedial Bill only because it was not likely
to prove effective in the face of the combined hostility of
the legislature and the municipalities of the province. …
Catholic Quebec gave Mr. Laurier his majority at Ottawa. …
{61}
"When the Liberal party for the first time for eighteen years
found itself in power at Ottawa, Mr. Laurier at once opened
negotiations with Manitoba. The result was a settlement which,
although it might work well in particular districts, could not be
accepted as satisfactory by the Catholic authorities. It arranged
that where in towns and cities the average attendance of
Catholic children was forty or upwards, and in villages and
rural districts the average attendance of such children was
twenty-five or upwards, one Catholic teacher should be
employed. There were various other provisions, but that was
the central concession. … Leo the Thirteenth, recognising the
difficulties which beset Mr. Laurier's path, mindful, perhaps,
also that it is not always easy immediately to resume friendly
conference with those who have just done their best to defeat
you, has sent to Canada an Apostolic Commissioner."
J. G. Snead Cox,
Mr. Laurier and Manitoba
(Nineteenth Century, April, 1897).
CANADA: A. D. 1895.
Northern territories formed into provisional districts.
"The unorganized and unnamed portion of the Dominion this year
was set apart into provisional districts. The territory east of
Hudson's Bay, having the province of Quebec on the south and
the Atlantic on the east, was to be hereafter known as Ungava.
The territory embraced in the islands of the Arctic Sea was to
be known as Franklin, the Mackenzie River region as Mackenzie,
and the Pacific coast territory lying north of British
Columbia and west of Mackenzie as Yukon. The extent of Ungava
and Franklin was undefined. Mackenzie would cover 538,600
square miles, and Yukon 225,000 square miles, in addition to
143,500 square miles added to Athabasca and 470,000 to
Keewatin. The total area of the Dominion was estimated at
3,456,383 square miles."
The Annual Register, 1895,
page 391.
CANADA: A. D. 1895.
Negotiations with Newfoundland.
Negotiations for the entrance of Newfoundland into the
federation of the Dominion of Canada proved ineffectual and
were abandoned in May. The island province refused the terms
proposed.
CANADA: A. D. 1896 (June-July).
Liberal triumph in Parliamentary elections.
Formation of Ministry by Sir Wilfred Laurier.
General elections held in Canada on the 23d of June, 1896,
gave the Liberal Party 113 seats out of 213 in the Dominion
House of Commons; the Conservatives securing 88, and the
Patrons of Industry and other Independents 12. Much to the
general surprise, the scale was turned in favor of the
Liberals by the vote of the province of Quebec,
notwithstanding the Manitoba school question, on which
clerical influence in the Roman church was ranged against that
party. The effect of the election was to call the Liberal
leader, Sir Wilfred Laurier, of Quebec, to the head of the
government, the Conservative Ministry, under Sir Charles
Tupper, retiring on the 8th of July.
CANADA: A. D. 1896-1897.
Policy of the Liberal Government.
Revision of the tariff, with discriminating duties
in favor of Great Britain, and provisions for reciprocity.
"The position of the Canadian Liberals, when they came into
power after the General Election of 1896, was not unlike that
of the English Liberals after the General Election of 1892.
Both Liberal parties had lists of reforms to which they were
committed. The English measures were in the Newcastle
Programme. Those of the Canadian Liberals were embodied in the
Ottawa Programme, which was formulated at a convention held at
the Dominion Capital in 1893. … A large part of the Ottawa
Programme was set out in the speech which the Governor-General
read in the Senate when the session of 1897 commenced. There was
then promised a measure for the revision of the tariff; a bill
providing for the extension of the Intercolonial railway from
Levis to Montreal; a bill repealing the Dominion Franchise Act
and abolishing the costly system of registration which goes
with it; and a measure providing for the plebiscite on the
Prohibition question. Neither of these last two measures was
carried through Parliament. Both had to be postponed to
another session; and the session of 1897 was devoted, so far
as legislation went, chiefly to the tariff, and to bills, none
of which were promised in the Speech from the Throne, in
retaliation for the United States Contract Labor Laws, and the
new United States tariff. …
"The new tariff was a departure from the tariffs of the
Conservative regime in only one important direction.
Protective duties heretofore had been levied on imports from
England, in the same way as on imports from the United States
or any other country. The 'National Policy' had allowed of no
preferences for England; and during the long period of
Conservative rule, when the Conservatives were supported by
the Canadian manufacturers in much the same way as the
Republican party in the United States is supported by the
manufacturing interests, the Canadian manufacturers had been
as insistent for adequate protection against English-made
goods, as against manufactured articles from the United States
or Germany. The Conservative party had continuously claimed a
monopoly of loyalty to England; but in its tariffs had never
dared to make any concession in favour of English goods. In
the new tariff, preferences for England were established; and
with these openings in favour of imports from Great Britain,
there came a specific warning from the Minister of Finance
that Canadian manufacturers must not regard themselves as
possessing a vested interest in the continuance of the
protective system. …
"When the Minister of Finance laid the tariff before the House
of Commons, he declared that the 'National Policy,' as it had
been tried for eighteen years, was a failure; and … claimed
that lowering the tariff wall against England was a step in
the direction of a tariff 'based not upon the protective
system but upon the requirements of the public service.'
During the first fifteen months of the new tariff, the
concession to England consists of a reduction by one-eighth of
the duties chargeable under the general list. At the end of
that time, that is on the last of July, 1898, the reduction
will be one-fourth. The reductions do not apply to wines, malt
liquors, spirits and tobacco, the taxes on which are
essentially for revenue. While England was admitted at once to
the advantages of the reduced tariff, this tariff is not to be
applicable to England alone. In July, it was extended to the
products of New South Wales, the free-trade colony of the
British Australasian group; and any country can come within
its provisions whose government can satisfy the Comptroller of
Customs at Ottawa, that it is offering favourable treatment to
Canadian exports, and is affording them as easy an entrance
through its customs houses as the Canadians give by means of
the reciprocal tariff. It is also possible, under a later
amendment to the Tariff Act, for the Governor in Council to
extend the benefits of the reciprocal tariff to any country
entitled thereto by virtue of a treaty with Great Britain.
{62}
Numerous alterations were made in the general list of import
duties. Some of these involved higher rates; others lowered
the duties. But if the changes in the fiscal system had been
confined to these variations, the new tariff would not have
been noteworthy, and it would have fulfilled few of the
pledges made by the Liberals when they were in Opposition. It
owes its chief importance to the establishment of an inner
tariff in the interests of countries which deal favourably
with Canada."
E. Porritt,
The New Administration in Canada
(Yale Review, August, 1897).
CANADA: A. D. 1897 (June-July).
Conference of colonial premiers with
the British Colonial Secretary.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (JUNE-JULY).
CANADA: A. D. 1897 (October).
Self-government for the Northwestern Territories.
By an Act passed in October, a system of self-government,
going far towards the full powers of a provincial government,
but having some limitations, was provided for the Northwest
Territories.
CANADA: A. D. 1898 (January).
Encyclical Letter of the Pope on the Manitoba School Question.
On the report made by his delegate, Monsignor Merry del Val,
Pope Leo XIII. addressed an encyclical letter to the Roman
Church in Canada, concerning the duty of Catholics in the
matter of the Manitoba schools (see above: A. D. 1890-1896),
which was made public at Quebec on the 9th of January, 1898.
The letter has great general importance, as defining with
precision the attitude of the Church towards all secular
school systems. With a few unessential passages it is given in
what follows:
"It was with extreme solicitude," wrote the Pope, "that we
turned our mind to the unhappy events which in these later
years have marked the history of Catholic education in
Manitoba. … And since many expected that we should make a
pronouncement on the question, and asked that we should trace
a line of conduct and a way to be followed, we did not wish to
decide anything on this subject before our Apostolic delegate
had been on the spot, charged to proceed to a serious
examination of the situation, and to give an account to us of
the state of affairs. He has faithfully and diligently
fulfilled the command which we had given him. The question
agitated is one of great and exceptional importance. We speak
of the decision taken seven years ago by the parliament of
Manitoba on the subject of education. The act of Confederation
had secured to Catholic children the right of education in public
schools in keeping with their conscientious convictions. The
parliament of Manitoba abolished this right by contrary law.
By this latter law a grave injury was inflicted, for it was
not lawful for our children to seek the benefits of education
in schools in which the Catholic religion is ignored or
actively combated, in schools where its doctrine is despised
and its fundamental principles repudiated. If the Church has
anywhere permitted this, it was only with great reluctance and
in self-defense, and after having taken many precautions,
which, however, have too often been found unequal to parrying
the danger. In like manner one must at all cost avoid, as most
pernicious, those schools wherein every form of belief is
indifferently admitted and placed on an equal footing—as if in
what regards God and Divine things, it was of no importance
whether one believed rightly or wrongly, whether one followed
truth or falsehood. You well know, venerable brothers, that
all schools of this kind have been condemned by the Church,
because there can be nothing more pernicious nor more fitted
to injure the integrity of faith and to turn away the tender
minds of youth from the truth. … For the Catholic there is but
one true religion, the Catholic religion; hence in all that
concerns doctrine, or morality, or religion, he cannot accept
or recognize anything which is not drawn from the very sources
of Catholic teaching. Justice and reason demand, then, that
our children have in their schools not only scientific
instruction but also moral teachings in harmony, as we have
already said, with the principles of their religion, teachings
without which all education will be not only fruitless but
absolutely pernicious. Hence the necessity of having Catholic
teachers, reading books, and textbooks approved of by the
bishops, and liberty to organize the schools, that the
teaching therein shall be in full accord with Catholic faith
as well as with all the duties that flow therefrom. For the
rest, to decide in what institutions their children shall be
instructed, who shall be their teachers of morality, is a
right inherent to parental authority. When, then, Catholics
demand, and it is their duty to demand, and to strive to
obtain, that the teaching of the masters shall be in
conformity with the religion of their children, they are only
making use of their right; and there can be nothing more
unjust than to force on them the alternative of allowing their
children to grow up in ignorance, or to expose them to
manifest danger in what concerns the supreme interests of
their souls. It is not right to call in doubt or to abandon in
any way these principles of judging and acting which are
founded on truth and justice, and which are the safe-guards
both of public and private interests. Therefore, when the new
law in Manitoba struck a blow at Catholic education, it was
your duty, venerable brothers, to freely protest against the
injury and disaster inflicted; and the way in which you all
fulfilled that duty is a proof of your common vigilance, and
of a spirit truly worthy of bishops; and, although each one of
you will find on this point a sufficient approbation in the
testimony of his own conscience, learn, nevertheless, that you
have also our conscience and our approbation, for the things
which you sought and still seek to protect and defend are most
sacred. The difficulties created by the law of which we speak by
their very nature showed that an alleviation was to be sought
for in a united effort. For so worthy was the Catholic cause
that all good and upright citizens, without distinction of
party, should have banded themselves together in a close union
to uphold it. Unfortunately for the success of this cause, the
contrary took place. What is more deplorable still, is that
Catholic Canadians themselves failed to unite as they should
in defending those interests which are of such importance to
all—the importance and gravity of which should have stilled
the voice of party politics, which are of much less
importance. We are not unaware that something has been done to
amend that law. The men who are at the head of the federal
government and of the Province of Manitoba have already taken
certain measures with a view to decreasing the difficulties of
which the Catholics of Manitoba complain, and against which
they rightly continue to protest.
{63}
We have no reason to doubt that these measures were taken from
love of justice and from a laudable motive. We cannot, however,
dissimulate the truth; the law which they have passed to
repair the injury is defective, unsuitable, insufficient. The
Catholics ask—and no one can deny that they justly ask—for
much more. Moreover, in the remedial measures that have been
proposed there is this defect, that in changes of local
circumstances they may easily become valueless. In a word, the
rights of Catholics and the education of their children have
not been sufficiently provided for in Manitoba. Everything in
this question demands, and is conformable to justice, that
they should be thoroughly provided for, that is, by placing in
security and surrounding with due safe-guards those
unchangeable and sacred principles of which we have spoken
above. This should be the aim, this the end to be zealously
and prudently sought for. Nothing can be more injurious to the
attainment of this end than discord; unity of spirit and
harmony of action are most necessary. Nevertheless since, as
frequently happens in things of this nature, there is not only
one fixed and determined but various ways of arriving at the
end which is proposed and which should be obtained, it follows
that there may be various opinions equally good and
advantageous. Wherefore let each and all be mindful of the
rules of moderation, and gentleness, and mutual charity; let
no one fail in the respect that is due to another; but let all
resolve in fraternal unanimity, and not without your advice,
to do that which the circumstances require and which appears
best to be done. As regards especially the Catholics of
Manitoba, we have every confidence that with God's help they
will succeed in obtaining full satisfaction. This hope is
founded, in the first place, in the righteousness of the
cause, next in the sense of justice and prudence of the men at
the head of the government, and finally in the good-will of all
upright men in Canada. In the meantime, until they are able to
obtain their full rights, let them not refuse partial
satisfaction. If, therefore, anything is granted by law to
custom, or the good-will of men, which will render the evil
more tolerable and the dangers more remote, it is expedient
and useful to make use of such concessions, and to derive
therefrom as much benefit and advantage as possible. Where,
however, no remedy can be found for the evil, we must exhort
and beseech that it be provided against by the liberality and
munificence of their contributions, for no one can do anything
more salutary for himself or more conducive to the prosperity
of his country, than to contribute, according to his means, to
the maintenance of these schools. There is another point which
appeals to your common solicitude, namely, that by your
authority, and with the assistance of those who direct
educational institutions, an accurate and suitable curriculum
of studies be established, and that it be especially provided
that no one shall be permitted to teach who is not amply
endowed with all the necessary qualities, natural and
acquired, for it is only right that Catholic schools should be
able to compete in bearing, culture, and scholarship with the
best in the country. As concerns intellectual culture and the
progress of civilization, one can only recognize as
praiseworthy and noble the desire of the provinces of Canada
to develop public instruction, and to raise its standard more
and more, in order that it may daily become higher and more
perfect. Now there is no kind of knowledge, no perfection of
learning, which cannot be fully harmonized with Catholic
doctrine."
CANADA: A. D. 1898 (September).
Popular vote on the question of Prohibition.
Pursuant to a law passed by the Dominion Parliament the
previous June, a vote of the people in all the Provinces of
the Dominion was taken, on the 29th of September, 1898, upon
the following question: "Are you in favor of the passing of an
act prohibiting the importation, manufacture or sale of
spirits, wine, ale, beer, cider, and all other alcoholic
liquors for use as beverages?" The submitting of this question
to a direct vote of the people was a proceeding not quite
analogous to the Swiss Referendum, since it decided the fate
of no pending law; nor did it imitate the popular Initiative
of Swiss legislation, since the result carried no mandate to
the government. It was more in the nature of a French
Plébiscite, and many called it by that name; but no Plebiscite
in France ever drew so real an expression of popular opinion
on a question so fully discussed. The result of the voting was
a majority for prohibition in every Province except Quebec,
Ontario pronouncing for it by more than 39,000, Nova Scotia by
more than 29,000, New Brunswick by more than 17,000, Manitoba
by more than 9,000, Prince Edward's Island by more than 8,000,
and the Northwest Territories by more than 3,000, while
British Columbia gave a small majority of less than 600 on the
same side. Quebec, on the other hand, shouted a loud "No" to
the question, by 93,000 majority. The net majority in favor of
Prohibition was 107,000. The total of votes polled on the
question was 540,000. This was less than 44 per cent of the
total registration of voters; hence the vote for Prohibition
represented only about 23 per cent of the electorate, which
the government considered to offer too small a support for the
measure asked for.
CANADA: A. D. 1898-1899.
The Joint High Commission for settlement of all unsettled
questions between Canada and the United States.
As the outcome of negotiations opened at Washington in the
previous autumn by the Canadian Premier, relative to the
seal-killing controversy, an agreement between Great Britain,
Canada and the United States was concluded on the 30th of May,
1898, for the creation of a Joint High Commission to negotiate
a treaty, if possible, by which all existing subjects of
controversy between the United States and Canada should be
settled with finality. Appointments to the Commission by the
three governments were made soon afterwards, Great Britain
being represented by the Lord High Chancellor, Baron
Herschell; Canada by Sir Wilfred Laurier, Premier, Sir Richard
Cartwright, Minister of Trade and Commerce, and Sir Louis
Henry Davies, Minister of Marine and Fisheries; the United
States by Honorable John W. Foster, ex-Secretary of State,
Senator Charles W. Fairbanks, Senator George Gray,
Representative Nelson Dingley, and the Honorable John A.
Kasson, Reciprocity Commissioner. Senator Gray having been
subsequently appointed on the Commission to negotiate peace
with Spain, his place on the Anglo-American Commission was
taken by Senator Faulkner.
{64}
The Joint Commission sat first in Quebec and later in
Washington. Among the questions referred to it were those
relating to the establishment of the boundary between Alaska
and British Columbia; the issues over Bering Sea and the catch
of fur seals; the unmarked boundary between Canada and the
United States near Passamaqnoddy Bay in Maine and at points
between Wisconsin and Minnesota and Canada; the northeast
fisheries question, involving the rights of fishing in the
North Atlantic off Newfoundland and other points; the
regulation of the fishing rights on the Great Lakes;
alien-labor immigration across the Canadian-American border;
commercial reciprocity between the two countries; the
regulation of the bonding system by which goods are carried in
bond across the frontier and also the regulation of traffic by
international railways and canals of the two countries;
reciprocal mining privileges in the Klondyke, British North
America and other points; wrecking and salvage on the ocean
and Great Lakes coasting waters; the modification of the
treaty arrangement under which only one war vessel can be
maintained on the Great Lakes, with a view to allowing
warships to be built on the lakes and then floated out to the
ocean. The sessions of the Joint Commission were continued at
intervals until February, 1899, when it adjourned to meet at
Quebec in the following August, unless further adjournment
should be agreed upon by the several chairmen. Such further
adjournment was made, and the labors of the Joint Commission
were indefinitely suspended, for reasons which the President
of the United States explained in his Message to Congress,
December, 1899, as follows: "Much progress had been made by
the Commission toward the adjustment of many of these
questions, when it became apparent that an irreconcilable
difference of views was entertained respecting the
delimitation of the Alaskan boundary. In the failure of an
agreement as to the meaning of articles 3 and 4 of the treaty
of 1825 between Russia and Great Britain, which defined the
boundary between Alaska and Canada, the American Commissioners
proposed that the subject of the boundary be laid aside and
that the remaining questions of difference be proceeded with,
some of which were so far advanced as to assure the
probability of a settlement. This being declined by the
British Commissioners, an adjournment was taken until the
boundary should be adjusted by the two Governments. The
subject has been receiving the careful attention which its
importance demands, with the result that a modus vivendi for
provisional demarcations in the region about the head of Lynn
Canal has been agreed upon [see (in this volume) ALASKA
BOUNDARY QUESTION] and it is hoped that the negotiations now
in progress between the two Governments will end in an
agreement for the establishment and delimitation of a
permanent boundary."
CANADA: A. D. 1899 (October).
Modus Vivendi, fixing provisional boundary line of Alaska.
See (in this volume)
ALASKA BOUNDARY QUESTION.
CANADA: A. D. 1899-1900.
Troops to reinforce the British army in South Africa.
A proposal from the Canadian government to assist that of the
Empire in its South African War was gratefully accepted in the
early stages of the war, and a regiment of infantry called the
Royal Canadian, numbering a little more than 1,000 men, sailed
from Quebec, October 30. In the following January a second
contingent of more than 1,000 men was sent to the field. This
latter comprised squadrons of mounted rilles and rough-riders,
and three batteries of field artillery. In the same month the
Canadian government accepted an offer from Lord Strathcona to
raise, equip and transport at his own expense a body of 500
mounted men from the Northwest.
CANADA: A. D. 1900 (November).
General election.
The general election of members of the Dominion House of
Commons was held November 7, resulting as follows:
Provinces. Liberal. Conservative. Independent. Total.
Nova Scotia. 15 5 0 20
New-Brunswick. 9 5 0 14
Prince Edward Island. 3 2 0 5
Quebec. 57 8 0 65
Ontario. 33 54 5 92
Manitoba. 2 3 2 7
Northwest Territories. 2 0 2 4
British Columbia. 3 2 1 6
Totals. 124 79 10 213
As in the election of 1896, the Liberal Ministry of Sir
Wilfred Laurier found its strong support in the province of
Quebec. Its party suffered unexpected losses in Ontario. The
slight meaning of the election was summed up by Professor
Goldwin Smith as follows: "The net result of the elections
seems to be a Government resting on French Quebec and an
Opposition resting on British Ontario. The minor provinces
have been carried, as usual, by local interests rather than on
general questions. Apart from the distinction of race between
the two great provinces and the antagonism, before dormant but
somewhat awakened by the war, there was no question of importance
at issue between the parties. Both concurred in sending
contingents to South Africa. The Liberals, though they went in
at first on the platform of free trade—at least, of a tariff
for revenue only—have practically embraced protection under
the name of stability of the tariff, and are believed to have
received from the protected manufacturers contributions to
their large election fund. The other special principles, such
as the reduction of expenditure and discontinuance of the
bonus to railways, proclaimed by Liberals before the last
election, have been dropped. So has reform of the Senate. It
is not likely that the Liberal victory will be followed by any
change either in legislation or government, or by any special
reform. Mr. Bourassa and Monet, of the French-Canadian members
who protested against the contingent, have been re-elected.
Great as may be the extent and warmth of British feeling, the
statement that Canadians were unanimously in favour of
participation in the war must not be taken without
qualification. For myself, I felt that so little principle was
at stake that I voted for two Conservatives on their personal
merits."
{65}
CANAL, The new Bruges.
See (in this volume)
BRUGES: A. D. 1900.
CANAL, The Chicago Drainage.
See (in this volume)
CHICAGO: A. D. 1900.
CANAL, City of Mexico Drainage.
See (in this volume)
MEXICO: A. D. 1898.
CANAL, The Elbe and Trave.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (JUNE).
CANAL, Interoceanic, The Project of the: A. D. 1581-1892.
The early inception of the project.
Movements towards its realization.
"The thought of uniting the two great oceans by means of a
canal across the American isthmus sprang up, as is known, from
the moment the conviction was reached that the passage which,
from the days of Columbus, was thought to exist towards the
Southern Sea, was not a reality. … Nevertheless the first
survey of the land was not carried out until the year 1581,
when, in obedience to superior instructions, Captain Antonio
Pereira, Governor of Costa Rica, organized an expedition and
explored the route by way of the San Juan river, the lake, and
the rivers emptying into Gulf Nicoya, Costa Rica. Thirty-nine
years later Diego de Mercado submitted to King Philip III his
famous report of January 23, 1620, suggesting the route by the
river and lake, and thence through Costa Rican territory along
the Quebrada or Barranca Honda to Salinas Bay, then called
Puerto del Papagayo. Either because the magnitude of the
undertaking was at that time superior to the necessities of
trade, or, as was said, because Spain considered the canal
antagonistic to her interests, the era of independence arrived
without the execution of the project ever having been entered
upon. After independence the Congress of Central America, in
which Costa Rica and Nicaragua were represented as States of
the Federation which succeeded the Colonial Government,
enacted on June 16, 1825, a decree providing for the
construction of the canal, and in that same year Don Antonio
José Cañas, Diplomatic Representative of Central America in
Washington, addressed the Secretary of State, Mr. Henry Clay,
informing him of this resolution and stating that: 'A company
formed of American citizens of respectability was ready to
undertake the work as soon as a treaty with the United States
insuring the coöperation of the latter was signed; that he was
ready to enter into negotiations for the treaty, and that
nothing would be more pleasant for Central America than to see
the generous people of the United States joining her in the
opening of the canal, sharing the glory of the enterprise, and
enjoying the great advantages to be derived from it.' The
Government of Central America could not carry the undertaking
into effect, notwithstanding that among the means employed to
reach the desired result there figures the arrangement
concluded with the King of Holland in October, 1830. But,
though the hopes centered in the undertaking were frustrated,
to the honor of Central America the declarations of that
Congress, which constitute, like the concession for the canal
itself, one of the loftiest public documents ever issued by
any nation of the earth, have become a matter of record. The
Central American Federation dissolved, this important matter
attached to Nicaragua and Costa Rica directly, and the
boundary line between the two republics having been determined
by the treaty of April 15, 1858, as were also the points
relative to the canal, the two governments jointly granted a
concession on May 1 of that same year to Mr. Felix Belly, a
distinguished French writer, to whom the Emperor Napoleon gave
his support to carry forward the undertaking. This failing of
accomplishment, the two governments, in perfect accord,
concluded the contract known as the Ayon-Chevalier, signed by
Nicaragua on October 16, 1868, and by Costa Rica on June 18,
1869, which, it is unnecessary to say, also failed to produce
any results whatever. Some years after the expiration of this
last contract Nicaragua promoted a discussion as to the
validity of the treaty and the meaning of some of its
stipulations, which Costa Rica upheld in its original form,
and the question was submitted to the decision of the
President of the United States, Mr. Cleveland, who in his
award of March 22, 1888, accepted by both parties, declared
the treaty valid and binding upon each Republic and
interpreted the points which in the opinion of Nicaragua were
doubtful. According to the provisions of both of these
documents, the treaty and award, even in the remote event that
the natural rights of Costa Rica should not be injured, Nicaragua
is bound not to make any grants for canal purposes across her
territory without first asking the opinion of the Republic of
Costa Rica. Three years prior, and while this question was
still pending, Nicaragua concluded the treaty known as the
Zavala-Frelinghuysen, signed in Washington on December 1,
1884, whereby the title to the canal was conveyed to the
United States, and Costa Rica adhered to this treaty under
date of February 23, 1885; but the negotiations remained
without effect, because, ratification having been denied in
the Senate, although a reconsideration of the subject had been
agreed to, President Cleveland, on inaugurating his first
administration, withdrew the document from the Senate. Things
then returned to the status they formerly maintained, and
Nicaragua in April, 1887, and Costa Rica in July, 1888,
respectively granted the concessions pursuant to which the
construction of the American waterway has been pending of late
years. The Congress of the United States has been giving
special attention to this important matter since the year
1892, and commissions have been created charged with the
survey and location of the route, as well as the study of the
influence of the canal in its different aspects. Recently the
investigation is not limited to the route by Nicaragua and
Costa Rica alone, but extends to Panama."
Speech of Señor Calvo, Costa Rican Minister,
at the International Commercial Congress,
Philadelphia, October 24, 1899.
{66}
CANAL, Interoceanic, The Project of the: A. D. 1889-1899.
The Maritime Canal Company.
Investigation of Nicaragua routes.
"The failure of the Frelinghuysen-Zavala treaty [see above]
was a severe disappointment to the friends of the canal
project, but it did not discourage them. A company of private
citizens, capitalists and promoters, was organized, which at
length took the name of the Maritime Canal Company. Fair and
full concessions were secured from the government of
Nicaragua, while similar articles were also signed with the
Republic of Costa Rica on account of imagined ownership of a
portion of the territory through which the canal was to pass,
though it has been shown subsequently, in the settlement of
the boundary dispute between those two governments, that Costa
Rica's rights in the matter were solely riparian. In due time
Congress was called upon to grant a charter to the Maritime
Company, which asked nothing more than this." The chartering
act was passed by Congress in 1889, with an important
amendment proposed by Judge Holman of Indiana, providing that
"nothing in this act contained shall be so construed as to
commit the United States to any pecuniary liability whatever
for any account of said company, nor shall the United States
be held in any wise liable or responsible in any form or by
any implication for any debt or, liability in any form which
said company may incur, nor as guaranteeing any engagement or
contract of said company." But two years afterwards, the
company having failed to enlist the necessary capital for its
undertaking, an attempt was made to set aside the above
provision and to persuade Congress to guarantee $100,000,000
of bonds, taking $70,000,000 of stock and making the
government a partner in the enterprise. The proposal was
rejected. Congress "did not guarantee the company's bonds. The
company, without such guarantee, was unable to raise the
necessary capital, either in the United States or abroad, and
the financial crisis of 1893 so overwhelmed it that all active
operations on the isthmus were suspended, and they have never
been resumed. The same issue, the guaranteeing of bonds, has
come up from time to time in succeeding Congresses, but not
until the second session of the Fifty-fourth [1897] did it
appear to have much chance of being decided in favor of the
company. The opposition in the Senate, where it was first
considered, was strong, and the arguments advanced against the
bill were clear, sound and forceful. The advocates of the
measure were pressing for a vote, but almost at the supreme
moment a note was received from the State Department,
accompanied by a communication from Minister Rodriguez, the
representative of the Greater Republic of Central America,
setting forth several unassailable objections of his
government to the methods of procedure. This final thrust
determined the fate of the bill, and a vote on it was not
taken. … The material points of Minister Rodriguez's
criticism, which caused the Senate bill in 1897 to be
withdrawn, were that some of the vital provisions of the
cessions under which the Maritime Canal Company had the right
to construct the canal were violated."
C. M. Stadden,
Latest Aspects of the Nicaragua Canal Project
(North American Review, December, 1898).
Congress now (June 4, 1897) passed an Act which created a
commission to examine all practicable routes for a canal
through Nicaragua, and report its judgment as to the best,
with an estimate of the cost of the work on such route. The
commissioners appointed were Admiral Walker, Professor Haupt,
and Colonel Hains. Their report, submitted to the President in
May, 1899, unanimously recommended the route described as
follows: "This line, leaving Brito, follows the left bank of
the Rio Grande to near Bueno Retiro, and crosses the western
divide to the valley of the Lajas, which it follows to Lake
Nicaragua. Crossing the lake to the head of the San Juan
river, it follows the upper river to near Boca San Carlos;
thence, in excavation, by the left bank of the river to the
San Juanillo and across the low country to Greytown, passing
to the northward of Lake Silico." But while the commissioners
agreed in finding this route preferable to any others in the
Nicaragua region, they disagreed seriously in their estimates
of cost, Colonel Hains, putting it at nearly $135,000,000,
while Admiral Walker and Professor Haupt placed the cost at
little more than $118,000,000. Before the report of this
Nicaragua Canal Commission was made, however, Congress (March
3, 1899) had directed the appointment of another commission to
examine and report upon all possible routes for an
interoceanic canal, in the Panama region and elsewhere, as
well as through Nicaragua and to determine the cost of
constructing such a canal and "placing it under the control,
management and ownership of the United States." This later
commission, known as the Isthmian Canal Commission, was made
up as follows:
Rear-Admiral John G. Walker, U. S. N.;
Samuel Pasco, of Florida;
Alfred Noble, C. E. of Illinois;
George S. Morrison, C. E., of New York;
Colonel Peter C. Hains, U. S. A.;
Professor William H. Burr, of Connecticut;
Lieutenant-Colonel Oswald H. Ernst, U. S. A.;
Professor Lewis M. Haupt, C. E., of Pennsylvania;
Professor Emory R. Johnston, of Pennsylvania.
In his Message to Congress the next December, President
McKinley stated: "The contract of the Maritime Canal Company
of Nicaragua was declared forfeited by the Nicaraguan
Government on the 10th of October, on the ground of
nonfulfillment within the ten years' term stipulated in the
contract. The Maritime Canal Company has lodged a protest
against this action, alleging rights in the premises which
appear worthy of consideration. This Government expects that
Nicaragua will afford the protestants a full and fair hearing
upon the merits of the case." But another company had been put
into the place of the Maritime Canal Company, by action of
President Zelaya, of Nicaragua, who, in 1898, granted to
Edward Eyre and E. F. Cragin, who represented an American
Syndicate, the right to construct the canal when the contract
with the Maritime should have lapsed. This transaction,
however, lacked confirmation by Costa Rica and the United
States.
CANAL, Interoceanic, A. D. 1893-1900.
The Panama Canal Concession twice extended.
Formation of new company.
See (in this volume)
COLOMBIA: A. D. 1893-1900.
CANAL, Interoceanic, A. D. 1899 (December).
Transfer of the Panama Canal to an American company.
The transfer of the Panama Canal from the later French company
to an American company, chartered in New Jersey, was
accomplished in December, 1899. The new company received all
the property, rights, and powers of its French predecessor,
the consideration to be paid to the latter being mainly in the
form of shares in the American company.
Map of Central America showing the Isthmian Canal Routes
{67}
CANAL, Interoceanic, A. D. 1900 (November).
Preliminary report of the Isthmian Canal Commission in
favor of the Nicaragua route.
The preliminary report of the Isthmian Canal Commission,
appointed under the Act of March 3, 1899, was presented to the
President on the 30th November, 1900, and communicated to
Congress at the opening of the session. The Commission
reported in favor of the Nicaragua route, essentially on the
lines laid down by the previous Nicaragua Canal Commission, as
defined above. It found that the choice of routes lies between
this and the route of the partly constructed Panama Canal, and
its discussion of the question presented the following views:
"(a) Between New York and San Francisco, the Nicaragua Canal
route would be 377 nautical miles shorter than the Panama
route. Between New Orleans and San Francisco 579 miles would
be saved, and, in general, the distances between the Atlantic
and Pacific ports of the United States are less by way of
Nicaragua. Between our east coast and Yokohama and Shanghai
the Nicaragua route is somewhat shorter, but for the trade of
our eastern ports with the west coast of South America the
Panama route is not so long as the Nicaragua.
(b) A part of the saving in distance effected by using a
Nicaragua canal instead of one at Panama would be offset by
the longer time of transit at Nicaragua. An average steamer
would require twelve hours to make the passage through the
Panama Canal, and thirty-three through one across Nicaragua.
For a 10-knot steamer this difference of twenty-one hours
would be equivalent to 210 knots difference in distance, and
for a 13-knot steamer, the difference in time of transit would
be equivalent to 273 knots.
(c) The Nicaragua route would be the more favorable one for
sailing vessels because of the uncertain winds in the bay of
Panama. It would not be impossible for sailing vessels to use
the Panama Canal, but for average voyages between the two
seaboards of the United States, a sailing vessel would require
about nine days additional time to make the passage by way of
the Panama Canal. However, neither route would be much used by
sailing vessels, because of their inability to compete with
steamers. They would certainly not be able to compete with
steamers, both using the Panama Canal.
(d) For the promotion of the domestic trade of the United
States, the Nicaragua route would possess advantages over the
Panama route, because the distance between our two seaboards
is less. For our trade with Japan, China, the Philippines, and
Australia, the advantages of the two routes are nearly equal,
the distance by way of the Nicaragua route being slightly
less. For our trade with South America the Panama route is
shorter and more direct.
(e) The industrial changes which the Nicaragua Canal would
produce in the countries through which it will pass would be
great. Nicaragua and Costa Rica comprise a region capable of
producing a large amount of tropical products for which there
is a demand in Europe and the United States. A canal across
their territory would give a great impetus to their economic
development.
"A careful examination has been made of all the rights,
privileges, and franchises held and owned by corporations,
associations, and individuals at the different canal routes.
This necessarily included a study of the treaties relating to
the establishment of an interoceanic communication made by the
Republics, whose territory is to be occupied, and by the
United States, with one another, and also with foreign
governments. The treaties heretofore made exclude all idea of
a relinquishment of sovereignty over any of the proposed
routes. In most of them the right of transit and the innocent
use of the communication, whether by railway or canal, is
granted to the other contracting party, its citizens and
subjects, to be enjoyed upon equal terms with other
governments and people; and the leading commercial nations of
the world have committed themselves to the policy of
neutrality at the different routes, and some of them have
obligated themselves to use their influence to induce other
nations to agree to the same policy. No existing treaties
between the United States and the Republics of Nicaragua and
Costa Rica, or of Colombia, give our Government the right to
excavate and operate a maritime canal through any of these
countries. The concessions granted by the different Republics
through whose territory the lines of the projected canals
extend, in terms, exclude the right of the companies holding
them to transfer them to any foreign government, and further
treaty rights must be acquired to enable the United States to
undertake the excavation of a navigable waterway between the
two oceans in a governmental capacity. The only prior
obligations to corporations, associations, or individuals in
the way of a direct agreement between the United States and
Nicaragua authorizing our Government to construct a canal
across the territory of the latter, to be under its control,
management, and ownership, have been eliminated by the
forfeiture and termination of the contracts with the Maritime
Canal Company of Nicaragua and the Interoceanic Canal Company.
In view of this declaration the Commission has not made any
effort to ascertain the cost at which the concessions of these
companies can be purchased, for if these forfeitures are final
the rights formerly granted to these companies are not in the
way of diplomatic negotiations with the Government interested
to acquire the consent and authority necessary for the
construction of a canal by this route. The situation in Costa
Rica is practically the same.
"The situation at Panama is different. The Republic of
Colombia first granted a concession to the Panama Railroad
Company, giving it exclusive privileges on the Isthmus, which
will continue according to modifications afterwards made for
ninety-nine years from August 16, 1867. A later concession to
the Panama Canal Company required it to enter into some
amicable arrangement with the railroad company under which the
former might occupy the territory along or near its line. The
canal company acquired by purchase a majority of the railroad
stock, and the necessary arrangements were made. This stock is
now under the control of the New Panama Canal Company, which
gives it a directing influence in both organizations. The
canal concession is to continue according to its latest
extension for ninety-nine years from the day on which the
canal shall be wholly or partially opened to public service,
and the date fixed for this in the contract is October 31,
1910. Should it fail and the concession be forfeited the
company will still have exclusive control of the territory
through which its line extends till 1966 under the railroad
concession. The canal company is absolutely prohibited to cede
or mortgage its rights under any consideration whatever to any
nation or foreign government under penalty of forfeiture.
{68}
The contract with the railroad company contains a like
prohibition and declares further that the pain of forfeiture
will be incurred by the mere act of attempting to cede or
transfer its privilege to a foreign government and such an act
is declared absolutely null and of no value or effect. These
concessions, if acquired by the United States, would not give
to the Government the control and ownership evidently
contemplated by the law, that is, an absolute ownership in
perpetuity. The right under the contract with the railroad
company is designated as 'the use and possession' of the
property for ninety-nine years, and it is provided that 'at
the expiration of the term of the privilege' and by the sole
fact of the expiration, the Government of Colombia shall be
substituted in all the rights of the company and shall
immediately enter into the enjoyment of the line of
communication, its fixtures, dependencies and all its
products. The right of the canal company is substantially of
the same character. … An examination of the charter rights of
the New Panama Canal Company under the general incorporation
laws of France and the special legislation in its behalf
resulted in finding an enactment, included in a law passed
June 8, 1888, requiring that all the plant necessary for the
construction of the canal shall be manufactured in France and
that the material must be of French origin. This being the
situation, it was manifest that, even if the privileges of the
companies could be purchased by and transferred to the United
States, they were encumbered with charges and conditions that
would not permit this Government to exercise all the rights of
complete ownership over a canal constructed by it at the
Panama route. A new arrangement is necessary if the United
States is to undertake such a work. The relinquishment by the
canal company, with the consent of Colombia, of the privileges
it has under existing concessions, for a consideration to be
agreed upon with the United States, would leave the way open
for treaty negotiations between the two governments to
ascertain whether Colombia will consent to the occupation of
its territory by the United States for the construction of a
canal to be under Government control, management, and
ownership, and, if so, whether they can agree upon terms
mutually satisfactory. The situation is peculiar, as there are
three parties in interest. The United States can enter into no
agreement with Colombia that does not have the approval of the
company, and the concessions do not permit the company to
transfer or attempt to transfer its rights to a foreign
government.
"The Commission has, however, attempted to ascertain the views
of the New Panama Canal Company with reference to a
disposition and transfer of its rights. Interviews were had
with its president and other officers during the visit to
Paris and on several occasions from time to time since then,
and on the 10th day of April last a formal letter was
addressed to Mr. Maurice Hutin, the president and
director-general, asking whether he was in a position to name
terms upon which the company would dispose of its property and
interests to the United States. At different times since then
the subject has been discussed by the representatives of the
company with the Commission and its committee on rights,
privileges, and franchises, but no formal reply to the letter
was received until this report was being closed. These
conferences and correspondence have resulted in no offer to
dispose of the property and privileges of the company to the
United States upon any terms, even with the consent of the
Colombian Government, nor has the company expressed any desire
or wish to enter into any negotiations with the United States
with reference to such a disposition of its property and
rights. It was proposed by President Hutin that the United
States might obtain control of the canal scheme as a majority
stockholder of a new organization to which the present company
could contribute its concession, plant, unfinished work, and
other property, at a valuation to be determined by
arbitration, and he expressed the opinion that such an
arrangement could be made without violating the concessions.
But this must include some plan for the protection of the
minority stockholders in the financial management, for they
would favor a policy that would realize liberal dividends in
proportion to the commercial value of the canal, while the
policy of this Government might be to reduce tolls and charges
to the cost of maintenance or even below it, if the interests
of the people would be thereby advanced. The plan, however,
which the company prefers is that outlined in its letter of
February 28, 1899, addressed to the President of the United
States, which has been published in Senate Document No. 188,
Fifty-Sixth Congress, first session, pages 41 and 42. This was
to reincorporate under the laws of New York or some other
State, and accord to the United States such representation in
its board of directors and such opportunity to acquire an
interest in its securities as its concessions permitted. And
an assurance was added to the effect that if the United States
should desire to perpetuate or enlarge its existing rights and
privileges acquired under the treaty of 1846, the company
would conform to such supplemental treaty as might be entered
into between the United States and Colombia. The Commission
having no other authority than to make investigations and
obtain information submits this result of its efforts to
ascertain upon what terms the rights and privileges at the
Panama route can be obtained. It is proper to add that the
examination of the title of the present company to the canal
property under the laws of France and Colombia has satisfied
this Commission that the New Panama Canal Company has the
entire control and management of the canal property. …
"The estimated cost of building the Nicaragua Canal is about
$58,000,000 more than that of completing the Panama Canal,
leaving out the cost of acquiring the latter property. This
measures the difference in the magnitude of the obstacles to
be overcome in the actual construction of the two canals, and
covers all physical considerations such as the greater or less
height of dams, the greater or less depth of cuts, the
presence or absence of natural harbors, the presence or
absence of a railroad, the exemption from or liability to
disease, and the amount of work remaining to be done. The New
Panama Canal Company has shown no disposition to sell its
property to the United States. Should that company be able and
willing to sell, there is reason to believe that the price
would not be such as would make the total cost to the United
States less than that of the Nicaragua Canal. … In view of all
the facts, and particularly in view of all the difficulties of
obtaining the necessary rights, privileges, and franchises on
the Panama route, and assuming that Nicaragua and Costa Rica
recognize the value of the canal to themselves and are
prepared to grant concessions on terms which are reasonable
and acceptable to the United States, the Commission is of the
opinion that 'the most practicable and feasible route for' an
isthmian canal to be 'under the control, management, and
ownership of the United States' is that known as the Nicaragua
route."
United States, 56th Congress,
2d Session, Senate Doc. Number 5.
{69}
CANAL, Interoceanic, A. D. 1900 (December).
The Hay-Pauncefote Treaty between the United States and
Great Britain, to facilitate the construction of the Canal,
as amended by the United States Senate.
In his annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1900, President
McKinley had the following to say on the subject of the
Interoceanic Canal: "The all important matter of an
interoceanic canal has assumed a new phase. Adhering to its
refusal to reopen the question of the forfeiture of the
contract of the Maritime Canal Company, which was terminated
for alleged non-execution in October, 1899, the Government of
Nicaragua has since supplemented that action by declaring the
so-styled Eyre-Cragin option void for non-payment of the
stipulated advance. Protests in relation to these acts have
been filed in the State Department, and are under
consideration. Deeming itself relieved from existing
engagements, the Nicaraguan Government shows a disposition to
deal freely with the canal question either in the way of
negotiations with the United States or by taking measures to
promote the waterway. Overtures for a convention to effect the
building of a canal under the auspices of the United States
are under consideration. In the mean time, the views of the
Congress upon the general subject, in the light of the report
of the Commission appointed to examine the comparative merits
of the various trans-isthmian ship canal projects, may be
awaited. I commend to the early attention of the Senate the
convention with Great Britain to facilitate the construction
of such a canal, and to remove any objection which might arise
out of the convention commonly called the Clayton-Bulwer
Treaty."
On the terms of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty:
See, in volume 4,
NICARAGUA: A. D. 1850.
The Convention thus referred to was negotiated by the
Secretary of State of the United States. Mr. John Hay, with
the British Ambassador to the United States, Lord Pauncefote.
It was signed at Washington on the 5th of February, 1900, and
communicated by the President to the Senate on the same day.
The action of the Senate on the Convention was not taken until
after the opening of the session of Congress in December. It was
then ratified (December 20), but with three amendments which
seriously changed its character. The following is the text of
the Convention as ratified, with the Senate amendments
indicated:
"ARTICLE I.
It is agreed that the canal may be constructed under the
auspices of the Government of the United States, either
directly at its own cost, or by gift or loan of money to
individuals or corporations or through subscription to or
purchase of stock or shares, and that, subject to the
provisions of the present Convention, the said Government
shall have and enjoy all the rights incident to such
construction, as well as the exclusive right of providing for
the regulation and management of the canal.
"ARTICLE II.
The High Contracting Parties, desiring to preserve and
maintain the 'general principle' of neutralization established
in Article VIII of the Clayton-Bulwer Convention, [Added by
the Senate] which convention is hereby superseded, adopt, as
the basis of such neutralization, the following rules,
substantially as embodied in the convention between Great
Britain and certain other Powers, signed at Constantinople,
October 29, 1888, for the Free Navigation of the Suez Maritime
Canal, that is to say:
1. The canal shall be free and open, in time of war as in time
of peace, to the vessels of commerce and of war of all
nations, on terms of entire equality, so that there shall be
no discrimination against any nation or its citizens or
subjects in respect of the conditions or charges of traffic,
or otherwise.
2. The canal shall never be blockaded, nor shall any right of
war be exercised nor any act of hostility be committed within
it.
3. Vessels of war of a belligerent shall not revictual nor
take any stores in the canal except so far as may be strictly
necessary; and the transit of such vessels through the canal
shall be effected with the least possible delay, in accordance
with the regulations in force, and with only such intermission
as may result from the necessities of the service. Prizes
shall be in all respects subject to the same rules as vessels
of war of the belligerents.
4. No belligerent shall embark or disembark troops, munitions
of war or warlike materials in the canal except in case of
accidental hindrance of the transit, and in such case the
transit shall be resumed with all possible despatch.
5. The provisions of this article shall apply to waters
adjacent to the canal, within three marine miles of either
end. Vessels of war of a belligerent shall not remain in such
waters longer than twenty-four hours at any one time except in
case of distress, and in such case shall depart as soon as
possible; but a vessel of war of one belligerent shall not
depart within twenty-four hours from the departure of a vessel
of war of the other belligerent. [Added by the Senate] It is
agreed, however, that none of the immediately foregoing
conditions and stipulations in sections numbered one, two,
three, four and five of this article shall apply to measures
which the United States may find it necessary to take for
securing by its own forces the defense of the United States
and the maintenance of public order.
6. The plant, establishments, buildings, and all works
necessary to the construction, maintenance and operation of
the canal shall be deemed to be part thereof, for the purposes
of this Convention, and in time of war as in time of peace
shall enjoy complete immunity from attack or injury by
belligerents and from acts calculated to impair their
usefulness as part of the canal.
7. No fortifications shall be erected commanding the canal or
the waters adjacent. The United States, however, shall be at
liberty to maintain such military police along the canal as
may be necessary to protect it against lawlessness and
disorder.
"ARTICLE III.
The High Contracting Parties will, immediately upon the
exchange of the ratifications of this Convention, bring it to
the notice of the other Powers [and invite them to adhere to
it].
[Stricken out by the Senate.]
"ARTICLE: IV.
The present Convention shall be ratified by the President of
the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate thereof, and by Her Britannic Majesty; and the
ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington or at London
within six months from the date hereof, or earlier if
possible."
United States, 56th Congress, 1st Session,
Senate Document Number 160.
{70}
Anticipating the ratification of the above Treaty with Great
Britain, the President of the United States, in December,
1900, concluded agreements with the governments of Costa Rica
and Nicaragua, both of which were in the following terms:
"It is agreed between the two Governments that when the
President of the United States is authorized by law to acquire
control of such portion of the territory now belonging to [Costa
Rica and Nicaragua] as may be desirable and necessary on which
to construct and protect a canal of depth and capacity
sufficient for the passage of vessels of the greatest tonnage
and draft now in use from a point near San Juan del Norte, on
the Caribbean Sea, via Lake Nicaragua, to Brito, on the
Pacific Ocean, they mutually engage to enter into negotiations
with each other to settle the plan and the agreements, in detail,
found necessary to accomplish the construction and to provide
for the ownership and control of the proposed canal. As
preliminary to such future negotiations it is forthwith agreed
that the course of said canal and the terminals thereof shall
be the same that were stated in a treaty signed by the
plenipotentiaries of the United States and Great Britain on
February 5, 1900, and now pending in the Senate of the United
States for confirmation, and that the provisions of the same
shall be adhered to by the United States and [Costa Rica and
Nicaragua]." No action on these agreements was taken in the
Senate.
CANAL, Interoceanic, A. D. 1901 (March).
Rejection by the British Government of the Hay-Pauncefote
Treaty as amended by the U. S. Senate.
Early in March, soon after the adjournment of Congress, a
communication from Lord Lansdowne, the British Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs, declining with courtesy and in
friendly terms to accept the Senate amendments to the
Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, was received by Lord Pauncefote, the
British Ambassador at Washington. The objections urged most
strongly are against those amendments which touch the
neutrality of the proposed canal and its unimpeded use in time
of war as well as in time of peace. "The first of them," said
Lord Lansdowne, "which reserves to the United States the right
of taking any measures which they may find necessary to secure by
their own forces the defence of the United States, appears to
His Majesty's government to involve a distinct departure from
the principle which has until now found acceptance with both
governments; the principle, namely, that in time of war, as
well as in time of peace, the passage of the canal is to
remain free and unimpeded, and is to be so maintained by the
power or powers responsible for its control. Were this
amendment added to the convention the United States would, it
is presumed, be within their rights, if, at any moment when it
seemed to them that their safety required it, in view of
warlike preparations not yet commenced, but contemplated or
supposed to be contemplated by another power, they resorted to
warlike acts in or near the canal—acts clearly inconsistent
with the neutral character which it has always been sought to
give it, and which would deny the free use of it to the
commerce and navies of the world. … If the new clause were to
be added, the obligation to respect the neutrality of the
canal in all circumstances would, so far as Great Britain is
concerned, remain in force; the obligation of the United
States, on the other hand, would be essentially modified. The
result would be a onesided arrangement, under which Great
Britain would be debarred from any warlike action in or around
the canal, while the United States would be liable to resort to
such action to whatever extent they might deem necessary to
secure their own safety."
To the contention that there is a specific prohibition in the
Hay-Pauncefote treaty against the erection of fortifications,
and that this would sufficiently insure the free use of the
canal, Lord Lansdowne replies that this "contention is one
which His Majesty's government are quite unable to admit." He
notes the vagueness of language in the amendment, and says:
"Even if it were more precisely worded it would be impossible
to determine what might be the effect if one clause permitting
defensive measures and another forbidding fortifications were
allowed to stand side by side in the convention. To His
Majesty's government it seems, as I have already said, that
the amendment might be construed as leaving it open to the
United States at any moment, not only if war existed, but even
if it were anticipated, to take any measures, however
stringent or far-reaching, which in their own judgment might
be represented as suitable for the purpose of protecting their
national interests. Such an enactment would strike at the very
root of that 'general principle' of neutralization upon which
the Clayton-Bulwer treaty was based, and which was reaffirmed
in the convention as drafted."
As to the third Senate amendment, which struck out the
provision inviting the adherence of other powers, Lord
Lansdowne says: "The amendment not only removes all prospect
of the wider guarantee of the neutrality of the canal, but
places this country in a position of marked disadvantage
compared with other powers which would not be subject to the
self-denying ordinance which Great Britain is desired to
accept. It would follow, were His Majesty's government to
agree to such an arrangement, that while the United States
would have a treaty right to interfere with the canal in time
of war, or apprehended war, and while other powers could with
a clear conscience disregard any of the restrictions imposed
by the convention, Great Britain alone, in spite of her
enormous possessions on the American Continent, in spite of
the extent of her Australasian colonies and her interests in
the East, would be absolutely precluded from resorting to any
such action or from taking measures to secure her interests in
and near the canal."
The British Minister closes his communication to Lord
Pauncefote as follows: "I request that your excellency will
explain to the Secretary of State the reasons, as set forth in
this dispatch, why His Majesty's government feel unable to
accept the convention in the shape presented to them by the
American Ambassador, and why they prefer, as matters stand at
present, to retain unmodified the provisions of the
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. His Majesty's government have
throughout these negotiations given evidence of their earnest
desire to meet the views of the United States.
{71}
They would on this occasion have been ready to consider in a
friendly spirit any amendments of the convention not
inconsistent with the principles accepted by both governments
which the government of the United States might have desired
to propose, and they would sincerely regret a failure to come
to an amicable understanding in regard to this important
subject."
CANAL, The Kaiser Wilhelm Ship.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1895 (JUNE).
CANAL, Manchester Ship.
On the 1st of January, 1894, the ship canal from Liverpool to
Manchester, which had been ten years in course of construction
and cost £15,000,000, was formally opened, by a long
procession of steamers, which traversed it in four and a half
hours.
CANAL: The Rhine-Elbe, the Dortmund-Rhine,
and other Prussian projects.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1890 (AUGUST);
and 1901 (JANUARY).
CANDIA: A. D. 1898 (September).
Fresh outbreak.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1897-1899.
CANEA: Christian and Moslem conflicts at.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).
CANOVAS DEL CASTILLO, Antonio:
Formation of Spanish Cabinet.
See (in this volume)
SPAIN: A. D. 1895-1896.
CANOVAS DEL CASTILLO, Antonio:
Assassination.
See (in this volume)
SPAIN: A. D. 1897 (AUGUST-OCTOBER).
CANTEEN, The Army.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER), THE PROHIBITION PARTY;
and 1901 (FEBRUARY).
CANTON: A. D. 1894.
The Bubonic Plague.
See (in this volume)
PLAGUE.
CANTON: A. D. 1899.
Increasing piracy in the river.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899.
CAPE COLONY.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE COLONY).
CAPE NOME, Gold discovery at.
See (in this volume)
ALASKA: A. D. 1898-1899.
CAPE SAN JUAN, Engagement at.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: PORTO RICO).
CARNEGIE, Andrew: Gifts and offers to public libraries.
See (in this volume)
LIBRARIES;
and LIBRARY, NEW YORK PUBLIC.
CARNEGIE COMPANY, Sale of the interests of the.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: UNITED STATES.
CAROLINE and MARIANNE ISLANDS:
Their sale by Spain to Germany.
By a treaty concluded in February, 1899, the Caroline Islands,
the Western Carolines or Pelew Islands, and the Marianne or
Ladrone Islands (excepting Guam), were sold by Spain to
Germany for 25,000,000 pesetas—the peseta being equivalent to
a fraction less than twenty cents. Spain reserved the right to
establish and maintain naval and mercantile stations in the
islands, and to retain them in case of war. Spanish trade and
privileges for the Spanish religious orders are guaranteed
against interference.
CARROLL, Henry K.:
Report on Porto Rico.
See (in this volume)
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898-1899 (AUGUST-JULY).
CASSATION, The Court of.
The French Court of Appeals.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1897-1899.
CASTILLO, Pedro Lopez de:
Letter to the soldiers of the American army.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (AUGUST 21).
CATALOGUE, International, of Scientific Literature.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
CATALONIA: Independent aspirations in.
See (in this volume)
SPAIN: A. D. 1900 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER).
CATASTROPHES, Natural: A. D. 1894.
Late in December, the orange groves of Florida were mostly
destroyed or seriously injured by the severest frost known in
more than half a century.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1896.
On January 8, a severe earthquake shock was felt at Meshed,
Kelat and other Persian towns, causing over 1,100 deaths.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1896.
In March, the Tigris overflowed its banks, causing
incalculable loss of life and property in Mesopotamia.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1896.
A succession of earthquake shocks in March, 1896, did great
damage at Santiago, Valparaiso, and other parts of Chile.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1896.
On May 15, a cyclone destroyed part of the town of Sherman, in
Texas, killing more than 120 persons, mostly negroes. The same
day a waterspout burst over the town of Howe in the same state,
killing 8 people.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1896.
On May 27, a fierce cyclone swept the city of St. Louis,
Missouri, completely devastating a large part of the city, and
causing great loss of life and property.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1896.
A destructive wave swept the Japanese coast in June.
See (in this volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1896.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1896.
On July 26, a tidal wave, 5 miles in width, inundated the
coast of Kiangsu, in China, destroying many villages and more
than 4,000 inhabitants.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1896-1897.
A severe famine prevailed in India from the spring of 1896
until the autumn of 1897.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1896-1897.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1897.
A severe earthquake occurred at the island of Kishm in the
Persian Gulf, in January, causing great loss of life.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1897.
In March and April of this year the floods along the
Mississippi river and its tributaries reached the highest
level ever recorded. In extent of area and loss of property
these floods were the most remarkable in the history of the
continent. The total area under water on April 10 was about
15,800 square miles, containing about 39,500 farms, whose
value was close upon $65,000,000. The loss of life was small.
Congress gave relief to the extent of $200,000, besides
appropriating $2,583,300 for the improvement of the
Mississippi.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1897.
Extensive floods occurred in Galatz, Moldavia, in June,
rendering 20,000 people homeless.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1897.
The islands of Leyte and Samar, in the Visayas group, were
swept by an immense wave caused by a cyclone, in October,
thousands of natives being killed, and much property
destroyed.
{72}
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1897.
On October 6, the Philippine Islands were swept by a typhoon,
which destroyed several towns. The loss of life was estimated
at 6,000, of whom 400 were Europeans. This was followed on
October 12 by a cyclone which destroyed several villages and
caused further loss of life.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1897.
By an eruption of the Mayon volcano in the island of Luzon,
Philippine Islands, four hundred persons were buried in the
lava, and the large town of Libog completely destroyed.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1898.
A series of earthquake shocks in Asia Minor during the month
of January occasioned considerable loss of life and property.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1898.
In January, Amboyna, in the Molucca Islands, was almost
destroyed by an earthquake, in which about 50 persons were
killed and 200 injured.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1898.
On January 11, a tornado wrecked many buildings in Fort Smith,
Ark. The loss of life was reported as 50, with hundreds
injured.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1898.
A disastrous blizzard occurred in New England, January 31 and
February 1. Fifty lives were reported as lost, and the damage
in Boston alone amounted to $2,000,000. Many vessels were
driven ashore or foundered, with further loss of life.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1898.
Floods on the Ohio river in March and April caused much loss
of life and property. Shawneetown, Illinois on the Ohio river,
was almost entirely destroyed by the flood, more than 60 lives
being lost.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1898.
On the night of September 10, the island of Barbados was swept
by a tornado which destroyed 10,000 houses and damaged 5,000
more. Three-fourths of the inhabitants were left homeless, and
about 100 were killed. The islands of St. Vincent and St.
Lucia also suffered great losses of life and property.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1898.
A typhoon swept the central provinces of Japan in September,
causing heavy floods, and destroying 100 lives.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1899.
Severe floods on the Brazos river, in Texas, occasioned the
death of about 100 people, and property losses to the extent
of $15,000,000.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1899.
A destructive tornado in Northern Missouri, in April, did much
damage in the towns of Kirksville and Newtown. Over fifty
persons were killed.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1899.
An almost unprecedented failure of crops in eastern Russia
caused famine, disease and awful destruction of life.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1899.
A terrific hurricane visited the West Indies August 7 and 8.
Of the several islands affected, Porto Rico suffered most,
three-fourths of the population being left homeless. The total
loss of life in the West Indies was estimated at 5,000.
See (in this volume)
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1899 (AUGUST).
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1899.
About 1,500 people lost their lives in an earthquake around
Aidin, Asia Minor, September 2.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1899.
The island of Ceram, in the Moluccas, was visited by an
earthquake and tidal wave, November 2. Many towns were
destroyed, and 5,000 people killed.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1899-1900.
Recurrence of famine in India.
See (in this volume)
INDIA A. D. 1899-1900.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1900.
The city of Galveston, Texas, was overwhelmed and mostly
destroyed, on the 9th of September, by an unprecedented
hurricane, which drove the waters of the Gulf upon the
low-lying town.
See (in this volume)
GALVESTON.
CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1901.
Famine in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
CATHOLICS, Roman:
Protest of British peers against the declaration required from
the sovereign.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
CATHOLICS, Roman:
Victory in Belgium.
See (in this volume)
BELGIUM: A. D. 1894-1895.
See, also, PAPACY.
CEBU: The American occupation of the island.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY-NOVEMBER).
CENSUS: Of the United States, A. D. 1900.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (MAY-OCTOBER).
CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE, British.
See (in this volume)
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE.
CENTRAL AMERICA, A. D. 1821-1898.
Unsuccessful attempts to unite the republics.
"In 1821, after numerous revolutions, Central America
succeeded in throwing off the yoke of Spain. A Congress
assembled at Guatemala in March, 1822, and founded the
Republic of Central America, composed of Guatemala, Salvador,
Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. The new Republic had but
a short existence; after numerous civil wars the Union was
dissolved, October 26, 1838, and the five States of the
Republic became so many independent countries. Several
attempts toward a reorganization of the Constitution of the
Republic of Central America remained fruitless and had cost
the lives of certain of their authors, when, through the
influence of Dr. P. Bonilla, President of the Republic of
Honduras, a treaty was concluded between Nicaragua and
Salvador, according to which the three Republics constituted a
federation under the name of the Greater Republic of Central
America. The three Republics became States, and the
sovereignty of the federation was exercised by a Diet composed
of three members, one for each State, and which convened every
year in the capital of the Federal States.
"On the invitation of this Diet, the three States appointed a
delegation which met as a Constituent Assembly at Managua,
Nicaragua, and established a constitution, according to the
terms of which the three States took the name of the United
States of Central America, November 1, 1898. This
Constitution, grand and patriotic, which, in the minds of
those who had elaborated it, meant a complete consolidation of
the three Federal States and a speedy realization of a
reorganization of the Grand Republic of Central America,
dreamed of by Morazan, had a sad ending. The day after the
meeting of the Constituent Assembly a revolutionary movement
hostile to the new federation broke out in Salvador and gave a
new administration to this State. Its first act was to retire
from the Union, and this secession brought about the
dissolution of the United States of Central America; for,
following the example of Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua took
back their absolute sovereignty."
H. Jalhay,
quoted in Bulletin of American Republics, March, 1899.
{73}
The secession of Salvador was brought about by a revolutionary
movement, which overthrew the constitutional government of
President Gutierrez and placed General Tomas Regolado at the
head of a provisional government, which issued the following
manifesto on the 25th of November, 1898: "Considering—That the
compact of Amapala, celebrated in June, 1895, and all that
proceeds therefrom, has not obtained the legitimate sanction
of the Salvadorean people, and, moreover, has been a violation
of the political constitution of Salvador; That in the
assembled Constituent Assembly of Managua, reunited in June of
the present year, the deputies of Salvador were not directly
elected by the Salvadorean people, and for that reason had no
legal authority to concur to a constituent law that could bind
the Republic; That the union with the Republics of Honduras
and Nicaragua under the contracted terms will seriously injure
the interests of Salvador: Decrees. ART. 1. The Republic of
Salvador is not obliged by the contract of Amapala to
acknowledge any authority in the constitution of Managua of
the 27th August of the current year, and it is released from
the contract of union with the Republics of Honduras and
Nicaragua. ART. 2. The Republic of Salvador assumes in full
its self-government and independence, and will enter the union
with the sister Republics of Central America when same is
convenient to its positive interests and is the express and
free will of the Salvadorean people."
United States, 55th Congress, 3d Session,
Senate Document Number 50.
CENTRAL AMERICA, A. D. 1884-1900.
Interoceanic Canal measures of later years.
See (in this volume)
CANAL, INTEROCEANIC, with accompanying map.
CENTRAL AMERICA, Nicaragua: A. D. 1894-1895.
Insurrection in the Mosquito Indian Strip.
The Bluefields Incident.
In his Annual Message to Congress, December, 1894, President
Cleveland referred as follows to disturbances which had
occurred during the year at Bluefields, the principal town of
the Mosquito district of Nicaragua, and commonly known as "the
Bluefields Incident:" "By the treaty of 1860 between Great
Britain and Nicaragua, the former Government expressly
recognized the sovereignty of the latter over the strip, and a
limited form of self-government was guaranteed to the Mosquito
Indians, to be exercised according to their customs, for
themselves and other dwellers within its limits. The so-called
native government, which grew to be largely made up of aliens,
for many years disputed the sovereignty of Nicaragua over the
strip and claimed the right to maintain therein a practically
independent municipal government. Early in the past year
efforts of Nicaragua to maintain sovereignty over the Mosquito
territory led to serious disturbances, culminating in the
suppression of the native government and the attempted
substitution of an impracticable composite administration in
which Nicaragua and alien residents were to participate.
Failure was followed by an insurrection, which for a time
subverted Nicaraguan rule, expelling her officers and
restoring the old organization. This in turn gave place to the
existing local government established and upheld by Nicaragua.
Although the alien interests arrayed against Nicaragua in
these transactions have been largely American and the commerce
of that region for some time has been and still is chiefly
controlled by our citizens, we can not for that reason
challenge the rightful sovereignty of Nicaragua over this
important part of her domain."
United States, Message and Documents
(Abridgment, 1894-1895).
In his Message of 1895 the President summarized the later
history of the incident as follows: "In last year's message I
narrated at some length the jurisdictional questions then
freshly arisen in the Mosquito Indian Strip of Nicaragua.
Since that time, by the voluntary act of the Mosquito Nation,
the territory reserved to them has been incorporated with
Nicaragua, the Indians formally subjecting themselves to be
governed by the general laws and regulations of the Republic
instead of by their own customs and regulations, and thus
availing themselves of a privilege secured to them by the
treaty between Nicaragua and Great Britain of January 28,
1860. After this extension of uniform Nicaraguan
administration to the Mosquito Strip, the case of the British
vice-consul, Hatch, and of several of his countrymen who had
been summarily expelled from Nicaragua and treated with
considerable indignity, provoked a claim by Great Britain upon
Nicaragua for pecuniary indemnity, which, upon Nicaragua's
refusal to admit liability, was enforced by Great Britain.
While the sovereignty and jurisdiction of Nicaragua was in no
way questioned by Great Britain, the former's arbitrary
conduct in regard to British subjects furnished the ground for
this proceeding. A British naval force occupied without
resistance the Pacific seaport of Corinto, but was soon after
withdrawn upon the promise that the sum demanded would be
paid. Throughout this incident the kindly offices of the
United States were invoked and were employed in favor of as
peaceful a settlement and as much consideration and indulgence
toward Nicaragua as were consistent with the nature of the
case."
United States,
Message and Documents (Abridgment, 1895-1896).
CENTRAL AMERICA, Guatemala: A. D. 1895.
Mexican boundary dispute.
See (in this volume)
MEXICO: A. D. 1895.
CENTRAL AMERICA, Nicaragua: A. D. 1896-1898.
Revolutionary conflicts.
Vice President Baca of Nicaragua joined a revolutionary
movement which was set on foot in February, 1896, by the
Clericals, for the overthrow of President Zelaya, and was
declared Provisional President. The rebellion had much support
from exiles and friends in Honduras; but the government of
that State sustained and assisted Zelaya. The insurgents were
defeated in a number of battles, and gave up the contest in
May. During the civil war American and British marines were
landed on occasions at Corinto to protect property there. In
1897, and again in 1898, there were renewed insurrections,
quickly suppressed.
CENTRAL AMERICA, Costa Rica: A. D. 1896-1900.
Boundary dispute with Colombia settled by arbitration.
See (in this volume)
COLOMBIA: A. D. 1893-1900.
{74}
CENTRAL AMERICA, Nicaragua—Costa Rica: A. D. 1897.
A dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, as to the eastern
extremity of their boundary line, was decided by General
Alexander, a referee accepted by the two republics. The
boundary had not been well defined in a treaty negotiated for
its settlement in 1858. According to the terms of the treaty,
the line was to start from the Atlantic at the mouth of the
San Juan river; but changes of current and accumulation of
river drift, etc., gave ground for dispute as to where the
river actually made its exit. President Cleveland in 1888,
acting as arbitrator at the request of the two countries,
decided that the treaty of 1858 was valid, but was not clear
as to which outlet of the delta was the boundary. Finally, in
1896, an agreement was reached for a final survey and marking
of the boundary line, and President Cleveland, on request,
appointed General Alexander as arbitrator in any case of
disagreement between the surveying commissions. The decision
gives to Nicaragua the territory upon which Greytown is
situated, and practical control of the mouth of the canal.
CENTRAL AMERICA, Guatemala: A. D. 1897-1898.
Dictatorship of President Barrios.
His assassination.
In June, 1897, President José M. Reyna Barrios, whose six
years term in the presidency would expire the next March,
fearing defeat in the approaching election, forcibly dissolved
the National Assembly and proclaimed a dictatorship. Three
months later a revolt was organized by General Prospero
Morales; but Barrios crushed it with merciless energy, and a
veritable reign of terror ensued. In February, 1898, the
career of the Dictator was cut short by an assassin, who shot
him to avenge the death of a wealthy citizen, Don Juan
Aparicio, whom Barrios had executed for expressing sympathy
with the objects of the rebellion of the previous year.
Control of the government was then taken by Dr. Cabrera, who
had been at the head of the party which supported Barrios. A
rising under Morales was again attempted, but failed. Morales,
in a dying condition at the time, was betrayed and captured.
Cabrera, with no more opposition, was elected President for
six years.
CENTRAL AMERICA, Nicaragua—Costa Rica: A. D. 1900.
Agreements with the United States respecting the control of
territory for interoceanic canal.
See (in this volume)
CANAL, INTEROCEANIC, A. D. 1900 (DECEMBER).
CENTURY, The Nineteenth:
Date of its ending.
Its character and trend.
Comparison with preceding ages.
Its failures.
See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY.
CERVERA, Rear-Admiral,
and the Spanish Squadron at Santiago de Cuba.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JUNE);
and (JULY 3).
CHAFFEE, General Adna R.:
At Santiago.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).
CHAFFEE, General Adna R.:
Commanding American forces in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JUNE-AUGUST);
(JULY); and (AUGUST).
CHAFFEE, General Adna R.:
Report of the allied movement to Peking
and the capture of the city.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST 4-16).
CHAKDARRA, Defense of.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1897-1898.
CHALDEA, New light on ancient.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA.
CHAMBERLAIN, Joseph:
Appointed British Secretary of State for the Colonies.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1894-1895; and 1900 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER).
CHAMBERLAIN, Joseph:
Conference with Colonial Premiers.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (JUNE-JULY).
CHAMBERLAIN, Joseph:
Controversies with the government of
the South African Republic.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1896 (JANUARY-APRIL);
1896-1897 (MAY-APRIL), and after.
CHAMBERLAIN, Joseph:
Testimony before British Parliamentary Committee
on the Jameson Raid.
Remarks in Parliament on Mr. Rhodes.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY-JULY).
CHAMBERLAIN, Joseph:
Instructions to the Governor of Jamaica.
See (in this volume)
JAMAICA: A. D. 1899.
CHAMBERLAIN, Joseph:
Reassertion of British suzerainty over
the South African Republic.
Refusal to arbitrate questions of disagreement.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1897 (MAY-OCTOBER);
and 1898-1899.
CHAMBERLAIN, Joseph:
Declaration of South African policy.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1901.
CHANG CHIH-TUNG, Viceroy:
Admirable conduct during the Chinese outbreak.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JUNE-DECEMBER).
CHEMICAL SCIENCE, Recent advances in.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.
CHEROKEES, United States agreement with the.
See (in this volume)
INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1893-1899.
CHICAGO: A. D. 1894.
Destruction of the Columbian Exposition buildings.
By a succession of fires, January 9, February 14, most of the
buildings of the Exposition, with valuable exhibits not yet
removed, were destroyed.
CHICAGO: A. D. 1896.
Democratic National Convention.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER).
CHICAGO: A. D. 1899.
Significance of the municipal election.
The municipal election of April 4, 1899, in Chicago, resulted
in the reelection of Mayor Carter H. Harrison, Democrat, by
149,000 votes, against 107,000 cast for Zina R. Carter,
Republican, and 46,000 for Ex-Governor Altgeld, radical
Democrat, running independently. In the opinion of a
correspondent of the "Review of Reviews," "The campaign
disclosed three interesting results—namely: (1) the growth of
independence and of attention to local issues; (2) the
dominance of the street-railroad issue; and (3) the growth of
sentiment in favor of municipal ownership. Nearly two-thirds
of all the votes cast were against the Republican candidate,
and our correspondent regards this as largely due to the
belief that he, more than any of the others, represented the
interests of the street-railroad corporations." This writer
holds that "in all probability any practical proposition for
municipal ownership and operation of the street-railroads
would to-day be approved by a popular vote in Chicago."
{75}
CHICAGO: A. D. 1900.
Opening of the Drainage Canal.
An extraordinary public work was brought into use early in the
year, by the opening of what is known as the Chicago Drainage
Canal. This was constructed for the purpose of turning the
natural flow of water in Chicago River backward, away from
Lake Michigan, its natural embouchure, into the small Des
Plaines River, which runs to the Illinois, and the Illinois to
the Mississippi,—the object being to carry the sewage of
Chicago away from the Lake, where it contaminates the water
supply of the city. Part of the city sewage was already being
sent in that direction by a pumping system which carried it
over the divide; the purpose of the canal is to take the
whole. The work was begun in September, 1892, and practically
finished, so far as concerns the canal, in little more than
seven years, at a cost of about $34,500,000. Changes in the
city sewage system, to fully utilize the object of the canal,
were still to be completed. When the full use is realized,
there is said to be provision in the canal for a maximum
discharge of 600,000 cubic feet of water per minute. Some have
anticipated that such an outflow would seriously lower the
level of the lakes; but there were no signs of that effect in
the season of 1900. Nor did it seem to appear that the sewage
then passing by river flow westward was doing harm to towns on
the Illinois and Mississippi, as they had apprehended; but the
discharge was, as yet, far short of what it is intended to be.
It is possible that ultimately the Chicago Drainage Canal may
become part of a navigable water-way from the lakes to the
Mississippi, realizing an old project of water transportation
in that direction to compete with the rails. The canal has
been constructed upon a scale to suffice for that use; but the
river-improvement called for is one of formidable cost.
About the time of the opening of the canal, the State of
Missouri, by its Attorney-General, moved in the Supreme Court
of the United States for leave to file a bill of complaint
against the State of Illinois and the Sanitary District of
Chicago, the purpose of which was to enjoin the defendants
from discharging the sewage and noxious filth of the Sanitary
District of Chicago into the Mississippi River by artificial
methods. The complaint alleged that unless the relief sought
is granted the water of the Mississippi, which is used for
drinking and other domestic purposes by many thousands of
inhabitants of the State, will be polluted, and that the
public health will be endangered. The Court granted leave to
file the bill. The defendants then interposed a demurrer,
claiming that the controversy, not being in reality between
two States, but between two cities, was one over which the
Supreme Court has no jurisdiction. On the 28th of January,
1901, the Court rendered its decision, overruling the demurrer
to its jurisdiction. The effect of the opinion is that the
Drainage Canal attorneys now must answer the complaint that
the sewage and noxious filth of the sanitary district are
contaminating the waters of the Mississippi River at St.
Louis. No evidence of the facts will be taken in court. On the
request of the parties to the suit, a commission will be
appointed to take testimony and make a report.
CHICAGO UNIVERSITY:
Dedication of the Yerkes Observatory.
See (in this volume)
YERKES OBSERVATORY.
CHICKASAWS, United States agreement with the.
See (in this volume)
INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1893-1899.
CHIH-LI, The "Boxer" outbreak in.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH).
CHILE: A. D. 1894-1900.
The questions with Bolivia and Peru concerning Atacama,
Tacna and Arica.
Of the treaties which closed the war of 1879-84 between Chile,
Bolivia and Peru (see, in volume 1, CHILE: A. D. 1833-1884),
that between Chile and Bolivia contained the following curious
provision, of "indefinite truce," as it has been called:
"Until the opportunity presents itself of celebrating a
definite treaty of peace between the Republics of Chile and
Bolivia, both countries duly represented by … have agreed to
adjust a treaty of truce in accordance with the following
bases: First, the Republics of Chile and Bolivia agree to
celebrate an indefinite truce; and, in consequence, declare at
an end the state of war, which will not be renewed unless one
of the contracting parties should inform the other, with at
least a year's notification, of its intention to recommence
hostilities. In this case the notification will be made
directly, or through the diplomatic representative of a
friendly nation. Second, the Republic of Chile, while this
truce is in force, shall continue to rule, in accordance with
the political and administrative system established by Chilian
law, the territories situated between parallel 238 and the
mouth of the Loa in the Pacific, such territories having for
their eastern boundary a straight line." Under this agreement
Chile has held ever since the territory in question (which is
the province of Atacama) and has claimed that her possession
of it should be made conclusive and permanent by such a
"definite treaty" as the "treaty of truce" in 1884
contemplated. In her view it was taken in lieu of a war
indemnity. Bolivia has disputed this view, maintaining that a
permanent cession of the province, which was her only
seaboard, and without which she has no port, was not intended.
The Bolivian government has continually urged claims to the
restoration of a seaport for Bolivian trade, which Chile has
refused.
At the same time when Atacama was taken from Bolivia, the
provinces of Tacna and Arica were taken by Chile from Peru,
with a stipulation in the peace treaty of Ancon (1884) that
she should hold them for ten years, pending the payment by
Peru of a war indemnity, and that the inhabitants should then
decide by vote to which country they would belong. But, down
to the close of the year 1900, the Chilian government had not
allowed the vote to be taken.
In September, 1900, the dispute, as between Chile and Bolivia,
was brought to what seemed to be an ultimate stage by an
incisive note from the Chilian to the Bolivian government,
proposing to grant to the latter "in exchange for a final
cancelling of all claims to the littoral, three compensations,
viz.: First, to pay all obligations contracted by the Bolivian
Government with the mining enterprises at Huaichaca, Corocoro
and Oruro, and the balance of the Bolivian loan contracted in
Chile in 1867: second, an amount of money, to be fixed by
mutual agreement, for the construction of a railroad
connecting any port on the Chilian coast with the interior of
Bolivia, or else to extend the present Oruro Railway; and,
third, to grant free transit for all products and merchandise
passing into and out of Bolivia through the port referred to."
Bolivia has not seemed to be disposed to accept this proposal,
and the situation is likely to become more strained than before.
{76}
CHILI: A. D. 1896.
Presidential election.
An excited but orderly presidential election held in June,
1896, without government interference, resulted in the choice
of Senor Errazuriz, to succeed Admiral Jorge Montt, who had
been at the head of the government since the overthrow and
death of Balmaceda in 1891.
CHILI: A. D. 1898.
Settlement of boundary dispute with Argentine Republic.
See (in this volume)
ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1898.
CHILI: A. D. 1900.
Adoption of compulsory military service.
The "Diario Oficial" of Chile of September 5, 1900, published
a decree of the Chilian Government establishing compulsory
military service in Chile. By the decree all Chileans will be
liable to military service from their 20th to their 45th year.
Every man on completing his 20th year will be liable to be
chosen by lot to serve one year with the colors, after which,
if so chosen, he will pass into the first reserve, where he
will remain for nine years. Those not chosen by lot to serve
one year with the colors will pass directly into the first
reserve. The second reserve will consist of men of from 30 to 45
years of age. Among those who will be exempt from compulsory
military service are the members of the Government, members of
Congress, State and municipal councillors, Judges, the clergy,
including all those who wear the tonsure, or belong to any
religious order, the directors and teachers of public schools
and colleges, and the police. The last, however, will be
liable to military duty if called upon by the President.
Various civil servants and every only son, or every one of two
only sons of a family which he assists to maintain, may be
excused service under certain conditions.
CHILI: A. D. 1900.
Vote against compulsory arbitration at
Spanish-American Congress.
See (in this volume)
SPAIN: A. D. 1900 (NOVEMBER).
----------CHINA: Start--------
CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895.
The war with Japan.
The peace treaty of Shimonoseki.
Recognition of Korean independence.
Cession of part of Fêng-tien, of Formosa,
and of the Pescadores Islands to Japan.
Relinquishment of Fêng-tien by Japan.
In the original edition of this work, the causes of the war of
1894-1895 between China and Japan will be found stated in the
Supplement (volume 5, page 3736), under "COREA." In the new,
revised edition, the same appears in volume 3, under "Korea."
At the close of the year 1894 the Japanese were pressing their
campaign, with little heed to the cold of winter, for which they
seemed to be well prepared. They had won, almost with ease,
every serious engagement of the war. They had half destroyed
the Chinese navy, on the 18th of September, in a great battle
at the mouth of the Yalu River, and, on the 21st-22d of
November, they had captured Port Arthur, the strongest
fortress in China, with costly dockyards and great stores of
the munitions of war. In the first month of the new year the
successes of the Japanese were renewed. Kaiphing was taken on
the 10th; a vigorous Chinese attack was repulsed, near
Niuchuang, on the 16th; a landing of 25,000 troops on the
Shantung Peninsula was effected on the 20th, and a combined
attack by army and navy on the strong forts which protected
the important harbor of Wei-hai-wei, and the Chinese fleet
sheltered in it, was begun on the 30th of the month. The
attack was ended on the 13th of February, when the Chinese
admiral Ting-Ju-chang gave up the remnant of his fleet and
then killed himself. The Chinese general, Tai, had committed
suicide in despair on the third night of the fighting. There
was further fighting around Niuchuang and Yingkow during
February and part of March, while overtures for peace were
being made by the Chinese government. At length the famous
viceroy, Li Hung-chang, was sent to Japan with full powers to
conclude a treaty. Negotiations were interrupted at the outset
by a foul attack on the Chinese ambassador by a Japanese
ruffian, who shot and seriously wounded him in the cheek. But
the Mikado ordered an armistice, and the Treaty of Shimonoseki
was concluded and signed on the 17th of April. The essential
provisions of the treaty are as follows:
"Article I.
China recognizes definitely the full and complete independence
and autonomy of Corea, and, in consequence, the payment of
tribute and the performance of ceremonies and formalities by
Corea to China in derogation of such independence and autonomy
shall wholly cease for the future.
"Article II.
China cedes to Japan in perpetuity and full sovereignty the
following territories, together with all fortifications,
arsenals, and public property thereon:
(a.) The southern portion of the Province of Fêng-tien, within
the following boundaries—The line of demarcation begins at the
mouth of the River Yalu, and ascends that stream to the mouth
of the River An-Ping: from thence the line runs to Fêng Huang;
from thence to Haicheng; from thence to Ying Kow, forming a
line which describes the southern portion of the territory.
The places above named are included in the ceded territory.
When the line reaches the River Liao at Ying Kow it follows
the course of that stream to its mouth, where it terminates.
The mid-channel of the River Liao shall be taken as the line
of demarcation. This cession also includes all islands
appertaining or belonging to the Province of Fêng-tien
situated in the eastern portion of the Bay of Liao Tung, and
in the northern part of the Yellow Sea.
(b.) The Island of Formosa, together with all islands
appertaining or belonging to the said Island of Formosa. (
(c.) The Pescadores Group, that is to say, all islands lying
between the 119th and 120th degrees of longitude east of
Greenwich and the 23rd and 24th degrees of north latitude. …
[Image: China East Coast.]
{77}
"Article IV.
China agrees to pay to Japan as a war indemnity the sum of
200,000,000 Kuping taels. The said sum to be paid in eight
instalments. The first instalment of 50,000,000 taels to be
paid within six months, and the second instalment of
50,000,000 taels to be paid within twelve months after the
exchange of the ratifications of this Act. The remaining sum
to be paid in six equal annual instalments as follows: the
first of such equal annual instalments to be paid within two
years, the second within three years, the third within four
years, the fourth within five years, the fifth within six
years, and the sixth within seven years after the exchange of
the ratifications of this Act. Interest at the rate of 5 per
cent. per annum shall begin to run on all unpaid portions of
the said indemnity from the date the first instalment falls
due. China shall, however, have the right to pay by
anticipation at any time any or all of said instalments. In
case the whole amount of the said indemnity is paid within
three years after the exchange of the ratifications of the
present Act, all interest shall be waived, and the interest
for two years and a half, or for any less period if then
already paid, shall be included as a part of the principal
amount of the indemnity.
"Article V.
The inhabitants of the territories ceded to Japan who wish to
take up their residence outside the ceded districts shall be
at liberty to sell their real property and retire. For this
purpose a period of two years from the date of the exchange of
the ratifications of the present Act shall be granted. At the
expiration of that period those of the inhabitants who shall
not have left such territories shall, at the option of Japan,
be deemed to be Japanese subjects. Each of the two Governments
shall immediately upon the exchange of the ratifications of
the present Act, send one or more Commissioners to Formosa to
effect a final transfer of that province, and within the space
of two months after the exchange of the ratifications of this
Act such transfer shall be completed.
"Article VI.
All Treaties between Japan and China having come to an end in
consequence of war, China engages, immediately upon the
exchange of the ratifications of this Act, to appoint
Plenipotentiaries to conclude with the Japanese
Plenipotentiaries a Treaty of Commerce and Navigation, and a
Convention to regulate frontier intercourse and trade. The
Treaties, Conventions, and Regulations now subsisting between
China and European Powers shall serve as a basis for the said
Treaty and Convention between Japan and China. From the date
of the exchange of the ratifications of this Act until the
said Treaty and Convention are brought into actual operation
the Japanese Government, its officials, commerce, navigation,
frontier intercourse and trade, industries, ships and
subjects, shall in every respect be accorded by China
most-favoured-nation treatment. China makes, in addition, the
following concessions to take effect six months after the date
of the present Act:
1. The following cities, towns, and ports, in addition to
those already opened, shall be opened to the trade, residence,
industries, and manufactures of Japanese subjects under the same
conditions, and with the same privileges and facilities as
exist at the present open cities, towns, and ports of China.
(1.) Shashih, in the Province of Hupeh.
(2.) Chung King, in the Province of Szechuan.
(3.) Suchow, in the Province of Kiang Su.
(4.) Hangchow, in the Province of Chekiang.
The Japanese Government shall have the right to station
Consuls at any or all of the above-named places.
2. Steam navigation for vessels under the Japanese flag for
the conveyance of passengers and cargo shall be extended to
the following places:
(1.) On the Upper Yangtsze River,
from Ichang to Chung King.
(2.) On the Woosung River and the Canal,
from Shanghae to Suchow and Hangchow. The
Rules and Regulations which now govern the
navigation of the inland waters of China by foreign
vessels, shall, so far as applicable, be enforced
in respect of the above-named routes, until
new Rules and Regulations are conjointly agreed to.
3. Japanese subjects purchasing goods or produce in the
interior of China or transporting imported merchandize into
the interior of China, shall have the right temporarily to
rent or hire warehouses for the storage of the articles so
purchased or transported, without the payment of any taxes or
exactions whatever.
4. Japanese subjects shall be free to engage in all kinds of
manufacturing industries in all the open cities, towns, and
ports of China, and shall be at liberty to import into China
all kinds of machinery, paying only the stipulated import
duties thereon. All articles manufactured by Japanese subjects
in China, shall in respect of inland transit and internal taxes,
duties, charges, and exactions of all kinds and also in
respect of warehousing and storage facilities in the interior
of China, stand upon the same footing and enjoy the same
privileges and exemptions as merchandize imported by Japanese
subjects into China. In the event additional Rules and
Regulations are necessary in connection with these
concessions, they shall be embodied in the Treaty of Commerce
and Navigation provided for by this Article.
"Article VII.
Subject to the provisions of the next succeeding Article, the
evacuation of China by the armies of Japan, shall be
completely effected within three months after the exchange of
the ratifications of the present Act.
"Article VIII.
As a guarantee of the faithful performance of the stipulations
of this Act, China consents to the temporary occupation by the
military forces of Japan, of Wei-hai-wei, in the Province of
Shantung. Upon the payment of the first two instalments of the
war indemnity herein stipulated for and the exchange of the
ratifications of the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation, the
said place shall be evacuated by the Japanese forces, provided
the Chinese Government consents to pledge, under suitable and
sufficient arrangements, the Customs Revenue of China as
security for the payment of the principal and interest of the
remaining installments of said indemnity. In the event no such
arrangements are concluded, such evacuation shall only take place
upon the payment of the final instalment of said indemnity. It
is, however, expressly understood that no such evacuation
shall take place until after the exchange of the ratifications
of the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation.
"Article IX.
Immediately upon the exchange of the ratifications of this
Act, all prisoners of war then held shall be restored, and
China undertakes not to ill-treat or punish prisoners of war
so restored to her by Japan. China also engages to at once
release all Japanese subjects accused of being military spies
or charged with any other military offences. China further
engages not to punish in any manner, nor to allow to be
punished, those Chinese subjects who have in any manner been
compromised in their relations with the Japanese army during
the war.
"Article X.
All offensive military operations shall cease upon the
exchange of the ratifications of this Act."
{78}
When the terms of the treaty were made known, Russia, Germany
and France entered such protests against the cession of a
portion of the Fêng-tien peninsula, on the main land, and
brought such pressure to bear on Japan, that the latter was
compelled to yield, and relinquished the districts in question
by the following imperial proclamation, dated May 10, 1895:
"We recently, at the request of the Emperor of China,
appointed Plenipotentiaries for the purpose of conferring with
the Ambassadors sent by China, and of concluding with them a
Treaty of Peace between the two Empires. Since then the
Governments of the two Empires of Russia and Germany and of
the French Republic, considering that the permanent possession
of the ceded districts of the Fêng-tien Peninsula by the
Empire of Japan would be detrimental to the lasting peace of
the Orient, have united in a simultaneous recommendation to
our Government to refrain from holding those districts
permanently.
"Earnestly desirous as we always are for the maintenance of
peace, nevertheless we were forced to commence hostilities
against China for no other reason than our sincere desire to
secure for the Orient an enduring peace. The Governments of
the three Powers are, in offering their friendly
recommendation, similarly actuated by the same desire, and we,
out of our regard for peace, do not hesitate to accept their
advice. Moreover, it is not our wish to cause suffering to our
people, or to impede the progress of the national destiny by
embroiling the Empire in new complications, and thereby
imperilling the situation and retarding the restoration of
peace. "China has already shown, by the conclusion of the
Treaty of Peace, the sincerity of her repentance for her
breach of faith with us, and has made manifest to the world
our reasons and the object we had in view in waging war with
that Empire. Under these circumstances we do not consider that
the honour and dignity of the Empire will be compromised by
resorting to magnanimous measures, and by taking into
consideration the general situation of affairs. We have
therefore accepted the advice of the friendly Powers, and have
commanded our Government to reply to the Governments of the
three Powers to that effect.
"We have specially commanded our Government to negotiate with
the Chinese Government respecting all arrangements for the
return of the peninsular districts. The exchange of the
ratifications of the Treaty of Peace has now been concluded,
the friendly relations between the two Empires have been
restored, and cordial relations with all other Powers have
been strengthened. We therefore command all our subjects to
respect our will, to take into careful consideration the
general situation, to be circumspect in all things, to avoid
erroneous tendencies, and not to impair or thwart the high
aspirations of our Empire."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications:
Papers by Command, Japan, Number 1, 1895.
CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895 (March-July).
Cession of Kiang-Hung to France protested against by
Great Britain.
In March, 1894, the government of China entered into a treaty
with that of Great Britain, for the settlement of boundaries
of Burmah, in which it agreed to make no cession of the
district of Kiang-Hung, or any part of it, to any other Power.
Notwithstanding this agreement, the eastern part of Kiang-Hung
was ceded to France in July, 1895; for which proceeding the
British Government promptly called China to account.
CHINA: A. D. 1895.
Treaty with Russia, giving railway privileges and
other rights in Manchuria.
On the 28th of October, 1896, the "North China Daily News,"
the leading English newspaper in China, published what
purports to be, and is believed to be, the text of a secret
treaty, concluded in the previous year, between Russia and
China, under which the former is extending her Trans-Siberian
railway system through Manchuria, and is practically in
possession of that province. The preamble of the treaty
declares that the Emperor of China has specially appointed the
princes and great officers of the Crown composing the Imperial
Chinese Ministry of War to confer with the Russian Minister
concerning the connecting of the railway system of the Three
Eastern Provinces with the Trans-Siberian Railway, "with the
object of facilitating the transport of goods between the two
empires and strengthening the frontier defences and sea
coasts. And, furthermore, to agree upon certain special
privileges to be conceded by China to Russia as a response to
the loyal aid given by Russia in the retrocession of Liaotung
and its dependencies." The articles of the convention relating
to the route of the railway are as follows:
"I. Owing to the fact that the Russian Great Siberian Railway
is on the point of completion, China consents to allow Russia
to prolong her railway into Chinese territories (a) from the
Russian port of Vladivostok into the Chinese city of Hunch'un,
in the province of Kirin, from thence north-westwards to the
provincial capital of Kirin, and (b) from a railway station of
some city in Siberia to the Chinese town of Aiyun, in
Heilungchiang province, from thence southwestwards to the
provincial capital of Tsitsihar, and from thence to the town
of Petunê, in Kirin province, and from thence south-eastwards
to the provincial capital of Kirin.
"II. All railways built by Russia into the Chinese provinces
of Heilungchiang and Kirin shall be built at the sole expense
of Russia, and the regulations and building thereof shall be
solely on the Russian system, with which China has nothing to
do, and the entire control shall be in the hands of Russia for
the space of thirty years. At the end of the said period China
shall be allowed to prepare the necessary funds wherewith,
after proper estimation of the value of the said railways, she
shall redeem them, the rolling stock, machine shops, and
buildings connected therewith. But as to how China will at
that date redeem these railways shall be left for future
consideration.
"III. China is now in the possession of a railway which she
intends to extend from Shanhai-kuan into the provincial
capital of Fêngtien—namely, Mukden (Shenking), and from
Mukden to the provincial capital of Kirin. If China should
hereafter find it inconvenient to build this road, she shall
allow Russia to provide the funds to build the railway from
the city of Kirin on behalf of China, the redemption of which
road shall be permissible to China at the end of ten years.
With reference to the route to be taken by this railway,
Russia shall follow the surveys already made by China in
connection therewith, from Kirin to Mukden, Newchwang, &c.
{79}
"IV. The railway to be built by China, beginning from
Shanhaikuan, in Fêngtien, to Newchwang, to Kaiping, to
Chinchou, to Lushunk'ou (Port Arthur), and to Talienwan and
their dependencies, shall follow the Russian railway
regulations, in order to facilitate the commercial intercourse
between the respective empires."
Article V authorizes Russia to place special battalions of
horse and foot soldiers at the various important stations for
the better protection of railway property. Article VII
"permits" Russians and Chinese to exploit and open any mines
in the Amur and Kirin provinces, and in the Long White
Mountain range in the north of Korea. Article VIII "permits"
Chinese to engage Russian military officers to reform the
whole army organization of the three Eastern provinces in
accordance with the Western system. The next three Articles
are as follows:
"IX. Russia has never possessed a seaport in Asia which is
free from ice and open all the year round. If, therefore,
there should suddenly arise military operations in this
continent, it will naturally be difficult for the Russian
Eastern seas and Pacific fleets to move about freely and at
pleasure. As China is well aware of this, she is willing to
lease temporarily to Russia the port of Kiaochou (Chiaochou),
in the province of Shantung, the period of such lease being
limited to fifteen years. At the end of this period China
shall buy all the barracks, godowns, machine shops, and docks
built there by Russia (during her occupation of the said
port). But should there be no danger of military operations,
Russia shall not enter immediately into possession of the said
port or hold the important points dominating the port in order
to obviate the chance of exciting the jealousy and suspicions
of other Powers. With reference to the amount of rent and the
way it is to be paid, this shall form the subject of
consideration in a protocol at some future date.
"X. As the Liaotung ports of Lushunk'ou (Port Arthur) and
Talienwan and their dependencies are important strategical
points, it shall be incumbent upon China to properly fortify
them with all haste and to repair all their fortifications,
&c., in order to provide against future dangers. Russia shall
therefore lend all necessary assistance in helping to protect
these two ports, and shall not permit any foreign Power to
encroach upon them. China, on her part, also binds herself
never to cede them to another country; but, if in future the
exigencies of the case require it, and Russia should find
herself suddenly involved in a war, China consents to allow
Russia temporarily to concentrate her land and naval forces
within the said ports in order the better to enable Russia to
attack the enemy or to guard her own position.
"XI. If, however, there be no dangers of military operations
in which Russia is engaged, China shall have entire control
over the administration of the said ports of Lushunk'ou and
Talienwan, nor shall Russia interfere in any way therein. But
as regards the building of the railways in the three Eastern
Provinces and the exploitation and opening of the mines
therein, they shall be permitted to be proceeded with
immediately after the ratification of this convention and at
the pleasure of the people concerned therein. With reference
to the civil and military officers of Russia and Russian
merchants and traders travelling (in any part of the
territories herein mentioned), wherever they shall go, they
shall be given all the privileges of protection and facilities
within the power of the local authorities, nor shall these
officials be allowed to put obstructions in the way or delay
the journeys of the Russian officers and subjects herein
mentioned."
Henry Norman,
Russia and England
(Contemporary Review, February, 1897).
CHINA: A. D. 1895 {August).
Massacre of missionaries at Hua Sang.
In the fall of 1894 the English and American missionaries at
Ku Cheng, in the Chinese province of Fu Kien, of which Foochow
is the capital, began to be threatened by a sect or party
called the "Vegetarians" (Siah Chai), who were violently
hostile to foreigners, and said to be revolutionary in their
aims. The hostile demonstrations were repeated in the
following April, and the missionary party started upon a
retreat to Foochow, but were stopped on the way by news that
the Mandarin at Ku Cheng had pacified the Vegetarians and that
they might safely return. They did so and were apparently
secure for some months. In July they retired from the city to
a mountain sanatorium, named Hua Sang, 12 miles from Ku Cheng,
and there, on the 1st day of August, without warning, they
were surrounded by a Vegetarian band of some eighty savage
men, armed with swords and spears, who performed a rapid work
of murder, killing eleven persons, including six women and two
children, and then disappeared. "These men did not belong
either to Hua Sang or Ku Cheng, but came from some villages at
a considerable distance. … The city authorities at Ku Cheng
had no hand in the outrage. It was evidently the work of a
band of marauders, and the district magistrate seems to have
done all that could be done under the circumstances."
D. M. Berry,
The Sister Martyrs of Ku Cheng.
The British and American governments joined in sending a
consular commission to investigate the crime, and with
difficulty compelled the Chinese government to execute twenty
of the ringleaders of the attack. At Fatshan, near Canton,
there had been mob attacks on the missionary station, with
destruction of buildings, but no murders, during the same
month in which the massacre at Hua Sang occurred.
CHINA: A. D. 1896.
Tour of Li Hung-chang in Europe and America.
"Li Hung Chang, the Chinese statesman, left Shanghai with a
numerous suite, March 28, on board a French mail steamer for
Europe, to represent the Emperor of China at the coronation of
the Czar of Russia, and afterwards to visit other countries.
He declared that his object was to see Europe for himself, in
order to report to the Emperor as to feasible reforms for
China. A great reception was offered to him at Hong-kong, but
he refused to land by the advice of the European physician of
the embassy, who feared lest any member of the suite, by
catching the plague, would render the party liable to
quarantine elsewhere. Proceeding to Singapore, via Saigon, he
visited the Governor of the Straits Settlements. At Colombo he
was received on landing by a guard of honour. After the
Russian Coronation he visited Germany, Holland, Belgium and
France, and arrived in London early in August.
{80}
Wherever he went he was lionised, and he lost no opportunity
of asking questions and informing himself concerning the
manufactures and armaments of the several countries he
visited. He returned to China via New York and the Canadian
Pacific Railway, sailing from Vancouver (September 14) for
Yokohama and Tien-tsin, where he arrived October 3. Thence he
proceeded to Peking (October 20), where he was received by the
Emperor, and appointed a member of the Tsung-li-Yamen. At the
same time for presuming to enter the precincts of the ruined
Summer Palace while visiting the Empress Dowager after his
return home, his enemies took occasion of the slight trespass
to insult him, and proposed that he should be stripped of all
his titles and honours, with the exception of the earldom,
which is confirmed to the Li family for twenty-nine
generations. The case was referred to the Board of Civil
Appointments, and the Controller-General, Chang-chih-wan,
decided that 'according to precedent' the ex-Viceroy should be
cashiered, but on account of his life-long and distinguished
services to the imperial dynasty he should be recommended to
the clemency of the Throne, which took the form of a loss of
one year's salary. He took over his seals of office in the
Tsung-li-Yamen on November 1, but none of his colleagues were
present to welcome him."
Annual Register, 1896,
pages 349-50.
CHINA: A. D. 1897.
The condition of Manchuria and Mongolia.
See (in this volume)
MANCHURIA AND MONGOLIA.
CHINA: A. D. 1897.
Foreigners resident in China.
Ports open to them.
"In the 'Bulletin de la Société de Géographie Commerciale,'
Paris, Volume XIX, a report is published from which the
following extracts are taken: There are over ten thousand
Europeans and Americans resident in China. The English head
the list with 4,000; the Americans number 1,325; Germans, 882;
French, 875; Portuguese, 805; Spaniards, 461; Norwegians, 375;
Russians, 116; Italians, 108, etc. There are 669 Japanese.
Twenty-two ports are open to foreign residence, that is to
say, that Europeans are allowed to acquire conditional title
to certain lands, on which they live, govern themselves, and
have special privileges in judicial matters. The ports are
Mengtz, Lung Chow, Pakhoi, King Chow, Lappa, Canton, Kowlon,
Swatow, Amoy, Fuchau, Winchow, Ningpo, Shanghai, Chinkiang,
Wuhu, Kiukiang, Hankow, Ichang, Chungking, Chefoo, Tientsin,
and Niuchwang. It is to be noted that Peking does not appear
on this list, although the embassies and legations are
established there. The Chinese who find themselves under
foreign jurisdiction appear more than contented with the
situation, because, although taxes are high, they are fixed.
Two hundred thousand natives live in the European settlements
of Shanghai. Besides the foreign residents of China, a large
number live in ports that have been ceded to other nations.
For instance, Hongkong comprises in its civil population 4,195
Europeans and Americans. With the troops and sailors, this
number is raised to 8,545. Hongkong is the actual capital of
foreign industry in the far East. More than 3,000 vessels,
with a tonnage of nearly 4,000,000 touch there annually. The
same spirit which caused the development of Singapore,
Colombo, and Hongkong is to be found in the foreign
settlements of the open ports of China."
United States Consular Reports,
October, 1897, page 315.
CHINA: A. D. 1897 (May-June).
Cessions and concessions to England and France.
In May, the Chinese government sanctioned an extension of the
British settlement at Tien-tsin from 65 acres to about 300. In
the next month, it satisfied the complaints of Great Britain
concerning the cession of Kiang-Hung to France (see above: A.
D. 1894-1895, MARCH-JULY), by ceding to that Power the Shan
district of Kokang, about 400 square miles in extent, and
leasing to Great Britain in perpetuity a considerable tract at
the south of the Namwan River. The same treaty opened new
routes to trade across the frontier between Burmah and China,
and admitted British consuls and merchants to two new ports.
At about the same time France secured mining privileges on the
Tonquin frontier and rights for the extension of a railway
into Chinese territory.
CHINA: A. D. 1897 (November).
Germany opens the attack of European Powers on the
integrity of the Chinese Empire.
Seizure of the port of Kiao-Chau.
Concessions obtained as reparation for the murder
of German missionaries.
"Among the recent events that have attracted especial
attention to China is the lease to foreign nations of
important strategic or commercial ports on the coast of the
Empire. While the Portuguese have controlled the island of
Macao, near Canton, since 1537, and the English became owners
of the island of Hongkong, in the same vicinity, by the treaty
of 1842, no other nation had possessions on or near the coast
of China until within a comparatively recent date. One result
of the war between China and Japan was that Japan obtained the
island of Formosa, lying 90 miles off the coast of central
China. By this treaty Japan was also to have certain territory
on the peninsula of Liaotung, which commands from the north
the entrance to the Gulf of Pechili, the gateway to the
capital of China; but on the urgent protest of Russia, France,
and Germany this was abandoned, and the mainland of China up
to that time thus remained intact. On November 4, 1897,
however, the German Government seized the port of Kiao-chau,
on the northeastern coast of China, asserting as the cause of
its action the desire to obtain satisfaction for the murder of
[two] German missionaries by Chinese on November 1 of that
year. This port was held by a German war ship until the
announcement of a treaty with China by which the port of
Kiaochau and adjacent territory were leased to Germany for a
term of ninety-nine years, the German Government being given
the right to land troops, construct fortifications, and
establish a coaling and naval station, while German subjects
were to have the right to construct railways, open mines, and
transact business in the rich mineral and agricultural
province of Shantung, in which Kiaochau is located, Chinese
vessels, however, to have the same privileges in the port of
Kiaochau that the German Government might decide to give to
other nations."
United States Bureau of Statistics,
Monthly Summary of Commerce and Statistics,
March, 1899.
{81}
The terms of the German acquisition of Kiao-chau, as
officially communicated to the Reichstag by Herr von Bülow,
Foreign Secretary of the German Empire, on the 8th of
February, 1898, were as follows: "The Imperial Chinese
Government, in fulfilment of the legitimate wish of the German
Government to possess, in common with other Powers, a point in
the matters [waters?] of Eastern Asia, where German vessels
may be fitted out and repaired, where the necessary materials
can be deposited, and other arrangements made in connection
with that object, cedes to the German Government in the form
of a lease, to run, as at present fixed, for a period of
ninety-nine years, the territory situated on both sides of the
entrance to the Bay of Kiao-chau, in South Shantung, more
accurately described below, in such a manner that the German
Government will be at liberty to erect all necessary
buildings, &c., within the territory, and take all the
measures required for their defence. According to the English
chart of Kiao-chau Bay of 1863, the district leased to the
German Government consists of the following:
1. The promontory north of the entrance to the bay, bounded on
the north-east by a straight line drawn from the extreme
north-eastern point of Potato Island to the sea-coast in the
direction of Zoshan.
2. The promontory south of the entrance to the bay, bounded on
the south-west by a straight line drawn from the southernmost
point of the inlet situated to the south-west of Tschiposan,
in the direction of the Tolosan Islands (Weber chart), to the
sea-coast.
3. The Island of Tschiposan and Potato Island, as well as all
the islands lying at the entrance to the bay, inclusive of
Tolosan and Seslien. Further, the Chinese Government undertake
not to frame any Regulations within a zone of 50 kilometers
round the bay without the consent of the German Government,
and, in particular, to offer no resistance to any measures
necessary for regulating the course of the rivers. The Chinese
Government also grant to German troops the right of passage
across the zone above described. With the object of avoiding
every possibility of collision, the Chinese Government will
exercise no rights of sovereignty within the leased territory
during the period of the lease, but they cede these rights as
well as those over the entire water-surface of the Bay of
Kiao-chau to the German Government. The German Government will
erect sea-marks on the islands and shallows at the entrance to
the bay.
4. In the event of the territory leased not proving to be
adapted to the requirements of the German Government, the
Government of China will cede to Germany a more suitable
district, and will take back the Bay of Kiao-chau, paying
compensation for any improvements or constructions the Germans
may have made there.
5. A more accurate delimitation of the boundaries of the
district leased will take place in accordance with the local
conditions, and will be carried out by Commissioners from both
Governments."
The Foreign Secretary added the following particulars
respecting the area, &c., of the territory and the character
of the lease:
"The territory leased, the boundaries of which are not yet
accurately determined, will cover an area of 30 to 50 square
kilometers. Consequently, it is materially larger than the
British possession at and opposite Hong Kong. For military
reasons, the northern boundary had been pushed a little
further forward than is shown on the map presented to the
Budget Commission. The number of inhabitants is calculated at
a few thousand. As regards the size of the bay, accurate
details are as yet wanting. It runs about 20 geographical
miles into the mainland. At its narrowest point, the entrance
to the bay is about 3,000 metres broad. Two-thirds of the bay
afford harbour accommodation. The rent payable to China, the
exact amount of which has not yet been determined, is an
unimportant point, as it possesses a nominal character merely
representing the continuation in theory of the proprietorship
of China over the territory ceded. The following stipulations
have been secured respecting railway and mining
concessions:—The Chinese Government have consented to hand
over to a German-Chinese Railway Company, to be formed
hereafter, the construction of a railway from Kiao-chau, which
will run first in a northerly and then in a westerly
direction, to be subsequently connected with the projected
great railway system of China. The railway will serve the
coalfields of Weih-sien and Poshan, situated to the north of
Kiao-chau, which will be exploited by German capital. The
Chinese Government have further pledged themselves to accord
to the Railway Company to be thus formed, conditions at least
as favourable as those granted to any other European Chinese
Railway Company in China."
The Foreign Secretary concluded his speech with an exposition
of the motives which had induced the German Government to
occupy Kiao-chau in preference to other places. Its proximity
to the scene of the massacre had been the first consideration.
Secondly, it was favourably situated from a political point of
view, being removed from the French and British spheres in
Southern China and from the Russian base of operations in the
north. Lastly, the spacious, ice-free harbour, the climate,
which is probably the best to be met with in China, and the
existence of coalfields in the vicinity of the coast, offered
sufficient grounds for the choice of Kiao-chau. Herr von
Billow might have quoted in this connection a candid remark
which had been made not long before by the "Kolonial Zeitung:"
"The principal point is that the Power which possesses Kiao-chau
will control the coal supply in northern Chinese waters."
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
China, Number 1, 1898.
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (February).
British diplomacy in China.
The tone in which foreign demands were made
on the Tsung-li Yamên.
Agreement not to alienate the Yang-tsze region.
Early in 1898 the Chinese government was in need of money for
the final payment of indemnity to Japan, and opened
negotiations with the British government for the guarantee of
a loan: Her Majesty's Ministers were quite ready to give the
needed financial aid, for a consideration, requiring, in
return, that Ta-lien-wan should be opened to trade as a treaty
port. But Russia was then scheming to secure possession of
Ta-lien-wan, and interfered with the British negotiation so
vigorously that the Chinese were frightened into breaking it
off, even after they had practically accepted the offered
loan. Not daring, however, to take from Russia the financial
guarantee which they rejected at British hands, they thought
to balance themselves between these jealous rivals by
borrowing without help from either. Both the Powers were thus
offended, England especially showing stern resentment on
account of the slight with which she had been treated. The
following report by Sir Claude MacDonald, the British Minister
at Peking, of his interviews with the Tsung-li-Yamên on the
subject, is very interesting, as showing the tone in which the
European Powers were making demands on the government of China
at that time. The despatch of Sir Claude MacDonald is dated at
Peking, February 20, 1898.
{82}
"Since the 4th of February," he wrote. "I have had four
interviews with the Yamên for the purpose of extracting some
concessions in return for the rejection of the offer of a
guaranteed loan from Great Britain after it had in principle
been accepted. At the first of these, on the 5th February, the
Yamên refused to recognize that we had any claim to
compensation, declaring that the refusal of a Russian as well
as a British guarantee left no ground for complaint. I told
them that this argument might have had some plausibility if
the two offers had been equally advantageous, or if the
Chinese Government had not committed themselves to serious
negotiations with us. The British Government had at China's
own request reluctantly agreed to do her a very exceptional
favour, and the Yamên could not suppose that we should accept
with equanimity a brusque intimation that the Chinese
Government had changed its mind.
"The Yamên abounded in protestations of their readiness at
some future date to give proofs of their gratitude to Great
Britain in the shape of encouragement to commerce, but they
insisted that the loan negotiations must first be dismissed,
and all demands for compensation in connection with them
dropped. I refused to telegraph such a suggestion to your
Lordship, and as after long debate they still refused to bind
themselves by any promises, I reminded them that at an earlier
interview they had asked me whether the action threatened by
Great Britain in the event of their accepting a Russian
guarantee would equally be taken if they borrowed from neither
Power. I could not at the time answer the question, but I
could now tell them that Her Majesty's Government had a right
to feel deeply affronted by what had occurred, and I would not
be answerable for the consequences if they declined to make to
Great Britain even such concessions as they had frequently
admitted to be in China's own interests.
"The Yamên begged me to smooth matters for them, to which I
answered that their present attitude made it impossible for me
to do so. Let them permit me to report that China was ready to
open inland navigation to steamers; to establish Treaty ports
at Nanning and Hsiang T'an; and to give reasonable security to
trade by a pledge against alienation of the Yang-tsze region
to another Power, and the rejection of our loan might be
forgiven. All these were matters within the Yamên's power.
"The Ministers did not deny the feasibility of what I had
asked (except as regarded the opening of Nanning), but
objected to these measures being tacked on to the loan, for if
that were done, Russia would at once demand
counter-concessions for the rejection of her loan, and China
would be placed in a very difficult position. On this they
laid much stress. I said I did not insist on the concessions
being formally announced as made to England in connection with
the loan, and should be prepared to move Her Majesty's
Government to treat them as steps taken spontaneously by
China, but that I absolutely refused to treat the loan account
as settled until I had some definite assurance that these
measures would be carried out within a fixed time. The Yamên
again attempted to persuade me to leave the carrying out of
the measures indicated entirely to the Chinese Government, and
it was only after the usual prolonged argument that they
consented to open internal waters to steam navigation within
four months; to let me know at an early date when they would
open a port in Hunan, and to give me a written guarantee
against the alienation of the Yang-tsze region to a foreign
Power."
After reporting conversation on other matters, the Minister
recounted his action on the subject of the Yang-tsze region,
and on that of the opening of inland waterways to steam
navigation, at an interview with the Tsung-li Yamên on the
9th. "I then produced," he said, "a draft of the note I
intended addressing to them with regard to non-alienation of
the Yang-tsze region. This was accepted with little demur,
with the insertion of the words 'now entirely in China's
possession,' which, as recording an undeniable fact, I agreed
to put in. Copies of the notes subsequently exchanged are
inclosed. I have not thought it necessary to narrate the
arguments by which I supported the demand for this pledge at
both these interviews. My chief ground was that we could not
afford to find one morning that by reason of the murder of a
foreign subject, or the refusal of some demand by a foreign
Power, some place on the Yang-tsze had been seized and was to
be retained on a ninety-nine years' lease. I then handed to
the Ministers the despatch … recording their assurance with
regard to steam navigation of inland waterways. They read it
with attention, and accepted it as satisfactory."
Of the notes thus passed between the British Minister and the
Tsung-li Yamên, that of the former, dated February 9, was as
follows: "Your Highnesses and your Excellencies have more than
once intimated to me that the Chinese Government were aware of
the great importance that has always been attached by Great
Britain to the retention in Chinese possession of the
Yang-tsze region, now entirely hers, as providing security for
the free course and development of trade. I shall be glad to
be in a position to communicate to Her Majesty's Government a
definite assurance that China will never alienate any
territory in the provinces adjoining the Yang-tsze to any
other Power, whether under lease, mortgage, or any other
designation. Such an assurance is in full harmony with the
observations made to me by your Highnesses and your
Excellencies."
On the 11th, the Yamên returned the following reply: "The
Yamên have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the
British Minister's despatch of the 9th February, stating that
the Yamên had more than once intimated to him that the Chinese
Government were aware of the great importance that has always
been attached by Great Britain to the retention in Chinese
possession of the Yang-tsze region, now entirely hers, as
providing security for the free course and development of
trade. The British Minister would be glad to be in a position
to communicate to Her Majesty's Government a definite
assurance that China would never alienate (any territory) in
the provinces adjoining the Yang-tsze to any other Power,
whether under lease, mortgage, or any other designation.
{83}
The Yamên have to observe that the Yang-tsze region is of the
greatest importance as concerning the whole position (or
interests) of China, and it is out of the question that
territory (in it) should be mortgaged, leased, or ceded to
another Power. Since Her Britannic Majesty's Government has
expressed its interest (or anxiety), it is the duty of the
Yamên to address this note to the British Minister for
communication to his Government."
The despatch recording the Chinese concession of steam
navigation on inland waters was in the following terms: "It
was … with great pleasure that I learnt from your Highnesses
and your Excellencies at a recent interview that the Chinese
Government had determined that wherever the use of native
boats is now by Treaty permitted to foreigners, they shall
equally be permitted to employ steamers or steam-launches,
whether Chinese or foreign-owned, or their own boats, and,
further, that this arrangement would come into effect before
the end of the 4th Chinese moon. I shall have great pleasure
in communicating the Chinese Government's decision to my
Government, for it is an indication that China is prepared to
take every step open to her to increase the volume of trade,
and so add to her resources and the wealth of the people."
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
China, Number 1, 1899, page 13-18.
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (February-December).
The "Battle of Concessions," for railway building and mining.
By summer-time in 1898 the scramble among the Powers for
footholds of territory on the Chinese coast seemed to be
giving way to what Lord Salisbury described as "the battle of
concessions," for the building of railways and the opening of
mines. This newer battle gave his lordship much anxiety. On
the 13th of July he cabled to Sir Claude MacDonald: "It does
not seem that the battle of Concessions is going well for us,
and that the mass of Chinese railways, if they are ever built,
will be in foreign hands is a possibility that we must face.
One evil of this is, that no orders for materials will come to
this country. That we cannot, help. The other evil is, that by
differential rates and privileges the Managers of the railways
may strangle our trade. This we ought to be able to prevent,
by pressing that proper provisions for equal treatment be
inserted in every Concession."
The British Minister at Peking, in reply, dissented warmly
from Lord Salisbury's opinion. "The battle of Concessions is
not, in my opinion," he cabled on the 23d of July, "going
against us. … Up to the present, any concessions granted to
other nationalities are far out-balanced in financial value by
the Shansi and Honan mining and railway concession, with its
possible extensions. I have consistently informed the Chinese
government that, as to differential rates and privileges, we
want none ourselves, and cannot admit that other nationalities
have a claim to them." In due time, as will appear, Sir Claude
was able to furnish very good evidence in support of his
contention that the "battle of concessions" was not going
against Great Britain, by forwarding a list of all the
concessions granted to clamoring capitalists and promoters of
the several nationalities. Meantime, he gave close attention
to the varying fortunes of the battle.
A concession for the Peking-Hankow Railway was the one which
interested the English most. Its line would traverse the rich
and populous provinces of Chi-li, Honan, and Hoa-Pé, and be
connected by another line, for which the Russo-Chinese Bank
held concessions, with the valuable coal-mining basin of
Ping-ting. Early in August, the British found reason to
believe that the pending agreement with a Belgian syndicate
for the building of this road was one that would give control
of it to the Russo-Chinese Bank,—which meant Russian, or
Russian and French control. He promptly remonstrated to the
Yamên, and was assured that the agreement had not yet been
submitted to the throne, and would not be ratified if the
effect were such as he had described. He cabled this assurance
to Lord Salisbury on the 6th of August. On the 13th he had a
very different report to make. "I learnt on the 9th," he says,
"that the Yamên had, under the influence of Li Hung-chang,
abandoned this position [that they would not ratify the
Belgian agreement if its effect was to give control of the
Peking-Hankow line of railway to the Russo-Chinese Bank], and
intended to ratify the agreement immediately. In view of the
urgency of the matter, I addressed a note on the same day to
the Yamên, in which I asked for an interview on the 10th or
11th instant, and informed them that the Chinese text of the
Contract had reached me, warning them at the same time that if
they did not give me another interview before they ratified
the Agreement Her Majesty's Government would look upon their
action as unfriendly, and would probably insist on the same
rights being given to Great Britain in all the provinces
adjoining the Yang-tsze.
"On the evening of the 10th the Yamên answered that they would
appoint a day for an interview when they had received the
Contract, which, they said, had not yet reached Peking for
ratification. On the 11th I replied that I understood from
this communication that they undertook not to ratify until
they had seen me. To this they returned an evasive answer to
the effect that they were all engaged by ceremonies at the
Palace connected with the Emperor's birthday, which would last
some days. I should add that I had already, on the 10th, sent
them a note in which I criticized the Contract in detail,
stating finally that I should have further objections to bring
forward at my interview with them. I now hear on good
authority that the Contract was ratified yesterday, the 12th.
That the ratification has thus been rushed through is
undoubtedly due to the influence of Li Hung-chang, combined
with strong pressure on the part of the Representatives of
Russia, France, and Belgium, and if heavy payment is not
exacted from the Chinese Government for their bad faith, Li
will persuade his colleagues that it is safer to slight
England than any other Power, and any pressure which we may
want to bring to bear in other matters will be without weight.
I therefore think that Her Majesty's Government should insist
either:—
"1. On a written assurance from the Yamên that if British
Syndicates apply for any railway concessions in the Yang-tsze
provinces, they shall be given on the same terms as those
which France, under cover of the Belgian Syndicate, has
received in the Peking-Hankow Contract, and that no mining or
railway concessions will be granted in those provinces unless
they have been previously declined by British Syndicates; or
{84}
"2. On a written assurance that all railways for which British
Syndicates are now in Treaty, that is to say—
(a.) The Shan-hai-Kuan-Niuchwang line;
(b.) The line from Tien-tsin to Chinkiang (the latter, as I
understand, in conjunction with Germans and Americans);
(c.) The line from Shanghae to Nanking with its
continuations and branches;
(d.) The lines in Honan and Shansi should be granted
without any further delay on terms identical with those
contained in the Contract for the Peking-Hankow line. The
latter consist, so far as I can learn, in complete control
over the construction, choice of material, working, and
personnel of the line, together with an Imperial guarantee
for the repayment of the loan.
The second demand seems to me to be preferable on the whole;
it will be impossible to obtain either demand without bringing
great pressure to bear, and I consider that the demand should
be made not as a compensatory concession, but as a punishment
for bad faith."
On the 17th the reply of the British Foreign Office was sent
by Mr. Balfour, as follows:
"With reference to your telegram of the 13th instant, inform
Yamên that they must assent to your proposal Number 2 without
delay, omitting from it the Shankaikuan-Newchwang Railway,
which we must deal with as a separate question. You are
authorized to inform them, if you have any reason to apprehend
that they will delay compliance, that, unless they agree at
once, we shall regard their breach of faith concerning the
Peking-Hankow Railway as an act of deliberate hostility
against this country, and shall act accordingly. After
consultation with the Admiral, you may give them the number of
days or hours you think proper within which to send their
reply. The delay should not be of too long duration. It should
be noted, on face of your demand, that Chingkiang Concession
is for Americans and Germans, if they desire a share, as well
as ourselves. Also make it clear that your ultimatum has
nothing to do with the line to Newchwang."
The tone of these demands made them effectual. On the 4th of
September, Sir Claude MacDonald was able to announce to his
superiors, in London: "At an interview which I had with them
yesterday, the Yamên entered into the following
undertaking:—Within the next few days they will address a
despatch to me, apologising for their action, and consenting
to the construction of the following lines by British
Syndicates:
1. A. line from Shanghae to Nanking with a continuation viâ
Chinkiang to Sui Yang. They said, however, that the latter
route was that followed by the line from Tien-tsin to
Chinkiang, for which they said that a Preliminary Agreement
had been signed between Yung Wing and the Anglo-American
Syndicate; and the continuation in question must be dependent
on the cancellation of that Agreement.
2. A line connecting Hangchow and Soochow with Shanghae, to be
continued if required to Ningpo.
3. A line from Canton to Kowloon.
4. The Peking Syndicate to be entitled to construct a railway
to convey minerals from their mines to the Yang-tsze. The
Yamên have also agreed to send me a Confidential note
embodying a declaration that the terms accorded for the
construction of these lines will not be inferior to those
granted for the construction of any railways in China proper.
The Manchurian lines are excluded from the scope of this
Agreement. I venture to think that this is a satisfactory
settlement. I did not give them an ultimatum, confining myself
to a warning of the grave consequences which would now attend
any failure on their part to keep their word. The fact that
the fleet is concentrating is, of course, known to them."
Before receiving this announcement, Mr. Balfour had cabled, on
the 24th of August:
"Negotiations with Yamên may be facilitated if you informed
them at once that, unless the very moderate terms already
demanded are immediately complied with, we shall, in addition,
require the Concession of another line, on same conditions as
those granted in case of Peking Hankow line of railway, and
that additional demands will be preferred as the result of
further delay. If you think it would conduce to the rapid and
satisfactory termination of the negotiations, you are
authorized to make a communication to them in this sense."
Whether this suggestion was acted upon or not does not appear.
This transaction, connected with the project of a railway from
Peking to Hankow, appears to illustrate, not unfairly, on the
whole, the mode in which speculative concessions were being
wrung from the Chinese government in the busiest year of
oriental speculation, 1898. The outcome of the grand "battle"
was communicated by Sir Claude MacDonald to Lord Charles
Beresford, on the 23d of November, in a full list of the
concessions then granted to British subjects, compared with
the grants to other nationalities. "We do not seem," wrote Sir
Claude, with pardonable complacency, "to have come out second
best. … Not a single bona fide or approximately practical
scheme which has been brought to this Legation has failed to
be put through." The summarized result in railway concessions
was
9 British (2,800 miles);
3 Russian (1,530 miles);
2 German (720 miles);
3 French (420 miles);
1 Belgian (650 miles);
1 American (300 miles).
In detail, the railway and mining concessions were described
in the list as follows:
CHINA:
"Railway and other Concessions obtained by British Companies:
I. Province of Shansi.
The Peking Syndicate have acquired the 'sole right to open and
work coal and iron mines throughout the districts of Yu Hsien
and Ping Ting-chou, and the Prefectures of Lusan Fu, Tsü-chou
Fu, and Ping Yang Fu, and also petroleum, wherever found.'
Under their contract, the Syndicate have also the right to
'construct branch railways to connect with main lines or with
water navigation, to facilitate transport of Shansi coal.'
This has been interpreted officially to include the right of
connecting the mines with Siang-yang in Hupeh, the nearest
head of navigation giving access to the Yang-tsze. This means
a railway of 250 miles. As to the value of this Concession, it
is not amiss to quote the testimony of Baron von Richthofen,
the great authority on the geology of China. He says that, 'in
proportion to its area, Shansi has probably the largest and
most easily workable coalfield of any region on the globe, and
the manufacture of iron is capable of almost unlimited
extension.'
II. Province of Honan.
The Peking Syndicate have also acquired rights similar to
those obtained in Shansi in that part of Honan north of the
Yellow River.
{85}
III. Province of Chihli.
The Hong Kong and Shanghae Bank are financing and controlling
the North China railways from Peking to Tien-tsin, and thence
to Shanhaikuan and Newchwang. The total length of these lines
is about 500 miles, of which 300 miles are completely open to
traffic.
IV. This bank has also acquired a half-interest in the
coal-mines at Nan P'iao, in the Ch'ao-yang district. According
to experts, these mines possess the best and richest coal
seams in North China, and they have the immense advantage of
being close to a line of railway and the sea.
V. Provinces of Chihli and Kiangsu.
The Tsung-li Yamên have undertaken officially that the
construction of the Tien-tsin-Chinkiang line shall be
intrusted to an Anglo-German Syndicate. The British portion of
this Syndicate is represented in China by Messrs. Jardine,
Matheson, and Co., and the Hong Kong and Shanghae Bank. This
will be a trunk line of 600 miles, passing through more
populous country than the Lu-Han Railway (the Belgian line),
with which it is certain to be able to compete successfully.
VI. Province of Kiangsu.
A British Syndicate, represented by Messrs. Jardine, Matheson,
and Co., and the Hong Kong and Shanghae Bank, has obtained the
Concession to finance and construct the Shanghae-Nanking
Railway. There is no more paying district than this for a
railway in China. The length of line will be 170 or 180 miles.
VII. Provinces of Kiangsu, Anhui, and Honan.
The same Syndicate has the right to extend the
Shanghae-Nanking Railway from P'u-k'ou, opposite Nanking, to
Hsin Yang, in Honan, a distance of 270 miles.
VIII. Provinces of Kiangsu and Chekiang.
The same Syndicate has the right to construct a line from
Soochow to Hangchow, with a possible extension to Ningpo. This
line will run through very populous districts for over 200
miles. The last three Concessions all lie within the Yang-tsze
region.
IX. Province of Chêkiang.
The Peking Syndicate have also obtained mining Concessions
similar to the Shansi and Honan in this province.
X. Province of Kwangtung.
The Jardine Syndicate has the right to construct a railway
from Kowloon to Canton. The length of line will be nearly 100
miles.
XI. Provinces of Hupei, Kiangsi, and Kwangtung.
An American Syndicate signed a preliminary Agreement for the
construction of a railway from Hankow to Canton in May last.
Negotiations are now in progress for the amalgamation of this
Concession with Number 10, Kowloon to Canton, and the working
of the whole line from Hankow to Kowloon by an Anglo-American
Company. This will be a trunk line of, approximately, 600
miles long.
XII. Provinces of Yünnan, Kweichow, and Ssuchuan.
The right to extend the Burmah system into China as far as the
Yang-tsze is admitted, and surveys are now in progress. This
involves a possible railway of 700 miles.
See Remarks on French Concessions.
CHINA:
"Concessions other than British. Russian.
The Manchurian Railway Concession dates from 1896. As is well
known, it was obtained as recompense for help given in
securing the retrocession of Liaotung. From Stretensk on the
Shilka, where it leaves the main Siberian line, this railway
will cross the Argun and Hingan Mountains, and reach Kirin viâ
Petuna. The whole length from Stretensk to Vladivostock is
estimated at 1,400 miles, of which about 1,000 will pass
through Chinese territory. The Concession is purely
strategical. The country traversed, though potentially rich,
in great part is, and will be for long, sparsely populated,
and the line cannot, in the near future at any rate, hope to
pay its working expenses.
2. The Port Arthur Agreement of March 1898 arranges for the
conclusion by Russia of a branch from the above line to Port
Arthur or Talienwan. The length of the railway will be about
400 miles. Commercially, this branch is more promising than
the first Concession.
3. The Russo-Chinese Bank has signed a contract for the
construction of a branch line from T'ai-yüan Fu to connect
with the Lu-Han trunk lines near Chêng-tung. Length,
approximately 130 miles. They have, up to date, been unable to
raise money for this line. I think it very possible that it
will eventually be built by an Anglo-Russian Syndicate. I am
trying to arrange this.
"French.—The French possess the right to construct three
lines, but beyond acquiring this right they have done nothing.
1. From Tonquin up the Red River Valley to Yünnan Fu, say 200
miles. The impression in French railway circles is that a
railway through Yünnan will not pay expenses, and if any
serious attempt is made to carry out the extension of the
Tonquin system, it will be merely as a stepping-stone to
Ssü-ch'uan. Yet again, any pretensions that a railway from
Yünnan to the Yang-tsze may have to rank as a commercial
project have been pronounced against by every traveller in
Central China.
2. Langson-Lungchow-Nanning Railway; length, about 100 miles.
(There appears to be an alternative open to the French of
going to Pésé instead of Nanning.) The right to build this
line has been conceded, but the idea is growing amongst the
French of Tonquin that, instead of diverting traffic from the
West River, a line from Langson to Lungchow and Nanning would
prove an additional feeder of the West River route.
3. From Pakhoi inland, presumably to Nanning; length, say 120
miles. The Tonquin press have pointed out that this line will
benefit English commerce more than French. It will never, in
my opinion, be built-by the French.
" German.
1. Kiao-chau-Yichow-Tsinan line; length, 420 miles. Nothing
has been done towards the construction of this line, which
does not promise commercially.
2. Tien-tsin-Chin-kiang line to be built by an Anglo-German
Company.
See Number 5 of the British Concessions.
"Belgian.
The Lu-Han or Peking-Hankow Railway. A Franco-Belgian
Syndicate have secured the Concession for this, a trunk line
of some 650 or 700 miles, passing north and south through
Chihli, Honan, and Hupeh. This railway is an old project born
of Chang-Chih-Tung's objection to building lines near the
coast, 'lest they should facilitate the access of an enemy.'
Its prospects as a commercial enterprise are not considered so
good as those of the rival Tien-tsin-Chinkiang line.
"American.
The only railway in which America is at present interested is
the trunk line projected from Hankow to Canton."
See British Concessions, Number 11.
{86}
On the 18th of December the British Minister announced to Lord
Salisbury: "An Imperial Decree, stating that no more railway
proposals will be for the present entertained by the Chinese
government, has been officially communicated to me by the
Yamên." To which the response from London was: "You should
inform the Chinese Government that Her Majesty's Government
claim, in the event of their revoking their present resolve
not to entertain any more proposals for railways, priority of
consideration by the Chinese Government of all British
applications already made." This notice was given, as
directed, and the Yamên replied to it (December 31) with some
dignity: "We have the honour to observe that the development
of railways in China is the natural right and advantage of the
Chinese Government. If, hereafter, in addition to the lines
already sanctioned, which will be proceeded with in order,
China proposes to construct other railways, she will negotiate
with the nation which she finds suitable. When the time
arrives China must use her own discretion as to her course of
action. The applications of British merchants can, of course,
be kept on record as material for negotiation at that day, but
it is not expedient to treat them as having a prior claim over
all others to a settled agreement."
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
China, Number 1, 1899, pages 164-69, 190-92, 215-16,
327, 344-47; and Number 1, 1900, page 22.
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (March).
An intelligent Chinese view of the situation of the country.
How well the situation and the dangers of their country were
understood at this period by some, at least, of the Chinese
officials, and how intelligently they considered them, may be
gathered from some passages in a memorial addressed by Viceroy
Chang Chih-tung and another high official, Sheng Hsuan-huai,
Director-General of Railways, to the Emperor, on the subject
of the construction of the Hankow-Kwangtung Railway. A
translation of the document was transmitted to London at the
end of March. The memorialists say: "The original idea was
that the construction of the Hankow-Kwangtung Southern trunk
line should be postponed for a time, but now, owing to the
exigencies of the present situation, this work must not be
delayed. The powerful foreign nations stand around watching
for their opportunity, and, making use of trivial pretexts in
the conduct of international affairs, swiftly dispatch their
war-ships from one end of the Empire to the other. It is
impossible to say when our communication by sea may be
blocked, and the establishment of internal communication by
railways has become a necessity. Kwungtung is a rich province,
and the defence of the southern territory and waterways must
not be neglected, so that the making of the Hankow-Kwangtung
line should be proceeded with at the same time as the northern
road. The original intention was to construct a road from
Kwangtung to Hupeh viâ Chiangsi, but this circuitous route is
longer than the direct route through Hunan Province, and for
many reasons it will be a source of greater prosperity and
strength to the Empire if the latter route is adopted. There
is, moreover, no doubt that the officials and merchants of the
three provinces are in favour of this scheme. The most direct
route will be to proceed viâ Ch'en-chou, Yung-chou, Feng-chou,
and Ch'ang-sha to Wuch'ang, and so to Hankow. … Now Hankow is
the central point to which all the waterways of the eighteen
provinces from north, south, east, and west converge. If
England is allowed to build the Hankow and Kwangtung road,
passing through this important point, afterwards when the
Russian line advances southward, and the English line is
continued to the north, although we shall be in possession of
the Hankow-Lü Kou-chiao line, we shall be stilled and our
profits curtailed, for, being between the other lines, we
shall not be able to defend our own. It is also greatly to be
feared that our own line would pass into either English or
Russian hands. In this case not only is our throat stopped by
the foreigners being in possession of our ports, but our vital
parts are injuriously affected. Should we wish to raise and
drill soldiers, make arms, or obtain funds for the necessities
of the Empire, it will be impossible, and China not only will
not make progress, but we fear she will barely be able to
maintain her independence.
"Your memorialists are distressed when they consider the
extreme danger of the situation, but they think that the best
method of meeting it is to proceed ourselves at once with the
construction of the Hankow-Kwangtung Railway. Should it be
made by degrees, starting from Kwangtung through Hunan to
Hankow, it will be seized forcibly before completion, and we
fear sufficient funds cannot be raised for hurrying forward
its construction. Your memorialist, Sheng, had the intention
of employing American capital for the construction of the Lü
Kou-chaio-Hankow line, but afterwards when the American,
Washburn, came to China, his conditions were found to be too
hard, and consequently negotiations were broken off. Your
servant was thus constrained to approach Belgium. By acting
thus our privileges would not be lost, nor would ill
consequences follow. But Belgium is a small country, and her
strength is inconsiderable, and often she has pointed out that
an unfinished railroad is hardly a sufficient guarantee for
the loan. Consequently she is very undecided, but we have
hopes that by the adoption of some compromise terms may be
arrived at, though the question is extremely difficult. Thus
another scheme must be adopted for raising the capital for the
southern line. There are grave objections to allowing either
England, France, or Germany to undertake the work, and your
memorialists suggest that Wu Ting-fang, the Minister at
Washington, should be communicated with. He is a Cantonese,
and will not fail to do his best to find a scheme."
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
China, Number 1, 1899,pages 87-89.
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (March-July).
Russian acquisition of Port Arthur and Talienwan.
Ineffectual British opposition.
Consequent British demand for Wei-hai Wei.
Its lease by China.
While the British Minister at Peking was securing these
assurances from the Tsung-li Yamên, concerning the
non-alienation of the Yang-tsze region and the opening of
inland waters to steam navigation, the Russian Minister was
equally busy, extorting a cession or lease of Port Arthur and
Talienwan, with privileges of railway construction through
neighboring territory which gave immense value to those
acquisitions. The probability of his success was soon known to
the British authorities, who made no serious objection to the
leasing of Talienwan, but were strongly opposed to a Russian
occupation of Port Arthur.
{87}
On the 22d of March, 1898, Lord Salisbury wrote to the British
Ambassador at St. Petersburg: "Her Majesty's Government on
their part would not regard with any dissatisfaction the lease
by Russia of an ice-free commercial harbour, connected by
rail with the trans-Siberian Railway which is now under
construction. Questions of an entirely different kind are
opened if Russia obtains control of a military port in the
neighbourhood of Peking. Port Arthur is useless for commercial
purposes, its whole importance being derived solely from its
military strength and strategic position, and its occupation
would inevitably be considered in the East as a standing
menace to Peking and the commencement of the partition of
China."
On the 28th of March he wrote again: "Port Arthur is not a
commercial harbour. It is doubtful whether it could be
converted into one. It is certain that, even if such a project
were possible, it could never be worth while for the owners or
lessees of Talienwan to embark upon it. But though not a
commercial harbour, Port Arthur supplies a naval base, limited
indeed in extent, but possessing great natural and artificial
strength. And this, taken in connection with its strategic
position, gives it an importance in the Gulf of Pechili and
therefore at Peking, upon which, in their representations to
Japan at the close of the war with China, the Russian
Government laid the greatest emphasis. It is from this last
point of view that the occupation of Port Arthur chiefly
concerns Her Majesty's Government. It is not because a
position which can easily be made a naval arsenal of great
strength has been acquired by Russia that they regret its
occupation by that Power. It is because the possession, even
if temporary, of this particular position, is likely to have
political consequences at Peking of great international
importance, and because the acquisition of a Chinese harbour
notoriously useless for commercial purposes by a foreign Power
will be universally interpreted in the Far East as indicating
that the partition of China has begun.
"As regards the second of these reasons nothing further need
be said, inasmuch as Her Majesty's Government understand from
Count Mouravieff's communication to you that this result is as
little desired by the Russian Government as it is by that of
Her Majesty. As regards the first, it may perhaps be proper to
observe that a great military Power which is coterminous for
over 4,000 miles with the land frontier of China, including
the portion lying nearest to its capital, is never likely to
be without its due share of influence on the councils of that
country. Her Majesty's Government regard it as Most
unfortunate that it has been thought necessary in addition to
obtain control of a port which, if the rest of the Gulf of
Pechili remains in hands so helpless as those of the Sovereign
Power, will command the maritime approaches to its capital,
and give to Russia the same strategic advantage by sea which
she already possesses in so ample a measure by land. Her
Majesty's Government have thought it their duty thus to put on
record their grave objections to the occupation of Port Arthur
by Russia."
Before this despatch was written, Lord Salisbury already knew
that his remonstrances had failed and that Russia was to
possess Port Arthur, and he had cabled, March 25, the
following instructions to Sir Claude MacDonald, the British
Minister to Peking: "Balance of power in Gulf of Pechili is
materially altered by surrender of Port Arthur by Yamên to
Russia. It is therefore necessary to obtain, in the manner you
think most efficacious and speedy, the refusal of Wei-hai Wei
on the departure of the Japanese. The terms should be similar
to those granted to Russia for Port Arthur. British fleet is
on its way from Hong Kong to Gulf of Pechili." The day
following, Lord Salisbury advised the British Ambassador at
Berlin by telegram: "Her Majesty's Government have demanded a
reversionary lease of Wei-hai Wei, and it is possible that the
German Government will address you with regard to our
occupying territory which forms part of the Province of
Shantung. Should this be the case, you are authorized to
explain that Wei-hai Wei is not at present, and cannot, we
believe, be made a commercial port by which access can be
obtained to any part of the province. We do not wish to
interfere with the interests of Germany in that region. The
action, in our opinion very regrettable, of Russia with
respect to Port Arthur, has compelled us to take the course we
are now pursuing."
On the 29th of March the completion of the transaction by
which China transferred Port Arthur and Talienwan to Russia
was officially announced at St. Petersburg by the following
publication in the "Official Messenger": "At Peking on the
15th (27th) March a special Agreement was signed by the
Plenipotentiaries of Russia and China, by virtue of which
Ports Arthur and Talienwan, with the corresponding territory
and waters, have been ceded to the Imperial Government for
twenty-five years—which period, by mutual agreement, may be
still further prolonged—and the construction allowed of
branches of railways in order to connect these ports with the
main Great Siberian line. This Agreement is a direct and
natural outcome of the friendly relations between great
neighbouring Empires, all of whose endeavours should be
directed towards the preservation of tranquillity along the
vast extent of their neighbouring possessions for the common
benefit of the people of both of them. The peaceful
occupation, by the diplomatic Agreement of the 15th March, of
the ports and territory of a friendly nation shows, in the
best possible way, that the Government of China truly
appreciates the meaning of the Agreement established between
us.
"Securing the inviolability of the sovereign rights of China,
and satisfying the daily requirements of Russia in her
capacity of a great and neighbouring naval Power, this
Agreement can in no way insure [injure?] the interests of any
other foreign Power; on the contrary, it gives to all nations
of the world the possibility in the near future of entering
into communication with this hitherto closed-up country on the
coast of the Yellow Sea. The opening to the commercial fleets
of all foreign nations of the port of Talienwan creates in the
Pacific Ocean a new and extended centre for the commercial and
trading undertakings of those nations, especially by means of
the Great Siberian line, henceforth to be taken into account,
and which, thanks to the friendly Treaty between Russia and
China, will unite the extreme ends of the Old World. Thus, the
Agreement signed at Peking has for Russia a deep historical
signification, and must be joyfully welcomed by all to whom
happy peace and successes, based on the mutual understandings
of nations, are dear."
{88}
On the 3d of April, Sir Claude MacDonald was able to announce
by cable to Lord Salisbury: "Yamên agreed yesterday to the
following arrangement: China will lease Wei-hai Wei to Great
Britain on the same terms as Port Arthur has been leased to
Russia, but Great Britain agrees not to take possession of the
place until it has been given up by Japan. The lease will
continue until Russia ceases to occupy Liaotung Peninsula.
Details are left for subsequent adjustment." Negotiations
relative to the terms of the lease of Wei-hai Wei were
protracted until the first of July, when the Convention
determining them was signed at Peking. Its provisions were as
follows: "The territory leased shall comprise the Island of
Liu-kung and all islands in the Bay of Wei-hai Wei, and a belt
of land 10 English miles wide along the entire coast line of the
Bay of Wei-hai Wei. Within the above-mentioned territory
leased Great Britain shall have sole jurisdiction. Great
Britain shall have, in addition, the right to erect
fortifications, station troops, or take any other measures
necessary for defensive purposes, at any points on or near the
coast of the region east of the meridian 121° 40' east of
Greenwich, and to acquire on equitable compensation with that
territory such sites as may be necessary for water supply,
communications, and hospitals. Within that zone Chinese
administration will not be interfered with, but no troops
other than Chinese or British shall be allowed therein. It is
also agreed that within the walled city of Wei-hai Wei,
Chinese officials shall continue to exercise jurisdiction
except so far as may be inconsistent with naval and military
requirements for the defence of the territory leased. It is
further agreed that Chinese vessels of war, whether neutral or
otherwise, shall retain the right to use the waters herein
leased to Great Britain. It is further understood that there
will be no expropriation or expulsion of the inhabitants of
the territory herein specified, and that if land is required
for fortifications, public officers, or any official or public
purpose, it shall be bought at a fair price."
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
China, Number 1, 1898, and Number 1, 1899.
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (April-July).
Charges of corruption against Li Hung-chang and
the Tsung-li Yamên.
"One of the censors of highest rank memorialised the Emperor
early in April, accusing the whole Tsung-li Yamên of being in
Russian pay, and alleging that the sum of 10,000,000 taels was
paid to them. He also stated that Li Hung-chang had secured
from Russia 1,500,000 taels, and he prayed for a full inquiry
and for the decapitation of Li Hung-chang if the accusation
were proved, or if he were found guiltless, he himself should
be decapitated. Li Hung-chang was dismissed on September 6,
but afterwards in November was appointed an imperial
commissioner to report on the inundations of the Yellow River,
an unwelcome post. … A Black Flag rebellion in the southern
province of Kwang-si, in which the secret society called The
Triads was said to be concerned, was giving the Pekin
Government great anxiety in July. The rebels, numbering about
40,000, were for a time victorious and seemed determined to
overthrow the dynasty."
Annual Register, 1898, pages 333-334.
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (April-August).
France in the field with demands.
New demands from Great Britain.
France had now come forward to seize a place in the attacking
line, preparatory to what seemed to be the impending partition
of China. On the 12th of April, Sir Claude MacDonald cabled to
Lord Salisbury the following despatch: "I had an interview
with the Yamên yesterday, at which they informed me that
China, had acceded to the following demands on the part of
France:
1. Kwangchow Wan [in the Lei-chau peninsula, on the southern
coast, near Tonquin] to be leased as a coaling-station to
France.
2. The right to construct a railway to Yünnan-fu from the
Tonquin frontier.
3. The promise not to alienate any territory in the three
provinces of Kwangtung, Kwangsi, and Yünnan, which border on
the French frontier.
4. The Chinese Government agree that if ever they constitute a
Postal Department independent of the maritime customs, and if
a European is to be appointed as Director thereof, France
shall have an equal right with that of other Powers to
nominate a candidate for the post of Director.
The Chinese Government are willing—
1. To lease us as much additional territory on Kowloon
promontory [opposite Hong Kong], exclusive of Kowloon city, as
is required for military and naval purposes.
2. The Yamên state that China is quite willing to allow the
extension into Yünnan of the Burmah Railway."
On the 13th, Mr. Balfour, in the absence of Lord Salisbury,
cabled from London in reply: "Inform Yamên that, although they
have not followed our advice, we are anxious to maintain, as
far as possible, integrity of China, and will, therefore, not
make new territorial demands upon them. It is, however,
absolutely necessary, if we are to pursue this policy, that
they, on their side, should first immediately conclude
negotiations—
(a) for giving us an the land required for military defences
of Hong Kong;
(b) to fulfil their promise to make Nanning a Treaty port;
(c) to give some railway concession;
(d) an agreement as to the non-alienation of Kuang'tung and
Yünnan.
In connection with condition (d), it is in the interests of
the integrity of China, and is justified by the proximity of
Yünnan to Burmah, and by our commercial preponderance in
Kuang'tung."
On the same day (13th April) the British Minister at Paris
telegraphed to the Foreign Office, London: "It is stated in
to-night's papers that, at the Cabinet Council held this
morning, M. Hanotaux was able to announce to his colleagues
that the French demands on China had been satisfactorily met.
They are stated in the semi-official 'Temps' to be:—
1. Concession of a lease of a bay on the south coast of China.
2. Concession of a railway connecting Tonquin with Yünnan-fu
by the Red River.
3. Engagement on the part of China never to alienate the
territories of the provinces contiguous to Tonquin.
4. Engagement never to cede to any other Power the Island of
Hainan.
5. Arrangement in regard to the constitution of the postal
service."
Thus, for the time being, France was satisfied, and England
would be, before she gave rest to the Tsung-li Yamên. Her
present demands, as above specified by Mr. Balfour, were
pressed without ceasing by the pertinacious Sir Claude. On the
9th of June he obtained from the Yamên a lease for the British
government of about 200 square miles of territory on the
mainland opposite its island crown colony of Hong Kong, and
surrounding the Chinese city of Kowloon, the latter, however,
to remain under Chinese jurisdiction.
{89}
The term of the lease was 90 years. With regard to the opening
of Nanning as a Treaty Port, he received an assurance from the
Yamên in August that it should be done so soon as the Kwang-si
rebellion was crushed. On the other points he had equal
success.
Great Britain. Papers by Command:
China, Number 1, 1899, pages 12, 19, 98-99, 178.
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (May).
How the murder of a missionary was made the ground of French
demands for a Railway Concession.
On the 17th of May, 1898, the British Minister at Peking
cabled to Lord Salisbury: "Murder of missionary in Kuang-si.
French demands for compensation. … The Yamên … said they were
not certain that the murdered missionary was not a Chinaman,
and that the demands made by the French for compensation
comprise a Concession for a railway to some point on the
sea-coast not specified, a chapel to be built, and a pecuniary
indemnity of 100,000 fr. to be paid. Up to the present they had
refused all these demands." Later, the following particulars
of the murder were received from the British Consul at Canton:
"The occurrence happened about a fortnight ago at
Yun-gan-chou, in the P'ing-lo Prefecture. While walking
through the streets the missionary noticed a placard directed
against the Christian religion. Having discovered the author
of the placard, the missionary, with two converts, proceeded
to his house and attempted to arrest him. Out of this a
disturbance arose in which the passers-by took part, and in
the end the missionary and the two converts lost their lives."
On the 21st of May Sir Claude MacDonald reported to Lord
Salisbury from Peking: "I am very reliably informed that the
demands made at an interview with the Yamên yesterday by M.
Pichon, the French Minister, in connection with this case
were:—
1. A Concession to construct a railway from Pakhoi to Nanning;
2. Construction of a chapel at Pakhoi;
3. A pecuniary indemnity of 100,000 fr.; and
4. The responsible officials to be punished.
In response to these demands, the Yamên suggested that the
Railway Concession should be granted in a document by itself,
apart from the granting of the other demands, and that the
chapel should be built at Yungan-chou, the scene of the
murder, instead of at Pakhoi, and the French Minister
undertook to refer these modifications to his Government for
their favourable consideration."
On the 27th, Sir Claude reported further that he had heard on
very good authority that all the French demands had been
granted, and added: "The Yamên have since denied to me that
they have committed themselves to granting them, but I have
little doubt that they have practically done so. The reason
for making the Railway Concession a separate matter is that
the Chinese are anxious to avoid establishing precedents for
compensation for attacks on missionaries taking the shape of
commercial Concessions, and they hope, rather foolishly, to do
so by nominally closing the missionary case before the other
matter is taken up. They did this in the case of the German
Agreement for the lease of Kiao-chau Bay, which begins by
declaring that the Shantung missionary case has already been
closed. The French demands are not at all excessive. I have
already expressed my belief that the proposed railway will not
injure us commercially, provided, of course, that no
differential rates are allowed, as to which I shall insist on
specific assurances from the Yamên."
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
China, Number 1, 1899, pages 91, 146, 150.
Alluding to this incident, and to that which the German
government made its pretext for seizing Kiao Chau (see, above,
A. D. 1897-November), a German writer has remarked:
"Never before, perhaps, has so much material value been
attached to ministers of the Gospel in foreign lands, and the
manner in which, after their death, they are used to spread
civilization is somewhat foreign to our older ideas of the
functions of the bearers of spiritual blessings."
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (June-September).
Momentary influence of a reform party in the palace.
Futile attempt of the young emperor to uphold it.
The decaying state of the Empire had now become so desperately
plain, and the predatory swarm of governments and speculators
which gathered to despoil it had grown so greedy and so bold,
that a party which could see that the only hope for its
salvation must be sought in some modernizing reforms, of
education and administration, was able to win a momentary
footing of influence in the palace at Peking. Its leading
spirit appears to have been one Kang Yeu Wei, an extremely
radical reformer who came from Canton. In an article which he
wrote some months later, and which was published in the
"Contemporary Review," Kang Yeu Wei gave this account of
himself, and of the mode in which he was brought into
relations with the young Emperor:
"I was always fond of studying Western learning. After the
French took Foochow in 1885 there was evident danger of
China's end drawing nigh. Consequently, in 1889, I
memorialised about the matter in great grief. I feared
Russia's advance southward, and pointed out the secret
intentions of Japan and the latent danger in Corea. I thought
that China had come to such a pass that if she should devote
these years for the purpose of speedy reform she might become
strong, but if there was delay nothing could save her. At that
time the high Ministers of State were all Conservatives, and
would not present my memorial to the throne. After the loss of
Formosa, Wêng Tung Ho [the Emperor's tutor] was sorry that he
had listened to their advice, and was very cordial to me. Then
I exhorted him to reform, and I wrote a long memorial, signed
by 1,300 provincial graduates, to urge reform again and again,
and a Reform Club was formed in Peking, and the newspaper,
'Chinese Progress,' was started in Shanghai. At this time
(1895) Wêng Tung Ho strongly urged reform on the Emperor, but
was checked by the Empress-Dowager, and almost put aside then,
and the Reform Club was shut up. I then returned to Canton,
and founded the Ethical Society in Canton province and the
Sacred Society in Kwang-Si province. My disciples, Liang Chi
Chao and Tan Tze Tung, formed the Southern Learning Society in
Hunan province; Liu Shio started the Fookien Learning Society
in the Fukien province; Yang Tui the Szechuen Learning
Society, in the province of Szechuen; Yang Shin Sheu and Sung
Peh Luh opened the Pass Learning Society in the provinces of
Shansi and Shensi; I and my brother K'ang Kwang In, with King
Yuen Shen, opened a Chinese girls' school and formed the
Anti-foot-binding Society in Shanghai; and many newspapers
were started. Thus newspapers and new schools flourished in
all the provinces, and all the empire knew of the reform.
{90}
"When Kiaochow was taken by the Germans I went to Peking again
and sent up another memorial strongly urging reform, with the
same motive as Peter the Great, and on the same political
lines as have been adopted by the present Emperor of Japan. I
also presented my books on the history of reform in Japan and
the history of Peter the Great's reforms, and suggested that
all the coast of the empire be open to international trade.
Wêng Tung Ho approved of it, and strongly supported the
measure at Court. But the crowd of Conservatives opposed, and
he could not carry it. Then it was proposed to make an
alliance with England, as was advised in the reform paper of
Macao. The Government was undecided and feared that a great
nation like England would not be willing. But when England
asked that Port Arthur and Ta Lien Wan should be open ports I
hastened to Wêng Tung Ho and said, 'China is saved and will
not perish. You must grant the request. Since God gives us
this opportunity, it should on no account be let slip.' But
the Empress-Dowager and Li Hung Chang had made up their minds
to give them to Russia. Again, England promised to lend China
ten millions at 3 per cent. Russia was forcing China to borrow
from her at 4 per cent. The Foreign Office was in great fear
between these two great nations, and undecided. They then
discussed about borrowing from both, and finally decided not
to borrow from either. I said, 'You should decline Russia's
offer and borrow from England. Russia, though she might
threaten us, will never dare to declare war on this account.'
The Empress-Dowager favoured Russia and was afraid. In the end
they did not borrow from either.
"When Russia was seeking Port Arthur and Ta Lien Wan, I
presented two memorials that they should be refused to Russia
and both made open ports. The Emperor blamed Prince Kung and
Li Hung Chang, and asked, 'What is the use of a secret treaty
with Russia? Not only does Russia not protect us, but she
herself takes away territory from us.' Both the Prince and Li
replied: 'It is by giving Port Arthur and Ta Lien Wan to
Russia that the secret treaty is preserved.' At this the
Emperor was very angry. When the Empress-Dowager decided to
give them to Russia, and Wêng Tung Ho found that all my
prophecies came true, he strongly recommended me to the
Emperor. Kao Hsueh Tseng, the Supervising Censor, Chen Pao
Chen, the Governor of Hunan, Su Chih Ching, of the Hanlin
College, and Li Twan Fên, President of the Board of Rites,
also had recommended me from time to time. When the Emperor
asked the members of the Cabinet, Wêng-Tung Ho recommended me,
saying, 'His abilities are a hundred times superior to my
own,' and prayed the Emperor to listen to me in all matters of
reform. I also presented to the Emperor a record of England,
France, and Germany, a comparative diagram of all nations, and
the Reverend Timothy Richard's 'History of the Nineteenth
Century' and his 'Essays for the Times,' and translations of
Western books. The Emperor then understood something of the
cause of the rise and fall of nations, and made up his mind to
introduce great reforms. Desiring men to help him, he invited
me, and acted on my former suggestions."
But the situation at Peking, as Kang Yeu Wei describes it,—the
weakness of the young Emperor and the strength of the
Empress-Dowager,—made the undertaking of reform hopeless from
the beginning. The Empress-Dowager had professed to resign the
government, but, says Kang Yeu Wei, "she really still held the
reins in her hands. She read the memorials about appointments.
All the Ministers of the first and second rank were her
nominees. The Emperor had no voice. In all matters he had to
inform her first before acting. The Emperor was only an
Emperor in name.
"The Emperor was of a studious disposition. Since the loss of
Formosa he has been greatly distressed about the decline of
the Empire. After this his faithful tutor, Wêng Tung Ho, who
was a learned man, sought foreign books for study, and
presented them, with atlases, to the Emperor. These the
Emperor daily studied, discovered the cause of foreign
prosperity, discovered the reason of China's weakness and
conservatism, and made up his mind to reform. But this was not
in accordance with the view of the Empress-Dowager. At the
beginning of the war with Japan the Emperor and his Ministers
wanted war. The Empress-Dowager and Li Hung Chang wanted
peace. The Empress-Dowager was ready to give up Manchuria and
Formosa. The Emperor could not think of it for a moment
without crying with distress; he wanted to make an alliance
with England and to reform, while the Empress-Dowager was
equally bent on alliance with Russia without reform. Thus
their views diverged more and more, so that when the Emperor
wanted to reform in 1895 the Empress hated him; two of his
favourite Imperial ladies were beaten: the Vice-Presidents,
Chang Lin, Wang Ming Luan, and Tsz Tui, a brother of one of
these Imperial ladies, were driven away: and the Imperial
ladies' tutor, Wên Ting Shih, was stripped of his honours,
never to be employed any more. This was because all these
advised the Emperor to keep the power in his own hands.
"The eunuch Kow Lang Tsai memorialised the Empress-Dowager to
resign the government into the hands of the Emperor. For this
he was put to death. The Emperor himself narrowly escaped
being put aside then. … Chang Lin was a straightforward man in
whom Prince Kung put great confidence. In a memorial to the
Emperor he said: 'The relation of the Empress-Dowager to the
late Emperor Tung Chih was that of his own mother, but her
relation to you is that of the widowed concubine of a former
Emperor.' When the Empress-Dowager came to know this she was
in a great rage. Prince Kung was also in great fear. When the
Emperor issued an edict, by command of the Empress-Dowager, to
degrade Chang Lin, Prince Kung was weeping on his knees. When
asked the reason of it, the Emperor waved his hand and said,
'Don't ask him.' The Emperor and the Prince wept together, and
the Prince wept so bitterly that he had no strength to rise
up. The Emperor commanded the eunuchs to help him up and lead
him away. Wên Ting Shih begged the Emperor to exercise his
rights. The Emperor waved his hand, saying, 'Don't speak,' for
the Emperor knew long ago that when he took the reins of
government into his own hands the Empress hated him."
{91}
Nevertheless, in 1898, the well-meaning but weak young Emperor
was moved to a spasmodic assertion of his authority, in bold
strokes of reform. "Rather than lose his empire like those of
the Chin and the Ming dynasties, and become a by-word of
disgrace for all future generations, he would risk the dangers
of reform. If he succeeded, then he would get power into his
own hands and save his country. If he failed, he would greatly
open the minds of the people and prepare them for the future,
and thus, perhaps, preserve a remnant of China. At this time
the Emperor considered the chief thing was to preserve the
country from being lost to foreign nations, and looked upon
his position on the throne as of little consequence in
comparison—considering the welfare of the people as of
supreme importance, while his own person was of little
importance. He had none to consult with, but decided to risk
all danger and try."
Kang Yen Wei,
The Reform of China and the Revolution of 1898
(Contemporary Review, August, 1899).
Read with a knowledge of what came of them, the futile decrees
which the helpless young Emperor issued in June, 1898, seem
pathetic in the extreme. The following is a translation of the
first of his reform edicts, which bears the date, "Kuang Hsu,
24th year, 4th moon, 23d day," corresponding to June 11, 1898:
"For a long time past the condition of Imperial affairs has
been a subject of discussion among the officials of the
Empire, both metropolitan and provincial, with a view to bring
about changes necessary for improvement. Decrees have been
frequently issued by the Emperor, for a special system of
examinations, for doing away with the surplus soldiery, for
the alteration of the military examinations and for the
institution of colleges. In spite of the fact that these
things have so often been carefully thought out, and so many
plans have been formed, there is no general consensus of
opinion, and discussion is still rife as to which plans are
best. There are some among the older officials who affirm that
the old ways are best and need no alteration, and that the new
plans are not required. Such babblings are vain and useless.
"The Emperor puts the question before you thus: In the present
condition of Imperial affairs, with an untrained army, with
limited funds, with ignorant 'literati,' and with artisans
untaught because they have no fit teachers, is there any
difficulty in deciding, when China is compared with foreign
nations, who is the strong and who is the weak? It is easy to
distinguish between the rich and the poor. How can a man armed
with a wooden stick smite his foe encased in a coat of mail?
The Emperor sees that the affairs of the Empire are in an
unsettled condition, and that his various Decrees have availed
nothing, Diversity of opinion, each unlike another as fire
differs from water, is responsible for the spread of the
existing evil. It is the same evil as that which existed in
the Sung and Ming dynasties (circa A. D. 1000 and 1500). Our
present system is not of the slightest use. We cannot in these
modern days adhere to the ways of the five Kings(circa B. C.
2500); even they did not continue exactly after the manner of
their respective predecessors. It is like wearing thick
clothes in summer and thin ones in winter. "Now, therefore,
the Emperor orders all officials, metropolitan and provincial,
from prince down to 'literati,' to give their whole minds to a
real endeavour to improvement. With perseverance, like that of
the saints of old, do your utmost to discover which foreign
country has the best system in any branch of learning and
learn that one. Your great fault is the falseness of your
present knowledge. Make a special effort and determine to
learn the best of everything. Do not merely learn the outside
covers of the books of knowledge, and do not make a loud boast
of your own attainments. The Emperor's wish is to change what
is now useless into something useful, so that proficiency may
be attained and handed on to posterity. The Metropolitan
College will be the chief one, and must be instituted at once.
The Emperor orders the Grand Councillors to consult with the
Tsung-li Yamên on the subject, and to come to a decision as
soon as possible, and then to memorialize the Throne. Any of
the compilers and graduates of the Hanlin College, the
secretaries of the Boards, the officers of the Palace Guards,
expectant Intendants, Prefects, district Magistrates, and
subordinate officials, sons and brothers of officials, the
hereditary officials of the Eight Banners, and the sons of the
military officials of the Empire, can enter the College who wish
to do so. By this means knowledge will be handed down from one
generation to another. It will be strictly forbidden to
members of the College to be careless or dilatory in their
studies, or to introduce as students any of their friends
without regard for the latter's capabilities; for such things
would frustrate the benefit of this excellent plan of His
Imperial Majesty."
A day later he issued the following: "The Tsung-li Yamên have
reported to the Throne that in obedience to instructions they
have considered the requests contained in the memorial of the
Vice-President Jung Hui, for the appointment of special
Ministers of Commerce, and the sending of members of the
Imperial family to visit foreign nations. Commercial matters
are of the highest importance, and the suggestion is one which
deserves to be acted upon. As the result of a former
consultation of the Tsung-li Yamên on the subject, commercial
bureaus have been established at the capitals of the
provinces, and the officials of each province have ordered the
leading gentry and merchants to elect from their numbers managers
of the bureaus, who will then draw up commercial regulations.
It is to be hoped that strict conformity to these Regulations
will lead to a daily improvement in trade; and the Emperor
orders the Viceroys and Governors of the provinces to direct
the gentry and merchants to strictly obey the official
instructions, and to consult together for the most speedy and
satisfactory arrangement of commercial matters; it is to be
hoped that in this way the officials will be kept in touch
with the merchants. We must not adhere blindly to our old
customs. Let the officials of each province memorialize the
Throne, and inform the Emperor how commercial affairs are
managed in their respective provinces.
{92}
With regard to the suggestion that members of the Imperial
Family should go abroad, this is a new departure, but is quite
in accordance with modern custom. The Emperor, therefore,
orders the Court of the Imperial clan to select from the
Princes of the first three ranks any who are well versed in
modern affairs and ideas, and who are on the side of modern
improvement, and to inform the Emperor of their selection. The
selected Princes will then await the Emperor's orders with
regard to their journey."
On the 15th the following imperial mandate was published:
"Wêng T'ung-ho, Assistant Grand Secretary and President of the
Board of Revenue, has of late made many errors in the conduct
of business, and has forfeited all confidence; on several
occasions he has been impeached to the Throne. At his private
audiences of the Emperor he has replied to His Majesty's
questions with no regard for anything except his own personal
feeling and opinion, and he has made no attempt to conceal his
pleasure or displeasure either in his speech or in his
countenance. It has gradually become clear that his ambition
and rebellious feeling have led him to arrogate to himself an
attempt to dictate to the Emperor. It is impossible to permit
him to remain in the responsible position of a Grand
Councillor. In former days a strict inquiry would have been
held, and his crime punished with the utmost rigour of the
law. Taking into consideration, however, his long service as
tutor to the Emperor, His Majesty cannot bring himself to mete
out to him such a severe penalty. Let Wêng T'ung-ho vacate his
posts, and retire into private life, as a warning that he is
preserved (from a worse fate)."
In transmitting this mandate to the British Foreign Office,
Sir Claude MacDonald explained that Wêng T'ung-ho was a
"reactionary," whose "influence was invariably against
innovation and progress," but personally "prepossessing,
courteous, and scholarly—an excellent type of the Conservative
Chinese statesman." But that the dismissal of Wêng T'ung-ho
did not signify the triumph of the reform party was shown the
same day by a decree commanding special honors to the Empress
Dowager, who seemed to be losing no time in reasserting
herself. "In future," said the edict, "whenever officials
receive favours or gifts from the Empress Dowager, or receive
promotion to the highest civil or military rank or to the
Vice-Presidency of a Board, they must (after thanking the
Emperor) present themselves before the Empress Dowager and
thank her; and in similar cases all provincial
Tartar-Generals, Lieutenant-Generals, Viceroys, Governors, and
Commanders-in-chief must write their thanks to the Empress
Dowager (as well as to the Emperor)."
Other radically reforming decrees that were issued by the
Emperor during June and early in July were described by the
British Minister in a despatch dated July 9, as follows:
"To effect a change in the agricultural methods of an ancient
Eastern nation would seem a very hopeless task, but from a
Decree published on the 4th instant, it appears that a censor
has made proposals for the establishment of a school of
agriculture, on which the Tsung-Ii Yamên were asked to report.
The Decree founded on their Report states that agriculture is
the basis of the States' wealth, and that measures for its
revival are urgently needed. The provincial authorities are,
therefore, directed to examine all methods of cultivation,
whether Chinese or foreign, with a view to their adoption by
the people. … The Decree proceeds to promise rewards for
successful treatment of agricultural problems, and to direct
the translation and circulation in provincial Colleges of
foreign works on the subject.
"Two Decrees, published on the 27th June and 5th July, have
reference to reforms in the Chinese army, but they throw no
light on the nature of them, and merely refer certain
suggestions to various Departments for examination. The last
Decree I shall mention, which appeared on the 5th instant,
contains a very frank admission of the need of reforms. It
states that in foreign countries commerce and industry thrive
and progress, while in China, though there is no lack of
ability, it is fettered in the bonds of ancient custom, and
cannot free itself. As one means of assisting in its
liberation it is ordained that any persons producing 'new
books' (presumably books that show originality of thought), or
being the first to use new methods, or to produce new
instruments or appliances suitable for use, are to receive
rewards from the State in the shape either of official
employment, if they are fitted for it, or of some other
distinction. In the case of inventions a certificate will be
given, and the profits secured to the inventor for a fixed
term of years—in fact patent rights will be granted. Rewards
will also be given to those who, with their own resources,
establish colleges, open up mines, or set up arsenals for the
manufacture of rifles and cannon. In conclusion, the Tsung-li
Yamên are directed to draw up Regulations for effecting the
above objects."
The zeal of the reforming movement was kept alive and its
authors held their ground throughout the summer, and nearly to
the end of September. On the 17th of that month, Sir Claude
MacDonald wrote to Lord Salisbury: "Imperial Decrees intended
to launch China on the path of reform continue to appear,
though there are few signs of any of them taking practical
effect. The Emperor is evidently learning that it is one thing
to issue a reform Edict and another to get it obeyed. Not long
ago a Decree was issued, the object of which was to make the
Throne more accessible to the subordinate portion of the
official world. At the beginning of this month a case was
brought to His Majesty's notice, in which the Board of
Ceremonies disobeyed this Decree by refusing to transmit a
Memorial sent in by a Secretary. He was much enraged, and
forthwith cashiered the six head officials of the Board, that
is to say, the two Presidents and four Vice-Presidents.
"On the 12th instant he followed this up by a fresh Decree
dwelling on the circumstances and reiterating his previous
instructions. Memorials were to be presented as they came in,
it being of the highest importance, in the present critical
state of public affairs, that all such communications should
be examined as soon as possible. Obstruction and delay were to
be punished with the utmost rigour, and special commands were
given that the previous Edicts on reform, all of which were
enumerated, were to be hung up in a public place in each Yamên
throughout the Empire, so that no one should be ignorant of
their contents.
{93}
Not satisfied with all this, he issued, also on the 12th
instant, a long and remarkable Decree calling attention to the
advantages of Western methods, and inveighing against
degenerate officials and conservative Ministers, who not only
could not assist him in adopting their methods, but spread
reports instead calculated to disturb the minds of the people.
He wanted his subjects to know that they 'could depend on
their Prince,' and appealed to them to make China powerful by
working for reform with 'united minds.' The previous orders
were amplified, and the privilege of memorializing the Throne,
which formerly stopped at officers of a high rank, is now
extended to practically every soul in the Empire.
"Next day, the 13th September, another Decree repeated the
terms of the above in clearer detail, and laid down precisely
the procedure each class was to observe in making itself
heard. The severest penalties were threatened should there be
any interference with the free exercise of this privilege by
the high officers of Government, who were commanded to report
by telegram the steps they were taking to fulfil the Imperial
wishes. The series of Decrees above quoted are naturally
creating a great commotion in the Chinese official world, and
it will be interesting to note their effect."
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
China, Number 1, 1899, page 179-279.
The effect was soon known. It was one which brought the
reformers to grief and their reforms to an end.
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (September).
Overthrow of the Reformers.
Subjugation of the Emperor by the Empress-Dowager.
His countermanding decrees.
The Imperial reformer announced the downfall of his own
authority on the 21st of September, in the following
significant decree:
"The affairs of the nation are at present in a difficult
position, and everything awaits reform. I, the Emperor, am
working day and night with all my powers, and every day
arrange a multitude of affairs. But, despite my careful toil,
I constantly fear to be overwhelmed by the press of work. I
reverently recall that Her Majesty the Empress Dowager has on
two occasions since the reign of Tung Chih (1861) assumed the
reins of Government with great success in critical periods. In
all she did Her Majesty showed perfection. Moved by a deep
regard for the welfare of the nation, I have repeatedly
implored Her Majesty to be graciously pleased to advise me in
government, and have received her assent. This is an assurance
of prosperity to the whole nation, officials and people. Her
Majesty will commence to transact business from to-day in the
side Hall. On the 23rd September, I, the Emperor, will lead my
princes and high officials to make obeisance in the Ch'in
Chêng Hall. Let the proper officials reverently and carefully
prepare the fitting programme of the ceremony."
On the 25th he announced: "Since the 4th moon, I, the Emperor,
have been frequently ailing in health, and in spite of
long-continued treatment there is still no great improvement.
Should there be any persons, either in the capital or the
provinces, who are highly skilled in the treatment of disease,
let the officials at once recommend them to the throne and
await our orders. Should such men be in the provinces let them
be sent to the capital without the least delay."
On the 26th the unfortunate Emperor was made to send forth
another decree, countermanding the greater part of the orders
he had been giving, on the pretext that they had been
misunderstood and badly carried out. The obstructive offices
which he had abolished were restored; the permission given to
scholars and people to present memorials was withdrawn. "The
original purpose," said the decree, "was that we should see
with the eyes and hear with the ears of everybody, but the
Court has now opened wide the path of access to the throne,
and if there are useful proposals for reform made in the
statements of any of the different classes of officials they
are bound to be observed at once and set into operation. At
present, careless documents all alike in character pour in.
All are full of frivolous statements, some even touch on the
extravagant, and all are much wanting in order. Hereafter all
officers whose duty it is to speak shall say what they have to
say in fitting language. In accordance with the prescribed
rules, persons or officers who are not competent to
memorialize the throne are not permitted to submit sealed
documents. The 'Times,' official newspaper, is of no benefit
to good government and will vainly disturb men's minds: let it
be abolished at once. The Imperial colleges will be ground for
the cultivation of talent. Apart from those which are already
being gradually established in Peking and the provincial
capitals, let the local officials in all prefectures and
districts where it is proposed to establish minor colleges
consider the local conditions and the convenience of the
people. Let the temples [which were to have been turned into
colleges] in the provinces remain as before; there is no need
to make colleges of them and disturb the feelings of the
people. Over and above the matters above mentioned, there are
others which have been duly considered and put into operation,
and others which are under consideration, such as trade,
agriculture, reorganization of the army, and the development
of resources, all of which are of undoubted consequence to the
State and the people, and must imperatively be introduced
gradually. Those measures which are of no benefit to the
present system of government, and are detrimental to the
Constitution, need not be discussed. Let the six Boards and
the Tsung-li Yamên make an investigation of these matters,
consider them with special care, and submit a report to the
throne so that they may be dealt with."
The events which attended and followed these decrees were
reported by Sir Claude MacDonald on September 28, as follows:
"The Decree [of the 21st] naturally created much excitement in
Peking, and rumours of impending disaster to the most prominent
of the advocates of reform were prevalent. Subsequent
proceedings justified the alarm and assumed the character of a
coup d'etat. The same day the house of Chang Yin-huan was
surrounded by the police in search of one K'ang Yu-wei. This
K'ang Yu-wei is a Chinese scholar of high repute who was,
until lately, editor of a Chinese newspaper in Shanghae known
as 'Progress.' He was a strong advocate of reform, and was
this year recommended to the Emperor, and on his arrival in
Peking was given a position of Secretary in the Board of
Works. He is said to have acquired great influence over the
Emperor, and to have been his adviser in his recent reform
measures. K'ang Yu-wei could not be found, and it has
subsequently transpired that he has escaped and left Shanghae
on the 27th in the English mail for Hong Kong.
{94}
So keen was the hunt for him that on the 22nd all traffic was
stopped on the Tien-tsin Railway line to prevent his passage.
On the 24th instant orders were issued for the arrest of
several officials who had been in relation with him, including
Chang Yin-huan and Hsü Chih-ch'ing. The latter had recommended
K'ang to the throne, and had been recently appointed President of
the Board of Rites. Chang Yin-huan went to the Board of
Punishments and has remained a prisoner since. The precise
charge against K'ang and his friends has not transpired, but
it is supposed to be one of conspiracy against the liberty and
even the life of the Empress Dowager.
"It was reported on the 25th that Chang was to be executed the
same evening or early next morning, and I thought it advisable
to make an appeal on his behalf for at least due consideration
of any charge brought against him. The report reached me late
in the afternoon, and it was therefore necessary to take
prompt measures. It was supposed that Li Hung-chang had been
consulted by the Empress Dowager in the matter. I accordingly
addressed a letter to his Excellency pointing out the horror
with which such sudden executions were regarded by all Western
nations, and the bad effect the secret and hasty condemnation
of an official of Chang's rank, who was so well known in
Europe, would produce, and begged his Excellency to use what
influence he possessed to prevent such hurried action. I
concluded my letter by saying that I appealed to him, Li,
because he was the only Statesman now in Peking who was
conversant with European methods, and would, therefore,
thoroughly realize the disastrous impression which such a
summary execution would produce throughout the Western world.
It is well known that Li Hung-chang and Chang Yin-huan are
deadly enemies, and it was generally reported that Chang's
imprisonment was due to Li. The Grand Secretary replied saying
that he highly respected my generous and humane motives, and
he assured me that no summary action would be taken."
On the 30th Sir Claude reported: "Six of the reformers
referred to in my despatch of the 28th September were executed
on the 28th instant. They included a brother of K'ang Yu-wei,
the chief reformer, and, though subordinates, all were
graduates and men of standing. Chang Yin-huan has been
banished to Chinese Turkestan, where he is to be kept under
rigorous surveillance. No precise crime is charged against
him. The Edict announcing his punishment accuses him vaguely
of being treacherous, fickle, and a sycophant. Last night a
long Decree appeared dealing with the so-called conspiracy.
K'ang Yu-wei is declared to have taken advantage of the
Emperor's leaning towards beneficial reforms to plot a
revolution, which was to be opened by surrounding the Palace
at Wan Shoushan and seizing the Empress-Dowager and the
Emperor. The haste in executing K'ang's chief accomplices, for
it appears that the legal formalities had not been observed,
is admitted to have been caused by Memorials, whose dominant
note was fear of a revolution if punishment was delayed."
Great Britain,
Papers by Command: China,
Number 1, 1899, pages 291-294.
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (October).
The Empress-Dowager.
Her past career.
Her character.
The Empress-Dowager, so called, who now recovered her
ascendancy over the weak young Emperor, which the reformers
had momentarily overcome, and who became again the real
Sovereign of the Empire, as she had been for the past thirty
years, "was never Empress, not even as imperial consort,
having been but the secondary wife of Hsien-fêng, the Emperor
who fled from his capital on the approach of the Anglo-French
forces in 1860 [see, in volume 1, CHINA: A. D. 1856-1860]. But
she took the title as the mother of that ill-starred monarch's
heir, in which capacity she was allowed to share with the
widow proper the regency during the minority of the Emperor
Tung-Chih (or Che, for there is no agreement as to the
transliteration of Chinese sounds). … The female duumvirate
was not what was intended—was in fact an unforeseen result of
the last will and testament of the Emperor Hsien-fêng, who
died at his hunting lodge at Jêho, whither he himself had been
hunted by the victorious invaders. …
"The fundamental law of the Ta-tsing dynasty is the Salic law.
No woman and no eunuch can ever reign or rule. Conforming to
the laws of his house, the Emperor in his will nominated a
Council of Regency during the minority of his infant son,
afterwards known as the Emperor Tung-Chih. The Council was
composed of two imperial princes and the Minister Sun-che. To
his two wives, the true but childless one and the secondary
one who was mother of the Prince Imperial, he bequeathed the
guardianship of the infant. The Emperor placed his real
confidence in the first, the legal wife; but he was fond of
the other, the mother of his heir. A serious dilemma thus
confronted him, which he thought to evade by placing in the
hands of the Empress a private and personal testament, giving
her absolute authority over her colleague, only to be
exercised, however, in certain emergencies. As a matter of
fact, the power was never called into exercise.
"The Empress-mother was twenty-seven years old, clever,
ambitious, and apparently fearless. … She conceived a scheme
by which the position might be reversed, and confided it to
her brother-in-law, Prince Kung. … The ambition which the
Empress-mother confided to Prince Kung was nothing less than
to suppress the Council of Regency, and set up in its place
the authority of the two Empresses. Inasmuch, however, as they
were ignorant of affairs, and women to boot, the Prince
himself was to be the real executive and de facto ruler of the
empire. Prince Kung yielded to the seduction, and thus became
accessory to the violation of the dynastic law. … The Regents
were returning from the obsequies of the deceased Emperor when
Prince Kung launched trumped-up charges against them of
neglect of certain funeral rites, had them arrested on the
road, and executed. By this summary violence the two Empresses
were securely established as Regents, with Prince Kung as
Chancellor of the empire. For a few years things went
smoothly. … The two Regents seldom met. … From the relative
position of the buildings in which they had their respective
apartments, the ladies were known as the Eastern and Western
Empresses, the former being the title commonly applied to the
one whom we have termed the true Empress. …
{95}
"The 'Eastern Empress' was full of gentleness, meditation, and
widowhood. … She was, therefore, unequally yoked with her
sterner sister, and the pair could never have really worked
together to any practical end. The eclipse of the weaker
luminary was only a question of time. … The life and death of
the young Emperor Tung-Chih, the son of Hsien-fêng and the
present Empress-regnante, seems little more than an episode in
the career of his imperial—and imperious—mother. He died
within two years of his full accession, removed by his own
mother as some would have us believe, but by quite other
agencies as others no less boldly affirm. … With the
disappearance of her son, the last plank in the legal platform
of the Empress-mother disappeared. But her appetite had grown
by what it fed upon. She had now had fourteen years' schooling
in statecraft, and she resolved that, 'per fas et nefas,'
reign who might, she would govern. … The story of her second
coup d'etat of January, 1875, has been often related,—how the
Empress so-called caused her own sister's child to be snatched
out of its warm bed on a bitter night and conveyed into the
Palace, whence he was proclaimed Emperor at daybreak. By this
stroke the Regent at once aggrandised her own family, made a
friend of a younger brother-in-law, the father of the child,
to replace the elder who had become an enemy, and, to sum up
all, secured for herself a new lease of power. For she who
could thus make an emperor could also make a regent."
The Empress-Regent of China
(Blackwood's Magazine, November 1898).
CHINA: A. D. 1898. (October-November).
Outbreaks of popular hostility to foreigners.
Guards for the Legations sent to Peking.
Chinese troops removed.
The palace revolution which overthrew the reforming party was
followed quickly by outbreaks of popular hostility to
foreigners. Two messages were cabled to Lord Salisbury from
Peking October 1st. One informed him: "A Chinese mob at a
point between Peking and the railway station yesterday
afternoon violently assaulted several foreigners who had to
pass that way from the train. Among those assaulted was Mr.
Mortimore of this Legation, and an English lady, who were
severely attacked with mud and stones; a member of the United
States' Legation had one of his ribs broken. There is a
decided spirit of disturbance among the Chinese, though the
fact that many bad characters were about yesterday in
consequence of the mid-autumn festival may go some way towards
accounting for these outrages. I have requested Admiral
Seymour by telegraph to despatch a vessel to Taku, in case a
guard should be required for the protection of this Legation,
and I am making strong representations to the Tsung-li Yamên."
In his second despatch the British Minister announced: "I do
not anticipate any danger, but a good and reassuring effect
will be produced, as after the Japanese war, by the presence
of a guard. The foreign Representatives decided this morning
to send for a small guard to protect the respective Legations.
I have asked Admiral Seymour to send me twenty-five marines
with a machine-gun. The German, Russian, Japanese, and Italian
Representatives had previously arranged for their guards."
On the 5th, Sir Claude MacDonald reported: "A meeting of
foreign Representatives yesterday decided to notify the
Chinese Government of the proposed departure from Tien-tsin
for Peking to-morrow of bodies of British, German, and Russian
marines, and to ask that all facilities, including a special
train, should be extended to them by the Chinese authorities;
the French, American, Japanese, and Italian marines to come
straight on to Peking on their arrival at Tien-tsin. The
meeting was held in consequence of the refusal of the Viceroy
of Chihli to permit any foreign soldiers to leave Tien-tsin
for Peking without special permission from the Tsung-li Yamên.
It is very likely that the Chinese Government will make a
protest similar to that of 1895, but it would be very
ill-advised at the present crisis to give way to their
protests, and it is absolutely necessary that the decision of
the foreign Representatives should be put into effect."
The Chinese government did protest, but without effect. The
legation guards were insisted upon, and, as speedily as
possible, they were provided from the war-ships of the several
powers, and quartered in Peking. Then the Chinese authorities
brought troops to the capital, and the sense of danger at the
legations grew. On the 25th of October Minister MacDonald
cabled to London: "A serious menace to the safety of Europeans
is the presence of some 10,000 soldiers, who have come from
the Province of Kansu, and are to be quartered in the hunting
park, two miles south of Peking. A party of these soldiers
made a savage assault on four Europeans (including Mr. C. W.
Campbell, of this Legation), who were last Sunday visiting the
railway line at Lukou Chiao. The foreign Ministers will meet
this morning to protest against these outrages. I shall see
the Yamên to-day, and propose to demand that the force of
soldiers shall be removed to another province, and that the
offenders shall be rigorously dealt with."
On the 29th he telegraphed again: "The Foreign Representatives
met yesterday, and drafted a note to the Yamên demanding that
the Kansu troops should be withdrawn at once. The troops in
question have not been paid for some months, and are in a
semi-mutinous state. They have declared their intention to
drive all Europeans out of the north of China, and have cut
the telegraph wires and destroyed portions of the railway line
between Lukouchiao and Pao-ting Fu. Some disturbances have
been caused by them on the railway to Tien-tsin, but the line
has not been touched, and traffic has not been interrupted. In
the city here all is quiet. The presence of these troops in
the immediate vicinity of Peking undoubtedly constitutes a
serious danger to all Europeans. The Yamên gave me a promise
that the force should be removed, but have not yet carried it
into effect."
On the 6th of November he reported that the Yamên had replied
to the note of the Diplomatic Body, acknowledging that the
troops lacked discipline and were a source of danger, and
again promising their removal, but that nothing had been done.
He added: "It was decided unanimously to address a note to the
Yamên, stating that if the troops in question were not
withdrawn by the 11th instant, our respective Governments
would adopt such measures as they considered necessary for the
protection during the winter months of foreigners in Peking and
Tien-tsin."
{96}
After several more exchanges of notes between the Diplomatic
Body and the Yamên, peremptory on one side, apologetic on the
other, the troops were removed to Chi-chow, about 80 miles
east of Peking, beginning their march November 15. A few days
previously Sir Claude MacDonald had been able to report "That
two of the ringleaders in the attack on Mr. Campbell and other
Europeans at Lu Kow-chiao [announced in despatch of October
25] were brought into Peking and flogged in Mr. Campbell's
presence at the Yamên of the Governor of the city on the 29th
October. The men were sentenced to 1,000 blows each, but Mr.
Campbell, after eighty blows had been inflicted, begged that
the flogging might cease. It turned out that two other
soldiers were struck by bullets from a small revolver, which
was used by one of the railway engineers in self-defence, and,
chiefly for this reason, I did not press for more floggings.
"I attached more importance to the punishment of the officer
in command, who, it appears, had been warned beforehand by the
railway authorities to keep his men away from the railway
bridge, but had refused to do so. I consider him the person
really responsible for what happened, and at an interview on
the 31st October I told the Yamên that I should not be
satisfied, and the incident would not be closed, until I saw
his degradation published in the official Gazette. On the 4th
November an Imperial Decree was issued ordering this officer,
a Colonel named Chu Wan-jung, to be handed over to the Board
of War for punishment. The Ministers inform me that this is
likely to mean his degradation. I have, however, again warned
their Excellencies that nothing short of this punishment will
be satisfactory to Her Majesty's Government."
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
China, Number 1, 1899, pages 258-279, and 332.
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (December).
Reorganization of Chinese armies.
Reception by the Empress-Dowager to
the ladies of the Legations.
On the 20th of December Sir Claude MacDonald reported: "The
reorganization of the land forces in the north appears to be
occupying the serious attention of the Central Government. In
the early half of this month Edicts were issued by the Empress
Dowager approving proposals made by Jung Lu, who was appointed
Generalissimo of northern armies immediately after the K'ang
Yü-wei conspiracy. The following are the principal features of
these proposals. The armies under the command of Sung Ch'ing
and others, that is to say all the brigaded troops in North
China, are to be organized in four corps—front, rear, right,
and left—to occupy different strategical points. In addition,
Jung Lu will raise a centre corps of 10,000 men, to be
stationed presumably in or about Peking. … The importance of
bringing the other four corps into an efficient state is dwelt
upon, and the Edicts are stern in demanding the production of
sufficient funds for the purpose. The Viceroy of Chihli is
also instructed to closely scrutinize the condition of the
Peiyang drilled troops—formerly Li Hung-chang's army—and bring
them into order. They are to be under the orders of Jung Lu,
instead of the Viceroy.
"The Viceroys responsible for the Arsenals of North and Mid
China are also commanded to see to the immediate construction
of quick-firing guns and Mauser rifles and other war material,
and to the preparation of maps of the coast-line for military
purposes. Jung Lu has done nothing yet towards raising the
centre corps beyond calling in the assistance of a
German-educated officer named Yin Ch'ang, who holds a post in
the Tien-tsin Military Academy. He is reputedly able, and
probably one of the best Chinese available for the work, but I
question whether he will be given sufficient powers of
control. He is now engaged in drawing up a scheme."
Bearing the same date as the above, we find a despatch from
Sir Claude MacDonald descriptive of a reception given by the
Empress-Dowager, on the 13th, to the wives of the foreign
representatives at Peking, "to accept their congratulations on
the occasion of Her Imperial Majesty's birthday." "The
ceremony," said the British Minister, "passed off extremely
well. The Empress Dowager made a most favourable impression by
her courtesy and affability. Those who went to the Palace
under the idea that they would meet a cold and haughty person
of strong imperious manners were agreeably surprised to find
Her Imperial Majesty a kind and courteous hostess, who
displayed both the tact and softness of a womanly
disposition." "Thus ended," writes Sir Claude, in closing his
despatch, "the incident which may be considered to mark
another step in the nearer relations of China and foreign
nations."
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
China, Number 1, 1900, pages 12-15.
CHINA: A. D. 1898-1899.
Rioting in Shanghai consequent on
French desecration of a cemetery.
French demand for extension of settlement ground in Shanghai.
English and American protests.
The outcome.
On the 18th of July, 1898, the following was reported by the
British Consul-General at Shanghai:
"Serious rioting took place in the French Settlement on the
16th und the morning of 17th instant, in the course of which
some fifteen natives lost their lives. The disturbance was due
to an attempt of the French authorities to take possession of
certain temple land known as the Ningpo Joss-house Cemetery.
The ground is full of graves, and it is also used for
depositing coffins until a favourable opportunity presents
itself for removing them to the native districts of the
deceased. The cemetery is within the limits of the French
Settlement; originally it was far removed from the inhabited
portion of the Settlement, but by degrees new streets have
been laid out, and houses have been built, until the cemetery
is surrounded by dwellings.
"Twenty-four years ago the French Municipality attempted to
make a road through the cemetery, but such serious rioting
broke out that the French Consul thought it prudent to abandon
his claim to the ground, and gave the Ningpo Guild to
understand that they would be left in undisturbed possession.
As years have gone on, the nuisance of having a cemetery in
the midst of a crowded Settlement has made itself more and
more felt, and some months ago the French Municipal Council
decided to expropriate the owners and to pay them
compensation. The Ningpo Guild and the Chinese authorities
were duly apprised of the intention, and they were urged to
make their own arrangements for removing the coffins to some
other site.
{97}
They would not admit that the French had any right to
dispossess them, and they refused to vacate the land. The
French Consuls then gave the Chinese officials notice that the
Municipal Council would take possession on a certain day; and
as the day drew near the Taotai became very uneasy, and
appealed to the Foreign Consuls to interfere in the matter,
giving hints that serious rioting and loss of life, would
result if the French Consul persisted in his intentions.
"On the morning of the 16th, the day appointed for taking
possession of the cemetery, a detachment from the French
cruiser 'Éclaireur' and a strong body of police marched to the
cemetery, and afforded protection to the workmen who were told
off to make a breach in the cemetery wall by way of taking
possession. An angry mob watched these operations, and, as
time went on, the streets filled with crowds of men, who moved
about making hostile demonstrations, but the French showed great
self-restraint, and no serious collision took place on that
day. All night long the crowds filled the streets, and many
lamps were smashed and lamp-posts uprooted.
"Early on Sunday morning a determined attack was made by the
mob on one of the French police-stations, and when the small
body of men within saw that their lives were in danger, they
opened fire. About the same time the police and the
'Éclaireur's' men attacked bands of rioters in other quarters,
with the result that on Sunday morning, as far as can be
ascertained, fifteen men were shot dead or bayoneted, and
about forty were seriously wounded. After that the rioters
seemed to have become intimidated for a time, and the streets
were left to the police. Meanwhile many of the shops in both
Settlements were closed, and orders were sent to all Ningpo
men—and they form 50 per cent. of the population—to go out on
strike.
"Some of the principal Ningpo merchants came forward in the
afternoon, and through the good offices of a peacemaker came
to an understanding with the French Consul, under which it was
agreed that the French should postpone taking possession of the
cemetery for one month, during which time the Ningpo Guild
trust to come to some amicable arrangement. The French Consul
has given them to understand that he will not recede from his
position; the cemetery must be given up, but he is willing
that this should be done in any way that will be most pleasing
to the Ningpo residents."
On the 23d of August it was announced by telegram from
Shanghai that "the dispute arising out of the Ningpo Josshouse
is about to be settled by French withdrawing their claims to
remove the buildings in consideration for an extension of
their concession as far as Si-ca Wei, an addition of 20 square
miles." This raised protests from Great Britain and the United
States, many of whose citizens owned property within the area
thus proposed to be placed under French jurisdiction; and the
distracted Tsung-li Yamên was threatened and pulled about
between the contending parties for months. The final outcome
was an extension of the general Foreign Settlement at Shanghai
(principally British and American) and a limited extension of
that especially controlled by the French. The adjustment of
the question was not reached until near the end of 1899.
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
China, Number 1, 1899. and Number 1, 1900.
CHINA: A. D. 1898-1899 (June-January).
Anti-missionary insurrection at Shun-ch'ing,
in Central Szechuan.
The following is from a communication addressed by the British
Minister to the Tsung-li Yamên, August 2, 1898:
"At Shun-ch'ing Fu the local officials, with a few of the
gentry, have for years shown themselves determinedly hostile
to foreigners, and have refused to allow houses to be let to
missionaries. British missionaries have in consequence been
forced to quarter themselves in an inn for the last six years,
but even that was apparently objected to; in 1893 there was a
riot, and in 1895 another, in which two missionaries were
treated with brutal violence. In May of this year a house was
finally rented; the District Magistrate was notified, but
neither he nor the Pao-ning Taotai issued proclamations or
gave protection, though requested by the missionaries to do
so. The Shun-ch'ing Prefect, instead of giving protection,
connived at the local opposition, and with the usual results.
On the 15th June three missionaries were attacked and stoned,
and one severely wounded, while passing through the city, and
though protection was asked of the Prefect, he gave none, and
later he and the other officials repeatedly refused to issue a
Proclamation or to take any measures whatever to avert
disturbances. On the 20th the Prefect feigned sickness, and
could not be appealed to, and on the 27th the house leased by
the missionaries was destroyed, with all the property it
contained. The Roman Catholic establishment was also gutted.
"As usual the disturbance did not end at Shun-ch'ing. Later on
a Roman Catholic Chapel at Yung ch'ang Hsien was attacked and
looted, two native Christians killed, 10,000 taels of silver
stolen, and a French priest [Father Fleury] seized and held to
ransom by a band of rioters. I am also informed that other
acts of brigandage have occurred, and that the Protestant
missions at Pao-ning and Shê-Hung are in grave danger. The
Provincial Government appears to absolutely ignore the recent
Imperial Decrees for the prevention of missionary troubles.
All the conditions point to this, or to an utter incapacity on
the part of those officers to exercise satisfactory control. Her
Majesty's Consul, indeed, informs me that there is one band of
brigands, led by an outlaw known as Yü Mau Tzu, which is able
to terrorise two important districts in the centre of Szechuan
and even to overawe the Chêngtu authorities. In connection
with the Shun-ch'ing affair Her Majesty's Consul has made the
following demands:
1. Immediate restoration of their house to the missionaries,
the officers to pay the whole cost of repairs;
2. Punishment of the ring-leaders;
3. The local headmen to give security for future good conduct;
4. Compensation for all property destroyed;
5. Punishment of officials in fault.
I shall look to the Yamên and see that these demands are fully
satisfied and with the least possible delay."
{98}
But urgency from both England and France failed to stimulate
action on the part of the Chinese government, energetic enough
to stop this anti-missionary movement in Central Szechuan. What
seems to have been a riot at first became a formidable revolt.
"The action of the Provincial Government was paralysed by the
fact that Father Fleury was still in Yü's hands, and would be
killed if a move was made against the brigands. On the other
side the Viceroy was informed by M. Haas, the French Consul,
that if anything happened to the Father the consequences to
China would be disagreeable. The Taotai was in consequence
making efforts to secure the release of the prisoners by
paying blackmail." In September it was reported that "Yü's
power was increasing, his emissaries were scattered about in
places beyond his immediate sphere of influence, and were
attempting to stir up Secret Societies, and he had issued a
manifesto. A riot took place at Ho Chou, 60 miles north of
Chungking, on the 14th September, the American mission
hospital being partially looted and a Roman Catholic
establishment destroyed by fire. The Provincial Government was
acting weakly and unprofitably."
Towards the end of September, "Yü marched with about 2,000
uniformed men and took up a position on the Ch'êng-tu road;
thence he moved east to Tung-Liang, pillaging and burning the
houses of Christians, and levying contributions on the rich.
The Viceroy, at the request of the Consuls, was said to have
sent 4,000 troops from Ch'êng-tu, Lu-chou, and Ho-chiang to
converge on Chungking. Twelve of the rebels, who had been
seized at a place only 30 miles south of the port, were
publicly executed with torture in Chungking on the 30th
September." In October the report was that "fresh troops were
arriving, and were taking up positions along the Ch'êng-tu
road, and the passes north of Chungking. Further executions
had taken place. … The Procureur of the French Mission
estimated that up to date the total damage done by Yü Mau-tzu
was twenty persons killed, the houses of 6,000 Christians
burned and their property stolen, and twelve Missions
destroyed."
Great Britain, Papers by Command: China,
Number 1, 1899, page 249, and Number 1, 1900, page 152.
On the 12th of October the United States Minister, Mr. Conger,
sent to the State Department at Washington the following
translation of a decree issued by the Empress Dowager on the
6th:
"From the opening of ports to foreign trade to the present
time, foreigners and Chinese have been as one family, with
undivided interests, and since missionaries from foreign
countries are living in the interior, we have decreed, not
three or four times, but many times, that the local officials
must protect them; that the gentry and people of all the
provinces must sympathize with our desire for mutual
benevolence; that they must treat them truthfully and
honestly, without dislike or suspicion, with the hope of
lasting peaceful relations.
"Recently, there have been disturbances in the provinces which
it has been impossible to avoid. There have been several cases
of riot in Szechuan, which have not been settled. The stupid
and ignorant people who circulate rumors and stir up strife,
proceeding from light to grave differences, are most truly to
be detested. On the other hand, the officials, who have not
been able at convenient seasons to properly instruct the
people and prevent disturbances, can not be excused from
censure.
"We now especially decree again that all high provincial
officials, wherever there are churches, shall distinctly
instruct the local officials to most respectfully obey our
several decrees, to recognize and protect the foreign
missionaries as they go to and fro, and to treat them with all
courtesy. If lawsuits arise between Chinese and native
Christians, they must be conducted with justice and speedily
concluded. Moreover, they must command and instruct the gentry
and people to fulfill their duties, that there may be no
quarrels or disagreements. Wherever there are foreigners
traveling from place to place, they must surely be protected
and the extreme limit of our hospitality extended. After the
issue of this decree, if there is any lack of preparation and
disturbances should arise, the officials of that locality will
be severely dealt with; whether they be viceroys or governors
or others they shall be punished, and it will not avail to say
we have not informed you."
United States Consular Reports,
February, 1899, page 299.
On the 1st of November the British Consul at Chungking
announced "an alarming extension of the rebellion. Flourishing
communities of Christians in four districts were destroyed,
and heavy contributions were laid on non-Christians. The
continued inactivity of the Government troops was chiefly
attributable to orders from the Yamên to the effect that the
first and foremost consideration was the rescue of Père
Fleury. Negotiations were being carried on by the Chungking
Taotai and the Chinese Generals for the Father's release; a
ransom of 100,000 taels was offered, presents were sent to Yü
and his mother, and he and his lieutenants were given buttons
of the third rank." The next month, however, brought on the
scene a new Viceroy who really wished to suppress the
insurrection, though he "complained that his hands were tied
by the Yamên's instructions, which urged him to come to terms
with Yü." At last this singularly energetic Viceroy got
permission to fight the rebels. On arriving in front of the
terrible Yü he "found that the troops who had been stationed
there previously were quite untrustworthy, and that the
Generals and local officials were all more or less in league
with the rebels. However, as soon as it was learnt that the
Treasurer meant business, a number of the rebels dispersed.
The main band, under Yü Mau-tzu, about 6,000 in number, was
then surrounded in Ta Tsu Hsien, after a preliminary encounter
in which the rebels lost some 100 men. By the 19th January, a
Maxim was brought to bear on Yü's camp, and the rebels fled
like rabbits. Yü begged Père Fleury to save his life, and next
day released the Father, who found his way to the Treasurer,
after some narrow escapes. Yü then surrendered."
It was said at the time that the French government was
demanding an indemnity in this case to the amount of £150,000.
Later it was understood that the French Minister at Peking
"had taken advantage of the pending missionary ease to revive
an old request for a Mining Concession."
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
China, Number 1, 1900.
{99}
CHINA: A. D. 1899.
Anti-missionary outbreaks, increasing piracy, and other
signs of growing disorder in the country.
During 1899 there was a notable relaxation of the hard and
ceaseless pressure upon China which governments, capitalists
and speculators had been keeping up of late, in demands more
or less peremptory for harbor leases, settlement grounds,
railway franchises, mining privileges, and naval, military and
commercial advantages of every possible sort. But the irritation
of the country under the bullying and "nagging" of the
treatment it had received from the European nations revealed
itself in increasing outbreaks of popular hostility to
foreigners; and these called out threats and demands, for
indemnity and punishment, which were made, as a rule, in the
truculent tone that had become habitual to western diplomacy
in dealing with the people of the East. It was a tone which
the Chinese provoked, by the childish evasions and treacherous
deceptions with which their officials tried to baffle the
demands made on them; but it gave no less offense, and is no
less plainly to be counted among the causes of what afterwards
occurred.
Throughout most of the year, the British Legation at Peking
and the Consulate at Chungking were busied in obtaining
satisfaction for the murder of Mr. Fleming, a missionary in
the China Inland Mission, stationed at Pang Hai, near
Kwei-Yang. He had been killed and the mission looted in
November, 1898. The Chinese authorities claimed that he had
been killed by a band of rebels. The British Consul
investigated and became convinced that the missionary had been
the victim of a deliberate plot, directed by the headman of the
village of Chung An Chiang, where the murder occurred, and
connived at by the military official Liu. The Chinese
government, yielding to this conviction, caused two of the
murderers to be executed, degraded and exiled all of the local
officials who were involved in the crime, except the headman,
and paid an indemnity of $30,000. But the headman escaped, and
it was claimed by the governor of the province that he could
not be found. The British authorities found evidence that he
was being shielded by the governor, and demanded the dismissal
of the governor, which was persistently refused. Finally, in
October, 1899, the guilty headman was hunted down.
On the 18th of February, the British Minister complained
energetically to the Tsung-li Yamên of the rapid increase of
piracy on the Canton River. "Since November, 1898," he wrote,
"that is in three months, no less than forty-seven cases of
piracy in the Canton waters have been reported in the papers.
In several of these cases life was taken, and it may almost be
said that a reign of terror exists on the waterways of the Two
Kuang. Cargo boats are afraid to travel at night, or to move
about except in company, and trade is becoming to a certain
extent paralysed. The Viceroy is always ailing, and it is
difficult to obtain an interview with him. Her Majesty's
Consul has repeatedly addressed him on the subject of these
piracies in the strongest terms, but can only obtain the
stereotyped reply that stringent instructions have been sent
to the officials concerned. Admiral Ho, the
Commander-in-chief, who should properly be the officer to
inaugurate a vigorous campaign against the pirates, appears
absolutely supine and incapable of dealing with the evil. The
complaints of the Hong Kong Government and Her Majesty's
Consuls show a state of affairs in Canton waters which is
quite intolerable. There is no security for life or property,
and as British subjects are closely concerned, it is my duty
to inform your Highness and your Excellencies that unless
measures are immediately taken to prevent such outrages, I
shall have to report, for the consideration of Her Majesty's
Government, the advisability of taking steps to protect
British lives and property, either by patrolling the waterways
or by placing guards on the steamers, the expense of which
would be the subject of a claim on the Chinese Government."
On the 28th of February, Herr von Billow, the German Imperial
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, announced in the
Reichstag, at Berlin, the reception of a telegram from
Tien-tsin, reporting that several Germans had been attacked
and insulted in that town on the 24th, and had been compelled
to take refuge in the side streets and narrow alleys. The
Imperial Government, he said, had been already aware for some
weeks past that a considerable feeling of irritation had
manifested itself against foreigners in China, especially in
the southern portion of the Province of Shantung. The Chinese
Government were thereupon warned of the necessity of
maintaining order and securing public safety, and, upon the
receipt of the telegram above referred to, the German Minister
at Peking was instructed to impress upon the Chinese
Government that, if such incidents were permitted to recur, or
the perpetrators allowed to escape unpunished, the
consequences for China would be very serious. "We have," Herr
von Bülow declared, "neither the occasion nor the desire to
interfere in the internal affairs of China. But it is our duty
to watch lest the life and property of our fellow subjects,
whether missionaries or traders, should be made to suffer
through the internal complications in China."
In March, however, the state of things at and near Peking was
so far improved that the Legation guards were being withdrawn.
Sir Claude MacDonald obtained leave of absence and left Peking
on the 23d for a visit to England, and the business of the
Legation was conducted for a time by Mr. Bax-Ironside, the
Charge d'Affaires.
In June there was an anti-missionary riot at Kienning, in the
neighborhood of Foochow, excited by the murder of a boy,
popular rumor ascribing the murder to foreigners. "In all
directions," wrote one of the threatened missionaries, who
gave an account of the occurrence, "murders were said to be
taking place, though no bodies were ever found; that seemed of
no consequence to the people, and the story was current, and
was apparently generally believed, that these murders were
done by men in our employ, and that we used the eyes and legs
to make medicine. There were endless stories of people being
kidnapped, chloroformed in the road by a bottle being held out
to their nose, and the day I arrived it was said that eyes had
been found at Tai-lui, a suburb of Kienning, and as I passed a
crowd was actually on the spot seeking for the said eyes." The
missionaries succeeded in escaping from the mob; but one
native convert was killed, and the mission hospital and other
premises were looted.
The ideas and the state of feeling out of which this attack on
the missionaries and their converts grew are revealed in the
following translation of a placard that was posted in Kienning
in June:
"We of this region have hitherto led a worthy life. All the
four castes (scholars, agriculturists, artizans, traders) have
kept the laws and done their duty. Of late foreigners have
suddenly come among us in a disorderly march and preaching
heretical doctrines. They have had from us indulgent
treatment, but they have repaid us by endangering our lives.
This year, in town and country, people have been hewn in two,
men and women in numbers have fallen upon evil days.
{100}
Everywhere the perpetrators have been seized, and everyone of
them has confessed that it was by the missionary chapels they
were ordered to go forth and slay men and women; to cut out
their brains and marrow to make into medicine. The officials
deliberately refrained from interfering. They garbled the
evidence and screened the malefactors. The whole country side
is filled with wrath; the officials then posted Proclamations,
and arrested spreaders of false reports. The hewing down of
men is hateful; but they issued no Proclamations forbidding
that. Now fortunately the people is of one mind in its wrath.
They have destroyed two chapels. The Ou-ning ruffian has
issued another Proclamation, holding this to be the work of
local rowdies. He little knows that our indignation is
righteous, and that it is a unanimous expression of feeling.
If the officials authorize the police to effect unjust
arrests, the people will unite in a body, in every street
business will be stopped, and the Wu-li missionary chapel will
be destroyed, while the officials themselves will be turned
out of the city, and the converts will be slain and
overthrown. When cutting grass destroy the roots at the same
time. Do not let dead ashes spring again into flame."
A settlement of the Kienning case was arranged locally between
the British Consul at Foochow, Mr. Playfair, and the Viceroy
of the province. The views of the Consul were expressed in a
communication to Mr. Bax-Ironside as follows:
"Since the missionaries established themselves there it is the
sixth attempt made to drive them out of the region. The common
people (from what I can gather) have no animus against the
foreign preacher of the Gospel, and show none. On the
contrary, whether moved to accept Christianity or not, they
appear to recognize that missionaries are in any case there
for benevolent and beneficial objects. Schools and hospitals
are independent of proselytizing, and, even if the
missionaries were never to make another convert, they would be
doing good and useful work in spreading Western knowledge and
healing the sick. In addition to this, the presence of
missionaries in out-of-the-way places in China has one
unquestionable advantage. To use the phrase of Sir Thomas
Wade, they 'multiply the points of contact,' and familiarize
the Chinese with the sight of the European. To the missionary,
either as a preacher of the Gospel or as a dispenser of benefits,
the populace at Kienning does not seem to have shown any
aversion; yet six times this populace has risen and tried to
drive the missionaries from the place. The logical inference
is that the Kienning peasant, though tolerant by nature, is
subject to some outside influence. He is moved, not by what he
sees, but by what he is told exists beyond his range of
vision; and these things are pointed out to him by such as he
believes to be his intellectual superiors, and as have,
therefore, the faculty of perceiving what is hid from himself.
The history of almost every anti-missionary movement in China
points to the same process. Why the educated classes of this
land should be so inveterately hostile to the foreigner is a
difficult question to answer. It has been suggested that the
Chinese of this type have an ineradicable conviction that
every European is at heart a 'land-grabber'; that missionaries
are the advance agents of their Governments; that the Bible is
the certain forerunner of the gun-boat; and that where the
missionary comes as a sojourner he means to stay as a
proprietor; consequently, that the only hope of integrity for
China is that her loyal sons should on every occasion destroy
the baneful germ. Extravagant and (in the instance of
Kienning) far-fetched as these notions may seem, I am
convinced that the literati and gentry have been at the root
not only of the present outbreak, but of the others which have
preceded it. While, therefore, I have insisted throughout that
Kienning must be made a place of safe residence for the
British missionary, I have considered that the only way to
attain that result will be to shackle the hands of the gentry
by making any further breach of the peace a sure precursor of
punishment."
To this end, Mr. Playfair's exactions included, not only the
trial and punishment of those guilty of the riot and the
murder, but the signing of a bond by twenty-four leading
notables of Kienning, binding them, with penalties, to protect
the missionaries. His demand was complied with, and, on the
29th of September, he reported that the required bond had been
given. He added: "Before accepting it, however, I required the
authorities to inform me officially that the terms, which to me
seemed somewhat vague, were understood by the authorities to
extend the responsibility of the gentry to any outbreak of the
populace. I received this intimation and I consider that it
supplements the original wording effectually."
In November the German government made public the substance of
an official telegram received from Peking, reporting a serious
state of disturbance in the German missionary districts of
Shantung: "It appears from this communication that the
followers of the sects of the 'Red Fist' and the 'Great Knife'
are in a state of revolt against the Administration and the
people in that province, and are engaged in plunder and rapine
in many places. The native Christians suffer no less than the
rest of the population by this revolt. Money was usually
extorted from them, and their dwellings were pillaged or
destroyed. The Italian Mission, situated in the adjoining
district, were faring no better, and their chapel had just
been burned down. Owing, however, to the unremitting
representations of the German Minister, the Chinese Government
have caused several of the agitators to be arrested by the local
authorities, and they are taking further steps in this
direction, with the result that order is gradually being
restored. At several places the native Christians, with their
non-Christian fellow-countrymen, repulsed the rebels by force
of arms. The Provincial Governor has promised the authorities
of the Mission a full indemnity for the losses suffered by
them and by the other Christians, and several payments have
already been made."
On the 4th of December, the following despatch was sent to
London from the British Legation at Peking:
"During the delimitation of French leased territory at
Kwang-chou-wan on the 13th November, Chinese villagers seized
two French officers and decapitated them. The execution of a
dignitary—the Prefect concerned in the murder—has been
demanded by the French Minister, as well as the dismissal of
the Canton Viceroy, who is also implicated. The Chinese
Commissioner engaged in the delimitation and the gunboat in
which he travelled are held by the French as hostages."
{101}
CHINA: A. D. 1899 (March).
The Tsung-li Yamên.
Its character and position.
The power of the Empress Dowager.
The Tsung-li Yamên is a small body of Councillors who form a
species of Cabinet, with a special obligation to advise the
Emperor on foreign affairs. "They have no constitutional
position whatever, they have no powers except those derived
from the Emperor, and they are very much afraid for
themselves. He may by mere fiat deprive them of their rank,
which is high; he may 'squeeze' them of their wealth, which is
often great; he may banish them from the delights of Pekin to
very unpleasant places; or he may order them to be quietly
decapitated or cut slowly into little pieces. At such times
their preoccupation is neither their country nor their
immediate business, nor even their own advancement, but to
avoid offending the irritable earthly deity who holds their
lives and fortunes in his hands. Such a time it is just now.
The Empress-Dowager is Emperor in all but name, she has ideas
and a will, and she is suspicious to the last degree. There is
no possibility of opposing her, for she has drawn together
eighty thousand troops round Pekin, who while she pays their
Generals will execute anybody she pleases; there is no
possibility of appeal from her, for she represents a
theocracy; and there is no possibility of overpowering her
mind, for she is that dreadful phenomenon four or five times
revealed in history, an Asiatic woman possessed of absolute
power, and determined to sweep away all who oppose, or whom
she suspects of opposition, from her path. Under her regime
the members of the Tsung-li Yamên are powerless nonentities,
trembling with fear lest, if they make a blunder, they may
awaken the anger of their all-powerful and implacable
Sovereign, whose motives they themselves often fail to
fathom."
The Spectator (London),
March 18, 1899.
CHINA: A. D. 1899 (March-April).
Agreement between England and Russia concerning
their railway interests in China.
On the 28th of April, 1899, the governments of Great Britain
and Russia exchanged notes, embodying an agreement
(practically arrived at in the previous month) concerning
their respective railway interests in China, in the following
terms:
"Russia and Great Britain, animated by the sincere desire to
avoid in China all cause of conflict on questions where their
interests meet, and taking into consideration the economic and
geographical gravitation of certain parts of that Empire, have
agreed as follows:
1. Russia engages not to seek for her own account, or on
behalf of Russian subjects or of others, any railway
concessions in the basin of the Yang-tsze, and not to
obstruct, directly or indirectly, applications for railway
concessions in that region supported by the British
Government.
2. Great Britain, on her part, engages not to seek for her own
account, or on behalf of British subjects or of others, any
railway concessions to the north of the Great Wall of China,
and not to obstruct, directly or indirectly, applications for
railway concessions in that region supported by the Russian
Government. The two contracting parties, having nowise in view
to infringe in any way the sovereign rights of China or of
existing treaties, will not fail to communicate to the Chinese
Government the present arrangement, which, by averting all
cause of complication between them, is of a nature to
consolidate peace in the far East, and to serve the primordial
interests of China herself."
Second Note. "In order to complete the notes exchanged this
day respecting the partition of spheres for concessions for
the construction and working of railways in China, it has been
agreed to record in the present additional note the
arrangement arrived at with regard to the line
Shanghaikuan-Newchwang, for the construction of which a loan
has been already contracted by the Chinese Government with the
Shanghai-Hongkong Bank, acting on behalf of the British and
Chinese corporation. The general arrangement established by
the above-mentioned notes is not to infringe in any way the
rights acquired under the said loan contract, and the Chinese
Government may appoint both an English engineer and a European
accountant to supervise the construction of the line in
question, and the expenditure of the money appropriated to it.
But it remains understood that this fact can not be taken as
constituting a right of property or foreign control, and that
the line in question is to remain a Chinese line under the
control of the Chinese Government, and can not be mortgaged or
alienated to a non-Chinese Company. As regards the branch line
from Siaoheichan to Sinminting, in addition to the aforesaid
restrictions, it has been agreed that it is to be constructed
by China herself, which may permit European—not necessarily
British—engineers to periodically inspect it, and to verify
and certify that the work is being properly executed. The
present special agreement is naturally not to interfere in any
way with the right of the Russian Government to support, if it
thinks fit, applications of Russian subjects or establishments
for concessions for railways, which, starting from the main
Manchurian line in a southwesterly direction, would traverse
the region in which the Chinese line terminating at Sinminting
and Newchwang is to be constructed."
Great Britain, Papers by Command,
Treaty Series, Number 11, 1899.
CHINA: A. D. 1899 (April).
Increasing ascendancy of Manchus in the government.
On the 17th of April, Mr. Bax-Ironside reported to Lord
Salisbury: "There has been no change of importance to note in
the political situation. The tendency to replace Chinese by
Manchus in the important political posts of the Empire is
increasing. There are sixty-two Viceroys, Governors,
Treasurers, and Judges of the eighteen provinces and the New
Dominion. Twenty-four of these posts are now held by Manchus,
whereas before the coup d'etat only thirteen of them were so
occupied. So large a percentage of Manchus in the highest
positions tends to indicate a retrograde administration, as
the Manchus are, as a race, very inferior to the Chinese in
intelligence and capacity, and their appointment to important
positions is viewed with disfavour by the Chinese themselves.
The Dowager-Empress has sent special instructions both to
Moukden and Kirin to raise the present standard of the Manchu
schools in those towns to that existing in the ordinary
schools in Peking."-
Great Britain, Papers by Command,
China, Number 1, 1900, page 129.
{102}
CHINA: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
CHINA: A. D. 1899 (August).
Talienwan declared a free port.
"The Emperor of Russia in a quaintly worded Imperial Order
issued on Sunday last [August 13] and addressed to the
Minister of Finance, has declared that after the completion of
the railway Talienwan shall be a free port during the whole
duration of the lease from China. In the course of the Order
the Emperor says: 'Thanks to the wise decision of the Chinese
Government, we shall through the railway lines in course of
construction be united with China,—a result which gives to all
nations the immeasurable gain of easy communication and
lightens the operations of the world's trade.' The Emperor
also speaks of 'a rapprochement between the peoples of the
West and East' (brought about apparently by obtaining an
outlet for the great Siberian rail way) as 'our historic
aim.'"
Spectator (London),
August 19, 1899.
CHINA: A. D. 1899 (December).
Li Hung-chang appointed Acting Viceroy at Canton.
On the 20th of December it was announced that the Viceroy at
Canton had been ordered to Peking and that Li Hung-chang had
been appointed Acting Viceroy of Kwangtung and Kwangsi—the
provinces of which Canton is the Viceroyal seat.
CHINA: A. D. 1899-1900 (September-February).
Pledges of an "open-door" commercial policy in China obtained
by the government of the United States from the governments of
Great Britain, Russia, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
On the 6th of September, 1899, the American Secretary of
State, Mr. John Hay, despatched to the United States
Ambassador at Berlin the following instructions, copies of
which were forwarded at the same time to the Ambassadors at
London and St. Petersburg, to be communicated to the British
and Russian governments:
"At the time when the Government of the United States was
informed by that of Germany that it had leased from His
Majesty the Emperor of China the port of Kiao-chao and the
adjacent territory in the province of Shantung, assurances
were given to the ambassador of the United States at Berlin by
the Imperial German minister for foreign affairs that the
rights and privileges insured by treaties with China to
citizens of the United States would not thereby suffer or be
in anywise impaired within the area over which Germany had
thus obtained control. More recently, however, the British
Government recognized by a formal agreement with Germany the
exclusive right of the latter country to enjoy in said leased
area and the contiguous 'sphere of influence or interest'
certain privileges, more especially those relating to
railroads and mining enterprises: but, as the exact nature and
extent of the rights thus recognized have not been clearly
defined, it is possible that serious conflicts of interest may
at any time arise, not only between British and German
subjects within said area, but that the interests of our
citizens may also be jeopardized thereby. Earnestly desirous
to remove any cause of irritation and to insure at the same
time to the commerce of all nations in China the undoubted
benefits which should accrue from a formal recognition by the
various powers claiming 'spheres of interest,' that they shall
enjoy perfect equality of treatment for their commerce and
navigation within such 'spheres,' the Government of the United
States would be pleased to see His German Majesty's Government
give formal assurances and lend its cooperation in securing
like assurances from the other interested powers that each
within its respective sphere of whatever influence—
"First. Will in no way interfere with any treaty port or any
vested interest within any so-called 'sphere of interest' or
leased territory it may have in China.
"Second. That the Chinese treaty tariff of the time being
shall apply to all merchandise landed or shipped to all such
ports as are within said 'sphere of interest' (unless they be
'free ports'), no matter to what nationality it may belong,
and that duties so leviable shall be collected by the Chinese
Government.
"Third. That it will levy no higher harbor duties on vessels
of another nationality frequenting any port in such 'sphere'
than shall be levied on vessels of its own nationality' and no
higher railroad charges over lines built, controlled, or
operated within its 'sphere' on merchandise belonging to
citizens or subjects of other nationalities transported
through such 'sphere' than shall be levied on similar
merchandise belonging to its own nationals transported over
equal distances.
"The liberal policy pursued by His Imperial German Majesty in
declaring Kiao-chao a free port and in aiding the Chinese
Government in the establishment there of a custom-house are so
clearly in line with the proposition which this Government is
anxious to see recognized that it entertains the strongest
hope that Germany will give its acceptance and hearty support.
The recent ukase of His Majesty the Emperor of Russia declaring
the port of Ta-lien-wan open during the whole of the lease
under which it is held from China, to the merchant ships of
all nations, coupled with the categorical assurances made to
this Government by His Imperial Majesty's representative at
this capital at the time, and since repeated to me by the
present Russian ambassador, seem to insure the support of the
Emperor to the proposed measure. Our ambassador at the Court
of St. Petersburg has, in consequence, been instructed to
submit it to the Russian Government and to request their early
consideration of it. A copy of my instruction on the subject to
Mr. Tower is herewith inclosed for your confidential
information. The commercial interests of Great Britain and
Japan will be so clearly served by the desired declaration of
intentions, and the views of the Governments of these
countries as to the desirability of the adoption of measures
insuring the benefits of equality of treatment of all foreign
trade throughout China are so similar to those entertained by
the United States, that their acceptance of the propositions
herein outlined and their coöperation in advocating their
adoption by the other powers can be confidently expected. I
inclose herewith copy of the instruction which I have sent to
Mr. Choate on the subject. In view of the present favorable
conditions, you are instructed to submit the above
considerations to His Imperial German Majesty's minister for
foreign affairs, and to request his early consideration of the
subject. Copy of this instruction is sent to our ambassadors
at London and at St. Petersburg for their information."
Subsequently the same proposal was addressed to the
governments of France, Italy and Japan.
{103}
On the 30th of November, Lord Salisbury addressed to
Ambassador Choate the reply of his government, as follows: "I
have the honor to state that I have carefully considered, in
communication with my colleagues, the proposal contained in
your excellency's note of September 22 that a declaration
should be made by foreign powers claiming 'spheres of
interest' in China as to their intentions in regard to the
treatment of foreign trade and interest therein. I have much
pleasure in informing your excellency that Her Majesty's
Government will be prepared to make a declaration in the sense
desired by your Government in regard to the leased territory
of Wei-hai Wei and all territory in China which may hereafter
be acquired by Great Britain by lease or otherwise, and all
spheres of interest now held or that may hereafter be held by
her in China, provided that a similar declaration is made by
other powers concerned."
Ambassador Porter, at Paris, received a prompt reply, December
16, from the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, M. Delcassé,
in the following note:
"The declarations which I made in the Chamber on the 24th of
November last, and which I have had occasion to recall to you
since then, show clearly the sentiments of the Government of
the Republic. It desires throughout the whole of China and,
with the quite natural reservation that all the powers
interested give an assurance of their willingness to act
likewise, is ready to apply in the territories which are
leased to it, equal treatment to the citizens and subjects of
all nations, especially in the matter of customs duties and
navigation dues, as well as transportation tariffs on rail
ways."
Viscount Aoki, Minister for Foreign Affairs, replied for the
government of Japan, December 26, in the following note to
Minister Buck: "I have the happy duty of assuring your
excellency that the Imperial Government will have no
hesitation to give their assent to so just and fair a proposal
of the United States, provided that all the other powers
concerned shall accept the same."
The reply of the Russian government was addressed to
Ambassador Tower by Count Mouravieff, on the 30th of December,
in the following terms:
"In so far as the territory leased by China to Russia is
concerned, the Imperial Government has already demonstrated
its firm intention to follow the policy of 'the open door' by
creating Dalny (Ta-lien-wan) a free port; and if at some
future time that port, although remaining free itself, should
be separated by a customs limit from other portions of the
territory in question, the customs duties would be levied, in
the zone subject to the tariff, upon all foreign merchandise
without distinction as to nationality. As to the ports now
opened or hereafter to be opened to foreign commerce by the
Chinese Government, and which lie beyond the territory leased
to Russia, the settlement of the question of customs duties
belongs to China herself, and the Imperial Government has no
intention whatever of claiming any privileges for its own
subjects to the exclusion of other foreigners. It is to be
understood, however, that this assurance of the Imperial
Government is given upon condition that a similar declaration
shall be made by other Powers having interests in China. With
the conviction that this reply is such as to satisfy the
inquiry made in the aforementioned note, the Imperial
Government is happy to have complied with the wishes of the
American Government, especially as it attaches the highest
value to anything that may strengthen and consolidate the
traditional relations of friendship existing between the two
countries."
On the 7th of January the reply of the Italian government was
addressed to Minister Draper, at Rome, by the Marquis Visconti
Venosta, as follows: "Supplementary to what you had already
done me the honor of communicating to me in your note of
December 9, 1899, your excellency informed me yesterday of the
telegraphic note received from your Government that all the
powers consulted by the cabinet of Washington concerning the
suitability of adopting a line of policy which would insure to
the trade of the whole world equality of treatment in China
have given a favorable reply. Referring to your communications
and to the statements in my note of December 23 last, I take
pleasure in saying that the Government of the King adheres
willingly to the proposals set forth in said note of December
9."
Finally, on the 19th of February, Count von Bülow wrote to
Ambassador White, at Berlin:
"As recognized by the Government of the United States of
America, according to your excellency's note, … the Imperial
Government has from the beginning not only asserted but also
practically carried out to the fullest extent in its Chinese
possessions absolute equality of treatment of all nations with
regard to trade, navigation, and commerce. The Imperial
Government entertains no thought of departing in the future
from this principle, which at once excludes any prejudicial or
disadvantageous commercial treatment of the citizens of the
United States of America, so long as it is not forced to do
so, on account of considerations of reciprocity, by a
divergence from it by other governments. If, therefore, the
other powers interested in the industrial development of the
Chinese Empire are willing to recognize the same principles,
this can only be desired by the Imperial Government, which in
this case upon being requested will gladly be ready to
participate with the United States of America and the other
powers in an agreement made upon these lines, by which the
same rights are reciprocally secured."
Having, now, the assent of all the Powers which hold leased
territory or claim "spheres of interest" in China, Secretary
Hay sent instructions to the Ambassadors and Ministers
representing the government of the United States at the
capital of each, in the following form:
"The —— Government having accepted the declaration suggested
by the United States concerning foreign trade in China, the
terms of which I transmitted to you in my instruction Number
—— of ——, and like action having been taken by all the various
powers having leased territory or so-called 'spheres of
interest' in the Chinese Empire, as shown by the notes which I
herewith transmit to you, you will please inform the
government to which you are accredited that the condition
originally attached to its acceptance—that all other powers
concerned should likewise accept the proposals of the United
States—having been complied with, this Government will
therefore consider the assent given to it by —— as final and
definitive."
United States, 56th Congress, 1st Session,
House Document Number 547.
{104}
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (January).
Imperial Decree relative to the succession to the Throne.
The following is a translation of an Imperial Decree, "by the
Emperor's own pen," which appeared in the "Peking Gazette,"
January 24, 1900:
"When at a tender age we entered into the succession to the
throne, Her Majesty the Empress-Dowager graciously undertook
the rule of the country as Regent, taught and guided us with
diligence, and managed all things, great and small, with
unremitting care, until we ourself assumed the government.
Thereafter the times again became critical. We bent all our
thoughts and energies to the task of ruling rightly, striving
to requite Her Majesty's loving kindness, that so we might
fulfil the weighty duties intrusted to us by the late Emperor
Mu Tsung Yi (T'ung Chih). But since last year we have suffered
from ill-health, affairs of State have increased in magnitude
and perplexity, and we have lived in constant dread of going
wrong. Reflecting on the supreme importance of the worship of
our ancestors and of the spirits of the land, we therefore
implored the Empress-Dowager to advise us in the government.
This was more than a year ago, but we have never been restored
to health, and we have not the strength to perform in person
the great sacrifices at the altar of Heaven and in the temples
of the spirits of the land. And now the times are full of
difficulties. We see Her Gracious Majesty's anxious toil by
day and by night, never laid aside for rest or leisure, and
with troubled mind we examine ourself, taking no comfort in
sleep or food, but ever dwelling in thought on the labours of
our ancestors in founding the dynasty, and ever fearful lest
our strength be not equal to our task.
"Moreover, we call to mind how, when we first succeeded to the
throne, we reverently received the Empress-Dowager's Decree
that as soon as a Prince should be born to us he should become
the heir by adoption to the late Emperor Mu Tsung Yi (T'ung
Chih). This is known to all the officials and people
throughout the Empire. But we suffer from an incurable
disease, and it is impossible for us to beget a son, so that
the Emperor Mu Tsung Yi has no posterity, and the consequences
to the lines of succession are of the utmost gravity.
Sorrowfully thinking on this, and feeling that there is no
place to hide ourself for shame, how can we look forward to
recovery from all our ailments? We have therefore humbly
implored Her Sacred Majesty carefully to select from among the
near branches of our family a good and worthy member, who
should found a line of posterity for the Emperor Mu Tsung Yi
(T'ung Chih), and to whom the Throne should revert hereafter.
After repeated entreaties, Her Majesty has now deigned to
grant her consent that P'u Chün, son of Tsai Yi, Prince Tuan,
should be adopted as the son of the late Emperor Mu Tsung Yi
(T'ung Chih). We have received Her Majesty's Decree with
unspeakable joy, and in reverent obedience to her gracious
instruction we appoint P'u Chün, son of Tsai Yi, as Prince
Imperial, to carry on the dynastic succession. Let this Decree
be made known to all men."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: China, Number 3, 1900, pages 15-16).
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (January-March).
First accounts of the secret society of "the Boxers"
and their bloody work.
The murder of Mr. Brooks, the missionary.
Prolonged effort of foreign Ministers to procure an Imperial
Edict for the suppression of the hostile secret societies.
A naval demonstration recommended.
Testimony of Sir Robert Hart as to the causes and the
patriotic inspiration of the Boxer movement.
The year 1900 opened with news of the murder of Mr. Brooks, of
the Church of England Mission in northern Shantung, who was
wounded and captured December 30 and beheaded the day
following, by a band of marauders belonging to a secret
organization which soon became notorious under the name of the
society of "the Boxers." The British Minister at Peking
reported it to London on the 4th of January, and on the 5th he
gave the following account of the state of affairs in northern
Shantung, where the outrage occurred:
"For several months past the northern part of the Province of
Shantung has been disturbed by bands of rebels connected with
various Secret Societies, who have been defying the
authorities and pillaging the people. An organization known as
the 'Boxers' has attained special notoriety, and their ravages
recently spread over a large portion of Southern Chihli, where
the native Christians appear to have suffered even more than
the rest of the inhabitants from the lawlessness of these
marauders. The danger to which, in both provinces, foreign
missionary establishments have been thus exposed, has been the
subject of repeated representations to the Chinese Government
by others of the foreign Representatives—especially the German
and United States' Ministers—and myself. Early last month the
Governor of Shantung, Yü Hsien, was ordered to vacate his post
and come to Peking for audience, and the General Yüan
Shih-K'ai was appointed Acting Governor in his place. In
Southern Chihli the task of dealing with the disturbances was
entrusted to the Viceroy at Tien-tsin. Her Majesty's Consul at
Tien-tsin has had repeatedly to complain to the latter of the
inadequacy of the protection afforded to British life and
property in the districts affected by the rebellion; and in
consequence of these representations and of my own
communications to the Tsung-li Yamên, guards of soldiers have
been stationed for the special protection of the missionary
premises which were endangered. On the 29th ultimo I took
occasion to warn the Yamên by letter that if the disorder were
not vigorously quelled, international complications were
likely to ensue."
After narrating an interview with the Tsung-li Yamên on the
subject of the murder of Mr. Brooks, and repeating the
assurances he had received of vigorous measures to punish the
murderers, Minister MacDonald concluded his despatch by
saying: "In a note which I addressed to the Yamên this morning
I took occasion to remind the Ministers that there were other
British missionaries living in the district where Mr. Brooks
was killed, and to impress upon their Excellencies the
necessity of securing efficient protection to these. I do not,
however, entertain serious apprehensions as to their safety,
because guards of soldiers have been for some time past
stationed to protect the various missionary residences. The
unfortunate man who was murdered was seized when he was
travelling by wheel-barrow, without escort, through the
country infested by the rebels."
{105}
A few days later, Bishop Scott, of the Church of England
Mission, at Peking, received from Mr. Brown, another
missionary in Shantung province, the following telegram:
"Outlook very black; daily marauding; constant danger; Edict
suppressing published; troops present, but useless; officials
complete inaction: T'ai An Prefect blocks; secret orders from
Throne to encourage." On this Sir Claude again called upon the
Yamên, and "spoke to them," he says, "in terms of the gravest
warning. While I could not believe it possible, I said, that
the rumours of secret orders from the Throne were true, the
mere fact of the currency of such rumours showed the
impression which the conduct of the Prefect conveyed to the
public. So much was I impressed by this, that I had come
to-day especially to protest against the behaviour of the
Shantung officials. The whole of the present difficulty could
be traced to the attitude of the late Governor of Shantung, Yü
Hsien, who secretly encouraged the seditious Society known as
'the Boxers.' I had again and again pointed out to the
Ministers that until China dealt with the high authorities in
such cases these outrages would not cease. I asked the
Ministers to telegraph to the new Governor Yüan that I had
called at the Yamên that day to complain of the conduct of the
Prefect of T'ai An. The Ministers attempted to excuse the
inertia of the local officials on the plea that their
difficulties were very great. The primary cause of the trouble
was the bad feeling existing between the converts and the
ordinary natives. This had developed until bands of marauders
had formed, who harassed Christians and other natives alike.
The local officials had hitherto not had sufficient force to
cope with so widespread a rising, but now that Yüan and his
troops had been sent to the province they hoped for the speedy
restoration of order. I impressed upon the Ministers in the
most emphatic manner my view of the gravity of the situation.
The Imperial Edict expressing sorrow for what had occurred and
enjoining strong measures was satisfactory so far as it went; but
Her Majesty's Government required something more than mere
words, and would now await action on the part of the Chinese
Government in conformity with their promises."
On the day of this interview (January 11), an Imperial Decree
was issued by the Chinese government, opening in ambiguous
terms and decreeing nothing. "Of late," it said, "in all the
provinces brigandage has become daily more prevalent, and
missionary cases have recurred with frequency. Most critics
point to seditious Societies as the cause, and ask for
rigorous suppression and punishment of these. But reflection
shows that Societies are of different kinds. When worthless
vagabonds form themselves into bands and sworn confederacies,
and relying on their numbers create disturbances, the law can
show absolutely no leniency to them on the other hand, when
peaceful and law-abiding people practise their skill in
mechanical arts for the self-preservation of themselves and
their families, or when they combine in village communities
for the mutual protection of the rural population, this is in
accordance with the public-spirited principle (enjoined by
Mencius) of 'keeping mutual watch and giving mutual help.'
Some local authorities, when a case arises, do not regard this
distinction, but, listening to false and idle rumours, regard
all alike as seditious Societies, and involve all in one
indiscriminate slaughter. The result is that no distinction
being made between the good and the evil, men's minds are
thrown into fear and doubt. This is, indeed, 'adding fuel to
stop a fire,' 'driving fish to the deep part of the pool to
catch them.' It means, not that the people are disorderly, but
that the administration is bad."
The foreign ministers at Peking soon learned that this
ambiguous decree had given encouragement to the "Boxers," and
the British, American, German, French and Italian
representatives, by agreement, addressed an "identic note" to
the Yamên, dated January 27, in which, referring to the state
of affairs in north Shantung and in the centre and south of
Chihli, each one said: "This state of affairs, which is a
disgrace to any civilized country, has been brought about by
the riotous and lawless behaviour of certain ruffians who have
banded themselves together into two Societies, termed
respectively the 'Fist of Righteous Harmony' and the 'Big
Sword Society,' and by the apathy, and in some instances
actual connivance and encouragement of these Societies by the
local officials. The members of these Societies go about
pillaging the homes of Christian converts, breaking down their
chapels, robbing and ill-treating inoffensive women and
children, and it is a fact, to which I would draw the special
attention of your Highness and your Excellencies, that on the
banners which are carried by these riotous and lawless people
are inscribed the words, 'Exterminate the Foreigners.'
"On the 11th January an Imperial Decree was issued drawing a
distinction between good and bad Societies. The wording of
this Decree has unfortunately given rise to a widespread
impression that such Associations as the 'Fist of Righteous
Harmony' and the 'Big Sword Society' are regarded with favour
by the Chinese Government, and their members have openly
expressed their gratification and have been encouraged by the
Decree to continue to carry on their outrages against the
Christian converts. I cannot for a moment suppose that such
was the intention of this Decree. These Societies are, as I
have shown, of a most pernicious and rebellious character.
"I earnestly beg to draw the serious attention of the Throne
to the circumstances above described: the disorders have not
reached such a stage that they cannot be stamped out by prompt
and energetic action: but if such action be not immediately
taken, the rioters will be encouraged to think that they have
the support of the Government and proceed to graver crimes,
thereby seriously endangering international relations. As a
preliminary measure, and one to which I attach the greatest
importance, I have to beg that an Imperial Decree be published
and promulgated, ordering by name the complete suppression and
abolition of the 'Fist of Righteous Harmony' and the 'Big
Sword Societies,' and I request that it may be distinctly
stated in the Decree that to belong to either of these
Societies, or to harbour any of its members, is a criminal
offence against the laws of China."
{106}
In communicating the above note to Lord Salisbury, Sir Claude
MacDonald explained: "The name of the Society given in the
note as 'The Fist of Righteous Harmony' is the same as the
'Boxers.' The latter name was given in the first instance,
either by missionaries or newspapers, but does not convey the
meaning of the Chinese words. The idea underlying the name is
that the members of the Society will unite to uphold the cause
of righteousness, if necessary by force."
On the 21st of February no reply to the identic note had been
given, and the five foreign Ministers then wrote again. This
brought an answer so evasive that they asked for an interview
with the Yamên, and it was appointed for March 2d. On the
evening of the 1st they received copies of a proclamation
which the Governor-General of Chihli had been commanded to
issue. The proclamation embodied an Imperial Decree,
transmitted to the Governor-General on the 21st of February,
which said: "Last year the Governor of Shantung telegraphed
that the Society known as 'the Fist of Righteous Harmony' in
many of his districts, under the plea of enmity to foreign
religions, were raising disturbances in all directions, and
had extended their operations into the southern part of
Chihli. We have repeatedly ordered the Governor-General of
Chihli and the Governor of Shantung to send soldiers to keep
the peace. But it is to be feared that if stern measures of
suppression of such proceedings as secretly establishing
societies with names and collecting in numbers to raise
disturbances be not taken, the ignorant populace will be
deluded and excited, and as time goes on things will grow
worse, and when some serious case ensues we shall be compelled
to employ troops to extirpate the evil. The sufferers would be
truly many, and the throne cannot bear to slay without
warning. Let the Governor-General of Chihli and the Governor
of Shantung issue the most stringent Proclamations admonishing
the people and strictly prohibiting (the societies) so that
our people may all know that to secretly establish societies
is contrary to prohibition and a breach of the law."
To this the Governor-General of Chihli added, in his own name:
"I (the Governor-General) find it settled by decided cases
that those people of no occupation, busybodies who style
themselves Professors, and practise boxing, and play with
clubs, and teach people their arts; those also who learn from
these men, and those who march about and parade the villages
and marts flourishing tridents, and playing with sticks,
hood-winking the populace to make a profit for themselves, are
strictly forbidden to carry on such practices. Should any
disobey, on arrest the principals will receive 100 blows with
the heavy bamboo, and be banished to a distance of 1,000
miles. The pupils will receive the same beating, and be
banished to another province for three years, and on
expiration of that period and return to their native place be
subjected to strict surveillance. Should any inn, temple or
house harbour these people without report to the officials, or
should the police and others not search them out and arrest
them, the delinquents will be sentenced to eighty blows with
the heavy bamboo for improper conduct in the higher degree.
"From this it appears that teaching or practising boxing and
club play, and deluding the people for private gain are
fundamentally contrary to law. But of late some of the
ignorant populace have been deluded by ruffians from other
parts of the Empire who talk of charms and incantations and
spiritual incarnations which protect from guns and cannon.
They have dared to secretly establish the Society of the Fist
of Righteous Harmony and have practised drill with fists and
clubs. The movement has spread in all directions, and under
the plea of hatred of foreign religions these people have
harried the country. When soldiers and runners came to make
arrests, turbulent ruffians had the audacity to defy them,
relying on their numbers, thereby exhibiting a still greater
contempt for the law. …
"In addition to instructing all the local officials to adopt
strict measures of prohibition and to punish without fail all
offenders, I hereby issue this most stringent admonition and
notify all people in my jurisdiction, gentry and every class
of the population, that you should clearly understand that the
establishment and formation of secret societies for the
practice of boxing and club exercises are contrary to
prohibition and a breach of the law. The assembly of mobs to
create disturbances and all violent outrages are acts which
the law will still less brook. … The converts and the ordinary
people are all the subjects of the throne, and are regarded by
the Government with impartial benevolence. No distinction is
made between them. Should they have lawsuits they must bow to
the judgments of the officials. The ordinary people must not
give way to rage, and by violent acts create feuds and
trouble. The converts on the other hand must not stir up
strife and oppress the people or incite the missionaries to
screen them and help them to obtain the upper hand."
According to appointment, the interview with the Yamên took
place on the 2d of March: "Mr. Conger, United States'
Minister, Baron von Ketteler, German Minister, Marquis
Salvago, Italian Minister, Baron d'Anthoüard, French Charge d'
Affaires, and myself," writes Sir Claude MacDonald, "were
received at the Yamên by Prince Ch'ing and nearly all the
Ministers. On behalf of myself and my colleagues I
recapitulated the circumstances, as detailed above, which had
led to the demand which we now made. My colleagues all
expressed to the Prince and Ministers their entire concurrence
with the language I used, Mr. Conger reminded the Yamên of the
incredulity with which they had listened to his
representations regarding these disturbances over three months
ago, and the promises they had been making ever since, from
which nothing had resulted. Baron von Ketteler laid special
stress on the fact that in the Decree just communicated no
mention was made of the 'Ta Tao Hui,' or 'Big Knife Society,'
the denunciation of which, equally with that of the
'I-Ho-Ch'uan,' or 'Fist of Righteous Harmony,' had been
demanded. The Prince and Ministers protested emphatically that
the Throne was earnest in its determination to put a stop to
the outrages committed by these Societies. They maintained
that the method adopted for promulgating the Imperial Decree,
that of sending it to the Governors of the provinces
concerned, to be embodied in a Proclamation and acted upon,
was much speedier and more effective than that of publishing a
Decree in the 'Peking Gazette,' as suggested by us. With regard
to the omission of the term 'Ta Tao Hui' from the Decree, they
declared that this Society was now the same as the
'I-Ho-Ch'uan.'"
{107}
At the close of the interview the five Ministers presented
identic notes to the Yamên, in which each said: "I request
that an Imperial Decree may be issued and published in the
'Peking Gazette' ordering by name the complete suppression and
abolition of the 'Fist of Righteous Harmony' and 'Big Sword
Societies,' and I request that it may be distinctly stated in
the Decree that to belong to either of these societies or to
harbour any of its members is a criminal offence against the
law of China. Nothing less than this will, I am convinced, put
an end to the outrages against Christians which have lately
been so prevalent in Chihli and Shantung. Should the Chinese
Government refuse this reasonable request I shall be compelled
to report to my Government their failure to take what may be
called only an ordinary precaution against a most pernicious
and anti-foreign organization. The consequences of further
disorder in the districts concerned cannot fail to be
extremely serious to the Chinese Government."
The reply of the Yamên to this "identic note" was a lengthy
argument to show that publication in the "Peking Gazette" of
the Imperial Edict against "Boxers" would be contrary to "an
established rule of public business in China which it is
impossible to alter"; and that, furthermore, it would be
useless, because the common people of the provinces would not
see it. Not satisfied with this reply, the Ministers, on the
10th of March, addressed another identic note to the Yamên, in
the following words: "Acknowledging receipt of your Highness'
and your Excellencies' note of the 7th March, I regret to say
that it is in no way either an adequate or satisfactory reply
to my notes or my verbal requests concerning the suppression
of the two Societies known as the 'Big Sword' and 'Fist of
Righteous Harmony.' I therefore am obliged to repeat the
requests, and because of the rapid spread of these Societies,
proof of which is accumulating every day, and which the
Imperial Decree of the 11th January greatly encouraged, I
insist that an absolute prohibitive Decree for all China,
mentioning these two Societies by name, be forthwith issued
and published in the 'Peking Gazette,' as was done with the
Decree of the 11th January. Should I not receive a favourable
answer without delay, I shall report the matter to my
Government, and urge strongly the advisability of the adoption
of other measures for the protection of the lives and property
of British subjects in China."
On the same day, each of the Ministers cabled the following
recommendation to his government:
"If the Chinese Government should refuse to publish the Decree
we have required, and should the state of affairs not
materially improve, I would respectfully recommend that a few
ships of war of each nationality concerned should make a naval
demonstration in North Chinese waters. Identic recommendations
are being telegraphed home by my four colleagues
above-mentioned."
On the 16th, Sir Claude wrote: "No reply has yet been received
from the Tsung-li Yamên to the note of the 10th March, and it
was with serious misgivings as to the attitude of the Chinese
Government on this question that I read yesterday the official
announcement of the appointment of Yü Hsien, lately Governor
of Shantung, to the post of Governor of Shansi. The growth and
impunity of the anti-Christian Societies in Shantung has been
universally ascribed to the sympathy and encouragement
accorded to them by this high officer, and his conduct has for
some time past formed the subject of strong representations on
the part of several of the foreign Representatives."
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
China, Number 3, 1900, pages 3-26.
"The foundation of the 'Boxers' can be traced to one man, Yü
Hsien, who, when Prefect of Tsao-chau, in the south-west
corner of Shan-tung, organized a band of men as local militia
or trainbands. For them he revived the ancient appellation of
'I-Ho-Ch'üan,' the Patriotic Harmony Fists. Armed with long
swords, they were known popularly as the Ta-tao-huei, or Big
Knife Society. After the occupation of Kiao-chau Bay the
society grew in force, the professed objects of its members
being to oppose the exactions of native Catholics and to
resist further German aggression. They became anti-Christian
and anti-foreign. They became a religious sect, and underwent
a fantastic kind of spiritual training of weird incantations
and grotesque gymnastics, which they professed to believe
rendered them impervious to the sword and to the bullet of the
white man. Three deities they specially selected as their
own—namely, Kwanti, the God of War and patron deity of the
present dynasty, Kwang Chéng-tze, an incarnation of Laotze,
and the Joyful Buddha of the Falstaffian Belly. They made
Taoist and Buddhist temples their headquarters. Everywhere
they declared that they would drive the foreigner and his
devilish religion from China. To encourage this society its
founder, Yü Hsien, was in March, 1899, appointed by the Throne
Governor of Shan-tung. In four years he had risen from the
comparatively humble post of Prefect to that of the highest
official in the province."
Peking Correspondence London Times,
October 13, 1900.
Sir Robert Hart, an English gentleman who had been in the
service of the Chinese government at Peking for many years,
administering its maritime customs, is the author of an
account of the causes and the character of the Boxer movement,
written since its violent outbreak, from which the following
passages are taken:
"For ages China had discountenanced the military spirit and
was laughed at by us accordingly, and thus, ever since
intercourse under treaties has gone on, we have been lecturing
the Government from our superior standpoint, telling it that
it must grow strong—must create army and navy—must adopt
foreign drill and foreign weapons—must prepare to hold its own
against all comers—must remember 'Codlin' is its friend, not
'Short': our words did not fall on closed ears—effect was
given to selected bits of advice—and various firms did a very
remarkable and very remunerative trade in arms. But while the
Chinese Government made a note of all the advice its generous
friends placed at its disposal, and adopted some suggestions
because they either suited it or it seemed polite and harmless
to do so, it did not forget its own thirty centuries of
historic teaching, and it looked at affairs abroad through its
own eyes and the eyes of its representatives at foreign
Courts, studied their reports and the printed utterances of
books, magazines, and newspapers, and the teaching thus
received began gradually to crystallise in the belief that a
huge standing army on European lines would be wasteful and
dangerous and that a volunteer association—as suggested by the
way all China ranged itself on the Government side in the
Franco-Chinese affair—covering the whole Empire, offering an
outlet for restless spirits and fostering a united and
patriotic feeling, would be more reliable and effective, an
idea which seemed to receive immediate confirmation from
without in the stand a handful of burghers were making in the
Transvaal: hence the Boxer Association, patriotic in origin,
justifiable in its fundamental idea, and in point of fact the
outcome of either foreign advice or the study of foreign
methods.
{108}
"In the meanwhile the seeds of other growths were being sown
in the soil of the Chinese mind, private and official, and
were producing fruit each after its kind: various commercial
stipulations sanctioned by treaties had not taken into full
account Chinese conditions, difficulties, methods, and
requirements, and their enforcement did not make foreign
commerce more agreeable to the eye of either provincial or
metropolitan officials,—missionary propagandism was at work
all over the country, and its fruits, Chinese Christians, did
not win the esteem or goodwill of their fellows, for, first of
all, they offended public feeling by deserting Chinese for
foreign cults, next they irritated their fellow villagers by
refusing, as Christians, to take part in or share the expenses
of village festivals, and lastly, as Christians again, they
shocked the official mind, and popular opinion also, by
getting their religious teachers, more especially the Roman
Catholics, to interfere on their behalf in litigation, &c., a
state of affairs which became specially talked about in
Shantung, the native province of the Confucius of over 2,000
years ago and now the sphere of influence of one of the
Church's most energetic bishops,—the arrangement by which
missionaries were to ride in green chairs and be recognised as
the equals of Governors and Viceroys had its special
signification and underlined missionary aspiration telling
people and officials in every province what they had to expect
from it: on the top of this came the Kiao Chow affair and the
degradation and cashiering of a really able, popular, and
clean-handed official, the Governor Li Ping Hêng, succeeded by
the cessions of territory at Port Arthur, Wei-Hai-Wei, Kwang
Chow Wan, &c., &c., &c., and these doings, followed by the
successful stand made against the Italian demand for a port on
the Coast of Chekiang, helped to force the Chinese Government
to see that concession had gone far enough and that opposition
to foreign encroachment might now and henceforth be the key-note
of its policy.
"Li Ping Hêng had taken up his private residence in the
southeastern corner of Pecheli, close to the Shantung
frontier, and the Boxer movement, already started in a
tentative way in the latter province, now received an immense
impetus from the occurrences alluded to and was carefully
nurtured and fostered by that cashiered official—more
respected than ever by his countrymen. Other high officials
were known to be in sympathy with the new departure and to
give it their strongest approval and support, such as Hsü
Tung, Kang I, and men of the same stamp and standing, and
their advice to the throne was to try conclusions with
foreigners and yield no more to their demands. However
mistaken may have been their reading of foreigners, and
however wrong their manner of action, these men—eminent in
their own country for their learning and services—were
animated by patriotism, were enraged at foreign dictation, and
had the courage of their convictions: we must do them the
justice of allowing they were actuated by high motives and
love of country—but that does not always or necessarily mean
political ability or highest wisdom. …
"The Chinese, an intelligent, cultivated race, sober,
industrious, and on their own lines civilised, homogeneous in
language, thought, and feeling, which numbers some four
hundred millions, lives in its own ring fence, and covers a
country which—made up of fertile land and teeming waters, with
infinite variety of mountain and plain, hill and dale, and
every kind of climate and condition—on its surface produces
all that a people requires and in its bosom hides untold
virgin wealth that has never yet been disturbed—this race,
after thousands of years of haughty seclusion and
exclusiveness, has been pushed by the force of circumstances
and by the superior strength of assailants into treaty
relations with the rest of the world, but regards that as a
humiliation, sees no benefit accruing from it, and is looking
forward to the day when it in turn will be strong enough to
revert to its old life again and do away with foreign
intercourse, interference, and intrusion: it has slept long,
as we count sleep, but it is awake at last and its every
member is tingling with Chinese feeling—'China for the
Chinese and out with the foreigners!'
"The Boxer movement is doubtless the product of official
inspiration, but it has taken hold of the popular imagination
and will spread like wildfire all over the length and breadth
of the country: it is, in short, a purely patriotic volunteer
movement, and its object is to strengthen China—and for a
Chinese programme. Its first experience has not been
altogether a success as regards the attainment through
strength of proposed ends,—the rooting up of foreign cults and
the ejection of foreigners, but it is not a failure in respect of
the feeler it put out—will volunteering work?—or as an
experiment that would test ways and means and guide future
choice: it has proved how to a man the people will respond to
the call, and it has further demonstrated that the swords and
spears to which the prudent official mind confined the
initiated will not suffice, but must be supplemented or
replaced by Mauser rifles and Krupp guns: the Boxer patriot of
the future will possess the best weapons money can buy, and
then the 'Yellow Peril' will be beyond ignoring."
Robert Hart,
The Peking Legations
(Fortnightly Review, November, 1900).
{109}
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (March-April).
Proposed joint naval demonstration of the Powers
in Chinese waters.
On receipt of the telegram from Peking (March 10) recommending
a joint naval demonstration in North Chinese waters, the
British Ambassador at Paris was directed to consult the
Government of France on the subject, and did so. On the 13th,
he reported M. Delcassé, the French Minister for Foreign
Affairs, as saying that "he could not, of course, without
reflection and without consulting his colleagues, say what the
decision of the French Government would be as to taking part
in a naval demonstration, but at first sight it seemed to him
that it would be difficult to avoid acting upon a suggestion
which the Representatives of Five Powers, who ought to be good
judges, considered advisable." On the 16th, he wrote to Lord
Salisbury: "M. Delcassé informed me the day before yesterday
that he had telegraphed to Peking for more precise
information. I told him that I was glad to hear that no
precipitate action was going to be taken by France, and that I
believed that he would find that the United States' Government
would be disinclined to associate themselves with any joint
naval demonstration. I added that, although I had no
instructions to say so, I expected that Her Majesty's
Government would also adhere to their usual policy of
proceeding with great caution, and would be in no hurry to
take a step which only urgent necessity would render
advisable."
On the 23d of March, Sir Claude MacDonald telegraphed to Lord
Salisbury: "I learn that the Government of the United States
have ordered one ship-of-war to go to Taku for the purpose of
protecting American interests, that the Italian Minister has
been given the disposal of two ships, and the German Minister
has the use of the squadron at Kiao-chau for the same purpose.
With a view to protect British missionary as well as other
interests, which are far in excess of those of other Powers, I
would respectfully request that two of Her Majesty's ships be
sent to Taku."
On the 3d of April, the Tsung-li Yamên communicated to the
British Ambassador the following information, as to the
punishment of the murderers of Mr. Brooks, and of the
officials responsible for neglect to protect him: "Of several
arrests that had been made of persons accused of having been
the perpetrators of the crime or otherwise concerned in its
committal, two have been brought to justice and, at a trial at
which a British Consul was present, found guilty and sentenced
to be decapitated—a sentence which has already been carried
into effect. Besides this, the Magistrate of Feichen, and some
of the police authorities of the district, accounted to have
been guilty of culpable negligence in the protection of Mr.
Brooks, have been cashiered, or had other punishments awarded
them of different degrees of severity."
For some weeks after this the Boxer movement appears to have
been under constraint. Further outrages were not reported and
no expressions of anxiety appear in the despatches from
Peking. The proposal of a joint naval demonstration in the
waters of Northern China was not pressed.
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
China, Number 3, 1900, pages 6-17.
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (May-June).
Renewed activity of the "Boxers" and increasing gravity of
the situation at Peking.
Return of Legation guards.
Call upon the fleets at Taku for reinforcement and rescue.
About the middle of May the activity of the "Boxers" was
renewed, and a state of disorder far more threatening than
before was speedily made known. The rapid succession of
startling events during the next few weeks may be traced in
the following series of telegrams from the British Minister at
Peking to his chief:
"May 17.
The French Minister called to-day to inform me that the Boxers
have destroyed three villages and killed 61 Roman Catholic
Christian converts at a place 90 miles from Peking, near
Paoting-fu. The French Bishop informs me that in that
district, and around Tien-tsin and Peking generally, much
disorder prevails."
"May 18.
There was a report yesterday, which has been confirmed to-day,
that the Boxers have destroyed the London Mission chapel at
Kung-tsun, and killed the Chinese preacher. Kung-tsun is about
40 miles south-west of Peking."
"May 19.
At the Yamên, yesterday, I reminded the Ministers how I had
unceasingly warned them during the last six months how
dangerous it was not to take adequate measures in suppression
of the Boxer Societies. I said that the result of the apathy
of the Chinese Government was that now a Mission chapel, a few
miles distant from the capital, had been destroyed. The
Ministers admitted that the danger of the Boxer movement had
not previously appeared to them so urgent, but that now they
fully saw how serious it was. On the previous day an Imperial
Decree had been issued, whereby specified metropolitan and
provincial authorities were directed to adopt stringent
measures to suppress the Boxers. This, they believed, would
not fail to have the desired effect."
"May 21.
All eleven foreign Representatives attended a meeting of the
Diplomatic Body held yesterday afternoon, at the instance of
the French Minister. The doyen was empowered to write, in the
name of all the foreign Representatives, a note to the Yamên
to the effect that the Diplomatic Body, basing their demands
on the Decrees already issued by the Palace denunciatory of
the Boxers, requested that all persons who should print,
publish, or disseminate placards which menaced foreigners, all
individuals aiding and abetting, all owners of houses or
temples now used as meeting places for Boxers, should be
arrested. They also demanded that those guilty of arson,
murder, outrages, &c., together with those affording support
or direction to Boxers while committing such outrages, should
be executed. Finally, the publication of a Decree in Peking
and the Northern Provinces setting forth the above. The
foreign Representatives decided at their meeting to take
further measures if the disturbances still continued, or if a
favorable answer was not received to their note within five
days. The meeting did not decide what measures should be
taken, but the Representatives were generally averse to
bringing guards to Peking, and, what found most favour, was as
follows:—
With the exception of Holland, which has no ships in Chinese
waters, it was proposed that all the Maritime Powers
represented should make a naval demonstration either at
Shanhaikuan, or at the new port, Ching-wangtao, while, in case
of necessity, guards were to be held ready on board ship. My
colleagues will, I think, send these proposals as they stand
to their governments. As the Chinese Government themselves
seem to be sufficiently alarmed, I do not think that the above
measure will be necessary, but, should the occasion arise, I
trust that Her Majesty's Government will see fit to support
it. … I had a private interview with my Russian colleague, who
came to see me before the matter reached its acute stages. M. de
Giers said that there were only two countries with serious
interests in China: England and Russia. He thought that both
landing guards and naval demonstrations were to be
discouraged, as they give rise to unknown eventualities.
However, since the 18th instant, he admits that matters are
grave, and agreed at once to the joint note."
{110}
"May 24.
Her Majesty's Consul at Tien-tsin reported by telegraph
yesterday that a Colonel in charge of a party of the Viceroy's
cavalry was caught, on the 22nd instant, in an ambuscade near
Lai-shui, which is about 50 miles south-west of Peking. The
party were destroyed."
"May 25.
Tsung-li Yamên have replied to the note sent by the doyen of
the Corps Diplomatique, reported in my telegram of the 21st
May. They state that the main lines of the measures already in
force agree with those required by the foreign
Representatives, and add that a further Decree, which will
direct efficacious action, is being asked for. The above does
not even promise efficacious action, and, in my personal
opinion, is unsatisfactory."
"May 27.
At the meeting of the Corps Diplomatique, which took place
yesterday evening, we were informed by the French Minister
that all his information led him to believe that a serious
outbreak, which would endanger the lives of all European
residents in Peking, was on the point of breaking out. The
Italian Minister confirmed the information received by M.
Pichon. The Russian Minister agreed with his Italian and
French colleagues in considering the latest reply of the Yamên
to be unsatisfactory, adding that, in his opinion, the Chinese
Government was now about to adopt effective measures. That the
danger was imminent he doubted, but said that it was not
possible to disregard the evidence adduced by the French
Minister. We all agreed with this last remark. M. Pichon then
urged that if the Chinese Government did not at once take
action guards should at once be brought up by the foreign
Representatives. Some discussion then ensued, after which it
was determined that a precise statement should be demanded
from the Yamên as to the measures they had taken, also that
the terms of the Edict mentioned by them should be
communicated to the foreign Representatives. Failing a reply
from the Yamên of a satisfactory nature by this afternoon, it
was resolved that guards should be sent for. Baron von
Ketteler, the German Minister, declared that he considered the
Chinese Government was crumbling to pieces, and that he did
not believe that any action based on the assumption of their
stability could be efficacious. The French Minister is, I am
certain, genuinely convinced that the danger is real, and
owing to his means of information he is well qualified to
judge. … I had an interview with Prince Ch'ing and the Yamên
Ministers this afternoon. Energetic measures are now being
taken against the Boxers by the Government, whom the progress
of the Boxer movement has, at last, thoroughly alarmed. The
Corps Diplomatique, who met in the course of the day, have
decided to wait another twenty-four hours for further
developments."
"May 29.
Some stations on the line, among others Yengtai, 6 miles from
Peking, together with machine sheds and European houses, were
burnt yesterday by the Boxers. The line has also been torn up
in places. Trains between this and Tien-tsin have stopped
running, and traffic has not been resumed yet. The situation
here is serious, and so far the Imperial troops have done
nothing. It was unanimously decided, at a meeting of foreign
Representatives yesterday, to send for guards for the
Legations, in view of the apathy of the Chinese Government and
the gravity of the situation. Before the meeting assembled,
the French Minister had already sent for his."
"May 30.
Permission for the guards to come to Peking has been refused
by the Yamên. I think, however, that they may not persist in
their refusal. The situation in the meantime is one of extreme
gravity. The people are very excited, and the soldiers
mutinous. Without doubt it is now a question of European life
and property being in danger here. The French and Russians are
landing 100 men each. French, Russian, and United States'
Ministers, and myself, were deputed to-day at a meeting of the
foreign Representatives to declare to the Tsung-li Yamên that
the foreign Representatives must immediately bring up guards
for the protection of the lives of Europeans in Peking in view
of the serious situation and untrustworthiness of the Chinese
troops. That the number would be small if facilities were
granted, but it must be augmented should they be refused, and
serious consequences might result for the Chinese Government
in the latter event. In reply, the Yamên stated that no
definite reply could be given until to-morrow afternoon, as
the Prince was at the Summer Palace. As the Summer Palace is
within an hour's ride we refused to admit the impossibility of
prompt communication and decision, and repeated the warning
already given of the serious consequences which would result
if the Viceroy at Tien-tsin did not receive instructions this
evening in order that the guards might be enabled to arrive
here to-morrow. The danger will be greatest on Friday, which
is a Chinese festival."
"May 31.
Provided that the number does not exceed that of thirty for
each Legation, as on the last occasion, the Yamên have given
their consent to the guards coming to Peking. … It was decided
this morning, at a meeting of the foreign Representatives, to
at once bring up the guards that are ready. These probably
include the British, American, Italian, and Japanese."
"June 1.
British, American, Italian, Russian, French and Japanese
guards arrived yesterday. Facilities were given, and there
were no disturbances. Our detachment consists of three
officers and seventy-five men, and a machine gun."
"June 2.
The city is comparatively quiet, but murders of Christian
converts and the destruction of missionary property in
outlying districts occur every day, and the situation still
remains serious. The situation at the Palace is, I learn from
a reliable authority, very strained. The Empress-Dowager does
not dare to put down the Boxers, although wishing to do so, on
account of the support given them by Prince Tuan, father of
the hereditary Prince, and other conservative Manchus, and
also because of their numbers. Thirty Europeans, most of whom
were Belgians, fled from Paoting-fu via the river to
Tien-tsin. About 20 miles from Tien-tsin they were attacked by
Boxers.
{111}
A party of Europeans having gone to their rescue from
Tien-tsin severe fighting ensued, in which a large number of
Boxers were killed. Nine of the party are still missing,
including one lady. The rest have been brought into Tien-tsin.
The Russian Minister, who came to see me to-day, said he
thought it most imperative that the foreign Representatives
should be prepared for all eventualities, though he had no
news confirming the above report. He said he had been
authorized by his Government to support any Chinese authority
at Peking which was able and willing to maintain order in case
the Government collapsed."
"June 4.
I am informed by a Chinese courier who arrived to-day from
Yung-Ching, 40 miles south of Peking, that on the 1st June the
Church of England Mission at that place was attacked by the
Boxers. He states that one missionary, Mr. Robinson, was
murdered, and that he saw his body, and that another, Mr.
Norman, was carried off by the Boxers. I am insisting on the
Chinese authorities taking immediate measures to effect his
rescue. Present situation at Peking is such that we may at any
time be besieged here with the railway and telegraph lines
cut. In the event of this occurring, I beg your Lordship will
cause urgent instructions to be sent to Admiral Seymour to
consult with the officers commanding the other foreign
squadrons now at Taku to take concerted measures for our
relief. The above was agreed to at a meeting held to-day by
the foreign Representatives, and a similar telegram was sent
to their respective Governments by the Ministers of Austria,
Italy, Germany, France, Japan, Russia, and the United States,
all of whom have ships at Taku and guards here. The telegram
was proposed by the French Minister and carried unanimously.
It is difficult to say whether the situation is as grave as
the latter supposes, but the apathy of the Chinese Government
makes it very serious."
"June 5.
I went this afternoon to the Yamên to inquire of the Ministers
personally what steps the Chinese Government proposed to take
to effect the punishment of Mr. Robinson's murderers and the
release of Mr. Norman. I was informed by the Ministers that
the Viceroy was the responsible person, that they had
telegraphed to him to send troops to the spot, and that that
was all they were able to do in the matter. They did not
express regret or show the least anxiety to effect the relief
of the imprisoned man, and they displayed the greatest
indifference during the interview. I informed them that the
Chinese Government would be held responsible by Her Majesty's
Government for the criminal apathy which had brought about
this disgraceful state of affairs. I then demanded an
interview with Prince Ching, which is fixed for to-morrow, as
I found it useless to discuss the matter with the Yamên. This
afternoon I had an interview with the Prince and Ministers of
the Yamên. They expressed much regret at the murder of Messrs.
Robinson and Norman, and their tone was fully satisfactory in
this respect. … No attempt was made by the Prince to defend
the Chinese Government, nor to deny what I had said. He could
say nothing to reassure me as to the safety of the city, and
admitted that the Government was reluctant to deal harshly
with the movement, which, owing to its anti-foreign character,
was popular. He stated that they were bringing 6,000 soldiers
from near Tien-tsin for the protection of the railway, but it
was evident that he doubted whether they would be allowed to
fire on the Boxers except in the defence of Government
property, or if authorized whether they would obey. He gave me
to understand, without saying so directly, that he has
entirely failed to induce the Court to accept his own views as
to the danger of inaction. It was clear, in fact, that the Yamên
wished me to understand that the situation was most serious,
and that, owing to the influence of ignorant advisers with the
Empress-Dowager, they were powerless to remedy it."
"June 6.
Since the interview with the Yamên reported in my preceding
telegram I have seen several of my colleagues. I find they all
agree that, owing to the now evident sympathy of the
Empress-Dowager and the more conservative of her advisers with
the anti-foreign movement, the situation is rapidly growing
more serious. Should there be no change in the attitude of the
Empress, a rising in the city, ending in anarchy, which may
produce rebellion in the provinces, will be the result,
'failing an armed occupation of Peking by one or more of the
Powers.' Our ordinary means of pressure on the Chinese
Government fail, as the Yamên is, by general consent, and
their own admission, powerless to persuade the Court to take
serious measures of repression. Direct representations to the
Emperor and Dowager-Empress from the Corps Diplomatique at a
special audience seems to be the only remaining chance of
impressing the Court."
"June 7.
There is a long Decree in the 'Gazette' which ascribes the
recent trouble to the favour shown to converts in law suits
and the admission to their ranks of bad characters. It states
that the Boxers, who are the objects of the Throne's sympathy
equally with the converts, have made use of the anti-Christian
feeling aroused by these causes, and that bad characters among
them have destroyed chapels and railways which are the
property of the State. Unless the ringleaders among such bad
characters are now surrendered by the Boxers they will be
dealt with as disloyal subjects, and will be exterminated.
Authorization will be given to the Generals to effect arrests,
exercising discrimination between leaders and their followers.
It is probable that the above Decree represents a compromise
between the conflicting opinions which exist at Court. The
general tone is most unsatisfactory, though the effect may be
good if severe measures are actually taken. The general
lenient tone, the absence of reference to the murder of
missionaries, and the justification of the proceedings of the
Boxers by the misconduct of Christian converts are all
dangerous factors in the case."
"June 8.
A very bad effect has been produced by the Decree reported in
my immediately preceding telegram. There is no prohibition of
the Boxers drilling, which they now openly do in the houses of
the Manchu nobility and in the temples. This Legation is full
of British refugees, mostly women and children, and the London
and Church of England Missions have been abandoned. I trust
that the instructions requested in my telegrams of the 4th and
5th instant have been sent to the Admiral. I have received the
following telegram, dated noon to-day, from Her Majesty's Consul
at Tien-tsin:
{112}
'By now the Boxers must be near Yang-tsun. Last night the
bridge, which is outside that station, was seen to be on fire.
General Nieh's forces are being withdrawn to Lutai, and 1,500
of them have already passed through by railway. There are now
at Yang-tsun an engine and trucks ready to take 2,000 more
men.' Lutai lies on the other side of Tien-tsin, and at some
distance. Should this information be correct, it means that an
attempt to protect Peking has been abandoned by the only force
on which the Yamên profess to place any reliance. The 6,000
men mentioned in my telegram
of the 5th instant were commanded by General Nieh."
"Tong-ku, June 10.
Vice-Admiral Sir E. Seymour to Admiralty.
Following telegram received from Minister at Peking:
'Situation extremely grave. Unless arrangements are made for
immediate advance to Peking it will be too late.'
"In consequence of above, I am landing at once with all
available men, and have asked foreign officers' co-operation."
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
China, Number 3, 1900, pages 26-45.
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (June 10-26).
Bombardment and capture of Taku forts by the allied fleets.
Failure of first relief expedition started for Peking.
The following is from an official report by Rear-Admiral
Bruce of the British Navy, dated at Taku June 17, 1900:
"On my arrival here on the 11th inst. I found a large fleet,
consisting of Russian, German, French, Austrian, Italian,
Japanese, and British ships. In consequence of an urgent
telegram from Her Majesty's Minister at Peking, Vice-Admiral
Sir Edward H. Seymour, K. C. B., Commander-in-Chief, had
started at 3 o'clock the previous morning (10th June), taking
with him a force of 1,375 of all ranks, being reinforced by
men from the allied ships as they arrived, until he commanded
not less than 2,000 men. At a distance of some 20 to 30 miles
from Tientsin—but it is very difficult to locate the place, as
no authentic record has come in—he found the railway destroyed
and sleepers burned, &c., and every impediment made by
supposed Boxers to his advance. Then his difficulties began,
and it is supposed that the Boxers, probably assisted by
Chinese troops, closed in on his rear, destroyed
railway-lines, bridges, &c., and nothing since the 13th inst.
has passed from Commander-in-Chief and his relief force and
Tientsin, nor vice versa up to this date. …
"During the night of the 14th inst. news was received that all
railway-carriages and other rolling stock had been ordered to
be sent up the line for the purpose of bringing down a Chinese
army to Tong-ku. On receipt of this serious information a
council of Admirals was summoned by Vice-Admiral Hiltebrandt,
Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Squadron, and the German,
French, United States Admirals, myself, and the Senior
Officers of Italy, Austria, and Japan attended; and it was
decided to send immediate orders to the captains of the allied
vessels in the Peiho River (three Russian, two German, one
United States, one Japanese, one British—'Algerine') to
prevent any railway plant being taken away from Tong-ku, or
the Chinese army reaching that place, which would cut off our
communication with Tientsin; and in the event of either being
attempted they were to use force to prevent it, and to destroy
the Taku Forts. By the evening, and during the night of 15th
inst., information arrived that the mouth of the Peiho River
was being protected by electric mines. On receipt of this,
another council composed of the same naval officers was held
in the forenoon of 16th June on board the 'Rossia,' and in
consequence of the gravity of the situation, and information
having also arrived that the forts were being provisioned and
reinforced, immediate notice was sent to the Viceroy of Chili
at Tientsin and the commandant of the forts that, in
consequence of the danger to our forces up the river, at
Tientsin, and on the march to Peking by the action of the
Chinese authorities, we proposed to temporarily occupy the
Taku Forts, with or without their good will, at 2 a.m. on the
17th inst." Early on Sunday, 17th June, "the Taku Forts opened
fire on the allied ships in the Peiho River, which continued
almost without intermission until 6.30 a.m., when all firing
had practically ceased and the Taku Forts were stormed and in
the hands of the Allied Powers, allowing of free communication
with Tientsin by water, and rail when the latter is repaired."
The American Admiral took no part in this attack on the forts
at Taku, "on the ground that we were not at war with China and
that a hostile demonstration might consolidate the
anti-foreign elements and strengthen the Boxers to oppose the
relieving column."
From the point to which the allied expedition led by Admiral
Seymour fought its way, and at which it was stopped by the
increasing numbers that opposed it, it fell back to a position
near Hsiku, on the right bank of the Peiho. There the allies
drove the Chinese forces from an imperial armory and took
possession of the buildings, which gave them a strong
defensive position, with a large store of rice for food, and
enabled them to hold their ground until help came to them from
Tientsin, on the 25th. They were encumbered with no less than 230
wounded men, which made it impossible for them, in the
circumstances, to fight their way back without aid; though the
distance was so short that the return march was accomplished, on
the 26th, between 3 o'clock and 9 of the same morning. In his
report made the following day Admiral Seymour says: "The
number of enemy engaged against us in the march from Yungtsin
to the Armoury near Hsiku cannot be even estimated; the
country alongside the river banks is quite flat, and consisted
of a succession of villages of mud huts, those on the
out-skirts having enclosures made of dried reeds; outside,
high reeds were generally growing in patches near the village,
and although trees are very scarce away from the River,
alongside it they are very numerous; these with the graves,
embankments for irrigation and against flood, afforded cover
to the enemy from which they seldom exposed themselves,
withdrawing on our near approach. Had their fire not been
generally high it would have been much more destructive than
it was. The number of the enemy certainly increased gradually
until the Armoury near Hsiku was reached, when General Nieh's
troops and the Boxers both joined in the attack. In the early
part of the expedition the Boxers were mostly armed with
swords and spears, and not with many firearms; at the
engagement at Langfang on 18th, and afterwards, they were
armed with rifles of late pattern; this together with banners
captured and uniform worn, shows that they had either the
active or covert support of the Chinese Government, or some of
its high officials."
{113}
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (June 11-29).
Chinese Imperial Edicts.
"On June 11 Mr. Sugiyama, the Chancellor of the Japanese
Legation, was brutally murdered [in Peking] by the soldiers of
General Tung-fuh-siang. Two days later the following Imperial
edict was published in the 'Peking Gazette': 'On June 11 the
Japanese Chancellor was murdered by brigands outside the
Yung-ting Mên. On hearing this intelligence we were
exceedingly grieved. Officials of neighbouring nations
stationed in Peking ought to be protected in every possible
way, and now, especially, extra diligence ought to be
displayed to prevent such occurrences when banditti are as
numerous as bees. We have repeatedly commanded the local
officials to ensure the most efficient protection in their
districts, yet, in spite of our frequent orders, we have this
case of the murder of the Japanese Chancellor occurring in the
very capital of the Empire. The civil and military officials
have assuredly been remiss in not clearing their districts of
bad characters, or immediately arresting such persons, and we
hereby order every Yamên concerned to set a limit of time for
the arrest of the criminals, that they may suffer the extreme
penalty. Should the time expire without any arrest being
effected, the severest punishment will assuredly be inflicted
upon the responsible persons.' It is needless to add that the
'criminals' were never arrested and the 'responsible persons'
were never punished. In the same 'Gazette' another decree
condemns the 'Boxer brigands' who have recently been causing
trouble in the neighbourhood of the capital, who have been
committing arson and murder and revenging themselves upon the
native converts. Soldiers and 'Boxers,' it says, have leagued
together to commit acts of murder and arson, and have vied
with one another in disgraceful acts of looting and robbery.
The 'Boxers' are to disband, desperadoes are to be arrested,
ringleaders are to be seized, but the followers may be allowed
to disband.
"Similar decrees on the 14th and 15th show alarm at the result
of the 'Boxer' agitation and lawlessness within the city.
Nothing so strong against the 'Boxers' had previously been
published. Fires were approaching too Closely to the Imperial
Palace. No steps had been taken by the Court to prevent the
massacre and burning of Christians and their property in the
country, but on the 16th the great Chien Mên gate fronting the
Palace had been burned and the smoke had swept over the
Imperial Courts. Yet even in these decrees leniency is shown
to the 'Boxers,' for they are not to be fired upon, but are,
if guilty, to be arrested and executed. On June 17th the edict
expresses the belief of the Throne that:—'All foreign
Ministers ought to be really protected. If the Ministers and
their families wish to go for a time to Tien-tsin, they must
be protected on the way. But the railroad is not now in
working order. If they go by the cart road it will be
difficult, and there is fear that perfect protection cannot be
offered. They would do better, therefore, to abide here in
peace as heretofore and wait till the railroad is repaired,
and then act as circumstances render expedient.'
"Two days later an ultimatum was sent to the Ministers
ordering them to leave Peking within 24 hours. On the 20th
Baron von Ketteler was murdered and on June 21 China
published, having entered upon war against the whole world,
her Apologia:—
'Ever since the foundation of the Dynasty, foreigners coming
to China have been kindly treated. In the reigns Tao Kuang,
and Hsien Feng, they were allowed to trade and they also asked
leave to propagate their religion, a request that the Throne
reluctantly granted. At first they were amenable to Chinese
control, but for the past 30 years they have taken advantage
of China's forbearance to encroach on China's territory and
trample on Chinese people and to demand China's wealth. Every
concession made by China increased their reliance on violence.
They oppressed peaceful citizens and insulted the gods and
holy men, exciting the most burning indignation among the
people. Hence the burning of chapels and slaughter of converts
by the patriotic braves. The Throne was anxious to avoid war, and
issued edicts enjoining the protection of Legations and pity
to the converts. The decrees declaring 'Boxers' and converts
to be equally the children of the State were issued in the
hope of removing the old feud between people and converts.
Extreme kindness was shown to the strangers from afar. But
these people knew no gratitude and increased their pressure. A
despatch was yesterday sent by Du Chaylard, calling us to
deliver up the Ta-ku Forts into their keeping, otherwise they
would be taken by force. These threats showed their aggressive
intention. In all matters relating to international
intercourse, we have never been wanting in courtesies to them,
but they, while styling themselves civilized States, have acted
without regard for right, relying solely on their military
force. We have now reigned nearly 30 years, and have treated
the people as our children, the people honouring us as their
deity, and in the midst of our reign we have been the
recipients of the gracious favour of the Empress-Dowager.
Furthermore, our ancestors have come to our aid, and the gods
have answered our call, and never has there been so universal
a manifestation of loyalty and patriotism. With tears have we
announced war in the ancestral shrines. Better to enter on the
struggle and do our utmost than seek some measures of
self-preservation involving eternal disgrace. All our
officials, high and low, are of one mind, and there have
assembled without official summons several hundred thousand
patriotic soldiers (I Ping "Boxers"). Even children carrying
spears in the service of the State. Those others relying on
crafty schemes, our trust is in Heaven's justice. They depend
on violence, we on humanity. Not to speak of the righteousness
of our cause, our provinces number more than 20, our people over
400,000,000, and it will not be difficult to vindicate the
dignity of our country.' The decree concludes by promising
heavy rewards to those who distinguish themselves in battle or
subscribe funds, and threatening punishment to those who show
cowardice or act treacherously.
"In the same 'Gazette' Yü Lu reports acts of war on the part
of the foreigners, when, after some days' fighting, he was
victorious. 'Perusal of his memorial has given us great
comfort,' says the Throne. Warm praise is given to the
'Boxers,' 'who have done great service without any assistance
either of men or money from the State. Marked favour will be
shown them later on, and they must continue to show their
devotion.' On the 24th presents of rice are sent to the
'Boxers.' Leaders of the 'Boxers' are appointed by the
Throne—namely, Prince Chuang, and the Assistant Grand
Secretary Kang-Yi to be in chief command, and Ying Nien and
Duke Lan (the brother of Prince Tuan, the father of the Crown
Prince) to act in cooperation with them, while another high
post is given to Wen Jui."
London Times, October 16, 1900
(Peking Correspondence).
{114}
Very different in tone to the imperial decree of June 21,
quoted above, was one issued a week later (June 29), and sent
to the diplomatic representatives of the Chinese government in
Europe and America. As published by Minister Wu Ting-fang, at
Washington, on the 11th of July, it was in the following
words:
"The circumstances which led to the commencement of fighting
between Chinese and foreigners were of such a complex,
confusing and unfortunate character as to be entirely
unexpected. Our diplomatic representatives abroad, owing to
their distance from the scene of action, have had no means of
knowing the true state of things, and accordingly cannot lay
the views of the government before the ministers for foreign
affairs of the respective Powers to which they are accredited.
Now we take this opportunity of going fully into the matter
for the information of our representatives aforesaid.
"In the first place there arose in the provinces of Chih Li
and Shantung a kind of rebellious subjects who had been in the
habit of practicing boxing and fencing in their respective
villages, and at the same time clothing their doings with
spiritualistic and strange rites. The local authorities failed
to take due notice of them at the time. Accordingly the
infection spread with astonishing rapidity. Within the space
of a month it seemed to make its appearance everywhere, and
finally even reached the capital itself. Everyone looked upon
the movement as supernatural and strange, and many joined it.
Then there were lawless and treacherous persons who sounded
the cry of 'Down with Christianity!' About the middle of the
fifth moon these persons began to create disturbances without
warning. Churches were burned and converts were killed. The
whole city was in a ferment. A situation was created which
could not be brought under control. At first the foreign
Powers requested that foreign troops be allowed to enter the
capital for the protection of the legations. The imperial
government, having in view the comparative urgency of the
occasion, granted the request as an extraordinary mark of
courtesy beyond the requirements of international intercourse.
Over five hundred foreign troops were sent to Pekin. This
shows clearly how much care China exercised in the maintenance
of friendly relations with other countries.
"The legations at the capital never had much to do with the
people. But from the time foreign troops entered the city the
guards did not devote themselves exclusively to the protection
of their respective legations. They sometimes fired their guns
on top of the city walls and sometimes patrolled the streets
everywhere. There were repeated reports of persons being hit
by stray bullets. Moreover they strolled about the city
without restraint, and even attempted to enter the Tung Hua
gate (the eastern gate of the palace grounds). They only
desisted when admittance was positively forbidden. On this
account, both the soldiers and the people were provoked to
resentment, and voiced their indignation with one accord.
Lawless persons then took advantage of the situation to do
mischief, and became bolder than ever in burning and killing
Christian converts. The Powers thereupon attempted to
reinforce the foreign troops in Pekin, but the reinforcements
encountered resistance and defeat at the hands of the
insurgents on the way and have not yet been able to proceed.
The insurgents of the two provinces of Chih Li and Shantung
had by this time effected a complete union and could not be
separated. The imperial government was by no means reluctant
to issue orders for the entire suppression of this insurgent
element. But as the trouble was so near at hand there was a
great fear that due protection might not be assured to the
legations if the anarchists should be driven to extremities,
thus bringing on a national calamity. There also was a fear
that uprisings might occur in the provinces of Chih Li and
Shantung at the same time, with the result that both foreign
missionaries and Chinese converts in the two provinces might
fall victims to popular fury. It was therefore absolutely
necessary to consider the matter from every point of view.
"As a measure of precaution it was finally decided to request
the foreign ministers to retire temporarily to Tien-Tsin for
safety. It was while the discussion of this proposition was in
progress that the German minister, Baron Von Ketteler, was
assassinated by a riotous mob one morning while on his way to
the Tsung-Li-Yamen. On the previous day the German minister
had written a letter appointing a time for calling at the
Tsung-Li-Yamen. But the Yamen, fearing he might be molested on
the way, did not consent to the appointment as suggested by
the minister. Since this occurrence the anarchists assumed a
more bold and threatening attitude, and consequently 'it was
not deemed wise to carry out the project of sending the
diplomatic corps to Tien-Tsin under an escort. However, orders
were issued to the troops detailed for the protection of the
legations to keep stricter watch and take greater precaution
against any emergency.
"To our surprise, on the 20th of the fifth moon (June 16th),
foreign (naval?) officers at Taku called upon Lo Jung Kwang,
the general commanding, and demanded his surrender of the
forts, notifying him that failing to receive compliance they
would at two o'clock the next day take steps to seize the
forts by force. Lo Jung Kwang, being bound by the duties of
his office to hold the forts, how could he yield to the
demand? On the day named they actually first fired upon the
forts, which responded, and kept up fighting all day and then
surrendered. Thus the conflict of forces began, but certainly
the initiative did not come from our side. Even supposing that
China were not conscious of her true condition, how could she
take such a step as to engage in war with all the Powers
simultaneously? and how could she, relying upon the support of
anarchistic populace, go into war with the Powers?
{115}
"Our position in this matter ought to be clearly understood by
all the Powers. The above is a statement of the wrongs we have
suffered, and how China was driven to the unfortunate position
from which she could not escape. Our several ministers will make
known accurately and in detail the contents of this decree and
the policy of China to the ministers of foreign affairs in
their respective countries, and assure them that military
authorities are still strictly enjoined to afford protection
to the legations as hitherto to the utmost of their power. As
for the anarchists they will be as severely dealt with as
circumstances permit. The several ministers will continue in
the discharge of the duties of their office as hitherto
without hesitation or doubt. This telegraphic decree to be
transmitted for their information. Respect this."
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (June-July).
Failure of attempt to entrust Japan with the rescuing of
the Legations at Peking.
A British Blue Book, issued on the 18th of February, 1901,
contains correspondence that took place between the Powers
late in June and early in July, looking to an arrangement for
the immediate sending of a large force from Japan to the
rescue of the beleaguered Legations in Peking. As summarized
in the "London Times," this correspondence showed that "the
necessity of asking the help of the only Power that was near
enough to intervene promptly was strongly pressed by Lord
Salisbury on the other Powers in the beginning of July. M.
Delcassé fell in entirely with the scheme and insisted on the
need of putting aside all jealousies or afterthoughts which
might hinder unity of action on the spot. The Russian
Government, however, seems to have misunderstood Lord
Salisbury's meaning and to have conceived him to wish Japan to
settle the Chinese crisis by herself and with a view to her
own interests, a misunderstanding which it required a whole
series of despatches to clear up completely. The Japanese
Government itself showed the most commendable readiness to
act, and on July 11 Mr. Whitehead telegraphed from Tokio, in
reply to an appeal from Lord Salisbury to the Japanese
Government, that 'in consequence of the friendly assurances'
given by Lord Salisbury the Japanese Government had decided to
send one or two more divisions to China. To this Lord
Salisbury replied on July 13 that her Majesty's Government
were willing to assist the Japanese Government up to
£1,000,000 if they at once mobilized and despatched an
additional 20,000 men to Peking. But the latter, in the
absence of any definite scheme of operations on the part of
the Powers, showed an unwillingness to accede to this
proposal, which thus fell through."
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (June-August).
The siege of the Foreign Legations at Peking.
The story of two dreadful months as told by one of the besieged.
The most detailed and altogether best account of the dreadful
experience which the foreigners besieged in the quarter of the
Legations at Peking underwent, from the first week in June
until the 14th day of August, when a rescuing army forced its
way into the city, is that furnished to the "London Times" by
its Peking correspondent, who was one of the besieged. His
narrative, forwarded immediately upon the opening of
communication with the outer world, was published in "The
Times" of October 13 and 15. With some abridgment it is given
here under permission from the Manager of "The Times."
"Missionaries in Peking began collecting together into the
larger mission compounds for common protection. Many ladies
went for safety into the British Legation. Railway
communication was now severed and the telegraph communication
threatened. Our isolation was being completed. In the country
disaffection spread to the districts to the east of Peking,
and the position of the American missionaries at Tung-chau
became one of great danger. It was decided to abandon their
great missionary establishments, and with the native
Christians that could follow them to come into Peking. They
asked for an escort, but Mr. Conger felt himself compelled to
decline one, on the ground that he did not venture to send the
small body of men that he could spare from the Legation
through so dangerous a district. Protection must be looked for
from the Chinese Government. What soldiers could not be sent
to do one fearless American missionary succeeded in doing.
Late in the evening of June 7 the Rev. W. S. Ament, of the
Board Mission, left Peking in a cart, and with 20 other carts
journeyed 14 miles to Tung-chau through a country palpitating
with excitement. It was an act of courage and devotion that
seemed to us who knew the country a deed of heroism. His
arrival was most opportune. He brought safely back with him to
Peking the whole missionary body then in Tung-chau—five men,
including the author of 'Chinese Characteristics,' 11 ladies,
and seven children, together with their Christian servants. …
"More troops were sent for to reinforce the Legation guards in
Peking, but they were sent for too late. Already many miles of
the railway had been torn up, and it was hopeless to expect an
early restoration of communication. … The Empress-Dowager and
the Emperor, who had been for some time past at the Summer
Palace, returned to Peking, entering the city at the same hour
by different gates. Large escorts of cavalry and infantry
accompanied them; Manchu bannermen in large numbers were
posted on the walls. It was noticeable that the body-guard of
the Empress was provided by the renegade Mahomedan rabble of
Tung-fuh-siang, who had long been a menace to foreigners in
the province. The return of the Court was expected to have a
tranquillizing effect upon the populace. But this was not the
case. Students were attacked when riding in the country; our
race-course, grand stand, and stables were burnt by 'Boxers'
armed with knives; Europeans could not venture along the
streets outside the foreign quarter without being insulted.
People were saying everywhere, 'The foreigners are to be
ended.' Streets were being patrolled by cavalry, but there was
every fear that the patrols were in league with the 'Boxers,'
who were marching through the streets bearing banners
inscribed 'Fu Ching Mieh Yang.' 'Protect Pure (the Dynasty),
exterminate the foreigner.'
"The London Mission and the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel handed over their buildings to the Chinese authorities,
holding them responsible for their safe keeping, and all
missionaries and their families went to the British Legation.
The American Board Mission likewise delivered over their
valuable property to the Government and fell back upon the
great Methodist Episcopalian Mission near the Hata Mên Gate,
beyond the foreign quarter. Tung-chau missionaries and their
families and several hundred Christian converts were already
gathered there. Steps were at once taken to fortify the
compound. Under the direction of Mr. F. D. Gamewell deep
trenches were cut, earthworks thrown up, and barbed-wire
entanglements laid down.
{116}
Watch was kept and sentries posted, provisions laid in, and
all preparations made to withstand a siege. Twenty marines and
a captain from the American Legation were sent as a guard, and
some spare rifles were obtained from the British Legation.
Converts were armed with pikes and knives, and a determined
effort was to be made in case of attack. The mission was,
however, absolutely at the mercy of any force holding the high
city wall and Hata Mên Gate. Without the power of reply the
small garrison could have been shot down from the wall, which
is little more than a stone's throw from the nearest point of
the compound. Shell-fire such as was subsequently used against
the Legations would have smashed the buildings into fragments.
All the Maritime Customs staff and their families living in
the East City, a mile or more beyond the foreign quarter, the
professors and teachers of the Tung-wen-Kuan, Dr. Dudgeon, Mr.
Pethick, the secretary of Li Hung Chang, and others, were
forced to abandon their homes and come in for protection.
Preparations for defence went on at all the Legations, for it
was now inevitable that we should have to fight. A 'conseil de
guerre' was held, attended by all the military officers, and a
plan of defence determined. The palace and grounds of Prince
Su, opposite the British Legation, were to be held for the
Christian refugees, and an area was to be defended some half a
mile long by half a mile broad, bounded by the Austrian and
Italian Legations to the east, the street running over the
north bridge of the canal to the north, the British, Russian,
and American Legations to the west, while the southern
boundary was to be the street running at the foot of the great
City Wall from the American Legation on the west, past the
German Legation on the east, to the lane running from the Wall
north past the French Legation, the buildings of the
Inspectorate General of Customs, and the Austrian Legation.
All women and children and non-combatants were to come into
the British Legation. Each position was to be held as long as
possible, and the final stand was to be made at the British
Legation. No question of surrender could ever be entertained,
for surrender meant massacre.
"On the 10th it was announced that reinforcements were on the
way and that they were coming with the approval of the Viceroy
and of the Chinese Government, an approval more readily
accorded since it was known to the Viceroy that the troops
could not come by train. More than one of the Ministers was so
confident that they were coming that carts were sent to await
their arrival at Machia-pu, the terminal railway station at
Peking. … Then Government gave its first public official
recognition of the 'Boxers' by announcing that the notorious
chief of the 'Boxers,' Prince Tuan, had been appointed
President of the Tsung-li-Yamên. Prince Ching was superseded
but was not removed from the Yamên. One harmless old Chinese,
Liao Shou-hêng was sent into retirement while four rabidly
anti-foreign Manchus entirely ignorant of all foreign affairs
were appointed members. The last hope of any wisdom springing
from the Yamên disappeared with the supersession of Prince
Ching by the anti-foreign barbarian who, more than any other
man in China, was responsible for the outbreak. The following
morning most of the Europeans rode to Machia-pu to await the
arrival of the foreign troops. They waited, but no troops
came, and then rode back past the jeering faces of hordes of
Chinese soldiers. Our security was not increased by this
fiasco.
"Soldiers sent to guard the summer residences of the British
Legation in the Western Hills left their posts during the
night. The buildings had been officially placed under the
protection of the Imperial Government. In the pre-arranged
absence of the soldiers the buildings were attacked by
'Boxers' and entirely burnt to the ground; the soldiers
witnessed if they did not assist in the burning. But worse
events were to happen that day. In the afternoon news passed
through Peking that Mr. Sugiyama, the Chancellor of the
Japanese Legation, had been murdered by soldiers. He had been
sent by his Minister a second time to Machia-pu to await the
arrival of the troops. Passing unarmed and alone in his cart
beyond the Yung-ting Mên, the outer gate on the way to the
station, he was seized by the soldiers of Tung-fuh-siang,
dragged from his cart, and done to death in the presence of a
crowd of Chinese who witnessed his struggles with unpitying
interest and unconcealed satisfaction. …
"On the 12th a deputation, consisting of Chi Hsiu, a member of
the Grand Council and newly appointed to the Yamên, Hsu
Ching-chêng, the ex-Minister, the 'Boxer' leader Chao
Shu-chiao, and another Manchu, called upon the British
Minister. Chi Hsiu made a long address, his theme being the
enduring nature of the friendship between China and England
and the duty which China has always recognized as a sacred
obligation to protect the members of the Legations who were
her guests and the strangers within her walls. Chi Hsiu
assured the Minister that the movement was at an end, that all
was now tranquil, and that there was no more reason to fear.
Yet the very next day Baron von Ketteler himself captured a
'Boxer' from amid the crowd in Legation-street. He carried the
consecrated headpiece, and was armed with a sword. Round his
waist he had a belt containing a talisman of yellow paper
smeared with mystic red symbols by which he was rendered
'impermeable to foreign bullets.' And in the afternoon the
'Boxers' came down in force from the north of the city and the
burning of foreign buildings began. The cry arose that the
'Boxers' were coming. Every man ran to his post, a cordon was
established round the foreign quarter and no one was allowed
to pass. Guards were on watch at all the Legations, but their
numbers, spread over so many posts, were very inadequate, and
they were still further reduced by the guards detached for
duty at the Pei-tang Cathedral, where, three miles distant
within the Imperial City, were gathered in the one great
compound Mgr. Favier, the Bishop, his coadjutor, Mgr. Jarlin,
the missionaries and lay brothers, the sisters of charity, and
a vast concourse of Christian refugees, estimated at 2,000,
who had fled from the massacre in the country. A guard of five
Austrians was sent to the Belgian Legation. The Austrians with
their machine gun commanded the Customs-street leading to the
north: the Italians with a one pounder commanded the
Legation-street to the east. The British with their
Nordenfeldt swept the Canal-street to the north and the
North-bridge, the Russians were on the South-bridge, while the
Americans with their Colt machine gun had command of
Legation-street to the west as far as the court facing the
Imperial Palace. The Russians, having no gun, dropped their
heavy ammunition down the well.
{117}
"As darkness came on the most awful cries were heard in the
city, most demoniacal and unforgettable, the cries of the
'Boxers,' 'Sha kweitze'—'Kill the devils'—mingled with the
shrieks of the victims and the groans of the dying. For
'Boxers' were sweeping through the city massacring the native
Christians and burning them alive in their homes. The first
building to be burned was the chapel of the Methodist Mission
in the Hata Mên-street. Then flames sprang up in many quarters
of the city. Amid the most deafening uproar the Tung-tang, or
East Cathedral, shot flames into the sky. The old Greek Church
in the north-east of the city, the London Mission buildings,
the handsome pile of the American Board Mission, and the
entire foreign buildings belonging to the Imperial Maritime
Customs in the East City burned throughout the night. It was
an appalling sight. Late in the night a large party of
'Boxers' bearing torches were seen moving down Customs-street
towards the Austrian Legation. The machine gun mounted was in
waiting for them. They were allowed to come within 150 yards
in the open street near the great cross road, and then the
order was given and the gun rained forth death. It was a
grateful sound. The torches disappeared. They had come within
a restricted space, and none, we thought, could have escaped.
Eagerly we went forth to count the dead, expecting to find
them in heaps. But there was not one dead. The gun had been
aimed very wide of the mark. Two hundred yards north of the
'Boxers' there is a place where 30 ft. above the level road
the telegraph wires crossed to the station. Next morning they
were found to have been cut by the Austrian fire. The only
persons who suffered injury were possible wayfarers two miles
up the street. There can be little doubt that this fiasco
helped to confirm the Boxers in a belief in their
invulnerability.
"The Tung-tang, or East Cathedral, having been burned, it, was
clear that the Nan-tang, the South Cathedral, was in danger.
Père Garrigues, the aged priest of the Tung-tang, had refused
to leave his post and had perished in the flames. But the
fathers and sisters at the Nan-tang might yet be saved. Their
lives were in great peril; it was necessary to act quickly. A
party of French gentlemen, led by M. Fliche of the French
Legation and accompanied by M. and Mme. Chamot, rode out at
night, and early the following morning safely escorted to the
hotel every member of the mission—Père d' Addosio and his two
colleagues, a French brother, five sisters of charity, and
some twenty native nuns of the Order of Josephine. They were
rescued just in time. Scarcely had they reached a place of
safety when the splendid edifice they had forsaken was in
flames. … It continued burning all day, the region round it,
the chief Catholic centre of Peking, being also burnt. Acres
of houses were destroyed and the Christians in thousands put
to the sword. …
"On the 15th rescue parties were sent out by the American and
Russian Legations in the morning, and by the British and
German Legations in the afternoon, to save if possible native
Christians from the burning ruins around the Nan-tang. Awful
sights were witnessed. Women and children hacked to pieces,
men trussed like fowls, with noses and ears cut off and eyes
gouged out. Chinese Christians accompanied the reliefs and ran
about in the labyrinth of network of streets that formed the
quarter, calling upon the Christians to come out from their
hiding-places. All through the night the massacre had
continued, and 'Boxers' were even now shot redhanded at their
bloody work. But their work was still incomplete, and many
hundreds of women and children had escaped. They came out of
their hiding-places crossing themselves and pleading for
mercy. It was a most pitiful sight. Thousands of soldiers on
the wall witnessed the rescue; they had with callous hearts
witnessed the massacre without ever raising a hand to save.
During the awful nights of the 13th and 14th Duke Lan, the
brother of Prince Tuan, and Chao Shu-Chiao, of the
Tsung-li-Yamên, had followed round in their carts to gloat
over the spectacle. Yet the Chinese Government were afterwards
to describe this massacre done under official supervision
under the very walls of the Imperial Palace as the handiwork
of local banditti. More than 1,200 of the poor refugees were
escorted by the 'foreign devils' to a place of safety. Many
were wounded, many were burnt beyond recognition. All had
suffered the loss of every thing they possessed in the world.
They were given quarters in the palace grounds of Prince Su,
opposite the British Legation. Among them was the aged mother
and the nephew of Ching Chang, recently Minister to France,
and now Chinese Commissioner to the Paris Exhibition. The
nephew was cruelly burnt; nearly every other member of the
family was murdered. A Catholic family of much distinction—a
family Catholic for seven generations—was thus almost
exterminated and its property laid in ashes. It was announced
this day that only 'Boxers' might enter the Imperial City. The
Government was rushing headlong to its ruin.
"On June 16 a party of twenty British, ten Americans, and five
Japanese, with some Volunteers, and accompanied by
Lieutenant-Colonel Shiba, the Japanese military attache,
patrolled the East City, visiting the ruins in the hopes that
some Christians might yet be in hiding. But to our calls
everywhere no reply was given. Refugees, however, from the
East City had managed to escape miraculously and find their
way, many of them wounded, to the foreign Legations, seeking
that protection and humanity that was denied them by their own
people. As the patrol was passing a Taoist temple on the way,
a noted 'Boxer' meeting place, cries were heard within. The
temple was forcibly entered. Native Christians were found
there, their hands tied behind their backs, awaiting execution
and torture. Some had already been put to death, and their
bodies were still warm and bleeding. All were shockingly
mutilated. Their fiendish murderers were at their incantations
burning incense before their gods, offering Christians in
sacrifice to their angered deities. They shut themselves
within the temple, but their defence availed them nothing.
Everyone of them, 46 in all, was in 'Boxer' uniform armed with
sword and lance. Retribution was swift; every man was shot to
death without mercy. In the afternoon a fire broke out in the
foreign drug store in the native city outside the great gate
of the Chien Mên.
{118}
It was the work of 'Boxers,' done while the soldiers were
looking on. In order to burn the foreign drug store and do the
foreigners a few pounds worth of damage, they did not hesitate
to jeopardize by fire property worth millions of pounds, and that
is what happened. Adjoining buildings took fire, the flames
spread to the booksellers' street, and the most interesting
street in China, filled with priceless scrolls, manuscripts,
and printed books, was gutted from end to end. Fire licked up
house after house, and soon the conflagration was the most
disastrous ever known in China, reducing to ashes the richest
part of Peking, the pearl and jewel shops, the silk and fur,
the satin and embroidery stores, the great curio shops, the
gold and silver shops, the melting houses, and nearly all that
was of the highest value in the metropolis. Irreparable was
the damage done. …
"During the night the Americans, fearing an attack from the
street at the back of their Legation, kept the street clear
till daybreak. During one of the volleys four of the
Tsung-li-Yamên Ministers called upon the American Minister.
They were blandly assuring him that all was now quiet, that
there was no need for further alarm, that great was the
tenderness of the Throne for men from afar, when a rattle of
musketry was heard which rendered them speechless with fear.
They hurriedly went away. Assurances of the Throne's
tenderness did not deceive us. Our barricades were everywhere
strengthened and defences systematically planned, for rumour
was quick to reach us that the relief forces had been driven
back to Tien-tsin, and this did not add to the security of our
position. Inside the Imperial City wall, within one hundred
yards of the British picket on the north bridge a large
Chinese camp was formed. Peking was in a state of panic, all
the streets near the foreign quarters were empty, and people
were fleeing from the city. There was a run on the banks, and
the Ssu-ta-hêng, the four great banks, the leading banks of
Peking, closed their doors, and paper money was not in
circulation. The Palace of Prince Su was occupied by the
refugees, and its defence, the most important of all and a
vital one to the British Legation, was entrusted to Colonel
Shiba and Japanese marines and volunteers.
"The crisis was approaching. On the morning of June 19 Mr.
Cordes, the Chinese Secretary of the German Legation, was at
the Yamên, when the secretaries told him that the allied
fleets had taken the Ta-ku forts on June 17. This was
remembered when at 4.30 in the afternoon an ultimatum was sent
to the foreign Ministers. It was a bolt from the blue. They
were to leave Peking within 24 hours. 'A despatch,' they
wrote, 'has arrived from the Viceroy Yu Lu, forwarding a note
which he has received from the doyen of the Consular body in
Tien-tsin, the French Comte du Chaylard, to say that, unless
foreign troops are at once permitted to land at Tien-tsin, the
allied fleets will bombard the Ta-ku forts. As this is
equivalent to a declaration of war, the Tsung-li-Yamên
herewith notify the foreign Ministers that they must leave
Peking within 24 hours, otherwise protection cannot be
guaranteed to them. They will be given safe conduct and
transport.' It was quite in accordance with Chinese custom
that a despatch saying that the seizure of the Ta-ku forts had
been threatened should be sent after the seizure had been
effected. What is distasteful to them to say they avoid
saying. A meeting of the diplomatic body was at once held. It
was decided to accept the ultimatum. They had been given their
passports by the Chinese Government; what other course was
open to them? … Word was passed round that preparation had to
be made to leave Peking the following day. Mr. Conger, the
American Minister, asked for 100 carts; and his Legation spent
most of the night making preparations. No packing was done at
the British Legation, for it was there considered
inconceivable that China should insist upon sending the
Ministers their passports. Only two days before, in the
'Peking Gazette' of June 17, it had been officially announced
that the road to Tien-tsin was unsafe. … When the decision of
the Diplomatic Body became known in Peking the most profound
indignation was everywhere expressed at so unworthy a decision
and the most profound astonishment that such a course of
action should have received the support of M. Pichon, the
French Minister 'Protecteur des Missions Catholiques en
Chine,' and of so humane a man as Mr. Conger, the American
Minister; for to leave Peking meant the immediate abandonment
to massacre of the thousands of native Christians who had
trusted the foreigner and believed in his good faith.
"Early on the morning of the 20th a meeting of the Diplomatic
Body was held at the French Legation. No reply had been
received from the Tsung-li-Yamên to the request for an
audience, and the proposition that all the Ministers should go
to the Yamên found no seconder. Had it been carried out, there
would have occurred one of the most appalling massacres on
record. Two chairs later left for the Yamên. In the first was
the German Minister, Baron van Ketteler, who had this
advantage over the other Ministers, that he spoke Chinese
fluently. In the second was the Chinese Secretary of the
German Legation, Mr. Cordes. News travels quickly in Peking.
Not many minutes later my boy burst into my office—'Any man
speakee have makee kill German Minister!' It was true. The
German Minister had been assassinated by an Imperial officer.
The Secretary had been grievously wounded, but, running for
his life, shot at by a hundred rifles, had escaped as if by a
miracle. A patrol of 15 men under Count Soden, the commander,
went out to recover the body. Fired on by Chinese soldiers
from every side, they were forced to retire. … There was no
more question about leaving for Tien-tsin. Later in the day
the Yamên, evidently indifferent to the gravity of the
position created by the Government, sent an impudent despatch
to the German Legation to the effect that two Germans had been
proceeding in chairs along the Hata Mên-street, and at the
mouth of the street leading to the Tsung-li-Yamên one of them
had fired upon the crowd. The Chinese had retaliated and he
had been killed. They wished to know his name. No reply was
sent, for it was felt to be a mockery. Only too well the Yamên
knew whom they had murdered. Weeks passed before the body was
recovered, and it was not until July 18 that any official
reference was made to the murder. In the course of the morning
a despatch was sent to the Diplomatic Body in reply to the
answer they had sent to the ultimatum of yesterday.
{119}
The country, it said, between Peking and Tien-tsin was overrun
with brigands, and it would not be safe for the Ministers to go
there. They should therefore remain in Peking. It is difficult
to write with calmness of the treachery with which the Chinese
were now acting. Four p. m. was the hour given in the ultimatum
for the Ministers to vacate their Legations, but the ultimatum
had been rescinded, and the Ministers invited to remain in
Peking. Thus it was hoped that they would be lulled into a
false security. Chinese soldiers were secretly stationed under
cover at every vantage point commanding the outposts. At 4 p.
m. precisely to the minute, by preconcerted signal, they
opened fire upon the Austrian and French outposts. A French
marine fell shot dead through the forehead. An Austrian was
wounded. The siege had begun.
"At this time (June 20), at the opening of the siege, the
total strength of the combined Legation guards consisted of 18
officers and 389 men, distributed as follows:
"American.
Three officers, Captain Myers in command, Captain Hall,
Surgeon Lippett, and 53 marines from the Newark.
"Austrian.
Five officers, Captain Thomann, the Commander of the Zenta,
Flag-Lieutenant von Winterhalder, Lieutenant Kollar,
two mid-shipmen, and 30 marines from the Zenta.
"British.
Three officers, Captain B. M. Strouts in command,
Captain Halliday, Captain Wray, and 79 men R. M. L. I.
-30 from H. M. S. Orlando and 49 from Wei-hai-wei.
"French.
Two officers, Captain Darcy and Midshipman Herbert, and
45 marines from the D'Entrecasteaux and Descartes.
"German.
Lieutenant Graf Soden and 51 marines of the
3rd Battalion Kiao-chau.
"Italian.
Lieutenant Paolini and 28 blue-jackets from the Elba.
"Japanese.
Lieutenant Hara and 24 marines from the Atago.
"Russian.
Two officers, Lieutenant Baron von Rahden and Lieutenant
von Dehn, and 79 men—72 marines from the Sissoi Veliki and
Navarin and seven Legation Cossacks.
"Total,
18 officers and 389 men.
"In addition the French sent Lieutenant Henry and 30 men to
guard the Pei-tang Cathedral, and the Italians detached one
officer, Lieutenant Cavalieri, and 11 men for the same humane
mission. To this insignificant force of 18 officers and 389
men of eight nationalities the entire foreign quarter had to
trust for its defence. Fortunately several visitors or
residents had received military training, and they at once
went on the active list and rendered invaluable service. … A
volunteer force numbering altogether 75 men, of whom 31 were
Japanese, was enrolled and armed with all available rifles.
They added greatly to the strength of the garrison, taking
watch and watch like the Regulars, fighting behind the
barricades, and never shrinking from any duty imposed upon
them. There was also an irregular force of 50 gentlemen of
many nationalities, who did garrison guard duty in the British
Legation and were most useful. They were known, from the
gentleman who enrolled them, as 'Thornhill's Roughs,' and they
bore themselves as the legitimate successors on foot of
Roosevelt's Roughriders. Armed with a variety of weapons, from
an elephant rifle to the 'fusil de chasse' with a picture of
the Grand Prix, to all of which carving knives had been lashed
as bayonets, they were known as the 'Carving Knife Brigade.' …
Such were the effective forces. They were provided with four
guns, an Italian one-pounder with 120 rounds, an American Colt
with 25,000 rounds, an Austrian machine gun, and a British
five-barrel Nordenfelt, pattern 1887. Rifle ammunition was
very scanty. The Japanese had only 100 rounds apiece, the
Russians 145, and the Italians 120, while the best provided of
the other guards had only 300 rounds per man, none too many
for a siege the duration of which could not be foreseen.
"Punctually, then, at 4 o'clock Chinese soldiers began firing
upon us whom they had requested to remain in peace at Peking.
And immediately after the Austrian Legation was abandoned. No
sufficient reason has been given for its abandonment, which
was done so precipitately that not an article was saved. It
was left to the mercy of the Chinese, and the guard retired to
the corner of Customs-lane, leading west to the Prince's
Palace. This involved the sacrifice of Sir Robert Hart's and
all the Customs buildings, and hastened the advance of the
Chinese westward. As previously arranged, the American mission
buildings had been abandoned in the morning, for they were
quite untenable. All the missionaries, their wives, and
families crossed over to the British Legation. Converts to the
number of several hundreds joined the other refugees. The
captain and 20 American marines returned to the American
Legation. By an error of judgment on the part of the captain
the mission was finally left in a panic. Almost nothing was
saved, and nearly all the stores accumulated for a siege were
lost. The British Legation was now thronged. Rarely has a more
cosmopolitan gathering been gathered together within the limits
of one compound. All the women and children were there, all
the missionaries, American, British, French, and Russian, all
the Customs staff, the French, Belgian, Russian, American,
Spanish, Japanese, and Italian Ministers, and their families,
the entire unofficial foreign community of Peking, with the
exception of M. Chamot, who remained in his hotel throughout,
though it was in the hottest corner of the besieged area. …
French volunteers bravely stood by their own Legation, and the
Austrian Charge d'Affaires and Mme. von Rosthorn remained there
as long as there was a room habitable. Mr. Squiers, the first
Secretary of the American Legation, with Mr. Cheshire, the
Chinese Secretary, and Mr. Pethiek, the well-known private
secretary of Li Hung Chang, stayed by the United States
Legation, and the staff of the German Legation also kept
stanchly to their posts. … At the British Legation
fortification began in real earnest, the refugees working like
coolies. Sand-bags were made by the thousand, and posts
mounted round the Legation. A way was knocked through the
houses to the Russian Legation, so that the Americans, if they
had to fall back, could pass through to the British Legation.
During the day every Legation was exposed to a continuous fire
from surrounding house-tops, and in the case of the British
Legation from the cover in the Imperial Carriage Park. Chinese
put flames to the abandoned buildings, and the Belgian
Legation, the Austrian Legation, the Methodist Mission, and
some private houses were burned.
{120}
"June 22 opened disastrously. The evening before, Captain
Thomann, the Austrian commander, announced that as the senior
officer he had taken command in Peking. This morning, hearing
from an irresponsible American that the American Legation was
abandoned, he, without taking steps to verify the information,
ordered the abandonment of all the Legations cast of
Canal-street, the detachments to fall back upon the British
Legation. There had been no casualties to speak of, none of
the Legations had been attacked, and every commander who
received the order to retreat regarded the action as madness.
Peremptory orders were sent to the Japanese to abandon the
Prince's Palace or Fu (as I shall henceforth call it), and
they retired to their Legation. In the British Legation
nothing was known of the order when, to the amazement of all,
the Italians, Austrians, and French came running down
Legation-street, followed a little later by the Japanese, and
subsequently by the Germans, who recalled their post on the
wall and marched without a shot being fired at them down under
the wall to Canal-street. Americans and Russians, learning
that all east of Canal-street had been abandoned, saw
themselves cut off, though their communications had not even
been menaced, and retreated precipitately into the British
Legation. It was a veritable stampede—a panic that might have
been fraught with the gravest disaster. Prompt action was
taken. Captain Thomann was relieved of his command, and Sir
Claude MacDonald, at the urgent instance of the French and
Russian Ministers, subsequently confirmed by all their
colleagues, assumed the chief command. The French and
Austrians reoccupied the French Legation, but the barricade in
Customs-street was lost. One German only was killed and the
position was saved, but the blunder might have been
disastrous.
"It was obvious from the first that the great danger at the
British Legation was not so much from rifle-fire as from
incendiarism, for on three sides the compound was surrounded
by Chinese buildings of a highly inflammable nature. Before
time could be given to clear an open space round the Legation,
the buildings to the rear of Mr. Cockburn's house were set on
fire, and as the wind was blowing strongly towards us it
seemed as if nothing could prevent the fire from bursting into
the Legation. Water had to be used sparingly, for the wells
were lower than they had been for years, yet the flames had to
be fought. Bullets were whistling through the trees. Private
Scadding, the first Englishman to fall, was killed while on
watch on the stables near by. Men and women lined up, and
water passed along in buckets to a small fire engine that was
played upon the fire. Walls were broken through, trees hastily
cut down, and desperate work saved the building. It was the
first experience of intense excitement. Then the men set to
with a will, and till late at night were demolishing the
temple and buildings outside the wall of the Legation. Work
was continued in the morning, but when it was proposed to pull
down an unimportant building in 'the Hanlin Academy that abuts
upon the Legation to the North, the proposition was vetoed.
Such desecration, it was said, would wound the
susceptibilities of the Chinese Government. It was 'the most
sacred building in China.' To lay hands upon it, even to
safeguard the lives of beleaguered women and children, could
not be thought of, for fear of wounding the susceptibilities
of the Chinese Government! So little do the oldest of us
understand the Chinese.
"A strong wind was blowing from the Hanlin into the Legation,
the distance separating the nearest building from the
Minister's residence being only a few feet. Fire the one and
the Minister's residence would have been in danger. Suddenly
there was the alarm of fire. Smoke was rising from the Hanlin.
The most venerated pile in Peking, the great Imperial Academy,
centre of all Chinese learning, with its priceless collection of
books and manuscripts, was in flames. Everyone who was off
duty rushed to the back of the Legation. The Hanlin had been
occupied during the night by Imperial soldiers, who did not
hesitate, in their rage to destroy the foreigners, to set fire
to the buildings. It was first necessary to clear the temple.
A breach was made in the wall, Captain Poole headed a force of
Marines and volunteers who rushed in, divided, searched the
courts, and returned to the main pavilion with its superb
pillars and memorial tablets. Chinese were rushing from other
burning pavilions to the main entrance. They were taken by
surprise and many were killed, but they had done their evil
deed. … To save the Legation it was necessary to continue the
destruction and dismantle the library buildings. With great
difficulty, with inadequate tools, the buildings were pulled
down. Trees endangering our position were felled. An attempt
was made to rescue specimens of the more valuable manuscripts,
but few were saved for the danger was pressing. Sir Claude
MacDonald, as soon as the fire was discovered, despatched a
messenger to the Tsung-li-Yamên, telling them of the fire and
urging them to send some responsible officials to carry away
what volumes could be rescued, but no attention was given to
his courteous communication. The Dutch Legation was burned on
the 22nd, and next day Chinese soldiers set fire to the
Russo-Chinese Bank, and a greater part of the buildings were
destroyed, involving in danger the American Legation. Chinese
volunteers were called for. They responded readily, worked
with much courage exposed to fire from the wall, and the
Legation was saved. All the buildings back from the bank to
the Chien Mên (the main gate between the Chinese and Tartar
cities facing the entrance to the Forbidden City) seemed to be
on fire. Then all the Customs buildings were fired, so that
flames were on every side, and the smoke was tremendous, while
the fusillade was incessant. An Italian and a German died of
their wounds. The first American was killed, shot from the
wall, then a Russian fell. They were dropping off one by one,
and already we were well accustomed to the sight of the
stretcher and the funeral. Wounded were being brought in from
every Legation to the hospital in the British Legation. …
{121}
"Then a new terror was added to the fears of the besieged, for
the Imperial troops mounted a 3 in. Krupp gun on the Chien Mên,
the gate opposite to the Forbidden City, and began throwing
segment shells from a distance of 1,000 yards into the crowded
Legation. The first shell struck the American Legation, others
burst over the British compound, while others crashed into the
upper rooms of the German Legation. It was known that the
Chinese had ten similar guns in Peking, while we had nothing
with which to answer their fire, and no one ever knew where
the next gun might be mounted. Immediately all hands dug
bomb-proof shelters for the women and children. Rifle fire
also played on the Americans from the wall quite close to them
at a distance of a few hundred feet only, whence, safely
sheltered by the parapet of the wall, men could enfilade the
barricade which was held by the Americans on the street
running east and west under the wall. The barricade became
untenable, and to occupy the wall was a paramount necessity
which could no longer be delayed. … Down in the besieged area
the enemy pressed upon every side. Again they attempted to
fire the British Legation from the Mongol market on the west;
but a sortie was made by British Marines and Volunteers, and
the Chinese were driven from house to house out of the market.
The work was dangerous, and Captain Halliday was dangerously
wounded, while Captain Strouts had an extraordinary escape,
the bullet grazing the skin above the carotid artery. The
sortie was entirely successful; some rifles were captured, and
ammunition, which was more precious than silver. The buildings
were then fired by us, the fire being kept under control,
which cleared a long distance round the west of the Legation.
Fortification proceeded without intermission and all the
defences of the besieged area quickly gathered strength. For
the first time in war, art was a feature in the fortification.
Sandbags were of every colour under the sun and of every texture.
Silks and satins, curtains and carpets and embroideries were
ruthlessly cut up into sandbags. In the Prince's Fu the
sandbags were made of the richest silks and satins, the
Imperial gifts and accumulated treasures of one of the eight
princely families of China. In the Prince's Fu the Chinese
made a determined attempt to force their way into the Palace
in their frenzy to slaughter the native Christians. In the
angle of the wall in the northeastern court of the Palace they
made a breach in the wall and rushed wildly in. But the
Japanese were waiting for them and from loopholes they had
made opposite rolled them over like rabbits, driving them
helter-skelter back again. Some 20 were killed, and but for
the unsteadiness of the Italians who were assisting the
Japanese the execution would have been greater. The Chinese
were driven back, but the same evening they threw fireballs of
petroleum over the wall and set fire to the building. Flames
spread to the splendid main pavilion of the Palace. The
Japanese in their turn were driven back, and the Christians
escaping from the burning building overflowed from the Fu into
all that quarter lying between the Palace grounds and
Legation-street.
"On June 25 a truly Oriental method of weakening our defence
was attempted by the Chinese. Up to 4 o'clock in the afternoon
the shooting of rifles and field guns had been continuous,
when suddenly bugles were sounded north, east, south, and
west, and, as if by magic, the firing ceased. It was under
perfect control—Imperial control commanded by responsible
central authority. The silence abruptly following the
fusillade was striking. Then an official of low rank was seen
to affix to the parapet of the north bridge near the British
Legation a board inscribed with 18 Chinese
characters:—'Imperial command to protect Ministers and stop
firing. A despatch will be handed at the Imperial Canal
Bridge.' A placard whereon was written 'Despatch will be
received' was sent by one of the Chinese clerks employed in
the Legation, but when he approached the bridge a hundred
rifles from the Imperial Palace gate were levelled at him. The
despatch was never received. The artifice deceived no one.
Treachery was feared, vigilance was redoubled. Sandbags were
thrown on positions which during fire were untenable. So that
when at midnight the general attack was made upon us we were
prepared, and every man was at his post. The surprise had
failed. As firing had ceased so it began. Horns were sounded,
and then from every quarter a hail of bullets poured over us,
sweeping through the trees and striking with sharp impact the
roofs of the pavilions. No harm was done though the noise was
terrific. Great steadiness was shown by the men. They lay
quietly behind the sandbags and not a shot was fired in reply.
It was suggested as an explanation of this wild firing that
the shots were to kill the guardian spirits which were known
to hover over us. Similar fusillades took place at the
American Legation and at the French Legation, and with the
same result. During the armistice the Chinese had availed
themselves of the quiet to throw up earthworks in the Carriage
Park alongside the British Legation, in the Mongol market
between the British and Russian Legations, and at both ends of
Legation-street facing the Americans on the west and facing
the French Legation corner on the east.
"Our isolation was now complete, and the enemy's cordon was
constantly drawing closer. Every wall beyond the lines was
loopholed. Not only was the besieged area cut off from all
communication with the world outside Peking, but it was cut
off from all communication with the Pei-tang. No messenger
could be induced for love or money to carry a message there.
Bishop Favier and his guards must have been already hard
pressed, for they were exposed to the danger not only of rifle
and cannon, but of fire and starvation. The small garrison
detached from the guards was known to be inadequately supplied
with ammunition. It was known, however, that the danger of the
situation had long been foreseen by Monseigneur Favier, who,
speaking with unequalled authority, had weeks before the siege
vainly urged his Minister to bring troops to Peking. When the
crisis became inevitable and Christian refugees poured into
the city the Bishop endeavoured to buy arms and ammunition, so
that there was a hope, though a faint one, that the Chinese
themselves had assisted in the defence. So with stores. Large
quantities of grain were stored in the Pei-tang, but whether
sufficient for a siege for a garrison of 3,000 souls was not
known. Their condition was a constant source of anxiety to the
Europeans within the Legations, who were powerless to help
them. Watch was kept unceasingly for any sign of the disaster
that seemed inevitable—the massacre and the conflagration.
{122}
"Towards evening of the 28th a Krupp gun was mounted in the
Mongol market, not 300 yards from the British Legation, and
fire was opened upon a storeyed building occupied by marines
in the south court of the Legation. Fired at short range, the
shells crashed through the roof and walls. For an hour the
bombardment continued, but no one was injured, though a crack
racing pony in the stables below was killed, and next day
eaten. It was determined to capture this gun, so in the early
morning a force consisting of 26 British, ten Germans, ten
Russians, five French, and five Italians, and about 20
volunteers made a sortie from the Legation to try and capture
the gun and burn the houses covering it; but the attempt was a
fiasco. The men got tangled up in the lanes so that the reserve
line with the kerosene marched ahead of the firing line; there
was a Babel of voices, no one knew where to go, the captain
lost his head and set fire to the houses in the rear and the
men retreated pell-mell. … The Chinese, however, were alarmed
and removed the gun. Meanwhile both French and German
Legations had suffered heavily. …
"On the 29th the French Legation was hard pressed. One of
their officers, the midshipman Herbert, was shot.
Reinforcements were hastily sent from the Fu, and the attack
was repulsed; but some of the outer buildings of the Legation
were burned, and the French had to retire further into the
Legation. In this siege it was striking what a powerful part
petroleum was made to play. Already the French Legation had
suffered more severely than any other Legation; of their 45
men 16 had been killed or wounded. Krupp guns had been mounted
not 50 yards to the eastward, and the eastern walls of the
pavilions were being gradually and systematically battered
into ruins. All day now and until the cessation of hostilities
shells were pounding into the French Legation, into Chamot's
hotel, and from the Chien Mên on the wall, promiscuously,
everywhere. Much property was destroyed, but, though the
shells burst everywhere and escapes were marvellous, few
people were hit. Bullets whistled in the Legation compounds.
Surgeon Lippett was talking to Mr. Conger in the American
Legation when he was hit by a bullet that smashed the thigh
bone. Had the bullet not struck the surgeon it would have hit
the Minister. Mr. Pethick was sitting at a window of the
American Legation fanning himself when a bullet pierced the
fan. A civilian was wounded in the British Legation, and a
marine, Phillips, was killed while walking in the compound.
A fragment of shell fell on a patient inside the hospital.
"The cordon was drawing closer. In the Fu nearly one-third of
the buildings had been abandoned and the Japanese retired to a
second line of defence. Shells were fired by the hundred. On
the 29th 70 shells were thrown into the British Legation. The
difficulty of holding the American and German barricades on
the city wall was increasing. The positions were very much
exposed. A Krupp gun was brought close to the American
barricade. The Russo-Chinese Bank and all the buildings near
were occupied by Chinese troops, the walls being loopholed and
lanes barricaded. And all were so close that you could not
look through a loop-hole without being shot at. Yet the
American barricade, with its mixed guard of Americans,
Russians, and British, had to be held at all hazards;
otherwise the Krupp gun could be brought down the wall and
play havoc upon the Legations, the furthest of which—the
British—was at its nearest point not 400 yards distant. Still
more exposed than the American barricade was the outpost on
the wall held by the Germans. At first they had been
reinforced by the French and Austrians, but the needs of the
French Legation were equally pressing and the guards were
withdrawn and a small picket of British sent to aid the
Germans. … In the morning of July 1 the Chinese climbed up the
ramp and surprised the guard. The order was hastily given to
retire, and the picket, shaken by its losses of yesterday,
left the wall. The German non-commissioned officer who gave
the order was severely blamed for thus abandoning a position
that he had been ordered to hold. Withdrawal left the
Americans exposed in the rear. They saw the Germans retire,
and in a panic fell back to the Legation, rushing pell-mell
down the ramp. Nothing had occurred at the barricade itself to
justify the retreat, although two men had fallen within a few
hours before. Yet the wall was the key of the position and had
to be maintained. A conference was held at the British
Legation, and as a result orders were given to return to the
post. Captain Myers at once took back a strong detachment of
14 Americans, ten British, and ten Russians, and reoccupied
the barricade as if nothing had happened. The Chinese,
ignorant that the post had been evacuated, lost their
opportunity. Then the guard in the French Legation was driven
a stage further back and M. Wagner, a volunteer, was killed by
the bursting of a shell. …
"It was a day of misfortunes. In the afternoon the most
disastrous sortie of the siege was attempted. A Krupp gun,
firing at short range into the Fu (i. e., the Prince's
Palace), was a serious menace to our communications. Captain
Paolini, the Italian officer, conceived the idea that he could
capture the gun if volunteers could be given him and if the
Japanese could assist. … By this ineffective sortie our small
garrison was reduced by three men killed, one officer and four
men and one volunteer wounded. Fortunately it was no worse.
The gun that was not captured was brought up again next day
into play and continued battering down the Fu walls. The enemy
were working their way ever nearer to the refugee Christians.
Their rage to reach the Christians was appalling. They cursed
them from over the wall, hurled stones at them, and threw
shells to explode overhead. Only after the armistice, when we
received the 'Peking Gazette,' did we find that word to burn
out and slaughter the converts had come from the highest in
the land. The Japanese were driven still further back. Already
they had lost heavily, for upon them had fallen the brunt of a
defence the gallantry of which surpassed all praise. When the
siege was raised it was found that of the entire force of
marines only five men had escaped without wounds; one was
wounded five times. Colonel Shiba early raised a force of
'Christian volunteers,' drilled them, instructed them, and
armed them with rifles captured from the enemy. They made an
effective addition to the Japanese strength. …
{123}
"At daybreak on July 3, the Chinese barricade on the top of
the wall near the American outpost was successfully stormed by
a party of British, Americans, and Russians, under the leadership
of Captain Myers, Captain Vroublevsky, and Mr. Nigel Oliphant.
… The position was intolerable. It was imperative to rush the
barricade and drive out the Chinese; nothing else could be
done. An attack was planned for 3 in the morning, and before
that hour a strong force of British was sent over from the
legation. The combined force assembled for the attack
consisted of 26 British marines under Sergeant Murphy and
Corporal Gregory, with Mr. Nigel Oliphant as volunteer, 15
Russians under Captain Vroublevsky, and 15 Americans, all
being under the command of Captain Myers. When asked if they
came willingly one American begged to be relieved and was sent
below. This left the total force at 56, of whom 14 were
Americans. So close were the Chinese that it was only a couple
of jumps from our barricade to their fort. There was a rush to
be first over, the fort was stormed, and dashing round the
covering wall the 'foreign devils' charged behind the
barricade. Taken by surprise the Chinese fired in the air,
fled incontinently, and were shot down as they ran along the
open surface of the wall. Captain Vroublevsky and his
detachment acted with especial gallantry, for their duty it
was to attack the Chinese barricade in the front, while the
British and Americans took it in the rear. Two banners marked
'General Ma' were captured. Fifteen Chinese soldiers of
Tung-fuh-siang were killed outright and many more must have
been wounded. Some rifles and ammunition were captured. Then
the allied forces, exposed to a heavy fire, retired within
what had been the Chinese barricade and employed it against
the enemy who had built it. Captain Myers was wounded in the
knee by tripping over a fallen spear, two Americans, Turner
and Thomas—one having accidentally jumped on the wrong side of
the barricade—were killed, and Corporal Gregory was wounded in
the foot. News of the successful sortie gave much pleasure to
the community. Chinese coolies were sent on the wall, and a
strongly intrenched redoubt was built there; the camp was made
safe by traverses. Unfortunately, the wound of Captain Myers
proved more serious than was at first suspected, and he was
not again able to return to duty. The services of a brave and
capable officer were lost to the garrison; his post on the
wall was taken most ably by Captain Percy Smith and other
officers in turn.
"Most of the shelling was now directed against the French and
German Legations and Chamot's Hotel. The hotel was struck 91
times and was several times set on fire, but the flame was
extinguished. Work continued there, however hot the shelling,
for food had to be prepared there for half the community in
Peking, Russians, French, Germans, and Austrians. The energy
of Chamot was marvellous. He fed the troops and a crowd of
Christian refugees, killed his own mules and horses, ground
his own wheat, and baked 300 loaves a day. Shelled out of the
kitchen he baked in the parlour. His courage inspired the
Chinese, and they followed him under fire with an amazing
confidence.
"Then suddenly a new attempt was made to reduce the British
Legation. Guns firing round shot, eight-pounders and
four-pounders, were mounted on the Imperial City wall
overlooking from the north the Hanlin and the British
Legation. With glasses—the distance was only 350 yards—one
could clearly see the officers and distinguish their Imperial
Peacock feathers and Mandarin hats. … Three batteries in all,
carrying five guns, were mounted on the Imperial City wall
where the bombardment could be witnessed by the Empress
Dowager and her counsellors, and day after day round shot were
thrown from them into the British Legation, into a compound
crowded with women and children. … On July 5 Mr. David
Oliphant, of the British Legation, was killed. He was felling
a tree by the well in the Hanlin when he was shot by a sniper
concealed in a roof in the Imperial Carriage Park, and died
within an hour. Only 24 years of age, he was a student of
exceptional promise and ability. …
"Day by day the Chinese were pressing us more closely. In the
Fu they were gradually wedging their way in from the
north-east so as to cut the communications between the British
and the Legations to the east. They burned their way from house
to house. Keeping under cover, they set alight the gables
within reach by torches of cloth soaked in kerosene held at
the end of long poles. If the roof were beyond reach they
threw over fireballs of kerosene, or, if still further, shot
into them with arrows freighted with burning cloth. In this
way and with the use of the heavy gun they battered a way
through the houses and courtyards of the Prince's Palace. A
daring attempt made by the Japanese to capture the gun
resulted in failure. Coolies failed them when they were within
four yards of success, and they were forced to retire. Their
gallant leader Captain Ando was shot in the throat while
waving on his men, one marine was seriously wounded, and one
Christian volunteer killed. … By the 8th the position in the
Fu was alarming, for the Japanese force had been reduced to 13
marines and 14 volunteers; yet with decreasing numbers they
were constantly called upon to defend a longer line.
Reinforcements were sent them of half-a-dozen Customs and
student volunteers and of six British marines. Nothing can
give a better indication of the smallness of our garrison than
the fact that throughout the siege reinforcements meant five men
or ten men. Strong reinforcements meant 15 men. Our
reinforcements were counted by ones, not by companies. With
this force a line of intrenchments stretching from the outer
court of the Fu on the east across the grounds to near the
extreme northwest corner was held till the end. … The position
was one of constant solicitude, for the loss of the Fu would
have imperilled the British Legation. A Krupp gun, mounted 50
yards away, had the range and raked the post with shell and
shrapnel. To strengthen the breastwork exposure to rifle fire
was incurred from 20 yards' distance, while to reach the post
required crossing a zone of fire which was perhaps the hottest
in the whole of the defences. Many men were wounded there, and
one Italian had his head blown off. Shell fire finally made it
impossible to live there. The advanced posts were abandoned,
and the sentries fell back to the main picket. No sooner was
the advanced post abandoned than it was occupied by the
Chinese, and the defences we had made were turned against us.
{124}
"Meanwhile, the French and German Legations were being roughly
handled, and men were falling daily. At the German Legation
shells burst through the Minister's drawing-room. Most of the
other buildings conspicuous by their height were
uninhabitable, but every member of the Legation remained at
his post. So, too, in the French Legation, where the Austrians
were, Dr. and Madame von Rosthorn remained by the side of
their men. The French volunteers and Dr. Matignon stood
stanchly by their Legation, although it was fast tumbling into
ruins, their coolness and resolution being in curious contrast
to the despair of their Minister, who, crying, 'Tout est perdu,'
melodramatically burned the French archives in a ditch at the
British Legation. Chinese and French were so close that the
voices of the Chinese officers could be heard encouraging
their men. Chinese were within the Legation itself. Their guns
literally bombarded the Minister's residence 'à bout portant,'
and the noise of the exploding shells was terrific. Yet the men
never flinched. … July 11 was a day of many casualties. One
German was mortally wounded; one Englishman, one Italian, and
one Japanese were seriously wounded. Mr. Nigel Oliphant, a
volunteer, received a bullet wound in the leg, while Mr.
Narahara, the well-known secretary of the Japanese Legation,
wounded by the bursting of a shell, suffered a compound
fracture of the leg, which from the first gave cause for
anxiety. He gradually sank and died on July 24. …
On the 11th 18 prisoners were captured by the French in a
temple near the Legation. They were soldiers, and a Chinese
Christian gave information as to their whereabouts. Everyone
of them was put to death without mercy in the French Legation,
bayoneted by a French corporal to save cartridges. Questioned
before death they gave much information that was obviously
false. One man, however, declared that a mine was being driven
under the French Legation. His story had quick corroboration.
As the afternoon of the 13th was closing a feint attack was
made on the Japanese intrenchments in the Fu. Then the sound
of many bugles was heard from the camps round the French
Legation, to be followed in a few minutes by a terrific
explosion, and in a moment or two by another; and bricks and
debris were hurled into the air. It was a dull roar in the
midst of the devilish cries of hordes of Chinese, shrieking
like spirits in hell, the rattle of musketry, and the boom of
heavy guns. The mine of which the prisoner had warned us had
exploded and burst an entrance into the French Legation. When
the first mine exploded the French Captain Darcy, the Austrian
Charge d'Affaires, two French marines, and Mr. Destelan of the
Customs were standing over the death-trap. Mr. Destelan was
buried up to the neck, but was rescued unhurt, the two marines
were engulfed and their bodies were never recovered, Captain
Darcy and Dr. von Rosthorn escaped miraculously. The latter
was buried by the first explosion and released unhurt a moment
or two later by the second. Driven out of the main buildings,
the small garrison (it consisted only of 17 Austrians with
three officers, 27 French with two officers, and nine
volunteers) fell back a few paces to a line of defence, part
of which had only been completed in the afternoon, and
securely held the position.
"Simultaneously with this attack upon the French Legation the
Chinese made a determined assault upon the German Legation,
the effective strength of whose garrison numbered only one
officer and 31 men. They broke into the Club alongside the
Legation and were on the tennis ground when Count Soden and a
handful of German soldiers gallantly charged them at the point
of the bayonet and drove them out headlong. … Uniforms on the
dead Chinese showed that the attack had been carried out by
the troops of Yung Lu, reinforced by the savages of
Tung-fuh-siang. Some of the dead were armed with the latest
pattern Mauser and the newest German army revolver. Some
ammunition, of which the guards were in much need, was
recovered and distributed among the Japanese and Italians.
Firing continued round the other Legations; every battery
opened fire; the air hissed with bullets. There was momentary
darkness, then flames broke out from the large foreign houses
between the German Legation and Canal-street. It seemed at one
time as if the whole of the quarter would be burned, but the
fire did not spread. Heavy rain came on, and the rest of the
night passed in quiet.
"On July 14, a messenger, sent out on the 10th, with a letter
for the troops, returned to the British Legation. He had been
arrested by the Chinese, cruelly beaten, and taken, he said,
to the yamên of Yung Lu, and there given the following letter,
purporting to be written by Prince Ching 'and others,'
addressed to the British Minister. It was the first
communication of any kind whatsoever that had reached us from
outside for nearly one month. 'For the last ten days the
soldiers and Militia have been fighting, and there has been no
communication between us, to our great anxiety. Some time ago
we hung up a board, expressing our intentions, but no answer
has been received, and contrary to expectation the foreign
soldiers made renewed attacks, causing alarm and suspicion
among soldiers and people. Yesterday the troops captured a
convert named Chin Ssu-hei and learnt from him that all the
foreign Ministers 'were well, which caused us very great
satisfaction. But it is the unexpected which happens. The
reinforcements of foreign troops were long ago stopped and
turned back by the "Boxers," and if, in accordance with
previous agreement, we were to guard your Excellencies out of
the city, there are so many "Boxers" on the road to Tien-tsin
and Ta-ku that we should be apprehensive of misadventure. We
now request your Excellencies to first take your families and
the various members of your staffs, and leave your Legations
in detachments. We should select trustworthy officers to give
close and strict protection, and you should temporarily reside
in the Tsung-li-Yamên, pending future arrangements for your
return home, in order to preserve friendly relations intact
from beginning to end. But at the time of leaving the
Legations there must on no account whatever be taken any
single armed soldier, in order to prevent doubt and fear on
the part of the troops and people, leading to untoward
incidents. If your Excellencies are willing to show this
confidence, we beg you to communicate with all the foreign
Ministers in Peking, to-morrow at noon being the limit of
time, and to let the original messenger deliver the reply in
order that we may settle the day for leaving the Legations.
This is the single way of preserving relations which we have
been able to devise in the face of innumerable difficulties.
If no reply is received by the time fixed, even our affection
will not enable us to help you.
Compliments.
(Signed) Prince Ching and others.
July 14, 1900.'
{125}
"Following as it did immediately after the attack on the
French Legation, which reduced it to ruins, the letter did not
lack for impudence. 'Boxers' had driven back our troops,
'Militia,' not 'Boxers,' had been attacking us in Peking. The
letter was read with derision. It was interpreted as a
guileless attempt to seduce the Ministers away from their
Legations and massacre them at ease. News we heard
subsequently had just reached the Chinese of the taking of
Tien-tsin city. … On the 15th a reply was sent declining on
the part of the foreign representatives the invitation to
proceed to the Tsung-li-Yamên, and pointing out that no
attacks had been made by our troops, who were only defending
the lives and property of foreigners against the attacks of
Chinese Government troops. The reply concluded with a
statement that if the Chinese Government wished to negotiate
they should send a responsible official with a white flag. …
"The morning of the 16th opened with a disaster. Captain
Strouts, the senior British officer, was shot while returning
from the outposts in the Fu. He was struck in the upper part
of the left thigh by an expanding bullet, and died an hour
after being brought into the hospital, to the grief of the
entire community. … While shells were bursting in the trees,
and amid the crack of rifle bullets, the brave young fellow to
whose gallant defence we all owed so much was laid to rest. …
While the service was proceeding a messenger bearing a flag of
truce was approaching the gate. … The letter was from 'Prince
Ching and others.' It explained that the reason for suggesting
the removal of the Legations to the Tsung-li-Yamên was that
the Chinese Government could afford more efficient protection
to the members of the Legations if concentrated than if
scattered as at present. As the foreign Ministers did not
agree, however, the Chinese would as in duty bound do their
utmost to protect the Legations where they were. (While the
latter sentence was being read the translator had to raise his
voice in order that it should be heard above the crack of the
Imperial rifle bullets.) They would bring reinforcements and
continue their endeavours to prevent the 'Boxers' from firing,
and they trusted that the foreign Ministers on their part
would restrain their troops also from firing.
"By the same messenger a cipher message was brought to Mr.
Conger, the American Minister. It said:—'Communicate tidings
bearer.' It was in the State Department cipher and had no date
or indication by whom it had been sent. Mr. Conger replied in the
same cipher:—'For one month we have been besieged in British
Legation under continued shot and shell from Chinese troops.
Quick relief only can prevent general massacre.' When
forwarding his reply he asked that it should be sent to the
address from which the other had come, which address had not
been communicated to him. Next day the Yamên sent him an
answer saying that his message had been forwarded and
explaining that the telegram sent to him had been contained in
a telegram from Wu Ting Fang, the Chinese Minister at
Washington, dated July 11. This telegram read:—'The United
States cheerfully aid China, but it is thinking of Mr.
Minister Conger. The Hon. Secretary of State inquires after
him by telegram, which I beg to be transmitted to him and get
his reply.' From this we could well imagine what specious
assurances had been given to Mr. Hay by Wu Ting Fang's bland
assurances that there had been a most regrettable outbreak on
the part of lawless bands in the north of China which the
Government was vainly struggling to cope with. … From July 17
there was a cessation of hostilities; not that men were not
wounded afterwards and Christian coolies fired upon whenever
they showed themselves, but the organized attacks ceased and
the Krupp guns were muzzled. Fearing treachery, however, we
relaxed none of our vigilance. Trenches were cut where mines
might have been driven. All walls and shelters were so
strengthened as to be practically shell-proof. Our
preparations were purely defensive. On their part the Chinese
also continued work at their barricades. From their barricade
on the top of the wall near the German Legation they advanced
westward so that they could fire directly down into the German
Legation and pick off men going up the steps of the Minister's
house. They built a wall with loop-holes across
Legation-street not 20 yards from the Russian barricade. In
nearly every position the enemy were so close that you could
shoot into the muzzles of their rifles thrust through the
loop-holes. The cordon was still drawn tightly round us, and
we were penned in to prevent our acting in co-operation with
the troops who were coming to our relief. No provisions were
permitted to reach us, but a few eggs for the women and
children were surreptitiously sold us by Chinese soldiers. All
were on reduced rations, the allowance for the 2,750 native
Christians whom we had to provide for being barely sufficient
to save them from starvation. Their sufferings were very
great, the mortality among the children and the aged pitiful.
No one could have foreseen that within the restricted limits
of the besieged area, with the food supply therein obtainable,
473 civilians (of these 414—namely, 191 men, 147 women, 76
children—were inside the British Legation), a garrison of 400
men, 2,750 refugees, and some 400 native servants could have
sustained a siege of two entire months. Providentially in the
very centre of Legation-street there was a mill with a large
quantity of grain which turned out 900 lb. of flour a day
divided between the hotel and the Legation. One day the
Tsung-li-Yamên insultingly sent us a present of 1,000 lb. of
flour and some ice and vegetables, but no one would venture to
eat the flour, fearing that it might be poisoned.
Communications now passed almost daily with the Tsung-li-Yamên
or with the officials whose despatches were signed 'Prince
Ching and others.' On July 17, Sir Claude MacDonald replied to
the suggestion that the Ministers would restrain their troops
from firing upon the Chinese. He said that from the first the
foreign troops had acted entirely in self-defence, and would
continue to do so. But the Chinese must understand that
previous events had led to a want of confidence and that if
barricades were erected or troops moved in the vicinity of the
Legations the foreign guards would be obliged to fire. In the
afternoon the Chinese replied, reviewing the situation and
ascribing the hostilities to the attacks previously made by
the Legation guards. They noted with satisfaction that a
cessation of firing was agreed to on both sides, but suggested
that as foreign soldiers had been firing from the city wall
east of the Chien Mên, they should be removed from that
position.
{126}
Next day, Sir Claude MacDonald replied with a review of the
situation from the foreign point of view. … He hoped that
mutual confidence would gradually be restored, but meanwhile
he again pointed out that cessation of hostile preparations as
well as firing was necessary on the part of the Chinese troops
to secure that the foreign troops should cease firing. As for
the suggestion that the foreign troops should leave the city
wall, it was impossible to accede to it, because a great part
of the attacks on the Legations had been made from the wall.
He concluded by suggesting that sellers of fruit and ice
should be allowed to come in. They were never permitted to
come in. It was clear, however, that events were happening
elsewhere to cause alarm in the Imperial Court. On the
afternoon of the first day of what might be called the
armistice M Pelliot, a French gentleman from Tongking, entered
the Chinese lines and to the great anxiety of all was absent five
hours. He was taken by soldiers to a yamên of one of the big
generals—he knew not which—was plied with questions which,
speaking some Chinese, he could answer, and was sent back
unmolested with an escort of 15 soldiers 'to protect him
against the Boxers.' This unusual clemency was interpreted
favourably. It was clear that the Chinese had sustained a
severe defeat and that relief was coming. Next day direct
communication was for the first time held with an official of
the Tsung-li-Yamên. A secretary named Wen Jui came to the
Legation to see Sir Claude MacDonald and was received by the
Minister outside the gate, not being permitted to enter. He
said that the regrettable occurrences were due to 'local
banditti,' that the Government had great concern to protect
the foreigners, that Baron von Ketteler's body had been
recovered from the hands of the 'local banditti' who had
murdered him and been enclosed in a valuable coffin. He urged
that the maintenance of foreign troops on the city was
unnecessary and that they should be withdrawn. It was pointed
out to him that, as we had been very continuously shelled from
the city wall both from the Ha-ta Mên and the Chien Mên, it
would be inadvisable to retire. Asked to send copies of the
'Peking Gazette,' he hesitated a moment and then stammered
that he really had not himself seen the 'Peking Gazette' for a
long time, but he would inquire and see if they could be
bought. He never came back and never sent a 'Gazette.' His
name was Wen Jui. When we did obtain copies of the 'Gazette'
it was interesting to find two items that must have been
especially unpleasant for him to have us know. On June 24, by
Imperial decree, leaders were appointed to the 'Boxers,' or
'patriotic militia.' Among the chiefs was Wen Jui.
"The visit of Wen Jui was on the 18th. Up to the time of his
visit, though more than four weeks had passed since the
assassination, no allusion of any kind whatever had been made
in any 'Peking Gazette' to the murder of Baron van Ketteler.
Then the Empress-Dowager, yielding to her fears, published an
allusion to the murder. Will the German Emperor rest satisfied
with the tardy official reference to the brutal assassination
of his Minister by an Imperial officer? 'Last month the
Chancellor of the Japanese Legation was killed. This was,
indeed, most unexpected. Before this matter had been settled
the German Minister was killed. Suddenly meeting this affair
caused us deep grief. We ought vigorously to seek the murderer
and punish him.' No more. The date July 18; the murder June
20!
"Yet even in this decree there was a complete 'volte-face.'
Missionaries who were by the decree of July 2 'to be at once
driven away to their own countries' were by the decree of July
18 'to be protected in every province,' 'to be protected
without the least carelessness.' The truculence and
belligerence of the decrees issued when our troops had been
driven back had disappeared; the tone now was one of
justification and conciliation. Only one interpretation was
possible—that the Chinese had been defeated. Confirmation came
the same day. A messenger sent out by the Japanese
successfully passed the enemy's lines and brought us the news
that we had so long awaited. … By the same messenger a letter
was received by the French Minister. … The same messenger also
brought to the Belgian Minister a despatch from his Consul at
Tien-tsin. … Days followed quietly now, though 'sniping' did
not cease. Several casualties occurred among the garrison. A
Russian was killed and an Austrian wounded; an Italian wounded
and also a Japanese. In the Fu it was still dangerous for the
Christian refugees to move about, and several were hit and two
killed. But the Yamên became more and more conciliatory, until
we could gauge the advance of the reliefs by the degree of
apology in their despatches. But all supplies were rigorously
cut off, and the sufferings of the Christians were acute. …
"On the 22nd Sir Robert Hart received a despatch from the
Tsung-li-Yamên. They naïvely remarked that it was now one
month since they had heard from him, and his silence gave them
concern for his welfare. Moreover, a report had just reached them
that his house had been burned, but they expressed the hope
that he and al his staff were well. Another despatch requested
his advice upon a Customs question that had arisen in
Shanghai. Sir Robert Hart wrote a dignified reply. For more
than a month, he said, he had been a refugee in the British
Legation with all his staff, having had to flee from his house
without warning; that all Customs records and papers, and
every paper and letter of value that he had accumulated during
a lifetime, had been destroyed; that not only his house, but
some 19 other buildings in the occupation of his staff had
been burned with all their contents; that the acting postal
secretary had been killed by a shell, and two other members of
his staff—Mr. Richardson and Mr. Macoun—had been wounded by
bullets. …
"Meanwhile, the armistice continued, if armistice it can be
called where true armistice there was none. Desultory firing
continued, and sniping was still the chief pastime at the
Chinese outposts. Friendly relations were, however, opened
with some Chinese soldiers in the Fu. A Japanese Volunteer
established a bureau of intelligence to which the enemy's
soldiers had access. One soldier was especially communicative,
and earned high reward for the valuable information that he
conveyed to us. For a week from July 26 to August 2 daily
bulletins based upon this information of the advance of the
relief column were posted on the bell tower of the British
Legation.
{127}
An unbroken series of victories was attending our relief
forces. … Letters were given to the soldier to take to the
General of the relief column, and a reward offered if an
answer should be brought next day, but no answer was ever
brought. Our informant had brought the armies along too
quickly. He was compelled to send them back. Accordingly on
the 31st he made the Chinese recapture Chang-chia-wan, killing
60 of the foreigners; advancing upon Matou he killed 70
foreigners more, and drove them back to An-ping. Next day he
drove the foreigners disastrously back to Tien-tsin with a
loss of 1,000. The day was equally disastrous to himself. Our
informant had killed the goose that lay the golden egg. For a
messenger arrived on that day with letters from Tien-tsin,
dated July 30, informing us that a large force was on the
point of leaving for our relief. … Meanwhile, while our
informant was marching our relief backwards and forwards to
Tien-tsin, Prince Ching and others were vainly urging the
Ministers to leave Peking, but whether they left Peking or not
they were to hand over the Christian refugees now under the
protection of the Legations to the mercies of the Government,
which had issued a decree commanding that they be exterminated
unless they recanted their errors. In other communications
Prince Ching 'and others' urged that the foreign Ministers
should telegraph to their Government 'en clair' lying reports
of the condition of affairs in Peking.
Two days after the cessation of hostilities Prince Ching 'and
others' sent a despatch to Sir Claude MacDonald to the effect
that it was impossible to protect the Ministers in Peking
because 'Boxers' were gathering from all points of the
compass, and that nothing would satisfy them (the 'Boxers')
but the destruction of the Legations, and that the Ministers
would be given safe conduct to Tien-tsin. Sir Claude, in
reply, asked why it was that protection could be given to the
Ministers on the way to Tien-tsin and yet could not be given
to them while in the Legations in Peking. Prince Ching 'and
others' replied: 'July 25, 1900. … As to the inquiry what
difference there is between giving protection in the city or
on the road, and why it is possible to give it in the latter,
there is only an apparent discrepancy. For the being in the
city is permanent, the being on the road is temporary. If all
the foreign Ministers are willing to temporarily retire we
should propose the route to Tung-chau and thence by boat down
stream to Tien-tsin, which could be reached in only two days.
No matter what difficulties there might be a numerous body of
troops would be sent, half by water to form a close escort,
half by road to keep all safe for a long way on both banks.
Since the time would be short we can guarantee that there
would be no mishap. It is otherwise with a permanent residence
in Peking, where it is impossible to foretell when a disaster
may occur.' … In the envelope which brought this letter were
two other communications of the same guileless nature. 'On
July 24,' said the first, 'we received a telegram from Mr.
Warren, British Consul-General in Shanghai, to the effect that
while China was protecting the Legations no telegram had been
received from the British Minister, and asking the Yamên to
transmit Sir C. M. MacDonald's telegram to Shanghai. As in
duty bound we communicate the above, and beg you to send a
telegram "en clair" to the Yamên for transmission.' Tender
consideration was shown for us in the second letter:—'For the
past month and more military affairs have been very pressing.
Your Excellency and other Ministers ought to telegraph home
that your families are well in order to soothe anxiety, but at
the present moment peace is not yet restored, and your
Legation telegrams must be wholly "en clair," stating that all
is well, without touching on military affairs. Under those
conditions the Yamên can transmit them. The writers beg that
your Excellency will communicate this to the other foreign
Ministers.'
"Evasive replies were given to these communications. … Our
position at this time compelled us to temporize. We knew from
the alteration in tone of the Chinese despatches that they had
suffered defeats and were growing alarmed, but we did not know
how much longer international jealousies or difficulties of
obtaining transport were to delay the departure of the troops
for Tien-tsin. … Though now nominally under the protection of
an armistice sniping still continued, especially in the Fu,
into any exposed portion of the besieged area. … The Chinese
worked on continuously at their fortifications. … Finding that
the Ministers declined to telegraph to their Governments 'en
clair' that all was well with the Legations, the
Tsung-li-Yamên wrote to Sir Robert Hart asking him to send
home a telegram in the sense they suggested. Sir Robert
replied diplomatically, 'If I were to wire the truth about the
Legations I should not be believed.'
"A malevolent attempt was next made by the Chinese to obtain
possession of the refugees who were in our safe keeping. On
July 27 they wrote to Sir Claude MacDonald saying that 'they
hear that there are lodged at the Legations a considerable
number of converts, and that, as 'the space is limited and
weather hot, they suggest that they must be causing the
Legations considerable inconvenience. And now that people's
minds are quieted, these converts can all be sent out and go
about their ordinary avocations. They need not have doubts or
fears. If you concur, an estimate should be made of the
numbers and a date fixed for letting them out. Then all will
be in harmony.' The reply of the diplomatic body was to the
effect that while they were considering the two last
letters—one offering safe conduct to Tien-tsin and the other
declaring that the converts might leave the Legations in
perfect security—heavy firing was heard in the direction of
the Pei-tang, which was evidently being attacked in force;
that yesterday and last night a barricade was built across the
North Bridge, from behind which shots are being continuously
fired into the British Legation. The French and Russian
Legations are also being fired upon. As all this seems
inconsistent with the above letters, an explanation is asked
for before further consideration is given to the offer.
Promptly the Yamên sent its explanation. The Pei-tang
refugees, it seemed, who were starving, had made a sortie to
obtain food. And they had fired upon the people. 'A decree,'
it went on to say, 'has now been requested to the effect that
if the converts do not come out to plunder they are to be
protected and not to be continually attacked, for they also
are the children of the State. This practice (of continually
firing upon the converts) will thus be gradually stopped.'
{128}
Such a callous reply was read with indignation, and there was
not the slightest intention on the part of any Minister to
leave Peking. Yet on the 4th of August a decree was issued
appointing Yung Lu to conduct the foreign Ministers safely to
Tien-tsin 'in order once more to show the tenderness of the
Throne for the men from afar.' …
"On August 10, Friday, a messenger succeeded in passing the
enemy's lines, and brought us letters from General Gaselee and
General Fukushima. A strong relief force was marching to
Peking, and would arrive here if nothing untoward happened on
the 13th or 14th. Our danger then was that the enemy would
make a final effort to rush the Legations before the arrival
of reinforcements. And the expected happened. …
"Yesterday [August 13] passed under a continuous fusillade
which increased during the night. Then at 3 on this morning we
were all awakened by the booming of guns in the east and by
the welcome sound of volley firing. Word flew round that 'the
foreign troops are at the city wall and are shelling the East
Gate.' At daylight most of us went on to the wall, and
witnessed the shelling of the Great East Gate. We knew that
the allies would advance in separate columns, and were on the
qui vive of excitement, knowing that at any moment now the
troops might arrive. Luncheon, the hard luncheon of horse
flesh, came on, and we had just finished when the cry rang
through the Legation, 'The British are coming,' and there was
a rush to the entrance and up Canal-street towards the Water
Gate. The stalwart form of the general and his staff were
entering by the Water Gate, followed by the 1st Regiment of
Sikhs and the 7th Rajputs. They passed down Canal-street, and
amid a scene of indescribable emotion marched to the British
Legation. The siege has been raised.
"Peking, August 15. On reading over my narrative of the siege
I find that in the hurry and confusion of concluding my report
I have omitted one or two things that I had wished to say. In
the first place, I find that I have not in any adequate way
expressed the obligation of all those confined in the British
Legation to the splendid services done by the Reverend F. D.
Gamewell, of the American Episcopal Mission [who was educated
as a civil engineer at Troy and Cornell], to whom was due the
designing and construction of all our defences, and who
carried out in the most admirable manner the ideas and
suggestions of our Minister, Sir Claude MacDonald. To the
Reverend Frank Norris, of the Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel, our thanks are also specially due. He
superintended, often under heavy fire, the construction of
defences in the Prince's Fu and in other exposed places,
working always with a courage and energy worthy of admiration.
He was struck in the neck once by a segment of a shell, but
escaped marvellously from serious injury. He speaks Chinese
well, and Chinese worked under him with a fearlessness that
few men can inspire. In the second place, I noticed that I
have not sufficiently recorded the valuable services rendered
by Mr. H. G. Squiers, the First Secretary of the American
Legation, who on the death of Captain Strouts became Chief of
the Staff to Sir Claude MacDonald. He had been for 15 years in
the United States cavalry, and his knowledge and skill and the
resolution with which he inspired his small body of men will
not readily be forgotten. …
"To-day the Pei-tang Cathedral was relieved. Bishops, priests,
and sisters had survived the siege and, thanks to the
wonderful foresight of Bishop Favier, the Christians had been
spared from starvation. Japanese coming down from the north of
the city relieved the cathedral; French, British, and Russians
from the south arrived as the siege was raised. Mines had been
employed with deadly effect. The guards had lost five French
killed and five Italians. Some 200 of the Christians had
perished."
London Times,
October 13 and 15, 1900.
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (June-December).
Upright conduct of the Chinese Viceroys in
the Yang-tsze provinces.
In his annual message of December 3, 1900, to Congress,
referring to the occurrences in China, the President of the
United States remarked with much justice: "It is a relief to
recall and a pleasure to record the loyal conduct of the
viceroys and local authorities of the southern and eastern
provinces. Their efforts were continuously directed to the
pacific control of the vast populations under their rule and
to the scrupulous observance of foreign treaty rights. At
critical moments they did not hesitate to memorialize the
Throne, urging the protection of the legations, the
restoration of communication, and the assertion of the
Imperial authority against the subversive elements. They
maintained excellent relations with the official
representatives of foreign powers. To their kindly disposition
is largely due the success of the consuls in removing many of
the missionaries from the interior to places of safety." The
viceroys especially referred to in this are Chang Chih-tung
and Liu Kun-yi, often referred to as "the Yang-tsze viceroys."
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (July).
Speech of German Emperor to troops departing to China,
commanding no quarter.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (OCTOBER 9).
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (July).
American troops sent to co-operate with those of other Powers.
Capture of Tientsin by the allied forces.
Death of Colonel Liscum.
Reported massacre of foreign Ministers and others in Peking.
The long month of dread suspense.
Overtures from Earl Li Hung-chang for negotiation.
"On the 26th of June Major Gen. Adna R Chaffee, U. S. V., was
appointed to the command of the American forces in China. He
embarked from San Francisco on the 1st of July, reached
Nagasaki on the 24th, and Taku, China, on the 28th. … On
reaching Nagasaki he received the following instructions,
dated, … July 19: 'Secretary War directs that you proceed at
once with transport Grant, Sixth Cavalry, and Marines to Taku,
China, and take command of American land forces, which will be
an independent command known as the China relief expedition.
You will find there the Ninth and Fourteenth Infantry, one
battery of the Fifth Artillery, and one battalion of Marines.
Sumner sailed from San Francisco July 17 with Second Battalion
of Fifteenth Infantry and recruits to capacity of vessel.
{129}
Reinforcements will follow to make your force in the immediate
future up to 5,000, and very soon to 10,000. … Reports now
indicate that American Minister with all the legation have
been destroyed in Pekin. Chinese representative here, however,
insists to the contrary, and there is, therefore, a hope which
you will not lose sight of until certainty is absolute. It is
the desire of this Government to maintain its relations of
friendship with the part of Chinese people and Chinese
officials not concerned in outrages on Americans. Among these
we consider Li Hung Chang, just appointed viceroy of Chili.
You will to the extent of your power aid the Government of
China, or any part thereof, in repressing such outrages and in
rescuing Americans, and in protecting American citizens and
interests, and wherever Chinese Government fails to render
such protection you will do all in your power to supply it.
Confer freely with commanders of other national forces, act
concurrently with them, and seek entire harmony of action
along the lines of similar purpose and interest. There
should be full and free conference as to operations before
they are entered upon. You are at liberty to agree with them
from time to time as to a common official direction of the
various forces in their combined operations, preserving,
however, the integrity of your own American division, ready to
be used as a separate and complete organization. Much must be
left to your wise discretion and that of the admiral. At all
times report fully and freely to this Department your wants
and views. The President has to-day appointed you
major-general of volunteers.' …
"In the meantime the Ninth Infantry, from Manila, reached Taku
on the 6th of July. Two battalions of that regiment, under
Colonel Liscum, pressed forward to Tientsin, reaching that
point on the 11th, and on the 13th took part with the British,
French, and Japanese forces in an attack upon the southwest
part of the walled city of Tientsin, which had been rendered
necessary by the persistent shelling of the foreign quarters,
outside of the walls, on the part of the Chinese troops
occupying the city. Colonel Liscum's command formed part of a
brigade under General Dorward, of the British army, and was
assigned to the duty of protecting the flank of the allied
forces. In the performance of that duty it maintained a
position under heavy fire for fifteen hours, with a loss of 18
killed and 77 wounded. Among the killed was the gallant
Colonel Liscum, who thus ended an honorable service of nearly
forty years, commencing in the ranks of the First Vermont
Infantry at the outbreak of the civil war, and distinguished
by unvarying courage, fidelity, and high character. The
regiment was withdrawn from its position on the night of the
13th, and on the morning of the 14th the native city was
captured, and the southeast quarter was assigned to the
American forces for police and protection. …
"At the time of the capture of Tientsin the most positive and
circumstantial accounts of the massacre of all the ministers
and members of the legations in Pekin, coming apparently from
Chinese sources, had been published, and were almost
universally believed. The general view taken by the civilized
world of the duty to be performed in China was not that the
living representatives of the Western powers in Pekin were to
be rescued, but that their murder was to be avenged and their
murderers punished. In the performance of that duty time and
rapidity of movement were not especially important. The
resolution of the commanders of the allied forces,
communicated by Admiral Kempff on the 8th of July, to the
effect that 80,000 men would be required—20,000 to hold the
position from Taku to Tientsin and 60,000 to march to Pekin,
while not more than 40,800 troops were expected to have
arrived by the middle of August, practically abandoned all
expectation of rescuing the ministers and members of the
legations alive, for it proposed that after the middle of
August any forward movement should be still deferred until
40,000 more troops had arrived. On the 11th of July, however,
the American Secretary of State secured, through the Chinese
minister at Washington, the forwarding of a dispatch in the
State Department cipher to the American minister at Pekin, and
on the 20th of July, pursuant to the same arrangement, an
answer in cipher was received from Minister Conger, as
follows: 'For one month we have been besieged in British
legation under continued shot and shell from Chinese troops.
Quick relief only can prevent general massacre.' This dispatch
from Mr. Conger was the first communication received by any
Western power from any representative in Pekin for about a
month, and although it was at first received in Europe with
some incredulity, it presented a situation which plainly
called for the urgency of a relief expedition rather than for
perfection of preparation. It was made the basis of urgent
pressure for an immediate movement upon Pekin, without waiting
for the accumulation of the large force previously proposed."
United States, Secretary of War,
Annual Report, November 30, 1900,
pages 14-16, 19-20.
As mentioned above, in the instructions of the American
government to General Chaffee, the veteran Chinese statesman
and diplomat, Earl Li Hung-chang, well known in Europe and
America, had now been recalled by the Peking government to the
viceroyalty of Chili, from which he was removed six years
before, and had been given the authority of a plenipotentiary
to negotiate with the allied Powers. He addressed a proposal
to the latter, to the effect that the Ministers in Peking
would be delivered, under safe escort, at Tientsin, if the
allies would refrain from advancing their forces to Peking.
The reply from all the governments concerned was substantially
the same as that made by the United States, in the following
terms: "The government will not enter into any arrangement
regarding disposition or treatment of legations without first
having free communication with Minister Conger. Responsibility
for their protection rests upon Chinese government. Power to
deliver at Tientsin presupposes power to protect and to open
communication. This is insisted on." Earl Li then asked
whether, "if free communication were established, it could be
arranged that the Powers should not advance pending
negotiations," and was told in reply: "Free communication with
our representatives in Peking is demanded as a matter of
absolute right, and not as a favor. Since the Chinese
government admits that it possesses the power to give
communication, it puts itself in an unfriendly attitude by
denying it. No negotiations seem advisable until the Chinese
government shall have put the diplomatic representatives of
the Powers in full and free communication with their
respective governments, and removed all danger to their lives
and liberty."
{130}
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (July-August).
Boxer attack on the Russians in Manchuria,
and Russian retaliation.
See (in this volume)
MANCHURIA: A. D. 1900.
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (August).
Appointment of Count Waldersee to command the allied forces.
Field-Marshal Count von Waldersee, appointed to command the
German forces sent to China, being of higher military rank
than any other of the commanding officers in that country, was
proposed for the general command of the allied armies, and
accepted as such. Before his arrival in China, however, many
of the American, Russian, and some other troops, had been
withdrawn.
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (August 4-16).
The advance of the allied forces on Peking and the capture
of the city.
The following is from the report of General Chaffee,
commanding the American forces in the allied movement from
Tientsin, to rescue the beleaguered Legations at Peking: "On
my arrival at Tientsin I called on the various generals
commanding troops, and on August 1 a conference of generals
was held at the headquarters of Lieutenant-General Linivitch,
of the Russian army. Present at the conference were the
commanding general of the Russian army and his chief of staff;
Lieutenant-General Yamagutchi and his chief of staff;
Major-General Fukushima, of the Japanese army;
Lieutenant-General Gaselee, of the British army, and his chief
of staff, General Barrow; General Frey, of the French army; the
Germans were also represented by an officer of the German
navy; myself and Major Jesse M. Lee, Ninth Infantry, and
Lieutenant Louis M. Little, of the marines, who speaks French.
The purpose of this conference was to decide whether the
armies were ready to make a movement for the relief of Pekin.
It was disclosed in the conference that the Japanese, whose
forces occupied the right bank of the river in and about
Tientsin, where also were located the British and American
forces, had by various patrols determined that the Chinese
were in considerable force in the vicinity of Pei-tsang, about
7 miles distance up the river from Tientsin, and that they
were strengthening their position by earthworks extending from
the right bank of the river westward something like 3 miles,
and from the left bank east to the railroad embankment was
also being strengthened. The forces were variously estimated,
from reports of Chinese, at from 10,000 to 12,000 men in the
vicinity of Pei-tsang, with large bodies to the rearward as
far as Yangtsun, where it was reported their main line of
defenses would be encountered.
"The first question submitted for decision was 'whether a
movement should be made at once,' which was decided in the
affirmative, two Powers only dissenting, and these not
seriously, as their doubt seemed to be that the force we could
put in movement was not sufficiently strong to meet the
opposition that might be expected. The decision was that the
attack should be made on Sunday, August 5, and as the
Japanese, British, and American forces occupied the right bank
of the river, the Russians the left, the attack should be made
without change of situation of the troops, the British to send
four heavy guns to aid the Russian column. The strategy on the
right bank of the river was left to the determination of the
British, American, and Japanese generals. The force reported
to the conference as available for the movement was: Japanese,
about 8,000; Russian, 4,800; British, about 3,000; American,
2,100; French, 800. With special effort on the part of
Captains Byron and Wood, Reilly's battery was gotten to
Tientsin August 3 and assembled. We were also able to make one
pack train available on the 4th, just in time to march with
the column. The marines and Sixth Cavalry were gotten off the
'Grant' and to Tientsin August 3. The presence of the Sixth
Cavalry at Tientsin, dismounted, enabled me to take all
available men of the Ninth and Fourteenth, also all the
marines except one company 100 strong, left to assist the
civil government of the city. By arrangement prior to my
arrival the officers selected to establish a civil government
for Tientsin were to be allowed a military force, of which the
United States should furnish 100. I was compelled, of course,
to leave the Sixth Cavalry, because the horses had not
arrived. … The troops moved out from the city of Tientsin
during the afternoon and night of August 4 and bivouacked in
the vicinity of Si-ku arsenal, the same that was taken by
Admiral Seymour in his retrograde movement."
The Chinese were driven from the Arsenal by the Japanese,
before whom they also fell back from Pei-tsang, and the first
serious battle was fought at Yang-tsun, on the 6th. Having
rested at Yang-tsun and cared for its sick and wounded, on the
7th, the army moved forward on the 8th, encountered slight
resistance at Shang-shia-wan on the 11th, found Tong-chow
abandoned, on the 12th, and reached Pekin on the 14th, having
suffered more from heat, fatigue, and the want of potable
water on the march, than from "Boxers" or imperial troops.
Returning now to the report of General Chaffee, we take from
it his account of the final movement to the walls of Pekin, of
the forcing of the gates and of the clearing of Chinese troops
from the city: "The Japanese when taking possession of
Tong-Chow in the morning [of the 12th] advanced troops toward
Pekin for a distance of 6½ miles. It was finally agreed that
the next day, the 13th, should be devoted to reconnaissance;
the Japanese should reconnoiter on the two roads to the right
or north of the paved road which is just north of the canal;
the Russians on the paved road, if at all; the Americans to
reconnoiter on the road just south of the canal; the British a
parallel road 1½ miles to the left of the road occupied by the
Americans. On the 14th the armies should be concentrated on
the advance line held by the Japanese, and that that evening a
conference should be held to determine what the method of
attack on Pekin should be. On the morning of the 13th I
reconnoitered the road to be occupied by the Americans with
Troop M, Sixth Cavalry, Reilly's battery, and the Fourteenth
Infantry up to the point specified in our agreement, or about
7 miles from Tong-Chow. Finding no opposition, I directed the
remainder of my force to march out and close in on the advance
guard. This force arrived at midnight. The British
reconnoitered their road with some cavalry. The Japanese
reconnoitered their front and also the front which properly
belonged to the Russians.
{131}
"For reasons unknown to me the Russians left their camp at
Tong-Chow about the time that my troops were marching to close
on my advance guard. They followed the road which had been
assigned to them, and about nine o'clock heavy firing was
heard in the vicinity of Pekin. It was the next day
ascertained that they had moved forward during the previous
evening and had attacked the 'Tong-pien-men Gate,' an east
gate of the city near where the Chinese wall joins the Tartar
wall. Very heavy artillery and considerable small-arm firing
was continued throughout the night. At the time of the
occurrence I supposed the firing to be the last efforts of the
Chinese troops to destroy the legations. …
"The 14th being the day decided upon for the concentration on
the line 7 miles from Tong-Chow, I made no preparations for
carrying on any operations beyond a small reconnaissance by a
troop of cavalry to my front, which duty I assigned to Captain
Cabell. … My cavalry had been absent not more than an hour,
when Mr. Lowry, the interpreter who had accompanied it, raced
back and informed me that Captain Cabell was surrounded by
Chinese cavalry. I immediately ordered a battalion of the
Fourteenth Infantry to fall in, and we went forward about a
mile and a half and found Captain Cabell occupying some
houses, firing from the roofs on a village in his front. I
insisted on the French troops giving me the road, which they
reluctantly did. Having joined Cabell, I continued the
reconnaissance to my front, wishing to get as near the wall of
the city as I could, but not expecting to move my whole force,
which was contrary to the agreement at Tong-Chow on the
evening of August 12. Without serious opposition we arrived at
the northeast corner of the Chinese city, having brushed away
some Chinese troops or 'Boxers' that fired from villages to
our left and front. About 10 o'clock I saw the advantage of
holding the ground that I had obtained, and directed all my
force to move forward, as I had then become aware of Russian
troops being in action on my right, and could also hear the
Japanese artillery farther to the right. My left flank at this
time was uncovered, except by a small force of British
cavalry. The British troops did not advance from Tong-Chow
until the 14th, owing to the agreement previously referred to.
On that day they marched for the line of concentration and
found my force advancing on Pekin. At noon a British battery
was at work a mile to my left and rear.
"At 11 a. m. two companies of the Fourteenth Infantry, under
the immediate command of Colonel Daggett, had scaled the wall
of the Chinese city at the northeast corner, and the flag of
that regiment was the first foreign colors unfurled upon the
walls surrounding Pekin. The two companies on the wall, with
the assistance of the troops facing the wall, drove away the
Chinese defenders from the corner to the east gate of the
Chinese city, where the British entered without opposition
later in the day. About noon it was reported to me that the
Russians had battered open 'Tung-pien-men gate' during the
night and had effected an entrance there. I arrived at the
gate soon afterwards and found in the gate some of the
Fourteenth Infantry, followed by Reilly's battery. The Russian
artillery and troops were in great confusion in the passage,
their artillery facing in both directions, and I could see no
effort being made to extricate themselves and give passage
into the city. One company of the Fourteenth Infantry deployed
itself in the buildings to the right of the gate and poured
effective fire onto the Tartar wall. Captain Reilly got two
guns through a very narrow passage to his left, tearing down a
wall to do so, and found a position a few yards to the left of
the road where he could enfilade the Tartar wall, section by
section, with shrapnel. The Fourteenth Infantry crossed the
moat and, taking position paralleling the moat, deployed along
a street facing the Tartar wall, and with the aid of the
artillery swept it of Chinese troops. In this way, gradually
working to the westward, the Tartar wall was cleared of
opposition to the 'Bait-men gate' and beyond.
"Orders were sent to the Ninth to follow up the movement of
the Fourteenth Infantry and Reilly's battery as soon as the
wall was cleared of Chinese; also to follow the movement to
the 'Chien-men' gate of the Tartar city. The marines were to
follow the general movement, but later were ordered to protect
the train. At about 3 o'clock p. m. our advance had arrived
opposite the legations, the fire of the Chinese having
practically ended, and we drew over to the Tartar wall and
entered the legation grounds with the Fourteenth Infantry by
the 'water gate or moat,' Reilly's battery passing through the
'Chien-men' gate, which was opened by the American and Russian
marines of the besieged force. The Fourteenth Infantry was
selected on this occasion in recognition of gallantry at
Yang-tsun and during this day. The British troops entered at
the 'Shahuo' gate of the Chinese city, and following a road
through the center of the city to opposite the legations,
arrived there through the 'water gate or moat' in advance of
the United States troops. Having communicated with Minister
Conger, I withdrew the troops from the legation and camped
just outside near the Tartar wall for the night. My casualties
during the day were 8 enlisted men wounded in the Fourteenth
Infantry, 1 enlisted man wounded of Battery F, Fifth
Artillery, and 1 officer and 2 enlisted men wounded of the
marines. …
"I was informed by Mr. Conger that a portion of the imperial
city directly in front of the Chien-men gate had been used by
Chinese to fire on the legations, and I determined to force
the Chinese troops from this position. On the morning of the
15th I placed four guns of Reilly's battery on the Tartar wall
at Chien-men gate and swept the walls to the westward to the
next gate, there being some slight opposition in that
direction, supported by poor artillery. About 8 o'clock a. m.
the Chinese opened fire on us at Chien-men gate, from the
second gate of the imperial city north of Chien-men gate,
whereupon I directed an attack on the first gate to be made,
and in a short while Lieutenant Charles P. Summerall, of
Reilly's battery, had opened the door of this gate. Our troops
entered, and were met with a severe fire from the next gate,
about 600 yards distant. Fire was directed upon the second
gate with the battery and such of the infantry as could be
elevated on the Tartar wall and side walls of the imperial
city and act effectively. In the course of half an hour the
Chinese fire was silenced, and Colonel Daggett led forward his
regiment to the base of the second gate. Lieutenant Summerall
was directed to open this gate with artillery, which he did.
The course just indicated was pursued for four gates, the
Chinese troops being driven from each gate in succession, the
fourth gate being near what is known as the 'palace grounds,'
which is surrounded by the 'imperial guards.'
{132}
"At a conference that afternoon it was decided not to occupy
the imperial city, and I withdrew my troops into the camp
occupied the night before, maintaining my position on the
Tartar wall at Chien-men gate. The idea of not occupying the
imperial city was not concurred in by the ministers in a
conference held by them the next day. In their opinion the
imperial city should be occupied. It was later decided by the
generals to occupy the imperial grounds, and in consequence of
this decision I reoccupied the grounds we had won on the 15th,
placing the Ninth Infantry within as guard at the gate where
our attack ceased.
"During the 15th and the attack upon the gates referred to our
losses were 2 enlisted men killed and 4 wounded, Ninth
Infantry; 3 enlisted men killed and 14 wounded, Fourteenth
Infantry; 1 enlisted man, Battery F, Fifth Artillery, wounded.
At 8.50 o'clock a. m. of this date Captain Henry J. Reilly,
Fifth Artillery, was struck in the mouth and almost instantly
killed when standing at my left elbow observing the effect of
a shot from one of his guns by his side.
"At a conference of the generals on the afternoon of the 16th
the Chinese and Tartar cities were divided to the various
forces for police and protection of the inhabitants. The
United States troops were assigned to the west half of the
Chinese city and to that section of the Tartar city lying
between the Chien-men gate and Shun-chin gate of the south
wall of the Tartar city and north to the east and west street
through the Tartar city, being bounded upon the east by the
wall of the imperial city."
United States, Secretary of War,
Annual Report, November 30, 1900,
pages 61-71.
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (August 5-16).
The horrors of the allied invasion.
Barbarity of some divisions of the army in the march
from Tien-tsin to Peking.
Murder, rape, pillage and destruction.
Of the conduct of some divisions of the allied army which
advanced from Tien-tsin, and which represented to "the heathen
Chinee" the civilized and Christian nations of Europe and the
Western world, a writer in "Scribner's Magazine," who
evidently shared the experience and witnessed the scenes of
the march, gives the following account: "The dreary stretches
through which the Pei-ho flows, never attractive to the
Western eye, presented, as the allied armies slowly traversed
them, a scene of indescribable desolation. … In a region which
usually contained a population of many millions, scarcely a
human being, besides those attached to the allied armies, was
to be seen. Towns and villages were completely deserted. In
China an ordinary town will have from one to three hundred
thousand inhabitants, while villages not of sufficient
importance to be designated on the maps, have populations
varying from ten to thirty thousand. These villages line the
banks of the Pei-ho and the main road to Peking by hundreds.
The troops were never entirely clear of them. … So hurried had
been the flight of the inhabitants that hundreds of houses
were left open, such household possessions that could not be
carried away being tousled about in great disorder. Of all
that dense population, only a few scattered hundreds of aged,
decrepit men and women, and some unfortunate cripples and
abandoned children, remained. A great majority of these were
ruthlessly slain. The Russians and Japanese shot or bayoneted
them without compunction. Their prayers for mercy availed not.
If these miserable unfortunates chanced to fall into the hands
of American or British troops they had a chance for their
lives, but even our armies are not free from these wanton
sacrifices. Every town, every village, every peasant's hut in
the path of the troops was first looted and then burned. A
stretch of country fully ten miles in width was thus swept.
Mounted 'flanks in the air' scoured far and wide, keen on the
scent of plunder, dark columns of smoke on the horizon
attesting their labors. In this merry task of chastising the
heathen Chinese, the Cossacks easily excelled. … Like an
avenging Juggernaut the Army of Civilization moved. Terror
strode before it; Death and Desolation sat and brooded in its
path. Through such scenes as these, day after day, the army
glided. A spirit of utter callousness took root, and enveloped
officers and men alike. Pathetic scenes passed without comment or
even notice. Pathos, involved in a riot of more violent
emotions, had lost its power to move."
T. F. Millard,
A Comparison of the Armies in China
(Scribner's Magazine, January, 1901).
Another eye witness, writing in the "Contemporary Review,"
tells the same sickening and shameful story, with more
vividness of description and detail: "As a rule," he remarks,
"the heathen Chinee suffers silently, and dies calmly. He has,
it is true, a deep-rooted hatred of war, and sometimes a
paralysing fear of being shot down in battle. But he takes
beheading, hanging, or death by torture with as much
resignation as did Seneca, and a great deal less fuss. And he
bears the loss of those near and dear to him with the same
serenity, heroism, or heartlessness. But he does not often
move to pity, and very seldom yearns for sympathy. The dire
sights which anyone might have witnessed during the months of
August and September in Northern China afforded admirable
illustrations of this aspect of the national character. The
doings of some of the apostles of culture were so heinous that
even the plea of their having been perpetrated upon wild savages
would not free them from the nature of crimes. I myself
remember how profoundly I was impressed when sailing on one
calm summer's day up to the bar of Taku towards the mouth of
the river Pei-ho. Dead bodies of Chinamen were floating
seawards, some with eyes agape and aghast, others with
brainless skulls and eyeless sockets, and nearly all of them
wearing their blue blouses, baggy trousers, and black glossy
pigtails. Many of them looked as if they were merely swimming
on their backs. …
{133}
"The next picture that engraved itself upon my memory had for
its frame the town of Tong-kew. … On the right bank [of the
Pei-ho] naked children were amusing themselves in the infected
water which covered them to the arm-pits, dancing, shouting,
splashing each other, turning somersaults, and intoxicating
themselves with the pure joy of living. A few yards behind
them lay their fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, dead,
unburied, mouldering away. On the left bank, which was also
but a few yards off, was the site of Tongkew: a vast expanse
of smoking rubbish heaps. Not a roof was left standing; hardly
a wall was without a wide breach; formless mounds of baked
mud, charred woodwork, and half-buried clothes were burning or
smouldering still. Here and there a few rootless dwellings
were left, as if to give an idea of what the town had been
before the torch of civilisation set it aflame. Everyone of
these houses, one could see, had been robbed, wrecked, and
wantonly ruined. All the inhabitants who were in the place
when the troops swept through had been swiftly sent to their
last account, but not yet to their final resting-place. Beside
the demolished huts, under the lengthening shadows of the
crumbling walls, on the thresholds of houseless doorways, were
spread out scores, hundreds of mats, pieces of canvas,
fragments of tarpaulin, and wisps of straw, which bulged
suspiciously upwards. At first one wondered what they could
have been put there for. But the clue was soon revealed. In
places where the soldiers had scamped their work, or prey
birds had been busy, a pair of fleshless feet or a plaited
pigtail protruding from the scanty covering satisfied any
curiosity which the passer-by could have felt after having
breathed the nauseating air. Near the motionless plumage of
the tall grass happy children were playing. Hard by an
uncovered corpse a group of Chinamen were carrying out the
orders they had received from the invaders. None of the living
seemed to heed the dead. …
"Feeling that I never know a man until I have been permitted
to see somewhat of his hidden springs of action and gauge the
depth or shallowness of his emotion, I set myself to get a
glance at what lay behind the mask of propriety which a
Chinaman habitually wears in Tongkew as in every other town
and village in the Empire. As soon as the ice seemed broken I
asked one smiling individual: 'Why do you stay here with the
slayers of your relatives and friends?' 'To escape their fate,
if we can,' was the reply. 'We may be killed at any time, but
while we live we must eat, and for food we have to work.'
'Were many of your people killed?' I inquired. 'Look there,'
he answered, pointing to the corpses in the vast over-ground
churchyard, 'and in the river there are many more. The
Russians killed every Chinaman they met. Of them we are in
great fear. They never look whether we have crosses or medals;
they shoot everyone.' 'You are a Christian, then?' I queried.
'Yea, a Christian,' he eagerly answered. 'And I,' 'And I,'
chimed in two others. Ten minutes' further conversation,
however, brought out the fact that they were Christians not
for conscience' sake but for safety, and they were sorely
afraid that they were leaning on a broken reed. The upshot of
what they had to tell me was that the Europeans, mainly the
Russians, looked upon them all as legitimate quarry, and
hounded them down accordingly. They and theirs, they declared,
had been shot in skirmishes, killed in sport, and bayoneted in
play.
"But the ever-recurring refrain of their narrative was the
massacre in cold blood of the three hundred coolies of Taku. …
The story has been often told since then, not merely in the
north but throughout the length and breadth of China. The
leading facts, as narrated on the spot, are these: Some three
hundred hard-working coolies eked out a very cheerless
existence by loading and unloading the steamers of all nations
which touched at Taku. For the convenience of both sides they
all cooped themselves up in one boat, which served them as a
permanent dwelling. When times were slack they were huddled
together there like herrings in a barrel, and when work was
brisk they toiled and moiled like galley slaves. Thus they
managed to get along, doing harm to no man and good to many.
The attack of the foreign troops upon Taku was the beginning
of their end. Hearing one day the sharp reports of rifle
shots, this peaceable and useful community was panic-stricken.
In order to save their dreary lives they determined to go ashore.
Strong in their weakness, and trusting in their character of
working men who abhorred war, they steered their boat
landwards. In an evil hour they were espied by the Russian
troops, who at that time had orders, it is said, to slay every
human being who wore a pigtail. Each of the three hundred
defenceless coolies at once became a target for Muscovite
bullets. It must have been a sickening sight when it was all
done. …
"The river Pei-ho, could it bear witness in words to the
dramas of blood enacted on its banks by Europeans, would have
many a tale to tell as grewsome as that of the slaughter of
the three hundred coolies. … I lived for twelve or thirteen
days on that foul river, and never was I more profoundly
impressed than by what I saw in its waters and on its banks.
The first day after I had left Tientsin I was towed by
untiring coolies through a land thickly studded over with what
had once been human dwellings, but were now high heaps of
smouldering rubbish. … A wave of death and desolation had
swept over the land, washing away the vestiges of Chinese
culture. Men, women, boys, girls, and babes in arms had been
shot, stabbed, and hewn to bits in this labyrinth of streets,
and now, on both banks of the river, reigned the peace
described by Tacitus. …
"Fire and sword had put their marks upon this entire country.
The untrampled corn was rotting in the fields, the pastures
were herdless, rootless the ruins of houses, the hamlets
devoid of inhabitants. In all the villages we passed the
desolation was the same. … The streets and houses of
war-blasted cities were also the scenes of harrowing
tragedies, calculated to sear and scar the memory even of the
average man who is not given to 'sickly sentimentality.' In
war they would have passed unnoticed; in times of peace
(hostilities were definitely over) they ought to have been
stopped by drastic measures, if mild means had proved
ineffectual. I speak as an eye-witness when I say, for
example, that over and over again the gutters of the city of
Tungtschau ran red with blood, and I sometimes found it
impossible to go my way without getting my boots bespattered
with human gore. There were few shops, private houses and
courtyards without dead bodies and pools of dark blood. … The
thirst of blood had made men mad. The pettiest and most
despicable whipper-snapper who happened to have seen the light
of day in Europe or Japan had uncontrolled power over the life
and limbs, the body and soul, of the most highly-cultivated
Chinaman in the city. From his decision there was no appeal. A
Chinaman never knew what might betide him an hour hence, if the
European lost his temper. He might lie down to rest after
having worked like a beast of burden for twelve or fourteen
hours only to be suddenly awakened out of his sleep, marched a
few paces from his hard couch, and shot dead.
{134}
He was never told, and probably seldom guessed, the reason
why. I saw an old man and woman who were thus hurriedly
hustled out of existence. Their day's work done they were
walking home, when a fire broke out on a little barge on the
river. They were the only living beings found out of bed at
the time, and in the pockets of the woman a candle and some
matches were stowed away. Nobody, not even the boat-watchman,
had seen them on or near the boat. They were pounced upon,
taken to the river's edge, shot and buried. It was the work of
fifteen minutes or less. …
"The circumstantial tales told of the dishonouring of wives,
girls, children, in Tientsin, Tungtschau, Pekin, are such as
should in normal beings kindle some sparks of indignation
without the aid of 'sickly sentimentality.' … I knew well a
man whose wife had been dealt with in this manner, and then
killed along with her child. He was one of the 'good and loyal
people' who were on excellent terms with the Christians; but, if
ever he gets a chance of wreaking vengeance upon the
foreigners, he will not lightly let it slip. I knew of others
whose wives and daughters hanged themselves on trees or
drowned themselves in garden-wells in order to escape a much
worse lot. Chinese women honestly believed that no more
terrible fate could overtake them than to fall alive into the
hands of Europeans and Christians. And it is to be feared that
they were right. Buddhism and Confucianism have their martyrs
to chastity, whose heroic feats no martyrology will ever
record. Some of these obscure, but rightminded, girls and
women hurled themselves into the river, and, finding only
three feet of water there, kept their heads under the surface
until death had set his seal on the sacrifice of their life.
This suicidal frenzy was catching. … So far as I have been
able to make out, and I have been at some pains to investigate
the subject, no officers or soldiers of English or
German-speaking nationalities have been guilty of these
abominations against defenceless women."
E. J. Dillon,
The Chinese Wolf and the European Lamb
(Contemporary Review, January, 1901).
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (August 15-28).
Occupation of Peking by the allied forces.
International jealousies.
License to some of the soldiery.
Shameful stories of looting and outrage.
Formal march through the "Forbidden City."
"Early on the morning of the 15th [of August]—the day after
the siege of the Legations was raised—General Chaffee [the
American commander] advanced his men from the Chien Mên, which
he had held overnight, and drove the Chinese from gateway to
gateway back along the wide-paved approach to the far-famed
'Forbidden City.' From the wall at the Chien Mên the American
field battery shelled each of the great gateways before the
infantry advanced, and Captain Reilly, who commanded the
battery, was killed while directing the operations—a bullet
striking him full in the face and passing out through the back
of his head. In him was lost a popular and efficient officer. The
movements of the Americans were watched with no little anxiety
by certain of the allies, who evidently feared that General
Chaffee was about to enter and seize the Forbidden City
itself. The French, who had only that morning arrived, were
apparently very keen to establish a claim by joining in the
attack, for they took their mountain guns to the top of the
wall opposite the Legations, and began blazing away in the
direction of the approaches to the Palace. It so happened that
by this time the Americans had penetrated nearly to the
gateway of the Palace itself, and this French fire, so
suddenly opened, was directed upon them, instead of, as the
French General thought, upon the enemy. General Chaffee rode
down himself from the Chien Mên to where the guns were placed
on the wall, and from below conducted a spirited conversation
with the French General and M. Pichon. 'Stop firing those
guns,' the General shouted up from 60 ft. below, 'you are
killing my men.' Not understanding, the French General replied
to the effect that he was firing for the honour of France, and
M. Pichon joined in with similar protestations. General
Chaffee's protests increased in vigour, and the force,
perhaps, rather than the lucidity of them eventually induced
the French General to desist from firing upon the Americans
for the honour and glory of 'la patrie.' The Russians also
displayed a marked desire to participate in the operations in
front of the Palace, coming up after the fighting was
practically finished and attempting to occupy a part of the
position won by the Americans. Again General Chaffee had to
speak forcibly to persuade the Russians to retire. General
Chaffee cleared and occupied the whole length of the
approaches—a series of noble paved courtyards—from the Chien
Mên to the south gate of the Palace, before which he set a
strong guard. His doings were quite evidently being watched
with suspicion, and in the afternoon a conference was held, at
which it was solemnly agreed by the representatives of the
allies that in the meantime, pending the arrangement of some
concerted plan, the Forbidden City should not be entered. In
other parts of the city the work of clearing out the enemy was
meanwhile progressing, the Japanese and Russians operating on the
east and to the north, and the British to the south in the
Chinese city.
"It was thought that an expedition would have been undertaken
by the French to relieve the besieged in the Pei-tang. Help
could have been obtained for the asking, and it is difficult
to understand why no effort was made to reach the unfortunate
people, who, be it noted, were still being attacked, and whose
position, for all that was known, might have been desperate to
the last degree. The story of the long and weary weeks of
fighting round the stately cathedral pile—alas, now, now
battered and rent!—must be written by no outsider from
hearsay, but first hand by a survivor. As heard from the lips
of Père Favier, it is, indeed, a thrilling narrative in many
respects, surpassing in wonder even its sister story of the
defence of the Legations. … The relief was effected the
following morning by a combined force of French and Russians,
with whom also were the British Marines under Major Luke, R.
M. L. I., the whole under the command of the French general.
When this force arrived it was found that the Japanese had
already practically raised the siege, having started earlier
and worked along on the north-west of the Imperial City,
driving the Chinese before them. However, the Japanese had not
actually penetrated into the Pei-tang defences, and the French
had the satisfaction, after all, of being first in to receive a
joyful welcome from their long-suffering fellow-countrymen.
{135}
The raising of the siege was signalized by the slaughter of a
large number of Chinese who had been rounded up into a cul de
sac and who were killed to a man, the Chinese Christian
converts joining in with the French soldiers of the relieving
force, who lent them bayonets, and abandoning themselves to
the spirit of revenge. Witnesses describe the scene as a
sickening sight, but in judging such acts it is necessary to
remember the provocation, and these people had been sorely
tried. …
"The French general had given orders to Major Luke to remain
with his men to guard a bridge in the rear while the relief of
the Pei-tang was being effected. Afterwards the main body of
the relieving force was pushed on through the Imperial City,
leaving the British contingent behind. After waiting some time
Major Luke came to the conclusion that he must have been
forgotten, and, leaving a guard on the bridge, followed on in
the track of the French troops, to find that they had
penetrated into the Imperial City along the wall of the Palace
as far as the Meishan (Coal Hill), from the pagodas on which
the tri-colour was flying. The Russians had taken up a
position near the North Gate of the Palace, and he was only
just in time to secure the temple building at the foot of the
Meishan, and the camping-ground alongside of it. There was
great enthusiasm between the Russians and French, who cheered
each other as their forces appeared, in marked contrast to the
coolness with which the arrival of Major Luke and his men was
received. … The Russians are camped round the old place and
will permit no one in to see over it; in fact, in this part of
the city French or Russian sentries make it difficult to see most
of the many objects of art or interest. …
"Now that the common bond of interest in the success of the
relief expedition was removed, the points of difference at
once began to appear, and the underlying jealousy and
suspicion with which it seems each nation regards almost every
other manifested itself in various ways, particularly in the
unseemly race for loot and the game of general grab that now
started up, the methods of which were indicated above with
regard to the seizure of the Meishan. The Japanese seized the
Board of Revenue and must have found a huge amount of money
there, to judge by the length of the line of pack mules that
it took to carry it away. Through a mistake, it is said, on
the part of the Americans, the French got possession of the
Palace of Prince Li, said to contain treasure to the extent of
many millions of dollars. The Russians also got some treasure,
seizing on a large bank.
"Inside the Forbidden City, the Chinese say, there is fabulous
wealth in treasure stowed away or buried, and it is
principally lest this should prove true that so much jealousy
exists about the privilege of entering. Of course, the
question is also of great importance politically, and after
several diplomatic conferences it was eventually decided that,
on a date still to be arranged, the Ministers and Generals of
all the Powers should enter at the same time and proceed
together through the Palace, ascertaining the nature and value
of its contents and then sealing the whole place up and
withdrawing to await instructions from the home Governments. …
As regards the larger game of grab, the Russians succeeded in
winning the last large prize, the Wan Shen Shan, or new Summer
Palace, seven miles out near the western hills, racing for it
against a body of Japanese and coming in a quarter of an hour
ahead, having had a long start. So the story goes, but it is
not easy to check such stories, both Japanese and Russians
being very reticent about their relations with each other. One
thing only is certain, that the Russians are in jealous
possession of the Wan Shen Shan. Two British officers who rode
out there a couple of days ago in uniform were refused
admission to the grounds.
"Alongside of this official looting, private looting on the
part of the foreign soldiers was freely permitted during the
first few days; in fact, the city was abandoned for the most
part to the soldiery, and horrible stories of the kind common
in war, but nevertheless and everlastingly revolting, were
current—stories of the ravishing of women in circumstances of
great savagery, particularly by the rough Russian soldiers and
their following of French. The number of Chinese women who
committed suicide rather than submit to dishonour was
considerable. A British officer of standing told me he had
seen seven hanging from the same beam in the house of
apparently a well-to-do Chinaman. These stories, and I heard
of many more, reflect credit upon Chinese womanhood and
something very different upon the armies of Europe, which are
supposed to be the forerunners and upholders of civilization
in this particular campaign. However, this period of licence
was not of long duration. The soldiers having had their fling,
the city was divided, by arrangement, into districts, each
under the control of one of the Powers, proclamations were
issued reassuring the remaining peaceable citizens and
encouraging others to return, and gradually the work of
restoring law and order and confidence is progressing. …
"Where is the Chinese Government? Fled to Je-hol? No one seems
to know for certain. It is only certain that on the morning of
the 14th the Empress-Dowager and her following, and the
Imperial Court, fled by the west gate of the city and
disappeared. This flight took place while the Japanese were
actually engaged in shelling the Tse-kwa Mên and the city
wall. If they had succeeded in their first attempt on the gate
in the morning, the flight of the Court might have been
prevented. The Empress and her advisers had a narrow escape. …
"August 28. After deliberations occupying a full fortnight the
question of what was to be done with the Forbidden City has
been settled, at any rate, for the time being. The main
problem presented was not new; Lord Elgin had to face it forty
years ago. Considerations of immediate political expediency
guided his action then, as they have dictated the course
adopted now. He spared the Imperial Palace, and burnt instead
the Yuen Ming Yuen, or Summer Palace, seven miles from Peking.
As a result the fact that British troops ever entered Peking
does not appear in Chinese history, indeed the idea is
ridiculed by Mandarindom. Remembering this, many people here
thought it would be desirable in the present instance to burn
the Imperial Palace, after carefully removing the art
treasures, and thus, if possible, impress upon the whole
Chinese nation some idea of the enormity of the crime which
their Government has committed against civilization at large.
{136}
On the other hand, it was held that if this were done the
Imperial Court, through loss of 'face,' could never return to
Peking, and this contingency appealed strongly to the
representatives of both Russia and Japan, who conceived that
the interests of their respective countries demanded the
retention of Peking as the capital. What the representatives
of the other Powers thought has not transpired, nor does it
matter much at present, the overwhelming position of Russia
and Japan combined making all opposition to their proposals
futile. Germany may insist upon burning the Palace when he
forces have all arrived, and those who think it ought to be
done hope that she will; but in the meantime the conference of
commanding officers, in consultation with the Ministers,
decided not to do more than march a small force of foreign
troops through the 'sacred precincts' from the South Gate to
the North, after which these were to be again closed, leaving
the Palace intact. There was to be no looting. Everything was
to be done to provide against the idea arising that the place
had been desecrated. The ceremony was merely to be a display
of military power. …
"Arrangements were made for certain Chinese officials to be
present during the ceremony and also for a number of
attendants to open up the various halls through which the
troops would require to pass, and to close the doors behind
the 'barbarians' when they finally withdrew. Yesterday there
were reports of further friction and possible further
postponement of the ceremony, but by evening these had died
away and the programme had assumed at last a definite shape.
According to it the various troops were to parade this morning
between 7 and 8 outside the Tien-an Mên, the Inner Gate of the
Imperial City. There at the time appointed they were drawn up,
and the interest of a great historic event began. The Imperial
Palace, or Forbidden City, is an enclosure about two-thirds of
a mile long from north to south and about half a mile broad
from east to west. It is surrounded by a high wall. Outside
this wall on the west, north, and east lies a broad moat. From
the south it is approached by a series of immense paved
courtyards divided one from the other by high and massive
gateways, above which rise imposing pavilions with
yellow-tiled overhanging roofs, flanked by great towers built
in the same style and similarly roofed with Imperial yellow.
This Forbidden City or Imperial Palace enclosure is situated
within the Imperial City, a larger enclosure, also surrounded
by a high tile-topped wall. It was outside the Inner Gateway
to this Imperial City that the troops were drawn up. The
Russians took up their position on the centre, close to the
stone bridge in front of the Tien-an Mên; the Japanese were
opposite the gateway on the left; the British to the right of
the Russians in a wide paved avenue running east and west
outside the inner wall of the Imperial City. The remainder of
the allies were drawn up to the rear of the Russians and
Japanese in the wide avenue running north and south from the
Outer Gateway (Ta-ching Mên). As a pageant it was not a
success. Soldiers on service do not make a fine show. … Inside
the Tien-an Mên the central stone road continues for about
half a mile down a broad, flagged avenue running between
handsome temple buildings on either hand, until the Wu Mên, or
south gate, of the Forbidden City is reached. It is an
imposing entrance. The gateway itself is high and massive, and
the towers on top are particularly fine. Thus far, on the
morning of the 15th, the American troops fought, driving the
Chinese before them into the city. The self-denial displayed
by General Chaffee on that occasion has not, perhaps, received
proper recognition. There was at that time no agreement to
hold him back, and he might have pressed on and taken the
palace and hoisted the Stars and Stripes over it. It would
have been a fine prize, and the temptation must have been
great, but General Chaffee, acting, possibly, under the advice
of Mr. Conger, the United States Minister, refrained—a
noteworthy act. This gateway has been held by an American
guard ever since, and American troops have been quartered in
the approach to it. …
"After it was over the generals and staff officers and the
Ministers and other privileged persons returned by the way we
had come through the Forbidden City. Tea was provided by the
Chinese officials in the summer-house of the palace garden,
the quaint beauties of which there was now time to appreciate.
Beautiful stone carvings and magnificent bronzes claimed
attention. The march through had occupied about an hour, and
another was spent sauntering back through the various halls
and courtyards. As the halls were cleared the Chinese
attendants hastily closed the doors behind us with evident
relief at our departure. A few jade ornaments were pocketed by
quick-fingered persons desirous of possessing souvenirs, but
on the whole the understanding that there was to be no looting
was carried out. Arrived at the courtyard where their horses had
been left, the generals and staff officers mounted and rode
out of the palace, and the rest of us followed on foot. The
gates were once more closed and guards were stationed outside
to prevent anyone from entering. The Forbidden City resumed
its normal state, inviolate, undesecrated. The honour of the
civilized world, we were told, had been thus vindicated. But
had it?"
London Times,
Peking Correspondence.
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (August-September).
The flight of the Imperial Court.
The following account of the flight of the Court from Peking
to Tai-yuen-fu was given to a newspaper correspondent, in
October, by Prince Su, who accompanied the fugitive Emperor
and Dowager-Empress, and afterwards returned to Peking:
"The day the Court left Peking they travelled in carts to
Kuan-shi, 20 miles to the north, escorted by 3,000 soldiers of
various commands. This composite army pillaged, murdered, and
outraged along the whole route. At Kuan-shi the Imperial
cortege was supplied with mule litters. The flight then
continued at the rate of 20 miles daily to Hsuan-hua-fu, where
a halt was made for three days. This place is 120 miles from
Peking. Up to this time the flight had been of a most
panic-stricken nature. So little authority was exerted that
the soldiers even stole the meals which had been prepared for
the Emperor and the Dowager-Empress. Some improvement was
effected by the execution of several for murder and pillaging,
and gradually the various constituents of the force were
brought under control.
{137}
Many of the Dowager-Empress's advisers were in favour of
remaining at Hsuan-hua-fu, on account of the comparatively
easy means of communication with the capital. The majority,
however, were in such fear of pursuit by the foreign troops
that the proposition was overruled. The flight was then
resumed towards Tai-yuen-fu. Before leaving Hsuan-hua-fu,
10,000 additional troops under Tung-fuh-siang joined the
escort. The newcomers, however, only added to the discord
already prevailing. The Dowager-Empress did little else but
weep and upbraid those whose advice had brought them into such
a position. The Emperor reviled everyone irrespective of his
opinions. The journey to Tai-yuen-fu took 26 days, the longest
route being taken for fear of pursuit. On arriving there the
formation of some kind of Government was attempted, but owing
to the many elements of discord this was found to be next to
impossible. Though many edicts were issued they could not be
enforced. Neither party cared for an open rupture, and affairs
rapidly assumed a state of chaos. Prince Su further said that
the Emperor did not desire to leave Peking, preferring to
trust himself to the allies, but his objections were not
listened to and he was compelled to accompany the flight."
The final resting-place of the fugitive Imperial Court for
some months was Si-ngan-fu, or Sin-gan Fu, or Segan Fu, or
Sian Fu (as it is variously written), a large city, the
capital of the western province of Shensi.
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (August-December).
Discussions among "the Powers" as to the terms to be made
with the Chinese Government.
Opening of negotiations with Prince Ching and Li Hung-chang.
Immediately upon the capture of Peking, Li Hung-chang
addressed appeals to the Powers for a cessation of
hostilities, for the withdrawal of troops from Peking, and for
the appointment of envoys to negotiate a permanent peace.
Discussion among the governments followed, the first definite
outcome of which appeared in the announcement of an intention
on the part of Russia to withdraw her troops from Peking as
soon as order had been re-established there, and of a
disposition on the part of the United States to act with
Russia in that procedure. This substantial agreement between
the two governments was made public by the printing of the
following dispatch, dated August 29, from Mr. Adee, the
American Acting Secretary of State, to the representatives of
the United States in London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Rome, and
Tokio:
"The Russian Charge d'Affaires yesterday afternoon made me an
oral statement regarding Russia's purposes in China to the
following effect:—'That, as she has already repeatedly
declared, Russia has no designs of territorial acquisition in
China; that, equally with the other Powers now operating
there, Russia sought the safety of her Legation in Peking and
to help the Chinese Government to repress the troubles that
arose; that incidentally to the necessary defensive measures
on the Russian border, Russia has occupied Niu-chwang for
military purposes, and as soon as order is re-established she
will withdraw her troops from the town if the action of the
other Powers be no obstacle; that the purpose for which the
various Governments have co-operated for the relief of the
Legations in Peking has been accomplished; that taking the
position that as the Chinese Government has left Peking there
is no need for the Russian representative to remain, Russia
has directed her Minister to retire with his official
personnel from China; that the Russian troops will likewise be
withdrawn, and that when the Government of China shall regain the
reins of government and can afford an authority with which the
other Powers can deal, and will express a desire to enter into
negotiations, the Russian Government will also name its
representative.' Holding these views and purposes, Russia has
expressed the hope that the United States will share the same
opinion.
"To this declaration our reply has been made by the following
memorandum:—'The Government of the United States has received
with much satisfaction the reiterated statement that Russia
has no designs of territorial acquisition in China and that,
equally with the other Powers now operating in China, Russia
has sought the safety of her Legation and to help the Chinese
Government to repress the existing troubles. The same purposes
have moved, and will continue to control, the Government of
the United States, and the frank declarations of Russia in
this regard are in accord with those made to the United States
by the other Powers. All the Powers, therefore, having
disclaimed any purpose to acquire any part of China, and now
that the adherence thereto has been renewed since relief
reached Peking, it ought not to be difficult by concurrent
action through negotiations to reach an amicable settlement
with China whereby the treaty rights of all the Powers shall
be secured for the future, the open door assured, the
interests and property of foreign citizens conserved, and full
reparation made for the wrongs and injuries suffered by them.
"So far as we are advised, the greater part of China is at
peace and earnestly desires to protect the life and property
of all foreigners, and in several of the provinces active and
successful efforts to suppress the 'Boxers' have been taken by
the Viceroys, to whom we have extended encouragement through
our Consuls and naval officers. This present good relation
should be promoted for the peace of China. While we agree that
the immediate object for which the military forces of the
Powers have been co-operating—the relief of the Ministers in
Peking—has been accomplished, there still remain other
purposes which all the Powers have in common, which have been
referred to in the communication of the Russian Charge d'
Affaires, and which were specifically enumerated in our Note
to the Powers.
"These are:—To afford all possible protection everywhere in
China to foreign life and property; to guard and protect all
legitimate foreign interests; to aid in preventing the spread
of disorders in the other provinces of the Empire and the
recurrence of such disorders; to seek a solution which may
bring about permanent safety and peace in China; to preserve
the Chinese territorial and administrative entity; to protect
all rights guaranteed by treaty and international law to
friendly Powers; and to safeguard for the world the principle
of equal and impartial trade with all parts of the Chinese
Empire. In our opinion, these purposes could best be attained
by the joint occupation of Peking under a definite
understanding between the Powers until the Chinese Government
shall have been re-established and shall be in a position to
enter into new treaties containing adequate provisions for
reparation and guarantees for future protection.
{138}
"With the establishment and recognition of such authority the
United States would wish to withdraw its military forces from
Peking and remit to the processes of peaceful negotiation our
just demands. We consider, however, that the continued
occupation of Peking would be ineffective to produce the
desired result unless all the Powers unite therein with entire
harmony of purpose. Any Power which determines to withdraw its
troops from Peking will necessarily proceed thereafter to
protect its interests in China by its own method, and we think
this would make a general withdrawal expedient. As to the time
and manner of withdrawal, we think that, in view of the
imperfect knowledge of the military situation resulting from
the interruptions of telegraphic communication, the several
military commanders in Peking should be instructed to confer
and to agree together upon the withdrawal as a concerted
movement, as they agreed upon in advance.
"The result of these considerations is that, unless there is
such a general expression by the Powers in favour of the
continued occupation as to modify the views expressed by the
Russian Government and lead to a general agreement for
continued occupation, we shall give instructions to the
commander of the American forces in China to withdraw our
troops from Peking after due conference with the other
commanders as to the time and manner of withdrawal.
"The Government of the United States is much gratified by the
assurance given by Russia that the occupation of Niu-chwang is
for military purposes incidental to the military steps for the
security of the Russian border provinces menaced by the
Chinese, and that as soon as order is established Russia will
withdraw her troops from those places if the action of the
other Powers is not an obstacle thereto. No obstacle in this
regard can arise through any action of the United States,
whose policy is fixed and has been repeatedly proclaimed."
Even before the communication received from Russia, the
government of the United States had taken steps to withdraw
the greater part of its troops. "On the 25th of August," says
the American Secretary of War, in his annual report, November
30, 1900, "General Chaffee was directed to hold his forces in
readiness for instructions to withdraw, and on the 25th of
September he was instructed to send to Manila all the American
troops in China with the exception of a legation guard, to
consist of a regiment of infantry, a squadron of cavalry, and
one light battery."
The expressions from Russia and the United States in favor of
an early withdrawal of foreign troops from Peking, and the
opening of pacific negotiations with the Chinese government,
were unsatisfactory to several of the concerted Powers, and
were sharply criticised in the British and German press. The
German government, especially, was disposed to insist upon
stern and strenuous measures in dealing with that of China,
and it addressed the following circular note, on the 18th of
September, to all the Powers:
"The Government of the Emperor holds as preliminary to
entering upon diplomatic relations with the Chinese Government
that those persons must be delivered up who have been proved
to be the original and real instigators of the outrages
against international law which have occurred at Peking. The
number of those who were merely instruments in carrying out
the outrages is too great. Wholesale executions would be
contrary to the civilized conscience, and the circumstances of
such a group of leaders cannot be completely ascertained. But
a few whose guilt is notorious should be delivered up and
punished. The representatives of the powers at Peking are in a
position to give or bring forward convincing evidence. Less
importance attaches to the number punished than to their
character as chief instigators or leaders. The Government
believes it can count on the unanimity of all the Cabinets in
regard to this point, insomuch as indifference to the idea of
just atonement would be equivalent to indifference to a
repetition of the crime. The Government proposes, therefore,
that the Cabinets concerned should instruct their
representatives at Peking to indicate those leading Chinese
personages from whose guilt in instigating or perpetrating
outrages all doubt is excluded."
The British government was understood to be not unwilling to
support this demand from Germany, but little encouragement
seems to have been officially given to it from other quarters,
and the government of the United States was most emphatic in
declining to approve it. The reply of the latter to the German
circular note was promptly given, September 21, as follows:
"The government of the United States has, from the outset,
proclaimed its purpose to hold to the uttermost accountability
the responsible authors of any wrongs done in China to
citizens of the United States and their interests, as was
stated in the Government's circular communication to the
Powers of July 3 last. These wrongs have been committed not
alone in Peking, but in many parts of the Empire, and their
punishment is believed to be an essential element of any
effective settlement which shall prevent a recurrence of such
outrages and bring about permanent safety and peace in China.
It is thought, however, that no punitive measures can be so
effective by way of reparation for wrongs suffered and as
deterrent examples for the future as the degradation and
punishment of the responsible authors by the supreme Imperial
authority itself, and it seems only just to China that she
should be afforded in the first instance an opportunity to do
this and thus rehabilitate herself before the world.
"Believing thus, and without abating in anywise its deliberate
purpose to exact the fullest accountability from the
responsible authors of the wrongs we have suffered in China,
the Government of the United States is not disposed, as a
preliminary condition to entering into diplomatic negotiations
with the Chinese Government, to join in a demand that said
Government surrender to the Powers such persons as, according
to the determination of the Powers themselves, may be held to
be the first and real perpetrators of those wrongs. On the
other hand, this Government is disposed to hold that the
punishment of the high responsible authors of these wrongs,
not only in Peking, but throughout China, is essentially a
condition to be embraced and provided for in the negotiations
for a final settlement.
{139}
It is the purpose of this Government, at the earliest
practicable moment, to name its plenipotentiaries for
negotiating a settlement with China, and in the mean time to
authorize its Minister in Peking to enter forthwith into
conference with the duly authorized representatives of the
Chinese Government, with a view of bringing about a
preliminary agreement whereby the full exercise of the
Imperial power for the preservation of order and the
protection of foreign life and property throughout China,
pending final negotiations with the Powers, shall be assured."
On the same day on which the above note was written the
American government announced its recognition of Prince Ching
and Li Hung-chang, as plenipotentiaries appointed to represent
the Emperor of China, in preliminary negotiations for the
restoration of the imperial authority at Peking and for a
settlement with the foreign Powers.
Differences between the Powers acting together in China, as to
the preliminary conditions of negotiation with the Chinese
government, and as to the nature and range of the demands to
be made upon it, were finally adjusted on the lines of a
proposal advanced by the French Foreign Office, in a note
dated October 4, addressed to the several governments, as
follows:
"The intention of the Powers in sending their forces to China
was, above all, to deliver the Legations. Thanks to their
union and the valour of their troops this object has been
attained. The question now is to obtain from the Chinese
Government, which has given Prince Ching and Li Hung-chang
full powers to negotiate and to treat in its name, suitable
reparation for the past and serious guarantees for the future.
Penetrated with the spirit which has evoked the previous
declarations of the different Governments, the Government of
the Republic has summarized its own sentiments in the
following points, which it submits as a basis for the
forthcoming negotiations after the customary verification of
powers:
(1) The punishment of the chief culprits, who will be
designated by the representatives of the Powers in Peking.
(2) The maintenance of the embargo on the importation of arms.
(3) Equitable indemnity for the States and for private
persons.
(4) The establishment in Peking of a permanent guard for the
Legations.
(5) The dismantling of the Ta-ku forts.
(6) The military occupation of two or three points on the
Tien-tsin-Peking route, thus assuring complete liberty of
access for the Legations should they wish to go to the coast
and to forces from the sea-board which might have to go up to
the capital.
It appears impossible to the Government of the Republic that
these so legitimate conditions, if collectively presented by
the representatives of the Powers and supported by the
presence of the international troops, will not shortly be
accepted by the Chinese Government."
On the 17th of October, the French Embassy at Washington
announced to the American government that "all the interested
powers have adhered to the essential principles of the French
note," and added: "The essential thing now is to show the
Chinese Government, which has declared itself ready to
negotiate, that the powers are animated by the same spirit;
that they are decided to respect the integrity of China and
the independence of its Government, but that they are none the
less resolved to obtain the satisfaction to which they have a
right. In this regard it would seem that if the proposition
which has been accepted as the basis of negotiations were
communicated to the Chinese plenipotentiaries by the Ministers
of the powers at Peking, or in their name by their Dean, this
step would be of a nature to have a happy influence upon the
determinations of the Emperor of China and of his Government."
The government of the United States approved of this
suggestion from France, and announced that it had "instructed
its Minister in Peking to concur in presenting to the Chinese
plenipotentiaries the points upon which we are agreed." Other
governments, however, seem to have given different
instructions, and some weeks were spent by the foreign
Ministers at Peking in formulating the joint note in which
their requirements were to be presented to Prince Ching and
Earl Li.
The latter, meantime, had submitted, on their own part, to the
allied plenipotentiaries, a draft of what they conceived to be
the just preliminaries of a definitive treaty. They prefaced
it with a brief review of what had occurred, and some remarks,
confessing that "the throne now realizes that all these
calamities have been caused by the fact that Princes and high
Ministers of State screened the Boxer desperados, and is
accordingly determined to punish severely the Princes and
Ministers concerned in accordance with precedent by handing
them over to their respective Yamêns for the determination of
a penalty." The "draft clauses" then submitted were as
follows:
"The siege of the Legations was a flagrant violation of the
usages of international law and an utterly unpermissible act.
China admits the gravity of her error and undertakes that
there shall be no repetition of the occurrence. China admits
her liability to pay an indemnity, and leaves it to the Powers
to appoint officers who shall investigate the details and make
out a general statement of claims to be dealt with
accordingly.
"With regard to the subsequent trade relations between China
and the foreign Powers, it will be for the latter to make
their own arrangements as to whether former treaties shall be
adhered to in their entirety, modified in details, or
exchanged for new ones. China will take steps to put the
respective proposals into operation accordingly.
"Before drawing up a definitive treaty it will be necessary
for China and the Powers to be agreed as to general
principles. Upon this agreement being arrived at, the
Ministers of the Powers will remove the seals which have been
affixed to the various departments of the Tsung-li-Yamên and
proceed to the Yamên for the despatch of business in matters
relating to international questions exactly as before.
"So soon as a settlement of matters of detail shall have been
agreed upon between China and the various nations concerned in
accordance with the requirements of each particular nation,
and so soon as the question of the payment of an indemnity
shall have been satisfactorily settled, the Powers will
respectively withdraw their troops. The despatch of troops to
China by the Powers was undertaken with the sole object of
protecting the Ministers, and so soon as peace negotiations
between China and the Powers shall have been opened there
shall be a cessation of hostilities.
{140}
"The statement that treaties will be made with each of the
Powers in no way prejudices the fact that with regard to the
trade conventions mentioned the conditions vary in accordance
with the respective powers concerned. With regard to the
headings of a definitive treaty, questions of nomenclature and
precedence affecting each of the Powers which may arise in
framing the treaty can be adjusted at personal conferences."
Great Britain and Germany were now acting in close accord,
having, apparently, been drawn together by a common distrust
of the intentions of Russia. On the 16th of October, Lord
Salisbury and Count Hatzfeldt signed the following agreement,
which was made known at once to the other governments
concerned, and its principles assented to by all:
"Her Britannic Majesty's Government and the Imperial German
Government, being desirous to maintain their interests in
China and their rights under existing treaties, have agreed to
observe the following principles in regard to their mutual policy
in China:—
"1. It is a matter of joint and permanent international
interest that the ports on the rivers and littoral of China
should remain free and open to trade and to every other
legitimate form of economic activity for the nationals of all
countries without distinction; and the two Governments agree
on their part to uphold the same for all Chinese territory as
far as they can exercise influence.
"2. The Imperial German Government and her Britannic Majesty's
Government will not, on their part, make use of the present
complication to obtain for themselves any territorial
advantages in Chinese dominions, and will direct their policy
towards maintaining undiminished the territorial condition of
the Chinese Empire.
"3. In case of another Power making use of the complications
in China in order to obtain under any form whatever such
territorial advantages, the two Contracting Parties reserve to
themselves to come to a preliminary understanding as to the
eventual steps to be taken for the protection of their own
interests in China.
"4. The two Governments will communicate this Agreement to the
other Powers interested, and especially to Austria-Hungary,
France, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United States of
America, and will invite them to accept the principles
recorded in it."
The assent of Russia was no less positive than that of the
other Powers. It was conveyed in the following words: "The
first point of this Agreement, stipulating that the ports
situated on the rivers and littoral of China, wherever the two
Governments exercise their influence, should remain free and
open to commerce, can be favorably entertained by Russia, as
this stipulation does not infringe in any way the 'status quo'
established in China by existing treaties. The second point
corresponds all the more with the intentions of Russia, seeing
that, from the commencement of the present complications, she
was the first to lay down the maintenance of the integrity of
the Chinese Empire as a fundamental principle of her policy in
China. As regards the third point relating to the eventuality
of an infringement of this fundamental principle, the Imperial
Government, while referring to their Circular of the 12th
(25th) August, can only renew the declaration that such an
infringement would oblige Russia to modify her attitude
according to circumstances."
On the 13th of November, while the foreign plenipotentiaries
at Peking were trying to agree in formulating the demands they
should make, the Chinese imperial government issued a decree
for the punishment of officials held responsible for the Boxer
outrages. As given the Press by the Japanese Legation at
Washington, in translation from the text received there, it
was as follows;
"Orders have been already issued for the punishment of the
officials responsible for opening hostilities upon friendly
Powers and bringing the country into the present critical
condition by neglecting to suppress and even by encouraging
the Boxers. But as Peking and its neighborhood have not yet
been entirely cleared of the Boxers, the innocent people are
still suffering terribly through the devastation of their
fields and the destruction of their houses, a state of affairs
which cannot fail to fill one with the bitterest feelings
against these officials. And if they are not severely
punished, how can the anger of the people be appeased and the
indignation of the foreign Powers allayed?
"Accordingly, Prince Tuan is hereby deprived of his title and
rank, and shall, together with Prince Chwang, who has already
been deprived of his title, be delivered to the Clan Court to
be kept in prison until the restoration of peace, when they
shall be banished to Sheng-King, to be imprisoned for life.
Princes Yi and Tsai Yung, who have both been already deprived
of their titles, are also to be delivered to the Clan Court
for imprisonment, while Prince Tsai Lien, also already
deprived of title and rank, is to be kept confined in his own
house, Duke Tsai Lan shall forfeit his ducal salary, but may
be transferred with the degradation of one rank. Chief Censor
Ying Nien shall be degraded two ranks and transferred. As to
Kang Yi, Minister of the Board of Civil Appointment, upon his
return from the commission on which he had been sent for the
purpose of making inquiries into the Boxer affair he
memorialized the Throne in an audience strongly in their
favor. He should have been severely punished but for his death
from illness, and all penalties are accordingly remitted. Chao
Shuy Yao, Minister of the Board of Punishment, who had been
sent on a mission similar to that of Kang Yi, returned almost
immediately. Though such conduct was a flagrant neglect of his
duties, still he did not make a distorted report to the
Throne, and therefore he shall be deprived of his rank, but
allowed to retain his present office. Finally, Yu Hsien,
ex-Governor of Shan-Se, allowed, while in office, the Boxers
freely to massacre the Christian missionaries and converts.
For this he deserves the severest punishment, and therefore he
is to be banished to the furthermost border of the country, and
there to be kept at hard labor for life.
{141}
"We have a full knowledge of the present trouble from the very
beginning, and therefore, though no impeachment has been brought
by Chinese officials at home or abroad against Princes Yi,
Tsai Lien and Tsai Yung, we order them to be punished in the
same manner as those who have been impeached. All who see this
edict will thus perceive our justice and impartiality in
inflicting condign penalties upon these officials," It was not
until the 20th of December that the joint note of the
plenipotentiaries of the Powers, after having been submitted
in November to the several governments represented, and
amended to remove critical objections, was finally signed and
delivered to the Chinese plenipotentiaries. The following is a
precis of the requirements set forth in it:
"(1) An Imperial Prince is to convey to Berlin the Emperor's
regret for the assassination of Baron von Ketteler, and a
monument is to be erected on the site of the murder, with an
inscription, in Latin, German, and Chinese, expressing the
regret of the Emperor for the murder.
"(2) The most severe punishment fitting their crimes is to be
inflicted on the personages designated in the Imperial decree
of September 21, whose names—not mentioned—are Princes Tuan
and Chuang and two other princes, Duke Lan, Chao Shu-chiao,
Yang-yi, Ying-hien, also others whom the foreign Ministers
shall hereafter designate. Official examinations are to be
suspended for five years in those cities where foreigners have
been assassinated or cruelly treated.
"(3) Honourable reparation is to be made to Japan for the
murder of M. Sugiyama.
"(4) Expiatory monuments are to be erected in all foreign
cemeteries where tombs have been desecrated.
"(5) The importation of arms or 'materiel' and their
manufacture are to be prohibited.
"(6) An equitable indemnity is to be paid to States,
societies, and individuals, also to Chinese who have suffered
injury because of their employment by foreigners. China will
adopt financial measures acceptable to the Powers to guarantee
the payment of the indemnity and the service of the loans.
"(7) Permanent Legation guards are to be maintained, and the
diplomatic quarter is to be fortified.
"(8) The Ta-ku forts and those between Peking and the sea are
to be razed.
"(9) There is to be a military occupation of points necessary
to ensure the safety of the communications between Peking and
the sea.
"(10) Proclamations are to be posted during two years
throughout the Empire threatening death to any person joining
an anti-foreign society and enumerating the punishment
inflicted by China upon the guilty ringleaders of the recent
outrages. An Imperial edict is to be promulgated ordering
Viceroys, Governors, and Provincial officials to be held
responsible for anti-foreign outbreaks or violations of
treaties within their jurisdiction, failure to suppress the
same being visited by the immediate cashiering of the
officials responsible, who shall never hold office again.
"(11) China undertakes to negotiate a revision of the
commercial treaties in order to facilitate commercial
relations.
"(12) The Tsung-li-Yamên is to be reformed, and the Court
ceremonial for the reception of foreign Ministers modified in
the sense indicated by the Powers.
"Until the foregoing conditions are complied with ('se
conformer à') the Powers can hold out no expectation of a
limit of time for the removal of the foreign troops now
occupying Peking and the provinces."
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (November).
Russo-Chinese agreement relating to Manchuria.
See (in this volume)
MANCHURIA.
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (December).
Russo-Chinese agreement concerning the Manchurian
province of Fêng-tien.
See (in this volume)
MANCHURIA: A. D. 1900.
CHINA: A. D. 1900-1901 (November-February).
Seizure of grounds at Peking for a large Legation Quarter.
Extensive plans of fortification.
In February, 1901, the following from a despatch written in
the previous November by Mr. Conger, the American Minister at
Peking, was given to the Press by the State Department at
Washington: "I have the honor to report that in view of the
probability of keeping large legation grounds in the future,
and because of the general desire on the part of all the
European representatives to have extensive legations, all of
the Ministers are taking possession of considerable areas
adjoining their legations—property belonging either to the
Chinese Government or to private citizens, and having been
abandoned by the owners during the siege—with the intention to
claim them as conquest, or possibly credit something for them
on their account for indemnity. I have as yet not taken formal
possession of any ground for this purpose, nor shall I without
instructions, but I shall not for the present permit any of the
owners or other persons to reoccupy any of the property
between this legation and the canal to the east of it. While
this area will be very small in comparison with the other
legations, yet it will be sufficient to make both the legation
personnel and the guard very comfortable, and will better
comport with our traditional simplicity vis-a-vis the usual
magnificence of other representatives.
"It is proposed to designate the boundaries of a legation
quarter, which shall include all the legations, and then
demand the right to put that in a state of defence when
necessary, and to prohibit the residence of Chinese there,
except by permission of the Ministers. If, therefore, these
ideas as to guards, defence, etc:., are to be carried out, a
larger legation will be an absolute necessity. In fact, it is
impossible now to accommodate the legation and staff in our
present quarters without most inconvenient crowding.
"There are no public properties inside the legation quarter
which we could take as a legation. All the proposed property
to be added, as above mentioned, to our legation, is private
ground, except a very small temple in the southeast corner,
and I presume, under our policy, if taken, will be paid for
either to the Chinese owners or credited upon account against
the Chinese Government for indemnity, although I suspect most
of the other Governments will take theirs as a species of
conquest. The plot of ground adjoining and lying to the cast
of the legation to which I have made reference is about the
size of the premises now occupied by us."
Before its adjournment on the 4th of March, 1901, the Congress
of the United States made an appropriation for the purchase of
grounds for its Legation at Peking, and instructions were sent
to make the purchase.
{142}
By telegram from Peking on the 14th of February it was
announced that a formidable plan of fortification for this
Legation Quarter had been drawn up by the Military Council of
the Powers at Peking, and that work upon it was to begin at
once. The correspondent of the "London Times" described the
plan and wrote satirically of it, as follows; "From supreme
contempt for the weakness of China armed we have swayed to
exaggerated fear of the strength of China disarmed. The
international military experts have devised a scheme for
putting the Legation quarter in a state of defence which is
equivalent to the construction of an International fortress
alongside the Imperial Palace. The plan requires the breaching
of the city wall at the Water-gate, the levelling of the Ha-ta
Mên and Chien Mên towers, the demolition of the ramparts
giving access to them, the sweeping clear of a space 150 to
300 yards wide round the entire Legation area, and the
construction of walls, glacis, moats, barbed wire defences,
with siege guns, Maxims, and barracks capable of holding 2,000
troops, with military stores and equipment sufficient to
withstand a siege of three months. All public buildings,
boards, and civil offices between the Legations and the
Imperial walls are to be levelled, while 11,000 foreign troops
are to hold the communications between Peking and the sea, so
that no Chinese can travel to Peking from the sea without the
knowledge of the foreign military authorities.
"The erection of the defences is to begin at once, before the
return of the Court to Peking. They are no doubt devised to
encourage the Court to return to Peking, it being apparently
the belief of the foreign Ministers that an Imperial Court
governing an independent empire are eager to place themselves
under the tutelage of foreign soldiers and within the reach of
foreign Maxims.
"Within the large new Legation area all the private property
of Chinese owners who years before sought the advantages of
vicinity to the Legations has been seized by the foreign
Legations. France and Germany, with a view to subsequent
commercial transactions, have annexed many acres of valuable
private property for which no compensation is contemplated,
while the Italian Legation, which boasts a staff of two
persons, carrying out the scheme of appropriation to a logical
absurdity, has, in addition to other property, grabbed the
Imperial Maritime Customs gardens and buildings occupied for
so many years by Sir Robert Hart and his staff."
CHINA: A. D. 1901 (January-February).
Famine in Shensi.
A Press telegram from Peking, late in January, announced a
fearful famine prevailing in the province of Shensi, where
thousands of natives were dying. The Chinese government was
distributing rice, and there was reported to be discrimination
against native Christians in the distribution. Mr. Conger, Sir
E. Satow, and M. Pichon protested to Prince Ching and Li
Hung-chang against such discrimination. A Court edict was
therefore issued on the 26th instant ordering all relief
officials and Chinese soldiers to treat Christians in exactly
the same way as all other Chinese throughout the Empire, under
penalty of decapitation. Another despatch, early in February,
stated: "Trustworthy reports received here from Singan-fu [the
temporary residence of the fugitive Chinese court] all agree
that the famine in the provinces of Shen-si and Shan-si is one
of the worst in the history of China. It is estimated that
two-thirds of the people are without sufficient food or the
means of obtaining it. They are also suffering from the bitter
cold. As there is little fuel in either province the woodwork
of the houses is being used to supply the want. Oxen, horses,
and dogs have been practically all sacrificed to allay hunger.
Three years of crop failures in both provinces and more or less
of famine in previous seasons had brought the people to
poverty when winter began. This year their condition has
rapidly grown worse. Prince Ching stated to Mr. Conger, the
United States Minister, that the people were reduced to eating
human flesh and to selling their women and children.
Infanticide is alarmingly common."
CHINA: A. D. 1901 (January-February).
Submission to the demands of the Powers
by the Imperial Government.
Punishments inflicted and promised.
A new Reform Edict.
With no great delay, the Chinese plenipotentiaries at Peking
were authorized by the Emperor and Empress to agree to the
demands of the Powers, which they did by formally signing the
Joint Note. Prince Ching gave his signature on the 12th of
January, 1901, and Li Hung-chang, who was seriously ill,
signed on the following day. Discussion of the punishments to
be inflicted on guilty officials was then opened, and went on
for some time. On the 5th of February, the foreign Ministers
submitted the names of twelve leading officials, against whom
formal indictments were framed, and who were considered to be
deserving of death. Three of them, however (Kang Yi, Hsu Tung,
and Li Ping Heng), were found to be already deceased. The
remaining nine were the following: Prince Chuang,
commander-in-chief of the Boxers; Prince Tuan, who was held to
be the principal instigator of the attack on foreigners; Duke
Lan, the Vice-President of Police, who admitted the Boxers to
the city; Yu Hsien, who was the governor of Shan-Si Province,
promoter of the Boxer movement there, and director of the
massacres in that province; General Tung Fu Siang, who led the
attacks on the Legations, Ying Nien, Chao Hsu Kiao, Hsu Cheng
Yu, and Chih Siu, who were variously prominent in the
murderous work. In the cases of Prince Tuan and Duke Lan, who
were related to the Imperial family, and in the case of
General Tung Fu Siang, whose military command gave him power
to be troublesome, the Chinese court pleaded such difficulties
in the way of executing a decree of death that the Ministers
at Peking were persuaded to be satisfied with sentences of
exile, or degradation in rank, or both. On the 21st of
February the Ministers received notice that an imperial edict
had been issued, condemning General Tung Fu Siang to be
degraded and deprived of his rank; Prince Tuan and Duke Lan to
be disgraced and exiled; Prince Chuang, Ying Nien and Chao Hsu
Kiao to commit suicide; Hsu Cheng Yu, Yu Hsien and Chih Siu to
be beheaded. Hsu Cheng Yu and Chih Siu were then prisoners in
the hands of the foreign military authorities at Peking, and
the sentence was executed upon them there, on the 26th of
February, in the presence of Japanese, French, German and
American troops. A despatch from Peking reporting the
execution stated that, while it was being carried out, "the
ministers held a meeting and determined on the part of the
majority to draw a curtain over further demands for blood.
United States Special Commissioner Rockhill sided strongly
with those favoring humane methods, who are Sir Ernest Satow
and MM. Komura, De Cologan and De Giers, respectively British,
Japanese, Spanish and Russian ministers. Others believe that
China has not been sufficiently punished, and that men should
be executed in every city, town and village where foreigners
were injured."
{143}
While the subject of punishments was pending, and with a view,
it was said, of quickening the action of the Chinese
government, Count von Waldersee, the German Field-Marshal
commanding the allied forces in China, ordered preparations to
be made for an extensive military expedition into the
interior. The government of the United States gave prompt
directions that its forces at Peking should not take part in
this movement, and the remonstrances of other Powers more
pacifically inclined than the Germans caused the project to be
given up.
Meantime, three Imperial edicts of importance, if faithfully
carried out, had been issued. One, on the 5th of February,
commanded new undertakings of reform, accounting for the
abandonment of the reform movement of 1898 by declaring that
it was seditionary and would have resulted in anarchy, and
that it was entered upon when the Emperor was in bad health;
for all which reasons he had requested the Empress Dowager to
resume the reins of government. Now, it was declared, since
peace negotiations were in progress, the government should be
formed on a basis for future prosperity. Established good
methods of foreign countries should be introduced to supply
China's deficiencies. "China's greatest difficulty," said the
edict, "is her old customs, which have resulted in the
insincere dispatch of business and the promoting of private
gain. Up to the present time those who have followed the
Western methods have had only superficial knowledge, knowing
only a little of foreign languages and foreign inventions,
without knowing the real basis of the strength of foreign
nations. Such methods are insufficient for real reform."
In order to obtain a true basis, the Emperor commanded a
consultation between the ministers of the privy council, the
six boards, nine officers, the Chinese ministers to foreign
countries and all the viceroys and governors. Those were
instructed to recommend reforms in the seven branches of
government, namely, the central government, ceremonies,
taxation, schools, civil-service examinations, military
affairs and public economies. They were also to recommend what
part of the old system can be used and what part needs changing.
Two months were given them in which to prepare their report.
On the following day, two edicts, in fulfilment of demands
made in the Joint Note of the Powers, were promulgated. The
first provided, in accordance with article 3 of the Joint
Note, for the suspension of official examinations for five
years in places where foreigners are killed. The second edict
forbade anti-foreign societies, recited the punishment of
guilty parties and declared that local officials will be held
responsible for the maintenance of order. If trouble occurs
the officials would be removed without delay and never again
allowed to hold office.
CHINA: A. D. 1901 (March).
The murdered Christian missionaries and native converts.
Varying statements and estimates of their number.
To the time of this writing (March, 1901), no complete
enumeration of the foreign Christian missionaries and members
of missionary families who were killed during the Boxer
outbreak of the past year has been made. Varying estimates
have appeared, from time to time, and it is possible that one
of the latest among these, communicated from Shanghai on the
1st of March, may approach to accuracy. It was published in
the "North China Daily News," and said to be founded on the
missionary records, according to which, said the "News," "a
total of 134 adults and 52 children were killed or died of
injuries in the Boxer rising of 1899 and 1900."
On the 13th of March, the "Lokal Anzeiger," of Berlin,
published a statistical report from its Peking correspondent
of "foreign Christians killed during the troubles, exclusive
of the Peking siege," which enumerated 118 Englishmen, 79
Americans, Swedes and Norwegians, 26 Frenchmen, 11 Belgians,
10 Italians and Swiss, and 1 German. The total of these
figures is largely in excess of those given by the "North
China Daily News," but they cover, not missionaries alone, but
all foreign Christians. It is impossible, however, not to
doubt the accuracy of both these accounts. Of native
Christians, the German writer estimated that 30,000 had
perished. In September, 1900, the United States Consul-General
at Shanghai, Mr. Goodnow, "after making inquiries from every
possible source," placed the number of British and American
missionaries who had probably been killed at 93, taking no
account of a larger number in Chih-li and Shan-si whose fate
was entirely unknown. Of those whose deaths he believed to be
absolutely proved at that time, 34 were British, including 9
men, 15 women and 10 children, and 22 were American, 8 of
these being men, 8 women and 6 children.
In December, 1900, a private letter from the "Association for
the Propagation of the Faith, St. Mary's Seminary," Baltimore,
Maryland, stated that up to the end of September 48 Catholic
missionaries were known to have been murdered. A pastoral
letter issued in December by Cardinal Vaughan, in London,
without stating the numbers killed, declared that all work of
the Catholic church, throughout the most of China, where 942
European and 445 native priests had been engaged, was
practically swept away.
A private letter, written early in January, 1901, by the
Reverend Dr. Judson Smith, one of the corresponding
secretaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions, contains the following statement: "The American
Board has lost in the recent disturbances in China 13
missionaries, 6 men and 7 women, and 5 children belonging to
the families who perished. The number of native converts
connected with the mission churches of the American Board who
have suffered death during these troubles cannot be stated
with accuracy. It undoubtedly exceeds 1,000; it may reach a
much larger figure; but some facts that have come to light of
late imply that more of those who were supposed to be lost
have been in hiding than was known. If we should reckon along
with native converts members of their families who have
suffered death, the number would probably be doubled."
There seems to be absolutely no basis of real information for
any estimate that has been made of the extent of massacre
among the native Christian converts. Thousands perished,
without doubt, but how many thousands is yet to be learned. As
intimated by Dr. Smith, larger numbers than have been supposed
may have escaped, and it will probably be long before the true
facts are gathered from all parts of the country.
{144}
In any view, the massacre of missionaries and their families
was hideous enough; but fictions of horror were shamefully
added, it seems, in some of the stories which came from the
East. At Pao-Ting Fu, where women were said to have suffered
indescribable brutalities before being slain, investigation by
an American military officer convinced him that "there is no
evidence of any peculiar atrocities committed upon the persons
of those who were slain"; and the American Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions has publicly announced:
"While forced to believe that our missionaries in Shan Si and
at Pao Ting Fu were put to death by the Chinese, we have never
credited the published reports concerning atrocities connected
with their slaughter."
CHINA: A. D. 1901 (March).
Withdrawal of American troops, excepting a Legation guard.
The following order was sent by cable from the War Department
at Washington to General Chaffee, commanding the United States
forces in China, on the 15th of March: "In reply to your
telegram Secretary of War directs you complete arrangements
sail for Manila with your command and staff officers by end
April, leaving as legation guard infantry company composed of
150 men having at least one year to serve or those intending
re-enlist, with full complement of officers, medical officer,
sufficient hospital corps men and, if you think best, field
officer especially qualified to command guard. Retain and
instruct officer quartermaster's department proceed to erect
necessary buildings for guard according to plan and estimates
you approve."
CHINA: A. D. 1901 (March-April).
Discussion of the question of indemnity.
Uneasiness concerning rumored secret negotiations of
Russia with the Chinese government relative to Manchuria.
As we write this (early in April), the reckoning of
indemnities to be demanded by the several Powers of the
Concert in China is still under discussion between the
Ministers at Peking, and is found to be very difficult of
settlement. There is understood to be wide differences of
disposition among the governments represented in the
discussion, some being accused of a greed that would endeavor
to wring from the Chinese government far more than the country
can possibly pay; while others are laboring to reduce the
total of exactions within a more reasonable limit. At the
latest accounts from Peking, a special committee of the
Ministers was said to be engaged in a searching investigation
of the resources of China, in order to ascertain what sum the
Empire has ability to pay, and in what manner the payment can
best be secured and best made. It seems to be hoped that when
those facts are made clear there may be possibilities of an
agreement as to the division of the total sum between the
nations whose legations were attacked, whose citizens were
slain, and who sent troops to crush the Boxer rising.
Meantime grave anxieties are being caused by rumors of a
secret treaty concerning Manchuria which Russia is said to be
attempting to extort from the Chinese government [see, in this
volume, MANCHURIA], the whispered terms of which would give
her, in that vast region, a degree of control never likely to
become less. The most positive remonstrance yet known to have
been made, against any concession of that nature, was
addressed, on the 1st of March, by the government of the
United States, to its representatives at St. Petersburg,
Berlin, London, Paris, Vienna, Rome, and Tokio, as follows:
"The following memorandum, which was handed to the Chinese
Minister on February 19, is transmitted to you for your
information and communication to the government to which you
are accredited: "The preservation of the territorial integrity
of China having been recognized by all the powers now engaged in
joint negotiation concerning the injuries recently inflicted
upon their ministers and nationals by certain officials and
subjects of the Chinese Empire, it is evidently advantageous
to China to continue the present international understanding
upon this subject. It would be, therefore, unwise and
dangerous in the extreme for China to make any arrangement or
to consider any proposition of a private nature involving the
surrender of territory or financial obligations by convention
with any particular power; and the government of the United
States, aiming solely at the preservation of China from the
danger indicated and the conservation of the largest and most
beneficial relations between the empire and other countries,
in accordance with the principles set forth in its circular
note of July 3, 1900, and in a purely friendly spirit toward
the Chinese Empire and all the powers now interested in the
negotiations, desires to express its sense of the impropriety,
inexpediency and even extreme danger to the interests of China
of considering any private territorial or financial
arrangements, at least without the full knowledge and approval
of all the powers now engaged in negotiation.
HAY."
----------CHINA: End--------
CHINESE TAXES.
See (in this volume)
LIKIN.
CHING, Prince:
Chinese Plenipotentiary to negotiate with the allied Powers.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).
CHITRAL: A. D. 1895.
The defense and relief of.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1895 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).
CHITRAL:A. D. 1901.
Included in a new British Indian province.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
CHOCTAWS, United States agreements with the.
See (in this volume)
INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1893-1899.
CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR, The Young People's Society of.
The nineteenth annual international convention of Young
People's Societies of Christian Endeavor was held in the
Alexandra Palace, London, England, from the 13th to the 20th
of July, 1900, delegates being present from most countries of
the world. Reports presented to the convention showed a total
membership of about 3,500,000, in 59,712 societies, 43,262 of
which were in the United States, 4,000 in Canada, some 7,000
in Great Britain, 4,000 in Australia, and smaller numbers in
Germany, India, China, Japan, Mexico, and elsewhere.
{145}
The first society, which supplied the germ of organization for
all succeeding ones, was formed in the Williston
Congregational Church of Portland, Maine, on the 2d of
February, 1881, by the Reverend Francis E. Clark, the pastor
of the church. The object, as indicated by the name of the
society, was to organize the religious energies of the young
people of the church for Christian life and work. The idea was
caught and imitated in other churches—Congregational,
Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, and others—very rapidly,
and the organization soon became, not only widely national,
but international. In 1898, it was reported that Russia then
remained the only country in the world without a Christian
Endeavor Society, and the total was 54,191. In the next year's
report Russia was announced to have entered the list of
countries represented, and the number of societies had
advanced to 55,813. In 1900, the numbers had risen to the
height stated above. The Epworth League is a kindred
organization of young people in the Methodist Church.
See (in this volume)
EPWORTH LEAGUE.
CHRISTIANS AND MOSLEMS:
Conflicts in Armenia.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1895.
CONFLICTS IN CRETE.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).
CHUNGKING.
"Chungking, which lies nearly 2,000 miles inland, is, despite
its interior position, one of the most important of the more
recently opened ports of China. Located at practically the
head of navigation on the Yangtze, it is the chief city of the
largest, most populous, and perhaps the most productive
province of China, whose relative position, industries,
population, and diversified products make it quite similar to
the great productive valley of the upper Mississippi. The
province of Szechuan is the largest province of China, having
an area of 166,800 square miles, and a population of
67,000,000, or but little less than that of the entire United
States. Its area and density of population may be more readily
recognized in the fact that its size is about the same as that
of the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky combined,
but that its population is six times as great as that of those
States. Its productions include wheat, tobacco, buckwheat,
hemp, maize, millet, barley, sugar cane, cotton, and silk."
United States, Bureau of Statistics,
Monthly Summary, March, 1899, page 2196.
CHURCH OF ENGLAND: A. D. 1896.
Papal declaration of the invalidity of its ordinations.
See (in this volume)
PAPACY: A. D. 1896 (SEPTEMBER).
CIVIL CODE: Introduction in Germany.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY).
-------CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES: Start-----
CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1893-1896.
Extensions of the Civil-Service rules by President Cleveland.
"Through the extensions of the Federal classification during
President Cleveland's second administration, the number of
positions covered by the civil-service rules was increased
two-fold. On March 3, 1893, the number classified was 42,928.
By a series of executive orders ranging from March 20, 1894,
to June 25. 1895, 10,000 places were added to the list,
bringing the total, approximately, to 53,000. Meanwhile, the
Civil Service Commission had recommended to the President a
general revision that would correct the imperfections of the
original rules and extend their scope to the full degree
contemplated by the Pendleton Act. After much correspondence
and consultation with department officers, and careful work on
the part of the Commission, the rules of May 6 [1896] were
promulgated. They added to the classification about 29,000
more places, and by transferring to the control of the
Commission the system of Navy Yard employment, established by
Secretary Tracy, brought the total number in the classified
service to 87,117. The positions in the Executive branch
unaffected by these orders included those classes expressly
excluded by the statute—persons nominated for confirmation by
the Senate and those employed 'merely as laborers or
workmen'—together with the fourth-class postmasters, clerks in
post-offices other than free delivery offices and in Customs
districts having less than five employees, persons receiving
less than $300 annual compensation, and about 1,000
miscellaneous positions of minor character, not classified for
reasons having to do with the good of the service—91,600 in
all. Within the classified service, the list of positions
excepted from competitive examination was confined to the
private secretaries and clerks of the President and Cabinet
officers, cashiers in the Customs Service, the Internal
Revenue Service and the principal post-offices, attorneys who
prepare cases for trial, principal Customs deputies and all
assistant postmasters—781 in all. The new rules provided for a
general system of promotion, based on competitive examinations
and efficiency records, and gave the Commission somewhat
larger powers in the matter of removals by providing that no
officer or employee in the classified service, of whatever
station, should be removed for political or religious reasons,
and that in all cases like penalties should be imposed for like
offenses. They created an admirable system, a system founded
on the most sensible rules of business administration, and
likely to work badly only where the Commission might encounter
the opposition of hostile appointing officers. President
Cleveland's revised rules were promulgated before the
Convention of either political party had been held, and before
the results of the election could be foreshadowed. The
extensions were practically approved, however, by the
Republican platform, which was adopted with full knowledge of
the nature of the changes, and which declared that the law
should be 'thoroughly and honestly enforced and extended
wherever practicable.' … Mr. McKinley, in his letter of
acceptance and in his inaugural address, repeated the pledge
of the Republican party to uphold the law, and during the two
months of his administration now past he has consistently done
so. He has been beset by many thousands of place-seekers, by
Senators and Representatives and by members of his own
Cabinet, all urging that he undo the work of his predecessor,
either wholly or in part, and so break his word of honor to
the nation, in order that they may profit. … At least five
bills have been introduced in Congress, providing for the
repeal of the law. … Finally, the Senate has authorized an
investigation, by the Committee on Civil Service and
Retrenchment, with the view of ascertaining whether the law
should be 'continued, amended or repealed,' and sessions of
this Committee are now in progress. … Mr. McKinley, by
maintaining the system against these organized attacks, will
do as great a thing as Mr. Cleveland did in upbuilding it."
Report of the Executive Committee of the New York
Civil Service Reform Association, 1897.
{146}
In his annual Message to Congress, December, 1896, President
Cleveland remarked on the subject:
"There are now in the competitive classified service upward of
eighty-four thousand places. More than half of these have been
included from time to time since March 4, 1893. … If
fourth-class postmasterships are not included in the
statement, it may be said that practically all positions
contemplated by the civil-service law are now classified.
Abundant reasons exist for including these postmasterships,
based upon economy, improved service, and the peace and quiet
of neighborhoods. If, however, obstacles prevent such action
at present, I earnestly hope that Congress will, without
increasing post-office appropriations, so adjust them as to
permit in proper cases a consolidation of these post-offices,
to the end that through this process the result desired may to
a limited extent be accomplished. The civil-service rules as
amended during the last year provide for a sensible and
uniform method of promotion, basing eligibility to better
positions upon demonstrated efficiency and faithfulness."
United States, Message and Documents (Abridgment),
1896-1897, page 33.
CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1894.
Constitutional provision in New York.
See (in this volume)
CONSTITUTION OF NEW YORK.
CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1897-1898.
Onslaught of the spoils-men at Washington.
Failure of the Congressional attack.
"During the four months following the inauguration [of
President McKinley] the onslaught of place-seekers was almost
unprecedented. Ninety-nine out of every hundred of them
discovered that the office or position he desired was
classified and subject to competitive examination. The tenure
of the incumbent in each case was virtually at the pleasure of
the department officers; removals might easily be made; but
appointments to the places made vacant could be made only from
the eligible lists, and the lists were fairly well filled. It
is true that the rules permitted the reinstatement without
examination of persons who had been separated from the service
without personal fault within one year, or of veterans who had
been in the service at any time, and that some removals were made
to make room for these. But the appointments in such cases
went but a very little way toward meeting the demand. The
result was that almost the whole pressure of the
office-hunting forces and of their members of Congress was
directed for the while toward one end—the revocation or
material modification of the civil service rules. President
McKinley was asked to break his personal pledges, as well as
those of his party, and to take from the classified service
more than one half of the 87,000 offices and positions it
contained. … But the President yielded substantially nothing.
… The attack of the spoils-seekers was turned at once from the
President to Congress. It was declared loudly that the desired
modifications would be secured through legislation, and that
it might even be difficult to restrain the majority from
voting an absolute repeal. In the House the new movement was
led by General Grosvenor of Ohio; in the Senate by Dr.
Gallinger of New Hampshire. … The first debates of the session
dealt with civil service reform. The House devoted two weeks to
the subject in connection with the consideration of the annual
appropriation for the Civil Service Commission. … The effort
to defeat the appropriation ended in the usual failure. It was
explained, however, that all of this had been mere preparation
for the proposed legislation. A committee was appointed by the
Republican opponents, under the lead of General Grosvenor, to
prepare a bill. The bill appeared on January 6, when it was
introduced by Mr. Evans of Kentucky, and referred to the
Committee on Reform in the Civil Service. It limited the
application of the civil service law to clerical employees at
Washington, letter carriers and mail clerks, and employees in
principal Post Offices and Customs Houses, proposing thus to
take from the present classified service about 55,000
positions. A series of hearings was arranged by the Civil
Service Committee, at which representatives of this and other
Associations, and of the Civil Service Commission, were
present. A sub-committee of seven, composing a majority of the
full committee, shortly afterward voted unanimously to report
the bill adversely. About the same time, the Senate Civil
Service Committee, which had been investigating the operation
of the law since early summer, presented its report. Of the
eight members, three recommended a limited number of
exceptions, amounting in all to probably 11,000; three
recommended a greatly reduced list of exceptions, and two
proposed none whatever. All agreed that the President alone
had authority to act, and that no legislation was needed. …
The collapse of the movement in Congress has turned the
attention of the spoilsmen again toward the President. He is
asked once more to make sweeping exceptions."
Report of the Executive Committee of the
New York Civil Service Reform Association, 1898.
CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES:A. D. 1897-1899.
Temporary check in New York.
Governor Black's law.
Restoration of the merit system under Governor Roosevelt.
"In June [1897]—after the Court of Appeals … had declared that
the constitutional amendment was self-executing, and that
appointments made without competitive examination, where
competitive examinations were practicable, must be held to be
illegal—steps were taken to secure a reduction of the exempt
and non-competitive positions in the State Service. A letter
was addressed to Governor Morton, by the officers of the
Association, on June 8, asking that the service be
reclassified, on a basis competitive as far as practicable.
The Governor replied that he had already given the subject
some thought, and that he would be glad to give our
suggestions careful consideration. On the 4th of August he
instructed the Civil Service Commission to prepare such a
revision of the rules and classification as had been proposed.
On the 11th of November this revision, prepared by
Commissioner Burt, was adopted by the full Commission, and on
the 9th of December the new rules were formally promulgated by
the Governor and placed in immediate operation. … The
Governor, earlier in the year, had reversed his action in the
case of inspectors and other employees of the new Excise
Department, by transferring them from the non-competitive to
the competitive class. … This marked the beginning of a
vigorous movement against the competitive system led by
chairmen of district committees, and other machine
functionaries.
{147}
Governor Morton's sweeping order of December completed the
discomfiture of these people and strengthened their purpose to
make a final desperate effort to break the system down. The
new Governor, of whom little had been known prior to his
unexpected nomination in September, proved to be in full
sympathy with their plan. In his message to the legislature,
Mr. Black, in a paragraph devoted to 'Civil Service,' referred
to the system built up by his predecessor in contemptuous
language, and declared that, in his judgment, 'Civil service
would work better with less starch.' He recommended
legislation that would render the examinations 'more
practical,' and that would permit appointing officers to
select from the whole number on an eligible list and not
confine them to selections 'from among those graded highest.'
Such legislation, he promised; would 'meet with prompt
executive approval.' Each house of the legislature referred
this part of the message to its Judiciary Committee, with
instructions to report a bill embodying the Governor's ideas.
… Within a few days of the close of the legislative session,
the measure currently described as 'Governor Black's bill was
Introduced. … The bill provided that in all examinations for
the State, county or municipal service, not more than 50 per
cent. might be given for 'merit,' to be determined by the
Examining Boards, and that the rest of the rating,
representing 'fitness,' was to be given by the appointing
officer, or by some person or persons designated by him. All
existing eligible lists were to be abolished in 30 days, and
the new scheme was to go into operation at once. … A hearing
was given by the Senate Committee on the following day, and
one by the Assembly Committee a few days later. … The bill,
with some amendments, was passed In the Senate, under
suspension of the rules, and as a party measure. … It was
passed in the Assembly also as a caucus measure."
Report of the Executive Committee of the
New York Civil Service Reform Association, 1897.
"Early [in 1898] after time had been allowed for the act to
prove its capabilities in practice, steps were taken toward
commencing a suit to test its constitutionality in the courts.
… Pending the bringing of a test suit, a bill was prepared for
the Association and introduced in the Legislature on March
16th, last, one of the features of which was the repeal of the
unsatisfactory law. … The bill … was passed by the Senate on
March 29th. On the 31st, the last day of the session, it was
passed by the Assembly. … On the same date it was signed by
the Governor and became a law. This act has the effect of
exempting the cities from the operation of the act of 1897,
restoring the former competitive system in each of them."
Report of the Executive Committee of the
New York Civil Service Reform Association, 1898.
"As a result of the confusing legislation of [1897 and 1898]
at least four systems of widely differing character had come
into existence by the first of [1899]. New York city had its
charter rules, … the state departments were conducted under
two adaptations of the Black law, and in the smaller cities
the plan of the original law of 1883 was followed. In his
first annual message, Governor Roosevelt directed the
attention of the Legislature to this anomalous condition and
strongly urged the passage of an act repealing the Black law
and establishing a uniform system, for the state and cities
alike, subject to state control. Such an act was prepared with
the co-operation of a special committee of the Association. …
After some discussion it was determined to recast the measure,
adopting a form amounting to a codification of all previously
existing statutes, and less strict in certain of its general
provisions. … The bill was … passed by the Senate by a
majority of two. … In the Assembly it was passed with slight
amendments. … On the … 19th of April the act was signed by the
Governor, and went into immediate effect. … The passage of
this law will necessitate the complete recasting of the civil
service system in New York, on radically different lines."
CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1899.
Modification of Civil Service Rules by President McKinley.
Severe criticism of the order by the National Civil
Service Reform League.
On the 29th of May, 1899, President McKinley was persuaded to
issue an order greatly modifying the civil service rules,
releasing many offices from their operation and permitting
numerous transfers in the service on a non-competitive
examination. This presidential order was criticised with
severity in a statement promptly issued by the Executive
Committee of the National Civil Service Reform League, which
says: "The National Civil Service Reform League, after mature
consideration, regards the order of President McKinley, of May
29, changing the Civil Service rules, as a backward step of
the most pronounced character. The order follows a long
succession of violations, of both the spirit and the literal
terms of the law and rules, in various branches of the
service, and must be considered in its relations to these. Its
immediate effects, which have been understated, may be set
forth as follows:
(1) It withdraws from the classified service not merely 3,000
or 4,000 offices and positions, but, as nearly as can be now
estimated, 10,109. It removes 3,693 from the class of
positions filled hitherto either through competitive
examination or through an orderly practice of promotion, and
it transfers 6,416 other positions in the War Department,
filled hitherto through a competitive registration system,
under the control of the Civil Service Commission, to a system
to be devised and placed in effect by the present Secretary of
War.
(2) It declares regular at least one thousand additional
appointments made temporarily, without examination—in many
cases in direct disregard of the law—in branches that are not
affected by the exceptions, but that remain nominally
competitive.
(3) It permits the permanent appointment of persons employed
without examination, for emergency purposes during the course
of war with Spain, thus furnishing a standing list of many
thousands which positions in the War Department may be filled,
without tests of fitness, for a long time to come.
(4) It alters the rules to the effect that in future any
person appointed with or without competitive examination, or
without any examination, may be placed by transfer in any
classified position without regard to the character or
similarity of the employments interchanged, and after
non-competitive examination only.
{148}
(5) It permits the reinstatement, within the discretion of the
respective department officers, of persons separated from the
service at any previous time for any stated reason.
The effect of these changes in the body of the rules will be
of a more serious nature than that of the absolute exceptions
made. It will be practicable to fill competitive positions of
every description either through arbitrary reinstatement—or
through original appointment to a lower grade, or to an
excepted position without tests of any sort, or even by
transfer from the great emergency force of the War Department,
to be followed in any such case by a mere 'pass' examination.
As general experience has proven, the 'pass' examinations, in
the course of time, degenerate almost invariably into farce.
It will be practicable also to restore to the service at the
incoming of each new administration those dismissed for any
cause during the period of any administration preceding. That
such a practice will lead to wholesale political reprisals,
and, coupled with the other provisions referred to, to the
re-establishment on a large scale of the spoils system of
rotation and favoritism, cannot be doubted."
In his next succeeding annual Message to Congress the
President used the following language on the subject: "The
Executive order [by President Cleveland] of May 6, 1896,
extending the limits of the classified service, brought within
the operation of the civil-service law and rules nearly all of
the executive civil service not previously classified. Some of
the inclusions were found wholly illogical and unsuited to the
work of the several Departments. The application of the rules to
many of the places so included was found to result in friction
and embarrassment. After long and very careful consideration
it became evident to the heads of the Departments, responsible
for their efficiency, that in order to remove these
difficulties and promote an efficient and harmonious
administration certain amendments were necessary. These
amendments were promulgated by me in Executive order dated May
29, 1899. All of the amendments had for their main object a
more efficient and satisfactory administration of the system
of appointments established by the civil-service law. The
results attained show that under their operation the public
service has improved and that the civil-service system is
relieved of many objectionable features which heretofore
subjected it to just criticism and the administrative officers
to the charge of unbusinesslike methods in the conduct of
public affairs. It is believed that the merit system has been
greatly strengthened and its permanence assured."
United States, Message and Documents
(Abridgment), 1890-1900, volume 1.
At its next annual meeting, December 14, 1900, in New York,
the National Civil Service Reform League reiterated its
condemnation of the order of President McKinley, declaring:
"The year has shown that the step remains as unjustified in
principle as ever and that it has produced, in practical
result, just the injuries to the service that were feared, as
the reports of our committee of various branches of the
service have proved. The league, therefore, asserts without
hesitancy that the restoration of very nearly all places in
every branch of the service exempted from classification by
this deplorable order is demanded by the public interest and
that the order itself should be substantially revoked."
CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1900.
Civil Service Rules in the Philippine Islands.
"An Act for the establishment and maintenance of an efficient
and honest civil service in the Philippine Islands" was
adopted, on the 19th of September, by the Commission which now
administers the civil government of those islands. The bill is
founded on the principles of the American civil service in
their stricter construction, and its provisions extend to all
the executive branches of the government. The framing of rules
and regulations for the service are left to the Civil Service
Board provided for in the act. A correspondent of the "New
York Tribune," writing from Manila on the day after the
enactment, states: "W. Leon Pepperman, who has long been
connected with the civil service in the United States, and who
has made a personal study of the systems maintained by Great
Britain, France, and Holland in their Eastern colonies, will
be on this board, as will be F. W. Kiggins of the Washington
Civil Service Commission. The third member probably will be a
Filipino. President Taft had selected for this post Dr.
Joaquin Gonzalez, an able man, but that gentleman's untimely
death on the eve of his appointment has forced President Taft
to find another native capable of meeting the necessary
requirements. Mr. Kiggins probably will act as Chief Examiner,
and Mr. Pepperman as Chairman of the board:" According to the
same correspondent: " Examinations for admittance to the
service will be held in Manila, Iloilo, and Cebu, in the
Philippines, and in the United States under the auspices and
control of the Federal Civil Service Commission." At the
annual meeting of the National Civil Service Reform League of
the United States held in New York, December 13, 1900, the
above measure was commended highly in the report of a special
committee appointed to consider the subject of the civil
service in our new dependencies, as being one by which, "if it
be persevered in, the merit system will be established in the
islands of that archipelago, at least as thoroughly and
consistently as in any department of government, Federal,
State or municipal, in the Union. This must be, in any case,
regarded as a gratifying recognition of sound principles of
administration on the part of the commission and justifies the
hope that, within the limits of their jurisdiction at least,
no repetition of the scandals of post-bellum days will be
tolerated. The ruling of the several departments that the
provisions of the Federal offices established in the
dependencies which would be classified if within the United
States is also a matter to be noted with satisfaction by the
friends of good government."
{149}
CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1901.
The "spoils system" of service in the House of Representatives.
The "spoils system" maintained by Congressmen among their own
immediate employees, in the service of the House of
Representatives, was depicted in a report, submitted February
28, 1901, by a special committee which had been appointed to
investigate the pay of the House employees. The report,
presented by Mr. Moody, of Massachusetts, makes the following
general statements, with abundance of illustrative instances,
few of which can be given here: "The four officers elected by
the House, namely, the Clerk, Sergeant-at-Arms, Doorkeeper,
and Postmaster, appoint the employees of the House, except the
clerks and assistant clerks of members and committees, four
elevator men, the stenographers, and those appointed by House
resolutions. The appointments, however, are made on the
recommendation of members of the House, and very largely,
though not entirely, of members of the dominant party in the
House. If a member upon whose recommendation an appointment is
made desires the removal of his appointee and the substitution
of another person, the removal and substitution are made without
regard to the capacity of either person. In case a member upon
whose recommendation an appointment has been made ceases to be
a member of the House, an employee recommended by him
ordinarily loses his place. Thus the officers of the House,
though responsible for the character of the service rendered
by the employees, have in reality little or no voice in their
selection, and, as might reasonably be expected, the results
obtained from the system which we have described are in some
cases extremely unsatisfactory. This method of appointing
House employees has existed for many years, during which the
House has been under the control of each party alternately. We
believe that candor compels us to state at the outset that
some of the faults in administration which we have observed
are attributable to the system and to the persistence of
members of the House in urging upon the officers the
appointment of their constituents and friends to subordinate
places, and that such faults are deeply rooted, of long
standing, and likely to continue under the administration of
any political party as long as such a system is maintained."
The committee found nothing to criticise in the
administration of the offices of the House Postmaster or
Sergeant-at-Arms. With reference to the offices of the Clerk
and the Doorkeeper they say: "We have found in both
departments certain abuses, which may be grouped under three
heads, namely: Transfers of employees from the duties of the
positions to which they were appointed to other duties,
unjustifiable payments of compensation to employees while
absent from their posts of duty, and divisions of salary.
"First. Transfers of employees from the duties to which they
were appointed to other duties.—Some part of this evil is
doubtless attributable to the fact that the annual
appropriation acts have not properly provided for the
necessities of the House service. An illustration of this is
furnished by the case of Guy Underwood, who is carried on the
rolls as a laborer at $720 per annum, while in point of fact
he performs the duty of assistant in the Hall Library of the
House and his compensation is usually increased to $1,800 per
annum by an appropriation of $1,080 in the general deficiency
act. Again, a sufficient number of messengers has not been
provided for the actual necessities of the service, while more
folders have been provided than are required. As a result of
this men have been transferred from the duties of a folder to
those of a messenger, and the compensation of some has been
increased by appropriation in deficiency acts. But evils of
another class result from transfers, some examples of which we
report. They result in part, at least, from an attempt to
adjust salaries so as to satisfy the members that their
appointees obtain a just share of the whole appropriation,
instead of attempting to apportion the compensation to the
merits of the respective employees and the character of the
services which they render. …
"Second. Payments of compensation to employees while
absent.—The duty of many of the employees of the House ceases
with the end of a session, or very soon thereafter. Such is
the case with the reading clerks, messengers, enrolling
clerks, and many others who might be named. Their absence from
Washington after a session of Congress closes and their duties
are finished is as legitimate as the absence of the members
themselves. But many employees who should be at their posts
have been from time to time absent without justification, both
during sessions and between sessions. In the absence of any
record it is impossible for the committee to ascertain with
anything like accuracy the amount of absenteeism, but in our
opinion it is very considerable.
"Some of those employed in the library service have been
absent for long periods between the sessions of Congress,
although the House library is in a condition which demands
constant attention for years to come in order to bring it up
to a proper condition of efficiency. The pay roll of the
librarian, his assistants, and those detailed to the library
service, including deficiency appropriations, amounts to
$9,200 per annum. No one of the employees of the library, with
the exception of a $600 deficiency employee and Guy Underwood,
who in his freshman year at college was librarian part of one
session at the Ohio State University, has ever had any library
experience, although they all appear to be capable,
intelligent men. The House library is said to consist of
300,000 volumes, many of which are duplicates, and is
scattered from the Dome to the basement of the Capitol, in
some instances, until recently, books being piled in unused
rooms, like so much wood or coal. The present librarian
testified as follows:
'Q. It would be difficult to describe a worse condition than
existed?'
'A. It would, for the condition of books. It would be all
right for a barnyard, but for books it was terrible.' It is
just to say that under the present administration of the
library some attempt has been made at improvement, but the
effect of fifty years' neglect can not be remedied in a day.
We can not think that any absenteeism, beyond a reasonable
vacation, on the part of those employed in the library is
justifiable in view of the foregoing facts.
"The folders, taking the orders of members rather than those
of the Doorkeeper, are absent a great deal during the
vacation, and in some cases persons are employed by resolution
to do their work. The Doorkeeper testified as follows:
'I think Mr. Lyon told me where members requested they had
three months at home during this last Congress.'
'Q. Drawing their pay in the meantime?'
'A. Yes, sir; they had three months'.'
'Q. That is not in the interest of your service, is it?'
'A. No, sir.'
'Q. Have you been able to prevent it?'
'A. No, sir.'
'Q. Why?'
'A. They would go to the superintendent of the folding room
and say to him, "My man has got to go home."'
'Q. You mean the members would go?'
'A. Yes, sir. I do not like to criticise members, but that is
the situation. They go and say, "I have got to have my man
home, and he must go home; it is absolutely necessary;" and he
has been permitted to go.'
{150}
"We have been unable to inquire as much into specific
instances of absenteeism as we desired, but it may be said
generally that absenteeism on the folders' force is very
general. …
"Third, division of salaries.—According to the testimony of
Thomas H. McKee, the Journal clerk, the custom of dividing
salaries is an old one and has existed for at least twenty
years. We are satisfied that we are unable to report all the
instances of divisions of salaries which have occurred: but we
submit the following facts, which were clearly proved before
us: On the organization of the House in the Fifty-fourth
Congress it appears that more places, or places with higher
salaries, were promised than the officers of the House were
able to discover under the law. It does not appear by whom
these promises were made. There began at once a system whereby
the employees agreed to contribute greater or less portions of
the salaries they received for the purpose either of paying
persons not on the roll or of increasing the compensation of
persons who were on the roll. Of the latter class, the
increases were not proportioned to the character of the
services rendered or the merit of the employees, but to the
supposed rights of the States or Congressional districts from
which the recipients came. Some of these contributions were
made voluntarily and cheerfully; others we believe to have
been made under a species of moral duress."
Congressional Record,
February 28, 1901, page 3597.
CLERICAL PARTY: Austria.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897, and after.
CLERICAL PARTY: Belgium.
See (in this volume)
BELGIUM: A. D. 1899-1900.
CLEVELAND, Grover:
President of the United States.
See (in volume 5 and in this volume.)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1893, to 1897.
CLEVELAND, Grover:
Extensions of Civil Service Rules.
See (in this volume)
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1893-1896.
CLEVELAND, Grover:
Message to Congress on the Boundary Dispute between
Great Britain and Venezuela.
See (in this volume)
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1895 (DECEMBER).
CLEVELAND, Grover:
On Cuban affairs.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897.
CLEVELAND, OHIO: A. D. 1896.
The centennial anniversary of the founding of the city was
celebrated with appropriate ceremonies on the 22d of July,
1896, and made memorable by a gift to the city, by Mr. John D.
Rockefeller, of 276 acres of land for a public park.
COAL MINERS, Strikes among.
See (in this volume)
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES.
COAMO, Engagement at.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: PORTO RICO).
COLENSO, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
COLLEGES.
See (in this volume)
EDUCATION.
COLOMBIA: A. D. 1893-1900.
Resumption of work on the Panama Canal.
Revolutionary movements.
Prolonged Civil War.
Boundary dispute with Costa Rica.
Panama Canal concession twice extended.
In 1893 the receiver or liquidator of the affairs of the
bankrupt Panama Canal Company of De Lesseps (see, in volume 4,
PANAMA CANAL) obtained from the government of Colombia an
extension of the terms of the concession under which that
company had worked, provided that work on the canal should be
resumed before November 1, 1894. He succeeded in forming in
France a new company which actually made a beginning of work
on the canal before the limit of time expired. But this
attempted revival of the undertaking was quickly harassed,
like everything else in Colombia, by an outbreak of revolt
against the clerical control of government under President
Caro. The revolutionary movement was begun late in 1894,
receiving aid from exiles and sympathizers in Venezuela,
Ecuador and Central America. It had no substantial success,
the revolutionists being generally defeated in the pitched
battles that were fought; but after a few months they were
broken into guerilla bands and continued warfare in that
method throughout most of the year 1895. They were still
threatening in 1896, but the activity and energy of President
Caro prevented any serious outbreak. A boundary dispute
between Colombia and Costa Rica, which became considerably
embittered in 1896, was finally referred to the President of
the French Republic, whose decision was announced in
September, 1900.
Colombia began a fresh experience of civil war in the autumn
of 1899, when an obstinate movement for the overthrow of
President Saclemente (elected in 1898) was begun. General
Herrera was said, at the outset, to be in the lead, but, as
the struggle proceeded, General Rafael Uribe-Uribe seems to
have become its real chief. It went on with fierce fighting,
especially in the isthmus, and with varying fortunes, until
near the close of 1900, when the insurgents met with a defeat
which drove General Uribe-Uribe to flight. He made his escape
to Venezuela, and thence to the United States, arriving at New
York early in February, 1901. In conversation with
representatives of the Press he insisted that there was no
thought in his party or in his own mind of abandoning the
revolutionary attempt. The cause of the revolution, he said,
was due to the oppression of the government, which was in the
hands of the Conservative party. "They have not governed
according to the constitution," he said, "and while taxing the
Liberals, will not allow them to be adequately represented in
the government. For fifteen years the Liberal party has been
deprived of all its rights. I have been the only
representative of the party in Congress. We tried every
peaceable method to obtain our rights before going to war, but
could not get anything from the government. The government did
not want to change anything, because it did not want to lose
any of its power. I, as the only representative of the Liberal
party, made up my mind to fight, and will fight to the end."
By what is said to have been a forced resignation, some time
in the later part of the year 1900, President Saclemente, a
very old man, retired from the active duties of the office,
which were taken in hand by the Vice-President, Dr. Manoquin.
During the year 1900, the government signed a further
extension of the concession to the Panama Canal Company,
prolonging the period within which the canal must be completed
six years from April, 1904.
{151}
COLORADO: A. D. 1897.
Abolition of the death penalty.
By an Act of the Legislature of Colorado which became law in
March, 1897, the death penalty was abolished in that state.
COLORADOS.
See (in this volume)
URUGUAY: A. D. 1896-1899.
COLUMBUS, Christopher:
Removal of remains from Havana to Seville.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1898 (DECEMBER).
COMBINATIONS, Industrial.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS.
COMMANDO.
Commandeering.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1894.
COMMERCIAL CONGRESS, International.
See (in this volume)
INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL CONGRESS.
COMMERCIAL MUSEUM, Philadelphia.
See (in this volume)
PHILADELPHIA: A. D. 1897.
COMPULSORY INSURANCE:
The State System in Germany.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1897-1900.
COMPULSORY VOTING.
See (in this volume)
BELGIUM: A. D. 1894-1895.
CONCERT OF EUROPE.
Concert of the Powers.
"We have heard of late so much about 'the Concert' that the
man in the street talks of it as if it were a fact of nature
like the Bosphorus or the Nile; and he assumes that he and all
his neighbours understand exactly what it means. Yet it may be
doubted whether even persons so omniscient as the politician
and the journalist could describe it with any approach to
truth or even to common sense. An energetic newspaper lately
described the Concert as 'Three Despots, two Vassals, and a
Coward.' This doubtless was a libel. An Olympian
Under-Secretary called it 'the Cabinet of Europe.' Lord
Salisbury himself, impatient of facile caricatures, insisted
that it was a 'Federation.' It has also, to Sir William
Harcourt's wrath, been spoken of as an 'Areopagus' having
'legislative' powers. All these phrases are mere nonsense; and
yet they have profoundly influenced the action of this country
and the course of recent history. The patent fact of the hour
is that six powerful States are pleased to interest themselves
in the Eastern Question—which is the question of the dissolution
of Turkey.
See, in this volume,
TURKEY: A. D. 1895, and after.
They base their claim to take exceptional steps in the matter
on the plea that there is imminent risk of a general European
war if they do not act. … What is the Concert of Europe? It is
not a treaty, still less a federation. If it is anything, it
is a tacit understanding between the 'six Powers' that they
will take common action, or abstain from 'isolated action,' in
the Eastern question. Whether it is even that, in any rational
sense of the word 'understanding,' is more than doubtful. For
there has been much and very grave 'isolated action,' even in
pending troubles."
See, in this volume,
TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY-MARCH); and 1897-1899]
The Concert of Europe
(Contemporary Review, May, 1897).
The joint action of the leading European Powers in dealing
with Turkish affairs, between 1896 and 1899, which took the
name of "The Concert of Europe," was imitated in 1900, when
the more troublesome "Far Eastern Question" was suddenly
sprung upon the world by the "Boxer" rising in China. The
United States and Japan were then associated in action with
the European nations; and the "Concert of Europe" was
succeeded by a larger "Concert of the Powers."
See, in this volume,
CHINA: A. D. 1900, JANUARY-MARCH, and after.
CONCESSIONS, The battle of, in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-DECEMBER).
CONDOMINIUM, Anglo-Egyptian, in the Sudan.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY).
CONFEDERATE DISABILITIES, Removal of.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (MARCH).
CONGER, Edwin H.: United States Minister to China.
See (in this volume) CHINA.
CONGO FREE STATE: A. D. 1897.
Mutiny of troops of Baron Dhanis's expedition.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (CONGO FREE STATE).
CONGO FREE STATE: A. D. 1899.
Results of the King of Belgium's attempt to found
an African Empire.
Contradictory representations.
"The opening in the first few days of July [1898] of the
railway through the District of the Cataracts, from Matadi to
Stanley Pool, has turned public attention to Central Africa,
where the genius and courage of the King of the Belgians have
created a Black Empire within the short space of twelve years.
It is the special pride of its founder that the vast state of
the Congo has been formed without bloodshed, except at the
cost of the cruel Arab slave-hunters, and of the not less
cruel cannibals like Msiri or the Batetelas, that a thousand
treaties have been signed without a gunshot, and that from the
commencement the highest ideals of modern civilisation have
been aimed at, and, considering the stupendous difficulties of
the task, practically attained in the administration. The
standard of humanity and progress has been firmly planted in
the midst of a population of thirty millions, the decadence of
those millions has been arrested, peace exists where there was
only slaughter and savagery, and prosperity is coming in the
train of improved communications, and of the development of
the natural resources of a most promising region. In the
history of Empires that of the Congo State is unique. …
"The Berlin Conference did nothing for the Congo State beyond
giving it a being and a name.
See, in volume 1,
CONGO FREE STATE.
On the other hand it imposed upon it some onerous conditions.
There was to be freedom of trade—an excellent principle, but
not contributory to the State exchequer—it was to employ all
its strength in the suppression of the slave trade—'a
gigantic task, undertaken with the resources of pygmies,' as
some one has said—and the navigation of the Congo was to be
free to all the world without a single toll. The sufficiently
ample dimensions marked out for the State in the Conventional
limits attached to the Berlin General Act had to be defined
and regulated by subsequent negotiation with the neighbouring
Powers.
{152}
France attenuated the northern possessions of the State at
every possible opportunity, but at length, in February, 1895,
she was induced to waive in favour of Belgium the right of
pre-emption which the Congo Association had given her in
April, 1884, over its possessions, at the moment when the
Anglo-Portuguese Convention threatened that enterprise with
extinction. … Four years after the meeting at Berlin it was
found necessary to convene another conference of the Powers,
held on this occasion at Brussels, under the presidency of
Baron Lambermont, whose share in the success of the earlier
conference had been very marked and brilliant. The chief
object set before the new Conference was to devise means for
the abolition of the Slave Trade in Central Africa. … The
Conference lasted more than seven months, and it was not until
July, 1890, that the General Act bearing the signatures of the
Powers was agreed upon. It increased the obligations resting
on the State; its decisions, to which the Independent State
was itself a party, made the task more onerous, but at the
same time it sanctioned the necessary measures to give the
State the revenue needed for the execution of its new
programme. …
"Fresh from the Brussels Conference the Congo State threw
itself into the struggle with the Arabs. … Thanks to the skill
and energy with which the campaign was conducted the triumph
of the State was complete, and the downfall of the Arabs
sounded the knell of the slave trade, of which they were the
principal, and indeed the sole, promoters. The Arab campaign
did not conclude the military perils that beset the nascent
State. The Batetela contingent of the Public Force or native
army of the Congo mutinied in January, 1897, while on the
march to occupy the Lado district of the Upper Nile, and the
episode, ushered in in characters of blood by the
assassination of many Belgian officers, seemed to shake the
recently-constructed edifice to its base. But if the ordeal
was severe, the manner in which the authorities have triumphed
over their adversaries and surmounted their difficulties,
furnishes clear evidence of the stability of their power. The
Batetela mutineers have been overthrown in several signal
encounters, a mere handful of fugitives still survive, and
each mail brings news of their further dispersal. Even at the
moment of its occurrence the blow from the Batetela mutiny was
tempered by the success of the column under Commandant Chaltin in
overthrowing the Dervishes at Redjaf and in establishing the
State's authority on the part of the Nile assigned to it by
the Anglo-Congolese Convention of 1894. The triumphs of the
Congo State have, however, been those of peace and not of war.
With the exception of the operations named and the overthrow
of the despotism of the savage Msiri, the State's record is
one of unbroken tranquillity. These wars, little in magnitude
but great in their consequences, were necessary for the
suppression of the slave trade as well as for the legitimate
assertion of the authority of the Congo Government. But their
immediate consequence was the effective carrying out of the
clauses in the Penal Code making all participation in the
capture of slaves or in cannibalism a capital offence. That
was the primary task, the initial step, in the establishment
of civilisation in Central Africa, and of the credit for this
the Congo State cannot be deprived. When this was done there
remained the still more difficult task of saving the black
races from the evils which civilisation brings in its train
among an ignorant population incapable of self-control. The
import of firearms had to be checked in order to prevent an
untamed race indulging in internecine strife, or turning their
weapons upon the mere handful of Europeans engaged in the task
of regenerating the negroes. The necessary measures inspired
by the double motives of self-preservation and the welfare of
the blacks have been taken, and the State controls in the most
complete and effectual manner the importation of all weapons
and munitions of war. Nor has the success of the
administration been less clear or decisive in its control of
the liquor traffic."
Demetrius C. Boulger,
Twelve Years' Work on the Congo
(Fortnightly Review, October, 1898).
To a considerable extent this favorable view of the work of
the Belgians in the Congo State is sustained by the report
which a British Consul, Mr. Pickersgill, made to his
government in 1898. He wrote admiringly of the energy with
which the Belgians had overcome enormous difficulties in their
undertaking, and then asked: "Has this splendid invasion
justified itself by benefiting the aborigines? Equatorial
Africa is not a white man's country. He can never prove his
claim to sole possession of it by surviving as the fittest;
and without the black man's co-operation it can serve no
useful purpose to anybody. Has the welfare of the African,
then, whose prosperous existence is thus indispensable, been
duly cared for in the Congo State?" By way of answer to these
questions, his report sets forth, with apparently strict
fairness, the conditions produced in the country as he
carefully observed them. He found that much good had been done
to the natives by restrictions on the liquor trade, by an
extensive suppression of inter-tribal wars, and by a
diminution of cannibalism. Then comes a rehearsal of facts
which have a different look.
"The yoke of the notorious Arab slave-traders has been broken,
and traffic in human beings amongst the natives themselves has
been diminished to a considerable degree. Eulogy here begins
with a spurt and runs out thin at the end. But there is no
better way of recording the facts concisely. To hear, amidst
the story's wild surroundings, how Dhanis and Hinde, and their
intrepid comrades, threw themselves, time after time, upon the
strongholds of the banded men-stealers, until the Zone Arabe
was won in the name of freedom, is to thrill with admiration
of a gallant crusade. … But it is disappointing to see the
outcome of this lofty enterprise sink to a mere modification
of the evil that was so righteously attacked. Like the
Portuguese in Angola, the Belgians on the Congo have adopted
the system of requiring the slave to pay for his freedom by
serving a new master during a fixed term of years for wages
merely nominal. On this principle is based the 'serviçal'
system of the first-named possession, and the 'libéré' system
of the latter; the only difference between the two being that
the Portuguese Government permits limited re-enslavement for
the benefit of private individuals, but does not purchase on
its own account; while the Government of the Independent State
retains for itself an advantage which it taboos to everybody
else.
{153}
"The State supports this system because labour is more easily
obtainable thereby than by enforcing corvee amongst the free
people, and less expensively than by paying wages. The slave
so acquired, however, is supposed to have undergone a change
of status, and is baptized officially as a free man. After
seven years' service under the new name he is entitled to his
liberty complete. In Angola the limit is five years. The
natives are being drilled into the habit of regular work. …
The first Europeans who travelled inland of Matadi had to rely
entirely on porters from the coast, and it was not until the
missionaries had gained the confidence of the people, and
discovered individuals amongst them who could be trusted as
gangers, that the employment of local carriers became
feasible. The work was paid for, of course, and it is to the
credit of the State that the remuneration continued,
undiminished, after compulsion was applied. But how, it cannot
fail to be asked, did the necessity for compulsion arise? In
the same way that it has since arisen in connection with other
forms of labour: the State wished to get on faster than
circumstances would permit. Accordingly the Government
authorities prohibited the missionaries from recruiting where
porters were most easily obtained, and under the direction of
their military chief, the late Governor-General Wahis,
initiated a rigorous system of corvee. In spite of the
remuneration this was resisted, at first by the men liable to
serve absenting themselves from home, and afterwards, when the
State Officers began to seize their women and children as
hostages, by preparations for war. Deserting their villages,
the people of the caravan route took to the bush, and efforts
were made by the chiefs to bring about a general uprising of
the entire Cataract district. Things were in so critical a
condition that Colonel Wahis had to leave unpunished the
destruction of a Government station and the murder of the
officer in charge. Mainly through the influence of the
missionaries the general conflagration was prevented, but the
original outbreak continued to smoulder for months, and
transport work of all kinds had to be discontinued until means
were devised of equalising the burden of the corvee, and of
enlisting the co-operation of the chiefs in its management.
That was in 1894. Three years later the system appeared to be
working with remarkable smoothness. … Whatever views may be
held respecting the influence of the State at the present
stage of its schoolmaster task, there can be no doubt that the
condition, a year or two hence, of those sections of the
population about to be relieved from the transport service,
will afford conclusive evidence, one way or the other, of the
Government's civilising ability. … It needs no great knowledge
of coloured humanity to foresee that such pupils will quickly
relapse into good-for-nothingness more than aboriginal, unless
their education be continued. …
"One of the most obvious duties of an European Government
standing in 'loco parentis' to savage tribes, and exercising
'dominatio parentis' with an unspared rod, is to educate the
juvenile pagan. Since 1892 the Congo State has disbursed,
according to the published returns, taking one year with
another, about 6,000l. per annum, on this department of its
enterprise. It cannot be said, therefore, to have neglected
the duty entirely. A school for boys has been established at
Boma, and another at Nouvelle Anvers; while large numbers of
children of both sexes have been placed with the Roman
Catholic missionaries, in the same and other districts. Except
in one direction, however, the movement has not been very
successful. The young Africans thus blessed with a chance of
becoming loyal with intelligence are all waifs and strays, who
have been picked up by exploring parties and military
expeditions. Their homes are at the points of the compass, and
their speech is utter bewilderment. …
"A word must be said as to the employment of what are known as
'sentries.' A 'sentry' on the Congo is a dare-devil
aboriginal, chosen, from troops impressed outside the district
in which he serves, for his loyalty and force of character.
Armed with a rifle and a pouch of cartridges, he is located in
a native village to see that the labour for which its
inhabitants are responsible is duly attended to. If they are
India rubber collectors, his duty is to send the men into the
forest and take note of those who do not return with the
proper quantity. Where food is the tax demanded, his business
is to make sure that the women prepare and deliver it; and in
every other matter connected with the Government he is the
factotum, as far as that village is concerned, of the officer
of the district, his power being limited only by the amount of
zeal the latter may show in checking oppression. When
Governor-General Wahis returned from his tour of inspection he
seemed disposed to recommend the abolition of this system,
which is open to much abuse. But steps have not yet been taken
in that direction."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: No. 459,
Miscellaneous Series, 1898, pages 7-12).
From this account of things it would seem that Mr. Boulger, in
the view quoted above from his article on the work of King
Leopold in the Congo country, had chosen to look only at what
is best in the results. On the other hand, the writer of the
following criticism in the "Spectator" of London may have
looked at nothing but the blacker side:
"King Leopold II., who, though he inherits some of the Coburg
kingcraft, is not a really able man, deceived by confidence in
his own great wealth and by the incurable Continental idea
that anybody can make money in the tropics if he is only hard
enough, undertook an enterprise wholly beyond his resources,
and by making revenue instead of good government his end,
spoiled the whole effect of his first successes. The Congo
Free State, covering a million square miles, that is, as large
as India, and containing a population supposed to exceed
forty-two millions, was committed by Europe to his charge in
absolute sovereignty, and at first there appeared to be no
resistance. Steamers and telegraphs and stations are trifles
to a millionaire, and there were any number of Belgian
engineers and young officers and clerks eager for employment.
The weak point of the undertaking, inadequate resources, soon,
however, became patent to the world. The King had the disposal
of a few white troops, but they were only Belgians, who suffer
greatly in tropical warfare, and his agents had to form an
acclimatised army 'on the cheap.' They engaged, therefore, the
fiercest blacks they could find, most of them cannibals, paid
them by tolerating license, and then endeavoured to maintain
their own authority by savage discipline.
{154}
The result was that the men, as events have proved, and as the
King seems in his apologia to admit, were always on the verge
of mutiny, and that the native tribes, with their advantages
of position, numbers, and knowledge of the forest and the
swamps, proved at least as good fighters as most of the forces
of the Congo State. So great, however, is the intellectual
superiority of white men, so immeasurable the advantage
involved in any tincture science, that the Belgians might
still have prevailed but for the absolute necessity of
obtaining money. They could not wait for the growth of
resources under scientific taxation such as will follow Mr.
Mitchell Innes's financial reforms in Siam, but attempted to
obtain them from direct taxation and monopolies, especially
that of rubber. Resistance was punished with a savage cruelty,
which we are quite ready to believe was not the original
intention of the Belgians, but which could not be avoided when
the only mode of punishing a village was to let loose black
cannibals on it to work their will, and which gradually
hardened even the Europeans, and the consequence was universal
disloyalty. The braver tribes fought with desperation, the
black troops were at once cowed and attracted by their
opponents, the black porters and agriculturists became secret
enemies, all were kept in order by terror alone, and we all
see the result. The Belgians are beaten; their chiefs, Baron
Dhanis and Major Lothaire, are believed to be prisoners; and
the vast territories of the far interior, whence alone rubber
can now be obtained, are already lost. … The administration on
the spot is tainted by the history of its cruelties and its
failures, and there are not the means in Brussels of replacing
it by competent officials, or of supplying them with the
considerable means required for what must now be a deliberate
reconquest."
Spectator (London),
February 4, 1899.
CONGO FREE STATE: A. D. 1900.
Expiration of the Belgian Convention of 1890.
King Leopold's will.
Three days after the close of the year 1900, the Convention of
1890, which regulated for a period of ten years the relations
between Belgium and the Congo State, expired by lapse of time,
but was likely to be renewed. The chief provisions of the
Convention were
(1) that Belgium should advance to the Congo State a loan of
25,000,000f. (£1,000,000), free of interest, of which
one-fifth was payable at sight and the balance in ten yearly
instalments of 2,000,000f. each;
(2) Belgium acquired within six months of the final payment
the option of annexing the Congo State with all the rights and
appurtenances of sovereignty attaching thereto; or
(3) if Belgium did not avail herself of this right the loan
was only redeemable after a further period of ten years, but
became subject to interest at the rate of 3, per cent. per
annum.
The will of King Leopold, executed in 1889, runs as follows:
"We bequeath and transmit to Belgium, after our death, all our
Sovereign rights to the Congo Free State, such as they have been
recognized by the declarations, conventions, and treaties,
drawn up since 1884, on the one hand between the International
Association of the Congo, and on the other hand the Free State,
as well as all the property, rights, and advantages, accruing
from such sovereignty. Until such time as the Legislature of
Belgium shall have stated its intentions as to the acceptation
of these dispositions, the sovereignty shall be exercised
collectively by the Council of three administrators of the
Free State and by the Governor-General."
----------CONGO FREE STATE: End--------
CONGRESS: Of the United States.
Reapportionment of Representatives.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).
CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 1896.
Attack of Armenian revolutionists on the Ottoman Bank,
and subsequent Turkish massacre of Armenians.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1896 (AUGUST).
----------CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRALIA.: Start--------
The following is the "Act to constitute the Commonwealth of
Australia," as passed by the Imperial Parliament, July 9, 1900
(63 & 64 Vict. ch. 12)—see (in this volume) AUSTRALIA: A. D.
1900. The text is from the official publication of the Act:
Whereas the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South
Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, humbly relying on the
blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one
indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and under the
Constitution hereby established: And whereas it is expedient
to provide for the admission into the Commonwealth of other
Australasian Colonies and possessions of the Queen: Be it
therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by
and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and
Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled,
and by the authority of the same, as follows:-
1. This Act may be cited as the Commonwealth of Australia
Constitution Act.
2. The provisions of this Act referring to the Queen shall
extend to Her Majesty's heirs and successors in the
sovereignty of the United Kingdom.
3. It shall be lawful for the Queen, with the advice of the
Privy Council, to declare by proclamation that, on and after a
day therein appointed, not being later than one year after the
passing of this Act, the people of New South Wales, Victoria,
South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, and also, if Her
Majesty is satisfied that the people of Western Australia have
agreed thereto, of Western Australia, shall be united in a
Federal Commonwealth under the name of the Commonwealth of
Australia. But the Queen may, at any time after the
proclamation, appoint a Governor-General for the Commonwealth.
4. The Commonwealth shall be established, and the Constitution
of the Commonwealth shall take effect, on and after the day so
appointed. But the Parliaments of the several colonies may at
any time after the passing of this Act make any such laws, to
come into operation on the day so appointed, as they might
have made if the Constitution had taken effect at the passing
of this Act.
{155}
5. This Act, and all laws made by the Parliament of the
Commonwealth under the Constitution, shall be binding on the
courts, judges, and people of every State and of every part of
the Commonwealth, notwithstanding anything in the laws of any
State; and the laws of the Commonwealth shall be in force on
all British ships, the Queen's ships of war excepted, whose
first port of clearance and whose port of destination are in
the Commonwealth.
6. "The Commonwealth" shall mean the Commonwealth of Australia
as established under this Act. "The States" shall mean such of
the colonies of New South Wales, New Zealand, Queensland,
Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, and South Australia,
including the northern territory of South Australia, as for
the time being are parts of the Commonwealth, and such
colonies or territories as may be admitted into or established
by the Commonwealth as States; and each of such parts of the
Commonwealth shall be called "a State." "Original States"
shall mean such States as are parts of the Commonwealth at its
establishment.
7. The Federal Council of Australasia Act, 1885, is hereby
repealed, but so as not to affect any laws passed by the
Federal Council of Australasia and in force at the
establishment of the Commonwealth. Any such law may be
repealed as to any State by the Parliament of the
Commonwealth, or as to any colony not being a State by the
Parliament thereof.
8. After the passing of this Act the Colonial Boundaries Act,
1895, shall not apply to any colony which becomes a State of
the Commonwealth; but the Commonwealth shall be taken to be a
self-governing colony for the purposes of that Act.
9. The Constitution of the Commonwealth shall be as follows:
THE CONSTITUTION.
This Constitution is divided as follows:-
Chapter I.—The Parliament:
Part I.—General:
Part II.—The Senate:
Part III.—The House of Representatives:
Part IV.—Both Houses of the Parliament:
Part V.—Powers of the Parliament:
Chapter II.—The Executive Government:
Chapter III.—The Judicature:
Chapter IV.—Finance and Trade:
Chapter V.—The States:
Chapter VI.—New States:
Chapter VII.—Miscellaneous:
Chapter VIII.—Alteration of the Constitution.
The Schedule.
CHAPTER I. THE PARLIAMENT:
PART I.—GENERAL.
1. The legislative power of the Commonwealth shall be vested
in a Federal Parliament, which shall consist of the Queen, a
Senate, and a House of Representatives, and which is
herein-after called "The Parliament," or "The Parliament of
the Commonwealth."
2. A Governor-General appointed by the Queen shall be Her
Majesty's representative in the Commonwealth, and shall have
and may exercise in the Commonwealth during the Queen's
pleasure, but subject to this Constitution, such powers and
functions of the Queen as Her Majesty may be pleased to assign
to him.
3. There shall be payable to the Queen out of the Consolidated
Revenue fund of the Commonwealth, for the salary of the
Governor-General, an annual sum which, until the Parliament
otherwise provides, shall be ten thousand pounds. The salary
of a Governor-General shall not be altered during his
continuance in office.
4. The provisions of this Constitution relating to the
Governor-General extend and apply to the Governor-General for
the time being, or such person as the Queen may appoint to
administer the Government of the Commonwealth; but no such
person shall be entitled to receive any salary from the
Commonwealth in respect of any other office during his
administration of the Government of the Commonwealth.
5. The Governor-General may appoint such times for holding the
sessions of the Parliament as he thinks fit, and may also from
time to time, by Proclamation or otherwise, prorogue the
Parliament, and may in like manner dissolve the House of
Representatives. After any general election the Parliament
shall be summoned to meet not later than thirty days after the
day appointed for the return of the writs. The Parliament
shall be summoned to meet not later than six months after the
establishment of the Commonwealth.
6. There shall be a session of the Parliament once at least in
every year, so that twelve months shall not intervene between
the last sitting of the Parliament in one session and its
first sitting in the next session.
PART II.—THE SENATE.
7. The Senate shall be composed of senators for each State,
directly chosen by the people of the State, voting, until the
Parliament otherwise provides, as one electorate. But until
the Parliament of the Commonwealth otherwise provides, the
Parliament of the State of Queensland, if that State be an
Original State, may make laws dividing the State into
divisions and determining the number of senators to be chosen
for each division, and in the absence of such provision the
State shall be one electorate. Until the Parliament otherwise
provides there shall be six senators for each Original State.
The Parliament may make laws increasing or diminishing the
number of senators for each State, but so that equal
representation of the several Original States shall be
maintained and that no Original State shall have less than six
senators. The senators shall be chosen for a term of six
years, and the names of the senators chosen for each State
shall be certified by the Governor to the Governor-General.
8. The qualification of electors of senators shall be in each
State that which is prescribed by this Constitution, or by the
Parliament, as the qualification for electors of members of
the House of Representatives; but in the choosing of senators
each elector shall vote only once.
9. The Parliament of the Commonwealth may make laws
prescribing the method of choosing senators, but so that the
method shall be uniform for all the States. Subject to any
such law, the Parliament of each State may make laws
prescribing the method of choosing the senators for that
State. The Parliament of a State may make laws for determining
the times and places of elections of senators for the State.
{156}
10. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, but subject to
this Constitution, the laws in force in each State, for the
time being, relating to elections for the more numerous House
of the Parliament of the State shall, as nearly as
practicable, apply to elections of senators for the State.
11. The Senate may proceed to the despatch of business,
notwithstanding the failure of any State to provide for its
representation in the Senate.
12. The Governor of any State may cause writs to be issued for
elections of senators for the State. In case of the
dissolution of the Senate the writs shall be issued within ten
days from the proclamation of such dissolution.
13. As soon as may be after the Senate first meets, and after
each first meeting of the Senate following a dissolution
thereof, the Senate shall divide the senators chosen for each
State into two classes, as nearly equal in number as
practicable; and the places of the senators of the first class
shall become vacant at the expiration of the third year, and the
places of those of the second class at the expiration of the
sixth year, from the beginning of their term of service; and
afterwards the places of senators shall become vacant at the
expiration of six years from the beginning of their term of
service. The election to fill vacant places shall be made in
the year at the expiration of which the places are to become
vacant. For the purposes of this section the term of service
of a senator shall be taken to begin on the first day of
January following the day of his election, except in the cases
of the first election and of the election next after any
dissolution of the Senate, when it shall be taken to begin on
the first day of January preceding the day of his election.
14. Whenever the number of senators for a State is increased
or diminished, the Parliament of the Commonwealth may make
such provision for the vacating of the places of senators for
the State as it deems necessary to maintain regularity in the
rotation.
15. If the place of a senator becomes vacant before the
expiration of his term of service, the Houses of Parliament of
the State for which he was chosen shall, sitting and voting
together, choose a person to hold the place until the
expiration of the term, or until the election of a successor
as hereinafter provided, whichever first happens. But if the
Houses of Parliament of the State are not in session at the
time when the vacancy is notified, the Governor of the State,
with the advice of the Executive Council thereof, may appoint
a person to hold the place until the expiration of fourteen
days after the beginning of the next session of the Parliament
of the State, or until the election of a successor, whichever
first happens. At the next general election of members of the
House of Representatives, or at the next election of senators
for the State, whichever first happens, a successor shall, if
the term has not then expired, be chosen to hold the place
from the date of his election until the expiration of the
term. The name of any senator so chosen or appointed shall be
certified by the Governor of the State to the
Governor-General.
16. The qualifications of a senator shall be the same as those
of a member of the House of Representatives.
17. The Senate shall, before proceeding to the despatch of any
other business, choose a senator to be the President of the
Senate; and as often as the office of President becomes vacant
the Senate shall again choose a senator to be the President.
The President shall cease to hold his office if he ceases to
be a senator. He may be removed from office by a vote of the
Senate, or he may resign his office or his seat by writing
addressed to the Governor-General.
18. Before or during any absence of the President, the Senate
may choose a senator to perform his duties in his absence.
19. A Senator may, by writing addressed to the President, or
to the Governor-General if there is no President or if the
President is absent from the Commonwealth, resign his place,
which thereupon shall become vacant.
20. The place of a senator shall become vacant if for two
consecutive months of any session of the Parliament he,
without the permission of the Senate, fails to attend the
Senate.
21. Whenever a vacancy happens in the Senate, the President,
or if there is no President or if the President is absent from
the Commonwealth the Governor-General, shall notify the same
to the Governor of the State in the representation of which
the vacancy has happened.
22. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, the presence of
at least one-third of the whole number of the senators shall
be necessary to constitute a meeting of the Senate for the
exercise of its powers.
23. Questions arising in the Senate shall be determined by a
majority of votes, and each senator shall have one vote. The
President shall in all cases be entitled to a vote; and when
the votes are equal the question shall pass in the negative.
PART III.—THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
24. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members
directly chosen by the people of the Commonwealth, and the
number of such members shall be, as nearly as practicable,
twice the number of the senators. The number of members chosen
in the several States shall be in proportion to the respective
numbers of their people, and shall, until the Parliament
otherwise provides, be determined, whenever necessary, in the
following manner:—
(i.) A quota shall be ascertained by dividing the number of
the people of the Commonwealth, as shown by the latest
statistics of the Commonwealth, by twice the number of the
senators.
(ii.) The number of members to be chosen in each State
shall be determined by dividing the number of the people of
the State, as shown by the latest statistics of the
Commonwealth, by the quota; and if on such division there
is a remainder greater than one-half of the quota, one more
member shall be chosen in the State. But notwithstanding
anything in this section, five members at least shall be
chosen in each Original State.
25. For the purposes of the last section, if by the law of any
State all persons of any race are disqualified from voting at
elections for the more numerous House of the Parliament of the
State, then, in reckoning the number of the people of the
State or of the Commonwealth, persons of that race resident in
that State shall not be counted.
{157}
26. Notwithstanding anything in section twenty-four, the
number of members to be chosen in each State at the first
election shall be as follows:—
New South Wales, twenty-three;
Victoria, twenty;
Queensland, eight;
South Australia, six;
Tasmania, five;
provided that if Western Australia is an Original State, the
numbers shall be as follows:—
New South Wales, twenty-six;
Victoria, twenty-three;
Queensland, nine;
South Australia, seven;
Western Australia, five;
Tasmania, five.
27. Subject to this Constitution, the Parliament may make laws
for increasing or diminishing the number of the members of the
House of Representatives.
28. Every House of Representatives shall continue for three
years from the first meeting of the House, and no longer, but
may be sooner dissolved by the Governor-General.
29. Until the Parliament of the Commonwealth otherwise
provides, the Parliament of any State may make laws for
determining the divisions in each State for which members of
the House of Representatives may be chosen, and the number of
members to be chosen for each division. A division shall not
be formed out of parts of different States. In the absence of
other provision, each State shall be one electorate.
30. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, the qualification
of electors of members of the House of Representatives shall
be in each State that which is prescribed by the law of the
State as the qualification of electors of the more numerous
House of Parliament of the State; but in the choosing of
members each elector shall vote only once.
31. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, but subject to
this Constitution, the laws in force in each State for the
time being relating to elections for the more numerous House
of the Parliament of the State shall, as nearly as
practicable, apply to elections in the State of members of the
House of Representatives.
32. The Governor-General in Council may cause writs to be
issued for general elections of members of the House of
Representatives. After the first general election, the writs
shall be issued within ten days from the expiry of a House of
Representatives or from the proclamation of a dissolution
thereof.
33. Whenever a vacancy happens in the House of
Representatives, the Speaker shall issue his writ for the
election of a new member, or if there is no Speaker or if he
is absent from the Commonwealth the Governor-General in
Council may issue the writ.
34. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, the
qualifications of a member of the House of Representatives
shall be as follows:—
(i.) He must be of the full age of twenty-one years, and
must be an elector entitled to vote at the election of
members of the House of Representatives, or a person
qualified to become such elector, and must have been for
three years at the least a resident within the limits of
the Commonwealth as existing at the time when he is chosen:
(ii.) He must be a subject of the Queen, either
natural-born or for at least five years naturalized under a
law of the United Kingdom, or of a Colony which has become
or becomes a State, or of the Commonwealth, or of a State.
35. The House of Representatives shall, before proceeding to
the despatch of any other business, choose a member to be the
Speaker of the House, and as often as the office of Speaker
becomes vacant the House shall again choose a member to be the
Speaker. The Speaker shall cease to hold his office if he
ceases to be a member. He may be removed from office by a vote
of the House, or he may resign his office or his seat by
writing addressed to the Governor-General.
36. Before or during any absence of the Speaker, the House of
Representatives may choose a member to perform his duties in
his absence.
37. A member may by writing addressed to the Speaker, or to
the Governor-General if there is no Speaker or if the Speaker
is absent from the Commonwealth, resign his place, which
thereupon shall become vacant.
38. The place of a member shall become vacant if for two
consecutive months of any session of the Parliament he,
without the permission of the House, fails to attend the
House.
39. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, the presence of
at least one-third of the whole number of the members of the
House of Representatives shall be necessary to constitute a
meeting of the House for the exercise of its powers.
40. Questions arising in the House of Representatives shall be
determined by a majority of votes other than that of the
Speaker. The Speaker shall not vote unless the numbers are
equal, and then he shall have a casting vote.
PART IV.—BOTH HOUSES OF THE PARLIAMENT.
41. No adult person who has or acquires a right to vote at
elections for the more numerous House of the Parliament of a
State shall, while the right continues, be prevented by any
law of the Commonwealth from voting at elections for either
House of the Parliament of the Commonwealth.
42. Every senator and every member of the House of
Representatives shall before taking his seat make and
subscribe before the Governor-General, or some person
authorised by him, an oath or affirmation of allegiance in the
form set forth in the schedule to this Constitution.
43. A member of either House of the Parliament shall be
incapable of being chosen or of sitting as a member of the
other House.
44. Any person who—
(i.) Is under any acknowledgment of allegiance, obedience, or
adherence to a foreign power, or is a subject or a citizen or
entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or a citizen
of a foreign power: or
(ii.) Is attainted of treason, or has been convicted and is
under sentence, or subject to be sentenced, for any offence
punishable under the law of the Commonwealth or of a State by
imprisonment for one year or longer: or
(iii.) Is an undischarged bankrupt or insolvent: or
(iv.) Holds any office of profit under the Crown, or any
pension payable during the pleasure of the Crown out of any of
the revenues of the Commonwealth: or
(v.) Has any direct or indirect pecuniary interest in any
agreement with the Public Service of the Commonwealth
otherwise than as a member and in common with the other
members of an incorporated company consisting of more than
twenty-five persons: shall be incapable of being chosen or of
sitting as a senator or a member of the House of
Representatives. But sub-section iv. does not apply to the
office of any of the Queen's Ministers of State for the
Commonwealth, or of any of the Queen's Ministers for a State,
or to the receipt of pay, half pay, or a pension by any person
as an officer or member of the Queen's navy or army, or to the
receipt of pay as an officer or member of the naval or
military forces of the Commonwealth by any person whose
services are not wholly employed by the Commonwealth.
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45. If a senator or member of the House of Representatives—
(i.) Becomes subject to any of the disabilities mentioned in
the last preceding section: or
(ii.) Takes the benefit, whether by assignment, composition,
or otherwise, of any law relating to bankrupt or insolvent
debtors: or
(iii.) Directly or indirectly takes or agrees to take any fee
or honorarium for services rendered to the Commonwealth, or
for services rendered in the Parliament to any person or
State: his place shall thereupon become vacant.
46. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, any person
declared by this Constitution to be incapable of sitting as a
senator or as a member of the House of Representatives shall,
for every day on which he so sits, be liable to pay the sum of
one hundred pounds to any person who sues for it in any court
of competent jurisdiction.
47. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, any question
respecting the qualification of a senator or of a member of
the House of Representatives, or respecting a vacancy in
either House of the Parliament, and any question of a disputed
election to either House, shall be determined by the House in
which the question arises.
48. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, each senator and
each member of the House of Representatives shall receive an
allowance of four hundred pounds a year, to be reckoned from
the day on which he takes his seat.
49. The powers, privileges, and immunities of the Senate and
of the House of Representatives, and of the members and the
committees of each House, shall be such as are declared by the
Parliament, and until declared shall be those of the Commons
House of Parliament of the United Kingdom, and of its members
and committees, at the establishment of the Commonwealth.
50. Each House of the Parliament may make rules and orders
with respect to—
(i.) The mode in which its powers, privileges, and immunities
may be exercised and upheld:
(ii.) The order and conduct of its business and proceedings
either separately or jointly with the other House.
PART V.—POWERS OF THE PARLIAMENT.
51. The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have
power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government
of the Commonwealth with respect to:—
(i.) Trade and commerce with other countries, and among the
States;
(ii.) Taxation; but so as not to discriminate between States
or parts of States:
(iii.) Bounties on the production or export of goods, but so
that such bounties shall be uniform throughout the
Commonwealth:
(iv.) Borrowing money on the public credit of the
Commonwealth:
(v.) Postal, telegraphic, telephonic, and other like services:
(vi.) The naval and military defence of the Commonwealth and
of the several States, and the control of the forces to
execute and maintain the laws of the Commonwealth:
(vii.) Lighthouses, lightships, beacons and buoys:
(viii.) Astronomical and meteorological observations:
(ix.) Quarantine:
(x.) Fisheries in Australian waters beyond territorial limits:
(xi.) Census and statistics:
(xii.) Currency, coinage, and legal tender:
(xiii.) Banking, other than State banking; also State banking
extending beyond the limits of the State concerned, the
incorporation of banks, and the issue of paper money:
(xiv.) Insurance, other than State insurance; also State
insurance extending beyond the limits of the State concerned:
(xv.) Weights and measures:
(xvi. ) Bills of exchange and promissory notes:
(xvii.) Bankruptcy and insolvency:
(xviii.) Copyrights, patents of inventions and designs, and
trade marks:
(xix.) Naturalization and aliens:
(xx.) Foreign corporations, and trading or financial
corporations formed within the limits of the Commonwealth:
(xxi.) Marriage:
(xxii.) Divorce and matrimonial causes; and in relation
thereto, parental rights, and the custody and guardianship of
infants:
(xxiii.) Invalid and old-age pensions:
(xxiv.) The service and execution throughout the Commonwealth
of the civil and criminal process and the judgments of the
courts of the States:
(xxv.) The recognition throughout the Commonwealth of the
laws, the public Acts and records, and the judicial
proceedings of the States:
(xxvi.) The people of any race, other than the aboriginal race
in any State, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special
laws:
(xxvii.) Immigration and emigration:
(xxviii.) The influx of criminals:
(xxix.) External affairs:
(xxx.) The relations of the Commonwealth with the islands of
the Pacific:
(xxxi.) The acquisition of property on just terms from any
State or person for any purpose in respect of which the
Parliament has power to make laws:
(xxxii.) The control of railways with respect to transport for
the naval and military purposes of the Commonwealth:
(xxxiii.) The acquisition, with the consent of a State, of any
railways of the State on terms arranged between the
Commonwealth and the State:
(xxxiv.) Railway construction and extension in any State with
the consent of that State:
(xxxv.) Conciliation and arbitration for the prevention and
settlement of industrial disputes extending beyond the limits
of any one State:
(xxxvi.) Matters in respect of which this Constitution makes
provision until the Parliament otherwise provides:
(xxxvii.) Matters referred to the Parliament of the
Commonwealth by the Parliament or Parliaments of any State or
States, but so that the law shall extend only to States by
whose Parliaments the matter is referred, or which afterwards
adopt the law:
(xxxviii.) The exercise within the Commonwealth, at the
request or with the concurrence of the Parliaments of all the
States directly concerned, of any power which can at the
establishment of this Constitution be exercised only by the
Parliament of the United Kingdom or by the Federal Council of
Australasia:
(xxxix.) Matters incidental to the execution of any power
vested by this Constitution in the Parliament or in either
House thereof, or in the Government of the Commonwealth, or in
the Federal Judicature, or in any department or officer of the
Commonwealth.
52. The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have
exclusive power to make laws for the peace, order, and good
government of the Commonwealth with respect to—
(i.) The seat of government of the Commonwealth, and all
places acquired by the Commonwealth for public purposes:
(ii.) Matters relating to any department of the public service
the control of which is by this Constitution transferred to the
Executive Government of the Commonwealth:
(iii.) Other matters declared by this Constitution to be
within the exclusive power of the Parliament.
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53. Proposed laws appropriating revenue or moneys, or imposing
taxation, shall not originate in the Senate. But a proposed
law shall not be taken to appropriate revenue or moneys, or to
impose taxation, by reason only of its containing provisions for
the imposition or appropriation of fines or other pecuniary
penalties, or for the demand or payment or appropriation of
fees for licences, or fees for services under the proposed
law. The Senate may not amend proposed laws imposing taxation,
or proposed laws appropriating revenue or moneys for the
ordinary annual services of the Government. The Senate may not
amend any proposed law so as to increase any proposed charge
or burden on the people. The Senate may at any stage return to
the House of Representatives any proposed law which the Senate
may not amend, requesting, by message, the omission or
amendment of any items or provisions therein. And the House of
Representatives may, if it thinks fit, make any of such
omissions or amendments, with or without modifications. Except
as provided in this section, the Senate shall have equal power
with the House of Representatives in respect of all proposed
laws.
54. The proposed law which appropriates revenue or moneys for
the ordinary annual services of the Government shall deal only
with such appropriation.
55. Laws imposing taxation shall deal only with the imposition
of taxation, and any provision therein dealing with any other
matter shall be of no effect. Laws imposing taxation, except
laws imposing duties of customs or of excise, shall deal with
one subject of taxation only; but laws imposing duties of
customs shall deal with duties of customs only, and laws
imposing duties of excise shall deal with duties of excise
only.
56. A vote, resolution, or proposed law for the appropriation
of revenue or moneys shall not be passed unless the purpose of
the appropriation has in the same session been recommended by
message of the Governor-General to the House in which the
proposal originated.
57. If the House of Representatives passes any proposed law,
and the Senate rejects or fails to pass it, or passes it with
amendments to which the House of Representatives will not
agree, and if after an interval of three months the House of
Representatives, in the same or the next session, again passes
the proposed law with or without any amendments which have
been made, suggested, or agreed to by the Senate, and the
Senate rejects or fails to pass it, or passes it with
amendments to which the House of Representatives will not
agree, the Governor-General may dissolve the Senate and the
House of Representatives simultaneously. But such dissolution
shall not take place within six months before the date of the
expiry of the House of Representatives by effluxion of time.
If after such dissolution the House of Representatives again
passes the proposed law, with or without any amendments which
have been made, suggested, or agreed to by the Senate, and the
Senate rejects or fails to pass it, or passes it with
amendments to which the House of Representatives will not
agree, the Governor-General may convene a joint sitting of the
members of the Senate and of the House of Representatives. The
members present at the joint sitting may deliberate and shall
vote together upon the proposed law as last proposed by the
House of Representatives, and upon amendments, if any, which
have been made therein by one House and not agreed to by the
other, and any such amendments which are affirmed by an
absolute majority of the total number of the members of the
Senate and House of Representatives shall be taken to have
been carried, and if the proposed law, with the amendments, if
any, so carried is affirmed by an absolute majority of the
total number of the members of the Senate and House of
Representatives, it shall be taken to have been duly passed by
both Houses of the Parliament, and shall be presented to the
Governor-General for the Queen's assent.
58. When a proposed law passed by both Houses of the
Parliament is presented to the Governor-General for the
Queen's assent, he shall declare, according to his discretion,
but subject to this Constitution, that he assents in the
Queen's name, or that he withholds assent, or that he reserves
the law for the Queen's pleasure. The Governor-General may
return to the house in which it originated any proposed law so
presented to him, and may transmit therewith any amendments
which he may recommend, and the Houses may deal with the
recommendation.
59. The Queen may disallow any law within one year from the
Governor-General's assent, and such disallowance on being made
known by the Governor-General by speech or message to each of
the Houses of the Parliament, or by Proclamation, shall annul
the law from the day when the disallowance is so made known.
60. A proposed law reserved for the Queen's pleasure shall not
have any force unless and until within two years from the day
on which it was presented to the Governor-General for the
Queen's assent the Governor-General makes known, by speech or
message to each of the Houses of the Parliament, or by
Proclamation, that it has received the Queen's assent.
CHAPTER II. THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT.
61. The executive power of the Commonwealth is vested in the
Queen and is exerciseable by the Governor-General as the
Queen's representative, and extends to the execution and
maintenance of this Constitution, and of the laws of the
Commonwealth.
62. There shall be a Federal Executive Council to advise the
Governor-General in the government of the Commonwealth, and
the members of the Council shall be chosen and summoned by the
Governor-General and sworn as Executive Councillors, and shall
hold office during his pleasure.
63. The provisions of this Constitution referring to the
Governor-General in Council shall be construed as referring to
the Governor-General acting with the advice of the Federal
Executive Council.
64. The Governor-General may appoint officers to administer
such departments of State of the Commonwealth as the
Governor-General in Council may establish. Such officers shall
hold office during the pleasure of the Governor-General. They
shall be members of the Federal Executive Council, and shall
be the Queen's Ministers of State for the Commonwealth. After
the first general election no Minister of State shall hold
office for a longer period than three months unless he is or
becomes a senator or a member of the House of Representatives.
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65. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, the Ministers of
State shall not exceed seven in number, and shall hold such
offices as the Parliament prescribes, or, in the absence of
provision, as the Governor-General directs.
66. There shall be payable to the Queen, out of the
Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Commonwealth, for the
salaries of the Ministers of State, an annual sum which, until
the Parliament otherwise provides, shall not exceed twelve
thousand pounds a year.
67. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, the appointment
and removal of all other officers of the Executive Government
of the Commonwealth shall be vested in the Governor-General in
Council, unless the appointment is delegated by the
Governor-General in Council or by a law of the Commonwealth to
some other authority.
68. The command in chief of the naval and military forces of
the Commonwealth is vested in the Governor-General as the
Queen's representative.
69. On a date or dates to be proclaimed by the
Governor-General after the establishment of the Commonwealth
the following departments of the public service in each State
shall become transferred to the Commonwealth:—Posts,
telegraphs, and telephones: Naval and military defence:
Lighthouses, lightships, beacons, and buoys: Quarantine. But
the departments of customs and of excise in each State shall
become transferred to the Commonwealth on its establishment.
70. In respect of matters which, under this Constitution, pass
to the Executive Government of the Commonwealth, all powers
and functions which at the establishment of the Commonwealth
are vested in the Governor of a Colony, or in the Governor of
a Colony with the advice of his Executive Council, or in any
authority of a Colony, shall vest in the Governor-General, or
in the Governor-General in Council, or in the authority
exercising similar powers under the Commonwealth, as the case
requires.
CHAPTER III. THE JUDICATURE.
71. The judicial power of the Commonwealth shall be vested in
a Federal Supreme Court, to be called the High Court of
Australia, and in such other federal courts as the Parliament
creates, and in such other courts as it invests with federal
jurisdiction. The High Court shall consist of a Chief Justice,
and so many other Justices, not less than two, as the
Parliament prescribes.
72. The Justices of the High Court and of the other courts
created by the Parliament—
(i.) Shall be appointed by the Governor-General in Council:
(ii.) Shall not be removed except by the Governor-General in
Council, on an address from both Houses of the Parliament in
the same session, praying for such removal on the ground of
proved misbehaviour or incapacity:
(iii.) Shall receive such remuneration as the Parliament may
fix; but the remuneration shall not be diminished during their
continuance in office.
73. The High Court shall have jurisdiction, with such
exceptions and subject to such regulations as the Parliament
prescribes, to hear and determine appeals from all judgments,
decrees, orders, and sentences—
(i.) Of any Justice or Justices exercising the original
jurisdiction of the High Court:
(ii.) Of any other federal court, or court exercising federal
jurisdiction; or of the Supreme Court of any State, or of any
other court of any State from which at the establishment of
the Commonwealth an appeal lies to the Queen in Council:
(iii.) Of the Inter-State Commission, but as to questions of
law only: and the judgment of the High Court in all such cases
shall be final and conclusive. But no exception or regulation
prescribed by the Parliament shall prevent the High Court from
hearing and determining any appeal from the Supreme Court of a
State in any matter in which at the establishment of the
Commonwealth an appeal lies from such Supreme Court to the
Queen in Council. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, the
conditions of and restrictions on appeals to the Queen in
Council from the Supreme Courts of the several States shall be
applicable to appeals from them to the High Court.
74. No appeal shall be permitted to the Queen in Council from
a decision of the High Court upon any question, howsoever
arising, as to the limits inter se of the Constitutional
powers of the Commonwealth and those of any State or States,
or as to the limits inter se of the Constitutional powers of
any two or more States, unless the High Court shall certify
that the question is one which ought to be determined by Her
Majesty in Council. The High Court may so certify if satisfied
that for any special reason the certificate should be granted,
and thereupon an appeal shall lie to Her Majesty in Council on
the question without further leave. Except as provided in this
section, this Constitution shall not impair any right which
the Queen may be pleased to exercise by virtue of Her Royal
prerogative to grant special leave of appeal from the High
Court to Her Majesty in Council. The Parliament may make laws
limiting the matters in which such leave may be asked, but
proposed laws containing any such limitation shall be reserved
by the Governor-General for Her Majesty's pleasure.
75. In all matters—
(i.) Arising under any treaty:
(ii.) Affecting consuls or other representatives of other
countries:
(iii.) In which the Commonwealth, or a person suing or being
sued on behalf of the Commonwealth, is a party:
(iv.) Between States, or between residents of different
States, or between a State and a resident of another State:
(v.) In which a writ of Mandamus or prohibition or an
injunction is sought against an officer of the Commonwealth:
the High Court shall have original jurisdiction.
76. The Parliament may make laws conferring original
jurisdiction on the High Court in any matter—
(i.) Arising under this Constitution, or involving its
interpretation:
(ii.) Arising under any laws made by the Parliament:
(iii.) Of Admiralty and maritime jurisdiction:
(iv.) Relating to the same subject-matter claimed under the
laws of different States.
77. With respect to any of the matters mentioned in the last
two sections the Parliament may make laws—
(i.) Defining the jurisdiction of any federal court other than
the High Court:
(ii.) Defining the extent to which the jurisdiction of any
federal court shall be exclusive of that which belongs to or
is invested in the courts of the States:
(iii.) Investing any court of a State with federal
jurisdiction.
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78. The Parliament may make laws conferring rights to proceed
against the Commonwealth or a State in respect of matters
within the limits of the judicial power.
79. The federal jurisdiction of any court may be exercised by
such number of judges as the Parliament prescribes.
80. The trial on indictment of any offence against any law of
the Commonwealth shall be by jury, and every such trial shall
be held in the State where the offence was committed, and if
the offence was not committed within any State the trial shall
be held at such place or places as the Parliament prescribes.
CHAPTER IV. FINANCE AND TRADE.
81. All revenues or moneys raised or received by the Executive
Government of the Commonwealth shall form one Consolidated
Revenue Fund, to be appropriated for the purposes of the
Commonwealth in the manner and subject to the charges and
liabilities imposed by this Constitution.
82. The costs, charges, and expenses incident to the
collection, management, and receipt of the Consolidated
Revenue Fund shall form the first charge thereon; and the
revenue of the Commonwealth shall in the first instance be
applied to the payment of the expenditure of the Commonwealth.
83. No money shall be drawn from the Treasury of the
Commonwealth except under appropriation made by law. But until
the expiration of one month after the first meeting of the
Parliament the Governor-General in Council may draw from the
Treasury and expend such moneys as may be necessary for the
maintenance of any department transferred to the Commonwealth
and for the holding of the first elections for the Parliament.
84. When any department of the public service of a State
becomes transferred to the Commonwealth, all officers of the
department shall become subject to the control of the
Executive Government of the Commonwealth. Any such officer who
is not retained in the service of the Commonwealth shall,
unless he is appointed to some other' office of equal
emolument in the public service of the State, be entitled to
receive from the State any pension, gratuity, or other
compensation, payable under the law of the State on the
abolition of his office. Any such officer who is retained in
the service of the Commonwealth shall preserve all his
existing and accruing rights, and shall be entitled to retire
from office at the time, and on the pension or retiring
allowance, which would be permitted by the law of the State if
his service with the Commonwealth were a continuation of his
service with the State. Such pension or retiring allowance
shall be paid to him by the Commonwealth: but the State shall
pay to the Commonwealth a part thereof, to be calculated on
the proportion which his term of service with the State bears
to his whole term of service, and for the purpose of the
calculation his salary shall be taken to be that paid to him
by the State at the time of the transfer. Any officer who is,
at the establishment of the Commonwealth, in the public
service of a State, and who is, by consent of the Governor of
the State with the advice of the Executive Council thereof,
transferred to the public service of the Commonwealth, shall
have the same rights as if he had been an officer of a
department transferred to the Commonwealth and were retained
in the service of the Commonwealth.
85. When any department of the public service of a State is
transferred to the Commonwealth—
(i.) All property of the State of any kind, used exclusively
in connexion with the department, shall become vested in the
Commonwealth; but, in the case of the departments controlling
customs and excise and bounties, for such time only as the
Governor-General in Council may declare to be necessary:
(ii.) The Commonwealth may acquire any property of the State,
of any kind used, but not exclusively used in connexion with
the department: the value thereof shall, if no agreement can
be made, be ascertained in, as nearly as may be, the manner in
which the value of land, or of an interest in land, taken by
the State for public purposes is ascertained under the law of
the State in force at the establishment of the Commonwealth:
(iii.) The Commonwealth shall compensate the State for the
value of any property passing to the Commonwealth under this
section; if no agreement can be made as to the mode of
compensation, it shall be determined under laws to be made by
the Parliament:
(iv.) The Commonwealth shall, at the date of the transfer,
assume the current obligations of the State in respect of the
department transferred.
86. On the establishment of the Commonwealth, the collection
and control of duties of customs and of excise, and the
control of the payment of bounties, shall pass to the
Executive Government of the Commonwealth.
87. During a period of ten years after the establishment of
the Commonwealth and thereafter until the Parliament otherwise
provides, of the net revenue of the Commonwealth from duties
of customs and of excise not more than one-fourth shall be
applied annually by the Commonwealth towards its expenditure.
The balance shall, in accordance with this Constitution, be
paid to the several States, or applied towards the payment of
interest on debts of the several States taken over by the
Commonwealth.
88. Uniform duties of customs shall be imposed within two
years after the establishment of the Commonwealth.
89. Until the imposition of uniform duties of customs—
(i.) The Commonwealth shall credit to each State the revenues
collected therein by the Commonwealth.
(ii.) The Commonwealth shall debit to each State—
(a) The expenditure therein of the Commonwealth
incurred solely for the maintenance or continuance, as at
the time of transfer, of any department transferred from
the State to the Commonwealth;
(b) The proportion of the State, according to the
number of its people, in the other expenditure of the
Commonwealth.
(iii.) The Commonwealth shall pay to each State month by month
the balance (if any) in favour of the State.
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90. On the imposition of uniform duties of customs the power
of the Parliament to impose duties of customs and of excise,
and to grant bounties on the production or export of goods,
shall become exclusive. On the imposition of uniform duties of
customs all laws of the several States imposing duties of customs
or of excise, or offering bounties on the production or export
of goods, shall cease to have effect, but any grant of or
agreement for any such bounty lawfully made by or under the
authority of the Government of any State shall be taken to be
good if made before the thirtieth day of June, one thousand
eight hundred and ninety-eight, and not otherwise.
91. Nothing in this Constitution prohibits a State from
granting any aid to or bounty on mining for gold, silver, or
other metals, nor from granting, with the consent of both
Houses of the Parliament of the Commonwealth expressed by
resolution, any aid to or bounty on the production or export
of goods.
92. On the imposition of uniform duties of customs, trade,
commerce, and intercourse among the States, whether by means
of internal carriage or ocean navigation, shall be absolutely
free. But notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, goods
imported before the imposition of uniform duties of customs
into any State, or into any Colony which, whilst the goods
remain therein, becomes a State, shall, on thence passing into
another State within two years after the imposition of such
duties, be liable to any duty chargeable on the importation of
such goods into the Commonwealth, less any duty paid in
respect of the goods on their importation.
93. During the first five years after the imposition of
uniform duties of customs, and thereafter until the Parliament
otherwise provides—
(i.) The duties of customs chargeable on goods imported into a
State and afterwards passing into another State for
consumption, and the duties of excise paid on goods produced
or manufactured in a State and afterwards passing into another
State for consumption, shall be taken to have been collected
not in the former but in the latter State:
(ii.) Subject to the last subsection, the Commonwealth shall
credit revenue, debit expenditure, and pay balances to the
several States as prescribed for the period preceding the
imposition of uniform duties of customs.
94. After five years from the imposition of uniform duties of
customs, the Parliament may provide, on such basis as it deems
fair, for the monthly payment to the several States of all
surplus revenue of the Commonwealth.
95. Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, the
Parliament of the State of Western Australia, if that State be
an Original State, may, during the first five years after the
imposition of uniform duties of customs, impose duties of
customs on goods passing into that State and not originally
imported from beyond the limits of the Commonwealth; and such
duties shall be collected by the Commonwealth. But any duty so
imposed on any goods shall not exceed during the first of such
years the duty chargeable on the goods under the law of
Western Australia in force at the imposition of uniform
duties, and shall not exceed during the second, third, fourth,
and fifth of such years respectively, four-fifths, three-fifths,
two-fifths, and one-fifth of such latter duty, and all duties
imposed under this section shall cease at the expiration of
the fifth year after the imposition of uniform duties. If at
any time during the five years the duty on any goods under
this section is higher than the duty imposed by the
Commonwealth on the importation of the like goods, then such
higher duty shall be collected on the goods when imported into
Western Australia from beyond the limits of the Commonwealth.
96. During a period of ten years after the establishment of
the Commonwealth and thereafter until the Parliament otherwise
provides, the Parliament may grant financial assistance to any
State on such terms and conditions as the Parliament thinks
fit.
97. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, the laws in force
in any Colony which has become or becomes a State with respect
to the receipt of revenue and the expenditure of money on
account of the Government of the Colony, and the review and
audit of such receipt and expenditure, shall apply to the
receipt of revenue and the expenditure of money on account of
the Commonwealth in the State in the same manner as if the
Commonwealth, or the Government or an officer of the
Commonwealth, were mentioned whenever the Colony, or the
Government or an officer of the Colony, is mentioned.
98. The power of the Parliament to make laws with respect to
trade and commerce extends to navigation and shipping, and to
railways the property of any State.
99. The Commonwealth shall not, by any law or regulation of
trade, commerce, or revenue, give preference to one State or
any part thereof over another State or any part thereof.
100. The Commonwealth shall not, by any law or regulation of
trade or commerce, abridge the right of a State or of the
residents therein to the reasonable use of the waters of
rivers for conservation or irrigation.
101. There shall be an Inter-State Commission, with such
powers of adjudication and administration as the Parliament
deems necessary for the execution and maintenance, within the
Commonwealth, of the provisions of this Constitution relating
to trade and commerce, and of all laws made thereunder.
102. The Parliament may by any law with respect to trade or
commerce forbid, as to railways, any preference or
discrimination by any State, or by any authority constituted
under a State, if such preference or discrimination is undue
and unreasonable, or unjust to any State; due regard being had
to the financial responsibilities incurred by any State in
connexion with the construction and maintenance of its
railways. But no preference or discrimination shall, within
the meaning of this section, be taken to be undue and
unreasonable, or unjust to any State, unless so adjudged by
the Inter-State Commission.
103. The members of the Inter-State Commission—
(i.) Shall be appointed by the Governor-General in Council:
(ii.) Shall hold office for seven years, but may be removed
within that time by the Governor-General in Council, on an
address from both Houses of the Parliament in the same session
praying for such removal on the ground of proved misbehaviour
or incapacity:
(iii.) Shall receive such remuneration as the Parliament may
fix; but such remuneration shall not be diminished during
their continuance in office.
{163}
104. Nothing in this Constitution shall render unlawful any
rate for the carriage of goods upon a railway, the property of
a State, if the rate is deemed by the Inter-State Commission
to be necessary for the development of the territory of the
State, and if the rate applies equally to goods within the
State and to goods passing into the State from other States.
105. The Parliament may take over from the States their public
debts as existing at the establishment of the Commonwealth, or
a proportion thereof according to the respective numbers of
their people as shown by the latest statistics of the
Commonwealth, and may convert, renew, or consolidate such
debts, or any part thereof; and the States shall indemnify the
Commonwealth in respect of the debts taken over, and
thereafter the interest payable in respect of the debts shall
be deducted and retained from the portions of the surplus
revenue of the Commonwealth payable to the several States, or
if such surplus is insufficient, or if there is no surplus,
then the deficiency or the whole amount shall be paid by the
several States.
CHAPTER V. THE STATES.
106. The Constitution of each State of the Commonwealth shall,
subject to this Constitution, continue as at the establishment
of the Commonwealth, or as at the admission or establishment
of the State, as the case may be, until altered in accordance
with the Constitution of the State.
107. Every power of the Parliament of a Colony which has
become or becomes a State, shall, unless it is by this
Constitution exclusively vested in the Parliament of the
Commonwealth or withdrawn from the Parliament of the State,
continue as at the establishment of the Commonwealth, or as at
the admission or establishment of the State, as the case may
be.
108. Every law in force in a Colony which has become or
becomes a State, and relating to any matter within the powers
of the Parliament of the Commonwealth, shall, subject to this
Constitution, continue in force in the State; and, until
provision is made in that behalf by the Parliament of the
Commonwealth, the Parliament of the State shall have such
powers of alteration and of repeal in respect of any such law
as the Parliament of the Colony had until the Colony became a
State.
109. When a law of a State is inconsistent with a law of the
Commonwealth, the latter shall prevail, and the former shall,
to the extent of the inconsistency, be invalid.
110. The provisions of this Constitution relating to the
Governor of a State extend and apply to the Governor for the
time being of the State, or other chief executive officer or
administrator of the government of the State.
111. The Parliament of a State may surrender any part of the
State to the Commonwealth; and upon such surrender, and the
acceptance thereof by the Commonwealth, such part of the State
shall become subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the
Commonwealth.
112. After uniform duties of customs have been imposed, a
State may levy on imports or exports, or on goods passing into
or out of the State, such charges as may be necessary for
executing the inspection laws of the State; but the net
produce of all charges so levied shall be for the use of the
Commonwealth; and any such inspection laws may be annulled by
the Parliament of the Commonwealth.
113. All fermented, distilled, or other intoxicating liquids
passing into any State or remaining therein for use,
consumption, sale, or storage, shall be subject to the laws of
the State as if such liquids had been produced in the State.
114. A State shall not, without the consent of the Parliament
of the Commonwealth, raise or maintain any naval or military
force, or impose any tax on property of any kind belonging to
the Commonwealth, nor shall the Commonwealth impose any tax on
property of any kind belonging to a State.
115. A State shall not coin money, nor make anything but gold
and silver coin a legal tender in payment of debts.
116. The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing
any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for
prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no
religious test shall be required as a qualification for any
office or public trust under the Commonwealth.
117. A subject of the Queen, resident in any State, shall not
be subject in any other State to any disability or
discrimination which would not be equally applicable to him if
he were a subject of the Queen resident in such other State.
118. Full faith and credit shall be given, throughout the
Commonwealth to the laws, the public Acts and records, and the
judicial proceedings of every State.
119. The Commonwealth shall protect every State against
invasion and, on the application of the Executive Government
of the State, against domestic violence.
120. Every State shall make provision for the detention in its
prisons of persons accused or convicted of offences against
the laws of the Commonwealth, and for the punishment of
persons convicted of such offences, and the Parliament of the
Commonwealth may make laws to give effect to this provision.
CHAPTER VI. NEW STATES.
121. The Parliament may admit to the Commonwealth or establish
new States, and may upon such admission or establishment make
or impose such terms and conditions, including the extent of
representation in either House of the Parliament, as it thinks
fit.
122. The Parliament may make laws for the government of any
territory surrendered by any State to and accepted by the
Commonwealth, or of any territory placed by the Queen under
the authority of and accepted by the Commonwealth, or
otherwise acquired by the Commonwealth, and may allow the
representation of such territory in either House of the
Parliament to the extent and on the terms which it thinks fit.
123. The Parliament of the Commonwealth may, with the consent
of the Parliament of a State, and the approval of the majority
of the electors of the State voting upon the question,
increase, diminish, or otherwise alter the limits of the
State, upon such terms and conditions as may be agreed on, and
may, with the like consent, make provision respecting the
effect and operation of any increase or diminution or
alteration of territory in relation to any State affected.
124. A new State may be formed by separation of territory from
a State, but only with the consent of the Parliament thereof,
and a new State may be formed by the union of two or more
States or parts of States, but only with the consent of the
Parliaments of the States affected.
{164}
CHAPTER VII. MISCELLANEOUS.
125. The seat of Government of the Commonwealth shall be
determined by the Parliament, and shall be within territory
which shall have been granted to or acquired by the
Commonwealth, and shall be vested in and belong to the
Commonwealth, and shall be in the State of New South Wales,
and be distant not less than one hundred miles from Sydney.
Such territory shall contain an area of not less than one
hundred square miles, and such portion thereof as shall
consist of Crown lands shall be granted to the Commonwealth
without any payment therefor. The Parliament shall sit at
Melbourne until it meet at the seat of Government.
126. The Queen may authorise the Governor-General to appoint
any person, or any persons jointly or severally, to be his
deputy or deputies within any part of the Commonwealth, and in
that capacity to exercise during the pleasure of the
Governor—General such powers and functions of the
Governor-General as he thinks fit to assign to such deputy or
deputies, subject to any limitations expressed or directions
given by the Queen; but the appointment of such deputy or
deputies shall not affect the exercise by the Governor-General
himself of any power or function.
127. In reckoning the numbers of the people of the
Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth,
aboriginal natives shall not be counted.
CHAPTER VIII. ALTERATION OF THE CONSTITUTION.
128. This Constitution shall not be altered except in the
following manner:—The proposed law for the alteration thereof
must be passed by an absolute majority of each House of the
Parliament, and not less than two nor more than six months
after its passage through both Houses the proposed law shall
be submitted in each State to the electors qualified to vote
for the election of members of the House of Representatives.
But if either House passes any such proposed law by an
absolute majority, and the other House rejects or fails to
pass it or passes it with any amendment to which the first
mentioned House will not agree, and if after an interval of
three months the first-mentioned House in the same or the next
session again passes the proposed law by an absolute majority
with or without any amendment which has been made or agreed to
by the other House, and such other House rejects or fails to
pass it or passes it with any amendment to which the
first-mentioned House will not agree, the Governor-General may
submit the proposed law as last proposed by the
first-mentioned House, and either with or without any
amendments subsequently agreed to by both Houses, to the
electors in each State qualified to vote for the election of
the House of Representatives. When a proposed law is submitted
to the electors the vote shall be taken in such manner as the
Parliament prescribes. But until the qualification of electors
of members of the House of Representatives becomes uniform
throughout the Commonwealth, only one-half the electors voting
for and against the proposed law shall be counted in any State
in which adult suffrage prevails. And if in a majority of the
States a majority of the electors voting approve the proposed
law, and if a majority of all the electors voting also approve
the proposed law, it shall be presented to the
Governor-General for the Queen's assent. No alteration
diminishing the proportionate representation of any State in
either House of the Parliament, or the minimum number of
representatives of a State in the House of Representatives, or
increasing, diminishing, or otherwise altering the limits of
the State, or in any manner affecting the provisions of the
Constitution in relation thereto, shall become law unless the
majority of the electors voting in that State approve the
proposed law.
----------CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRALIA: End--------
CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRIA: Parliamentary reform of, 1896.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1895-1896.
CONSTITUTION OF BELGIUM:
The working of its' electoral provisions.
See (in this volume)
BELGIUM: A. D. 1894-1895; and 1899-1900.
CONSTITUTION OF CUBA:
The grant of autonomous government by Spain in 1897.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1897 (NOVEMBER);
and 1897-1898 (NOVEMBER-FEBRUARY).
CONSTITUTION OF CUBA:
Outline of the draft reported to the Convention of 1900-1901.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).
CONSTITUTION OF DELAWARE, New.
See (in this volume)
DELAWARE: A. D. 1897.
CONSTITUTION OF IDAHO:
Adoption of Woman Suffrage.
See (in this volume)
IDAHO: A. D. 1896.
CONSTITUTION OF LOUISIANA:
Its discriminating educational qualification.
See (in this volume)
LOUISIANA: A. D. 1898.
CONSTITUTION OF MEXICO: Amendments.
The text of the constitution of Mexico, as published in 1891,
will be found in volume 1 [page 558] of this work, under the
same heading as above. In 1896, the Constitution received two
amendments promulgated by decrees published in the "Diario
Official" on the 24th of April and the 1st of May in that
year. Translations of these decrees were transmitted to the
State Department at Washington by the United States Minister
to Mexico and published in U. S. Consular Reports, July, 1896,
from which source they are copied below. That of April 24 was
as follows:
The Congress of the United Mexican States, in the exercise of
the power which article 127 of the federal constitution
concedes to it, and with the previous approbation of the
majority of the legislatures of the States, declares articles
79, 80, 82, and 83 of the constitution to be amended and an
addition to article 72 of the same, in the following tenor:
ARTICLE. 72. Congress has power:
XXXI. To appoint, both houses of Congress being assembled for
such purpose, a President of the Republic, either with the
character of substitute or with that of ad interim, to act in
the absolute or temporary defaults of the constitutional
President. Likewise, to replace in the respective cases and in
equal form the substitute as well as the ad interim, if these
in their turn should default.
XXXII. To qualify and to decide upon the petition for leave of
absence that the President of the Republic may make. It is the
exclusive faculty of the House of Deputies—II. To qualify and
decide upon the resignations of the President of the Republic
and of the magistrates of the supreme court of justice.
{165}
ARTICLE 79.
I. In the absolute defaults of the President, excepting that
arising from resignation, and in the temporary defaults,
excepting that proceeding from permission, the Secretary of
Foreign Relations, and in case there be none or if there
exists an impediment, the Secretary of Government shall take
immediate charge of the Executive power.
II. The Congress of the union shall assemble in an
extraordinary session the following day, in the Chamber of
Deputies, more than half of the total number of members of
both houses being present, the officers of the House of
Deputies acting. If no session can be had on account of no
quorum or for other cause, those present shall compel, from
day unto day, the presence of the absentees, in accordance
with the law, so as to hold the session as soon as possible.
III. In this session, the substitute President shall be
elected by the absolute majority of those present, and in a
nominal and public vote, without any proposition being
discussed therein nor anything else done but to take in the
votes, publish them, and make a close examination and publish
the name of the one elected.
IV. If no one of the candidates should have received the
absolute majority of the votes, the election shall be repeated
as to the two who had the greater number of votes, and the one
receiving the majority will be elected. If the competitors
should have received an equal number of votes, and on a
repetition of the election an equal result shall be obtained,
then the drawing of lots shall decide the one who must be
elected.
V. If there be an equality of votes for more than two
candidates, the election as to which of these shall be made,
but if at tho same time there is another candidate who may
have obtained a majority of votes, he shall be considered as
first competitor, and the second shall be chosen by votes out
of the first mentioned.
VI. If Congress be not in session, it shall meet, without the
necessity of a convocation, on the fourteenth day following
that of the default, under the direction of the board of
permanent commission which may be in duty, and shall proceed
as already stated.
VII. In case of absolute default caused by the renouncement of
the President, Congress shall convene in the form set forth
for the appointment of the substitute, and the resignation
shall not take effect until the appointment of the substitute
and of the legal protest by him.
VIII. In relation to temporary defaults, from whatever cause,
Congress shall appoint an ad interim President, observing for
this purpose the same procedure as prescribed for the cases of
absolute default. Should the President ask for leave of absence,
he will, at the time of so doing, propose the citizen who must
take his place; the permission being granted, it will not take
effect until the ad interim (president) shall have protested,
it being within the President's faculty to make use or not of
said leave, or to lessen its duration. The ad interim shall
only exercise the functions during the time of temporary
default. The petition for permission shall be addressed to the
House of Deputies, who shall at once deliver it to the proper
commission for its perusal, at the same time summoning the
Senate for an extraordinary session of Congress, before which
the commission shall render its decision. The proposition with
which the decision may end, if favorable, shall comprise in a
decree of a sole article the granting of the permission and
the approval of the proposition, which shall be decided upon
only by one ballot.
IX. If, on the day appointed by the constitution, the people's
President-elect shall not enter into the discharge of his
office, Congress shall at once appoint an ad interim
President. If the cause of the impediment be transitory, the
ad interim shall cease in the Presidential functions when said
cause ceases and the President-elect enters into the discharge
of his functions. But, should the cause be of that kind that
produces absolute impossibility, so that the President-elect
cannot enter into the exercise of power during the four years,
Congress, after appointing the ad interim President, shall,
without delay, convoke the extraordinary elections. The ad
interim President shall cease in his functions as soon as the
new President-elect protests, and this shall complete the
constitutional period. Should the impediment arise from the
fact that the election be not made or published on the 1st of
December, a President ad interim shall also be appointed, who
will discharge the Presidential duties until those requisites
are complied with and the President-elect takes due protest.
X. The defaults of the substitute President and those of the
ad interim shall also be remedied in the manner prescribed,
except in regard to the second, in the case when the
constitutional President, who, having temporarily separated
himself, may again assume the exercise of his duties.
ARTICLE 80.
Should the default of the President be absolute, the
substitute appointed by Congress shall terminate the
constitutional period.
ARTICLE 82.
The President, upon taking possession of his office, shall
swear before Congress under the following formula:
"I protest to perform loyally and patriotically the functions
of President of the United Mexican States; to keep and cause
to be kept, without any reserve, the constitution of 1857,
with all its additions and reforms, the laws of reform, and
all those laws emanating therefrom, watching everything for
the good and prosperity of the union." The Secretary of
Department, who may take provisional charge of the Executive
power, in its case, is exempted from this requisite.
The decree of May 1, 1896, was as follows:
The Congress of the Union has decreed the following: The
General Congress of the United Mexican States, in conformity
with the provisions of article 127 of the federal
constitution, and with the previous approbation of the State
legislatures, declares articles 111 and 124 of said
constitution amended and an addition made to same in the
following terms:
First.
Section III. of article 111 of the federal constitution is
amended, and an addition made to the said article in the
following terms: The States shall not—
III. Coin money, issue paper money, stamps, or stamped paper.
IV. Obstruct the transit of persons or goods crossing its
territory.
V. Prohibit or molest, either directly or indirectly, the
entrance or exit, to or from its territory, of national or
foreign merchandise.
{166}
VI. Obstruct the circulation or consumption of national or
foreign goods by means of imposts or taxes that may be exacted
through local custom-houses, by requiring the inspection or
registration of packages, or by requiring the documentation to
accompany the merchandise.
VII. Decree or maintain in force laws or fiscal decrees which
may cause differences of taxes or requisites, by reason of the
source of national or foreign merchandise, whether these
differences be established in regard to a like production in
that locality or on account of like production from different
sources.
Second.
Article 124 of the federal constitution is amended in the
following terms:
ARTICLE 124.
It is the exclusive faculty of the federation to obstruct
merchandise, imported or exported, or which passes in transit
through the national territory, likewise to regulate at all
times, and even to prohibit for reasons of policy and
security, the circulation within the Republic of all
merchandise from whatever source; but the said federation
cannot establish or decree in the district or federal
territories the taxes and laws expressed in Sections VI. and
V. of Article 111.
Transitory article.
These amendments and additions shall take effect on the 1st of
July, 1896.
CONSTITUTION OF MINNESOTA: Amendments.
See (in this volume)
MINNESOTA: A. D. 1896.
CONSTITUTION OF MISSISSIPPI: Amendment.
See (in this volume)
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1890-1892.
CONSTITUTION OF NEW JERSEY: Proposed Amendments.
See (in this volume)
NEW JERSEY: A. D. 1897.
CONSTITUTION OF NEW YORK.
The constitution of the State of New York, as revised by the
Convention of 1894 (see, in volume 4, NEW YORK: A. D. 1894)
[transcriber's note: volume 3, page 2350], was submitted to
the people at the election in November that year and adopted.
The important features of the revision were set forth in an
address by the Convention to the people, as follows:
"We seek to separate, in the larger cities, municipal
elections from State and national elections to the end that
the business affairs of our great municipal corporations may
be managed upon their own merits, uncontrolled by national and
State politics. … We have provided further safeguards against
abuses in legislative procedure, by requiring that all bills
shall be printed in their final form at least three days
before their passage, prohibiting riders on appropriation
bills, providing for notice to municipal authorities before
special acts relating to the larger cities can take effect,
prohibiting the issue of passes by railroad, telegraph and
telephone companies to public officers, enlarging the express
constitutional powers of the President of the Senate. … We
have extended the prohibition against lotteries so as to
include all pool-selling, book-making and other forms of
gambling. … We have sought to throw greater safeguards around
the elective franchise by prescribing a period of ninety
instead of ten days of citizenship before that right can be
exercised, so that naturalization may be taken out of the
hands of campaign committees and removed from the period
immediately before election. … We have modified the language
relating to election so that if any mechanical device for
recording and counting votes is so perfected as to be superior
to the present system, the Legislature may make trial of it. We
have established in the Constitution the well-tried and
satisfactory system of registration of votes, forbidding,
however, any requirement of personal attendance on the first
day of registration in the thinly-settled regions outside of
the cities and large villages, where voters would have long
distances to travel to the place of registration, and we have
provided for securing an honest and fair election by requiring
that on all election boards election officers shall equally
represent the two principal political parties of the State. We
have provided for a new appointment of Senate and Assembly
districts. … Attack has been made upon two rules laid down in
the proposed measure for the guidance of the Legislature in
future apportionments. One of these is the rule that no county
shall have more than three Senators unless it shall have a full
ratio for each Senator, although smaller counties may receive
a Senator or an additional Senator on a major fraction of a
ratio. … The other rule attacked is that no one county shall
have more than one-third of all the Senators, and that New
York and Kings county together shall not have more than
one-half of all the Senators. … We have declared in the
Constitution the principle of civil service reform, that
appointments and promotions are to be based upon merit and
ascertained so far as practicable by competitive examination.
We have sought by this to secure not merely the advantage
derived from declaring the principle, but the practical
benefit of its extension to the State prisons, canals and
other public works of the State, to which, under the existing
Constitution, the court of last resort has decided that civil
service rules cannot be applied. … We have prohibited the
contract system of convict labor. … We have authorized the
Legislature to provide for the improvement of the canals,
without, however, borrowing money for that purpose unless the
people expressly authorize it. … We have required the
Legislature to provide for free public schools, in which all
the children of the State may be educated, and we have
prohibited absolutely the use of public money in aid of
sectarian schools. … We have so amended the present
Constitution as to provide for a naval as well as a land force
of militia. … In order to allow every voter to exercise a
choice in voting on some of the important proposed amendments,
we have provided that the Revised Constitution shall be
submitted to the people in three parts, viz.:
1. That making an apportionment of Senators and members of the
Assembly.
2. That pertaining to the improvements of the canals.
3. All the remainder of the proposed amendments as a whole."
Journal of the Constitutional Convention,
State of New York, 1894, pages 839-846.
CONSTITUTION OF NORTH CAROLINA:
Amendment qualifying the suffrage.
See (in this volume)
NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1900.
{167}
--CONSTITUTION (GRONDWET) OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC.: Start--
The following are the Articles of main importance in the
Grondwet or Constitution of the South African Republic:
ARTICLE 1.
This State shall bear the name of the South African Republic.
ARTICLE 2.
The form of government of this State shall be that of a
republic.
ARTICLE 3.
It desires to be recognized and respected by the civilized
world as an independent and free people.
ARTICLE 4.
The people seek for no extension of territory, and desire it
only in accordance with just principles, when the interest of
the Republic makes such extension desirable.
ARTICLE 5.
The people desire to retain and maintain their territory in
South Africa unimpaired. The boundaries thereof are fixed by
proclamation.
ARTICLE 6.
Its territory is open for every foreigner who obeys the laws
of this Republic. All who are within the territory of this
Republic have equal claims to protection of person and
property.
ARTICLE 7.
The land or farms situate in this territory which have not yet
been given out, are declared to be the property of the State.
ARTICLE 8.
The people claim the utmost social freedom, and expect the
result from the maintenance of their religious belief, from
the observance of their obligations, from submission to law,
order and right, and the maintenance of the same. The people
permit the spread of the Gospel among the heathen under fixed
precautions against deceit or misleading.
ARTICLE 9.
The people will not allow any equalization of the coloured
inhabitants with the white.
ARTICLE 10.
The people will not suffer any slave trade or slavery in this
Republic.
ARTICLE 11.
The people reserve to themselves the protection and defence of
the independence and inviolability of the State, subject to
the laws.
ARTICLE 12.
The people entrust the legislation to a Volksraad—the highest
authority in the land—consisting of representatives or
deputies of the people, chosen by the enfranchised burghers;
but with the reservation that a period of three months shall
be left to the people to enable them if they so wish to
communicate to the Volksraad their verdict on a proposed law;
except those laws which can suffer no delay.
ARTICLE 13.
The people charge the President with the task of proposing and
executing the laws; he also brings before the Volksraad the
appointments of all civil servants for ratification.
ARTICLE 14.
The people entrust the maintenance of order to the military
force, the police, and other persons appointed by the law for
that purpose.
ARTICLE 15.
The people place the judicial power in the hands of a Supreme
Court, Circuit Court, Landrosts, Juries, and such other
persons as shall be entrusted with judicial powers, and leave
all these free to discharge their function according to their
judgment and consciences, according to the laws of the land.
ARTICLE 16.
The people shall receive from the Volksraad an estimate of the
general income and expenses of the State, and learn therefrom
how much every man's taxes shall amount to.
ARTICLE 17.
Potchefstrom, situated on the Mooi River, shall be the capital
of the Republic, and Pretoria the seat of Government.
ARTICLE 18.
All services rendered on behalf of the public are remunerated
by the public.
ARTICLE 19.
Freedom of the press is granted provided the printer and
publisher remain responsible for all the documents which
contain defamation, insult, or attacks against anyone's
character.
ARTICLE 20.
The people shall only appoint as representatives in the
Volksraad those who are members of a Protestant Church.
ARTICLE 21.
The people desire the growth, prosperity, and welfare of the
State, and with this view provision for suitable school
teachers.
ARTICLE 22.
Providing also that in time of peace precautionary measures
are taken to enable the State to wage or withstand a war.
ARTICLE 23.
In case of a hostile attack from outside, everyone, without
distinction, shall be held bound to lend his assistance on the
promulgation of martial law. …
ARTICLE 26.
The Volksraad shall be the highest authority of the country,
and the legislative power.
ARTICLE 27.
No civil servants are to be representatives of the people.
ARTICLE 28.
The Volksraad shall consist of at least twelve members, who
must possess the following qualifications:-They must have
attained the age of thirty years, and be born in the Republic,
or have for fifteen consecutive years been burghers entitled
to vote, be members of a Protestant Church, reside, and
possess immovable property, in the Republic. No persons of
notoriously bad character, or who have had a dishonouring
sentence pronounced against them, and no uncertified or
unrehabilitated insolvents shall be eligible. They may not be
related to each other in the relationship of father and son or
stepson. No coloured persons or bastards shall be admitted
into our Assemblies. In like manner no military officer or
official of the State, who draws a fixed annual or monthly
salary, shall be eligible as member of the Volksraad.
ARTICLE 29.
The members of the Volksraad are elected by a majority of
votes from among the electors of each district. No one shall
be considered as elected who has not obtained at least sixty
votes. Everyone who is born in the country and has attained
the age of twenty-one years, or has become naturalized, shall
be a burgher qualified to vote. The members of the Volksraad
are elected for the period of four years. … [The above
provisions of the Constitution, relating to the Volksraad and
the representation of the people, were modified by the
following among other provisions of an Act of the Volksraad
passed in 1891:
ARTICLE 1.
The legislative power shall rest with a representation of the
people, which shall consist of a First Volksraad and a Second
Volksraad.
{168}
ARTICLE 2.
The First Volksraad shall be the highest authority in the
State, just as the Volksraad was before this law came into
operation. The First Volksraad shall be the body named the
Volksraad until this law came into operation. From the period
of this law coming into operation, the name of that body shall
be altered from the Volksraad to the First Volksraad. The
persons forming that body as members shall, however, remain
the same, only they shall, from the said period, be named
members of the First Volksraad instead of members of the
Volksraad. All laws and resolutions having reference to the
Volksraad and the members thereof shall remain in force and
apply to the First Volksraad and the members thereof, except
in so far as a change is or shall be made by this and later
laws. …
ARTICLE 4.
The number of the members of the Second Volksraad shall be the
same as of the First Volksraad. This number shall be fixed
later by the First Volksraad for both Volksraads. …
ARTICLE 9.
The members of the First Volksraad are chosen by those
enfranchised burghers who have obtained the burgher right,
either before this law came into operation, or thereafter by
birth, and have reached the age of sixteen years. The
franchise for the First Volksraad can besides also be obtained
by those who have during ten years been eligible for the
Second Volksraad, by resolution of the First Volksraad, and
according to rules to be fixed later by law.
ARTICLE 10.
The members of the Second Volksraad are chosen by all
enfranchised burghers who have reached the age of sixteen
years. …
ARTICLE 27.
The Second Volksraad shall have the power to pass further
regulations on the following subjects as is necessary, either
by law or resolution:
(1) The department of mines.
(2) The making and support of wagon and post roads.
(3) The postal department.
(4) The department of telegraphs and telephones.
(5) The protection of inventions, samples and trademarks.
(6) The protection of the right of the author.
(7) The exploitation and support of the woods and salt-pans.
(8) The prevention and coping with contagious diseases.
(9) The condition, the rights, and obligations of companies.
(10) Insolvency.
(11) Civil procedure.
(12) Criminal procedure.
(13) Such other subjects as the First Volksraad shall decide
later by law or resolution, or the First Volksraad shall
specially refer to the Second Volksraad.
ARTICLE 28.
All laws or resolutions accepted by the Second Volksraad are
as soon as possible, that is to say at the outside within
forty-eight hours, communicated both to the First Volksraad
and to the President.
ARTICLE 29.
The President has the right, when he has received notice from
the Second Volksraad of the adoption of a law or a resolution,
to bring that law or resolution before the First Volksraad for
consideration within fourteen days after the receipt of such
notice. The President is in any case bound, after the receipt
of such a notice, to communicate it to the First Volksraad
within the said time.
ARTICLE 30.
If the President has not brought the law or resolution as
communicated before the First Volksraad for consideration, and
the First Volksraad has not on its own part thought it
necessary to take said law or resolution into consideration,
the President shall, unless with the advice and consent of the
Executive Council he thinks it undesirable in the interests of
the State, be bound to have that law or resolution published
in the first succeeding Volksraad, unless within the said
fourteen days the First Volksraad may be adjourned, in which
case the publication in the "Stasts Courant" shall take place
after the lapse of eight days from the commencement of the
first succeeding session of the First Volksraad.
ARTICLE 31.
The law or resolution adopted by the Second Volksraad shall
have no force, unless published by the President in the
"Staats Courant."
ARTICLE 43.
The President shall bring forward for discussion the proposals
for laws which have come in before the Volksraad, whether the
latter have been made known to the public three months before
the commencement of the session, or whether the same have come
in during the session of the Volksraad.
ARTICLE 44.
When the notices of laws and Government notices to the public
have not been given in time, the President shall examine with
whom the blame of that delay lies. A Landrost found guilty
hereof shall have a fine of Rds. 50 inflicted and a
Field-Cornet or lesser official of Rds. 25. …
ARTICLE 56.
The executive power resides in the State President, who is
responsible to the Volksraad. He is chosen by a majority of
the burghers entitled to vote, and for the term of five years.
He is eligible for reelection. He must have attained the age of
thirty years, and need not be a burgher of the State at the
time of his nomination, and must be a member of a Protestant
Church, and have no dishonouring sentence pronounced against
him. [By a subsequent law the President must be chosen from
among the burghers.]
ARTICLE 57.
The President is the first or highest official of the State.
All civil servants are subordinate to him; such, however, as
are charged with exercise of the judicial power are left
altogether free and independent in its exercise.
ARTICLE 58.
As long as the President holds his position as such he shall
fill no other, nor shall he discharge any ecclesiastical
office, nor carry on any business. The President cannot go
outside the boundaries of the State without consent of the
Volksraad. However, the Executive Council shall have the power
to grant him leave to go outside the boundaries of the State
upon private affairs in cases of necessity. …
ARTICLE 60.
The President shall be discharged from his post by the
Volksraad after conviction of misconduct, embezzlement of
public property, treachery, or other serious crimes, and be
treated further according to the laws.
ARTICLE 61.
If in consequence of transgression of the Constitution or
other public misdemeanors the Volksraad resolve that the
President shall be brought to trial, he shall be tried before
a special court composed of the members of the High Court, the
President and another member of the Volksraad, while the State
Attorney acts as Public Prosecutor. The accused shall be
allowed to secure assistance of a lawyer at his choice.
ARTICLE 62.
The President is charged with the proposing of laws to the
Volksraad, whether his own proposals or others which have come
in to him from the people; he must make these proposals known
to the public by means of the "Staats Courant" three months
before presenting them to the Volksraad, together with all
such other documents as are judged useful and necessary by
him.
{169}
ARTICLE 63.
All proposals for a law sent in to the President shall, before
they are published, be judged by the President and Executive
Council as to whether publication is necessary or not.
ARTICLE 64.
The President submits the proposals for laws to the Volksraad,
and charges the official to whose department they belong first
and foremost, with their explanation and defence.
ARTICLE 65.
As soon as the President has received the notice of the
Volksraad that the proposed law is adopted, he shall have that
law published within two months, and after the lapse of a
month, to be reckoned from the publication, he shall take
measures for the execution of the same.
ARTICLE 66.
Proclamation of martial law, as intended in Article 23, shall
only be made by the President with the assent of the members
of the Executive Council. …
ARTICLE 67.
The President, with advice of the Executive Council, declares
war and peace, with reference to Article 66 of the
Constitution; the Government having first, if possible,
summoned the Volksraad before the declaration of war. Treaties
of peace require the ratification of the Volksraad, which is
summoned as soon as possible for that purpose. …
ARTICLE 70.
The President shall submit, yearly, at the opening of the
Volksraad, estimates of general outgoings and income, and
therein indicate how to cover the deficit or apply the
surplus.
ARTICLE 71.
He shall also give a report during that session of that
Volksraad, of his actions during the past year, of the
condition of the Republic and everything that concerns its
general interest. …
ARTICLE 75.
The President and one member of the Executive Council shall,
if possible, visit the towns and villages of the Republic
where Landrost's officers are, once in the year; he shall
examine the state of those offices, inquire into the conduct
of the officials, and on these circuits give the inhabitants
during their stay an opportunity to bring before him anything
they are interested in. …
ARTICLE 82.
The President exercises his power along with the Executive
Council. An Executive Council shall be joined to the
President, consisting of the Commandant-General, two
enfranchised burghers, a Secretary, and a Notekeeper
(notulenhouder), who shall have an equal vote, and bear the
title of members of the Executive Council. The Superintendent
of Native Affairs and the Notekeeper shall be ex-officio
members of the Executive Council. The President and members of
the Executive Council shall have the right to sit, but not to
vote, in the Volksraad. The President is allowed, when
important affairs arise, to invite the head official to be
present in the Executive Council whose department is more
directly concerned with the subject to be treated of. The said
head official shall then have a vote in the Executive Council,
be equally responsible for the resolution taken, and sign it
along with the others.
ARTICLE 83.
According to the intention of Article 82 the following shall
be considered "Head Officials": The State Attorney, Treasurer,
Auditor, Superintendent of Education, Orphan-Master, Registrar
of Deeds, Surveyor-General, Postmaster-General, Head of the
Mining Department, Chief Director of the Telegraph Service,
and Chief of Public Works.
ARTICLE 84.
The President shall be Chairman of the Executive Council, and
in case of an equal division of votes have a casting vote. For
the ratification of sentences of death, or declarations of
war, the unanimous vote of the Executive Council shall be
requisite for a decision. …
ARTICLE 87.
All resolutions of the Executive Council and official letters
of the President must, besides being signed by him, also be
signed by the Secretary of State. The latter is at the same
time responsible that the contents of the resolution, or the
letter, is not in conflict with the existing laws.
ARTICLE 88.
The two enfranchised burghers or members of the Executive
Council contemplated by Article 82 are chosen by the Volksraad
for the period of three years, the Commandant-General for ten
years; they must be members of a Protestant Church, have had
no sentence in a criminal court to their discredit, and have
reached the age of thirty years.
ARTICLE 89.
The Secretary of State is chosen also by the Volksraad, but is
appointed for the period of four years. On resignation or
expiration of his term he is re-eligible. He must be a member
of a Protestant Church, have had no sentence in a criminal
court to his discredit, possess fixed property in the
Republic, and have reached the age of thirty years. …
ARTICLE 93.
The military force consists of all the men of this Republic
capable of bearing arms, and if necessary of all those of the
natives within its boundaries whose chiefs are subject to it.
ARTICLE 94.
Besides the armed force of burghers to be called up in times
of disturbance or war, there exists a general police and corps
of artillery, for which each year a fixed sum is drawn upon
the estimates.
ARTICLE 95.
The men of the white people capable of bearing arms are all
men between the ages of sixteen and sixty years; and of the
natives, only those which are capable of being made
serviceable in the war.
ARTICLE 96.
For the subdivision of the military force the territory of
this Republic is divided into field-cornetcies and districts.
…
ARTICLE 97.
The men are under the orders of the following officers,
ascending in rank: Assistant Field-Cornets, Field-Cornets,
Commandants, and a Commandant-General.
Selected Official Documents of the South African Republic
and Great Britain (Supplement to the Annals of the
American Academy of Political and Social Science,
July, 1900).
--CONSTITUTION (GRONDWET) OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC.: End--
CONSTITUTION OF SOUTH CAROLINA: The revision of 1895-6.
Disfranchisement provision.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1896.
CONSTITUTION OF SOUTH DAKOTA:
Amendment introducing the Initiative and Referendum.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH DAKOTA: A. D. 1898.
CONSTITUTION OF SWITZERLAND:
Amendments.
See (in this volume)
SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1897.
{170}
CONSTITUTION OF UTAH.
See (in this volume)
UTAH: A. D. 1895-1896.
CONWAY, Sir W. Martin:
Explorations of Spitzbergen.
See (in this volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION, 1896, 1897.
COOK, or HERVEY ISLANDS:
Annexation to New Zealand.
See (in this volume)
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1900 (OCTOBER).
COOMASSIE,
KUMASSI:
Occupation by the British.
Siege and relief.
See (in this volume)
ASHANTI.
COPTIC CHURCH:
Authority of the Pope re-established.
See (in this volume)
PAPACY: A. D. 1896 (MARCH).
COREA.
See (in this volume)
KOREA.
CORNWALL AND YORK, The Duke of.
See (in this volume)
WALES, THE PRINCE OF.
COSTA RICA.
See (in this volume)
CENTRAL AMERICA.
COTTON-MILL STRIKE, New England.
See (in this volume)
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES: A. D. 1898.
COTTON STATES EXPOSITION, The.
See (in this volume)
ATLANTA: A. D. 1895.
COURT OF ARBITRATION, The Permanent.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
CREEKS, United States agreement with the.
See (in this volume)
INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1893-1899.
CRETE:
Recent archæological explorations.
Supposed discovery of the Palace of Minos and
the Cretan Labyrinth.
Fresh light on the origin of the Alphabet.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: CRETE.
CRETE: A. D. 1896.
Conflict between Christians and Mussulmans,
and its preceding causes.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1896.
CRETE: A. D. 1897.
Fresh conflicts.
Reports of the British Consul-General and others.
Greek interference and demands for annexation to Greece.
Action of the Great Powers.
Blockade of the island.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
CRETE: A. D. 1897.
Withdrawal of Greek troops.
Acceptance of autonomy by the Greek government.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).
CRETE: A. D. 1897-1898.
Prolonged anarchy, and blockade by the Powers.
Final departure of Turkish troops and officials.
Government established under Prince George of Greece.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1897-1899.
CRETE: A. D. 1901.
Successful administration of Prince George of Greece.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1901.
CRISPI, Signor:
Ministry.
See (in this volume)
ITALY: A. D. 1895-1896.
CRISPI, Signor:
Parliamentary investigation of charges against.
See (in this volume)
ITALY: A. D. 1898 (MARCH-JUNE).
CROKER, "Boss."
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1894-1895; and 1897.
CROMER, Viscount:
Administration in Egypt.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1898.
CROMWELL, Oliver, Proposed statue of.
A proposal in the English House of Commons, in 1895, to vote
£500 for a statue of Cromwell was so violently opposed by the
Irish members that the government was compelled to withdraw
the item from the estimates.
CRONJE, General Piet:
In the South African war.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER);
and 1900 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
CROZIER, Captain William:
American Commissioner to the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
----------CUBA: Start--------
Map of Cuba and West Indies.
CUBA: A. D. 1868-1885.
Ten years of insurrection.
The United States and Spain.
The Affair of the Virginius.
End of Slavery.
"The abolition of slavery in the southern states left the
Spanish Antilles in the enjoyment of a monopoly of slave
labor, which, in the production of sugar, especially, gave
them advantages which overcame all competition. This led to
the formation of a strong Spanish party, for whom the cause of
slavery and that of Spanish dominion were identical. These
were known as Peninsulars or Spanish immigrants. They were the
official class, the wealthy planters and slave-owners, and the
real rulers of Cuba. Their central organization was the Casino
Espagñol of Havana, which was copied in all the towns of the
island, and through these clubs they controlled the
volunteers, who at times numbered 60,000 or 70,000. … These
volunteers never took the field, but held possession of all
the cities and towns, and thus were able to defy even the
captain-general. They were obedient to his orders only so long
as he was acting in close accord with the wishes of their
party. On the other hand, there was a party composed of
Creoles, or native Cubans, whose cry was 'Cuba for the
Cubans!' and who hoped to effect the complete separation of
the island from Spain, either through their own efforts or
through the assistance of the United States. …
"The Spanish revolution of September, 1868, was the signal for
an uprising of the native or Creole party in the eastern part
of the island under the leadership of Cespedes. This movement
was not at first ostensibly for independence, but for the
revolution in Spain, the cries being, 'Hurrah for Prim!'
'Hurrah for the Revolution!' Its real character was, however,
apparent from the first, and its supporters continued for a
period of ten years, without regard to the numerous
vicissitudes through which the Spanish Government passed—the
provisional government, the regency, the elective monarchy,
the republic, and the restored Bourbon dynasty—to wage a
dogged, though desultory warfare against the constituted
authorities of the island. This struggle was almost
conterminous with President Grant's Administration of eight
years."
{171}
President Grant made early offers of mediation between Spain
and the insurgents, but no agreement as to terms could be
reached. An increasing sympathy with the Cubans raised demands
in the United States for their recognition as belligerents,
with belligerent rights, and the President is said to have
been ready to yield to the demand, but was deterred by the
influence of his Secretary of State, Mr. Fish, who contended
that the insurgents had established no government that could
claim such rights. The Cuban sympathizers in Congress were
accordingly checked by an opposing message (June 13, 1870),
and no interference occurred.
"In February, 1873, when King Amadeus resigned his crown and a
republic was proclaimed in Spain, the United States made haste to
give the new government recognition and support, which led to
friendly relations between the two countries for a time, and
promised happy results. The Spanish republicans were being
urged to give the Cubans self-government and end slavery in
the whole Spanish domain, and they were lending, at least, a
considerate ear to the advice. But negotiation on that topic
was soon disturbed. On October 31, 1873, the steamer
'Virginius,' sailing under American colors and carrying a
United States registry, was captured on the high seas by the
'Tornado,' a Spanish war vessel, and on the afternoon of the
first of November taken into the port of Santiago de Cuba. The
men and supplies she bore were bound for the insurgents, but
the capture did not occur in Cuban waters. General Burriel,
the commandant of the city, summoned a court-martial, and, in
spite of the protests of the American consul, condemned to
death—at the first sitting—four of the passengers—General W.
A. C. Ryan, an Irish patriot, and three Cubans. They were shot
on the morning of November 4. On the 7th twelve other
passengers were executed, and on the 8th Captain Fry and his
entire crew, numbering 36, making the total number of
executions 53." This barbarous procedure caused hot excitement
in the United States, and demands for reparation were made so
sharply that the two countries came near to war. In the end it
was shown that the "Virginius" was sailing under the American
flag without right, being owned by Cubans and controlled by
them. The vessel was surrendered, however, but foundered off
Cape Fear, while being conveyed to the United States. Her
surviving passengers were released, and an indemnity was paid
for all who were put to death. The brutal officer who took
their lives was never brought to justice, though his
punishment was promised again and again. On the settlement of
the Virginius question, the government of the United States
resumed its efforts to wring concessions to the Cubans from
Spain, and sought to have its efforts supported by Great
Britain and other European powers. Cold replies came from all
the cabinets that were approached. At the same time, the
Spanish government met the demand from America with promises
so lavish (April, 1876), going so far in appearance towards
all that had been asked, that no ground for intervention
seemed left. The act of Secretary Fish, in proposing
intervention to foreign powers, was sharply criticised as a
breach of the Monroe doctrine; but he made no defense.
"The Cuban struggle continued for two years longer. In
October, 1877, several leaders surrendered to the Spanish
authorities and undertook the task of bringing over the few
remaining ones. Some of these paid for their efforts with
their lives, being taken and condemned by court-martial, by
order of the commander of the Cuban forces. Finally, in
February, 1878, the terms of pacification [under an agreement
called the Treaty of El Zanjon] were made known. They embraced
representation in the Spanish Cortes, oblivion of the past as
regarded political offences committed since the year 1868, and
the freedom of slaves in the insurgent ranks. In practice,
however, the Cuban deputies were never truly representative,
but were men of Spanish birth, designated usually by the
captain-general. By gradual emancipation, slavery ceased to
exist in the island in 1885. The powers of the
captain-general, the most objectionable feature of Spanish
rule, continued uncurtailed."
J. H. Latané,
The Diplomatic Relations of the United States
and Spanish America,
chapter 3.
CUBA: A. D. 1895.
Insurrection renewed.
Early in 1895 a new uprising of the oppressed Cubans was
begun, and on the 7th of December, in that year, T. Estrada
Palma, writing as their authorized representative, presented
to the State Department at Washington a statement setting
forth the causes of the revolt and describing its state of
organization at that time. The causes, he wrote, "are
substantially the same as those of the former revolution,
lasting from 1868 to 1878, and terminating only on the
representation of the Spanish Government that Cuba would be
granted such reforms as would remove the grounds of complaint
on the part of the Cuban people. Unfortunately the hopes thus
held out have never been realized. The representation which
was to be given the Cubans has proved to be absolutely without
character; taxes have been levied anew on everything
conceivable; the offices in the island have increased, but the
officers are all Spaniards; the native Cubans have been left
with no public duties whatsoever to perform, except the
payment of taxes to the Government and blackmail to the
officials, without privilege even to move from place to place
in the island except on the permission of the governmental
authority. Spain has framed laws so that the natives have
substantially been deprived of the right of suffrage. The
taxes levied have been almost entirely devoted to support the
army and navy in Cuba, to pay interest on the debt that Spain
has saddled on the island, and to pay the salaries of the vast
number of Spanish officeholders, devoting only $746,000 for
internal improvements out of the $26,000,000 collected by tax.
No public schools are within reach of the masses for their
education. All the principal industries of the island are
hampered by excessive imposts. Her commerce with every country
but Spain has been crippled in every possible manner, as can
readily be seen by the frequent protests of shipowners and
merchants. The Cubans have no security of person or property.
The judiciary are instruments of the military authorities.
Trial by military tribunals can be ordered at any time at the
will of the Captain-General. There is, beside, no freedom of
speech, press, or religion. In point of fact, the causes of
the Revolution of 1775 in this country were not nearly as
grave as those that have driven the Cuban people to the
various insurrections which culminated in the present
revolution. …
{172}
"Years before the outbreak of the present hostilities the
people within and without the island began to organize, with a
view of preparing for the inevitable revolution, being
satisfied, after repeated and patient endeavors, that peaceful
petition was fruitless. In order that the movement should be
strong from the beginning, and organized both as to civil and
military administration, the Cuban Revolutionary party was
founded, with José Marti at its head. The principal objects
were by united efforts to obtain the absolute independence of
Cuba, to promote the sympathy of other countries, to collect
funds with these objects in view, and to invest them in
munitions of war. The military organization of this movement
was completed by the election of Maximo Gomez as commander in
chief. This election was made by the principal officers who
fought in the last revolution. The time for the uprising was
fixed at the solicitation of the people in Cuba, who protested
that there was no hope of autonomy, and that their deposits of
arms and ammunition were in danger of being discovered and
their leaders arrested. A large amount of war material was
then bought by Marti, and vessels chartered to transport it to
Cuba, where arrangements were made for its reception in the
provinces of Santiago, Puerto Principe, and Santa Clara; but
at Fernandina, Florida, it was seized by the United States
authorities. Efforts were successfully made for the
restitution of this material; nevertheless valuable time and
opportunity was thus lost. The people in Cuba clamored for the
revolution to proceed immediately, and in consequence the
uprising was not further postponed. The date fixed for the
uprising was the 24th of February. The people responded in
Santiago, Santa Clara, and Matanzas. The provinces of Puerto
Principe and Pinar del Rio did not respond, owing to lack of
arms. In Puerto Principe rigorous search had previous to the
24th been instituted, and all arms and ammunition confiscated
by the Government. The leaders in the provinces of Matanzas
and Santa Clara were imprisoned, and so the movement there was
checked for the time being. … In the province of Santiago the
revolution rapidly increased in strength under the leadership
of Bartolome Masso; one of the most influential and respected
citizens of Manzanillo; Guillermo Moncada, Jesus Rabi, Pedro
Perez, Jose Miro, and others. It was characterized by the
Spanish Government as a negro and bandit movement, but many of
the most distinguished and wealthy white citizens of the
district flocked to the insurgent camp. …
On the 1st of April, Generals Antonio and José Maceo, Flor
Crombet, and Augustin Cebreco, all veteran leaders in the
former revolt, landed at Duaba, in the province of Santiago,
and thousands rose to join them. Antonio Maceo then took
command of the troops in that province, and on the 11th of
April a detachment received Generals Maximo Gomez, José Marti,
Francisco Borrerro, and Angel Guerra. Captain-General Calleja
was, on the 16th of April, succeeded by General Arsenio
Martinez Campos, the present commander in chief of the Spanish
forces, who has the reputation of being Spain's greatest living
general. … The military organization of the Cubans is ample
and complete. Major General Maximo Gomez is the commander in
chief, as we have said, of all the forces, a veteran of the
last revolution, as indeed are all the generals almost without
exception. Major General Antonio Maceo is second in command of
the army of liberation, and was, until called upon to
cooperate with the commander in chief in the late march to the
western province, in command of Santiago. The army is at
present divided into five corps—two in Santiago, one in Puerto
Principe, and two in Santa Clara and Matanzas. …
"As above indicated, Jose Marti was the head of the
preliminary civil organization, and he, immediately upon
landing with Gomez in Cuba, issued a call for the selection of
representatives of the Cuban people to form a civil
government. His death [in an engagement at Boca de Dos Rios,
May 19] postponed for a time the selection of these men, but
in the beginning of September the call previously issued was
complied with. Representatives from each of the provinces of
Santiago, Puerto Principe, Santa Clara, and the western part
of the island, comprising the provinces of Matanzas and
Havana, making twenty in all, were elected to the constituent
assembly, which was to establish a civil government,
republican in form. … A constitution of the Republic of Cuba
was adopted on the 16th of September. … On the 18th of
September … officers of the Government were elected by the
constituent assembly in accordance with the terms of the
constitution. …
"The Spaniards charge, in order to belittle the insurrection,
that it is a movement of negroes. It should be remembered that
not more than one-third of the entire population are of the
colored race. As a matter of fact, less than one-third of the
army are of the colored race. Take, for instance, the generals
of corps, divisions, and brigades; there are but three of the
colored race, namely, Antonio and José Maceo and Augustin
Cebreco, and these are mulattoes whose deeds and victories
have placed them far above the generals of those who pretend
to despise them. None of the members of the constituent
assembly or of the government are of the colored race. The
Cubans and the colored race are as friendly in this war as
they were in times of peace. …
"The subject … which has caused probably the most discussion
is the order of General Gomez to prevent the grinding of sugar
cane and in case of the disobedience of said order the
destruction of the crop. … The reasons underlying this measure
are the same which caused this country to destroy the cotton
crop and the baled cotton in the South during the war of the
secession. The sugar crop is a source of large income to the
Spanish Government, directly by tax and export duty, as well
as indirectly. The action of the insurgents is perfect]y
justified, because it is simply a blockade, so to speak, on
land—a prevention of the gathering, and hence the export, of
the commodity with, naturally, a punishment for the violation
thereof. …
{173}
"In view of the history of this revolution as herein stated,
in view of the causes which led to it, its rapid growth, its
successes in arms, the establishment, operation, and resources
of the Government of the Cuban Republic, the organization,
number, and discipline of its army, the contrast in the
treatment of prisoners to that of the enemy, the territory in
its control and subject to the carrying out of its decrees, of
the futility of the attempts of the Spanish Government to crush
the revolution, in spite of the immense increase of its army
in Cuba and of its blockade and the many millions spent for
that purpose, the cruelties which on the part of the Spanish
have especially characterized this sanguinary and fiercely
conducted war, and the damage to the interests of the citizens
of this country under the present conditions, I, as the duly
accredited representative, in the name of the Cuban people in
arms who have fought singly and alone against the monarchy of
Spain for nearly a year, in the heart of a continent devoted
to republican institutions, in the name of justice, in the
name of humanity, in the name of liberty, petition you, and
through you the Government of the United States of America, to
accord the rights of belligerency to a people fighting for
their absolute independence."
United States, 54th Congress, 1st Session,
Senate Document Number 166.
CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897.
Captain-General Campos succeeded by General Weyler.
Weyler's Concentration Order and other edicts.
Death of Antonio Maceo.
Weyler succeeded by Blanco.
In January, 1896, Governor and Captain-General Campos, whose
policy had been as humane and conciliatory as his Spanish
surroundings would permit it to be, was recalled, and Don
Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau, Marquis of Teneriffe, and lately
Captain-General of Catalonia, was sent to take his place.
General Weyler arrived at Havana on the 10th of February, and
six days later, before he could possibly have acquired any
personal knowledge of the conditions with which he had to
deal, he issued three military edicts, in which a policy of
merciless ruin to the island was broadly set forth. The first
of these edicts or proclamations commanded as follows:
"Article 1.
All inhabitants of the district of Sancti Spiritus and the
provinces of Puerto Principe and Santiago de Cuba will have to
concentrate in places which are the headquarters of a
division, a brigade, a column, or a troop, and will have to be
provided with documentary proof of identity, within eight days
of the publication of this proclamation in the municipalities.
"Article 2.
To travel in the country in the radius covered by the columns
in operation, it is absolutely indispensable to have a pass
from the mayor, military commandants, or chiefs of
detachments. Anyone lacking this will be detained and sent to
headquarters of divisions or brigades, and thence to Havana,
at my disposition, by the first possible means. Even if a pass
is exhibited, which is suspected to be not authentic or granted
by authority to person with known sympathy toward the
rebellion, or who show favor thereto, rigorous measures will
result to those responsible.
"Article 3.
All owners of commercial establishments in the country
districts will vacate them, and the chiefs of columns will
take such measures as the success of their operations dictates
regarding such places which, while useless for the country's
wealth, serve the enemy as hiding places in the woods and in
the interior.
"Article 4.
All passes hitherto issued hereby become null and void."
The order of "concentration" contained in the first article of
this decree was slowly executed, but ultimately it produced
horrors of suffering and death which words could hardly
describe. The second of Weyler's edicts delegated his own
unlimited "judicial attributes," for the enforcement of the
"military code of justice," to certain subordinate commanders,
and gave sharp directions for their exercise. The third
specified a large number of offenses as being "subject to
military law," including in the category every use of tongue
or pen that could be construed as "favorable to the
rebellion," or as injurious to the "prestige" of the Spanish
army, or "the volunteers, or firemen, or any other force that
co-operates with the army." It is said to have been nearly a
year before the Weyler policy of "concentration" was generally
carried out; but even before that occurred the misery of the
country had become very great. Both parties in the war were
recklessly laying waste the land. The insurgent leaders had
published orders for a total destruction of sugar factories
and plantations, because the product supplied revenues to
Spain; and now the Spanish governor struck all traffic and
industry down in the rural districts, by driving the
inhabitants from their homes and fields, to concentrate and
pen them up in certain prescribed places, with practically no
provision for employment, or shelter or food. At the close of
the year 1896 the state of suffering in the island was not yet
at its worst; but already it was riveting the attention of the
neighboring people of the United States, exciting a hot
feeling against Spain and a growing desire for measures on the
part of the American government to bring it to an end.
Repeated attempts had already been made by frothy politicians
in Congress to force the country into an attitude toward Spain
that would challenge war; but the Executive, supported by a
congressional majority, and by the better opinion of the
American public, adhered with firmness to a policy which aimed
at the exhausting of pacific influences in favor of the Cuban
cause. In his annual message to Congress at the opening of the
session in December, 1896, President Cleveland set forth the
situation in the following words:
"It is difficult to perceive that any progress has thus far
been made towards the pacification of the island. … If Spain
still holds Havana and the seaports and all the considerable
towns, the insurgents still roam at will over at least
two-thirds of the inland country. If the determination of
Spain to put down the insurrection seems but to strengthen
with the lapse of time, and is evinced by her unhesitating
devotion of largely increased military and naval forces to the
task, there is much reason to believe that the insurgents have
gained in point of numbers, and character, and resources, and
are none the less inflexible in their resolve not to succumb,
without practically securing the great objects for which they
took up arms. If Spain has not yet re-established her
authority, neither have the insurgents yet made good their
title to be regarded as an independent state. Indeed, as the
contest has gone on, the pretense that civil government exists
on the island, except so far as Spain is able to maintain it,
has been practically abandoned. Spain does keep on foot such a
government, more or less imperfectly, in the large towns and
their immediate suburbs. But, that exception being made, the
entire country is either given over to anarchy or is subject
to the military occupation of one or the other party. … In
pursuance of general orders, Spanish garrisons are now being
withdrawn from plantations and the rural population required
to concentrate itself in the towns. The sure result would seem
to be that the industrial value of the island is fast
diminishing, and that unless there is a speedy and radical
change in existing conditions, it will soon disappear
altogether. …
{174}
"The spectacle of the utter ruin of an adjoining country, by
nature one of the most fertile and charming on the globe,
would engage the serious attention of the Government and
people of the United States in any circumstances. In point of
fact, they have a concern with it which is by no means of a
wholly sentimental or philanthropic character. It lies so near
to us as to be hardly separated from our territory. Our actual
pecuniary interest in it is second only to that of the people
and Government of Spain. It is reasonably estimated that at
least from $30,000,000 to $50,000,000 of American capital are
invested in plantations and in railroad, mining, and other
business enterprises on the island. The volume of trade
between the United States and Cuba, which in 1889 amounted to
about $64,000,000, rose in 1893 to about $103,000,000, and in
1894, the year before the present insurrection broke out,
amounted to nearly $96,000,000. Besides this large pecuniary
stake in the fortunes of Cuba, the United States finds itself
inextricably involved in the present contest in other ways
both vexatious and costly. … These inevitable entanglements of
the United States with the rebellion in Cuba, the large
American property interests affected, and considerations of
philanthropy and humanity in general, have led to a vehement
demand in various quarters, for some sort of positive
intervention on the part of the United States. …
"It would seem that if Spain should offer to Cuba genuine
autonomy—a measure of home rule which, while preserving the
sovereignty of Spain, would satisfy all rational requirements
of her Spanish subjects—there should be no just reason why the
pacification of the island might not be effected on that
basis. Such a result would appear to be in the true interest
of all concerned. … It has been objected on the one side that
Spain should not promise autonomy until her insurgent subjects
lay down their arms; on the other side, that promised
autonomy, however liberal, is insufficient, because without
assurance of the promise being fulfilled. … Realizing that
suspicions and precautions on the part of the weaker of two
combatants are always natural and not always
unjustifiable—being sincerely desirous in the interest of both
as well as on its own account that the Cuban problem should be
solved with the least possible delay—it was intimated by this
Government to the Government of Spain some months ago that, if
a satisfactory measure of home rule were tendered the Cuban
insurgents, and would be accepted by them upon a guaranty of
its execution, the United States would endeavor to find a way
not objectionable to Spain of furnishing such guaranty. While
no definite response to this intimation has yet been received
from the Spanish Government, it is believed to be not
altogether unwelcome, while, as already suggested, no reason
is perceived why it should not be approved by the insurgents. …
"It should be added that it can not be reasonably assumed that
the hitherto expectant attitude of the United States will be
indefinitely maintained. While we are anxious to accord all
due respect to the sovereignty of Spain, we can not view the
pending conflict in all its features, and properly apprehend
our inevitably close relations to it, and its possible
results, without considering that by the course of events we
may be drawn into such an unusual and unprecedented condition,
as will fix a limit to our patient waiting for Spain to end
the contest, either alone and in her own way, or with our
friendly co-operation."
President Cleveland's Message to Congress,
December 7, 1896.
Just at this time (December 7, 1896) the Cuban insurgents
suffered a serious calamity, in the death of Antonio Maceo,
the heroic mulatto, who seems to have been the most soldierly
and inspiring of their leaders. He had broken through the
"trocha," or fortified line across the island, by which the
Spaniards were endeavoring to hold its western part, and had
been troubling them in the province of Pinar del Rio for some
months. At length he was killed in an unimportant skirmish,
and much of the vigor of the insurrection appears to have gone
out of it when he died. The obstinacy of spirit remained,
nevertheless, and all the merciless energy of Weyler only
spread death and misery, without opening any prospect of an
end to the state of war. Spain was being utterly exhausted by
the immense cost of the struggle; Cuba was being ruined and
depopulated; yet neither would yield. The oppressors would not
set their victims free; the oppressed would not submit. But,
politically, the situation continued for another year as it
had been when described by President Cleveland at the close of
1896. The only visible authority was that which the Spaniards
maintained here and there. The revolutionists established no
government that could reasonably be given the name, and their
"Republic of Cuba," which foolish people in the United States
were clamoring to have recognized, existed on paper alone. To
concede "belligerent rights" to the scattered bands of
insurgents would only bring them under crippling rules of
international law, and do no good to their cause. President
McKinley, who succeeded President Cleveland in March, 1897,
made no change in the policy which the latter had pursued. He
continued the insistent pressure by which it was sought to
persuade the Spanish government to give a satisfying measure
of free government to its great dependency. After some months
there appeared to be a fair promise of success. The Liberal
party had come into power at Madrid, with Sagasta at its head.
In October, Weyler was recalled, General Blanco took his place,
and a new constitution for Cuba was announced, giving the
colony what seemed to be a fairly autonomous government, under
a parliament of its own. In his message to Congress the
following December, President McKinley was able to meet the
continued clamor for more violent measures of interference by
saying: "It is honestly due to Spain, and to our friendly
relations with Spain, that she should be given a reasonable
chance to realize her expectations, and to prove the asserted
efficacy of the new order of things to which she stands
irrevocably committed. She has recalled the commander whose
brutal orders inflamed the American mind and shocked the
civilized world. She has modified the horrible order of
concentration, and has undertaken to care for the helpless and
permit those who desire to resume the cultivation of their
fields to do so, and assures them the protection of the
Spanish Government in their lawful occupations."
{175}
But the awful tragedy of suffering among the
"reconcontrados" had excited lookers-on to such a pitch that
the conduct of Spain in any new line of policy could no longer
be fairly judged. There had been attempts on the part of the
Spanish authorities to give some relief to the starved and
perishing multitude, and help to that end had been accepted
from the United States. The American Red Cross Society, with
Miss Clara Barton at its head, entered the island in December,
with vast stores of food and hospital supplies, and a strong
force of generous workers; but the need was far beyond their
means. The tale of death and misery in the stricken country
seemed to grow more sickening every day.
CUBA: A. D. 1897 (November).
Constitution establishing self-government in the islands of
Cuba and Porto Rico, promulgated by Royal Decree.
The following is a translation of the text of the Constitution
establishing self-government in the islands of Cuba and Porto
Rico which was promulgated by royal decree at Madrid on the
25th of November, 1897:
Upon the proposition of my Prime Minister, and with the
concurrence of the Council of Ministers in the name of my
august son, King Alfonso XIII, and as Queen Regent of the
Kingdom, I hereby decree as follows:
[Footnote Start]
EXPLANATORY NOTE.
To facilitate the understanding of this decree and to avoid
confusion as to the legal value of the terms employed therein
the following definitions are to be observed:
Central Executive Power: The King with his Council of Ministers.
The Spanish Parliament: The Cortes with the King.
The Spanish Chambers: The Congress and the Senate.
The Central Government: The Council of Ministers of the Kingdom.
The Colonial Parliament: The two Chambers with
the Governor-General.
The Colonial Chambers: The Council of Administration
and the Chamber of Representatives.
Colonial Legislative Assemblies: The Council of Administration
and the Chamber of Representatives.
Governor-General in Council: The Governor-General
with the Secretaries of his Cabinet.
Instructions of the Governor-General: Those which he may have
received when named for his office.
Statute: Colonial measure of a legislative character.
Colonial Statutes: Colonial Legislation.
Legislation or General Laws: Legislation or laws of the Kingdom.
[Footnote End]
TITLE I.
GOVERNMENT AND CIVIL ADMINISTRATION IN THE ISLANDS
OF CUBA AND PORTO RICO.
ARTICLE 1.
The system of government and civil administration in the
islands of Cuba and Porto Rico shall hereafter be carried on
in conformity with the following provisions:
ARTICLE 2.
Each island shall be governed by an insular parliament,
consisting of two chambers, and by the Governor-General,
representing the mother country, who shall exercise supreme
authority.
TITLE II.
THE INSULAR CHAMBERS.
ARTICLE 3.
The legislative power as to colonial matters in the shape and
manner prescribed by law, shall be vested in the insular
chambers conjointly with the Governor-General.
ARTICLE 4.
Insular representation shall consist of two bodies of equal
powers, which shall be known as chamber of representatives and
council of administration.
TITLE III.
COUNCIL OF ADMINISTRATION.
ARTICLE 5.
The council shall be composed of thirty-five members, of whom
eighteen shall be elected in the manner directed by the
electoral law and seventeen shall be appointed by the
Governor-General acting for the Crown, from among such persons
as have the qualifications specified in the following
articles:
ARTICLE 6.
To be entitled to sit in the council of administration it is
necessary to be a Spanish subject; to have attained the age of
thirty-five years; to have been born in the island, or to have
had four years' constant residence therein; not to be subject
to any pending criminal prosecution; to be in the full
enjoyment of his political rights; to have his property free
from attachment; to have had for two or more years previous an
annual income of four thousand dollars; to have no interest in
any contract with either the insular or the home government.
The shareholders of a stock company shall not be considered as
government contractors, even if the company has a contract
with the government.
ARTICLE 7.
Persons are also qualified to serve as councilors who, besides
the above-stated requirements, have any of the following
qualifications:
1. To be or to have been a senator of the Kingdom, or to
possess the requirements for being a senator, in conformity
with Article III of the constitution.
2. To have held for a period of two years any of the following
offices: President, or prosecuting attorney of the pretorian
court of Havana; rector of the University of Havana; councilor
of administration in the council formerly thus designated;
president of the Havana Chamber of Commerce; president of the
Economic Society of Friends of the Country; president of the
Sugar Planters' Association; president of the Tobacco
Manufacturers' Union; president of the Merchants, Tradesmen's,
and Agriculturalists' League; dean of the bar of Havana; mayor
of Havana; president of the provincial assembly of Havana
during two terms or of any provincial assembly during three
terms; dean of either of the chapters of the two cathedrals.
3. Likewise may be elected or appointed as councilor any
property owner from among the fifty taxpayers paying the
highest taxes, either on real estate or on industries,
commerce, arts, and the professions.
ARTICLE 8.
The councilors appointed by the Crown shall be appointed by
special decrees, stating the qualification entitling the
appointee to serve as councilor. Councilors thus appointed
shall hold office for life. One-half the number of elective
councilors shall be elected every five years, and the whole
number shall be elected whenever the council of administration
shall be dissolved by the Governor-General.
ARTICLE 9.
The qualifications required in order to be appointed or
elected councilor of administration may be changed by a
national law, at the request or upon the proposition of the
insular chambers.
ARTICLE 10.
No councilor shall, during the session of the council, accept
any civil office, promotion (unless it be strictly by
seniority), title, or decoration; but any councilor may be
appointed by either the local or the home government to any
commission within his own profession or category, whenever the
public service shall require it. The secretaries of the
insular government shall be excepted from the foregoing rule.
{176}
TITLE IV.
THE CHAMBER OF REPRESENTATIVES.
ARTICLE 11.
The chamber of representatives shall be composed of members
named by the electoral boards in the manner prescribed by law
and in the proportion of one for every twenty-five thousand
inhabitants.
ARTICLE 12.
To be elected as representative the candidate must have the
following requirements: To be a Spanish citizen, to be a
layman, to have attained his majority, to be in full enjoyment
of civil rights, to have been born in the island or to have
had four years' constant residence therein, and not to be
subject to any pending criminal prosecution.
ARTICLE 13.
Representatives shall be elected every five years, and any
representative may be re-elected any number of times. The
insular chamber shall determine what classes of offices are
incompatible with the office of representative, as well as the
cases governing re-election.
ARTICLE 14.
Any representative upon whom either the local or home
government shall confer a pension, or any employment,
promotion (unless it be by strict seniority), paid commission,
title, or decoration, shall cease to be such without necessity
of any declaration to that effect, unless he shall within fifteen
days of his appointment notify the chamber of his having
declined the favor. The provisions of the preceding paragraph
shall not include the representatives who shall be appointed
members of the cabinet.
TITLE V.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE INSULAR CHAMBERS AND THEIR RELATIONS
TO EACH OTHER.
ARTICLE 15.
The chambers will meet every year. The King, the
Governor-General acting in his name, shall convene, suspend,
and adjourn the sessions and dissolve the chamber of
representatives and the council of administration, either
separately or simultaneously, under the obligation to call
them together again or renew them within three months.
ARTICLE 16.
Each of the two legislative bodies shall determine the rules
of their proceedings and shall be the judges of the
qualifications of their respective members and the legality of
their election. Until the chamber and the council shall pass
their own rules, they shall be governed by the rules of the
national house of representatives and of the senate,
respectively.
ARTICLE 17.
Each chamber shall choose its president, vice-president and
secretaries.
ARTICLE 18.
Neither chamber shall sit unless the other be sitting also,
except when the council exercises judicial functions.
ARTICLE 19.
The two insular chambers shall not deliberate together nor in
the presence of the Governor-General. The sessions shall be
public, but either chamber may hold secret sessions whenever
business of a private nature shall require it.
ARTICLE 20.
To the Governor-General, through his secretaries, as well as
to either of the two chambers, belongs the power to initiate
and propose colonial statutes.
ARTICLE 21.
All colonial statutes in regard to taxes and the public credit
shall originate in the chamber of representatives.
ARTICLE 22.
Resolutions may be passed by either chamber by a plurality of
votes; but in order to pass a measure of a legislative
character a majority of all the members constituting the body
must be present. Nevertheless, one-third of the members shall
constitute a quorum for deliberation.
ARTICLE 23.
No resolution or law shall be considered passed by the insular
parliament unless it has had the concurrence of the chamber of
representatives and the council of administration.
ARTICLE 24.
Every colonial statute, as soon as it has been approved in the
form prescribed in the preceding article, shall be presented
to the Governor-General by the officers of both chambers for
his sanction and proclamation of the same.
ARTICLE 25.
Members of the council and the chamber of representatives
shall have immunity for any speech or vote in either chamber.
ARTICLE 26.
No councilor of administration shall be indicted or arrested
without a previous resolution of the council, unless he shall
be found "in flagranti" or the council shall not be in
session, but in every case notice shall be given to that body
as soon as possible, that it may determine what should be
done. Nor shall the representatives be indicted or arrested
during the sessions without the permission of the chamber
unless they are found "in flagranti," but in this last case,
or in case of indictment or arrest when the chamber is not
sitting, notice shall be given as soon us possible to the
chamber of representatives for its information and action. All
proceedings against councilors and representatives shall be
brought before the pretorian court at Havana in the cases and
manner that shall be prescribed by colonial statutes.
ARTICLE 27.
The guarantees established in the foregoing section shall not
apply to a councilor or representative who shall himself admit
that he is the author of any article, book, pamphlet, or
printed matter wherein military sedition is incited or
invoked, or the Governor-General is insulted and maligned, or
national sovereignty is assailed.
ARTICLE 28.
The relations between the two chambers shall be governed,
until otherwise provided, by the act of July 19, 1837,
regulating the relations between the two legislative houses of
the Cortes.
ARTICLE 29.
Besides the power of enacting laws for the colony the insular
chambers shall have power:
1. To receive the oath of the Governor-General to preserve the
constitution and the laws which guarantee the autonomy of the
colony.
2. To enforce the responsibility of the secretaries of the
executive, who shall be tried by the council, whenever
impeached by the chamber of representatives.
3. To address the home government through the
Governor-General, proposing the abrogation or modification of
existing laws of the Kingdom; to invite the home government to
present bills as to particular matters, or to ask a decision
of an executive character on matters which interest the
colony.
ARTICLE 30.
The Governor-General shall communicate to the home government
before presenting to the insular parliament any bill
originating in the executive government of the island
whenever, in his judgment, said bill may affect national
interests. Should any such bill originate in the insular
parliament, the government of the island shall ask for a
postponement of the debate until the home government shall
have given its opinion. In either case the correspondence
passing between the two governments shall be laid before the
chambers and published in the official Gazette.
{177}
ARTICLE 31.
All differences of jurisdiction between the several municipal,
provincial, and insular assemblies, or between any of them and
the executive, which by their nature may not be referred to
the home government, shall be submitted to the courts of
justice in accordance with the rules herein prescribed.
TITLE VI.
POWERS VESTED IN THE INSULAR PARLIAMENT.
ARTICLE 32.
The insular chambers shall have power to pass upon all matters
not specially and expressly reserved to the Cortes of the
Kingdom or to the central government as herein provided, or as
may be provided hereafter, in accordance with the prescription
set forth in additional Article 2. In this manner, and without
implying that the following enumeration presupposes any
limitation of their power to legislate on other subjects, they
shall have power to legislate on all matters and subjects
concerning the departments of justice, interior, treasury,
public works, education, and agriculture.
They shall likewise have exclusive cognizance of all matters
of a purely local nature which may principally affect the
colonial territory; and to this end they shall have power to
legislate on civil administration; on provincial, municipal,
or judicial apportionment; on public health, by land or sea,
and on public credit, banks, and the monetary system. This
power, however, shall not impair the powers vested in the
colonial executive according to the laws in connection with
the matters above mentioned.
ARTICLE 33.
It shall be incumbent upon the colonial parliament to make
regulations under such national laws as may be passed by the
Cortes and expressly intrusted to it. Especially among such
measures parliament shall legislate, and may do so at the
first sitting, for the purpose of regulating the elections,
the taking of the electoral census, qualifying electors, and
exercising the right of suffrage; but in no event shall these
dispositions affect the rights of the citizens, as established
by the electoral laws.
ARTICLE 34.
Notwithstanding that the laws governing the judiciary and the
administration of justice are of a national character, and
therefore obligatory for the colony, the insular parliament
may, within the provisions of said laws, make rules or propose
to the home government such measures as shall render easier
the admission, continuance, or promotion in the local courts
of lawyers, natives of the island, or practicing therein.
The Governor-General in council shall have, as far as the
island of Cuba is concerned, the same power that has been
vested heretofore in the minister for the colonies for the
appointment of the functionaries and subordinate and auxiliary
officers of the judicial order and as to the other matters
connected with the administration of justice.
ARTICLE 35.
The insular parliament shall have exclusive power to frame the
local budget of expenditures and revenues, including the
revenue corresponding to the island as her quota of the
national budget. To this end the Governor-General shall
present to the chambers every year before the month of January
the budget for the next fiscal year, divided in two parts, as
follows: The first part shall state the revenues needed to
defray the expenses of sovereignty, and the second part shall
state the revenues and expenditures estimated for the
maintenance of the colonial administration. Neither chamber
shall take up the budget of the colonial government without
having finally voted the part for the maintenance of
sovereignty.
ARTICLE 36.
The Cortes of the Kingdom shall determine what expenditures
are to be considered by reason of their nature as obligatory
expenses inherent to sovereignty, and shall fix the amount
every three years and the revenue needed to defray the same,
the Cortes reserving the right to alter this rule.
ARTICLE 37.
All treaties of commerce affecting the island of Cuba, be they
suggested by the insular or by the home government, shall be
made by the latter with the co-operation of special delegates
duly authorized by the colonial government, whose concurrence
shall be acknowledged upon submitting the treaties to the
Cortes. Said treaties, when approved by the Cortes, shall be
proclaimed as laws of the Kingdom and as such shall obtain in
the colony.
ARTICLE 38.
Notice shall be given to the insular government of any
commercial treaties made without its participation as soon as
said treaties shall become laws, to the end that, within a
period of three months, it may declare its acceptance or
nonacceptance of their stipulations. In case of acceptance the
Governor-General shall cause the treaty to be published in the
Gazette as a colonial statute.
ARTICLE 39.
The insular parliament shall also have power to frame the
tariff and fix the duties to be paid on merchandise as well
for its importation into the territory of the island as for
the exportation thereof.
ARTICLE 40.
As a transition from the old regime to the new constitution,
and until the home and insular governments may otherwise
conjointly determine hereafter, the commercial relations
between the island and the metropolis shall be governed by the
following rules:
1. No differential duty, whether fiscal or otherwise, either
on imports or exports, shall be imposed to the detriment of
either insular or peninsular production.
2. The two governments shall make a schedule of articles of
direct national origin to which shall be allowed by common
consent preferential duty over similar foreign products. In
another schedule made in like manner shall be determined such
articles of direct insular production as shall be entitled to
privileged treatment on their importation into the peninsula
and the amount of preferential duties thereon. In neither case
shall the preferential duty exceed 35 per cent. Should the
home and the colonial government agree upon the schedules and
the preferential duties, they shall be considered final and
shall be enforced at once. In case of disagreement the point
in dispute shall be submitted to a committee of
representatives of the Cortes, consisting of an equal number
of Cubans and Peninsulars. The committee shall appoint its
chairman, and in case of disagreement the eldest member shall
preside. The chairman shall have the casting vote.
3. The valuation tables concerning the articles in the
schedules above mentioned shall be fixed by mutual agreement,
and shall be revised after discussion every two years. The
modifications which may thereupon become necessary in the
tariff duties shall be carried out at once by the respective
governments.
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TITLE VII.
THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL.
ARTICLE 41.
The supreme authority of the colony shall be vested in a
Governor-General, appointed by the King on the nomination of
the council of ministers. In his capacity he shall have as
vice-royal patron the power inherent in the patronate of the
Indies; he shall have command of all military and naval forces
in the island; he shall act as delegate of the departments of
state, war, navy, and the colonies; all other authorities in
the island shall be subordinate to his, and he shall be
responsible for the preservation of order and the safety of
the colony. The Governor-General shall, before taking
possession of his office, take an oath in the presence of the
King to discharge his duties faithfully and loyally.
ARTICLE 42.
The Governor-General, representing the nation, will discharge
by himself and with the aid of his secretaries all the
functions indicated in the preceding articles and such others
as may devolve upon him as direct delegate of the King in
matters of a national character. It shall be incumbent upon
the Governor-General as representing the home government:
1. To appoint without restriction the secretaries of his
cabinet.
2. To proclaim, execute, and cause to be executed in the
island all laws, decrees, treaties, international covenants,
and all other acts emanating from the legislative branch of
the government, as well as all decrees, royal commands, and
other measures emanating from the executive which shall be
communicated to him by the departments of which he acts as
delegate. Whenever in his judgment and in that of his
secretaries he considers the resolutions of the home
government as liable to injure the general interests of the
nation or the special interests of the island, he shall have
power to suspend the publication and execution thereof, and
shall so notify the respective department, stating the reasons
for his action.
3. To grant pardons in the name of the King, within the
limitations specially prescribed to him in his instructions
from the government, and to stay the execution of a death
sentence whenever the gravity of the circumstances shall so
demand or the urgency of the case shall allow of no time to
solicit and obtain His Majesty's pardon; but in either case he
shall hear the counsel of his secretaries.
4. To suspend the guarantees set forth in articles 3, 5, 6,
and 9, and in the first, second, and third paragraphs of
article 13 of the constitution; to enforce legislation in
regard to public order, and to take all measures which he may
deem necessary to preserve the peace within and the safety
without for the territory entrusted to him after hearing the
counsel of his cabinet.
5. To take care that in the colony justice be promptly and
fully administered, and that it shall always be administered
in the name of the King.
6. To hold direct communication on foreign affairs with the
ministers, diplomatic agents, and counsels of Spain throughout
America. A full copy of such correspondence shall be
simultaneously forwarded to the home Department of State.
ARTICLE 43.
It behooves the Governor-General, as the superior authority in
the colony and head of its administration:
1. To take care that the rights, powers, and privileges now
vested or that may henceforth be vested in the colonial
administration be respected and protected.
2. To sanction and proclaim the acts of the insular
parliament, which shall be submitted to him by the president
and secretaries of the respective chambers. Whenever, in the
judgment of the Governor-General, an act of the insular
parliament goes beyond its powers or impairs the rights of the
citizens as set forth in Article I of the constitution, or
curtails the guarantees prescribed by law for the exercise of
said rights, or jeopards the interest of the colony or of the
nation, he shall forward the act to the council of ministers
of the Kingdom, which, within a period that shall not exceed
two months, shall either assent to it or return it to the
Governor-General with the objections to its sanction and
proclamation. The insular parliament may, in view of the
objections, reconsider or modify the act, if it deems fit,
without a special proposition. If two months shall elapse
without the central government giving any opinion as to a
measure agreed upon by the chambers which has been transmitted
to it by the Governor-General, the latter shall sanction and
proclaim the same.
3. To appoint, suspend, and discharge the employees of the
colonial administration, upon the suggestion of the
secretaries of the departments and in accordance with the
laws.
4. To appoint and remove, without restriction, the secretaries
of his cabinet.
ARTICLE 44.
No executive order of the Governor-General, acting as
representative and chief of the colony, shall take effect
unless countersigned by a secretary of the cabinet, who by
this act alone shall make himself responsible for the same.
ARTICLE 45.
There shall be five secretaries of department, to wit:
Grace and justice and interior;
finance;
public education, public works and posts and telegraphs;
agriculture, industry, and commerce.
The Governor-General shall appoint the president of the
cabinet from among the secretaries, and shall also have power
to appoint a president without a secretaryship. The power to
increase or diminish the number of secretaries composing the
colonial cabinet, and to determine the scope of each
department, is vested in the insular parliament.
ARTICLE 46.
The secretaries of the cabinet may be members of either the
chamber of representatives or the council of administration
and take part in the debates of either chamber, but a
secretary shall only vote in the chamber of which he is a
member.
ARTICLE 47.
The secretaries of the cabinet shall be responsible to the
insular parliament.
ARTICLE 48.
The Governor-General shall not modify or abrogate his own
orders after they are assented to by the home government, or
when they shall declare some rights, or when a sentence by a
judicial court or administrative tribunal shall have been
based upon said orders, or when they shall deal with his own
competency.
ARTICLE 49.
The Governor-General shall not turn over his office when
leaving the island except by special command from the home
government. In case of absence from the seat of government
which prevents his discharging the duties of his office or of
disability to perform such duties, he can appoint one or more
persons to take his place, provided the home government has
not previously done so or the method of substitution shall not
be stated in his instructions.
{179}
ARTICLE 50.
The supreme court shall have the sole power to try the
Governor-General when impeached for his responsibilities as
defined by the Penal Code. The council of ministers shall take
cognizance of his other responsibilities.
ARTICLE 51.
The Governor-General shall have the power, in spite of the
provisions of the different articles of this decree, to act
upon his own responsibility, without consulting his
secretaries, in the following cases:
1. When forwarding to the home government a bill passed by the
insular parliament, especially when, in his opinion, it shall
abridge the rights set forth in Article 1 of the constitution
of the monarchy or the guarantees for the exercise thereof
vouchsafed by the laws.
2. When it shall be necessary to enforce the law or public
order, especially if there be no time or possibility to
consult the home government.
3. When enforcing the national laws that shall have been
approved by the Crown and made applicable to all of the
Spanish or to the colony under his government. The proceedings
and means of action which the Governor-General shall employ in
the above cases shall be determined by a special law.
TITLE VIII.
MUNICIPAL AND PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT.
ARTICLE. 52.
Municipal organization shall be compulsory for every group of
population of more than one thousand inhabitants. Groups of
less number of inhabitants may organize the service of their
community by special covenants. Every legally constituted
municipality shall have power to frame its own laws regarding
public education; highways by land, river, and sea; public
health; municipal finances, as well as to freely appoint and
remove its own employees.
ARTICLE 53.
At the head of each province there shall be an assembly, which
shall be elected in the manner provided for by the colonial
statutes, and shall be composed of a number of members in
proportion to the population.
ARTICLE 54.
The provincial assembly shall be autonomous as regards the
creation and maintenance of public schools and colleges;
charitable institutions and provincial roads and ways by land,
river, or sea; also as regards their own budgets and the
appointment and removal of their respective employees.
ARTICLE 55.
The municipalities, as well as the provincial assemblies,
shall have power to freely raise the necessary revenue to
cover their expenditures, with no other limitation than to
make the means adopted compatible with the general system of
taxation which shall obtain in the island. The resources for
provincial appropriations shall be independent of municipal
resources.
ARTICLE 56.
The mayors and presidents of boards of aldermen shall be
chosen by their respective boards from among their members.
ARTICLE 57.
The mayors shall discharge without limitation the active
duties of the municipal administration, as executors of the
resolutions of the board of aldermen or their representatives.
ARTICLE 58.
The aldermen and the provincial assemblymen shall be civilly
responsible for the damages caused by their acts. Their
responsibility shall be exacted before the ordinary courts of
justice.
ARTICLE 59.
The provincial assemblies shall freely choose their respective
presidents.
ARTICLE 60.
The elections of aldermen and assemblymen shall be conducted
in such manner as to allow for a legitimate representation of
the minorities.
ARTICLE 61.
The provincial and municipal laws now obtaining in the island
shall continue in vogue, wherever not in conflict with the
provisions of this decree, until the insular parliament shall
legislate upon the matter.
ARTICLE 62.
No colonial statute shall abridge the powers vested by the
preceding articles in the municipalities and the provincial
assemblies.
TITLE IX.
AS TO THE GUARANTEES FOR THE FULFILLMENT OF
THE COLONIAL CONSTITUTION.
ARTICLE 63.
Whenever a citizen shall consider that his rights have been
violated or his interests injured by the action of a
municipality or a provincial assembly he shall have the right
to apply to the courts of justice for redress. The department
of justice shall, if so required by the agents of the
executive government of the colony, prosecute before the
courts the boards of aldermen or provincial assemblies charged
with breaking the laws or abusing their power.
ARTICLE 64.
In the cases referred to in the preceding article, the
following courts shall have jurisdiction: The territorial
audiencia shall try all claims against municipalities; and the
pretorian court of Havana shall try all claims against
provincial assemblies. Said courts, when the charges against
any of the above-mentioned corporations shall be for abuse of
power, shall render their decisions by a full bench. From the
decision of the Territorial audiencia an appeal shall be
allowed to the pretorian court of Havana, and from the
decisions of the latter an appeal shall be allowed to the
supreme court of the Kingdom.
ARTICLE 65.
The redress of grievances which Article 62 grants to any
citizen can also be had collectively by means of public
action, by appointing an attorney or representative claimant.
ARTICLE 66.
Without in any way impairing the powers vested in the
Governor-General by Title V of the present decree, he may,
whenever he deems fit, appear before the pretorian court of
Havana in his capacity as chief of the executive government of
the colony, to the end that said court shall finally decide
any conflict of jurisdiction between the executive power and
the legislative chambers of the colony.
ARTICLE 67.
Should any question of jurisdiction be raised between the
insular parliament and the Governor-General in his capacity as
representative of the home government, which shall not have
been submitted to the council of ministers of the Kingdom by
petition of the insular parliament, either party shall have
power to bring the matter before the supreme court of the
Kingdom, which shall render its decision by a full bench and
in the first instance.
ARTICLE 68.
The decisions rendered in all cases provided for in the
preceding articles shall be published in the collection of
colonial statutes and shall form part of the insular
legislation.
ARTICLE 69.
Every municipal measure for the purpose of contracting a loan
or a municipal debt shall be without effect, unless it be
assented to by a majority of the townspeople whenever
one-third of the number of aldermen shall so demand. The
amount of the loan or debt which, according to the number of
inhabitants of a township, shall make the referendum
proceeding necessary, shall be determined by special statute.
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ARTICLE 70.
All legislative acts originating in the insular parliament or
the Cortes shall be compiled under the title of colonial
statutes in a legislative collection, the formation and
publication of which shall be entrusted to the
Governor-General as chief of the colonial executive.
ADDITIONAL ARTICLES.
ARTICLE 1.
Until the colonial statutes shall be published in due form,
the laws of the Kingdom shall be deemed applicable to all
matters reserved to the jurisdiction of the insular
government.
ARTICLE 2.
When the present constitution shall be once approved by the
Cortes of the Kingdom for the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico,
it shall not be amended except by virtue of a special law and
upon the petition of the insular parliament.
ARTICLE 3.
The provisions of the present decree shall obtain in their
entirety in the island of Porto Rico; they shall, however, be
ordained by special decree in order to conform them to the
population and nomenclature of said island.
ARTICLE 4.
Pending contracts for public services affecting in common the
Antilles and the Peninsula shall continue in their present
shape until termination, and shall be entirely governed by the
conditions and stipulations therein made. As regards other
contracts already entered into, but not yet in operation, the
Governor-General shall consult the home government, or the
colonial chambers, as the case may be, and the two governments
shall by mutual accord decide as between themselves the final
form of such contract.
TRANSITORY PROVISIONS.
ARTICLE 1.
With a view to carry out the transition from the present
regime to the system hereby established with the greatest
possible dispatch and the least interruption of the public
business, the Governor-General shall, whenever he deems it
timely and after consulting the home government, appoint the
secretaries of the executive office as per Article 45 of this
decree, and with their aid he shall conduct the local
government of the island until the insular chambers shall have
been constituted. The secretaries thus appointed shall vacate
their offices as soon as the Governor-General shall take his
oath of office before the insular chambers, and the
Governor-General shall immediately appoint as their successors
the members of parliament who, in his judgment, most fully
represent the majorities in the chamber of representatives and
the council of administration.
ARTICLE 2.
The manner of meeting the expenditures occasioned by the debt
now weighing upon the Spanish and Cuban treasuries, and the
debt that may be contracted until the termination of the war,
shall be determined by a law fixing the share that shall be
borne by each treasury, and the special ways and means for the
payment of the interest, and the sinking fund, and for
refunding the principal in due time. Until the Cortes of the
Kingdom shall decide this point no changes shall be made in
the conditions under which said debts were contracted, nor in
the payment of the interest, nor provisions for a sinking
fund, nor in the guarantees which they enjoy, nor in the
actual terms of payment. When the Cortes shall have
apportioned the shares, each of the two treasuries shall take
upon itself the payment of the share allotted. In no event
shall the obligations contracted towards the lenders on the
faith of the Spanish nation cease to be scrupulously
respected.
Issued in the Palace,
Madrid, November 25, 1897.
MARIA CHRISTINA.
The President of the Council of Ministers,
PRÁXEDES MATEO SAGASTA.
CUBA: A. D. 1897-1898 (November-February).
The experiment of autonomy or home rule.
It cannot be said that the Constitution of 1897 was given a
fair trial. In the circumstances, one may doubt whether a fair
trial of its working was possible. It came too late for
advantageous testing or unprejudiced judging of its
practicability. The autonomist party, which might once have
been able to make Cuba a constitutional dependency, like
Canada, had been discouraged and broken up. Weyler's policy
had excited a feeling in the United States which was too
impatient to wait for new experiments in Spanish dealing with
Cuba to be worked out, or to estimate reasonably the chances
of their success. The first showing of results from the scheme
of autonomy was unpromising, as it could hardly have failed to
be, and that was readily taken as conclusive in condemnation
of it. The judgment of General Fitzhugh Lee, Consul-General of
the United States at Havana, had great influence in America,
and he saw nothing to expect from the Constitution. In an
article contributed subsequently to the "Fortnightly Review,"
June, 1898, he wrote:
"It [the Constitution) was an elaborate system of 'Home Rule'
with a string to every sentence; so that I soon became
satisfied that, if the insurrection against the Spanish throne
on the island ceased, the condition of the Cubans would
speedily be the same as it was at the commencement of the war.
I gave the reasons therefor in a paper now on file in the
State Department which clearly proved that the Spaniards could
easily control one of the legislative chambers, and that
behind any joint action on the part of both was the veto of
the Governor-General, whose appointment was made from the
throne in Madrid.
"This system of autonomy, however, was gravely proceeded with.
An Autonomistic Cabinet was seriously formed, composed in part
of Cubans who, though at one time in favour of a government of
the island free from Spanish control, had given satisfactory
intimations that, if they were appointed to cabinet offices,
their former opinions could be modified to suit existing
circumstances. Blanco's Autonomistic Government was doomed to
failure from its inception. The Spanish soldiers and officers
scorned it, because they did not desire Cuban rule, which such
autonomy, if genuine, would insure. The Spanish merchants and
citizens were opposed to it, because they too were hostile to
the Cubans having control of the island, and if the question
could be narrowed down to Cuban control or annexation to the
United States, they were all annexationists, believing that
they could get a better government and one that would protect,
in a greater measure, life and property under the United States
flag than under the Cuban banner. On the other hand, the
Cubans in arms would not touch it, because they were fighting
for Free Cuba; and the Cuban citizens and sympathizers, or the
non-arm-bearing population, were distinctly opposed to it also;
while those in favour of it seemed to consist of the
Autonomistic Cabinet, General Blanco, his Secretary-General
and Staff, and a few followers elsewhere."
{181}
Fitzhugh Lee,
Cuba and her Struggle for Freedom
(Fortnightly Review, June, 1898).
CUBA: A. D. 1897-1898 (December-March).
Condition of the Reconcentrados.
On the 14th of December, 1897, General Fitzhugh Lee,
Consul-General of the United States at Havana, reported to the
Department of State as follows:
"I have the honor to report that I have received information
that in the Province of Havana reports show that there have
been 101,000 'Reconcentrados,' and that out of that 52,000
have died. Of the said 101,000, 32,000 were children. This
excludes the city of Havana and seven other towns from which
reports have not yet been made up. It is thought that the
total number of 'Reconcentrados' in Havana Province will
amount to 150,000, nearly all women and children, and that the
death rate among their whole number from starvation alone will be
over 50 per cent. For the above number of 'Reconcentrados'
$12,500, Spanish silver, was set aside out of the $100,000
appropriated for the purpose of relieving all the
'Reconcentrados' on the island. Seventy-five thousand of the
150,000 may be still living, so if every dollar appropriated
of the $12,500 reaches them the distribution will average
about 17 cents to a person, which, of course, will be rapidly
exhausted, and, as I can hear of no further succor being
afforded, it is easy to perceive what little practical relief
has taken place in the condition of these poor people."
On the 8th of January, 1898, General Lee made another report
on the same subject as follows:
"I have the honor to state, as a matter of public interest,
that the 'reconcentrado order' of General Weyler, formerly
Governor-General of this island, transformed about 400,000
self-supporting people, principally women and children, into a
multitude to be sustained by the contributions of others or die
of starvation or of fevers resulting from a low physical
condition and being massed in large bodies without change of
clothing and without food. Their houses were burned, their
fields and plant beds destroyed, and their live stock driven
away or killed. I estimate that probably 200,000 of the rural
population in the Provinces of Pinar del Rio, Havana,
Matanzas, and Santa Clara have died of starvation, or from
resultant causes, and the deaths of whole families almost
simultaneously, or within a few days of each other, and of
mothers praying for their children to be relieved of their
horrible sufferings by death, are not the least of the many
pitiable scenes which were ever present. In the Provinces of
Puerto Principe and Santiago de Cuba, where the 'reconcentrado
order' could not be enforced, the great mass of the people are
self-sustaining. A daily average of ten cents' worth of food
to 200,000 people would be an expenditure of $20,000 per day,
and of course the most humane efforts upon the part of our
citizens can not hope to accomplish such a gigantic relief,
and a great portion of these people will have to be abandoned
to their fate."
A little later, Senator Proctor, of Vermont, visited Cuba, for
personal observation of the condition of things in the island,
and, on his return, made a statement of what he had seen and
learned, in a speech to the Senate, which made an impression
on the country much deeper than any previous testimony on the
subject that had reached the public eye or ear. The following
is a part of the account that he gave:
"My observations were confined to the four western provinces,
which constitute about one-half of the island. The two eastern
ones are practically in the hands of the insurgents, except
the few fortified towns. These two large provinces are spoken
of to-day as 'Cuba Libre.' Outside Habana all is changed. It
is not peace nor is it war. It is desolation and distress,
misery and starvation. Every town and village is surrounded by
a 'trocha' (trench), a sort of rifle pit, but constructed on a
plan new to me, the dirt being thrown up on the inside and a
barbed-wire fence on the outer side of the trench. These
trochas have at every corner and at frequent intervals along
the sides what are there called forts, but which are really
small blockhouses, many of them more like large sentry boxes,
loopholed for musketry, and with a guard of from two to ten
soldiers in each.
"The purpose of these trochas is to keep the Reconcentrados in
as well as to keep the insurgents out. From all the
surrounding country the people have been driven in to these
fortified towns and held there to subsist as they can. They
are virtually prison yards, and not unlike one in general
appearance, except that the walls are not so high and strong;
but they suffice, where every point is in range of a soldier's
rifle, to keep in the poor reconcentrado women and children.
Every railroad station is within one of these trochas and has
an armed guard. Every train has an armored freight car,
loopholed for musketry and filled with soldiers, and with, as
I observed usually, and was informed is always the case, a
pilot engine a mile or so in advance. There are frequent
blockhouses inclosed by a trocha and with a guard along the
railroad track. With this exception there is no human life or
habitation between these fortified towns and villages, and
throughout the whole of the four western provinces, except to
a very limited extent among the hills where the Spaniards have
not been able to go and drive the people to the towns and burn
their dwellings. I saw no house or hut in the 400 miles of
railroad rides from Pinar del Rio Province in the west across
the full width of Habana and Matanzas provinces, and to Sagua
La Grande on the north shore, and to Cienfuegos on the south
shore of Santa Clara, except within the Spanish trochas.
"There are no domestic animals or crops on the rich fields and
pastures except such as are under guard in the immediate
vicinity of the towns. In other words, the Spaniards hold in
these four western provinces just what their army sits on.
Every man, woman, and child, and every domestic animal,
wherever their columns have reached, is under guard and within
their so-called fortifications. To describe one place is to
describe all. To repeat, it is neither peace nor war. It is
concentration and desolation. This is the 'pacified' condition
of the four western provinces. West of Habana is mainly the
rich tobacco country; east, so far as I went, a sugar region.
Nearly all the sugar mills are destroyed between Habana and
Sagua. Two or three were standing in the vicinity of Sagua,
and in part running, surrounded, as are the villages, by
trochas and 'forts' or palisades of the royal palm, and fully
guarded. Toward and near Cienfuegos there were more mills
running, but all with the same protection.
{182}
… All the country people in the four western provinces, about
400,000 in number, remaining outside the fortified towns when
Weyler's order was made were driven into these towns, and
these are the Reconcentrados. They were the peasantry, many of
them farmers, some landowners, others renting lands and owning
more or less stock, others working on estates and cultivating
small patches; and even a small patch in that fruitful clime
will support a family. It is but fair to say that the normal
condition of these people was very different from what
prevails in this country. Their standard of comfort and
prosperity was not high, measured by ours. But according to
their standards and requirements their conditions of life were
satisfactory. They lived mostly in cabins made of palms or in
wooden houses. Some of them had houses of stone, the blackened
walls of which are all that remain to show the country was
ever inhabited.
"The first clause of Weyler's order [renewing that of February
16, 1896] reads as follows: 'I Order and Command. First. All
the inhabitants of the country or outside of the line of
fortifications of the town shall, within the period of eight
days, concentrate themselves in the towns occupied by the
troops. Any individual who, after the expiration of this
period, is found in the uninhabited parts will be considered a
rebel and tried as such.' … Many, doubtless, did not learn of
this order. Others failed to grasp its terrible meaning. Its
execution was left largely to the guerrillas to drive in all
that had not obeyed, and I was informed that in many cases the
torch was applied to their homes with no notice, and the
inmates fled with such clothing as they might have on, their
stock and other belongings being appropriated by the
guerrillas. When they reached the towns, they were allowed to
build huts of palm leaves in the suburbs and vacant places
within the trochas, and left to live, if they could.
"Torn from their homes, with foul earth, foul air, foul water,
and foul food or none, what wonder that one-half have died and
that one-quarter of the living are so diseased that they
cannot be saved? … Deaths in the streets have not been
uncommon. I was told by one of our consuls that they have been
found dead about the markets in the morning, where they had
crawled, hoping to get some stray bits of food from the early
hucksters, and that there had been cases where they had
dropped dead inside the market surrounded by food. These
people were independent and self-supporting before Weyler's
order. … I went to Cuba with a strong conviction that the
picture had been overdrawn; that a few cases of starvation and
suffering had inspired and stimulated the press
correspondents, and that they had given free play to a strong,
natural, and highly cultivated imagination. … I could not
believe that, out of a population of 1,600,000, 200,000 had
died within these Spanish forts, practically prison walls,
within a few months past from actual starvation and diseases
caused by insufficient and improper food. My inquiries were
entirely outside of sensational sources. They were made of our
medical officers, of our consuls, of city alcaldes (mayors),
of relief committees, of leading merchants and bankers,
physicians, and lawyers. Several of my informants were Spanish
born, but every time the answer was that the case had not been
overstated. What I saw I cannot tell so that others can see it.
It must be seen with one's own eyes to be realized. …
"The dividing lines between parties are the most straight and
clear cut that have ever come to my knowledge. The division in
our war was by no means so clearly defined. It is Cuban
against Spaniard. It is practically the entire Cuban
population on one side and the Spanish army and Spanish
citizens on the other. I do not count the autonomists in this
division, as they are so far too inconsiderable in numbers to
be worth counting. General Blanco filled the civil offices
with men who had been autonomists and were still classed as
such. But the march of events had satisfied most of them that
the chance for autonomy came too late. … There is no doubt
that General Blanco is acting in entire good faith; that he
desires to give the Cubans a fair measure of autonomy, as
Campos did at the close of the ten-year war. He has, of
course, a few personal followers, but the army and the Spanish
citizens do not want genuine autonomy, for that means
government by the Cuban people. And it is not strange that the
Cubans say it comes too late."
Congressional Record,
March 17, 1898.
CUBA: A. D. 1898 (February).
Destruction of the United States Battleship Maine in Havana harbor.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).
CUBA: A. D. 1898 (March-April).
Discussion of Cuban affairs between Spain and the United States.
Message of the President to Congress asking for authority
to intervene.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (MARCH-APRIL).
CUBA: A. D. 1898 (April).
Demand of the United States Government for the withdrawal of
Spain from the island, and its result in a state of war.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL).
CUBA: A. D. 1898 (April-December).
Operations of war between the United States and Spain.
Suspension of hostilities.
Negotiation of treaty of peace.
Relinquishment of sovereignty by Spain.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (APRIL) to 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).
CUBA: A. D. 1898 (December).
Removal of the remains of Columbus to Spain.
The remains of Columbus were taken from the Cathedral in
Havana, on the 12th of December, for transfer to the cathedral
at Seville, in Spain.
CUBA: A. D. 1898-1899 (December-October).
Organization of military government under
United States authority.
Report of the military governor, on conditions prevailing,
measures adopted, and results obtained.
On the 13th of December, 1898, the following General Order was
issued by the Secretary of War:
"By direction of the President, a division to be known as the
Division of Cuba, consisting of the geographical departments
and provinces of the island of Cuba, with headquarters in the
city of Habana, is hereby created, under command of Major
General John R. Brooke, U. S. A., who, in addition to command
of the troops in the division, will exercise the authority of
military governor of the island. Major General Fitzhugh Lee,
U. S. V., commanding the Seventh Army Corps, is assigned to
the immediate command of all the troops in the province of
Habana. Major General William Ludlow, U. S. V., is designated
as the military governor of the city of Habana, and will
report direct to the division commander. He is charged with
all that relates to collection and disbursement of revenues of
the port and city, and its police, sanitation, and general
government, under such regulations as may be prescribed by the
President."
{183}
General Brooke arrived at Havana on the 28th of December and
assumed the command of the troops and the military
governorship of the island. In his subsequent report (October
1, 1899) of conditions then existing, proceedings taken,
events occurring and results attained, he wrote: "It was found
that considerable confusion incident to the withdrawal of the
Spanish troops and replacing them with the United States
troops existed, but no untoward event occurred, however, as
every precaution was taken to maintain order. The gradual
withdrawal of the Spanish troops and the advance of the United
States troops continued, until the morning of the 1st of
January, 1899, found but few Spanish troops in the city, and
these went on board transports, which movement was completed
about 12.30 p. m. Outside of the principal towns the retiring
Spanish army was closely followed by the Cuban army, which
took charge of the towns and country, maintaining order, and,
generally, performing police duty. This state of affairs
continued, substantially, until the final disbandment of that
army. The disbandment of the Cuban army was commenced in
November, 1898, but only such as could procure work, or were
anxious to resume their former vocations, seem to have taken
advantage of the 'licencia' (furlough) which was given to
many. A large part of the army was held together on various
pretexts until the distribution of the $3,000,000 [allotted
for distribution to the Cuban army, to enable the soldiers to
return to their homes], and the giving up of their arms
effected a final disbandment. During the time the army was
held together as an organized body the police duties performed
seemed to be well done and order was preserved. The spectacle
of an army of, according to the rolls, 48,000 men being
peacefully dispersed among the people has for its prototype
the disappearance of the great volunteer army of the United
States in 1865. In neither case has there been any great
disturbance, as was feared in both cases, and particularly so
as regards the Cuban army. The small attempts at brigandage
were quickly suppressed, the lawbreakers placed in prison, and
the courts are now hearing their cases.
"On January 1, 1899, a division of the Seventh Army Corps,
under the command of General Fitzhugh Lee, General Keifer's
division, was brought to the city, and, with the regiments on
duty in Habana under the command of General William Ludlow,
were so placed as to insure good order during the ceremonies
of the relinquishment of sovereignty by Spain, which occurred
in the Governor-General's palace at 12 o'clock noon, where
were assembled the Captain-General and his staff, the United
States commission with its officers, the American military
governor with his staff, Major General Fitzhugh Lee, Major
General William Ludlow, Major General J. Warren Keifer, and
their staffs, and nine Cuban generals as his guests. This
ceremony was simple in its character, though very impressive,
consisting of a formal speech by the Spanish Governor-General,
which was replied to by General Wade, the chairman of the
United States evacuation commission, who, in concluding his
remarks, turned to the military governor and transferred the
island of Cuba to him, who, thereupon, entered upon the full
exercise of his duty as the military governor of Cuba. Of
course, the gathering into his hands of all the duties of his
office took time. The desire of a large body of the Cuban army
to take part on the 1st of January in the ceremonies of the
relinquishment of sovereignty by Spain was reported verbally,
by General Ludlow, and he was informed that the danger to life
and property was too great, and that the celebration must be
postponed to a time when the excitement had cooled off and the
passions of the people could be under control. This
celebration afterwards took place on the arrival in the city
of General Maximo Gomez, Commander in Chief of the Cuban
forces, on February 24. General Ludlow was directed to meet
General Gomez at the city limits and show him every courtesy
possible. The Quinta de los Molinos, the summer residence of
the Governor-General, was placed at his disposal, and for
several months he, with his staff and escort, occupied the
houses and grounds as the guests of this Government. The civil
bureaus of the Governor-Generalcy were taken over by officers
of the military governor's staff, and held by them until the
proper civil officials could be selected and appointed. …
"In reaching this stage on the highway of progress toward the
establishment of government through civil channels, many
obstacles have been overcome, the most serious being the very
natural distrust of the people, which was born and nurtured
under the system of the preceding government, and was
particularly the effect of the wars which these people waged
in their effort to improve their condition. It is believed
that this distrust has given way to confidence in the minds of
a majority of the people, and that they are generally
beginning to see that the government, as administered by the
United States, is for them and for their benefit. It is proper
at this time to speak of the condition of the people and the
country as it existed at the time of the relinquishment of
sovereignty by Spain. A large number of the people were found
to be actually starving. Efforts were immediately made to
supply food, which the War Department sent, all told,
5,493,500 Cuban rations, in addition to the 1,000,000 rations
distributed by Mr. Gould, and these were sent into the country
and distributed under the direction of the commanding generals
of departments, through such agencies as they established;
while in the cities the distribution was generally conducted
by an officer of the Army. The result of this action was the
immediate lowering of the death rate, the restoration to
health of the sick, and a general change for the better was
soon apparent. Medicines were also supplied for the sick with
most beneficial results. Employment was given to those who
could work, and they were paid weekly, so that they might have
money to buy food. In fact, no effort was spared to relieve the
terrible condition in which so many thousand people were
found. …
{184}
"Turning to the present conditions, we have in view such a
change that the progress seems incredible. A great part of the
improvement dates from the month of May, when the muster out
of the Cuban army removed a great source of distrust. The
extent to which have been carried the cultivation of the
fields, the reconstruction of homes, the re-establishment of
order and public service, especially in the matter of hygiene
in the towns, is something wonderful. … The question of
finance, as relates to the restoration of crippled and
destroyed agricultural industries, is one which has occupied a
great deal of attention on the part of this government. It is
evident that assistance in the way of repairing the roads and
bridges, as well as to municipalities in their present
impoverished conditions, is a necessity, and the most pressing
wants in this direction have been met by granting money from
the revenues of the island. There is every reason to hope that
the municipal revenues will meet all requirements as soon as
agriculture is again on its feet, and there will, doubtless,
be some changes in the present tax law made. In this
connection, it is well to know that planters and small farmers
in the tobacco growing districts are rapidly recovering from
their forlorn condition. The quick growing crop and the
remunerative prices have enabled them to restore, in a
measure, the lost cattle, mules, and implements necessary to
the farmers. There is, also, a desire to use labor-saving
devices, which are now being slowly introduced. …
"The quiet severance of church and state has been effected by
the fact of the Government of the United States being in
control. Certain changes have already been made in the laws,
and others will follow in due course; this without violating
the legal rights of the Roman Catholic Church, which was the
only religious denomination tolerated in the island, except a
small body of Baptists. The important subject of schools is
now approaching a solution. The present system will be
improved upon, but it will require time to develop fully a
good school system throughout the island. There are no
school-houses, and under present conditions there can be none
built for some time to come. It is hoped that a manual
training school will be opened as soon as certain repairs and
changes can be made in the Spanish barracks at Santiago de las
Vegas, a short distance south of Habana, in which about 600 of
both sexes can receive instruction at one time. This form of
instruction is more important, under the conditions found to
exist, than the ordinary instruction given in the other
schools. As conditions improve, an opportunity can be given to
increase the number of these schools, and by their means
introduce modern methods more rapidly than by other systems."
General John R. Brooke,
Civil Report, October 1, 1899
(Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,
volume 2, pages 1266-1276).
General Fitzhugh Lee reported, September 19, 1899, on the
state of things in the province of Havana, as follows: "I
assumed command of the department of the province of Habana
January 1, 1899, and of the province of Pinar del Rio April
19, 1899. The deplorable condition of the island after it was
evacuated by the Spanish is well known. Business of all sorts
was suspended. Agricultural operations had ceased; large sugar
estates, with their enormous and expensive machinery, were
destroyed; houses burned: stock driven off for consumption by
the Spanish troops, or killed. There was scarcely an ox left
to pull a plow, had there been a plow left. Not a pig had been
left in the pen, nor a hen to lay an egg for the poor,
destitute people who still held on to life, most of them sick,
weary, and weak. Miles and miles of country uninhabited either
by the human race or domestic animals was visible to the eye
on every side. The great fertile island of Cuba in some places
resembled an ash pile; in others, the dreary desert. The
'reconcentrado' order of the former Captain-General Weyler, it
will be remembered, drove from their houses and lands all the
old men, women, and children who had remained at their homes
because they were not physically able to bear the burdens of
war. The wheels of the former government had ceased to
revolve. Chaos, confusion, doubt, and uncertainty filled with
apprehension the minds of the Cubans, who, for the first time,
had been relieved of the cruel care of those who for centuries
controlled their country and their destiny. … The railroads on
the island were in bad order, having been used to the extent
of their endurance conveying Spanish troops and Spanish
supplies over them, while the great calzadas or turnpikes were
filled with holes, for the war prevented repairs to either
railroads or roads. Municipalities were all greatly in debt.
None of the civil officers had been paid, and school-teachers
had large amounts of back salary due. Judicial officers were
discharging their duties as far as they could—for there was
really no law in the island except the mandate of the
Captain-General—without pay, and many months of back pay was
due to the professors in the colleges of the largest cities.
The whole framework of the government had to be rebuilt, and
its machinery carefully and gradually reconstructed. Important
government problems had to be promptly solved, which involved
social, economic, commercial, agricultural, public
instruction, support of eleemosynary institutions of all
kinds, means of communications, reorganization of
municipalities, with the necessary town and city police,
including a mounted force to patrol the adjoining rural
districts within the limits, and subject to the authorities of
the mayors and council of their respective municipalities; the
appointment of new alcaldes and other officers to replace
those left in authority by the Spanish Government, and who
would be more in accord with the inhabitants whose local
affairs they directed. Many trying and troublesome questions
arose, and many difficulties environed on either side of the
situation.
"Of the Cuban rural population, less than 20 per cent of them
were able to read and write, resembling children awaking the
first time to the realities of life. They were in the main
obedient, docile, quiet, and inoffensive, and anxious to adapt
themselves as soon as possible to the new conditions which
confronted them. The Cuban soldiers, black and white, who had
been in the fields and woods for four years defying the
Spanish banner, still kept their guns, and were massing around
the cities and towns, producing more or less unrest in the
public mind with the fear that many of them, unaccustomed to
work so long, would be transformed into brigands, and not
become peaceful, law-abiding citizens.
{185}
In eight months wonderful progress has been made. The arms of
the Cuban soldiers have been stacked, and they have quietly
resumed peaceful vocations. Brigandage, which partially
flourished for a time, has been stamped out, tillage
everywhere has greatly increased, many houses rebuilt, many
huts constructed, fences are being built, and more and more
farming lands are gradually being taken up, and municipalities
reorganized with new officers representing the wishes of the
majority of the inhabitants. Municipal police have been
appointed who are uniformed and under the charge of, in most
cases, efficient officers."
General Fitzhugh Lee,
Report, September 19, 1899.
General Leonard Wood, commanding in the province of Santiago,
reported at the same time as follows: "On the assumption of
control by the American Government, July 17, 1899, of that
portion of the province of Santiago included in the
surrendered territory, industries were practically at a
standstill. In the rural districts all industries were at an
end. The estates, almost without exception, have been
destroyed, and no work is being done. … In the towns the
effect of reconcentration was shown by large crowds of women
and children and old men who were practically starving. They
were thin, pale, and barely able to drag themselves about. The
merchants and a few planters were the only prosperous people
in the province. … A feeling of bitter hostility existed
between the Cubans and Spaniards, and also a very ugly feeling
between the Cubans who had acted in harmony with the
autonomists in the latter days of the Spanish occupation and
those who had been in the Cuban army. At first there was a
good deal of talk of a threatening character in regard to what
the Cubans would do to the Spaniards, now that they were in a
position to avenge themselves for some of the many injuries
received in the past. This, however, soon passed over, and
much more friendly and sensible ideas prevailed. There were no
schools and no material for establishing them. All officers of
the civil government had resigned and left their posts, with
the exception of one judge of the first instance and several
municipal judges and certain police officers. The prisons were
full of prisoners, both Spanish and Cuban, many of them being
Spanish military and political prisoners. The administration
of justice was at a standstill. The towns all presented an
appearance of greatest neglect, and showed everywhere entire
disregard of every sanitary law. The amount of clothing in the
possession of the people was very limited, and in many of the
interior villages women were compelled to keep out of sight
when strangers appeared, as they had only skirts and waists
made of bagging and other coarse material. Many of the
children were absolutely without clothing. Evidences of great
suffering were found on every hand. A very large proportion of
the population was sick in the country districts from malaria
and in the seaboard towns from lack of food and water. …
"The first two and a half months after the surrender were
devoted almost entirely to the distribution of food and to
supplying hospitals and charities with such limited quantities
of necessary material as we were able to obtain. Commanding
officers in all parts of the island were busily engaged in
cleaning up towns and carrying out all possible sanitary and
administrative reforms. Schools were established, some 60 in
the city of Santiago and over 200 in the province as a whole.
Affairs have continued to improve slowly but surely, until at
the present time we find the towns, generally speaking, clean,
the death rate lower than the people have known before, some
public improvements under way in all the large towns, the
amount of work done being limited only by the amount of money
received. … Industries of all kinds are springing up. New
sugar plantations are being projected; hospitals and
charitable institutions are being regularly supplied, and all
are fairly well equipped with necessary articles. The death
rate among the native population is very much lower than in
former years. The people in the towns are quiet and orderly,
with the exception of a few editorial writers, who manage to
keep up a certain small amount of excitement, just enough to
give the papers in question a fair sale. The people are all
anxious to work. The present currency is American currency. A
condition of good order exists in the rural districts. The
small planters are all out on their farms and a condition of
security and good order prevails. The issue of rations has
been practically stopped and we have few or almost no
applications for food."
General Leonard Wood;
Report, September 20, 1899.
CUBA: A. D. 1899 (October).
Census of the Island.
Statistics of population, nativity, illiteracy, etc.
"The total population of Cuba on October 16, 1899, determined
by the census taken [under the direction of the War Department
of the United States] as of that date, was 1,572,797. This was
distributed as follows among the six provinces:
Habana, 424,804;
Matanzas, 202,444;
Pinar del Rio, 173,064;
Puerto Principe, 88,234;
Santa Clara, 356,536;
Santiago, 327,715.
The latest census taken under Spanish authority was in 1887.
The total population as returned by that census was 1,631,687,
and the population by provinces was as follows:
Habana, 451,928;
Matanzas, 259,578;
Pinar del Rio, 225,891;
Puerto Principe, 67,789;
Santa Clara, 354,122;
Santiago, 272,379.
Whether that census was correct may be a matter of discussion,
but if incorrect, the number of inhabitants was certainly not
overstated. Comparing the total population at these two
censuses, it is seen, that the loss in the 12 years amounted
to 58,890, or 3.6 per cent of the population in 1887. This
loss is attributable to the recent civil war and the
reconcentration policy accompanying it, but the figures
express only a part of the loss from this cause. Judging from
the earlier history of the island and the excess of births
over deaths, as shown by the registration records, however
imperfect they may be, the population probably increased from
1887 up to the beginning of the war and at the latter epoch
reached a total of little less than 1,800,000. It is probable,
therefore, that the direct and indirect losses by the war and
the reconcentration policy, including a decrease of births and
of immigration and an increase of deaths and of emigration
reached a total of approximately 200,000. …
"The area of Cuba is approximately 44,000 square miles, and
the average number of inhabitants per square mile 35.7, about
the same as the State of Iowa. … Habana, with the densest
population, is as thickly populated as the State of
Connecticut, and Puerto Principe, the most sparsely populated,
is in this respect comparable with the State of Texas. …
{186}
"The total number of males of voting age in Cuba was 417,993,
or 26 per cent of the total population. This is a little less
than the proportion, in 1890, in the United States, where it
was 27 per cent. … Classifying the potential voters of Cuba by
birthplace and race, it is seen that 44.9 per cent were
whites, born in Cuba; that 30.5 per cent were colored, and as
nearly all the colored were born in the island it is seen that
fully seven-tenths of the potential voters of Cuba were native
born, 23 per cent were born in Spain, and 1.6 per cent in
other countries. Classifying the whole number of potential
voters by citizenship it is seen that 70 per cent were Cuban
citizens, 2 per cent were Spanish citizens, 18 per cent were
holding their citizenship in suspense, and 10 per cent were
citizens of other countries, or their citizenship was unknown.
…
"The Cuban citizens, numbering 290,905, were composed almost
entirely of persons born in Cuba, there being among them but
220 white persons, and probably not more colored, of alien
birth. The white Cuban citizens, who were natives of the
island, numbered 184,471, and of these 94,301, or 51 per cent,
were unable to read. The colored Cuban citizens numbered
106,214, of which not less than 78,279, or 74 per cent, were
unable to read. The people of Cuba who claimed Spanish
citizenship numbered 9,500, and of these nearly all were born
in Spain, there being but 159 born elsewhere. Those whose
citizenship was in suspense numbered 76,669. These also were
nearly all of Spanish birth, the number born elsewhere being
but 1,420. The number of persons of other or unknown
citizenship was 40,919. Of these fully one-half were colored,
most of them being Chinese, and much the larger proportion of
the remaining half were of Spanish birth.
"Summing up the situation, it appears that the total number of
males of voting age who could read was 200,631, a little less
than half the total number of males of voting age. Of these
22,629 were of Spanish or other foreign citizenship or unknown
citizenship. The number whose citizenship was in suspense was
59,724, and the number of Cuban citizens able to read was
118,278, or 59 per cent of all Cuban citizens of voting age."
Census of Cuba,
Bulletins Numbers I and III.
CUBA: A. D. 1899 (December).
Appointment of General Leonard Wood to the
military command and Governorship.
On the 6th of December General Leonard Wood was commissioned
major-general of volunteers, and was assigned to command of
the Division of Cuba, relieving General Brooke as division
commander and military governor of Cuba. On the 30th, Governor
Wood announced the appointment of the following Cuban
ministers to form his cabinet:
Secretary of State and Government, Diego Tamayo;
Secretary of Justice, Luis Estevoz;
Secretary of Education, Juan Bautista Hernandez;
Secretary of Finance, Enrique Varona;
Secretary of Public Works, Jose Ramon Villalon;
Secretary of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce, Rius Rivera.
CUBA: A. D. 1900.
Organization of a school system.
Teachers at Harvard Summer School.
"Especial attention has been given by the military government
to the development of primary education. The enrollment of the
public schools of Cuba immediately before the last war shows
36,306 scholars, but an examination of the reports containing
these figures indicates that probably less than half the names
enrolled represented actual attendance. There were practically
no separate school buildings, but the scholars were collected
in the residences of the teachers. There were few books, and
practically no maps, blackboards, desks or other school
apparatus. … Even these poor apologies for public schools
were, to a great extent, broken up by the war, and in
December, 1899, the entire public-school enrollment of the
island numbered 21,435. The following table shows the advance
in school facilities during the half year ending June 30 last:
School rooms. Enrollment.
January, 1900 635 37,995
February, 1900 1,338 69,476
March, 1900 3,126 127,881
April, 1900 3,126 127,426
May, 1900 3,313 139,616
June, 1900 3,500 143,120
"This great development was accomplished under the Cuban
secretary of public instruction and the Cuban commissioner of
public schools, with the able and experienced assistance of
Mr. Alexis E. Frye as superintendent. It is governed by a
school law modeled largely upon the law of Ohio. … The schools
are subject to constant and effective inspection and the
attendance is practically identical with the enrollment.
"The schools are separated from the residences of the
teachers, and each schoolroom has its separate teacher. The
courses and methods of instruction are those most approved in
this country. The text-books are translations into Spanish of
American text-books. For the supply of material $150,000 were,
in the first instance, appropriated from the insular treasury,
and afterwards, upon a single order, 100,000 full sets of
desks, text-books, scholars' supplies, etc., were purchased
upon public advertisement in this country at an expense of
about three-quarters of a million dollars. All over the island
the old Spanish barracks, and barracks occupied by the
American troops which have been withdrawn, are being turned
into schoolrooms after thorough renovation. The pressure for
education is earnest and universal. The appropriations of this
year from the insular treasury for that purpose will amount to
about four and a half million dollars; but great as the
development has been it will be impossible, with the resources
of the island for a long time yet to come, to fully meet the
demand for the learning so long withheld. The provincial
institutions and high schools and the University of Habana
have been reorganized.
"During the past summer, through the generosity of Harvard
University and its friends, who raised a fund of $70,000 for
that purpose, 1,281 Cuban teachers were enabled to attend a
summer school of instruction at Cambridge, designed to fit
them for their duties. They were drawn from every municipality
and almost every town in the island. They were collected from
the different ports of the island by five United States
transports, which carried them to Boston, and, at the
expiration of their visit, took them to New York and thence to
Habana and to their homes. They were lodged and boarded in and
about the University at Cambridge, and visited the libraries
and museums and the educational institutions and manufacturing
establishments in the neighborhood of Boston. Through the
energy of Mr. Frye money was raised to enable them to visit
New York and Washington. They were returned to their homes
without a single accident or loss, full of new ideas and of
zeal for the educational work in which they had found so much
sympathy and encouragement."
United States, Secretary of War, Annual Report,
November 30, 1900, pages. 32-33.
{187}
CUBA: A. D. 1900 (June-November).
Municipal elections and election
of a Constitutional Convention.
Meeting of the Convention.
Statement of the Military Governor.
"The census having been completed and the period given for
Spanish residents to make their election as to citizenship
having expired on the 11th of April, 1900, steps were
immediately taken for the election of municipal governments by
the people. In view of the fact that 66 per cent of the people
could not read and write, it was not deemed advisable that
absolutely unrestricted suffrage should be established, and,
after very full conference with leading Cubans, including all
the heads of the great departments of state, a general
agreement was reached upon a basis of suffrage, which provided
that every native male Cuban or Spaniard who had elected to
take Cuban citizenship, of full age, might vote if he either
could read and write, or owned real estate or personal
property to the value of $250, or had served in and been
honorably discharged from the Cuban army; thus according a
voice in the government of the country to everyone who had the
intelligence to acquire the rudiments of learning, the thrift
to accumulate property, or the patriotism to fight for his
country. On the 18th of April an election law, which aims to
apply the best examples of our American election statutes to
the existing conditions of Cuba, was promulgated for the
guidance of the proposed election. On the 16th of June an
election was held throughout the island in which the people of
Cuba in all the municipalities, which include the entire
island, elected all their municipal officers. The boards of
registration and election were composed of Cubans selected by
the Cubans themselves. No United States soldier or officer was
present at or in the neighborhood of any polling place. There
was no disturbance. After the newly elected municipal officers
had been installed and commenced the performance of their
duties an order was made enlarging the powers of the municipal
governments and putting into their hands as much of the
government of the people as was practicable.
"As soon as the new municipal governments were fairly
established the following call for a constitutional convention
was issued:
'Habana, July 25, 1900.
The military governor of Cuba directs the publication of the
following instructions:
Whereas the Congress of the United States by its joint
resolution of April 20, 1898, declared That the people of the
island of Cuba are, and of right ought to be, free and
independent; That the United States hereby disclaims any
disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty,
jurisdiction, or control over said island except for the
pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, when that
is accomplished, to leave the government and control of the
island to its people; And whereas the people of Cuba have
established municipal governments, deriving their authority
from the suffrages of the people given under just and equal
laws, and are now ready, in like manner, to proceed to the
establishment of a general government which shall assume and
exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, and control over the
island: Therefore
"'It is ordered,
That a general election be held in the island of Cuba on the
third Saturday of September, in the year nineteen hundred, to
elect delegates to a convention to meet in the city of Habana,
at twelve o'clock noon on the first Monday of November, in the
year nineteen hundred, to frame and adopt a constitution for
the people of Cuba, and, as a part thereof, to provide for and
agree with the Government of the United States upon the
relations to exist between that Government and the Government
of Cuba, and to provide for the election by the people of
officers under such constitution and the transfer of
government to the officers so elected.
"'The election will be held in the several voting precincts of
the island under and pursuant to the provisions of the
electoral law of April 18, 1900, and the amendments thereof.
The people of the several provinces will elect delegates in
number proportionate to their populations as determined by the
census, viz: The people of the province of Pinar del Rio will
elect three (3) delegates. The people of the province of
Habana will elect eight (8) delegates. The people of the
province of Matanzas will elect four (4) delegates. The people
of the province of Santa Clara will elect seven (7) delegates.
The people of the province of Puerto Principe will elect two
(2) delegates. The people of the province of Santiago de Cuba
will elect seven (7) delegates.'
"Under this call a second election was held on the 15th of
September, under the same law, with some slight amendments,
and under the same conditions as the municipal elections. The
election was wholly under the charge of Cubans, and without
any participation or interference whatever by officers or
troops of the United States. The thirty-one members of the
constitutional convention were elected, and they convened at
Habana at the appointed time. The sessions of the convention
were opened in the city of Habana on the 5th of November by
the military governor, with the following statement: 'To the
delegates of the Constitutional Convention of Cuba. Gentlemen:
As military governor of the island, representing the President
of the United States, I call this convention to order. It will
be your duty, first, to frame and adopt a constitution for
Cuba, and, when that has been done, to formulate what, in your
opinion, ought to be the relations between Cuba and the United
States. The constitution must be adequate to secure a stable,
orderly, and free government.
"'When you have formulated the relations which, in your
opinion, ought to exist between Cuba and the United States,
the Government of the United States will doubtless take such
action on its part as shall lead to a final and authoritative
agreement between the people of the two countries for the
promotion of their common interests.
{188}
"'All friends of Cuba will follow your deliberations with the
deepest interest, earnestly desiring that you shall reach just
conclusions, and that, by the dignity, individual self-restraint,
and wise conservatism which shall characterize your
proceedings, the capacity of the Cuban people for
representative government may be signally illustrated. The
fundamental distinction between true representative government
and dictatorship is that in the former every representative of
the people, in whatever office, confines himself strictly
within the limits of his defined powers. Without such
restraint there can be no free constitutional government.
Under the order pursuant to which you have been elected and
convened you have no duty and no authority to take part in the
present government of the island. Your powers are strictly
limited by the terms of that order.'"
United States, Secretary of War,
Annual Report, November 30, 1900, pages 24-32.
CUBA: A. D. 1900 (December).
Measures for the destruction of the mosquito,
as a carrier of yellow fever.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: MEDICAL AND SURGICAL.
CUBA: A. D. 1900-1901.
Frauds by American officials in the Havana post office.
Question cf the extradition of C. F. W. Neely.
Decision of the Supreme Court of the United States as to the
independent status of Cuba in its relations
to the United States.
In the spring of 1900 a discovery was made of extensive frauds
committed by American officials who had been placed, by U. S.
military authority, in the post office at Havana. One of the
persons accused, named C. F. W. Neely, having returned to the
United States, his extradition, for trial in Cuba, was
demanded, and a question thereon arose as to the status of the
island of Cuba in its relations to the United States. The case
(Neely vs. Henkel) was taken on appeal to the Supreme Court of
the United States, and Neely was subjected to extradition by the
decision of that tribunal, rendered in January, 1901. The
status of Cuba, as an independent foreign territory, was thus
defined in the opinion of the Court:
"The legislative and executive branches of the Government, by
the joint resolution of April 20, 1898, expressly disclaimed
any purpose to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control
over Cuba, 'except for the pacification thereof,' and asserted
the determination of the United States, that object being
accomplished, to leave the government and control of Cuba to
its own people. All that has been done in relation to Cuba has
had that end in view, and so far as the court is informed by the
public history of the relations of this country with that
island, nothing has been done inconsistent with the declared
object of the war with Spain. Cuba is none the less foreign
territory, within the meaning of the act of Congress, because
it is under a military governor appointed by and representing
the President in the work of assisting the inhabitants of that
island to establish a government of their own, under which, as
a free and independent people, they may control their own
affairs without interference by other nations. The occupancy
of the island by troops of the United States was the necessary
result of the war. That result could not have been avoided by
the United States consistently with the principles of
international law or with its obligations to the people of
Cuba. It is true that as between Spain and the United
States—indeed, as between the United States and all foreign
nations—Cuba, upon the cessation of hostilities with Spain and
after the treaty of Paris, was to be treated as if it were
conquered territory. But—as between the United States and
Cuba, that island is territory held in trust for the
inhabitants of Cuba, to whom it rightfully belongs and to
whose exclusive control it will be surrendered when a stable
government shall have been established by their voluntary
action."
CUBA: A. D. 1901 (January).
Draft of Constitution reported to the Convention
by its Central Committee.
Public sessions of the Constitutional Convention were not
opened until the middle of January, 1901, when the draft of a
Constitution was reported by its Central Committee, and the
text given to the Press. By subsequent action of the
Convention, various amendments were made, and the instrument,
at this writing (early in April), still awaits finish and
adoption. The amendments have been reported imperfectly and
the text of the Constitution, even in its present state,
cannot be authentically given. It is probable, however, that
the structure of government provided for in the draft reported
to the Convention stands now and will remain substantially
unchanged. An outline of its features is the most that we will
venture to give in this place.
The preamble is in these words:
"We, the delegates of the Cuban people, having met in assembly
for the purpose of agreeing upon the adoption of a fundamental
law, which, at the same time that it provides for the
constitution into a sovereign and independent nation of the
people of Cuba, establishes a solid and permanent form of
government, capable of complying with its international
obligations, insuring domestic tranquillity, establishing
justice, promoting the general welfare, and securing the
blessings of liberty to the inhabitants, we do agree upon and
adopt the following constitution, in pursuance of the said
purpose, invoking the protection of the Almighty, and prompted
by the dictates of our conscience."
The form of government is declared to be republican. The
guarantees of the Constitution, defined with precision and at
length, include "equal rights under the law," protection from
arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, freedom of thought, speech,
writing and publication, freedom of worship, freedom of
association and meeting, freedom of teaching, freedom of
travel, inviolability of private dwellings and private papers,
"except by order of a competent authority and with the
formalities prescribed by the laws."
Legislative powers are to be exercised by two elective bodies,
to be named House of Representatives and Senate, and
conjointly known as Congress. The Senate to be composed of six
senators elected from each of the six departments of the
republic; the boundaries and names of the departments to be
those of the present provinces "as long as not modified by the
laws."
{189}
The terms of the senators to be six years, one third of their
number to be elected every two years. The House of
Representatives to be composed of "one representative for
every 25,000 inhabitants or fraction of more than 12,000,
elected for a period of four years, by direct vote, and in the
manner prescribed by law "; one half to be elected every two
years. Representatives and Senators not to be held responsible
for opinions expressed in the exercise of their duties, and not
to be arrested nor tried without the consent of the body to
which they belong, "except in case of being discovered in the
act of committing some crime." Congress to meet in regular
session every year on the first Monday in November, and to
remain in session for at least ninety consecutive days,
excepting holidays and Sundays. Its powers to be substantially
the same as those exercised by the Congress of the United
States.
The executive power to be exercised by the President of the
republic, who "shall be elected by direct votes, and an
absolute majority thereof, cast on one single day, in
accordance with the provisions of the law." The term of the
President to be four years, and none to be elected for three
consecutive terms. A Vice-President to be elected "in the same
manner as the President, conjointly with the latter and for a
like term."
The judicial power to be "exercised by the Supreme Court of
Justice and such other courts as may be established by law."
The Supreme Court, like that of the United States, "to decide
as to the constitutionality of legislative acts that may have
been objected to as unconstitutional," and to have an
appellant jurisdiction corresponding to that of the Supreme
Court of the United States.
Over each of the six departments or provinces it is provided
that there shall be a governor, "elected by a direct vote for
a period of three years," and a Departmental Assembly, "to
consist of not less than eight or more than twenty, elected by
direct vote for a like period of three years." The
Departmental Assemblies to "have the right of independent
action in all things not antagonistic to the constitution, to
the general laws nor to international treaties, nor to that
which pertains to the inherent rights of the municipalities,
which may concern the department, such as the establishment
and maintenance of institutions of public education, public
charities, public departmental roads, means of communication
by water or sea, the preparation of their budgets, and the
appointment and removal of their employés."
The "municipal terminos" are to be governed by
"Ayuntamientos," composed of Councilmen elected by a direct
vote in the manner prescribed by law, and by a Mayor, elected
in like manner. The Ayuntamientos to be self-governing, free
to "take action on all matters that solely and exclusively
concern their municipal termino, such as appointment and
removal of employés, preparation of their budgets, freely
establishing the means of income to meet them without any
other limitation than that of making them compatible with the
general system of taxation of the republic."
The provision for amendment of the Constitution is as follows:
"The constitution cannot be changed in whole or part except by
two-thirds vote of both legislative bodies. Six months after
deciding on the reform, a Constitutional Assembly shall be
elected, which shall confine itself to the approval or
disapproval of the reform voted by the legislative bodies.
These will continue in their functions independently of the
Constitutional Assembly. The members in this Assembly shall be
equal to the number of the members in the two legislative
bodies together."
CUBA: A. D. 1901 (February-March).
Conditions on which the government of the island will
be yielded to its people prescribed by the Congress
of the United States.
In the call for a Constitutional Convention issued by the
military governor on the 25th of July, 1900 (see above), it
was set forth that the duty of the Convention would be "to
frame and adopt a constitution for the people of Cuba, and, as
a part thereof, to provide for and agree with the government
of the United States upon the relations to exist between that
government and the government of Cuba." This intimated an
intention on the part of the government of the United States
to attach conditions to its recognition of the independent
government for which the Convention was expected to provide.
The intimation was conveyed still more plainly to the
Constitutional Convention by Military Governor Wood, at the
opening of its sessions, when he said: "When you have
formulated the relations which, in your opinion, ought to
exist between Cuba and the United States, the government of
the United States will doubtless take such action on its part
as shall lead to a final and authoritative agreement between
the two countries for the promotion of their common
interests." The Convention, however, gave no sign of a
disposition to act as desired by the government of the United
States, and seemed likely to finish its work, either without
touching the subject of relations between the Cuban and
American Republics, or else offering proposals that would not
meet the wishes of the latter. Those wishes were made known to
the Convention in flat terms, at length, by the military
governor, and its prompt action was urged, in order that the
judgment of the Congress of the United States might be
pronounced on what it did. But the day on which the session of
Congress would expire drew near, and still nothing came from
the Cubans, who seem to have understood that they were
exempted from such dictation by the resolution which Congress
adopted on the 18th of April, 1898, when it took up the Cuban
cause [see (in this volume)) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D.
1998 (APRIL)], declaring that "the United States hereby
disclaims any disposition or intention to exercise
sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island [of
Cuba], except for the pacification thereof, and asserts its
determination when that is accomplished to leave the
government and control of the island to its people."
Unwilling to be left to deal, alone, with the question thus
arising between the Cubans and their liberators, President
McKinley caused it to be understood that he should call an
extra session of Congress, if no Congressional expression on
the subject of Cuban relations was found practicable before
the 4th of March. This stimulated action in the expiring
Congress, and the Army Appropriation Bill, then pending in the
Senate, was made the vehicle of legislation on the subject, by
the hasty insertion therein of the following amendment,
offered by Senator Platt, of Connecticut:
{190}
"In fulfillment of the declaration contained in the joint
resolution approved April 20, 1898, entitled 'For the
recognition of the independence of the people of Cuba,
demanding that the Government of Spain relinquish its
authority and government in the island of Cuba, and to
withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters,
and directing the President of the United States to use the land
and naval forces of the United States to carry these
resolutions into effect,' the President is hereby authorized
to 'leave the government and control of the island of Cuba to
its people,' so soon as a government shall have been
established in said island under a constitution which, either
as a part thereof or in an ordinance appended thereto, shall
define the future relations of the United States with Cuba,
substantially as follows;
I.
"That the government of Cuba shall never enter into any treaty
or other compact with any foreign power or powers which will
impair or tend to impair the independence of Cuba, nor in any
manner authorize or permit any foreign power or powers to
obtain by colonization or for military or naval purposes or
otherwise, lodgment in or control over any portion of said
island.
II.
"That said government shall not assume or contract any public
debt, to pay the interest upon which, and to make reasonable
sinking fund provision for the ultimate discharge of which,
the ordinary revenues of the island, after defraying the
current expenses of government, shall be inadequate.
III.
"That the government of Cuba consents that the United States
may exercise the right to intervene for the preservation of
Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate
for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty,
and for discharging the obligations with respect to Cuba
imposed by the treaty of Paris on the United States, now to be
assumed and undertaken by the government of Cuba.
IV.
"That all acts of the United States in Cuba during its
military occupancy thereof are ratified and validated, and all
lawful rights acquired thereunder shall be maintained and
protected.
V.
"That the government of Cuba will execute, and as far as
necessary extend, the plans already devised or other plans to
be mutually agreed upon, for the sanitation of the cities of
the island, to the end that a recurrence of epidemic and
infectious diseases may be prevented, thereby assuring
protection to the people and commerce of Cuba, as well as to
the commerce of the Southern ports of the United States and
the people residing therein.
VI.
"That the Isle of Pines shall be omitted from the proposed
constitutional boundaries of Cuba, the title thereto being
left to future adjustment by treaty.
VII.
"That to enable the United States to maintain the independence
of Cuba, and to protect the people thereof, as well as for its
own defence, the government of Cuba will sell or lease to the
United States lands necessary for coaling or naval stations at
certain specified points, to be agreed upon with the President
of the United States.
VIII.
"That by way of further assurance the government of Cuba will
embody the foregoing provisions in a permanent treaty with the
United States."
The Platt Amendment, as it is known, was adopted by the Senate
on the 27th of February (yeas 43, nays 20, not, voting 25),
and concurred in by the House on the 1st of March (yeas 161,
nays 136, not voting 56). The opponents of the amendment were
weakened by their dread of an extra session of Congress, and
by their knowledge that the party of the administration would
be still stronger in the new Congress than in that which
expired on the 4th of March. Otherwise, no vote on the measure
could have been reached before that date.
At the time of this writing, the effect in Cuba of the
declarations of the Congress of the United States remains in
doubt. The Constitutional Convention has taken no action upon
them.
----------CUBA: End--------
CULEBRA.
See (in this volume)
PORTO RICO: AREA AND POPULATION.
CUMULATIVE VOTING.
See (in this volume)
BELGIUM: A. D. 1894-1895.
CURTIS ACT, The.
See (in this volume)
INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1893-1899.
CURZON, George N., Baron:
Appointed Viceroy of India.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1898 (SEPTEMBER).
CZECH PARTIES.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897.
D.
DAHOMEY: A. D. 1895.
Under a Governor-General of French West Africa.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (FRENCH WEST AFRICA).
DAHOMEY: A. D. 1897.
Settlement of Tongaland boundary.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (DAHOMEY AND TONGALAND).
DAMASCUS, Railway to.
See (in this volume)
JEWS: A. D. 1899.
DARGAI, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1897-1898.
"DARKEST ENGLAND" SCHEME, Results from General Booth's.
See (in this volume)
SALVATION ARMY.
DAVIS, General George W.:
Military Governor of Porto Rico.
See (in this volume)
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898-1899 (OCTOBER-OCTOBER).
DAVIS, General George W.:
Report on the Civil Government of Porto Rico.
See (in this volume)
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898-1899 (AUGUST-JULY).
DAWES COMMISSION, The work of the.
See (in this volume)
INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1893-1899.
{191}
DE BEERS CONSOLIDATED MINING COMPANY:
Complicity in the Jameson Raid.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE COLONY): A. D. 1896 (JULY).
DECLARATION AGAINST TRANSUBSTANTIATION, The English King's.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
DELAGOA BAY, and the railway to Pretoria.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1895 (JULY) and (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER).
DELAGOA BAY ARBITRATION.
"On December 11th, 1875, Portugal concluded a treaty with the
Transvaal Government under which the latter Government bound
itself to continue the line of railway—which the Portuguese
Government proposed to build from Lourenço-Marques to the
Transvaal frontier—'up to a centre of production and
consumption which should insure the traffic of the line and
the development of international commerce.' The Portuguese
Government then began to look about for a concessionaire and
contractor for this line, and after some research, eventually
came to terms with one Colonel Edward McMurdo, a citizen of
the United States of America, who undertook to build the line
without any Government subvention,—a matter of some importance
to the Portuguese Government,—but upon certain conditions, of
which the most important was that the concessionaire should
have the right to fix the tariffs without any State
interference. A contract … was drawn up and executed in Lisbon
on December 14th, 1883." The government bound itself to grant
no concession for a rival railway from the coast to the
Transvaal boundary, and gave the contractor certain valuable
mining rights and grants of land. On his part he was to
complete the road within three years. He formed a Portuguese
company for the purpose, and seems to have been prepared for
success in his undertaking, when rumors began to circulate
that the Transvaal government had secured from that of
Portugal the right to build a steam tramway from the eastern
terminus of its own line to the coast. These rumors were
contradicted by the Portuguese government: but are said to
have been eventually confirmed. Five months after the signing
of the contract with Colonel McMurdo, the Portuguese
authorities, it seems, had actually violated it in the manner
described. Henceforth the contractor appears to have had every
possible embarrassment thrown in his way by combined action of
the Portuguese and Boer governments. His Portuguese company
was broken down, but he organized another in England, which
struggled on with the enterprise until 1880, when a decree
from Lisbon rescinded the concession, declared the railway
forfeited, and ordered military possession of it to be taken.
The sufferers in the matter, being British and American
citizens, appealed then to their respective governments, and
both intervened in their behalf. The result was a reference of
the matter to the arbitration of Switzerland. So much was
settled in June, 1891; but it was not until March, 1900, that
the judgment of the arbitrators was pronounced. They awarded
to the Delagoa Bay Company, as its due on the railway,
13,980,000 francs. "To this is added a sum of fr. 2,000,000 as
an indemnity for the land grant, which brings the total award
(less £28,000 paid by Portugal on account in 1890) to fr.
15,314,000 (or about £612,560), with interest at 5 per cent.
from June 25th, 1889, to the date of payment. The amount of
this award came as a considerable shock to the claimants, as
well it might. It was insufficient to pay even the bonds in
full (including interest at 7 per cent.), and left nothing
whatever for the shareholders, while even the expenses are to
be borne by each party equally."
M. McIlwraith,
The Delagoa Bay Arbitration
(Fortnightly Review, September, 1900).
DELAWARE: A. D. 1897.
A new Constitution.
A new constitution for the State of Delaware, which went into
effect June 10, 1897, provides that after January 1, 1900, no
citizen shall vote who cannot write his name and read the
constitution in the English language. It also provides a
registration fee of one dollar as a qualification to vote.
DEMOCRACY: In the Nineteenth Century.
See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY; THE TREND.
DEMOCRACY: In the Nineteenth Century.
Pope Leo's Encyclical concerning.
See (in this volume)
PAPACY: A. D. 1901.
DEMOCRATIC EXPERIMENTS, New Zealand.
See (in this volume)
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1891-1900.
DEMOCRATIC PARTY, and the Silver Question in the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER);
and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
DENMARK: A. D. 1899.
Complaints from Danish Sleswick of German treatment.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1899.
DENMARK: A. D. 1899.
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
DÉROULÈDE, Paul:
Trial and conviction for treasonable conspiracy.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1890 (FEBRUARY-JUNE);
and 1899-1900 (AUGUST-JANUARY).
DERVISHES, of the Sudan, The.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896; 1897-1898; and 1899-1900.
DEVIL'S ISLAND.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1897-1899.
DEWEY, Admiral George:
Destruction of Spanish fleet in Manila Bay.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JULY).
DIAMOND JUBILEE, Queen Victoria's.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND; A. D. 1897 (JUNE).
DIAZ, Porfirio:
The results of twenty years of his Presidency in Mexico.
See (in this volume)
MEXICO: A. D. 1898-1900.
DINGLEY TARIFF, The.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1897 (MARCH-JULY); and 1899-1901.
DIPHTHERIA: Discovery of antitoxine treatment of.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: MEDICAL AND SURGICAL.
DIR: Inclusion in a new British Indian province.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
{192}
DISCOVERIES, Scientific:
Comparison of the Nineteenth Century with preceding ages.
See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY; COMPARISON.
DISFRANCHISEMENT OF THE NEGRO.
See (in this volume)
MISSISSIPPI; LOUISIANA; NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1900;
SOUTH CAROLINA; A. D. 1896;
MARYLAND;
and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).
DISPENSARY LAWS.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1892-1899;
NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1897-1899;
SOUTH DAKOTA: A. D. 1899;
and ALABAMA: A. D. 1899.
DIVINE RIGHT, Kingship by:
German revival of the doctrine.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1894-1899.
DOMINICA: Condition and relief measures.
See (in this volume))
WEST INDIES, THE BRITISH: A. D. 1897.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: A. D. 1899.
Assassination of President Heureaux.
Revolution.
Election of President Jiminez.
General D. Ulises Heureaux, President of the Republic, was
shot through the heart by an assassin and instantly killed, on
the 26th of July. "He was in his fourth consecutive term as
president, and had occupied that position for fifteen years,
although still a young man. San Domingo had been more free
from revolution, more prosperous, better inclined toward
outside capital and enterprise, and more disposed toward the
ways of modern civilization under Heureaux, than at any
previous time for many decades. Although nominally a republic,
San Domingo was ruled by this iron-willed and resolute negro
with a stern despotism hardly matched by any other
contemporary government on earth. He was superior to all law.
He constantly made use of the practice of executing officials,
generals, and well-known public men with his own hand whenever
dissatisfied with them. Still more frequently, when the
objects of his disapproval were not within easy traveling
distance, he gave orders to some officer or subordinate,
dependent upon his favor, to undertake an assassination.
Failure to comply promptly and successfully with such a
mandate meant death to the men who failed. These statements
convey no exaggerated impression of the way in which Heureaux
has ruled San Domingo, nipped insurrection in the bud, and
kept himself in power. … He always excused his ruthlessness on
the ground of public necessity. Of course, it was inevitable
that such a man should sooner or later be assassinated
himself."
American Review of Reviews,
September, 1899.
According to the provisions of the constitution, the
Vice-President, General Figuereo, succeeded to the presidency;
but an insurrection against his government was so rapidly
successful that he resigned his office on the 31st of August,
and a provisional government was created, pending arrangements
for an election. The recognized leader of the revolutionary
movement was Juan Isidro Jiminez, who had been compelled, some
years before, to quit San Domingo, on account of his
opposition to Heureaux, leaving a large property behind. Since
that time he had been a successful and well-known merchant in
New York. Latterly, Jiminez had established himself in Cuba,
whence he attempted to assist as well as direct the revolution
in the neighboring island; but the United States authorities
objected to such use being made of neutral territory, and he
was placed for a time under arrest. When released, however, he
was permitted to proceed to San Domingo, without men or arms,
and there he was elected President, assuming the office on the
14th of November.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: A. D. 1900.
Commercial Convention with the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899-1901.
DOMOKO, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).
DONGOLA, Expedition to.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896.
DREYFUS AFFAIR, The.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1897-1899.
DREYFUS AFFAIR, The
Closed by the Amnesty Bill.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (DECEMBER).
DRIEFONTEIN, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1900 (MARCH-MAY).
DRIFTS, Closing of the Vaal River.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1895 (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER).
DUM-DUM BULLET, The.
The dum-dum bullet, about which there was much discussion at
The Hague Peace Conference, is constructed to spread slightly
at the point. All modern rifle bullets have an outer jacket of
hard metal, to take the grooving of the gun-barrel.
"Originally the jacket was thickest at the point, and so
strong that, while penetration was enormous, stopping power
was wanting; in other words, one bullet might easily go
through half a dozen men, yet, unless it happened to hit a
vital spot or a bone, they need not be disabled, and might
therefore continue to fight. This was amply illustrated in the
Chitral campaign, during which our soldiers began to lose
confidence in their weapon, while the enemy, quick to
recognize the different effect of volleys, were inclined to
attack British infantry armed with the Lee-Metford rather than
native infantry armed with the Martini-Henry. The Indian
military authorities at once set about designing a bullet
which, while maintaining range, should have the required
stopping power. The result was the dum-dum bullet—so named
after the place near Calcutta where it is made—of which much
has been heard. The difference in appearance between it and
the original pattern is comparatively slight. The shape is
exactly the same, but the jacket is differently arranged;
instead of having its greatest strength at the point, it is
weakest there—indeed, at the apex a small part of the core is
uncovered, but does not project."
Quarterly Review, July, 1899.
{193}
DUTCH EAST INDIES: A. D. 1894.
Revolt in Lombok.
A rising in the island of Lombok, one of the Lesser Sunda
group, which began in August, proved a troublesome affair.
"The cause of the rebellion was the concession made to the
Sassaks, to be henceforth governed by their own chiefs,
instead of by the Balinian chiefs, who had hitherto been
all-powerful. During the continuance of the hostilities, the
Sassaks remained constantly faithful to the Dutch, and fought
against the Balinians, who, although far inferior in numbers,
had, nevertheless, oppressed their fellow-islanders for many
years; but the courage, energy and audacity of the Balinians
were well known, and as early as 1868 the Dutch troops had
been in serious conflict with them. The news of this disaster
aroused in Holland great excitement, and public opinion was
unanimous in its demand for speedy and energetic reprisals.
Several severe and bloody encounters took place, but finally
the Dutch troops, under the orders of General Vetter,
succeeded in making the Rajah of Lombok prisoner, his immense
wealth falling at the same time into the hands of the
victors."
Annual Register,
1894, page 308.
DYNAMITE MONOPOLY, The Boer.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1895 (NOVEMBER).
E.
EAGAN, General Charles P.: The case of.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY).
EAST AFRICA, German: Trade, etc.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (JUNE).
EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, British.
See (in this volume)
BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE: A. D. 1895-1897.
EAST INDIES, Dutch.
See (in this volume)
DUTCH EAST INDIES.
ECCLESIASTICAL LAWS, The Hungarian.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1894-1895.
ECUADOR: A. D. 1894-1899.
Successful Revolution.
Government measures against the Church.
In the fall of 1894 the government of Chile sold ostensibly to
that of Ecuador a war vessel, which the latter at once
transferred to Japan, then at war with China. The round about
transaction was regarded with suspicion, the Ecuadorian
government being accused of a corrupt agency in it, to cover
the Chilian breach of neutrality. Much feeling on the subject
was excited in the country, and this gave to the Radical party
an opportunity to stir up revolt. They improved it with
success. After an obstinate civil war of more than six months
the government of President Cordero was overthrown, and
General Aloy Alfaro, the revolutionist leader, was inaugurated
Executive Chief of the Republic on the 4th of November, 1895.
The defeated Conservatives, stimulated by the clergy, were
quickly in arms again, in the summer of 1896, but again they
were overcome, and the government of Alfaro began to deal
severely with the religious orders and the Church. Much of the
Church property was confiscated, and the inmates of religious
houses are said to have fled in considerable numbers to other
countries. In October, 1896, a National Convention was held
and the constitution revised. Among other changes, it imposed
limitations on the former power of the Church, and extended
religious freedom to other sects. In 1897 the Indians who had
supported Alfaro two years before were admitted to
citizenship. A renewed attempt at revolution, that year,
organized and armed in Colombia, was suppressed with the help
of the Colombian government. The same fate attended another
undertaking of rebellion in January, 1899; but it was overcome
only after a hard fought battle.
ECUADOR: A. D. 1900.
Commercial Convention with the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899-1901.
ECUMENICAL CONFERENCE ON MISSIONS.
See (in this volume)
MISSIONS.
EDUCATION: Australia and New Zealand.
Progress of educational work.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRALIA: RECENT EXTENSIONS OF DEMOCRACY.
EDUCATION:
Birth of educational systems in the Nineteenth Century.
See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY: THE TREND.
EDUCATION: Canada: A. D. 1890-1896.
The Manitoba School Question.
See (in this volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1890-1896.
EDUCATION: Canada: A. D. 1898.
Encyclical Letter of Pope Leo XIII. on the
Manitoba School Question.
See (in this volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1898 (JANUARY).
EDUCATION: Belgium: A. D. 1895.
Religious teaching restored.
A new school law was carried in Belgium, against fierce
opposition from the Liberals and Socialists, which restores
obligatory religious teaching in both public and private
schools. Parents are permitted, however, to withhold their
children from the instruction that is given during school
hours by Catholic priests, on attesting in writing that it is
their wish to do so.
EDUCATION: Congo State:
The Belgian provision of schools.
See (in this volume)
CONGO FREE STATE: A. D. 1899.
EDUCATION: Cuba: A. D. 1898.
As left by the Spaniards.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1898-1899 (DECEMBER-OCTOBER).
EDUCATION: Cuba: A. D. 1900.
Organization of public schools.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1900.
EDUCATION: Egypt:
Gordon Memorial College at Khartoum.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1898-1899.
EDUCATION: England: A. D. 1896-1897.
"The Voluntary Schools Act" and "The Elementary Education Act."
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1896-1897.
EDUCATION: England: A. D. 1899.
Creation of a Board of Education.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (AUGUST).
EDUCATION: England: A. D. 1900.
Age at which children may leave school
raised from eleven to twelve years.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (FEBRUARY).
EDUCATION: Hawaii:
Progress of educational work.
See (in this volume)
HAWAII: A. D. 1900.
EDUCATION: Japan: 1897.
Restriction of religious teaching.
See (in this volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1899 (AUGUST).
EDUCATION: Japan: A. D. 1899.
A Japanese injunction to students concerning
behavior to foreigners.
See (in this volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1899 (JULY).
EDUCATION: Mexico:
Progress of educational work.
See (in this volume)
MEXICO: A. D. 1898-1900.
{194}
EDUCATION: Philippine Islands: A. D. 1898.
Schools and colleges under the Spanish regime.
"The only educational advantages attainable by the common
people of the archipelago are those afforded by the primary
schools. The Spanish regulations provided that there should be
one male and one female primary school teacher for each 5,000
inhabitants, instruction being given separately to the two
sexes. This wretchedly inadequate provision was, as a matter
of fact, never carried out. … From [a table showing the
relation between number of primary school teachers and
population in the several provinces, etc.] it appears that the
number of teachers of each sex required by law for a
population of 6,709,810 is 1,342, making a total of 2,684
teachers, whereas there are in reality but 991 male teachers
and 923 female teachers, giving a total of 1,914. Disregarding
the question of sex, we see that while there should be one
teacher for each 2,500 inhabitants, there is in reality but
one to each 3,500, even if we include only that portion of the
population sufficiently civilized to be taken account of in
the above enumeration. Taking the entire population at
8,000,000, we find that there is but one teacher to each 4,179
individuals. Examination of the … table further shows that in
many instances the lack of teachers is greater in those
provinces which are most thickly populated and whose people
are most highly civilized. …
"While most of the small towns have one teacher of each sex,
in the larger towns and cities no adequate provision is made
for the increased teaching force necessary; so that places of
30,000 or 40,000 inhabitants are often no better off as
regards number of teachers than are other places in the same
province of but 1,500 or 2,000 souls. The hardship thus
involved for children desiring a primary education will be
better understood if one stops to consider the nature of the
Philippine 'pueblo,' which is really a township, often
containing within its limits a considerable number of distinct
and important villages or towns, from the most important of
which the township takes its name. The others, under distinct
names, are known as 'barrios,' or wards. It is often quite
impossible for small children to attend school at the
particular town which gives its name to the township on
account of their distance from it. …
"The character and amount of the instruction which has
heretofore been furnished is also worthy of careful
consideration. The regulations for primary schools were as
follows: 'Instruction in schools for natives shall for the
present be reduced to elementary primary instruction and shall
consist of—
1. Christian doctrine and principles of morality and sacred
history suitable for children.
2. Reading.
3. Writing.
4. Practical instruction in Spanish, including grammar
and orthography.
5. Principles of arithmetic, comprising the four rules for
figures, common fractions, decimal fractions, and instruction
in the metric system with its equivalents in ordinary weights
and measures.
6. Instruction in general geography and Spanish history.
7. Instruction in practical agriculture as applied to the
products of the country.
8. Rules of deportment.
9. Vocal music.'
"It will be noted that education in Christian doctrine is
placed before reading and writing, and, if the natives are to
be believed, in many of the more remote districts instruction
began and ended with this subject and was imparted in the
local native dialect at that. It is further and persistently
charged that the instruction in Spanish was in very many cases
purely imaginary, because the local friars, who were formerly
'ex officio' school inspectors, not only prohibited it, but
took active measures to enforce their dictum. … Ability to
read and write a little of the local native language was
comparatively common. Instruction in geography was extremely
superficial. As a rule no maps or charts were available, and
such information as was imparted orally was left to the memory
of the pupil, unaided by any graphic method of presentation.
The only history ever taught was that of Spain, and that under
conventional censorship. The history of other nations was a
closed volume to the average Filipino. … The course as above
outlined was that prescribed for boys. Girls were not given
instruction in geography, history, or agriculture, but in
place of these subjects were supposed to receive instruction
'in employments suitable to their sex.'
"It should be understood that the criticisms which have been
here made apply to the provincial schools. The primary
instruction given at the Ateneo Municipal at Manila, under the
direction of the Jesuits, fulfilled the requirements of the
law, and in some particulars exceeded them. … The only
official institution for secondary education in the
Philippines was the College of San Juan de Letran, which was
in charge of the Dominican Friars and was under the control of
the university authorities. Secondary education was also given in
the Ateneo Municipal of Manila, by the Jesuit Fathers, and
this institution was better and more modern in its methods
than any other in the archipelago. But although the Jesuits
provided the instruction, the Dominicans held the
examinations. … There are two normal schools in Manila, one
for the education of male and the other for the education of
female teachers. … The only institutions for higher education
in the Philippines have been the Royal and Pontifical
University of Santo Tomas, and the Royal College of San José,
which has for the past twenty-five years been under the
direction of the university authorities."
Report of the Philippine Commission,
January 1, 1900, volume 1, part 3.
EDUCATION: Porto Rico: A. D. 1898.
Spanish schools and teachers.
See (in this volume)
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898-1899 (AUGUST-JULY).
EDUCATION: Porto Rico: A. D. 1900.
First steps in the creation of a public school system.
See (in this volume)
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-OCTOBER).
EDUCATION: Russia:
Student troubles in the universities.
See (in this volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1899 (FEBRUARY-JUNE); 1900; and 1901.
EDUCATION: Tunis:
Schools under the French Protectorate.
See (in this volume)
TUNIS: A. D. 1881-1898.
EDUCATION: United States:
Indian schools.
See (in this volume)
INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1899-1900.
EDUCATION: United States: A. D. 1896.
Princeton University.
The one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of
the institution at Princeton, New Jersey, which had borne the
name of "The College of New Jersey," was celebrated on the
20th, 21st, and 22d of October, 1896, with ceremonies in which
many representatives from famous seats of learning in Europe
and America took part. The proceedings included a formal
change of name, to Princeton University.
{195}
EDUCATION: United States: A. D. 1900.
Women as students and as teachers.
See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY: THE WOMAN'S CENTURY.
EDWARD VII., King of England.
Accession.
English estimate of his character.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
Opening of his first Parliament.
The Royal Test Oath.
EDWARD VII., King of England.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
----------EGYPT: Start--------
EGYPT:
Recent Archæological Explorations and their result.
Discovery of prehistoric remains.
Light on the first dynasties.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT: RESULTS.
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896.
Abandonment of the Egyptian Sudan to the Dervishes.
Death of the Mahdi and reign of the Khalifa.
Beginning of a new Anglo-Egyptian movement for
the recovery of the Sudan.
The expedition to Dongola.
After the failure to rescue General Gordon from the Mahdists
at Khartoum (see, in volume 1, EGYPT: A. D. 1884-1885), the
British government, embarrassed in other quarters, felt
compelled to evacuate the Sudan. Before it did so the Mahdi
had finished his career, having died of smallpox in June,
1885, and one of his three chief commanders, styled khalifas,
had acquired authority over the Dervish army and reigned in
his place. This was the Khalifa Abdullah, a chieftain of the
Baggara tribe. Khartoum had been destroyed, and Omdurman, on
the opposite side of the river, became his capital. The rule
of the Khalifa was soon made so cruelly despotic, and so much
in the interest of his own tribe, that incessant rebellions in
many parts of his dominions restrained him from any vigorous
undertaking of the conquest of Egypt, which was the great
object of Dervish desire. But his able and energetic
lieutenant in the Eastern Sudan, Osman Digna, was a serious
menace to the Egyptian forces holding Suakin, where Major
Watson, at first, and afterwards Colonel Kitchener, were
holding command, under General Grenfell, who was then the
Egyptian Sirdar, or military chief. Osman Digna, however, was
defeated in all his attempts. At the same time the Khalifa was
desperately at war with the Negus. John, of Abyssinia, who
fell in a great battle at Galabat (March, 1889), and whose
death at the crisis of the battle threw his army into
confusion and caused its defeat. Menelek, king of the
feudatory state of Shoa, acquired the Abyssinian crown, and
war with the Dervishes was stopped. Then they began an advance
down the Nile, and suffered a great defeat from the British
and Egyptian troops, at Toski, on the 17th of August, 1889.
From that time, for several years, "there was no real menace
to Egypt," and little was heard of the Khalifa. "His
territories were threatened on all sides: on the north by the
British in Egypt; on the south by the British in Uganda: on
the west by the Belgians in the Congo Free State, and by the
French in the Western Soudan; whilst the Italians held Kassala
on the east; so that the Khalifa preferred to husband his
resources until the inevitable day should arrive when he would
have to fight for his position."
A crisis in the situation came in 1896. The Egyptian army,
organized and commanded by British officers, had become a
strong fighting force, on which its leaders could depend. Its
Sirdar was now Major-General Sir Herbert Kitchener, who
succeeded General Grenfell in 1892. Suddenly there came news,
early in March, 1896, of the serious reverse which the
Italians had suffered at Adowa, in their war with the
Abyssinians (see, (in this volume) ITALY: A. D. 1895-1896).
"The consternation felt in England and Egypt at this disaster
deepened when it became known that Kassala, which was held by
the Italian forces, was hemmed in, and seriously threatened by
10,000 Dervishes, and that Osman Digna was marching there with
reinforcements. If Kassala fell into the hands of the
Dervishes, the latter would be let loose to overrun the Nile
valley on the frontier of Egypt, and threaten that country
itself. As if in anticipation of these reinforcements, the
Dervishes suddenly assumed an offensive attitude, and it was
rumoured that a large body of Dervishes were contemplating an
immediate advance on Egypt. … A totally new situation was now
created, and immediate action was rendered imperative.
Everything was ripe for an expedition up the Nile. Whilst
creating a diversion in favour of the Italians besieged at
Kassala, it afforded an opportunity of creating a stronger
barrier than the Wady Halfa boundary between Egypt and the
Dervishes, and it would moreover be an important step towards
the long-wished-for recovery of the Soudan. The announcement
of the contemplated expedition was made in the House of
Commons on the 17th of March, 1896, by Mr. Curzon,
Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs. It came as a great
surprise to the whole country, which, having heard so little
of the Dervishes of late years, was not prepared for a
recrudescence of the Soudan question. [But a vote of censure
on the Egyptian policy of the government, moved by Mr. John
Morley in the House of Commons, was rejected by 288 to 145.] …
"An unexpected difficulty arose in connection with the
financing of the expedition. This is explained very plainly
and concisely in the 'Annual Register,' 1896, which we quote
at length:—
'In order to defray the cost of the undertaking, it being
obviously desirable to impose as little strain as possible on
the slowly recovering finances of Egypt, it was determined by
the Egyptian Government to apply for an advance of £500,000
from the General Reserve Fund of the Caisse de la Dette, and
the authorities of the Caisse obligingly handed over the
money. … However, the French and Russian members of the Caisse
de la Dette protested against the loan which the Caisse had
made. … In December (1896) the International Court of Appeal
required the Egyptian Government to refund to the Caisse the
£500,000 which they had secured. The very next day Lord Cromer
offered an English loan to make good the advance. The Egyptian
Government accepted his offer, and repaid immediately the
£500,000 to the Caisse, and the result of this somewhat absurd
transaction is that England has thus strengthened her hold in
another small point on the Government of Egypt.'"
H. S. L. Alford, and W. D. Sword,
The Egyptian Soudan, its Loss and Recovery,
chapter 4 (London: Macmillan & Company).
{196}
On the 21st of March, the Sirdar left Cairo for Assouan and
Wady Halfa, and various Egyptian battalions were hurried up
the river. Meantime, the forces already on the frontier had
moved forward and taken the advanced post of the Dervishes, at
Akasheh. From that point the Sirdar was ready to begin his
advance early in June, and did so with two columns, a River
Column and a Desert Column, the latter including a camel corps
and a squadron of infantry mounted on camels, besides cavalry,
horse artillery and Maxim guns. Ferket, on the east bank of
the Nile, 16 miles from Akasheh, was taken after hard fighting
on the 7th of June, many of the Dervishes refusing quarter and
resisting to the death. They lost, it was estimated, 1,000
killed and wounded, and 500 were taken prisoners. The Egyptian
loss was slight. The Dervishes fell back some fifty miles, and
the Sirdar halted at Suarda during three months, while the
railroad was pushed forward, steamers dragged up the cataracts
and stores concentrated, the army suffering greatly, meantime,
from an alarming epidemic of cholera and from exhausting
labors in a season of terrific heat. In the middle of
September the advance was resumed, and, on the 23d, Dongola
was reached. Seeing themselves outnumbered, the enemy there
retreated, and the town, or its ruins, was taken with only a
few shots from the steamers on the river. "As a consequence of
the fall of Dongola every Dervish fled for his life from the
province. The mounted men made off across the desert direct to
Omdurman, and the foot soldiers took the Nile route to Berber,
always being careful to keep out of range of the gunboats,
which were prevented by the Fourth Cataract from pursuing them
beyond Merawi."
C. Hoyle,
The Egyptian Campaigns, new and revised edition,
to December, 1899, chapter 70-71.
The Emir who commanded at Dongola was a comparatively young
man, Mohammed Wad el Bishara, who seems to have been possessed
by a very genuinely religious spirit, as shown in the
following letter, which he had written to the Dervish
commander at Ferket, just before the battle there, and which
was found by the British officers when they entered that
place:
"You are, thank God, of good understanding, and are thoroughly
acquainted with those rules of religion which enjoin love and
unison. Thanks be to God that I hear but good reports of you.
But you are now close to the enemy of God, and have with you,
with the help of God, a sufficient number of men. I therefore
request you to unite together, to have the heart of a single
man founded on love and unity. Consult with one another, and
thus you will insure good results, which will strengthen the
religion and vex the heathen, the enemies of God. Do not move
without consulting one another, and such others, also, in the
army who are full of sense and wisdom. Employ their plans and
tricks of war, in the general fight more especially. Your
army, thank God, is large; if you unite and act as one hand,
your action will be regular: you will, with the help of God,
defeat the enemies of God and set at ease the mind of the
Khalifa, peace be on him! Follow this advice, and do not allow
any intrigues to come between you. Rely on God in all your
doings; be bold in all your dealings with the enemy; let them
find no flaw in your disposition for the fight. But be ever
most vigilant, for these enemies of God are cunning, may God
destroy them! Our brethren, Mohamed Koku, with two others,
bring you this letter; on their return they will inform me
whether you work in unison or not. Let them find you as
ordered in religion, in good spirits, doing your utmost to
insure the victory of religion. Remember, my brethren, that
what moves me to urge on you to love each other and to unite
is my love for you and my desire for your good. This is a
trial of war; so for us love and amity are of utmost
necessity. You were of the supporters of the Mahdi, peace be
on him! You were as one spirit occupying one body. When the
enemy know that you are quite united they will be much
provoked. Strive, therefore, to provoke these enemies of
religion. May God bless you and render you successful."
EGYPT: A. D. 1895.
New anti-slavery law.
A convention to establish a more effective anti-slavery law in
Egypt was signed on the 21st of November, 1895, "by the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, representing the Khedival
Government, and the British diplomatic agent and
consul-general. … This new convention will supplant that of
August 4, 1877, which … was found to be defective, inasmuch as
it provided no penalty for the purchaser of a slave, but for
the seller only. An Egyptian notable, Ali Pasha Cherif, at
that time president of the Legislative Council, was tried for
buying slaves for his household, but escaped punishment
through a technicality of the law hitherto escaping notice. …
Under the existing regulations, every slave in the Egyptian
dominions has the right to complete freedom, and may demand
his certificate of manumission whenever he chooses. Thus, all
domestic slaves, of whom there are thousands in Cairo,
Alexandria, and the large towns, may call upon their masters
to set them free. Many choose to remain in nominal bondage,
preferring the certainty of food and shelter to the hardships
and uncertainty of looking after themselves."
United States, Consular Reports,
March, 1896, page 370.
EGYPT: A. D. 1897.
Italian evacuation of Kassala, in the eastern Sudan.
See (in this volume)
ITALY: A. D. 1897.
EGYPT: A. D. 1897 (June).
Census.
A census of Egypt, taken on the 1st of June, 1897, showed a
population of 9,700,000, the area being Egypt up to Wady
Haifa. In 1882 an imperfect census gave six and three-quarter
millions. Twelve per cent. of the males can write, the rest
are totally illiterate. There are, it is said, about 40,000
persons not really Egyptians, but who come from other parts of
the Ottoman Empire. The Bedouin number 570,000, but of these
only 89,000 are really nomads, the rest being semi-sedentary.
Of foreign residents there are 112,500, of whom the Greeks,
the most numerous, number 38,000. Then come the Italians, with
24,500. The British (including 6,500 Maltese and 5,000 of the
Army of Occupation) are 19,500; and the French (including
4,000 Algerians and Tunisians), 14,000. The Germans only
number 1,300.
{197}
The classification according to religion shows nearly
9,000,000 Moslems, 730,000 Christians, and 25,000 Jews, The
Christians include the Coptic race, numbering about 608,000.
Only a very small proportion profess the Roman Catholic and
Protestant faiths. Amongst the town populations Cairo contains
570,000, Alexandria 320,000.
EGYPT: A. D. 1897-1898.
The final campaigns of the Anglo-Egyptian conquest
of the Eastern Sudan.
Desperate battles of the Atbara and of Omdurman.
"The winter of 1896-1897 was passed, undisturbed by the enemy.
The extended and open front of the Egyptian army imperatively
called for fresh guarantees against a Dervish invasion. The
important strategic position of Abu Hamed was then held by the
enemy, to dislodge whom was the objective of the 1897 campaign.
The railway was boldly launched into the Nubian Desert; the
rail-head crept rapidly and surely towards the Dervish post,
until within striking distance of Abu Hamed: when the
river-column, by a forced march, through difficult country,
delivered an attack on 7th August. Abu Hamed was taken by the
Egyptian army under Major-General (now Sir Archibald) Hunter,
with trifling loss: and the effect of this victory caused the
precipitate evacuation of Berber. The Dervishes withdrew: the
Egyptians—not to lose so favourable an opening—advanced.
Berber, the key to the Sudan, was promptly re-occupied. The
railway was hastened forward; reinforcements were detrained,
before the close of the year, at a short distance from Berber:
and the Anglo-Egyptian authorities gathered force for the last
heat. British troops were called up. In this final struggle
[1898] nothing could be risked. An Egyptian reverse would have
redoubled the task on the accomplishment of which, having
deliberately accepted it, we had pledged our honour. Mahmud,
the Dervish emir, and that ubiquitous rascal Osman Digna, with
their united forces, were marching on Berber. They, however,
held up at the confluence of the Atbara, and comfortably
intrenched themselves in a 'zariba.' Here the Sirdar came out
to have a look at them. The Dervish force numbered about
19,000 men. The Anglo-Egyptian army was composed of 13,000
men. The odds were good enough for the Sirdar: and he went for
them. Under the demoralization created by some sharp artillery
practice, the Anglo-Egyptians stormed the 'zariba,' killed
three-fourths of the defenders, and chased the remainder away.
This victory [April 8, 1898], which cost over 500 men in
killed and wounded, broke the Dervish power for offence and
seriously damaged the Khalifa's prestige. With reinforcements,
bringing his army up to 22,000 men, including some picked
British regiments, the Sirdar then advanced slowly up the
river. It was a pilgrimage to the Mahdi's tomb, in sight of
which Cross and Crescent combined to overthrow the false
prophet. This sanguinary and decisive engagement [before
Omdurman] took place on 2nd September, 1898. The Khalifa was
put to flight; his forces were scattered and ridden down. On
the same evening, the Sirdar entered Omdurman, and released
the European captives. Subsequently, the British and Egyptian
flags were hoisted together at Khartum; and divine service was
celebrated at the spot where Gordon fell."
A. S. White,
The Expansion of Egypt,
pages 383-384
(New York: New Amsterdam Book Company).
"The honour of the fight [at Omdurman] must still go with the
men who died. Our men were perfect, but the dervishes were
superb—beyond perfection. It was their largest, best, and
bravest army that ever fought against us for Mahdism, and it
died worthily of the huge empire that Mahdism won and kept so
long. Their riflemen, mangled by every kind of death and
torment that man can devise, clung round the black flag and
the green, emptying their poor, rotten, homemade cartridges
dauntlessly. Their spearmen charged death at every minute
hopelessly. Their horsemen led each attack, riding into the
bullets till nothing was left but three horses trotting up to
our line, heads down, saying, 'For goodness' sake, let us in
out of this.' Not one rush, or two, or ten—but rush on rush,
company on company, never stopping, though all their view that
was not unshaken enemy was the bodies of the men who had
rushed before them. A dusky line got up and stormed forward:
it bent, broke up, fell apart, and disappeared. Before the
smoke had cleared, another line was bending and storming
forward in the same track.
"It was over. The avenging squadrons of the Egyptian cavalry
swept over the field. The Khalifa and the Sheikh-ed-Din had
galloped back to Omdurman. Ali Wad Helu was borne away on an
angareb with a bullet through his thigh-bone. Yakub lay dead
under his brother's banner. From the green army there now came
only death-enamoured desperadoes, strolling one by one towards
the rifles, pausing to shake a spear, turning aside to
recognise a corpse, then, caught by a sudden jet of fury,
bounding forward, checking, sinking limply to the ground. Now
under the black flag in a ring of bodies stood only three men,
facing the three thousand of the Third Brigade. They folded
their arms about the staff and gazed steadily forward. Two
fell. The last dervish stood up and filled his chest; he
shouted the name of his God and hurled his spear. Then he
stood quite still, waiting. It took him full; he quivered,
gave at the knees, and toppled with his head on his arms and
his face towards the legions of his conquerors. Over 11,000
killed, 16,000 wounded, 4,000 prisoners,—that was the
astounding bill of dervish casualties officially presented
after the battle of Omdurman. Some people had estimated the
whole dervish army at 1,000 less than this total: few had put
it above 50,000. The Anglo-Egyptian army on the day of battle
numbered, perhaps, 22,000 men: if the Allies had done the same
proportional execution at Waterloo, not one Frenchman would
have escaped. … The dervish army was killed out as hardly an
army has been killed out in the history of war. It will shock
you, but it was simply unavoidable. Not a man was killed
except resisting—very few except attacking. Many wounded were
killed, it is true, but that again was absolutely unavoidable.
… It was impossible not to kill the dervishes: they refused to
go back alive."
{198}
The same brilliant writer gives the following description of
Omdurman, as the British found it on entering the town after
the victory: "It began just like any other town or village of
the mean Sudan. Half the huts seemed left unfinished, the
other half to have been deserted and fallen to pieces. There
were no streets, no doors or windows except holes, usually no
roofs. As for a garden, a tree, a steading for a beast—any
evidence of thrift or intelligence, any attempt at comfort or
amenity or common cleanliness,—not a single trace of any of
it. Omdurman was just planless confusion of blind walls and
gaping holes, shiftless stupidity, contented filth and
beastliness. But that, we said, was only the outskirts: when
we come farther in we shall surely find this mass of
population manifesting some small symbols of a great dominion.
And presently we came indeed into a broader way than the
rest—something with the rude semblance of a street. Only it
was paved with dead donkeys, and here and there it disappeared
in a cullender of deep holes where green water festered. …
Omdurman was a rabbit-warren—a threadless labyrinth of tiny
huts or shelters, too flimsy for the name of sheds.
Oppression, stagnation, degradation, were stamped deep on
every yard of miserable Omdurman.
"But the people! We could hardly see the place for the people.
We could hardly hear our own voices for their shrieks of
welcome. We could hardly move for their importunate greetings.
They tumbled over each other like ants from every mud heap, from
behind every dung-hill, from under every mat. … They had been
trying to kill us three hours before. But they salaamed, none
the less, and volleyed, 'Peace be with you' in our track. All
the miscellaneous tribes of Arabs whom Abdullahi's fears or
suspicions had congregated in his capital, all the blacks his
captains had gathered together into franker
slavery—indiscriminate, half-naked, grinning the grin of the
sycophant, they held out their hands and asked for backsheesh.
Yet more wonderful were the women. The multitude of women whom
concupiscence had harried from every recess of Africa and
mewed up in Baggara harems came out to salute their new
masters. There were at least three of them to every man. Black
women from Equatoria and almost white women from Egypt,
plum-skinned Arabs and a strange yellow type with square, bony
faces and tightly-ringleted black hair, … the whole city was a
huge harem, a museum of African races, a monstrosity of
African lust."
G. W. Steevens,
With Kitchener to Khartum,
chapter 32-34
(copyright, Dodd, Mead & Company, quoted with permission).
"Anyone who has not served in the Sudan cannot conceive the
state of devastation and misery to which that unfortunate
country has been brought under Dervish rule. Miles and miles
of formerly richly cultivated country lies waste; villages are
deserted; the population has disappeared. Thousands of women
are without homes or families. Years must elapse before the
Sudan can recover from the results of its abandonment to
Dervish tyranny; but it is to be hoped and may be confidently
expected, that in course of time, under just and upright
government, the Sudan may be restored to prosperity; and the
great battle of September will be remembered as having
established peace, without which prosperity would have been
impossible; and from which thousands of misguided and wretched
people will reap the benefits of civilization."
E. S. Wortley,
With the Sirdar
(Scribner's Magazine, January, 1899).
EGYPT: A. D. 1898.
The country and its people after 15 years
of British occupation.
"The British occupation has now lasted for over fifteen years.
During the first five, comparatively little was accomplished,
owing to the uncertain and provisional character of our
tenure. The work done has been done in the main in the last
ten years, and was only commenced in earnest when the British
authorities began to realise that, whether we liked it or not,
we had got to stay; and the Egyptians themselves came to the
conclusion that we intended to stay. … Under our occupation
Egypt has been rendered solvent and prosperous; taxes have
been largely reduced; her population has increased by nearly
50 per cent.; the value and the productiveness of her soil has
been greatly improved; a regular and permanent system of
irrigation has been introduced into Lower Egypt, and is now in
the course of introduction into Upper Egypt; trade and
industry have made giant strides; the use of the Kurbash
[bastinado] has been forbidden; the Corvée has been
suppressed; regularity in the collection of taxes has been
made the rule, and not the exception; wholesale corruption has
been abolished; the Fellaheen can now keep the money they
earn, and are better off than they were before; the landowners
are all richer owing to the fresh supply of water, with the
consequent rapid increase in the saleable price of land;
justice is administered with an approach to impartiality;
barbarous punishments have been mitigated, if not abolished;
and the extraordinary conversion of Cairo into a fair
semblance of a civilised European capital has been repeated on
a smaller scale in all the chief centres of Egypt. To put the
matter briefly, if our occupation were to cease to-morrow, we
should leave Egypt and the Egyptians far better off than they
were when our occupation commenced.
"If, however, I am asked whether we have succeeded in the
alleged aim of our policy, that of rendering Egypt fit for
self-government, I should be obliged honestly to answer that
in my opinion we have made little or no progress towards the
achievement of this aim. The one certain result of our
interference in the internal administration of Egypt has been
to impair, if not to destroy, the authority of the Khedive; of
the Mudirs, who, as the nominees of the Effendina, rule over
the provinces; and of the Sheiks, who, in virtue of the favour
of the Mudirs, govern the villages. We have undoubtedly
trained a school of native officials who have learnt that it
is to their interest to administer the country more or less in
accordance with British ideas. Here and there we may have
converted an individual official to a genuine belief in these
ideas. But I am convinced that if our troops were withdrawn,
and our place in Egypt was not taken by any other civilised
European Power, the old state of things would revive at once,
and Egypt would be governed once more by the old system of
Baksheesh and Kurbash."
E. Dicey,
Egypt, 1881 to 1897
(Fortnightly Review, May, 1898).
{199}
Reviewing the report, for 1898, of Lord Cromer, the British
Agent and Consul-General, who is practically the director of
the government of Egypt, "The Spectator" (London) has noted
the principle of Lord Cromer's administration to be that of
"using English heads but Egyptian hands. In practice this
means the policy of never putting an Englishman into any post
which could be just as well filled by a native. In other
words, the Englishman is only used in the administration where
he is indispensable. Where he is not, the native, as is only just
and right, is employed. The outcome of this is that Lord
Cromer's work in Egypt has been carried out by 'a body of
officials who certainly do not exceed one hundred in number,
and might possibly, if the figures were vigorously examined,
be somewhat lower.' Lord Cromer adds, however, that 'these
hundred have been selected with the greatest care.' In fact,
the principle has been,—never employ an Englishman unless it
is necessary in the interests of good government to do so, but
then employ a first-class man. The result is that the
inspiring force in every Department of the Egyptian State is a
first-class English brain, and yet the natives are not
depressed by being deprived of their share of the
administration. The Egyptians, that is, do not feel the
legitimate grievance that is felt by the Tunisians and
Algerians when they see even little posts of a couple of
hundred a year filled by Frenchmen."
Spectator,
April 15, 1899.
EGYPT: A. D. 1898 (September-November).
The French expedition of M. Marchand at Fashoda.
On the 10th of September, eight days after destroying the
power of the Khalifa at Omdurman, the Sirdar, Lord Kitchener,
left that fallen capital with five gunboats and a considerable
force of Highlanders, Sudanese and Egyptians, to take possession
of the Upper Nile. At Fashoda, in the Shilluk country, a
little north of the junction of the Sobat with the White Nile,
he found a party of eight French officers and about a hundred
Senegalese troops, commanded by M. Marchand, entrenched at the
old government buildings in that place and claiming occupation
of the country. It had been known for some time that M.
Marchand was leading an expedition from the French Congo
towards the Nile, and the British government had been seeking
an explanation of its objects from the government of France,
uttering warnings, at the same time, that England would
recognize no rights in any part of the Nile Valley except the
rights of Egypt, which the evacuation of the Egyptian Sudan,
consequent on the conquests of the Mahdi and the Dervishes,
had not extinguished. Even long before the movements of M.
Marchand were known, it had been suspected that France
entertained the design of extending her great possessions in
West Africa eastward, to connect with the Nile, and, as early
as the spring of 1895, Sir Edward Grey, speaking for the
British Foreign Office, in reply to a question then asked in
the House of Commons, concerning rumors that a French
expedition from West Africa was approaching the Nile, said
with unmistakable meaning: "After all I have explained about
the claims we consider we have under past Agreements, and the
claims which we consider Egypt may have in the Nile Valley,
and adding to that the fact that those claims and the view of
the Government with regard to them are fully and clearly known
to the French Government, I cannot think it is possible that
these rumors deserve credence, because the advance of a French
expedition under secret instructions right from the other side
of Africa into a territory over which our claims have been
known for so long would be not merely an inconsistent and
unexpected act, but it must be perfectly well known to the
French Government that it would be an unfriendly act, and
would be so viewed by England." In December, 1897, the British
Ambassador at Paris had called the attention of the French
government to Sir Edward Grey's declaration, adding that "Her
Majesty's present Government entirely adhere to the language
that was on this occasion employed by their predecessors."
As between the two governments, then, such was the critical
situation of affairs when the Sirdar, who had been already
instructed how to act if he found intruders in the Nile
Valley, came upon M. Marchand and his little party at Fashoda.
The circumstances and the results of the meeting were reported by
him promptly as follows: "On reaching the old Government
buildings, over which the French flag was flying, M. Marchand,
accompanied by Captain Germain, came on board. After
complimenting them on their long and arduous journey, I
proceeded at once to inform M. Marchand that I was authorized
to state that the presence of the French at Fashoda and in the
Valley of the Nile was regarded as a direct violation of the
rights of Egypt and Great Britain, and that, in accordance
with my instructions, I must protest in the strongest terms
against their occupation of Fashoda, and their hoisting of the
French flag in the dominions of His Highness the Khedive. In
reply, M. Marchand stated that as a soldier he had to obey
orders; the instructions of his Government to occupy the
Bahr-el-Ghazal and the Mudirieh of Fashoda were precise, and,
having carried them out, he must await the orders of his
Government as to his subsequent action and movements. I then
pointed out that I had the instructions of the Government to
re-establish Egyptian authority in the Fashoda Mudirieh, and I
asked M. Marchand whether he was prepared—on behalf of the
French Government—to resist the execution of these orders; he
must be fully aware, I said, that the Egyptian and British
forces were very much more powerful than those at his
disposal, but, at the same time, I was very averse to creating
a situation which might lead to hostilities. I therefore
begged M. Marchand to most carefully consider his final
decision on this matter. I further informed him that I should
be pleased to place one of the gun-boats at his disposal to
convey him and his expedition north. In answer to this, M.
Marchand did not hesitate to admit the preponderating forces
at my disposal, and his inability to offer effective armed
resistance; if, however, he said, I felt obliged to take any
such action, he could only submit, to the inevitable, which
would mean that he and his companions would die at their
posts. He begged, therefore, that I would consider his
position, and would allow the question of his remaining at
Fashoda to be referred to his Government, as, without their
orders, he could not retire from his position or haul down his
flag; at the same time, he said he felt sure that, under the
circumstances, the orders for his retirement would not be
delayed by his Government, and that then he hoped to avail
himself of the offer I had made him. I then said to him: 'Do I
understand that you are authorized by the French Government to
resist Egypt in putting up its flag and reasserting its
authority in its former possessions—such as the Mudirieh of
Fashoda?' M. Marchand hesitated, and then said that he could
not resist the Egyptian flag being hoisted. I replied that my
instructions were to hoist the flag, and that I intended to do
so. … The Egyptian flag was hoisted … at 1 P. M. with due
ceremony in the presence of the British and Egyptian troops,
and a salute of twenty-one guns was fired.
{200}
I should add that, in the course of the conversation, I
informed M. Marchand that, in addition to my verbal protest, I
intended to make a formal protest in writing, and this I duly
handed him before leaving Fashoda. During these somewhat
delicate proceedings nothing could have exceeded, the
politeness and courtesy of the French officers. Having
officially appointed Major Jackson Commandant of the Fashoda
district, and leaving with him a battalion of infantry, four
guns, and a gun-boat, I proceeded south with the remainder of
the troops and four gun-boats. …
"I had no opportunity for a further interview with M.
Marchand, who, I venture to think, holds at Fashoda a most
anomalous position—encamped with 120 men on a narrow strip of
land, surrounded by marshes, cut off from access to the
interior, possessing only three small boats without oars or
sails and an inefficient steam-launch which has lately been
dispatched on along journey south, short of ammunition and
supplies, his followers exhausted by years of continuous
hardship, yet still persisting in the prosecution of his
impracticable undertaking in the face of the effective
occupation and administration of the country I have been able
to establish. It is impossible not to entertain the highest
admiration for the courage, devotion, and indomitable spirit
displayed by M. Marchand's expedition, but our general
impression was one of astonishment that an attempt should have
been made to carry out a project of such magnitude and danger
by the dispatch of so small and ill-equipped a force which—as
their Commander remarked to me, was neither in a position to
resist a second Dervish attack nor to retire—indeed, had our
destruction of the Khalifa's power at Omdurman been delayed a
fortnight, in all probability he and his companions would have
been massacred. The claims of M. Marchand to have occupied the
Bahr-el-Ghazal and Fashoda Provinces with the force at his
disposal would be ludicrous did not the sufferings and
privations his expedition endured during their two years'
arduous journey render the futility of their efforts
pathetic."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: Egypt, Numbers 2 and 3, 1898).
The "Fashoda incident," as it was described, caused great
excitement in both England and France, and threatened for some
weeks to involve the two countries in war. Both army feeling
and popular feeling in France very nearly forced the
government to persist in what was plainly an ill-considered
and inopportune movement, and to hold untenable ground. But
better sense prevailed, and, on the 2d of November, when the
Sirdar, Lord Kitchener, who had visited England, was being
feasted and given the freedom of London, at Guildhall, Lord
Salisbury was able to make a dramatic announcement of the
closing of the dispute. "I received," he said, speaking at the
banquet, "from the French ambassador this afternoon the
information that the French Government had come to the
conclusion that the occupation of Fashoda was of no sort of
value to the French Republic, and they thought that, under
those circumstances, to persist in an occupation which only
cost them money and did them harm, merely because some
people—some bad advisers—thought it might be disagreeable to
an unwelcome neighbor, would not show the wisdom with which, I
think, the French Republic has been uniformly guided, and they
have done what I believe many other governments would have
done in the same position—they have resolved that the
occupation must cease."
EGYPT: A. D. 1898-1899.
The Gordon Memorial College at Khartoum.
On an appeal from Lord Kitchener, funds were raised in Great
Britain for the founding of a Gordon Memorial College at
Khartoum, to be, in the first instance, a school for
elementary instruction to the sons of the heads of districts
and villages.
EGYPT: A. D. 1898-1901.
The Barrage and Reservoir works on the Nile.
In February, 1898, the Khedive in Council approved a contract
concluded with the British firm of John Aird & Company, for
the construction of a dam or "barrage" across the Nile at
Assouan, drowning the cataracts and turning the river above
into a vast storage reservoir; with another dam at Assiout,
for the irrigation of Middle Egypt and the Fayum. In the
report of Lord Cromer for 1898, Sir William Garstein, at the
head of the Egyptian Public Works Department, gave the
following description of the plan of the works, then fairly
under way: "The dam which is to form the reservoir will be
built at the first cataract, a few miles south of Assouan. It
is designed to hold up water to a level of 106 metres above
mean sea level, or rather more than 20 metres above the
low-water level of the Nile at site. Its total length will be
2,156 yards with a width at crest of 26.4 feet. The width of
base at the deepest portion will be 82.5 feet, and the height
of the work at the deepest spot will be 92.4 feet. The dam
will be pierced by 180 openings, or under-sluices (140 of
which are 23.1 feet by 6.6 feet and 40 are 18.2 feet by 6.6
feet) provided with gates. These sluices will pass the flood
and surplus water through the dam, and by them the reservoir
will be emptied when water is required for irrigation in
Middle and Lower Egypt. Three locks will be built, and a
navigation channel made on the west of the river to enable
boats to pass up and down.
"The dam at Assiout will be what is called an open Barrage,
and will be similar in construction to the existing Barrages
on the Rosetta and Damietta branches. The new work will
consist of 111 bays or openings, each 16.5 feet wide, and each
bay will be provided with regulating gates. The total length
of the work will be 903 yards. A lock 53 feet in width will be
constructed on the west bank, large enough to pass the largest
tourist boat plying on the river. By regulating on this
Barrage water will be supplied in spring and summer to the
Ibrahimieh Canal, which irrigates Middle Egypt. At present
this canal has to be dredged to a depth of some 2 metres below
the lowest summer level in the river, and even with these the
crops suffer in years of low summer supply. A regulation
bridge with a lock will be built at the head of the Ibrahimieh
Canal in order to allow of the supply being reduced, if
necessary, in flood."
Great Britain, Papers by Command: Egypt,
Number 3, 1899.
By a singular happening, the Nile flood of 1899 was the lowest
recorded in the century, and gave an opportunity for the
barrage and irrigation works, barely begun as they were, to
give a convincing foretaste of their value. According to the
report of that year, "the distress was enormously less than on
all previous occasions of a failure of the flood. The area of
'sharaki,' or land unirrigated and therefore untaxed, which
had been 900,000 feddans in 1877 was only one-third of this in
1899.
{201}
Even in this area, which lay principally in Upper Egypt,
'distress,' says Sir William Garstein, 'was hardly felt at all
by the people. The immense amount of contract work in progress
in the country enabled them to obtain a good daily wage and
tided over the interval between the two crops.' In Lower Egypt
'the situation was saved by the Barrage, which, for the first
time in its history, was regulated upon throughout the flood.
Had it not been for the work done by this structure, there is
little doubt that large areas of crop would have been lost. As
it is, the cotton crop is very nearly the largest on record,
and the maize crop was up to the average.'" Of the progress of
the work at Assouan it is said: "After nearly a year had been
spent in accumulation of material and various preparations,
the foundation stone of the dam was laid by H. R. H. the Duke
of Connaught on February 12; and from that date the work was
carried on with less interruption than must have been
necessitated by a normal flood. Beginning on the east bank,
masonry was carried on throughout a length of 620 metres, and
of these, 360 metres were brought up to within two metres of
their full height. … Not less satisfactory progress was made
with the weir at Assiut, although the original design had to
be considerably altered."
On the 7th of February, 1901, a Press despatch from Cairo
reported: "Sir John Aird and Sir Benjamin Baker start for
England on Sunday next, having completed their visit of
inspection to the great engineering works at Assuan, where the
immense dam to hold up the waters of the Nile is being
constructed. The total extent of the dam is one mile and a
quarter, of which one mile and an eighth of the foundation is
finished. Temporary dams enabling the remaining section to be
put in are now carried across the channel. Pumps for getting
in the permanent dam foundations will be started next week.
The whole of the granite masonry required for the dam is cut
and ready to be laid in its place. The parapet alone remains
to be prepared. The portion of the dam remaining to be built
is that across the well-known deep western channel. The work
is of considerable difficulty, but the experience gained last
season in dealing with other channels has rendered the
engineers and contractors confident that equal success will be
obtained this year in the western channel. The dam is pierced
with 180 openings, about 23 feet high and 7 feet wide, which
openings are controlled by steel sluices. The work for the
latter is now well advanced. The discharge through these
sluices at high Nile may reach 15,000 tons of water per
second. The navigation channel and chain of locks are equally
advanced with the dam itself, and the lock gates will also be
in course of construction in about three months. Unless
anything unforeseen occurs the reservoirs will be in operation
for the Nile flood of 1903. This will be well within the
contract time, although owing to the increased depth of the
foundations the work done by the contractors has been largely
increased.
"At Assiut the great regulating dam across the Nile approaches
completion, the foundations being practically all in position,
leaving a portion of the superstructure to be completed. The
sluice openings here number 119, all 16 feet wide. This dam is
somewhat similar in principle to the well-known barrage near
Cairo, but the details of construction are entirely different,
as the foundations are guarded against undermining by a
complete line of cast iron and steel-piling above and below
the work. The barrage itself is constructed of high-class
masonry instead of brickwork as at the old barrage. Although
the Assiut barrage is overshadowed by the greater magnitude of
the Assuan dam, it will, doubtless, rank second as the
monumental work of Egypt."
EGYPT: A. D. 1899 (January).
The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium established in the Sudan.
The following agreement between the British government and
that of the Khedive of Egypt, relative to the future
administration of the Sudan, establishing a condominium or
joint dominion therein, was signed at Cairo on the 19th of
January, 1899, and made public the same day:
Whereas certain provinces in the Sudan which were in rebellion
against the authority of His Highness the Khedive have now
been reconquered by the joint military and financial efforts
of Her Britannic Majesty's Government and the Government of
His Highness the Khedive; and whereas it has become necessary
to decide upon a system for the administration of and for the
making of laws for the said reconquered provinces, under which
due allowance may be made for the backward and unsettled
condition of large portions thereof, and for the varying
requirements of different localities; and whereas it is
desired to give effect to the claims which have accrued to Her
Britannic Majesty's Government by right of conquest, to share
in the present settlement and future working and development
of the said system of administration and legislation; and
whereas it is conceived that for many purposes Wadi Haifa and
Suákin may be most effectively administered in conjunction
with the reconquered provinces to which they are respectively
adjacent; now, it is hereby agreed and declared by and between
the Undersigned, duly authorized for that purpose, as follows:
ARTICLE I.
The word "Sudan" in this Agreement means all the territories
South of the 22nd parallel of latitude, which:
1. Have never been evacuated by Egyptian troops since the year
1882; or
2.
Which, having before the late rebellion in the Sudan been
administered by the Government of His Highness the Khedive,
were temporarily lost to Egypt, and have been reconquered by
Her Majesty's Government and the Egyptian Government acting in
concert; or
3. Which may hereafter be reconquered by the two Governments
acting in concert.
ARTICLE II.
The British and Egyptian flags shall be used together, both on
land and water, throughout the Sudan, except in the town of
Suákin, in which locality the Egyptian flag alone shall be
used.
ARTICLE III.
The supreme military and civil command in the Sudan shall be
vested in one officer, termed the "Governor-General of the
Sudan." He shall be appointed by Khedivial Decree on the
recommendation of Her Britannic Majesty's Government, and
shall be removed only by Khedivial Decree, with the consent of
Her Britannic Majesty's Government.
{202}
ARTICLE IV.
Laws, as also Orders and Regulations with the full force of
law, for the good government of the Sudan, and for regulating
the holding, disposal, and devolution of property of every
kind therein situate, may from time to time be made, altered,
or abrogated by Proclamation of the Governor-General. Such
Laws, Orders, and Regulations may apply to the whole of any
named part of the Sudan, and may, either explicitly or by
necessary implication, alter or abrogate any existing Law or
Regulation. All such Proclamations shall be forthwith notified
to Her Britannic Majesty's Agent and Consul-General in Cairo, and
to the President of the Council of Ministers of His Highness
the Khedive.
ARTICLE V.
No Egyptian Law, Decree, Ministerial Arrêté, or other
enactment hereafter to be made or promulgated shall apply to
the Sudan or any part thereof, save in so far as the same
shall be applied by Proclamation of the Governor-General in
manner hereinbefore provided.
ARTICLE VI.
In the definition by Proclamation of the conditions under
which Europeans, of whatever nationality, shall be at liberty
to trade with or reside in the Sudan, or to hold property
within its limits, no special privileges shall be accorded to
the subjects of anyone or more Power.
ARTICLE VII.
Import duties on entering the Sudan shall not be payable on
goods coming from Egyptian territory. Such duties may,
however, be levied on goods coming from elsewhere than
Egyptian territory, but in the case of goods entering the
Sudan at Suákin, or any other port on the Red Sea Littoral,
they shall not exceed the corresponding duties for the time
being leviable on goods entering Egypt from abroad. Duties may
be levied on goods leaving the Sudan at such rates as may from
time to time be prescribed by Proclamation.
ARTICLE VIII.
The jurisdiction of the Mixed Tribunals shall not extend, nor
be recognized for any purpose whatsoever, in any part of the
Sudan, except in the town of Suákin.
ARTICLE IX.
Until, and save so far as it shall be otherwise determined, by
Proclamation, the Sudan, with the exception of the town of
Suákin, shall be and remain under martial law.
ARTICLE X.
No Consuls, Vice-Consuls, or Consular Agents shall be
accredited in respect of nor allowed to reside in the Sudan,
without the previous consent of Her Britannic Majesty's
Government.
ARTICLE XI.
The importation of slaves into the Sudan, as also their
exportation, is absolutely prohibited. Provision shall be made
by Proclamation for the enforcement of this Regulation.
ARTICLE XII.
It is agreed between the two Governments that special
attention shall be paid to the enforcement of the Brussels Act
of the 2nd July 1890, in respect to the import, sale, and
manufacture of fire-arms and their munitions, and distilled or
spirituous liquors.
Done in Cairo, the 19th January, 1899.
(Signed) Boutros Ghali-Cromer.
A. S. White, The Expansion of Egypt,
Appendix V. (New York: New Amsterdam Book Company)
By a subsequent, agreement signed July 10, the exceptions in
the above relative to Suákin were abrogated.
EGYPT: A. D. 1899-1900.
Final defeat and death of the Khalifa.
Capture of Osman Digna.
Condition of the Sudan.
The Khalifa, who escaped from the scene of his overthrow at
Omdurman, in 1898, kept a following of his own tribe, the
Baggaras, sufficient to give trouble for more than another
year. At length, late in November, 1899, he was overtaken by
Sir Francis Wingate, who succeeded General Kitchener as
Governor-General of the Sudan, and was killed in a battle
fought near Gedil. Again Osman Digna, his able lieutenant,
escaped; but in January of the following year the latter was
captured and taken to Suez.
In a report to Lord Salisbury, made on the 20th of February,
1900, Lord Cromer, British Agent and Consul-General in Egypt,
gave the following account of the general state of affairs in
the Sudan:
"The territorial situation may be briefly described as
follows:—The frontier between the Soudan and the Italian
Colony of Erythræa has now been delimitated from Ras Kasar, on
the Red Sea, to Sabderat, a few miles east of Kassala.
Negotiations are proceeding which will, without doubt, result
before long in the delimitation of the small remaining portion
of the Italian frontier from Sabderat up to the point where it
strikes Abyssinian territory. The most friendly relations
exist between the British and Abyssinian Governments. The
general basis of a frontier arrangement in respect to the
country lying west of the Blue Nile has already been settled
with the Emperor Menelek. When the survey party, now being
employed, has finished its work, it may confidently be
expected that the detailed delimitation will be carried out
without much difficulty.
"An endeavour is being made to cut through the sudd which
obstructs the White Nile, and thus open up communication with
Uganda. To a certain extent this communication may be said to
be already established, for a mixed party, consisting of
British, French, and Belgian officers, with their followers,
arriving from the South, recently succeeded in getting through
and joining the Egyptian party, under Major Peake, which was
engaged in cutting the sudd. … From the moment of the
Khalifa's crushing defeat at Omdurman, the desert and Kordofan
tribes, with the exception of a certain number of Baggaras who
still adhered to the cause of their Chief, threw in their lot
with the Government. Most of these tribes, however, rendered
but little active assistance to the Government in the
subsequent operations against the Khalifa. Omdurman and the
Ghezireh [the tract of country lying south of Khartoum,
between the White and Blue Niles] were found to be full of
Arabs belonging to the Kordofan and far western tribes, who
had been brought from their homes by the Khalifa. They were
without any regular means of subsistence, but, in the existing
state of insecurity, it was for the time being impossible for
them to return to their own districts. … The inhabitants of
the districts which were raided by the Dervishes were obliged
to take refuge in the Ghezireh, with the result that the
situation remained practically unchanged until the Khalifa's
overthrow and death. Since then, the main objects of the
Government have been to send back to their homes the
inhabitants of the gum producing region, and to get rid of the
useless mouths from the Ghezireh. In respect to the first
point, some success has attended their efforts, but many
thousands of Arabs belonging to tribes whose homes are in
Kordofan and Darfour, still remain in the Ghezireh. … The
attitude of the Nubas and of other tribes in Central and
Southern Kordofan has, since the battle of Omdurman, been
perfectly satisfactory. … Some long time must certainly elapse
before prosperity returns to the tribes in the Soudan. The
population has wasted away under Dervish rule."
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
Egypt, Number 1, 1900, pages 43-44.
----------EGYPT: End--------
{203}
ELAM.
See (in volume 1)
BABYLONIA, PRIMITIVE;
(in volume 4)
SEMITES;
and (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA, and PERSIA.
ELANDSLAAGTE, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
ELBE-RHINE CANAL PROJECT, The.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (AUGUST); and 1901 (JANUARY).
EL CANEY, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).
ELECTRICAL SCIENCE, Recent advances in.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: ELECTRICAL.
ELIZABETH, Empress of Austria:
Assassination.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1898 (SEPTEMBER).
EL ZANJON, Treaty of.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1868-1885.
EMPLOYERS' FEDERATION, British.
See (in this volume)
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES; A. D. 1897.
EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY BILL, The English.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (MAY-JULY).
EMPRESS-DOWAGER, of China, The.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (OCTOBER), and after.
ENGINEERS, Strike and lockout of British.
See (in this volume)
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES: A. D. 1897.
----------ENGLAND (GREAT BRITAIN): Start--------
ENGLAND: A. D. 1894.
The commandeering question with the South African Republic.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1894.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1894-1895.
Retirement of Mr. Gladstone from public life.
Earl of Rosebery Prime Minister.
His speech on the "predominant member" and Home Rule.
Weakening and overthrow of the Liberal Government.
Dissolution of Parliament.
Conservative and Unionist triumph.
Third Ministry of Lord Salisbury.
Mr. Gladstone, who had passed his 84th year, whose health was
failing, and who might justly consider that his public work
was done, resigned his post as Prime Minister, on the 2d of
March, 1894, and the Earl of Rosebery, on his recommendation,
was called by the Queen to take his place. Slight changes,
otherwise, were made in the cabinet, but the spirit in the
Liberal government was no longer the same. The new Premier
soon signified that his disposition in the matter of Home Rule
for Ireland was not quite what Mr. Gladstone's had been, by
using the following language in a speech (March 13) in the
House of Lords:
"Before Irish Home Rule is conceded by the Imperial Parliament
England, as the predominant member of the partnership of the
three kingdoms, will have to be convinced of its justice. That
may seem to be a considerable admission to make, because your
lordships will know that the majority of English members of
Parliament, ejected from England proper, are hostile to Home
Rule. But I believe that the conviction of England in regard
to Home Rule depends on one point alone, and that is the
conduct of Ireland herself. I believe that if we can go on
showing this comparative absence of agrarian crime; if we can
point to the continued harmony of Ireland with the great
Liberal party of this country; if we can go on giving proofs
and pledges that Ireland is entitled to be granted that boon
which she has never ceased to demand since the Act of Union
was passed. I believe that the conversion of England will not
be of a slow or difficult character. My lords, the question of
Home Rule is one that I regard not from the point of view of
Ireland only. It has for me a triple aspect. It has, in the
first place, the aspect that I believe that Ireland will never
be contented until this measure of Home Rule be granted to
her; and that, though you may come in on other issues and
succeed us who sit here, your policy of palliatives is bound
to fail. In the second place, I believe that not merely have
we in our Irish policy to satisfy those who live in the island
of Ireland itself, encompassed, as Mr. Disraeli once said, by
that melancholy ocean, we have not merely to satisfy the Irish
themselves within Ireland, but, for the good of our Empire and
for the continuity and solidarity of our relations with our
brethren across the Atlantic, it is necessary that we should
produce an Irish policy which shall satisfy the Irish people.
And, lastly, I view it from the highest Imperial grounds,
because I believe that the maintenance of this Empire depends,
not on centralization, but on decentralization, and that if
you once commence to tread this path, you will have to give
satisfaction under the same conditions certainly to Scotland,
and possibly to Wales, not in the same degree or possibly in
the same way, but so as to relieve this groaning Imperial
Parliament from the burden of legislation under which it
labours. I will not detain you further on this subject
to-night. I did not mean to dilate so much on the question of
Home Rule."
His remarks seemed to show an intention to postpone the
pressing of the measure. Distrust arose among the Irish and
uncertainty was created in the mind of the Liberal party. It
became evident very quickly that the Liberals, with the loss
of their old leader, had lost heart and faith in the policy to
which he had committed them, and that a serious weakening of
the political energies of the party had been produced. No
measures which raised troublesome issues were undertaken in
Parliament during the year of Mr. Gladstone's retirement: but,
at the session which opened in the following February (1895), the
government brought forward a number of high]y important bills.
{204}
The first to be introduced was a bill "to terminate the
Establishment of the Church of England in Wales and Monmouth."
The bill made provision for the creation of a representative
Church body, giving power to the bishops, clergy and laity to
hold synods and to legislate on ecclesiastical matters. It
entrusted ecclesiastical revenues to a commission; provided
for the transfer of churches and parsonages to the
representative body of the Church, and of burial grounds and
glebes to parish, district, and town councils; other property
of the Church to be vested in the commission before mentioned,
which should also have the charge of cathedrals, to keep them in
repair. The bill had its first reading on the 28th of
February, and its second on the 1st of April, but went no
further. It shared the fate of the other measures of the
Government, including a bill to establish local control of the
liquor traffic, and others for the remedying of defects in the
Irish Land Law, and for the abolition of plural voting, all of
which were extinguished by the sudden and unexpected overthrow
of the Government on the 21st of June. It was defeated on a
motion to reduce the salary of the Secretary for War, which
was made for no purpose but to start a question as to the
adequacy of the provision of certain ammunition stored for
use. When the vote was found to be against the Government
there was great surprise in both parties. But the Ministry had
been steadily losing support and was quite willing to resign,
which it did the next day. Lord Salisbury was sent for by the
Queen and accepted the task of forming a new Government, with
the understanding that Parliament should be dissolved as soon
as practicable, and the will of the country ascertained. In
the new Government, Lord Salisbury filled the office of
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, with that of Prime
Minister; Mr. A. J. Balfour became First Lord of the Treasury;
Sir Michael Hicks-Beach Chancellor of the Exchequer; Mr.
Joseph Chamberlain Secretary of State for the Colonies; Mr. G.
J. Goschen First Lord of the Admiralty. Before the dissolution
of Parliament, which occurred on the 6th of July, a bill for
the amendment of the Factories Act, on which both parties
agreed, was passed. The elections that followed, beginning
July 13, resulted in the return of a majority of 152 in favor
of the new Ministry, which represented the coalition of
Conservatives and Liberal Unionists. The majority of the
popular vote on the same side in the three kingdoms was a
little more than 30,000, in a total poll of 4,792,512; but in
Eng]and the new Government received a majority of some
300,000. In Ireland the vote went heavily against them, and in
Wales and Scotland to a lighter extent. Of the Irish members
elected, 12 were of the Parnell faction and 69 Anti-Parnell.
The new Parliament came together August 12, and, after a brief
session, at which little was done, was prorogued September 5.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1895.
Enforcement of claims against Nicaragua.
See (in this volume)
CENTRAL AMERICA (NICARAGUA): A. D. 1894-1895.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1895.
The question of Chitral.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1895 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1895 (January).
Agreement with France defining the boundaries of the
Hinterland of Sierra Leone.
See (in this volume)
SIERRA LEONE PROTECTORATE.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1895 (March-July).
Agreement with Russia concerning the northern Afghan frontier
and spheres of influence in the Pamir region.
See (in this volume)
AFGHANISTAN: A. D. 1895.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1895 (July-November).
Correspondence with the Government of the United States
on the Venezuela boundary question.
See (in this volume)
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1895 (JULY) and (NOVEMBER).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1895 (November).
Action on the closing of the Vaal River Drifts by the South
African Republic.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1895 (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1895 (December).
Message of the President of the United States to Congress
on the British Guiana-Venezuela boundary dispute.
See (in this volume)
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1895 (DECEMBER).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1895-1896 (November-January).
Discontent and revolutionary conspiracy of Uitlanders in
the Transvaal.
The Jameson Raid.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1895 (NOVEMBER);
and A. D. 1895-1896.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1895-1896 (December-January).
The feeling in England and America over the
Venezuela boundary dispute.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1895-1896 (DECEMBER-JANUARY).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1896.
Establishment of the Sierra Leone Protectorate.
See (in this volume)
SIERRA LEONE PROTECTORATE.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1896.
Report on Old-Age Pensions.
The question of the practicability and expediency of a
national system of pensions for old age, which had been
agitated in England for some years, and which a royal
commission, appointed in 1893, had already examined with great
thoroughness and no definite result, was referred in 1896 to a
committee of financial experts, with Lord Rothschild at their
head. This committee reported that it could recommend no
scheme as satisfactory, though it put forward that of Sir
Spencer Walpole as open to less objection than others. The
scheme in question was as follows:
"1. Any person at 65 having an assured income of not less than
2s. 6d. and not more than 5s. may apply for a pension.
2. If the pensioning authority is satisfied as to the income a
pension may be granted.
3. The applicant must not be physically or mentally infirm.
4. To an income of 2s. 6d. 2s. 6d. is to be added.
To an income of 3s. 0d. 2s. 0d. is to be added.
To an income of 4s. 0d. 1s. 0d. is to be added.
5. 'Assured income' includes real estate, leasehold property,
securities, or annuities (Government, friendly society, or
insurance office), but not out-relief.
6. The guardians are to be the pensioning authority.
7. Not more than half of the pension is to be paid out of
Imperial taxation, the remainder out of local rates.
8. The pension is not to involve disenfranchisement."
The committee, however, pointed out some very strong
objections to this scheme, which they roughly estimated as
likely to apply to 443,333 persons, and to cost £2,300,000 a
year. On the whole, while they regarded the Walpole scheme as
the best suggested, the Rothschild committee held that, like
the rest, its inherent disadvantages outweighed its merits. In
effect, they pronounced the establishment of old-age pensions
to be impracticable.
{205}
ENGLAND: A. D. 1896.
Report of Royal Commission on the financial relations
between Great Britain and Ireland.
See (in this volume)
IRELAND: A. D. 1896-1897.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1896 (January).
Agreement with France concerning Siam.
See (in this volume)
SIAM: A. D. 1896-1899.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1896 (January).
Excitement over the German Emperor's message to President
Kruger on the Jameson Raid.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1896 (JANUARY).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1896 (January-February).
Appointment of United States Commission to investigate
the Venezuela boundary.
Reopening of discussion with the government of the United
States on the arbitration of the dispute.
See (in this volume)
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1896-1899.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1896 (February).
New treaty with the United States for arbitration of
Bering Sea claims.
See (in this volume)
BERING SEA QUESTIONS.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1896 (March-September).
Expedition to Dongola.
Beginning of an Anglo-Egyptian movement for the
recovery of the Sudan.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1896 (May).
The New Radical party.
A New Radical party, under the leadership of Sir Charles Dilke
and Mr. Labouchere, issued a statement of its policy (May 19),
setting forth as its chief aim "the democritisation and
devolution of Parliament."
ENGLAND: A. D. 1896 (June).
The Agricultural Land Bill.
Among the measures brought forward in Parliament this year and
carried by the Conservative government was one which aroused
bitter feeling and was sharply denounced, as being legislation
in the interest of the landholding class, at the expense of
the community at large. A ground of justice for it was found
by its supporters, however, in the extreme agricultural
depression of the time. This Agricultural Land Bill, as it was
styled, provided that, in the case of every rate to which it
applied, agricultural land should be assessed in future on
half its ratable value, while houses and buildings would still
be assessed on the whole of their ratable value. The bill
passed the Commons near the end of June, and went speedily
through the House of Lords.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1896 (July).
Parliamentary movement to investigate the
British South Africa Company.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY);
A. D. 1896 (JULY).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1896 (August).
Suppression of an usurper in Zanzibar.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1896 (ZANZIBAR).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1896 (September).
Papal Bull declaring Anglican orders invalid.
See (in this volume)
PAPACY: A. D. 1896 (SEPTEMBER).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1896 (November).
Agreement with the United States for the settlement of the
Venezuela dispute.
See (in this volume)
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1896-1899.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1896-1897.
"The Voluntary Schools Act" and
"The Elementary Education Act."
The Conservative Ministry of Lord Salisbury came to power, in
England, in 1895, under pledges to the Church that it would
revise the educational system in the interest of the
"Voluntary Schools" (mostly Church schools), as against the
secular or non-sectarian "Board Schools" which were steadily
gaining ground from the former, and proving superior
efficiency.
See, in volume 1,
EDUCATION, MODERN: ENGLAND: A. D. 1699-1870.
A bill to that end, for England and Wales, was introduced at
the end of March, 1896. In support of the bill it was stated
that, in the previous year, the voluntary schools educated
2,445,812 children, as against 1,879,218 educated in the board
schools, though the voluntary schools were, as a rule,
"understaffed," had less qualified teachers, and labored
generally under financial difficulties; but that a large
proportion of the members of the Church of England, as well as
Roman Catholics, made it a point of conscience that their
children should be educated by teachers of their own
denomination, and could not be forced to send them to board
schools without a gross exercise of religious intolerance;
that, finally, it would cost £25,345,635 to replace the
voluntary schools, and £2,250,000 yearly to maintain board
schools in their place, if they were not kept up. Therefore,
it was contended that they should receive a more liberal
allowance of state aid by parliamentary grant, to keep them
alive and improve their efficiency. Connected with provisions
to that effect were others which would completely reorganize
the system of school administration and control. They proposed
to take the administration to a great extent from the
Committee of Council on Education, where it had been
centralized, and to place it in the County Councils, to be
exercised by statutory educational committees appointed by
each Council. By what was called a "conscience clause," the
bill required separate religious instruction to be given to
children in schools (board or voluntary) wherever a
"reasonable number of parents" required it. The measure was
strenuously opposed on the ground that its aim was the
extinction of the board schools; that it would give them only
£17,000 out of £500,000, and give it, said Lord Rosebery,
"without any vestige of control, so that in 8,000 places where
only Church of England schools existed the Nonconformists
would have only the vague protection of the conscience
clause." So much debate was provoked by the bill, and so much
time was being consumed by it, that the Government was forced
to drop the measure in June, in order to save the other
business of the session from being spoiled,—promising,
however, to bring it forward again the next January. The
promise was redeemed, on the convening of Parliament in
January, 1897, in so far that a new Education Bill was brought
forward by the government; but the measure was very different
from that of the previous session. It was addressed solely to
the end of strengthening the voluntary or Church schools
against the board schools, firstly by increasing the aid to
them from public funds, and secondly by uniting them in
organized associations, under stronger governing bodies. The
main provisions of the bill were as follows:
"(1.) For aiding voluntary schools there shall be annually
paid out of moneys provided by Parliament an aid grant, not
exceeding in the aggregate five shillings per scholar for the
whole number of scholars in those schools.
{206}
"(2.) The aid grant shall be distributed by the Education
Department to such voluntary schools and in such manner and
amounts, as the Department think best for the purpose of
helping necessitous schools and increasing their efficiency,
due regard being had to the maintenance of voluntary
subscriptions.
"(3.) If associations of schools are constituted in such
manner in such areas and with such governing bodies
representative of the managers as are approved by the
Education Department, there shall be allotted to each
association while so approved, (a) a share of the aid
grant to be computed according to the number of scholars in
the schools of the association at the rate of five shillings
per scholar, or, if the Department fix different rates for
town and country schools respectively (which they are hereby
empowered to do) then at those rates; and (b) a
corresponding share of any sum which may be available out of
the aid grant after distribution has been made to unassociated
schools.
"(4.) The share so allotted to each such association shall be
distributed as aforesaid by the Education Department after
consulting the governing body of the association, and in
accordance with any scheme prepared by that body which the
Department for the time being approve.
"(5.) The Education Department may exclude a school from any
share of the aid grant which it might otherwise receive, if,
in the opinion of the Department, it unreasonably refuses or
fails to join such an association, but the refusal or failure
shall not be deemed unreasonable if the majority of the
schools in the association belong to a religious denomination
to which the school in question does not itself belong.
"(6.) The Education Department may require, as a condition of
a school receiving a share of the aid grant, that the accounts
of the receipts and expenditure of the school shall be
annually audited in accordance with the regulations of the
Department.
"(7.) The decision of the Education Department upon any
question relating to the distribution or allotment of the aid
grant, including the question whether an association is or is
not in conformity with this Act, and whether a school is a
town or a country school, shall be final."
The passage of the bill was resisted strenuously by the
Liberals in the House of Commons. "Whether they regarded the
bill from an educational, a constitutional, a parliamentary,
or a social aspect," said Mr. John Morley, in his concluding
speech in the debate, "he and his friends regarded it as a
mischievous and reactionary measure." But the opposition was
of no avail. The bill passed its third reading in the House of
Commons, on the 25th of March, with a majority of 200 in its
favor, the Irish Nationalists giving it their support. In the
House of Lords it was ruled to be a money bill, which their
lordships could not amend, and they passed it with little
debate. In April, the government brought forward a second
school bill, which increased the parliamentary grant to Board
schools by £110,000. The sum was so trivial that it excited
the scorn of the friends of the Board schools, and did nothing
towards conciliating them. It became a law on the 3d of June.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1896-1897 (May-April).
Continued controversies with the South African Republic.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1896-1897 (MAY-APRIL).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (January-May).
Arbitration Treaty with the United States defeated in
the United States Senate.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (JANUARY-MAY).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (February).
Indemnity for Jameson Raid claimed
by the South African Republic.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (February).
Loan for national defense.
Purchase of 60 square miles on Salisbury Plain.
A bill which authorized a loan of £5,458,000 for purposes of
national defense was passed rapidly through both Houses of
Parliament in February. It included an item of £450,000 for
the purchase of 40,000 acres (60 square miles) on Salisbury
Plain, for military manœuvres.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (February).
Punitive expedition against Benin.
See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1897.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (February-July).
Parliamentary investigation of the Jameson Raid.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY-JULY).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (April).
Increase of armament in South Africa.
The Government accused of a war policy.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1897 (APRIL).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (May).
Treaty with Menelek of Abyssinia.
See (in this volume)
ABYSSINIA: A. D. 1897.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (May-June).
New cessions and concessions from China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1897 (MAY-JUNE).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (May-July).
The Workmen's Compensation Act.
A subject which had grown urgent, in England, for
parliamentary attention, was that of a better provision in law
for securing proper compensation to workmen for accidental
injuries suffered in the course of their employment. The
measure was not one that a Conservative government would be
likely, under ordinary circumstances, to take up; since the
class of large employers of labor, from which opposition to it
came, were mostly in the Conservative ranks. But the Liberal
Unionists, now in parliamentary coalition with the
Conservatives, were called upon to favor such a piece of
legislation by their creed, and rumor said that they bargained
for it with their political partners, in exchange for the
support they gave unwillingly to the Voluntary Schools Bill.
At all events, a bill which was first called the Employers'
Liability Bill, but finally named the Workmen's Compensation
Bill, was brought in to the House of Commons, by the
government, in May, and was carried, after much debate,
through both Houses in July. The essential provisions of the
Act as passed are the following:
"I.
(1.) If in any employment to which this Act applies personal
injury by accident arising out of and in the course of the
employment is caused to a workman, his employer shall, subject
as herein-after mentioned, be liable to pay compensation in
accordance with the First Schedule to this Act.
{207}
(2.) Provided that:
(a.) The employer shall not be liable under this Act in
respect of any injury which does not disable the workman
for a period of at least two weeks from earning full wages
at the work at which he was employed;
(b.) When the injury was caused by the personal negligence
or wilful act of the employer, or of some person for whose
act or default the employer is responsible, nothing in this
Act shall affect any civil liability of the employer, but in
that case the workman may, at his option, either claim
compensation under this Act, or take the same proceedings as
were open to him before the commencement of this Act; but
the employer shall not be liable to pay compensation for
injury to a workman by accident arising out of and in the
course of the employment both independently of and also
under this Act, and shall not be liable to any proceedings
independently of this Act, except in case of such personal
negligence or wilful act as aforesaid;
(c.) If it is proved that the injury to a workman is
attributable to the serious and wilful misconduct of that
workman, any compensation claimed in respect of that injury
shall be disallowed.
(3.) If any question arises in any proceedings under this Act
as to the liability to pay compensation under this Act
(including any question as to whether the employment is one to
which this Act applies), or as to the amount or duration of
compensation under this Act, the question, if not settled by
agreement, shall, subject to the provisions of the First
Schedule to this Act, be settled by arbitration, in accordance
with the Second Schedule to this Act. …
"2.
(1.)
Proceedings for the recovery under this Act of compensation
for an injury shall not be maintainable unless notice of the
accident has been given as soon as practicable after the
happening thereof and before the workman has voluntarily left
the employment in which he was injured, and unless the claim
for compensation with respect to such accident has been made
within six months from the occurrence of the accident causing
the injury, or, in case of death, within six months from the
time of death. …
"3.
(1.)
If the Registrar of Friendly Societies, after taking steps to
ascertain the views of the employer and workmen, certifies
that any scheme of compensation, benefit, or insurance for the
workmen of an employer in any employment, whether or not such
scheme includes other employers and their workmen, is on the
whole not less favourable to the general body of workmen and
their dependants than the provisions of this Act, the employer
may, until the certificate is revoked, contract with any of
those workmen that the provisions of the scheme shall be
substituted for the provisions of this Act, and thereupon the
employer shall be liable only in accordance with the scheme,
but, save as aforesaid, this Act shall apply notwithstanding
any contract to the contrary made after the commencement of
this Act. …
"7.
(1.)
This Act shall apply only to employment by the undertakers as
herein-after defined, on or in or about a railway, factory,
mine, quarry, or engineering work, and to employment by the
undertakers as herein-after defined on, in or about any
building which exceeds thirty feet in height, and is either
being constructed or repaired by means of a scaffolding, or
being demolished, or on which machinery driven by steam,
water, or other mechanical power, is being used for the
purpose of the construction, repair, or demolition thereof.
(2.)
In this Act— … 'Undertakers' in the case of a railway means
the railway company; in the case of a factory, quarry, or
laundry means the occupier thereof within the meaning of the
Factory and Workshop Acts, 1878 to 1895; in the case of a mine
means the owner thereof within the meaning of the Coal Mines
Regulation Act, 1887, or the Metalliferous Mines Regulation
Act, 1872, as the case may be, and in the case of an
engineering work means the person undertaking the
construction, alteration, or repair; and in the case of a
building means the persons undertaking the construction,
repair, or demolition. … 'Workman' includes every person who
is engaged in an employment to which this Act applies, whether
by way of manual labour or otherwise, and whether his
agreement is one of service or apprenticeship or otherwise,
and is expressed or implied, is oral or in writing."
The "First Schedule" referred to in the first section of the
Act prescribes rules for determining compensation, those
principally important being as follows; "The amount of
compensation under this Act shall be—(a) where death results
from the injury—(i) if the workman leaves any dependants
wholly dependent upon his earnings at the time of his death, a
sum equal to his earnings in the employment of the same
employer during the three years next preceding the injury, or
the sum of one hundred and fifty pounds, whichever of those
sums is the larger, but not exceeding in any case three
hundred pounds, provided that the amount of any weekly
payments made under this Act shall be deducted from such sum,
and if the period of the workman's employment by the said
employer has been less than the said three years, then the
amount of his earnings during the said three years shall be
deemed to be 156 times his average weekly earnings during the
period of his actual employment under the said employer;
(ii)
if the workman does not leave any such dependants, but leaves
any dependants in part dependent upon his earnings at the time
of his death, such sum, not exceeding in any case the amount
payable under the foregoing provisions, as may be agreed upon,
or, in default of agreement, may be determined, on arbitration
under this Act, to be reasonable and proportionate to the
injury to the said dependants; and
(iii)
if he leaves no dependants, the reasonable expenses of his
medical attendance and burial, not exceeding ten pounds; (b)
where total or partial incapacity for work results from the
injury, a weekly payment during the incapacity after the
second week not exceeding fifty per cent. of his average
weekly earnings during the previous twelve months, if he has
been so long employed, but if not, then for any less period
during which he has been in the employment of the same
employer, such weekly payment not to exceed one pound."
60 & 61 Victoria, chapter 37.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (May-October).
Reassertion of suzerainty over the South African Republic.
Refusal of arbitration.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1897 (MAY-OCTOBER); and 1898-1899.
{208}
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (June).
The "Diamond Jubilee" of Queen Victoria.
The sixtieth anniversary of the coronation of Queen Victoria
was celebrated in London on the 20th of June, by religious
services of great solemnity and impressiveness, and, two days
later, by pageants of extraordinary pomp and magnificence, in
which representatives of every people who acknowledge the
queen's supremacy bore a part. Numerous functions and
ceremonies followed, to many of which the aged sovereign was
able to lend her presence. At the end of all, on the 15th of
July, she addressed the following letter to the millions of
her subjects throughout the world: "I have frequently
expressed my personal feelings to my people, and though on
this memorable occasion there have been many official
expressions of my deep sense of the unbounded loyalty evinced
I cannot rest satisfied without personally giving utterance to
these sentiments. It is difficult for me on this occasion to
say how truly touched and grateful I am for the spontaneous
and universal outburst of loyal attachment and real affection
which I have experienced on the completion of the sixtieth
year of my reign. During my progress through London on the
22nd of June this great enthusiasm was shown in the most
striking manner, and can never be effaced from my heart. It is
indeed deeply gratifying, after so many years of labour and
anxiety for the good of my beloved country, to find that my
exertions have been appreciated throughout my vast empire. In
weal and woe I have ever had the true sympathy of all my
people, which has been warmly reciprocated by myself. It has
given me unbounded pleasure to see so many of my subjects from
all parts of the world assembled here, and to find them
joining in the acclamations of loyal devotion to myself, and I
would wish to thank them all from the depth of my grateful
heart. I shall ever pray God to bless them and to enable me
still to discharge my duties for their welfare as long as life
lasts.
VICTORIA, R. I."
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (June-July).
Conference of colonial premiers with the Secretary of
State for the Colonies.
Discussion of important questions.
Denunciation of commercial treaties with Germany and Belgium.
"On Thursday, the 24th of June, the Prime Ministers of Canada,
New South Wales, Victoria, New Zealand, Queensland, Cape
Colony, South Australia, Newfoundland, Tasmania, Western
Australia, and Natal, assembled at the Colonial Office,
Downing Street, for the discussion of certain Imperial
questions with the Secretary of State for the Colonies. It was
decided that the proceedings should be informal and that the
general results only should be published. With the view of
giving a definite direction to the discussion, the Secretary
of State, in opening the proceedings, set forth the subjects
which he considered might usefully be discussed, so as to
secure an interchange of views upon them, and where they were
ripe for a statement of opinion, a definite resolution in
regard to them. [He did so in a speech of some length, after
which the several questions brought forward in his remarks
were discussed in succession at a series of meetings in the
Colonial Office.] The commercial relations of the United
Kingdom and the self-governing Colonies were first considered,
and the following resolutions were unanimously adopted:
1. That the Premiers of the self-governing Colonies
unanimously and earnestly recommend the denunciation, at the
earliest convenient time, of any treaties which now hamper the
commercial relations between Great Britain and her Colonies.
2. That in the hope of improving the trade relations between
the mother country and the Colonies, the Premiers present
undertake to confer with their colleagues with the view to
seeing whether such a result can be properly secured by a
preference given by the Colonies to the products of the United
Kingdom. Her Majesty's Government have already [July 31, 1897]
given effect to the first of these resolutions by formally
notifying to the Governments concerned their wish to terminate
the commercial treaties with Germany and Belgium, which alone
of the existing commercial treaties of the United Kingdom are
a bar to the establishment of preferential tariff relations
between the mother country and the Colonies. From and after
the 30th July 1898, therefore, there will be nothing in any of
Her Majesty's treaty obligations to preclude any action which any
of the Colonies may see fit to take in pursuance of the second
resolution. It is, however, right to point out that if any
Colony were to go farther and to grant preferential terms to
any Foreign Country, the provisions of the most favoured
nation clauses in many treaties between Her Majesty and other
powers, in which the Colonies are included, would necessitate
the concession of similar terms to those countries.
"On the question of the political relations between the mother
country and the self-governing Colonies, the resolutions
adopted were as follows:
1. The Prime Ministers here assembled are of opinion that the
present political relations between the United Kingdom and the
self-governing Colonies are generally satisfactory under the
existing condition of things. Mr. Seddon and Sir E. N. C.
Braddon dissented.
2. They are also of opinion that it is desirable, whenever and
wherever practicable, to group together under a federal union
those colonies which are geographically united. Carried
unanimously.
3. Meanwhile, the Premiers are of opinion that it would be
desirable to hold periodical conferences of representatives of
the Colonies and Great Britain for the discussion of matters
of common interest. Carried unanimously. Mr. Seddon and Sir E.
N. C. Braddon dissented from the first resolution because they
were of opinion that the time had already come when an effort
should be made to render more formal the political ties
between the United Kingdom and the Colonies. The majority of
the Premiers were not yet prepared to adopt this position, but
there was a strong feeling amongst some of them that with the
rapid growth of population in the Colonies, the present
relations could not continue indefinitely, and that some means
would have to be devised for giving the Colonies a voice in
the control and direction of those questions of Imperial
interest in which they are concerned equally with the mother
country. It was recognised at the same time that such a share
in the direction of Imperial policy would involve a
proportionate contribution in aid of Imperial expenditure, for
which at present, at any rate, the Colonies generally are not
prepared.
"On the question of Imperial defence, the various points
raised in the speech of the Secretary of State were fully
discussed;" but on this, and on some questions of minor
importance, no conclusions were definitely formulated.
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command, C.-8596, 1897).
{209}
The following reference to the "denunciation" of the treaties
appeared in the "London Statist" of August 7, 1897: "Last week
the British Government gave notice to Germany and Belgium of
its intention to terminate the commercial treaties with those
countries at the end of July next year, at the same time
expressing its willingness to conclude fresh treaties. This
important step is a fitting sequel to the jubilee festivities.
It is a graceful recognition of the great loyalty displayed by
our colonies toward the mother country and prepares the way to
that closer union which this paper has strongly advocated. In
twelve months' time, therefore, we shall be free from our
embarrassing engagements not to permit our colonies to place
higher or other import duties on the produce of Germany and
Belgium than upon the produce of the United Kingdom. Our
colonies will thus have complete freedom to place what duties
they choose on any produce they care to purchase from the
United Kingdom or from any other country, and if they so
desire they may place discriminating duties on their own
exports. The action taken indicates no change in the policy of
this country, and foreign nations need have no fear that
British markets will be closed to their produce. It is quite
possible that at some future time, when the colonies have much
further developed their resources and the struggle for
existence becomes still keener, we may be disposed to give a
greater preference to colonial than to foreign produce, but
that period has not yet come. Of course, the time may be
greatly hastened by the attitude of foreign countries. The
unfriendliness of Germany last year caused a wave of feeling
in this country in favor of a duty upon German goods, and the
Canadian offer of preferential duties to the mother country
has created a responsive desire to assist Canadian trade.
Should our other colonies follow the lead of Canada, which,
from Mr. Chamberlain's statement, appears most likely, a
strong movement might arise for giving them preferential
treatment, especially if, at the same time, Germany, Belgium,
or anyone else were disposed to raise their duties on British
goods."
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (July-October).
Discussion with American envoys of a bi-metallic agreement.
See (in this volume)
MONETARY QUESTIONS: A. D. 1897 (APRIL-OCTOBER).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (August).
Report on condition and prospects of West India colonies,
and Parliamentary action.
See (in this volume)
WEST INDIES, THE BRITISH: A. D. 1897.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897-1898.
Campaigns on the Nile.
Anglo-Egyptian conquest of the Sudan.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1897-1898.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897-1898.
Insurrections and mutiny in Uganda.
See (in this volume)
UGANDA: A. D. 1897-1898.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897-1898 (June-April).
Wars on the Afghan frontier of India.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1897-1898.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897-1898 (July-January).
The great strike and lock-out in the engineering trades.
See (in this volume)
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES:
A. D. 1897 (GREAT BRITAIN).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1898.
Alleged treaty with Portugal.
See (in this volume)
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1898.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1898.
Results of British occupation of Egypt.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1898.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (February).
British troops fighting in eight regions of the world.
"We are a people of peaceful traders—shopkeepers, our rivals
of the Continent affirm—and are consequently at war on only
eight points of the globe, with forces which in the aggregate
only just exceed sixty thousand men. There are thirty-five
thousand on the Indian Frontier fighting the clansmen of the
Northern Himalayas, who, according to the Afridi sub-officers
interrogated by Sir Henry Havelock-Allan, are all eager to
enter our service; twenty-five thousand about to defeat the
Khalifa at Omdurman; a thousand doing sentry duty in Crete;
four hundred putting down an outbreak in Mekran; three hundred
crushing a mutiny in Uganda; and some hundreds more restoring
order in Lagos, Borneo, and Basutoland. All these troops,
though of different nationalities—Englishmen, Sikhs, Ghoorkas,
Rajpoots, Malays, Egyptians, Soudanese, Haussas, and Wagandas—
are under British officers, are paid from funds under British
control, and are engaged in the self-same work, that of
solidifying the 'Pax Britannica,' so that a commercial
civilisation may have a fair chance to grow."
The Spectator (London), February 5, 1898.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (February).
Resentment shown to China for rejection of a loan,
through Russian influence.
Chinese agreement not to alienate the Yang-tsze region
and to open internal waters to steam navigation.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (February-May).
Native revolt in the Sierra Leone Protectorate.
See (in this volume)
SIERRA LEONE PROTECTORATE.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (March-April).
Unsuccessful opposition to Russian lease of Port Arthur
and Talienwan from China.
Compensatory British lease of Wei-hai Wei.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (MARCH-JULY).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (April-August).
Further exactions from China.
Lease of territory opposite Hong Kong, etc.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-AUGUST).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (May).
Death of Mr. Gladstone.
After a long and painful illness, the great statesman and
leader of the Liberal party in England, William Ewart
Gladstone, died on the 19th of May. His death drew tributes in
Parliament from his political opponents which exalted him quite
to the height of great distinction that those who followed him
would claim. It was said by Lord Salisbury that "the most
distinguished political name of the century had been withdrawn
from the roll of Englishmen." Mr. Balfour described him as
"the greatest member of the greatest deliberative assembly
that the world had yet seen": and expressed the belief that
"they would never again have in that assembly any man who
could reproduce what Mr. Gladstone was to his contemporaries."
Lord Rosebery paid an eloquent tribute to the dead statesman.
"This country." he said, "this nation, loves brave men. Mr.
Gladstone was the bravest of the brave. There was no cause so
hopeless that he was afraid to undertake it; there was no
amount of opposition that would cowe him when once he had
undertaken it. My lords, Mr. Gladstone always expressed a hope
that there might be an interval left to him between the end of
his political and of his natural life. That period was given
to him, for it is more than four years since he quitted the
sphere of politics. Those four years have been with him a
special preparation for his death, but have they not also been
a preparation for his death with the nation at large?
{210}
Had he died in the plenitude of his power as Prime Minister,
would it have been possible for a vigorous and convinced
Opposition to allow to pass to him, without a word of dissent,
the honours which are now universally conceded? Hushed for the
moment are the voices of criticism, hushed are the controversies
in which he took part; hushed for the moment is the very sound
of party faction. I venture to think that this is a notable
fact in our history. It was not so with the elder Pitt. It was
not so with the younger Pitt. It was not so with the elder
Pitt, in spite of his tragic end, of his unrivalled services,
and of his enfeebled old age. It was not so with the younger
Pitt, in spite of his long control of the country and his
absolute and absorbed devotion to the State. I think that we
should remember this as creditable not merely to the man, but
to the nation." With the consent of Mrs. Gladstone and family,
a public funeral was voted by Parliament, and the remains of the
great leader were laid, with simple but impressive ceremonies,
in Westminster Abbey, on the 28th of May.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (June).
The Sugar Conference at Brussels.
See (in this volume)
SUGAR BOUNTIES.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (July).
The Local Government Act for Ireland.
See (in this volume)
IRELAND: A. D. 1898 (JULY).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (July-December).
In the Chinese "Battle of Concessions."
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-DECEMBER).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (September-November).-
The Nile question with France.
Marchand's expedition at Fashoda.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1898 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (December).
Imperial Penny Postage.
On Christmas Day, 1898, the Imperial penny postage came into
operation,—i. e., it became possible to send for a penny a
letter not above half an ounce in weight to all places in the
British Empire, except the Australasian Colonies and the Cape.
"Thousands of small orders and business transactions and
millions of questions and answers will fly round the world at
a penny which were too heavily weighted at two-pence
halfpenny. The political effect of the fact that it will not
now be necessary to think whether an address is outside the
United Kingdom, but only whether it is inside the British
Empire, will be by no means insignificant. If people will only
let the Empire alone we shall ultimately weave out of many
varied strands—some thick, some thin—a rope to join the
Motherland and the Daughter States which none will be able to
break. Not an unimportant thread in the hawser will
be,—letters for a penny wherever the Union Jack is flown."
The Spectator (London),
December 31, 1898.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1898-1899.
Joint High Commission for settlement of pending questions
between the United States and Canada.
See (in this volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1898-1899.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1898-1899 (June-June).
Convention with France defining West African and
Sudan possessions.
See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1882-1899.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1899.
Dealings with anti-missionary demonstrations in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (January).
Agreement with Egypt, establishing the Anglo-Egyptian
Condominium in the Sudan.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (March-April).
Agreement with Russia concerning railway interests in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899 (MARCH-APRIL).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (May-June).
The Bloemfontein Conference with President Kruger.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1899 (MAY-JUNE).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (June-October).
Arbitration and settlement of the Venezuela boundary question.
See (in this volume)
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1896-1899.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (July).
Passage of the London Government Act.
See (in this volume)
LONDON: A. D. 1899.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (July-September).
Discussion of proposed amendments to the Franchise Law
of the South African Republic.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1899 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (August).
The Board of Education Act.
An Act of Parliament which became law on the 9th of August,
1899, and operative on the 1st of April, 1900, created a
national Board of Education, "charged with the superintendence
of matters relating to education in England and Wales," and
taking the place of the Committee of the Privy Council on
Education, by which that function had previously been
performed. The Act provided that the Board "shall consist of a
President, and of the Lord President of the Council (unless he
is appointed President of the Board), Her Majesty's Principal
Secretaries of State, the First Commissioner of Her Majesty's
Treasury, and the Chancellor of Her Majesty's Exchequer. … The
President of the Board shall be appointed by Her Majesty, and
shall hold office during Her Majesty's pleasure." The Act
provided further for the creation by Her Majesty in Council of
"a Consultative Committee consisting, as to not less than
two-thirds, of persons qualified to represent the views of
Universities and other bodies interested in education, for the
purpose of—(a) framing, with the approval of the Board of
Education, regulations for a register of teachers, … with an
entry in respect to each teacher showing the date of his
registration, and giving a brief record of his qualifications
and experience; and (b) advising the Board of Education on any
matter referred to the committee by the Board."
62 & 63 Victoria, chapter 33.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (August).
Instructions to the Governor of Jamaica.
See (in this volume) JAMAICA: A. D. 1899.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (September-October).
Preparations for war in South Africa.
The Boer Ultimatum.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL AND ORANGE FREE STATE):
A. D. 1899 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (October-November).
Opening circumstances of the war in South Africa.
Want of preparation.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (November).
Adhesion to the arrangement of an "open door" commercial
policy in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899-1900 (SEPTEMBER-FEBRUARY).
{211}
ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (November).
Withdrawal from the Samoan Islands, with compensations in the
Tonga and Solomon Islands and in Africa.
See (in this volume)
SAMOAN ISLANDS.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1899-1900.
Renewed investigation of the Old-Age Pension question.
On the initiative of the government, a fresh investigation of
the question of old-age pensions was opened in 1899 by a
select committee of the House of Commons, under the
chairmanship of Mr. Chaplin. The report of the Committee, made
in the following year, suggested the following plan: Any
person, aged 65, whether man or woman, who satisfied the
pension authority that he or she"
(1) Is a British subject;
(2) Is 65 years of age;
(3) Has not within the last 20 years been convicted of an
offence and sentenced to penal servitude or imprisonment
without the option of a fine;
(4) Has not received poor relief, other than medical relief,
unless under circumstances of a wholly exceptional character,
during twenty years prior to the application for a pension;
(5) Is resident within the district of the pension authority;
(6) Has not an income from any source of more than 10s. a
week; and
(7) Has endeavoured to the best of his ability, by his
industry or by the exercise of reasonable providence, to make
provision for himself and those immediately dependent on
him—"should receive a certificate to that effect and be
entitled to a pension. The amount of pension to be from 5s. to
7s. a week.
As a means of ascertaining approximately the number of persons
in the United Kingdom who would be pensionable under this
scheme, a test census was taken in certain districts made as
representative as possible by the inclusion of various kinds
of population. In each of the selected areas in Great Britain
a house-to-house visitation was made with a view of
ascertaining how many of the aged would satisfy the conditions
of the scheme. In Ireland a similar census had to be abandoned
as impracticable because "the officials, although they
proceeded courteously, were received with abuse"; but the Poor
Law inspectors framed some rough estimates after consultation
with local authorities. Altogether the inquiry in Great
Britain extended to a population of rather over half a million
persons. From facts thus obtained the following estimate of
the cost of the proposed pensioning project was deduced:
Estimated number of persons
over 65 years of age in 1901 2,016,000
Deduct:
1. For those whose incomes exceed 10s. a week 741,000
2. For paupers 515,000
3. For aliens, criminals, and lunatics 32,000
4. For inability to comply with thrift test 72,700
Total deductions 1,360,700
Estimated number of pensionable persons 655,000
Estimated cost (the average pension being
taken at 6s. a week) £9,976,000
Add administrative expenses (3 per cent.) £299,000
Total estimated cost. £10,275,000
In round figures. £10,300,000
The Committee estimated, still further, that the cost would
rise to £15,650,000 by 1921. No legislative action was taken
on the report.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1899-1900 (October-January).
Troops from Canada for the South African War.
See (in this volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1899-1900.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1899-1901.
The Newfoundland French Shore question.
See (in this volume)
NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1899-1901.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1900.
Industrial combinations.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: IN ENGLAND.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1900.
Naval strength.
See (in this volume)
NAVIES OF THE SEA POWERS.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (January-March).
The outbreak of the "Boxers" in northern China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (February).
Compulsory education.
A bill introduced in Parliament by a private member,
unsupported by the government, providing that the earliest
date at which a child should be permitted to leave school
should be raised from 11 to 12 years, was passed, only one
member of the Cabinet voting for it.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (February).
Negotiation of a convention with the United States relative
to the projected Interoceanic Canal.
See (in this volume)
CANAL, INTEROCEANIC: A. D. 1900 (DECEMBER).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (March).
Overtures of peace from the Boer Presidents.
Reply of Lord Salisbury.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1900 (MARCH).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (May).
Annexation of Orange Free State by right of conquest.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (ORANGE FREE STATE): A. D. 1900 (MAY).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (June-December).
Co-operation with the Powers in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (July).
Passage of the "Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act,"
federating the Australian Colonies.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1900;
and CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRALIA.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (September).
Proclamation of the Commonwealth of Australia.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1900 (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (September-October).
Dissolution of Parliament.
Election of a new Parliament.
Victory for the Conservatives and Liberal Unionists.
By royal proclamation, September 17, the existing Parliament
was dissolved and order given for the issue of writs calling a
new Parliament, the elections for which were held in October,
concluding on the 24th of that month. The state of parties in
the House of Commons resulting from the election was as
follows: Conservatives, 334, Liberal Unionists, 68; total
supporters of the Unionist Ministry, 402. Liberals and Labor
members, 186, Nationalists (Irish), 82; total opposition, 268.
Unionist majority, 134, against 128 in the preceding
Parliament. The issues in the election were those growing out
of the South African War. Although most of the Liberals upheld
the war, and the annexation of the South African republics,
they sharply criticised the prior dealings of the Colonial
Secretary, Mr. Chamberlain, with the Transvaal Boers, and the
general conduct of the war. A number of the leading Liberals
were uncompromising in condemnation of the war, of the policy
which caused it, and of the proposed extinction of Boer
independence. The sentiment of the country was shown by the
election to be strongly against all questioning of the
righteousness of the war or of the use to be made of victory
in it.
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ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (October).
Anglo-German agreement concerning policy in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (October).
Annexation of the Transvaal.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1900 (OCTOBER).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (November-December).
The Fourth Ministry of Lord Salisbury.
Brief session of Parliament.
For the fourth time, Lord Salisbury was called to the lead in
government, and formed his Ministry anew, making considerable
changes. He relieved himself of the conduct of Foreign Affairs
(which was transferred to the Marquis of Lansdowne), and took,
with the office of Prime Minister, that of Lord Privy Seal. Mr.
Brodrick, who had been an Under Secretary, succeeded Lord
Lansdowne as Secretary of State for War. Mr. Balfour continued
to be First Lord of the Treasury, and Leader of the House; Mr.
Chamberlain remained in the Colonial Office. Mr. Goschen
retired.
Parliament met on the 6th of December, for the purpose set
forth in a remarkably brief "Queen's Speech," as follows: "My
Lords, and Gentlemen, It has become necessary to make further
provision for the expenses incurred by the operations of my
armies in South Africa and China. I have summoned you to hold
a Special Session in order that you may give your sanction to
the enactments required for this purpose. I will not enter
upon other public matters requiring your attention until the
ordinary meeting of Parliament in the spring." The estimates
of the War Office called for £16,000,000, and it was voted
after a few days of debate, in which the causes and conduct of
the war were criticised and defended by the two parties, and,
on the 15th, Parliament was prorogued to the 14th of February,
1901, by the Queen's command.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (December).
Fall of stones at Stonehenge.
See (in this volume)
STONEHENGE.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (December).
Parliamentary statements of the number of men employed in the
South African War, and the number dead and disabled.
In the House of Commons, December 11, Mr. Brodrick, Secretary
of State for War, moved a vote of £16,000,000, required for
the current year, to meet additional expenditure in South
Africa and China. In the course of his remarks, explanatory of
the need for this supplementary supply, he made the following
statement: "When the war broke out we had in South Africa in
round figures 10,000 men, all Regular troops. We have in the
14 months' which have since elapsed sent from this country and
landed in South Africa 175,000 Regular soldiers, a number which
exceeds by far any number which any Minister from this bench
or any gentleman sitting behind these benches or in front of
them ever suggested that this country ought to be in a
position to ship to any part of the world, and a number far in
excess of that which during any period that I have sat in the
house any member of the House, except an official, would have
been willing to believe that the War Office could find to
dispose of. But they are not the only troops. We have called
on them, I will not say to the extreme limit of our power,
but, at all events, with an unsparing hand. But you have in
addition, as this return will show, some 40,000 Volunteers of
various descriptions from the United Kingdom—40,000 including
the Imperial Yeomanry, whose service is spoken of by every
officer under whom they have served with such satisfaction; 30
Militia regiments, who are also Volunteers, since their term
of service was only for the United Kingdom and who have gone
abroad at great personal sacrifice to themselves; and the
volunteer companies who have joined the Regular battalions.
You have also got 40,000 colonial troops, to a large extent,
no doubt, men raised in the colonies affected, and as
everybody knows to a still larger extent consisting of men who
have gone for a year from Australia, Canada, and other
places."
Sir William Harcourt replied to Mr. Brodrick, not in
opposition to the motion, but in criticism of the conduct of
the war. Referring to a return submitted by the War Office, he
analyzed its showing of facts, thus: "Now just let us look at
this table. By some accident it only gives the rank and file
and non-commissioned officers. It is a very terrible return,
and I think it is worthy of the attention of the men who
delight in war, of whom, I am afraid, there are unhappily not
a few. I have made a short analysis of the paper. It shows
that the garrison at the Cape before the war was 9,600.
Reinforcements of 6,300 men were sent out in October last year
and from India 5,600, which with the former garrison made up
21,000 in all when the war broke out. Up to August, that is,
after the last estimate for 1900, according to this table
267,000 men had been in arms in South Africa—that is without
the officers. Therefore I will call it 270,000 men in round
numbers. I think the right honourable gentleman made a mistake
when he said that the colonial troops were more numerous from
beyond the seas than they were in the Cape. This return shows
that the men raised in South Africa were 30,000, and, apart
from them, the colonials from beyond the seas were 11,000.
According to the last return there were 210,000 men in South
Africa. You will observe there is a balance of some 60,000 or
70,000 men. What has become of those men? You would find from
this return, one would suppose, that a good many of these have
returned safe and sound to England. No, Sir; the men who have
returned to England according to this paper, not invalids, are
7,500 and to the colonies 3,000 more. That makes 10,000 men,
or with the officers about 11,000 men. But since July you have
sent out 13,000 men to South Africa, more, in fact, than you
have been bringing home, and yet you have only 210,000 men
there. Now, Sir, how is this accounted for? First of all you
have the heading, 'killed or died of wounds,' 11,000 men. You
have 'wounded,' 13,000, you have 'in hospital in South
Africa,' 12,000, and you have 'returned to England, sick,
wounded, or died on passage,' 36,000 men. That is the balance.
Seventy thousand men have been killed, wounded, or disabled,
or have died in this war. And now what is the prospect that is
held before us with this force, once 270,000 men, and now
210,000, in South Africa? Lord Roberts has declared that the
war is over, yet you hold out to us no prospect of diminishing
the force you have in South Africa of 210,000 men."
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ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (January).
Death of Queen Victoria.
The following notice, which appeared in the "Court Circular,"
on the 18th of January, dated from the winter residence of the
Queen at Osborne House, in the Isle of Wight, seems to have
been the first intimation to the country of its sovereign's
failing health: "The Queen has not lately been in her usual
health and is unable for the present to take her customary
drives. The Queen during the past year has had a great strain
upon her powers, which has rather told upon her Majesty's
nervous system. It has, therefore, been thought advisable by
her Majesty's physicians that the Queen should be kept
perfectly quiet in the house and should abstain for the
present from transacting business." It was subsequently found,
as stated in an "authoritative account" by the "British
Medical Journal," and the "Lancet," that "the Queen's health
for the past 12 months had been failing, with symptoms mainly
of a dyspeptic kind, accompanied by impaired general
nutrition, periods of insomnia, and later by occasional slight
and transitory attacks of aphasia, the latter suggesting that
the cerebral vessels had become damaged, although her
Majesty's general arterial system showed remarkably few signs
of age. … The dyspepsia which tended to lower her Majesty's
original robust constitution was especially marked during her
last visit to Balmoral. It was there that the Queen first
manifested distinct symptoms of brain fatigue and lost notably
in weight. These symptoms continued at Windsor, where in November
and December, 1900, slight aphasic symptoms were first
observed, always of an ephemeral kind, and unattended by any
motor paralysis. … A few days before the final illness
transient but recurring symptoms of apathy and somnolence,
with aphasic indications and increasing feebleness, gave great
uneasiness to her physician." Before the publication of the
cautious announcement quoted above, the symptoms had become
too grave to leave any doubt as to the near approach of death.
It came on Tuesday, the 22d of January, at half past six
o'clock in the evening, the dying Queen being then surrounded
by a large number of her many children, grandchildren and
great grandchildren, whom she recognized, it is said, within a
few moments of the end. The eldest of the Queen's children,
the Empress Frederick, was kept from her mother's side a this
last hour by serious illness of her own; but the Emperor
William, of Germany (son of the Empress Frederick and eldest
grandson of Queen Victoria) had hastened to the scene and
showed a filial affection which touched English hearts.
On Friday, the first day of February, the remains of the Queen
were borne from the island where she died to Portsmouth, between
long lines of battle-ships and cruisers—British, German,
French, Italian, Japanese, Belgian and Portuguese. The scene
of the funeral voyage was impressively described by a
correspondent of the New York "Sun," as follows: "Nature was
never kindlier. The smiling waters of the Solent were as calm
as on a summer's morning. It was 'Queen's weather' to the very
last. The cavalcade which wended slowly through the narrow
lane, green even in midwinter, down through the streets of the
little town of Cowes to the Trinity pier was a funeral
procession such as the world had never seen before. Kings and
princes, a Queen and princesses, walked humbly between black
lines of mourning islanders, escorting the coffin of the dead
sovereign. Then followed a sight far more notable and more
impressive, indeed, than the great tribute the great capital
of the empire will pay to-morrow. It was the transit of the
funeral yacht across the waters between lines of steel which
are England's bulwarks against the world. Battleship after
battleship thundered its grief, band after band wailed its
dirge and crew after crew bowed low their heads as the pigmy
yacht swept past, bearing no passengers save an admiral on the
bridge and four red-coated guards at the corners of the
simple, glowing white bier resting amidships. It was a picture
neither a painter's brush nor an orator's eloquence could
reproduce. … The boat slowly glided on in the mellow light of
the afternoon sun, herself almost golden in hue, sharply
contrasting with the black warships. The ears also were
assailed in strange contrast, the sad strains of Beethoven's
funeral march floating over the water being punctuated by the
roar of minute guns from each ship. Somehow it was not
incongruous and one felt that it was all a great and majestic
tribute to a reign which was an era and to a sovereign to whom
the world pays its highest honors."
On the following day the remains were conveyed by railway from
Portsmouth to London, carried in solemn procession through the
streets of the capital, and thence by railway to Windsor,
where the last rites were performed on Monday, the 4th. The
Queen was then laid to rest, by the side of her husband, in
the mausoleum which she had built at Frogmore.
Of the sincerity with which Queen Victoria had been loved by
her own people and respected and admired by the world at
large, and of the genuineness of sorrow that was manifested
everywhere at her death, there can be no doubt. To the
impressiveness of the ending of an unexampled period of
history there was added a true sense of loss, from the
disappearance of a greatly important personage, whose high
example had been pure and whose large influence had been good.
Among all the tributes to the Queen that were called out by
her death none seem so significant and so fully drawn from
knowledge of what she was in her regal character, as the words
that were spoken by Lord Salisbury in the House of Lords, at
the meeting of Parliament on the Friday following her death.
"My lords." he said, "the late Queen had so many titles to our
admiration that it would occupy an enormous time to glance at
them even perfunctorily; but that on which I think your
lordships should most reflect, and which will chiefly attach
to her character in history, is that, being a constitutional
monarch with restricted powers, she reigned by sheer force of
character, by the lovableness of her disposition, over the
hearts of her subjects, and exercised an influence in moulding
their character and destiny which she could not have done more
if she had bad the most despotic power. She has been a great
instance of government by example, by esteem, by love; and it
will never be forgotten how much she has done for the
elevation of her people, not by the exercise of any
prerogative, not by the giving of any commands, but by the
simple recognition and contemplation of the brilliant
qualities which she has exhibited in her exalted position. My
lords, it may be, perhaps, proper that those who, like noble
lords opposite and myself, have had the opportunity of seeing
the close workings of her character in the discharge of her
duties as Sovereign, should take this opportunity of
testifying to the great admiration she inspired and the great
force which her distinguishing characteristics exercised over
all who came near her.
{214}
The position of a Constitutional Sovereign is not an easy one.
Duties have to be reconciled which sometimes seem far apart.
Much has to be accepted which it may not be always pleasant to
accept; but she showed a wonderful power, on the one hand, of
observing with the most absolute strictness, the limits of her
action which the Constitution draws, and, on the other hand, of
maintaining a steady and persistent influence on the action of
her Ministers in the course of legislation and government
which no one could mistake. She was able to accept some things
of which, perhaps, she did not entirely approve, but which she
thought it her duty in her position to accept.
"She always maintained and practised a rigorous supervision
over public affairs, giving to her Ministers her frank advice
and warning them of danger if she saw there was danger ahead;
and she certainly impressed many of us with a profound sense
of the penetration, almost intuition, with which she saw the
perils with which we might be threatened in any course it was
thought expedient to adopt. She left upon my mind, she left
upon our minds, the conviction that it was always a dangerous
matter to press on her any course of the expediency of which
she was not thoroughly convinced; and I may say with
confidence that no Minister in her long reign ever disregarded
her advice, or pressed her to disregard it, without afterwards
feeling that he had incurred a dangerous responsibility. She
had an extraordinary knowledge of what her people would think.
I have said for years that I always thought that when I knew
what the Queen thought I knew certainly what view her subjects
would take, and especially the middle classes of her subjects.
Such was the extraordinary penetration of her mind. Yet she
never adhered to her own conceptions obstinately. On the
contrary, she was full of concession and consideration; and
she spared no effort—I might almost say she shrank from no
sacrifice—to make the task of conducting this difficult
Government more easy to her advisers than it would otherwise
have been. My lords, I feel sure that the testimony I have
borne will be abundantly sustained by all those who have been
called to serve her.
"We owe her gratitude in every direction—for her influence in
elevating the people, for her power with foreign Courts and
Sovereigns to remove difficulties and misapprehension which
sometimes might have been dangerous; but, above all things, I
think, we owe her gratitude for this, that by a happy
dispensation her reign has coincided with that great change
which has come over the political structure of this country
and the political instincts of its people. She has bridged
over that great interval which separates old England from new
England. Other nations may have had to pass through similar
trials, but have seldom passed through them so peaceably, so
easily, and with so much prosperity and success as we have. I
think that future historians will look to the Queen's reign as
the boundary which separates the two states of England—England
which has changed so much—and recognize that we have undergone
the change with constant increase of public prosperity,
without any friction to endanger the peace or stability of our
civil life, and at the same time with a constant expansion of
an Empire which every year grows more and more powerful. We
owe all these blessings to the tact, the wisdom, the
passionate patriotism, and the incomparable judgment of the
Sovereign whom we deplore." [sic]
In the House of Commons, on the same day, Mr. Balfour, the
leader of the House, spoke with fine feeling, partly as
follows: "The reign of Queen Victoria is no mere chronological
landmark. It is no mere convenient division of time, useful
for the historian or the chronicler. No, Sir, we feel as we do
feel for our great loss because we intimately associate the
personality of Queen Victoria with the great succession of
events which have filled her reign and with the development of
the Empire over which she ruled. And, associating her
personality with those events, surely we do well. In my
judgment, the importance of the Crown in our Constitution is
not a diminishing, but an increasing, factor. It is
increasing, and must increase, with the growth and development
of those free, self-governing communities, those new
commonwealths beyond the sea, who are bound to us by the
person of the Sovereign, who is the living symbol of the unity
of the Empire. But, Sir, it is not given, it cannot, in
ordinary course, be given, to a Constitutional Monarch to
signalize his reign by any great isolated action. The effect
of a Constitutional Sovereign, great as it is, is produced by
the slow, constant, and cumulative results of a great ideal
and a great example; and of that great ideal and that great
example Queen Victoria surely was the first of all
Constitutional Monarchs whom the world has yet seen. Where
shall we find that ideal so lofty in itself, so constantly and
consistently maintained, through two generations, through more
than two generations, of her subjects, through many
generations of her public men and members of this House?
Descendants of Queen Victoria.
"Sir, it would be almost impertinent for me were I to attempt
to express to the House in words the effect which the
character of our late Sovereign produced upon all who were in
any degree, however remote, brought in contact with her. The
simple dignity, befitting a Monarch of this realm, in that she
could never fail, because it arose from her inherent sense of
the fitness of things. It was no trapping put on for office,
and therefore it was that this dignity, this Queenly dignity,
only served to throw into stronger relief and into a brighter
light those admirable virtues of the wife, the mother, and the
woman with which she was so richly endowed. Those kindly
graces, those admirable qualities, have endeared her to every
class in the community, and are known to all. Perhaps less
known was the life of continuous labour which her position as
Queen threw upon her. Short as was the interval between the
last trembling signature affixed to a public document and
final rest, it was yet long enough to clog and hamper the
wheels of administration; and I remember when I saw a vast
mass of untouched documents which awaited the hand of the
Sovereign of this country to deal with it was brought vividly
before my mind how admirable was the unostentatious patience
with which for 63 years, through sorrow, through suffering, in
moments of weariness, in moments of despondency, it may be,
she carried on without intermission her share in the
government of this great Empire.
{216}
For her there was no holiday, to her there was no intermission
of toil. Domestic sorrow, domestic sickness, made no difference
in her labours, and they were continued from the hour at which
she became our Sovereign to within a very few days of her
death. It is easy to chronicle the growth of Empire, the
progress of trade, the triumphs of war, all the events that
make history interesting or exciting; but who is there that
will dare to weigh in the balance the effect which such an
example continued over 63 years has produced on the highest
life of the people? It is a great life, and had a fortunate,
and, let me say, in my judgment, a happy ending."
The especial and peculiar importance which Queen Victoria had
acquired in the political world, and the weight in its
councils which England owed to her personality, were
impressively suggested by Lord Rosebery, in a speech which he
made at a special court of the Governors of the Corporation of
the Royal Scottish Hospital, when he said: "We hear much in
these days of the life of the Queen and of what we owe her.
But I sometimes wonder if we all realize how much we do owe
her, for you would have had to know much about the Queen to
realize adequately the debt which the nation was under to her.
Probably every subject in Great Britain realizes that he has
lost his greatest and his best friend. But they do not
understand of what enormous weight in the councils of the
world we are deprived by the death of our late Sovereign. She
gave to the councils of Great Britain an advantage which no
talents, no brilliancy, no genius, could supply. Think of what
her reign was! She had reigned for 63 years. For 63 years she
had known all that was to be known about the political
condition of her country. For 63 years she had been in
communication with every important Minister and with every
important public man. She had received reports, daily reports
almost, from her successive Ministers, or their deputies in
the House of Commons. She had, therefore, a fund of knowledge
which no constitutional historian has ever had at his command.
That by the stroke of death is lost to us to-day. All that was of
incalculable advantage to our Monarchy. But have you realized
what the personal weight of the late Queen was in the councils
of the world? She was by far the senior of all the European
Sovereigns. She was, it is no disparagement to other Kings to
say, the chief of all the European Sovereigns. The German
Emperor was her grandson by birth. The Emperor of Russia was
her grandson by marriage. She had reigned 11 years when the
Emperor of Austria came to his throne. She had seen two
dynasties pass from the throne of France. She had seen, as
Queen, three Monarchs of Spain, and four Sovereigns of the
House of Savoy in Italy. In all those kingdoms which have been
carved out of the Turkish Empire she had seen the foundation
of their reigning dynasties. Can we not realize, then, what a
force the personal influence of such a Sovereign was in the
troubled councils of Europe? And when, as we know, that
influence was always given for peace, for freedom, and for
good government, we feel that not merely ourselves but all the
world has lost one of its best friends."
A statement in the "London Times" of January 26 shows the
descendants of Queen Victoria to be in number as follows: "The
Queen has had
9 children of whom 6 survive
40 grandchildren of whom 31 survive
37 great-grandchildren of whom 37 survive
[A total of] 86 [of whom] 74 [survive].
"Of the great-grandchildren 22 are boys and 15 are girls; 6
are grandchildren of the Prince of Wales; 18 are grandchildren
of the Empress Frederick; 11 are grandchildren of the late
Princess Alice; 6 are grandchildren of the late Duke of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. This would appear to make a total of
41, but three of them are grandchildren of both the Empress
Frederick and Princess Alice, while one is grandchild of both
the Princess Alice and the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
"It will be seen that in the course of nature the future
rulers of Great Britain, Germany, Russia, Greece, and Rumania
will be descendants of her Majesty."
ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (January-February).
Ceremonies of the accession of King Edward VII.
His speech in Council and his messages to the people
of the British Empire.
On Wednesday, the 23d of January—the day following the death
of the Queen—her eldest son, Albert Edward, long known as
Prince of Wales, went from Osborne to London to take up the
sceptre of sovereignty which his mother had laid down. The
proceedings in Council which took place thereupon were
officially reported in the "London Gazette" as follows:
"At the Court at Saint James's, the 23rd day of January, 1901.
Present,
"The King's Most Excellent Majesty in Council. His Majesty
being this day present in Council was pleased to make the
following Declaration:
"'Your Royal Highnesses, My Lords, and Gentlemen, This is the
most painful occasion on which I shall ever be called upon to
address you. My first and melancholy duty is to announce to
you the death of My beloved Mother the Queen, and I know how
deeply you, the whole Nation, and I think I may say the whole
world, sympathize with Me in the irreparable loss we have all
sustained. I need hardly say that My constant endeavour will
be always to walk in Her footsteps. In undertaking the heavy
load which now devolves upon life, I am fully determined to be
a Constitutional Sovereign in the strictest sense of the word,
and as long as there is breath in My body to work for the good
and amelioration of My people.
"'I have resolved to be known by the name of Edward, which has
been borne by six of My ancestors. In doing so I do not
undervalue the name of Albert, which I inherit from My ever to
be lamented, great and wise Father, who by universal consent is I
think deservedly known by the name of Albert the Good, and I
desire that his name should stand alone.
"'In conclusion, I trust to Parliament and the Nation to
support Me in the arduous duties which now devolve upon Me by
inheritance, and to which I am determined to devote My whole
strength during the remainder of My life.'
"Whereupon the Lords of the Council made it their humble
request to His Majesty that His Majesty's Most Gracious
Declaration to their Lordships' might be made public, which
His Majesty was pleased to Order accordingly."
{217}
The King then "caused all the Lords and others of the late
Queen's Privy Council, who were then present, to be sworn of
His Majesty's Privy Council." Orders had been previously given
for proclaiming "His present Majesty," in the following form:
"Whereas it has pleased Almighty God to call to His Mercy Our
late Sovereign Lady Queen Victoria, of Blessed and Glorious
Memory, by whose Decease the Imperial Crown of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is solely and rightfully
come to the High and Mighty Prince Albert Edward: We,
therefore, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of this Realm,
being here assisted with these of Her late Majesty's Privy
Council, with Numbers of other Principal Gentlemen of Quality,
with the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens of London, do now
hereby, with one Voice and Consent of Tongue and Heart,
publish and proclaim, That the High and Mighty Prince, Albert
Edward, is now, by the Death of our late Sovereign of Happy
Memory, become our only lawful and rightful Liege Lord Edward
the Seventh, by the Grace of God, King of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, Emperor
of India: To whom we do acknowledge all Faith and constant
Obedience, with all hearty and humble Affection; beseeching
God, by whom Kings and Queens do reign, to bless the Royal
Prince Edward the Seventh, with long and happy Years to reign
over Us."
The proclamation was made in London, with antique and
picturesque ceremony on the succeeding day, January 24, and
the following official report of it, from "Earl Marshal's
Office," published in the "London Gazette":
"This day His Most Gracious Majesty King Edward VII. was, in
pursuance of an Order in Council of the 23rd instant,
proclaimed with the usual ceremonies. At 9 o'clock in the
forenoon, the Officers of Arms habited in their tabards, the
Serjeants-at-Arms, with their maces and collars; and
Deputy-Serjeant Trumpeter in his collar; the Trumpeters, Drum
Major, and Knight Marshalmen being assembled at St James's
Palace, the Proclamation was read in the Grand Court by
William H. Weldon, Esq., Norroy King of Arms, Deputy to Sir
Albert W. Woods, Garter Principal King of Arms, in the
presence of the Earl Marshal of England, the Lord Steward, the
Lord Chamberlain, the Master of the Horse, and many other Members
of Her late Majesty's Household, with Lords and others of the
Privy Council and several personages of distinction. Deputy
Garter read the Proclamation. Then the Officers of Arms having
entered Royal Carriages, a procession was formed in the
following order:
The High Bailiff of Westminster, in his carriage.
Horse Guards.
Trumpeters.
A Royal Carriage containing The four Serjeants-at-Arms,
bearing their maces.
A Royal Carriage containing Pursuivants.
Rouge Dragon: Everard Green.
Bluemantle: G. Ambrose Lee.
Rouge Croix: G. W. Marshall.
Heralds.
Windsor: W. A. Lindsay, Esq.
York: A. S. Scott-Gatty, Esq.
Somerset: H. Farnham Burke, Esq., in a Royal Carriage.
A Detachment of Horse Guards.
"The Procession, flanked by the Horse Guards, moved from St.
James's Palace to Temple Bar, and Rouge Dragon Pursuivant of
Arms, alighting from the carriage, advanced between two
trumpeters, preceded by two of the Horse Guards, to the
barrier, and after the trumpets had sounded thrice, demanded
in the usual form admission into the City to proclaim His
Royal Majesty King Edward VII.; and being admitted, and the
barrier again closed, Rouge Dragon was conducted by the City
Marshal and his Officers to the Lord Mayor, who was in
attendance in his State Carriage, when Rouge Dragon delivered
to his Lordship the Order in Council, which the Lord Mayor,
having read, returned, and directed the barrier to be opened;
and Rouge Dragon being reconducted to his place in the
Procession it then moved into the City; the High Bailiff of
Westminster filing off at Temple Bar.
"At the corner of Chancery-lane York Herald read the
Proclamation; then the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Recorder,
Sheriffs, Chamberlain, Common Serjeant, Town Clerk, and City
Officers fell into the procession immediately after the
Officers of Arms, and the procession moved on to the Royal
Exchange, where it was lastly read by Somerset Herald, when
the guns in St. James's Park and at the Tower of London were
fired. A multitude of spectators filled the streets through
which the procession passed, the windows of which were
crowded; and the acclamations were loud and general."
As described more fully by the "London Times," the interesting
proceeding, according to ancient custom, at Temple Bar—the
site of the old city gate—was as follows: "Temple Bar has
passed away, but not so the privileges associated with it,
although they have ceased to have more than an historical,
ceremonial, and picturesque interest. In accordance,
therefore, with ancient custom, the Lord Mayor yesterday
proceeded in State to the site of Temple Bar to grant entrance
to the King's Officer of Arms, who was about to proclaim his
Majesty King within the City. The gates of Temple Bar were
formerly closed for a short time before this ceremony, to be
opened, upon demand of the Officer of Arms, by the direction
of the Lord Mayor. As there are now no gates, a barrier was
made for the occasion by the holding of a red silken rope
across the street on either side of the Griffin which
commemorates the spot upon which Temple Bar formerly stood. A
strong force of burly constables was entrusted with this duty,
and the barrier thus created answered every practical purpose,
although there must have been lingering in the minds of some
of the venerable City Fathers some little regret that stern
necessity had occasioned the removal of the historic landmark
which stood there when Queen Victoria was proclaimed and
remained for many a long year afterwards, one of the most
interesting features of the ancient City.
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"The Pursuivant (Rouge Dragon), the heralds, the officials of
Westminster, and the cavalcade halted a short distance to the
west of the barrier, and the Pursuivant then advanced between
two trumpeters, and the trumpets sounded thrice. Upon this the
City Marshal, on horseback, in scarlet tunic and cocked hat
with plumes, advanced to the barrier to meet the Pursuivant,
and in a loud voice, which could be heard by those at a
considerable distance, asked, 'Who comes there?' The
Pursuivant replied, 'The Officer of Arms, who demands entrance
into the City to proclaim his Royal Majesty, Edward the
Seventh.' Thereupon the barrier was opened so as to admit the
Pursuivant without escort, and immediately closed again. The
Pursuivant was then conducted by the City Marshal to the Lord
Mayor, who, being made acquainted with the object of the
Pursuivant's visit, directed the opening of the barrier, and
the Pursuivant returned to his cavalcade. There was a fanfare
of trumpets, and York Herald, Mr. A. S. Scott-Gatty, between
two trumpeters, approached the Lord Mayor, and presented to
his lordship the Order in Council requiring him to proclaim
his Majesty. The Lord Mayor replied:
'I am aware of the contents of this paper, having been
apprised yesterday of the ceremony appointed to take place,
and I have attended to perform my duty in accordance with
ancient usages and customs of the City of London.'
"The Lord Mayor then read aloud the Order in Council requiring
the herald to proclaim his Majesty within the jurisdiction of
the City, and returned it to the herald. … The trumpets
sounded and, the officials of Westminster having filed off,
the cavalcade advanced into the City as far as the corner of
Chancery-lane. There was another fanfare of trumpets, and the
herald then made the proclamation, reading it with admirable
clearness. When it was over the spectators, who had listened
with bared heads, cried 'God Save the King.' The trumpets were
again sounded, and a military band stationed to the west of
Temple Bar played the National Anthem. This was followed by
cheering, which lasted while the Lord Mayor and his retinue
resumed their places in the carriages which had brought them,
and the procession made its way to the Royal Exchange, the
route being down Fleet-street, up Ludgate-hill, through St.
Paul's Churchyard, and along Cheapside.
"Thus ended a ceremony which impressed all who saw it by its
solemnity, its dignity, and its significance. It brought home
vividly to the mind of every spectator the continuity which
exists amid all the changes of our national life, and the very
strangeness of the quaint heraldic garb worn by the heralds
and pursuivants, which at another time might have provoked a
smile, was felt to be an object-lesson for all, telling of
unbroken tradition reaching far back into the glorious history
of our country. On turning away from the site of Temple Bar
after the Proclamation had been made and the procession had
disappeared, one felt that the seriousness of the occasion had
impressed itself on every mind and that from every heart there
rose a common prayer—God Save the King!"
With somewhat less ceremony, on the same day, the same
proclamation was read in many parts of the United Kingdom.
On Friday, the 25th, both Houses of Parliament met (the
members having, one by one, taken the oath of allegiance to
the new sovereign on the two preceding days) to receive a
message from the King and to adopt an address in reply. The
royal message was as follows: "The King is fully assured that
the House of Commons will share in the deep sorrow which has
befallen his Majesty and the nation by the lamented death of
his Majesty's mother, the late Queen. Her devotion to the
welfare of her country and her people and her wise and
beneficent rule during the sixty-four years of her glorious
reign will ever be held in affectionate remembrance by her
loyal and devoted subjects throughout the dominions of the
British Empire."
The Marquis of Salisbury, in the House of Lords, and Mr.
Balfour, in the House of Commons, moved the following
Address, in speeches from which some passages have been quoted
above:
"That an humble Address be presented to his Majesty to assure
his Majesty that this House deeply sympathizes in the great
sorrow which his Majesty has sustained by the death of our
beloved Sovereign, the late Queen, whose unfailing devotion to
the duties of her high estate and to the welfare of her people
will ever cause her reign to be remembered with reverence and
affection; to submit to his Majesty our respectful
congratulations on his accession to the Throne; to assure his
Majesty of our loyal attachment to his person; and, further,
to assure him of our earnest conviction that his reign will be
distinguished under the blessing of Providence by an anxious
desire to maintain the laws of the kingdom and to promote the
happiness, the welfare, and the liberty of his subjects."
Speeches in support of the motion were made by the leaders of
the Opposition party, the Earl of Kimberley, in the House of
Lords, and Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman, in the House of Commons,
and by the Archbishop of Canterbury, also, in the former
chamber. The Address was then adopted, and Parliament was
adjourned until February 14. On the 4th of February, the new
King addressed the following messages to his subjects in the
British Empire at large, to the Colonies, and to the princes
and people of India:
"To My People. Now that the last Scene has closed in the noble
and ever glorious life of My beloved Mother, The Queen, I am
anxious to endeavour to convey to the whole Empire the extent
of the deep gratitude I feel for the heart-stirring and
affectionate tributes which are everywhere borne to Her
Memory. I wish also to express My warm recognition of those
universal expressions of what I know to be genuine and loyal
sympathy with Me and with the Royal Family in our overwhelming
sorrow. Such expressions have reached Me from all parts of My
vast Empire, while at home the sorrowful, reverent and sincere
enthusiasm manifested in the magnificent display by sea and
land has deeply touched Me. The consciousness of this generous
spirit of devotion and loyalty among the millions of My Subjects
and of the feeling that we are all sharing a common sorrow,
has inspired Me with courage and hope during the past most
trying and momentous days. Encouraged by the confidence of
that love and trust which the nation ever reposed in its late
and fondly mourned Sovereign, I shall earnestly strive to walk
in Her Footsteps, devoting Myself to the utmost of My powers
to maintaining and promoting the highest interests of My
People, and to the diligent and zealous fulfilment of the
great and sacred responsibilities which, through the Will of
God, I am now called to undertake.
EDWARD, R. I."
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"To My People Beyond the Seas. The countless messages of loyal
sympathy which I have received from every part of My Dominions
over the Seas testify to the universal grief in which the
whole Empire now mourns the loss of My Beloved Mother. In the
welfare and prosperity of Her subjects throughout Greater
Britain the Queen ever evinced a heartfelt, interest. She saw
with thankfulness the steady progress which, under a wide
extension of Self-Government, they had made during Her Reign.
She warmly appreciated their unfailing loyalty to Her Throne
and Person, and was proud to think of those who had so nobly
fought and died for the Empire's cause in South Africa. I have
already declared that it will be My constant endeavour to
follow the great example which has been bequeathed to Me. In
these endeavours I shall have a confident trust in the
devotion and sympathy of the People and of their several
Representative Assemblies throughout My vast Colonial
Dominions. With such loyal support I will, with God's
blessing, solemnly work for the promotion of the common
welfare and security of the great Empire over which I have now
been called to reign,
EDWARD, R. I."
"To the Princes and People of India. Through the lamented
death of My beloved and dearly mourned Mother, I have
inherited the Throne, which has descended to Me through a long
and ancient lineage, I now desire to send My greeting to the
Ruling Chiefs of the Native States, and to the Inhabitants of
My Indian Dominions, to assure them of My sincere good will
and affection, and of My heartfelt wishes for their welfare.
My illustrious and lamented Predecessor was the first
Sovereign of this Country who took upon Herself the direct
Administration of the Affairs of India, and assumed the title
of Empress in token of Her closer association with the
Government of that vast Country. In all matters connected with
India, the Queen Empress displayed an unvarying deep personal
interest, and I am well aware of the feeling of loyalty and
affection evinced by the millions of its peoples towards Her
Throne and Person. This feeling was conspicuously shown during
the last year of Her long and glorious reign by the noble and
patriotic assistance offered by the Ruling Princes in the
South African War, and by the gallant services rendered by the
Native Army beyond the limits of their own Country. It was by
Her wish and with Her sanction that I visited India and made
Myself personally acquainted with the Ruling Chiefs, the
people, and the cities of that ancient and famous Empire. I
shall never forget the deep impressions which I then received,
and I shall endeavour to follow the great example of the first
Queen Empress to work for the general well being of my Indian
subjects of all ranks, and to merit, as She did, their
unfailing loyalty and affection.
EDWARD, R. ET I."
English feeling toward the new sovereign of the British
Empire, and the English estimate of his character and promise,
are probably expressed quite truly, for the general mass of
intelligent people, by the following remarks of "The Times:"
"In the whole range of English social and political life there
is no position more difficult to fill satisfactorily and
without reproach than that of Heir Apparent to the Throne, and
it may be justly said that the way in which that position has
been filled for more than the ordinary lifetime of a
generation has contributed to the remarkable increase of
devotion to the Throne and the dynasty which is one of the
most striking characteristics of Queen Victoria's reign. In
the relations of private life, from his childhood upwards,
'the Prince' has been universally and deservedly popular.
Cheerful and amiable, kind and generous, ever ready to
sympathize with the joys and sorrows of those around him, a
true friend, and a loyal antagonist, possessing considerable
mental culture and wide intellectual sympathies without any
tinge of pedantry, he has represented worthily the type of the
genuine English gentleman. Though a lover of sport, like most
of his countrymen, he differed from some of them in never
regarding it as the chief interest and occupation in life. If
he had been born in a humbler station he might have become a
successful business man or an eminent administrator, for he
possesses many of the qualities which command success in such
spheres of action. He is a quick and methodical worker,
arranges his time so as never to be hurried, is scrupulously
conscientious in fulfilling engagements, great and small, with
a punctuality which has become proverbial, never forgets to do
anything he has undertaken, and never allows unanswered
letters to accumulate. Few men have a larger private
correspondence, and his letters have the clearness, the
directness, the exquisite tactfulness, and the absolute
freedom from all affectation which characterize his
conversation. … "In public life he has displayed the same
qualities and done a great deal of very useful work. The
numerous and often irksome ceremonial duties of his position
have been invariably fulfilled most conscientiously and with
fitting dignity. Of the remainder of his time a considerable
part has been devoted to what might be called semi-official
activity. In works of benevolence and public utility and in
efforts to promote the interests of science and art he was
ever ready and anxious to lend a helping hand. He never
forgot, however, that in his public appearances he had not the
liberty of speech and action enjoyed by the ordinary
Englishman. Whilst taking the keenest interest in public
affairs of every kind, he carefully abstained from
overstepping in the slightest degree the limits imposed on him
by constitutional tradition and usage. No party clique or
Court camarilla ever sheltered itself behind him, and no
political intrigue was ever associated with his name.
Throughout her dominions Queen Victoria had no more loyal,
devoted subject than her own eldest son. If this strictly
correct attitude had been confined to his relations with the
Head of the State we might have supposed that it proceeded
from a feeling of deep filial affection and reverence, but, as
it was displayed equally in his relations with Parliament and
politicians, we must assume that it proceeded also from a high
and discriminating sense of duty. Of the Prime Ministers,
leaders of her Majesty's Opposition, and politicians of minor
degree with whom he came in contact, he may have found some
more sympathetic than others, but such personal preferences
were carefully concealed in his manner, which was invariably
courteous and considerate, and were not allowed to influence
his conduct."
{220}
In another article, the same journal again remarked that
"there is no position more difficult to fill than that of Heir
Apparent to the Throne," and added: "It is beset by more than
all the temptations of actual Royalty, while the weight of
counteracting responsibility is much less directly felt. It
must be with a feeling akin to hopelessness that a man in that
position offers up the familiar prayer, 'Lead us not into
temptation.' Other men may avoid much temptation if they
honestly endeavour to keep out of its way, but the heir to a
Throne is followed, dogged, and importuned by temptation in
its most seductive forms. It is not only the obviously bad
that he has to guard against; he must also steel himself
against much that comes in the specious garb of goodness and
almost with the imperious command of necessity. The King has
passed through that tremendous ordeal, prolonged through youth
and manhood to middle age. We shall not pretend that there is
nothing in his long career which those who respect and admire
him could not wish otherwise. Which of us can say that with
even approximate temptations to meet he could face the fierce
light that beats upon an heir apparent no less than upon the
Throne?"
The King was in his sixtieth year when he succeeded to the
throne, having been born on the 9th of November, 1841. "By
inheritance under a patent of Edward III., he became at once
Duke of Cornwall, and a month later he was created, by patent,
Prince of 'Wales and Earl of Chester—titles which do not pass
by descent." He was married to the Princess Alexandra, of
Denmark, on the 10th of March, 1863. The children born of the
marriage have been six in all—three sons and three daughters.
Of the former only one survives, Prince George, Duke of York,
the second son, who will no doubt be created Prince of Wales.
The eldest son, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and
Avondale, died in his 27th year, on the eve of his marriage.
The third son, Alexander, born in 1871, died an infant. The
Duke of York is married to Princess Victoria Mary, daughter of
the late Duke of Teck and of his wife, Princess Mary of
Cambridge. There are four children of the marriage, three sons
and a daughter, the eldest son, in direct succession to the
Throne, bearing the name of Prince Edward Albert. Of the
daughters of the new Sovereign the eldest, Princess Louise, is
the wife of the Duke of Fife and has two daughters. Of her two
sisters, the Princess Victoria is unmarried. The Princess Maud
became in 1896 the wife of Prince Charles of Denmark.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (February).
The opening of Parliament by King Edward VII.
The royal declaration against transubstantiation and
the invocation of saints.
Protest of Roman Catholic peers.
Parliament, reassembling on the 14th of February, was formally
opened by the King in person, with a degree of pomp and
ceremony which had been made strange by half a century of
disuse. King and Queen were escorted in procession, with all
possible state, from Buckingham Palace to Westminster.
Received there, at the royal entrance, by the great officers
of state, they were conducted, by a still more imposing
procession of dignitaries, to the "robing room." "His Majesty
being robed and the Imperial Crown borne by the Duke of
Devonshire (Lord President of the Council), the Procession
advanced into the House of Peers in the same order, except
that the Cap of Maintenance [a mediæval symbol of dignity] was
borne immediately before His Majesty, on the right hand of the
Sword of State, by the Marquess of Winchester. The King being
seated on his Throne, the Lord bearing the Cap of Maintenance
stood on the Steps of the Throne, on the right, and the Peer
bearing the Sword of State, on the left, of His Majesty. The
Lord Chancellor, the Lord President and the Earl Marshal stood
on the right, and the Lord Privy Seal on the left, of His
Majesty; the Lord Great Chamberlain stood on the Steps of the
Throne on the left hand of His Majesty, to receive the Royal
Commands. The Lord Steward and the other officers of His
Majesty's Household arranged themselves on each side of the
Steps of the Throne, in the rear of the Great Officers of
State."
By hereditary right, the ceremonial arrangements of the
occasion were controlled by the Duke of Norfolk, as Earl
Marshal, and the Marquess of Cholmondeley, as Lord Great
Chamberlain, and they are said to have followed ancient
precedent with a strictness which became very offensive to
modern democratic feeling. The small chamber of the House of
Lords was so filled with peeresses as well as peers that next
to no room remained for the House of Commons when its members
were summoned to it, to meet the King. What should have been a
dignified procession behind the Speaker became, in
consequence, a mob-like crush and scramble, and only some
fifty out of five hundred Commoners are said to have succeeded
in squeezing themselves within range of his Majesty's eye. The
King, then, as required by laws of the seventeenth century
(the Bill of Rights and the Test Act—see, in volume 2,
ENGLAND: A. D. 1689, OCTOBER, and 1672-1673) signed and made
oath to the following Declaration against the doctrine of
transubstantiation, the invocation of the Virgin and the
invocation of saints: "I doe solemnely and sincerely in the
presence of God professe testifie and declare that I doe
believe that in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper there is
not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine
into the body and blood of Christ at or after the consecration
thereof by any person whatsoever; and that the invocation or
adoration of the Virgin Mary or any other saint and the
sacrifice of the masse as they are now used in the Church of
Rome are superstitions and idolatrous, and I doe solemnely in
the presence of God professe testifie and declare that I doe
make this declaration and every part thereof in the plaine and
ordinary sence of the words read unto me as they are commonly
understood by English Protestants without any evasion,
equivocation or mentall reservation whatsoever and without any
dispensation already granted me for this purpose by the Pope
or any other authority or person whatsoever or without any
hope of any such dispensation from any person or authority
whatsoever or without thinking that I am or can be acquitted
before God or man or absolved of this declaration or any part
thereof although the Pope or any other person or persons or
power whatsoever should dispence with or annull the same, or
declare that it was null and void from the beginning."
{221}
Having thus submitted to the old test of a Protestant
qualification for the Throne, the King read his Speech to
Parliament, briefly stating the general posture of public
affairs and setting forth the business which the two Houses
were asked by government to consider. The war in South Africa
was dealt with by the royal speaker in a very few words, as
follows: "The war in South Africa has not yet entirely
terminated; but the capitals of the enemy and his principal
lines of communication are in my possession, and measures have
been taken which will, I trust, enable my troops to deal
effectually with the forces by which they are still opposed. I
greatly regret the loss of life and the expenditure of treasure
due to the fruitless guerrilla warfare maintained by Boer
partisans in the former territories of the two Republics.
Their early submission is much to be desired in their own
interests, as, until it takes place, it will be impossible for
me to establish in those colonies a government which will
secure equal rights to all the white inhabitants, and
protection and justice to the native population." In a later
paragraph of the Speech he said: "The prolongation of
hostilities in South Africa has led me to make a further call
upon the patriotism and devotion of Canada and Australasia. I
rejoice that my request has met with a prompt and loyal
response, and that large additional contingents from those
Colonies will embark for the seat of war at an early date."
The Speech concluded with the following announcement of
subjects and measures to be brought before Parliament:
"Gentlemen of the House of Commons, The Estimates for the year
will be laid before you. Every care has been taken to limit
their amount, but the naval and military requirements of the
country, and especially the outlay consequent on the South
African war, have involved an inevitable increase.
"The demise of the Crown renders it necessary that a renewed
provision shall be made for the Civil List. I place
unreservedly at your disposal those hereditary revenues which
were so placed by my predecessor; and I have commanded that
the papers necessary for a full consideration of the subject
shall be laid before you.
"My Lords and Gentlemen, Proposals will be submitted to your
judgment for increasing the efficiency of my military forces.
"Certain changes in the constitution of the Court of Final
Appeal are rendered necessary in consequence of the increased
resort to it, which has resulted from the expansion of the
Empire during the last two generations.
"Legislation will be proposed to you for the amendment of the
Law relating to Education.
"Legislation has been prepared, and, if the time at your
disposal shall prove to be adequate, will be laid before you,
for the purpose of regulating the voluntary sale by landlords
to occupying tenants in Ireland, for amending and
consolidating the Factory and Workshops Acts, for the better
administration of the Law respecting Lunatics, for amending
the Public Health Acts in regard to Water Supply, for the
prevention of drunkenness in Licensed Houses or Public Places,
and for amending the Law of Literary Copyright.
"I pray that Almighty God may continue to guide you in the
conduct of your deliberations, and may bless them with
success."
Dated from the House of Lords, on the day of the opening, the
following protest, signed by Roman Catholic peers (of whom
there are thirty), against the continued requirement from the
British sovereign of the Declaration quoted above, was laid
before the Lord Chancellor: "My Lord,—On the opening of his
first Parliament to-day his Majesty was called upon to make
and subscribe the so-called Declaration against
Transubstantiation, which was framed during the reign of
Charles II., at a moment when religious animosities were
unusually bitter.
"Some days ago we addressed ourselves to your lordship, as the
chief authority on English law, to ascertain whether it was
possible to bring about any modification of those parts of the
Declaration which are specially provocative to the religious
feelings of Catholics. We received from your lordship the
authoritative assurance that no modification whatever was
possible, except by an Act of Parliament, and that no action
of ours would therefore be of the slightest use to effect the
pacific purpose we had in view. The Sovereign himself has, it
appears, no option, and is obliged by statute to use the very
words prescribed, although we feel assured that his Gracious
Majesty would willingly have been relieved (as all his
subjects have for many years been relieved by Act of
Parliament) from the necessity of branding with contumelious
epithets the religious tenets of any of his subjects.
"While we submit to the law, we cannot be wholly silent on
this occasion, We desire to impress upon your lordship that
the expressions used in this Declaration made it difficult and
painful for Catholic peers to attend to-day in the House of Lords
in order to discharge their official or public duties, and
that those expressions cannot but cause the deepest pain to
millions of subjects of his Majesty in all parts of the
Empire, who are as loyal and devoted to his Crown and person
as any others in his dominions.
"We are, my lord, your lordship's most obedient and faithful
servants."
London Times,
February 15, 1901.
In the House of Lords, on the 22d of February, the Marquis of
Salisbury made the following reply to Lord Braye, who asked if
the Prime Minister could hold out hope of an early measure to
abolish the oath so offensive to Catholic subjects of the
King: "Though I am very anxious to give an answer which would
be satisfactory to the noble lord and his co-religionists, I
do not wish to leave on his mind an impression that there are
any doubts in the matter. We all of us deplore the language in
which that declaration is couched, and very much wish it could
be otherwise expressed; but when it comes to altering an
enactment which has now lasted, as far as I know, without
serious question, 200 years, and which was originally included
in the Bill of Rights, it is a matter which cannot be done
without very considerable thought. We must remember that an
enactment of that kind represents the passions, feelings, and
sensibilities of the people by whom it was originally caused;
and that these have not died out. They are not strong within
these walls; but there are undoubtedly parts of the country
where the controversies which the declaration represents still
flourish, and where the emotions which it indicates have not
died out. Before an enactment is proposed, with all the
discussion which must precede such an enactment, we shall have
to consider how far it is desirable to light again passions
which sleep at this moment, for an occasion which is not now
urgent, and which we all earnestly hope may not be urgent in
our lives.
{222}
I do not wish to debar the noble lord from any action which he
may think it right to take; but I wish to point out to him the
extreme difficulties and anxieties which would accompany any
such attempt. With respect to the actual question of
legislation, I need hardly observe that it is rather a
question for the House of Commons than for us, because here I
do not imagine there would be any doubt whatever about the
result of such attempted legislation. But I could not be
certain that a very strong feeling might not be excited
elsewhere; and I notice that, possibly with a view to that
consideration, the leader of the other House, in answer to a
question, said that, at all events for the present year, he
did not see the possibility of having the requisite
opportunity of bringing the question before the House. I am
afraid, therefore, however deeply I sympathize with the
feelings of the noble lord and wish there had been no cause
for their being appealed to, that my answer would have to be
of a discouraging character."
Notwithstanding this discouraging reply to the question, Lord
Salisbury, on the 21st of March, moved the following
resolution in the House of Lords: "To resolve that it is
desirable that a Joint Committee of both Houses be appointed
to consider the declaration required of the Sovereign, on his
accession, by the Bill of Rights: and to report whether its
language can be modified advantageously, without diminishing
its efficacy as a security for the maintenance of the
Protestant succession." On introducing the resolution he said:
"The only thing that it is necessary I should mention is that
something has been said with respect to referring the
Coronation Oath to the same committee and making in it
alterations which undoubtedly will have to be made. But the
two subjects are not at all similar, and it would have been
impossible to put the Coronation Oath into this reference. If,
later, it should be thought wise to use the same committee for
the purpose of considering the matter of the Coronation Oath, I
probably shall see no difficulty in that."
ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (February).
Attitude of the Liberal party towards the South African War.
At the annual meeting of the general committee of the National
Liberal Federation, held at Rugby, February 27, 1901, more
than 400 affiliated Liberal Associations in England and Wales
being represented by about 500 delegates, including many
eminent men, the following resolution was adopted: "That this
committee records its profound conviction that the long
continuance of the deplorable war in South Africa, declared
for electioneering purposes to be over last September, is due
to the policy of demanding unconditional surrender and to a
want of knowledge, foresight, and judgment on the part of the
Government, who have neither demonstrated effectively to the
Boers the military supremacy of Great Britain, nor so
conducted the war as to induce them to lay down their arms;
this committee bitterly laments the slaughter of thousands of
brave men on both sides, the terrible loss of life from
disease, owing in no small degree to the scandalous inadequacy
of sanitary and hospital arrangements provided for our forces,
and the enormous waste of resources in actual expenditure upon
the war, in the devastation of territory, and in the economic
embarrassments which must inevitably follow; the committee
calls upon the Government to announce forthwith, and to carry
out, on the cessation of hostilities, a policy for the
settlement of South African affairs which will secure equal
rights to the white races, just and humane treatment of
natives, and such a measure of self-government as can
honourably be accepted by a brave and high-spirited people."
ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (February).
Emphatic declaration of the policy of the government in
dealing with the Boers.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1901.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (March).
Rejection of the Inter-oceanic Canal Treaty as amended
by the United States Senate.
See (in this volume)
CANAL, INTEROCEANIC: A. D. 1901 (MARCH).
----------ENGLAND: End--------
ENSLIN, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
EPWORTH LEAGUE, The.
The Epworth League, an organization of young people in the
Methodist Episcopal Church, on lines and with objects kindred
to those of the "Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor"
(see, in this volume, CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR), was instituted by a
convention of representatives from various societies of young
people in that church, held at Cleveland, Ohio, May 14-15,
1889. It was officially adopted by the General Conference of
the M. E. Church in 1892. The Year-book of the League for 1901
says:—"A dozen years ago the Epworth League had no regularly
organized Chapter. To-day it has almost twenty-one thousand.
Twelve years ago it had a total membership of twenty-seven.
To-day it has a million and a half. Twelve years ago the
Junior League had scarcely been dreamed of. To-day it is the
most promising division of the great Epworth army, having a
membership of tens of thousands. Twelve years ago a suggestion
to establish a newspaper organ was looked upon as a most
doubtful experiment, and predictions of failure were freely
made. To-day the organization has an official journal whose
circulation exceeds that of any Church weekly in the world."
ETRUSCANS, The:
Fresh light on their origin.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: ITALY.
EUPHRATES, Valley of the:
Recent archæological exploration.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA.
EUROPEAN RACES, The expansion of the.
See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY: EXPANSION.
EVOLUTION, The doctrine of:
Its influence on the Nineteenth Century.
See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY: DOMINANT LINES.
EXCAVATIONS, Recent archæological.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH.
EXPLOSIVES FROM BALLOONS, Declaration against.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
{223}
EXPOSITION, The Cotton States and International.
See (in this volume)
ATLANTA: A. D. 1895.
EXPOSITION, National Export.
See (in this volume)
INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL CONGRESS.
EXPOSITION, Pan-American.
See (in this volume)
BUFFALO: A. D. 1901.
EXPOSITION, Paris.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (APRIL-NOVEMBER).
EXPOSITION, Scandinavian.
See (in this volume)
STOCKHOLM.
EXPOSITION, Tennessee Centennial, at Nashville.
See (in this volume)
TENNESSEE: A. D 1897.
EXPOSITION, Trans-Mississippi.
See (in this volume)
OMAHA: A. D. 1898.
EXTERRITORIAL RIGHTS.
See (in this volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1899 (JULY).
F.
FAMINE: In China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
FAMINE: In India.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1896-1897; and 1899-1900.
FAMINE: In Russia.
See (in this volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1899.
"FANATICS," The.
See (in this volume)
BRAZIL: A. D. 1897.
FAR EASTERN QUESTION, The.
See (in this volume)
CONCERT OF EUROPE.
FARM BURNING, In the South African War.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).
FARMERS' ALLIANCE, and Industrial Union, The.
The Supreme Council of the Farmers' Alliance and Industrial
Union held its fourth annual session at Washington, February
6-8, 1900, and pledged support to whatever candidates should
be named by the national convention of the Democratic Party,
making, at the same time, a declaration of principles
analogous to those maintained by the People's Party.
FASHODA INCIDENT, The.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1898 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).
FAURE, Francois Felix, President of the French Republic.
Sudden death.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1899 (FEBRUARY-JUNE).
FEDERAL STEEL COMPANY, The.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: UNITED STATES.
FÊNG-TIEN PENINSULA: A. D. 1894-1895.
Cession in part to Japan and subsequent relinquishment.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895.
FÊNG-TIEN PENINSULA: A. D. 1900.
Russian occupation and practical Protectorate.
See (in this volume)
MANCHURIA: A. D. 1900.
FILIPINOS.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.
FINLAND: A. D. 1898-1901.
A blow at the constitutional rights of the country.
Attempt to Russianize the Finnish army.
Possible defeat of the measure.
"In July, 1898, just one month before the publication of the
Czar's Peace Manifesto, the Diet of Finland was summoned to
meet in extraordinary session during January, 1899, in order
to debate upon the new Army Bill submitted by the Russian
Government. Hitherto, the army of Finland has been strictly
national in character, and has served solely for the defence
of the province. The standing army has been limited to 5,600
men, 1,920 of whom are annually selected to bear arms during a
period of three years. This has now been changed; the main
features of the new Army Bill being as follows:
1. Finnish troops may be requisitioned for service beyond the
confines of the Grand Duchy.
2. Russians may serve in the Finnish, and Finlanders in the
Russian, Army.
3. A lightening of the duties of military service upon the
ground of superior education will be granted to those only who
can speak, read, and write Russian.
4. The period of active service under the flag is increased
from three years to five.
5. The annual contingent of soldiers in active service is
increased from 1,920 men to 7,200.
We at once perceive the fundamental nature of these changes,
which threaten to impose a far heavier burden upon Finland,
and to Russify her army. Naturally, the new law met with the
most determined opposition. But while the bill was still in
committee there appeared on February 15, 1899, an Imperial
ukase, whereby the entire situation was radically changed, and
the independence of Finland seriously threatened. This ukase
decrees that while the internal administration and legislation
of Finland are to remain unimpaired, matters affecting the
common interests of Finland and Russia are to be no longer
submitted solely to the jurisdiction of the Grand Duchy.
Furthermore, the Emperor reserves to himself the final
decision as to which matters are to be included in the above
category. …
"The document is couched in terms expressing good-will for
Finland. In effect, however, it signifies the complete
demolition of the constitutional rights of that country. For
in all matters involving the interests of both countries, or
affecting in any way those of Russia, Finland will hereafter
be confined to a mere expression of opinion: she will no
longer be able to exercise the privilege of formulating an
independent resolution. The definition of 'common interests'
as furnished by the ukase is so vague as to make the exercise
of any form of self-government on the part of the Finlanders a
matter of uncertainty, if not of serious difficulty. Not only
the interpretation of 'common interests,' but also the
designation of the law governing them, is primarily in the
hands of the Russian authorities. Finland, an independent,
constitutional state [see, in volume 4, SCANDINAVIAN STATES:
A. D. 1807-1810], has been, or, at all events, is to be,
converted into a province of Russia. …
"The conviction is general that the Czar, who had formerly
manifested such good-will toward the country, and who had
abrogated the enactments curtailing its constitutional rights,
could not possibly have so completely changed his views within
so short a time. Consequently, it was decided to address a
monster petition in behalf of the people directly to the ruler
himself. This plan met with the enthusiastic approval of the
entire nation, and the document was signed by no fewer than
523,931 men and women of Finland.
{224}
A deputation of five hundred was elected to present this
petition, which so eloquently voiced the conviction of the
whole nation. These five hundred representatives went to St.
Petersburg, and requested an audience with the Czar. But their
efforts were unavailing. They were not received; and it
appeared as if the united voice of a peaceful and loyal people
could not penetrate to the ear of the ruler.
"In the meantime the attention of all Europe was directed to
the matter; and everywhere the liveliest sympathy was
manifested for that little Nation in the Northeast. … There
now arose—entirely from private initiative, and without the
exercise of any influence on the part of Finland—a general
movement among European nations to select prominent scholars
and artists; i. e., men entirely removed from the political
arena, to act as representatives of the popular sentiment, and
to speak a good word with the Czar in behalf of Finland. …
Addresses of sympathy for Finland were formulated in England,
France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland,
Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway; and these
addresses were signed by over one thousand and fifty scholars
and artists. … All the addresses together were to be presented
to the Czar by a small deputation; and for this purpose the
Commission mentioned at the beginning of this article
proceeded to St. Petersburg. The gentlemen took great pains to
secure an audience; they went from one minister to another,
and avoided every appearance of unfriendliness. Nevertheless,
their request was politely declined; and the acceptance of the
document bearing the signatures of over one thousand
notabilitles firmly refused."
R. Eucken,
The Finnish Question
(Forum, November, 1899).
A correspondent of the "London Times," writing from
Helsingfors, December 28, 1900, reported: "The situation in
Finland at the end of the year is by no means improved,
notwithstanding a few gratifying events, such as the
permission granted by General Bobrikoff for a new daily paper
to be published in Helsingfors. … Two papers, one published in
a provincial town, and a weekly journal in Helsingfors, have
been suppressed for ever, and the preventive censorship is
applied with the utmost rigour. The Governor-General has
displayed great energy in enforcing the restrictions on the
right to hold meetings, and he has in circulars to the
provincial Governors issued instructions for the introduction
of Russian as the language of the Provincial Government
offices even earlier, and more fully, than is provided for in
the language ordinance promulgated last autumn. Denunciations
of private persons to General Bobrikoff by secret agents, as
well as public authorities, are events of well-nigh daily
occurrence, and one consequence of these secret reports is
that five University professors are threatened with summary
dismissal unless they 'bind themselves to mix themselves up no
longer in any sort of political agitation.' …
"The question of the new military law will in all probability
come before the Russian Imperial Council in January, all
authorities concerned having had an opportunity of expressing
their views on the report made on the question by the Finnish
Diet in 1899, including the Minister of War, General
Kuropatkin. In conformity with the manifesto of February 15,
1899, this report will be regarded merely as an 'opinion'
given by that body, in no way binding when the matter comes up
for further consideration. This scheme, it will be remembered,
not only imposes on Finland a military burden beyond the
powers of the country, but has the political aim of
denationalizing the Finnish army, and is thus intended to
serve as a potent lever in the Russification of the Grand
Duchy. The main features of the Bill were rejected by the
Finnish Diet, but, although several members of the Imperial
Council are opposed to the new scheme, it is believed that it
will gain the majority in the Council in all its more salient
points."
Three months later (February 26, 1901), an important change in
the situation was reported from St. Petersburg by the same
correspondent. The project of Russifying the Finnish army had
suffered defeat, he learned, in the Council of State, by a
large majority. "But," he added, "this does not by any means
imply that the military reform scheme in Finland, which has
been the chief cause of all the harm done to the Finnish
Constitution during the last three years, has been finally
upset. A similar procedure in any other European civilized
country would mean as much, but it is not so in Russia. It
simply means that the Russification of Finland is still being
prosecuted by a small powerful minority, who will probably
gain their point in spite of the vast majority of his
Majesty's councillors. The Council of State, the highest
institution in the sphere of supreme administration, is merely
a consultative body, whose opinion can be, and often has been,
set aside by the Sovereign without the least difficulty. A mere
stroke of the pen is necessary.
"In the present case the Finnish military project was
discussed by the four united departments of the Council. It is
stated that M. Pobiedonostzeff and the Minister of War said
nothing, being, perhaps, either too much impressed by the
speech of M. Witte against the project, or feeling sure of
their ground without the need of entering into useless
discussion. M. Witte, whose influence is gradually embracing
every branch of government, is also looming big in this
question. He is reported to have made a speech on the occasion
which carried over 40 members of the Council with him in
opposition to the project. He attacked it principally on
financial grounds, and declared that nobody could advise his
Majesty to adopt it. The rejection of the proposal by the four
departments is preliminary to its discussion by a plenary
assembly of the Council, and only after that has taken place
will the opinion of the majority be laid before the Emperor,"
FIST OF RIGHTEOUS HARMONY, Society of the.
See(in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH).
FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES, The.
See (in this volume)
INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1893-1899.
FORBIDDEN CITY, March of allied forces through the.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST 15-28).
FORMOSA: A. D. 1895.
Cession by China to Japan.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895.
FORMOSA: A. D. 1896.
Chinese risings against the Japanese.
See (in this volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1896.
{225}
----------FRANCE: Start--------
FRANCE: A. D. 1894-1896.
Final subjugation and annexation of Madagascar.
See (in this volume)
MADAGASCAR.
FRANCE: A. D. 1895.
Cession of Kiang-Hung by China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895 (MARCH-JULY).
FRANCE: A. D. 1895.
Ministerial changes.
The alliance with Russia.
On the resignation of the presidency of the Republic by M.
Casimir-Perier and the election of M. Felix Faure to succeed
him (January 15-17), a ministry was formed which represented
the moderate republican groups, with M. Ribot at its head, as
President of the Council and Minister of Finance, and with M.
Hanotaux as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
See, in volume 2,
FRANCE: A. D. 1894-1895).
The most important work of the new government was the
arrangement of an alliance with Russia, which was
conspicuously signified to the world by the union of the
French and Russian fleets when they entered the German harbor
of Kiel, on the 17th of June, to take part in the celebration
of the opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Ship Canal, between the
Baltic and North Seas (see, in this volume, GERMANY: A. D.
1895, JUNE). This gave the greatest possible satisfaction to
the nation, and powerfully strengthened the ministers for a
time; but they were discredited a little later in the year by
disclosures of waste, extravagance and peculation in the
military department. Early in the autumn session of the
Chamber of Deputies a vote was carried against them, and they
resigned. A more radical cabinet was then formed, under M.
Leon Bourgeois, President of the Council and Minister of the
Interior; with M. Berthelot holding the portfolio of foreign
affairs, M. Cavaignac that of war, and M. Lockroy that of the
marine.
FRANCE: A. D. 1896 (January).
Agreement with Great Britain concerning Siam.
See (in this volume)
SIAM: A. D. 1896-1899.
FRANCE: A. D. 1896 (March).
Census of the Republic.
Returns of a national census taken in March showed a
population in France of 38,228,969, being an increase in five
years of only 133,919. The population of Paris was 2,511;955.
FRANCE: A. D. 1896 (April-May).
Change of Ministry.
Socialist gains.
After a long conflict with a hostile Senate, the Radical
Ministry of M. Bourgeois gave way and was succeeded, April 30,
by a Cabinet of Moderate Republicans, in which M. Méline
presided, holding the portfolio of Agriculture, and with M.
Hanotaux returned to the direction of Foreign Affairs. At
municipal elections in the following month the Socialists made
important gains. "The elections of May, 1896, revealed the
immense progress that socialism had made in all lands since
the year 1893. Towns as important as Lille, Roubaix, Calais,
Montluçon, Narbonne, re-elected socialist majorities to
administer their affairs; and even where there was only a
socialist minority, a socialist mayor was elected, as in the
case of Dr. Flaissières at Marseilles, and Cousteau at
Bordeaux. But in the small towns and the villages our
victories have been especially remarkable. The Parti Ouvrier
alone can reckon more than eighteen hundred m municipal
councillors elected upon its collectivist programme; and at
the Lille Congress, which was held a few days before the
International Congress in London, thirty-eight socialist
municipal councils and twenty-one socialist minorities of
municipal councils were represented by their mayors or by
delegates chosen by the party."
P. Lafargue,
Socialism in France
(Fortnightly Review, September, 1897).
FRANCE: A. D. 1897.
Industrial combinations.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.
FRANCE: A. D. 1897 (May-June).
Cessions and concessions from China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1897 (MAY-JUNE).
FRANCE: A. D. 1897 (June).
Renewal of the privileges of the Bank of France.
See (in this volume)
MONETARY QUESTIONS: A. D. 1897.
FRANCE: A. D. 1897 (July).
Co-operation with American envoys in negotiations for a
bi-metallic agreement with Great Britain.
See (in this volume)
MONETARY QUESTIONS:
A. D. 1897 (APRIL-OCTOBER).
FRANCE: A. D. 1897-1899.
The Dreyfus Affair.
Although Captain Alfred Dreyfus, of the French army, was
arrested, tried by court-martial, convicted of treasonable
practices, in the betrayal of military secrets to a foreign
power, and thereupon degraded and imprisoned, in 1894, it was
not until 1897 that his case became historically important, by
reason of the unparalleled agitations to which it gave rise,
threatening the very life of the French Republic, and exciting
the whole civilized world. Accordingly we date the whole
extraordinary story of Captain Dreyfus and his unscrupulous
enemies in the French Army Staff from that year, in order to
place it in proper chronological relations with other events.
As told here, the story is largely borrowed from a singularly
clear review of its complicated incidents by Sir Godfrey
Lushington, formerly Permanent Under Secretary in the British
Home Office, which appeared in the "London Times," while the
question of a revision of the Dreyfus trial was pending in the
Court of Cassation. We are indebted to the publisher of "The
Times" for permission to make use of it:
"In October, 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, an artillery
officer on the staff, was arrested for treason. He belonged to
a respected and highly loyal Jewish family in Alsace, his
military character was unblemished, and he was in easy
circumstances. At this time General Mercier was Minister of
War, General de Boisdeffre Chief of the Staff (practically
Commander-in-Chief of the French army), General Gonse,
Assistant-Chief. Colonel Sandherr, well known as an
Anti-Semite, was head of the Intelligence Department, under
him were Commandants Picquart, Henry, and Lauth, also the
Archivist Griblin. Commandant Du Paty de Clam was an officer
attached to the general staff. Commandant Esterhazy was
serving with his regiment. On October 15, on the order of the
Minister of War, Captain Dreyfus was arrested by Commandant Du
Paty de Clam, and taken in the charge of Commandant Henry to
the Cherche-Midi Prison, of which Commandant Forzinetti was
governor. For a fortnight extraordinary precautions were taken
to keep his arrest an absolute secret from the public and even
from his own family. His wife alone knew of it, but dared not
speak. … So harsh was his treatment that Commandant Forzinetti
felt it his duty to take the strong step of making a formal
representation to the Minister of War and also to the Governor
of Paris, at the same time declaring his own conviction that
Captain Dreyfus was an innocent man.
{226}
On October 31 Commandant Du Paty de Clam made his report,
which has not seen the light, and on November 3 Commandant
d'Ormescheville was appointed 'rapporteur' to conduct a
further inquiry, and in due course to draw up a formal report,
which practically constitutes the case for the prosecution.
Not till then was Captain Dreyfus informed of the particulars
of the charge about to be laid against him. From this report
of Commandant d'Ormescheville's we learn that the basis of the
accusation against Captain Dreyfus was a document known by the
name of the 'bordereau' [memorandum]. Neither Commandant
d'Ormescheville's report nor the 'bordereau' has been
officially published by the Government, but both ultimately
found their way into the newspapers. The bordereau was a
communication not dated, nor addressed, nor signed. It
began:—'Sans nouvelles m'indiquant que vous désirez me voir,
je vous adresse cependant, Monsieur, quelques renseignemcnts
intéressants.' ['Without news indicating that you wish to see
me, I send you, nevertheless, monsieur, some important
information.'] (Then followed the titles of various military
documents, 1, 2, &c.) The report stated that the bordereau had
fallen into the hands of the Minister of War, but how the
Minister declined to say, beyond making a general statement
that the circumstances showed that it had been sent to an
agent of a foreign Power. It is now generally accepted that it
had been brought to the War Office by a spy—an Alsatian porter
who was in the service of Colonel von Schwarzkoppen, then the
military attache to the German Embassy in Paris. The report
contained nothing to show that Captain Dreyfus had been
following treasonable practices or to connect him in any
manner with the bordereau. The sole question for the
Court-martial was whether the bordereau was in his
handwriting. On this the experts were divided, three being of
opinion that it was, two that it was not, in his handwriting.
"The Court-martial was duly held, and Captain Dreyfus had the
aid of counsel, Maître Demange; but the first act of the Court
was, at the instance of the Government representative, to
declare the 'huis cols,' so that none but those concerned were
present. After the evidence had been taken the Court,
according to custom, adjourned to consider their verdict in
private. Ultimately they found Captain Dreyfus guilty, and he
was sentenced to be publicly expelled from the army and
imprisoned for life. Not till after his conviction was he
allowed to communicate with his wife and family. The sentence
has been carried out with the utmost rigour. Captain Dreyfus
was transported to the Isle du Diable [off the coast of French
Guiana], where he lives in solitary confinement. … The
Court-martial having been held within closed doors, the public
at large knew nothing … beyond the fact that Captain Dreyfus
had been convicted of betraying military secrets to a foreign
Power, and they had no suspicion that there had been any
irregularity at the Court-martial or that the verdict was a
mistaken one. … For two years the Dreyfus question may be said
to have slumbered. In the course of this time Colonel
Sandherr, who died in January, 1897, had been compelled to
retire from ill-health, and Commandant Picquart became head of
the Intelligence Department. … In May, 1896, there were
brought to the Intelligence Department of the War Office some
more sweepings from Colonel von Schwarzkoppen's waste-paper
basket by the same Alsatian porter who had brought the
bordereau. These were put by Commandant Henry into a packet,
and given by him (according to the usual custom) to Commandant
Picquart. Commandant Picquart swears that amongst these were
about 60 small pieces of paper. These (also according to
custom) he gave to Commandant Lauth to piece together. When
pieced together they were found to constitute the document
which is known by the name of 'Petit bleu, à carte télégramme'
for transmission through the Post-office, but which had never
been posted. It was addressed to Commandant Esterhazy, and ran
as follows:
"'J'attendsavant tout une explication plus détaillée que celle
que vous m'avez donnée, l'autre jour, sur la question en
suspens. En conséquence, je vous prie de me la donner par
écrit, pour pouvoir juger si je puis continuer mes relations
avec la maison R … ou non. [I await, before anything farther, a
more detailed explanation than you gave me the other day on
the question now in suspense. In consequence, I request you to
give this to me in writing, that I may judge whether I can
continue my relations with the house of R. or not.] M. le
Commandant Esterhazy, 27, Rue de la Bienfaisance, Paris.'
"At this time Commandant Esterhazy was a stranger to
Commandant Picquart, and the first step which Commandant
Picquart took was to make inquiry as to who and what he was.
His character proved most disreputable, and he was in money
difficulties. The next was to obtain a specimen of his
handwriting in order to compare it with other writings which
had been brought by spies to the office and were kept there.
In this way it came about that it was compared with the
facsimile of the bordereau, when, lo and behold, the writings
of the two appeared identical. It was Commandant Esterhazy,
then, who had written the bordereau, and if Commandant
Esterhazy, then not Captain Dreyfus. … Commandant Picquart
acquainted his chiefs with what had been done—namely, General
de Boisdeffre in July, and his own immediate superior, General
Gonse, in September. …
"On September 15 of the same year, 1896, took place the first
explosion. This solely concerned the Dreyfus trial. On that
day the 'Éclair,' an anti-Semite newspaper, published an
article headed 'Le Traitre,' in which they stated that at the
Court-martial the 'pièce d'accusation' on which Captain
Dreyfus was tried was the bordereau; but that after the Court
had retired to the 'chamber of deliberation,' there was
communicated to them from the War Office, in the absence of
the prisoner and his counsel, a document purporting to be
addressed by the German military attaché to his colleague at
the Italian Embassy in Paris, and ending with a postscript,
'Cet animal de Dreyfus devient trop exigcant'; further, that
this document was the only one in which appeared the name
Dreyfus. This at once had removed all doubts from the minds of
the Court-martial, who thereupon had unanimously brought the
prisoner in guilty; and the 'Eclair' called upon the
Government to produce this document and thus satisfy the
public conscience. This document has, for sufficient reasons
hereinafter appearing, come to be known as 'le document
libérateur,' and by this name we will distinguish it.
{227}
As to the article in the 'Eclair,' it must have proceeded
either from a member of the Court-martial or from some one in
the War Office; but whether its contents were true is a matter
which to this day has not been fully cleared up. This much,
however, is known. We have the authority of Maître Demange
(Captain Dreyfus's advocate) that no such document was brought
before the Court-martial during the proceedings at which he
was present. On the other hand, it has now been admitted that
at the date of Captain Dreyfus's trial there was, and that
there had been for some months previously, in the archives of
the War Office a similar document, not in the Dreyfus'
dossier' proper, but in a secret dossier, only that the words
therein are not 'Cet animal de Dreyfus,' but 'Ce (sic)
canaille de D—' (initial only) 'devient trop exigeant.' … The
Government have never yet either admitted or denied that
General Mercier went down to the Court-martial and made to
them a secret communication. …
"As might have been expected, the article in the 'Eclair'
occasioned a considerable stir; both parties welcomed it, the
one as showing Captain Dreyfus to have been really a traitor
and therefore justly deserving his sentence; the other as a
proof that whether guilty or not he had been condemned
illegally on a document used behind his back. The public
excitement was increased when on the 10th of November the
'Matin'—a War Office journal—published what purported to be a
fac-simile of the bordereau, and a host of experts and others
set to work to compare it with the accused's handwriting. The
reproduction was no doubt made, not from the original
bordereau, which was in the sealed-up Dreyfus dossier, but
from a photograph of it. And the photograph must have been
obtained surreptitiously from some one in the War Office or
from some one who had attended the secret Court-martial. … The
natural sequel to these revelations was an interpellation in
the Chamber—the 'interpellation Castelin' of November 18,
1896. On that day, M. Castelin, an anti-Semite deputy, by
asking some question as to the safe custody of Dreyfus, gave
the Government an opportunity. General Billot, then Minister
of War, replied in general terms—'L'instruction de l'affaire,
les débats, le jugement, ont eu lieu conformément aux règles
de la procédure militaire. Le Conseil de Guerre regulièrement
compose, a regulièrement déliberé,' &c. ['The instructions,
the debates, the verdict, have all taken place conformably to
the rules of military procedure. The Court-martial, regularly
composed, has deliberated regularly,' etc.] … On November 14,
1896, on the eve of the Interpellation Castelin, Commandant
Picquart was sent on a secret mission, which has not been
disclosed. He left his duties as head of the Intelligence
Department nominally in the hands of General Gonse, his
superior, but practically to be discharged by Commandant
Henry, who was Commandant Picquart's subordinate. He requested
his family to address their private letters for him to the War
Office, whence they would be forwarded. His secret mission, or
missions, took him first to Nancy, then to Besançon
(permission being refused to him to return to Paris even for a
night to renew his wardrobe), later on to Algeria and Tunisia,
with instructions to proceed to the frontier. … In March,
1897, Commandant Picquart was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of
the 4th Tirailleurs, the appointment being represented to him
as a favour. He was the youngest Colonel in the service. In
his stead Commandant Henry became Chief of the Intelligence
Department. … From the first Colonel Picquart had, of course,
felt some uneasiness at being sent on these missions away from
his ordinary duties, and various little circumstances occurred
to increase it, and in May, 1897, having occasion to write
unofficially to Commandant Henry, now Chief of the
Intelligence Department, he expressed himself strongly as to
the mystery and falsities with which his departure had been
surrounded; and he received a reply dated June 3, in which
Commandant Henry said that the mystery he could well enough
explain by what had come to his knowledge after some inquiry,
and he alluded in general to three circumstances—(1) Opening
letters in the post; (2) attempt to suborn two officers in the
service to speak to a certain writing as being that of a
certain person; and (3) the opening of a secret dossier. The
first Colonel Picquart knew to refer to his having intercepted
Commandant Esterhazy's letters; the other two allusions he did
not at the time (June, 1897) fully understand; but the letter,
couched in such terms and coming from one who had until lately
been his subordinate, and was now the head of the Department,
convinced him that he was the object of serious and secret
machinations in the War Office. He immediately applied for
leave and came to Paris. There he determined, with a view to
his self-defence, to obtain legal advice from an advocate, M.
Leblois; saw him, and showed him Colonel Henry's letter, and,
whilst abstaining (according to his own account and that of M.
Leblois) from touching on the third matter, the secret
dossier, spoke freely on the other two—on the 'affaires'
Dreyfus and Esterhazy generally; also, in order to explain how
far he had acted with the sanction or cognizance of his
superiors, he placed in his hands the correspondence—not
official but confidential—about Commandant Esterhazy which he
had had with General Gonse in 1896. He left it to M. Leblois
to take what course he might think necessary, and returned to
Sousse. In the course of the autumn he was summoned to Tunis
and asked by the military authority there whether he had been
robbed of a secret document by a woman. The question seemed a
strange one and was answered by him with a simple negative.
Later on he received at Sousse two telegrams from Paris, dated
November 10. One:—'Arretez Bondieu. Tout est découvert.
Affaire très grave. Speranza.' This was addressed to Tunis and
forwarded to Sousse. The other:—'On a des preuves que le bleu est
fabriqué par Georges. Blanche.' This was addressed to Sousse.
And two days after he received a letter, likewise of November
10, from Esterhazy, an abusive one, charging him with
conspiring against him, &c. He felt certain that the telegrams
were sent in order to compromise him. … Colonel Picquart
suspected Commandant Esterhazy to be the author of the
telegrams, the more so that in Commandant Esterhazy's letter
and in one of the telegrams his own name Picquart was spelt
without a c. He at once telegraphed to Tunis for leave to come
and see the General there.
{228}
He did see him and through him forwarded to the Minister of
War the three documents, with a covering letter in which he
demanded an inquiry. He then obtained leave to go to Paris,
but the condition was imposed on him that he should see no one
before presenting himself to General de Pellieux. When he saw
the General he learnt for the first time and to his surprise
that ever since he left Paris in November, 1896, his letters
had been intercepted and examined at the War Office and he was
called upon to explain various letters and documents. …
"Before June, 1897, Commandant Esterhazy's name had not been
breathed to the public; it is now to come out, and from two
independent sources. Some little time after seeing Colonel
Picquart, in June, 1897, M. Leblois had determined, in his
interest, to consult M. Scheurer-Kestner, who was well known
to have taken an interest in the 'affaire Dreyfus,' because of
the suspicion that Captain Dreyfus had been condemned on a
document which he had never seen and because of the
discrepancies between Captain Dreyfus's handwriting and that
of the bordereau. He was Vice-President of the Senate and a
personal friend of General Billot, the Minister of War. M.
Leblois communicated to him what he knew about Commandant
Esterhazy and showed him General Gonse's letters to Colonel
Picquart. In October M. Scheurer-Kestner communicated on the
subject both with General Billot and with the President of the
Council, M. Méline. He was now to learn the name of Commandant
Esterhazy from another quarter. One afternoon in the end of
October a M. de Castro, a stock-broker, was seated in a cafe
in Paris, and a boy from the street came up with copies of the
facsimile of the bordereau, which had then been on sale for
more than a year. M. de Castro bought a copy, and at once
recognized, as he thought, the handwriting of the bordereau to
be that of Commandant Esterhazy, who was a client of his. He
took the copy home, compared it with letters of Commandant
Esterhazy, and all doubts vanished. His friends told M.
Matthieu Dreyfus, who begged him to take the letters to M.
Scheurer-Kestner, and he did so on November 12, 1897, and M.
Scheurer-Kestner advised that M. Matthieu Dreyfus should go to
General Billot and denounce Commandant Esterhazy as the author
of the bordereau. And now to turn to Commandant Esterhazy. His
own statement is this. In the month of October, 1897, when in the
country, he received a letter from 'Speranza' giving minute
details of a plot against himself, the instigator of which
was, Speranza said, a colonel named Picquart (without the c).
He at once went to Paris, saw the Minister of War, and gave
him Speranza's letter. Shortly afterwards he received a
telegram asking him to be behind the palisades of the bridge
Alexander III. at 11.30 p.m. He would there meet a person who
would give him important information. He kept his appointment,
met a veiled woman, who, first binding him over under oath to
respect her incognito, gave him long details of the plot of
the 'band' against himself. Afterwards he had three similar
interviews, but not at the same place. At the second of these
four interviews the unknown woman gave him a letter,
saying:—'Prenez la pièce contenue dans cette enveloppe, elle
prouve votre innocence, et si le torchon brûle, n'hésitez pas
it vous en servir.' ['Take the piece contained in this
envelope, it proves your innocence, and if there is trouble do
not hesitate to use it.'] This document, henceforward called
'le document libérateur,' was no other than the letter
referred to in the 'Eclair' (ce canaille de D.), which, of
course, ought to have been safe in the archives of the
Intelligence Department. On November 14 Commandant Esterhazy
returned this document to the Minister of War under a covering
letter in which he called upon his chief to defend his honour
thus menaced. The Minister of War sent Commandant Esterhazy a
receipt. The next day the Minister received a letter from M.
Matthieu Dreyfus denouncing Commandant Esterhazy as the author
of the bordereau. The letter of Speranza to Commandant
Esterhazy has not yet been divulged to the public; and the War
Office, after diligent inquiries, have not been able to find
the veiled woman. Very different was the interpretation put on
this narrative by M. Trarieux, ex-Minister of Justice, and
others interested in revision. Their suggestion was that
Commandant Esterhazy was in the first instance apprised
beforehand by his friends in the War Office of the coming
danger and was for flying across the frontier, but that
subsequently these same friends, finding that the chiefs of
the army were fearful of being compromised by his flight from
justice and would make common cause with him, wished to recall
him, and with this view, took from the archives the 'document
libérateur,' and sent it to him as an assurance that he might
safely return and stand his trial, and also with a view to his
claiming the credit of having restored to the office a
document which it was now intended to charge Colonel Picquart
with abstracting. On November 16, 1897, on a question being
asked in the Chamber, General Billot, Minister of War, replied
that he had made inquiries, and the result 'n'ébranlait
nullement dans lion esprit l'autorité de la chose jugée,' but
that as a formal denunciation of an officer of the army had
been made by the 'famille Dreyfus,' there would be a military
investigation. A fortnight or so afterwards he 'repeated that
the Government considered the 'affaire Dreyfus comme
régulièrement et justement jugée.' Here, as elsewhere, the
reader will remember that the question at issue was who was
the author of the bordereau, and that if Captain Dreyfus was,
Commandant Esterhazy could not be. Consequently, a public
declaration by the Minister of War that Captain Dreyfus had
been justly condemned was as much as to say that Commandant
Esterhazy must be acquitted. … Commandant Esterhazy was
acquitted.
"On the morrow of Commandant Esterhazy's acquittal M Zola
launched his letter of January 13, 1898, which was addressed
to the President, of the Republic, and wound up with a series
of formal accusations attributing the gravest iniquities to
all concerned in either of the Courts-martial, each officer
being in turn pointedly mentioned by name. M. Zola's avowed
object was to get himself prosecuted for defamation and so
obtain an opportunity for bringing out 'la lumière' on the
whole situation. The Minister of War so far accepted the
challenge as to institute a prosecution at the Assizes; but
resolving to maintain the 'chose jugée' as to the 'affaire
Dreyfus,' he carefully chose his own ground so as to avoid
that subject, selecting from the whole letter only 15 lines as
constituting the defamation.
{229}
In particular as to one sentence, which ran:—['J'accuse enfin
le Premier Conseil de Guerre d'avoir violé le droit en
condamnant un accuse sur une pièce restée secrète, et]
j'accuse le Second Conseil de Guerre d'avoir couvert cette
illegalité par ordre, en commettant à son tour le crime
juridiquc d'acquitter sciemment un coupable'; ['I accuse,
finally, the first Court-martial of having violated the law in
its conviction of the accused on the strength of a document
kept secret; and I accuse the second Court-martial of having
covered this illegality, acting under orders and committing in
its turn the legal crime of knowingly acquitting a guilty
person.']
"The prosecution omitted the first half of the sentence, the
part within brackets. By French law it is for the defendants
to justify the defamatory words assigned, and to prove their
good faith. But this was a difficult task even for M. Labori,
the counsel for M. Zola. There were several notable obstacles
to be passed before light could reach the Court:
1. The 'chose jugée' as applicable to the 'affaire Dreyfus.'
2. The 'huis clos'; the whole proceedings at the Dreyfus
trial, and all the more important part of the proceedings at
the Esterhazy trial, having been conducted within closed
doors.
3. The 'secret d'Etat' excluding all reference to foreign
Governments.
4. The 'secret professionnel,' pleaded not only by officers
civil and military, but even by the experts employed by the
Court for the identification of handwriting.
5. To these may be added the unwillingness of a witness for
any reason whatever.
Thus Colonel Du Paty de Clam was allowed to refuse to answer
questions as to his conduct in family affairs; and, as for
Commandant Esterhazy, he turned his back on the defendants and
refused to answer any question whatever suggested by them,
although it was put to him by the mouth of the Judge. … Of the
above-mentioned obligations to silence, three were such as it
was within the competence of the Government to dispense from.
No dispensation was given, and hence it was that the Minister
of War was seen as prosecutor pressing his legal right to call
upon the defendants, under pain of conviction, to prove the
truth of the alleged libel, and at the same time, by the
exercise or non-exercise of his official authority, preventing
the witnesses for the defence from stating the facts which
were within their knowledge and most material to the truth.
But the 'chose jugée' was a legal entity by which was meant
not merely that the sentence could not be legally disputed,
but that it was to be accepted as 'la vérité légale'; no word
of evidence was to be admitted which in any way referred to
any part of the proceedings—the whole affair was to be
eliminated. The bar thus raised was very effectual in shutting
out of Court large classes of witnesses who could speak only
to the 'affaire Dreyfus' … whatever was the rule as to the
'chose jugée,' it should have been enforced equally on both
parties. This was not always the case. One single example of
the contrary shall be given, which, as will be shown
hereafter, events have proved to be of the utmost
significance. General de Pellieux had completed his long
evidence, but having received from 'a Juror' a private letter
to the effect that the jury would not convict M. Zola unless
they had some further proof of the guilt of Captain Dreyfus,
on a subsequent day he asked leave to make a supplementary
deposition and then said:—
"'Au moment de l'interpellation Castelin [i. e., in 1896] it
s'est produit un fait que je tiens à signaler. On a eu au
Ministère de la Guerre (et remarquez que je ne parle pas de
l'affaire Dreyfus) la preuve absolue de la culpabilité de
Dreyfus, et cette preuve je l'ai vile. Au moment de cette
interpellation, il est arrivé au Ministère de la Guerre un
papier dont l'origine ne peut être contestée, et qui dit—je
vous dirai ce qu'il y a dedans—"Il va se produire une
interpellation sur l'affaire Dreyfus. Ne dites jamais les
relations que nous avons eues avec ce juif."' ['At the time of
the Castelin interpellation (1896) there was a fact which I
want to point out. The Ministry of War held—remark that I am
not speaking of the Dreyfus case—absolute proof of the guilt
of Dreyfus; and this proof I have seen. At the moment of that
interpellation there arrived at the Ministry of War a paper
the origin of which is incontestable, and which says,—I will
tell you what it says,—"There is going to be an interpellation
about the Dreyfus affair. You must never disclose the
relations which we had with that Jew."'] And General de
Pellieux called upon General de Boisdeffre and General Gonse
to confirm what he said, and they did so. But when M. Labori
asked to see the document and proposed to cross-examine the
generals upon it, the Judge did not allow him, 'Nous n'avons
pas à parler de l'affaire Dreyfus.' It may be conceived what
effect such a revelation, made by the chiefs of the French
army in full uniform, had upon the jury. They pronounced M.
Zola guilty and found no extenuating circumstances; and he was
sentenced by the Judge to the maximum penalty, viz.,
imprisonment for a year and a fine of 3,000 francs.
"On April 2 the Zola case is brought up before the Court of
Cassation [the French Court of Appeals] and the Court quashes
the verdict of the Assizes, on the technical ground that the
prosecution had been instituted by the wrong person. The
Minister of War was incompetent to prosecute; the only persons
competent were those who could allege they had been defamed—
in this instance the persons constituting the Esterhazy
Court-martial. … The officers who had sat at the Esterhazy
Court-martial were then called together again in order to
decide whether M. Zola should be reprosecuted. To put a stop
to any unwillingness on their part, M. Zola published in the
'Siècle' of April 7 a declaration of Count Casella, which the
Count said he would have deposed to on oath at the former
trial if the Judge had allowed him to be a witness. This
declaration gave a detailed history of various interviews in
Paris with Count Panizzardi, the military attaché at the
Italian Embassy, and at Berlin with Colonel von Schwarzkoppen,
who had been the military attache at the German Embassy.
According to Count Casella, both these officers had declared
positively to him that they had had nothing to do with Captain
Dreyfus, but Colonel von Schwarzkoppen much with Commandant
Esterhazy. It will be said that this declaration of Count
Casella had not been sifted by cross-examination; but it is
understood that at the end of 1896, immediately after the
'Éclair' made the revelation of 'le document libérateur,' both
the German and Italian Governments made a diplomatic
representation to the French Government, denying that they had
had anything to do with Captain Dreyfus.
{230}
At all events, in January, 1898, official denials had been
publicly made by the German Minister of Foreign Affairs to the
Budget Commission of the Reichstag and by the Italian
Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs to the Parliament at Home.
The officers of the Court-martial resolve to reprosecute, and
the case is fixed for the May Assizes at Versailles. When the
case comes on, M. Zola demurs to its being tried outside
Paris; the demurrer is overruled by the Court of Cassation,
and ultimately, on July 18, the case comes on again at the
Versailles Assizes. The charge, however, is now cut down from
what it had been on the first trial in Paris. Of the whole
letter of M. Zola now only three lines are selected as
defamatory—viz.:—'Un conseil de guerre vient par ordre d'oser
acquitter un Esterhazy, soufflet suprême à toute vérité, à
toute justice.' ['The Court-martial has by order dared to
acquit an Esterhazy, supreme blow to all truth, to all
justice.'] This selection was manifestly designed to shut out
any possibility of reference to the 'affaire Dreyfus,' and M.
Labori, finding that any attempt to import it would be vain,
allowed the case to go by default, and M. Zola was condemned
and, as before, sentenced to a year's imprisonment and a fine
of 3,000f. He has appealed to the Com de Cassation, and the
appeal may be heard in the course of the autumn. To secure his
own liberty in the meantime, M. Zola has avoided personal
service of the order of the Assizes by removing beyond the
frontier.
"We will now go back to Colonel Picquart. During the year 1897
he had become aware that in the Intelligence Department
suspicions were expressed that the 'petit-bleu' was not a
genuine document and insinuations made that Colonel Picquart
had forged it. … The ground on which this imputation was
rested came out clearly in the evidence which was given
subsequently in the Zola trial, to which reference may now be
made. The sweepings of Colonel von Schwarzkoppen's basket had
been brought by a spy to the Intelligence Department, and were
given first into the hands of Commandant Henry, who put them into
a packet or 'cornet' and passed them on to Colonel Picquart to
examine. Colonel Picquart swore that on examination he had
found amongst the papers a large number of fragments, fifty or
sixty. These he gave to Commandant Lauth to piece together and
photograph. When pieced together they were found to constitute
the 'petit-bleu' addressed to Commandant Esterhazy, who at
that time was a perfect stranger to Colonel Picquart. At the
Zola trial Colonel Henry had sworn that the pieces were not in
the 'cornet' when he gave it, to Colonel Picquart, and the
insinuation was that Colonel Picquart had forged the document,
torn it in pieces, and put the pieces into the 'cornet.' …
Commandant Esterhazy was acquitted by the Court-martial, and
on the very next day Colonel Picquart was himself summoned to
submit to a military inquiry. The Court-martial sat with
closed doors, so that neither the charges nor the proceedings
nor the findings would be known to the public, but the
findings have found their way into the newspapers. [Picquart,
cleared himself on the main charges.] … But as to the charge
(which had never been disputed) that in 1897 Colonel Picquart
had communicated General Gonse's letters to M. Leblois, this
the Court found to be proved; and for this military offence
Colonel Picquart was removed from the army upon a pension of a
little more than 2,000f., or £80, per annum. Other
chastisements have followed. …
"We now come to the famous declaration of July 7 (1898), made
by M. Cavaignac, Minister of War. On an interpellation by M.
Castelin, the Minister of War replied that hitherto the
Government had respected the 'chose jugée,' but now
considerations superior to reasons of law made it necessary
for them to bring before the Chamber and the country all the
truth in their possession, the facts which had come to confirm
the conviction of Captain Dreyfus. He made this declaration
because of the absolute certainty he had of his guilt. He
based his declaration first on documents in the Intelligence
Department, and then on Captain Dreyfus's own confessions. The
latter will here be dealt with first. The Minister relied on
two witnesses. One was Captain d'Attel, who on the day of
Captain Dreyfus's resignation had told Captain Anthoine that
Captain Dreyfus had just said in his presence, 'As to what I
have handed over, it was worth nothing. If I had been let
alone I should have had more in exchange.' Captain Anthoine
had, according to the Minister, immediately repeated these
words to Major de Mitry. But Captain d'Attel is dead, and M.
Cavaignac did not state to the Chamber at what date or on
whose authority this information came to the War Office. The
other witness was a Captain Lebrun-Renault, still alive, who
had acted as captain of the escort on the day of degradation,
January 5, 1895. … The Minister omits to specify the date at
which Captain Lebrun-Renault first communicated to the War
Office. It is believed to be in November, 1897; and against
these allegations may be set the testimony of Commandant
Forzinetti, the governor of the prison in which Captain
Dreyfus was confined, to the effect that there is no record of
confession in the official report made at the time by Captain
Lebrun-Renault, as Captain of the escort, and that within the
last year the Captain had denied to him (Commandant
Forzinetti) that there had been any confession. Further we
know that throughout his imprisonment before trial, at the
trial, at the scene of his degradation, and in his letter
written immediately afterwards to his wife, and to the
Minister of War, Captain Dreyfus protested his innocence and
that he had never committed even the slightest imprudence.
"Then as to the documents confirmatory of the conviction of
Captain Dreyfus. M. Cavaignac did not say whether by this term
'guilt' be meant that Captain Dreyfus had been guilty of
writing the bordereau, or had been guilty otherwise as a
traitor. Indeed it was remarked that he never so much as
mentioned the bordereau. Was, then, the bordereau dropped, as
a document, no longer recognized to be in the handwriting of
Captain Dreyfus? But he informed the Chamber that the
Intelligence Department had during the last six years
accumulated 1,000 documents and letters relating to espionage,
of the authorship of which there was no reasonable doubt.
{231}
He would call the attention of the Chamber to only three, all
of which, he said, had passed between the persons who had been
mentioned (Colonel von Schwarzkoppen and M. Panizzardi). Here
again it was noticed that the 'document libérateur' (ce
canaille de D.) was not mentioned. Had this, too, been dropped
as no longer to be relied upon, because' D.' did not mean
Dreyfus, or was it now omitted because it had been produced at
the Court-martial by General Mercier and therefore could not
be said to be confirmatory of his conviction? Of the three
documents which M. Cavaignac specified, the first, dated in
March, 1894, made reference to a person indicated as D.; the
second, dated April 16, 1894, contained the expression 'cette
canaille de D.,' the same as that used in the 'document
libérateur.' The third was no other than 'la preuve absolue'
which General de Pellieux had imported into his evidence in
the Zola trial as having been in the hands of the Government
at the time of the Castelin interpellation in November, 1896.
M. Cavaignac read out its contents, of which the following is
an exact transcript:—'J'ai lu qu'un député va interpeller sur
Dreyfus. Si—je dirai que jamais j'avais des relations avec ce
Juif. C'est entendu. Si on vous demande, dites comme ça, car il
faut pas que on sache jamais personne ce qui est arrivé avec
lui.' ['I read that a deputy is going to question concerning
Dreyfus. I shall say that I never had relations with that Jew.
If they ask you, say the same, for it is necessary that we
know no one who approaches him.'] M. Cavaignac went on to say
that the material authenticity of this document depended not
merely on its origin, but also on its similarity with a
document written in 1894 on the same paper and with the same
blue pencil, and that its moral authenticity was established
by its being part of a correspondence exchanged between the
same persons in 1896. 'The first writes to the other, who
replies in terms which left no obscurity on the cause of their
common uneasiness.' The Chamber was transported with the
speech of the Minister of War, and, treating it as a 'coup de
grâce' to the 'affaire Dreyfus,' decreed by a majority of 572
to two that a print of it should be placarded in the 36,000
communes of France. On the next day Colonel Picquart wrote a
letter to the Minister of War undertaking to prove that the
first two documents had nothing to do with Captain Dreyfus,
and that the third, 'la preuve absolue,' was a forgery. Within
six weeks his words as to 'la preuve absolue' come true. On
August 31 the public are startled with the announcement that
Colonel Henry has confessed to having forged it himself, and
has committed suicide in the fortress Mont Valérien, being
found with his throat cut and a razor in his left hand. The
discovery of the forgery was stated to have arisen from a
clerk in the Intelligence Department having detected by the
help of a specially strong lamp that the blue paper of 'la
preuve absolue' was not identical with the blue paper of a
similar document of 1894 which M. Cavaignac had relied upon as
a proof of its material authenticity. … As a sequel to this
confession, General de Boisdeffre, chief of the staff, has
resigned, feeling he could not remain after having placed
before the Minister of War as genuine a document proved to be
a forgery. Commandant Esterhazy has been removed from the
active list of the army, having been brought by M. Cavaignac
before a Court-martial sitting with closed doors—his offence
not disclosed, but conceived to be his anti-patriotic
correspondence with a Mme. de Boulancy. A like fate has
befallen Colonel Du Paty de Clam from a similar Court-martial
instituted by M. Cavaignac's successor, his offence likewise
not disclosed, but presumed to be improper communication of
official secrets to Commandant Esterhazy. …
"However, notwithstanding the confession of Colonel Henry, M.
Cavaignac insisted that Captain Dreyfus was guilty, and
refused consent to revision. The Cabinet not acceding to this
view, M. Cavaignac resigns the Ministry of War, and is
succeeded by General Zurlinden, then military Governor of
Paris. General Zurlinden asks first to be allowed time to
study the dossier, and after a week's study and communication
with the War Office staff he also declares his opposition to
revision, retires from the Ministry of War, and resumes his
post of Governor of Paris. With him also retires one other
member of the Cabinet. Then the Minister of Justice takes the
first formal step in referring the matter to a legal
Commission, the technical question at issue appearing to be
whether the confession by Colonel Henry—a witness in the
case—of a forgery committed by him subsequently to the
conviction with a view to its confirmation might be considered
either as a new fact in the case or as equivalent to a
conviction for forgery, so as to justify an application to the
Cour de Cassation for revision. The Commission were divided in
opinion, and the matter would have fallen to the ground if the
Cabinet had not decided to take the matter into their own
hands and apply to the Court direct. This has now been done;
the Court is making preliminary inquiries, and will then
decide whether revision in some form may be allowed or a new
trial ordered.
"With regard to Colonel Picquart, his public challenge of the
documents put forward in the speech of the Minister of War was
followed three days afterwards by an order of the Cabinet
directing the Minister of War to set the Minister of Justice
in motion with a view that he should be criminally prosecuted
in a non-military Court for communication of secret
documents—the same offence as that for which he had been
punished by the Court-martial early in the year by removal
from the active list of the army—and M. Leblois was to be
prosecuted with him as an accomplice. On the 13th of July
Colonel Picquart is put into prison to await his trial, M.
Leblois being left at large. The prison was a civil prison,
where he was allowed to communicate with his legal advisor.
… On September 21 Colonel Picquart is taken from his prison to
the Court for his trial. The Government Prosecutor rises and
asks for an indefinite postponement on the ground that the
military authorities are about to bring him before a military
Court for forgery. … The military prosecution for forgery was
ordered, and on the strength of it the Correctional Court
acceded to the application for indefinite postponement of the
other case of which it was seised; the military authorities
claimed to take the prisoner out of the hands of the Civil
authorities, and the Correctional Court acquiesced. Then it
was that Colonel Picquart broke out—'This, perhaps, is the
last time my voice will be heard in public. It will be easy
for me to justify myself as to the petit-bleu. I shall perhaps
spend to-night in the Cherche-Midi (military) Prison, but I am
anxious to say if I find in my cell the noose of
Lemercier-Picard, or the razor of Henry, it will be an
assassination. I have no intention of committing suicide.' The
same or the next day Colonel Picquart was removed to the
Cherche-Midi Prison, there to await his Court-martial, which
is not expected yet for some weeks. He is not permitted to
communicate with his legal advisor or anyone else."
G. Lushington,
The Dreyfus Case
(London Times, October 13, 1898).
{232}
Late in October (1898) the Court of Cassation decided that it
found ground for proceeding to a supplementary investigation
in the case of Captain Dreyfus, but not for the suspension
meantime of the punishment be was undergoing. On the 15th of
November it decided that the prisoner should be informed by
telegraph of the pending revision proceedings, in order that
he might prepare his defense. The Court was now endeavoring to
secure possession of the secret documents (known as the
"Dreyfus dossier") on which the conviction of the accused was
said to have been really founded. For some time the war office
seemed determined to withhold them; but at length, late in
December, the dossier was turned over, under pledges of strict
secrecy as to the documents contained. Showing still further a
disposition to check the doings of the military authorities,
the Court of Cassation, in December, ordered a suspension of
proceedings in the military court against Colonel Picquart,
and demanded all documents in his case for examination by
itself.
Attacks were now made on the Court which had thus ventured to
interfere with the secret doings of the army chiefs. Suddenly,
on the 8th of January (1899), the president of the civil
section of the Court, M. Quesnay de Beaurepaire, resigned his
office and denounced his recent colleagues as being in a
conspiracy to acquit Dreyfus and dishonor the army. This, of
course, was calculated to stimulate anti-Dreyfus excitement
and furnish ground for challenging the final decision of the
Court, if it should be favorable to a new trial for the
imprisoned Captain. It also delayed proceedings in the case,
leading to the enactment of a law requiring all cases of
revision to be tried by the united sections of the Court of
Cassation. This act took the Dreyfus case from the 16 judges
of the criminal section and committed it to the whole 48
judges of the Court.
Major Esterhazy had taken refuge in England. On the 2d of June
he went to the office of the London "Chronicle" and made the
following confession for publication: "The chiefs of the army
have disgracefully abandoned me. My cup is full, and I shall
speak out. Yes, it was I who wrote the bordereau. I wrote it
upon orders received from Sandherr. They (the chiefs of the
general staff) will lie, as they know how to lie; but I have
them fast. I have proofs that they knew the whole thing and
share the responsibility with me, and I will produce the
proofs." Immediately it was said that he had been bribed by
the friends of Dreyfus to take the crime upon himself.
On the day following this confession, the decision of the
Court of Cassation was announced. Meantime, the newspaper
"Figaro" had, by some means, been able to obtain and publish
the testimony which the Court had taken with closed doors, and
had thus revealed the flimsiness and the contradictoriness of
the grounds on which the officers of the Army Staff based
their strenuous assertions that they had positive knowledge of
the guilt of Dreyfus. This had great influence in preparing
the public mind for the decision of the Court when announced.
On grounds relating to the bordereau, to the document which
contained the expression "ce canaille de D.," and to the
alleged confession of Dreyfus,—leaving aside all other
questions of evidence,—the judgment as delivered declared that
"the court quashes and annuls the judgment of condemnation
pronounced on December 22, 1894, against Alfred Dreyfus by the
first court-martial of the Military Government of Paris, and
remits the accused to the court-martial of Rennes, named by
special deliberation in council chamber, to be tried on the
following question:—Is Dreyfus guilty of having in 1894
instigated machinations or held dealings with a foreign power
or one of its agents in order to incite it to commit
hostilities or undertake war against France by furnishing it
with the notes and documents enumerated in the bordereau? and
orders the prescribed judgment to be printed and transcribed
on the registers of the first court-martial of the Military
Government of Paris in the margin of the decision annulled."
Captain Dreyfus was taken immediately from his prison on
Devil's Island and brought by a French cruiser to France,
landing at Quiberon on the 1st of July and being taken to
Rennes, where arrangements for the new military trial were
being made.
The new court-martial trial began at Rennes on the 7th of
August. When it had proceeded for a week, and had reached what
appeared to be a critical point—the opening of a
cross-examination of General Mercier by the counsel for
Dreyfus—M. Labori, the leading counsel for the defense, was
shot as he walked the street, by a would-be assassin who
escaped. Fortunately, the wound he received only disabled him
for some days, and deprived the accused of his presence and
his powerful service in the court at a highly important time.
The trial, which lasted beyond a month, was a keen
disappointment in every respect. It probed none of the
sinister secrets that are surely hidden somewhere in the black
depths of the extraordinary case. In the judgment of all
unimpassioned watchers of its proceeding, it disclosed no
proof of guilt in Dreyfus. On the other hand, it gave no
opportunity for his innocence to be distinctly shown.
Apparently, there was no way in which the negative of his
non-guiltiness could be proved except by testimony from the
foreign agents with whom he was accused of having treasonable
dealings: but that testimony was barred out by the court,
though the German and Italian governments gave permission to
the counsel for Dreyfus to have it taken by commission.
Outside of France, at least, the public verdict may be said to
have been unanimous, that the whole case against Captain
Dreyfus, as set forth by the heads of the French army, in
plain combination against him, was foul with forgeries, lies,
contradictions and puerilities, and that nothing to justify
his condemnation had been shown. But the military court, on
the 9th of September, by a vote of five judges against two,
brought in a verdict of Guilty, with "extenuating
circumstances" (as though any circumstances could extenuate
the guilt of an actual crime like that of which Dreyfus was
accused), and sentenced him to imprisonment in a fortress for
ten years, from which term the years of his past imprisonment
would be taken out.
{233}
Mr. G. W. Steevens, the English newspaper correspondent, who
attended the trial and has written the best account of it,
makes the following comment on the verdict, which sums up all
that needs to be said: "In a way, the most remarkable feature
about the verdict of Rennes was the proportion of the votes.
When it had been over a few hours, and numb brains had relaxed
to thought again, it struck somebody that on the very first
day the very first motion had been carried by five to two. The
next and next and all of them had been carried by five to two.
Now Dreyfus was condemned by five to two. The idea—the
staggering idea—dropped like a stone into the mind, and spread
in widening circles till it filled it with conviction.
Everyone of the judges had made up his mind before a single
word of evidence had been heard. The twenty-seven days, the
hundred-and-something witnesses, the baskets of documents, the
seas of sweat and tears—they were all utterly wasted. … The
verdict was, naturally, received with a howl of indignation,
and to endeavour to extenuate the stupid prejudice—that at
least, if not cowardly dishonesty—of the five who voted
against the evidence is not likely to be popular with
civilized readers. Yet it may be said of them in
extenuation—if it is any extenuation—that they only did as
almost any other five Frenchmen would have done in their
place. Frenchmen are hypnotized by the case of Dreyfus, as
some people are hypnotized by religion; in its presence they
lose all mental power and moral sense." The army chiefs had
had their way; the stain of their condemnation had been kept
upon Dreyfus; but the government of France was magnanimous
enough to punish him no more. His sentence was remitted by the
President, and he was set free, a broken man.
FRANCE: A. D. 1898.
State of the French Protectorate of Tunis.
See (in this volume)
TUNIS: A. D. 1881-1898.
FRANCE: A. D. 1898 (April).
Lease of Kwangchow Wan from China.
Railway and other concessions exacted.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-AUGUST).
FRANCE: A. D. 1898 (April-December).
In the Chinese "Battle of Concessions."
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-DECEMBER).
FRANCE: A. D. 1898 (May).
Demands on China consequent on the murder of a missionary.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (MAY).
FRANCE: A. D. 1898 (May-November).
General Elections.
Fall of the Ministry of M. Meline.
Brief Ministry of M. Brisson, struggling with
the Dreyfus question.
Coalition Cabinet of M. Dupuy.
General elections for a new Chamber of Deputies were held
throughout France on Sunday, May 8, with a second balloting on
Sunday, May 22, in constituencies where the first had resulted
in no choice. Of the 584 seats to be filled, the Progressive
Republicans secured only 225, so that the Ministry of M.
Méline could count with no certainty on the support of a
majority in the Chamber. It was brought to a downfall in the
following month by a motion made by M. Bourgeois, in the
following words: "The Chamber determines to support only a
Ministry relying exclusively on a Republican majority." This
was carried by a majority of about fifty votes, and on the
next day the Ministry resigned. It was succeeded by a Radical
cabinet, under M. Henri Brisson, after several unsuccessful
attempts to form a Conservative government. By announcing that
it would not attempt to carry out a Radical programme in some
important particulars, the Brisson Ministry secured enough
support to maintain its ground for a time; but there were
fatal differences in its ranks on the burning Dreyfus
question, as well as on other points. M. Cavaignac, Minister
of War, was bitterly opposed to a revision of the Dreyfus
ease, which the Premier and M. Bourgeois (now Minister of
Public Instruction) were understood to favor. M. Cavaignac
soon placed himself in an extremely embarrassing position by
reading to the Chamber certain documents which he put forward
as absolute proofs of the guilt of Dreyfus, but of which one
was shown presently to have been forged, while another had no
relation to the case. He accordingly resigned (September 4),
and General Zurlinden took his place. But Zurlinden, too,
resigned a few days later, when a determination to revise the
trial of Dreyfus was reached. The government was then exposed
to a new outburst of fury in the anti-Dreyfus factions, and
all the enemies of the Republic became active in new
intrigues. The Orleanists bestirred themselves with fresh
hopes, and the old Boulangist conspirators revived their
so-called Patriotic League, with M. Déroulède at its head. At
the same time dangerous labor disturbances occurred in Paris,
threatening a complete paralysis of railway communications as
well as of the industries of the capital. The Ministry faced
its many difficulties with much resolution; but it failed of
support in the Chamber, when that body met in October, and it
resigned. A coalition cabinet was then formed, with M. Charles
Dupuy in the presidency of the council, and M. de Freycinet as
Minister of War.
FRANCE: A. D. 1898 (June).
The Sugar Conference at Brussels.
See (in this volume)
SUGAR BOUNTIES.
FRANCE: A. D. 1898 (September-November).
The Nile question with England.
Marchand's expedition at Fashoda.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1898 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).
FRANCE: A. D. 1898-1899.
Demands upon China for attacks on Missions in Szechuan.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898-1899 (JUNE-JANUARY).
FRANCE: A. D. 1898-1899.
Demand on China for extension of settlement at Shanghai.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898-1899.
FRANCE: A. D. 1898-1899 (June-June).
Convention with England defining possessions in West
and North Africa.
The great Empire in the Sudan and Sahara.
See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1882-1899.
FRANCE: A. D. 1899 (February-June).
Death of President Faure.
Election of President Loubet.
Revolutionary attempts of "Nationalist" agitators.
The Ministry of M. Waldeck-Rousseau.
Felix Faure, President of the French Republic, died suddenly
on the 16th of February,—a victim, it is believed, of the
excitements and anxieties of the Dreyfus affair. The situation
thus produced was so sobering in its effect that the
Republican factions were generally drawn together for the
moment, and acted promptly in filling the vacant executive.
{234}
The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies were convened in joint
session, as a National Assembly, at Versailles, on the 18th,
and Emile Loubet, then President of the Senate, was chosen to
the presidency of the Republic on its first ballot, by 483
votes, against 279 for M. Meline, and 45 for M. Cavaignac. At
the funeral of the late President Faure, which occurred on the
23d, the pestilential Déroulède and his fellow
mischief-makers, with their so-called "League of Patriots,"
"League de Patrie Française," and party of "Nationalists,"
attempted to excite the troops to revolt, but without success.
Déroulède and others were arrested for this treasonable
attempt. During some months the enemies of the Republic were
active and violent in hostility to President Loubet, and the
cabinet which he inherited from his predecessor was believed
to lack loyalty to him. On the 4th of June, while attending
the steeple-chase races at Auteuil, he was grossly insulted,
and even struck with a cane, by a party of young royalists,
the leader of whom, Count Christiani, who struck the shameful
blow, was sentenced afterwards to imprisonment for four years.
The Ministry of the day was considered to be responsible for
these disorders, and, on the 12th of June, a resolution was
passed in the Chamber to the effect that it would support only
a government that was determined to defend republican
institutions with energy and preserve public order. Thereupon
the Ministry of M. Dupuy resigned, and a new cabinet was
formed with much difficulty by M. Waldeck-Rousseau. It
included a radical Socialist, M. Millerand, who became
Minister of Commerce, and a resolute and honest soldier, the
Marquis de Gallifet, as Minister of War. The latter promptly
cleared the way for more independent action in the government,
by removing several troublesome generals from important
commands. The new Ministry assumed the name of the "Government
of Republican Defense," and offered a front to the enemies of
the Republic which plainly checked their attacks. M. Déroulède
and some of his fellow conspirators were brought to trial
before the Court of Assizes, and acquitted.
FRANCE: A. D. 1899 (May).
New Convention with Siam.
See (in this volume)
SIAM: A. D. 1896-1899.
FRANCE: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
FRANCE: A. D. 1899 (July).
Reciprocity Treaty with the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899-1901.
FRANCE: A. D. 1899 (December).
Adhesion to the arrangement of an "open door" commercial
policy in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899-1900 (SEPTEMBER-FEBRUARY).
FRANCE: A. D. 1899-1900 (August-January).
Arrest and trial of revolutionary conspirators.
In August, 1899, the government, having obtained good evidence
that treasonable plans for the overthrow of the Republic had
been under organization for several months, in the various
royalist, anti-Semitic, and so-called "Patriotic" leagues,
caused the arrest of a number of the leaders implicated, the
irrepressible Paul Déroulède being conspicuous among them. The
president of the Anti-Semitic League, M. Guérin, with a number
of his associates, barricaded themselves at the headquarters of
the League and defied arrest, evidently expecting a mob rising
in Paris if they were attacked. Serious rioting did occur on
the 20th of August; but the government prudently allowed
Guérin and his party to hold their citadel until the ending of
the excitements of the Dreyfus trial; then, on the showing of
a serious determination to take it by force, they gave
themselves up. The trial of the conspirators was begun in
September, before the Senate, sitting as a high court of
Justice, and continued at intervals until the following
January. Déroulède conducted himself with characteristic
insolence, and received two sentences of imprisonment, one for
three months and the other for two years, on account of
outrageous attacks on the Senate and on the President of the
Republic. These were additional to a final sentence to ten
years of banishment for his treasonable plotting, which he
shared with one fellow conspirator. Guérin was condemned to
ten years imprisonment in a fortified place. The remainder of
the accused were discharged with the exception of one who had
escaped arrest, and who was convicted in his absence. The
trial, wrote the Paris correspondent of the "London Times,"
"showed how strange a thing was this motley conspiracy between
men who had but one common bond of sympathy, namely, the
desire to upset the Republic,—men from whom the Bonapartist,
another variety of anti-Republican conspirators, had held
aloof. The latter fancied themselves sufficiently represented
in the conspiracy by the plebiscitary party [of Déroulède]
whose accession to office would have been tantamount to the
success of Imperialism. … The condemnation of these
conspirators of varied aspirations proved that the Nationalist
party was a mere conglomeration of ambitions which would end
in every form of violence if ever the conspirators were called
upon to share the booty. The harm that they have already done,
even before they have made themselves masters of France, shows
that the danger which they constitute to their country is
infinitely greater than the danger with which it was menaced
by Boulangism, for then at least at the moment of victory all
the ambitions would have been concentrated round a single
will, however mediocre that will, and General Boulanger would
at all events have been a rallying flag for the conspirators
visible all over France. The Nationalism condemned by the
Court in its various personifications has not even a head
around which at the moment of action the accomplices could be
grouped. It is confusion worse confounded. If it succeeded in
its aims it could only avoid at home the consequences of its
incoherent policy by some desperate enterprise abroad. The
judgment of the High Court, by restoring tranquillity in the
streets, preserved France from the dangers towards which she
was hastening, and which were increased, consciously or
unconsciously, by auxiliaries at the head of the executive
office. But owing to the verdict of the High Court France had
time to pull herself together, to breathe more easily, and to
take the necessary resolutions to secure tranquillity. The
approach of the Exhibition imposed upon everyone a kind of
truce, and M. Déroulède himself, with an imprudence of which
he is still feeling the consequences, declared that he would
return to France when once the Exhibition was over."
{235}
In a speech which he made subsequently, at San Sebastian, his
place of exile, Déroulède declared that the "coup d'état"
prepared by his party of revolutionists for the 23d of
February, 1899, on the occasion of the funeral of President
Faure (see above), was frustrated because he refused, at the
last moment, to permit it to be used in the interest of the
Duke of Orleans. "The following day," he said, "between midday
and 4 o'clock in the afternoon, a mysterious hand had upset all
the preparations made, the position of the troops, their
dislocation, their order and the officers commanding them, and
the same evening Marcel Habert and myself were arrested." The
intimation of his speech seemed to be that the hand in the
government which changed the position of the troops and upset
the revolutionary plot would not have done so if the royalists
had been taken into it.
Soon after the conclusion of the conspiracy trials, the
superior and eleven monks of the Order of the Assumptionist
Fathers, who had appeared to be mixed up in the plot, were
brought to account as an illegal association, and their
society was dissolved.
FRANCE: A. D. 1899-1901.
The Newfoundland French Shore question.
See (in this volume)
NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1899-1901.
FRANCE: A. D. 1900.
Military and naval expenditure.
See (in this volume)
WAR BUDGETS.
FRANCE: A. D. 1900.
Naval strength.
See (in this volume)
NAVIES OF THE SEA POWERS.
FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (January).
Elections to the Senate.
Elections to the French Senate, on the 28th of January,
returned 61 Republicans, 6 Liberal Republicans, 18 Radicals, 7
Socialists, 4 Monarchists, and 3 Nationalists. "The Radicals
are as they were. The Socialists have just gained an entrance
to the Senate, and to this they were entitled by the large and
solid Socialist vote throughout France. The great mass of
solid and sensible Republicans have not only held their
ground, but have increased and solidified their position. The
reactionaries, whether avowed Monarchists, or supporters of
the Déroulède movement, have made one or two merely formal
gains, but have really fallen back, from the point of view of
their pretensions, and the long list of candidates they put
forward. On the whole, we may fairly say that the solid, sober
Republican vote of France has proved that it is in the ascendant.
Once more, in a deeper sense than he meant, the verdict of M.
Thiers has, for the moment at any rate, been verified,—that
France is really at bottom Left Centre. That is to say, the
nation is for progress, but for progress divested of vague
revolutionary pretensions, of mere a priori dogmas as to what
Republican progress involves. In the main the nation seems to
have supported the Government in repelling the aggressive
attacks of unbridled Clericalism, and in rejecting the
pretensions of the Army to dictate French politics. On the
other hand, the mass of the French electors do not desire a
crusade against the Roman Catholic Church, and they do not
care for an indiscriminate attack on the French Army."
The Spectator (London),
February 3, 1900.
FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (January-March).
The outbreak of the "Boxers" in northern China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH).
FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (April-November).
The Paris Exposition.
The Paris Exposition of 1900, which exceeded all previous
"world's fairs" in extent and in the multitude of its
visitors, was formally opened on the 14th of April, but with
unfinished preparations, and closed on the 12th of November.
The reported attendance during the whole period of the
Exposition was 48,130,301, being very nearly double the
attendance at the Exposition of 1889. The total receipts of
money were 114,456,213 francs, and total expenditures
116,500,000 francs, leaving a deficit of 2,044,787 francs. But
France and Paris are thought to have profited greatly,
notwithstanding. Forty countries besides France took part in
the preparations and were officially represented. The number
of exhibitors was 75,531; the awards distributed were 42,790
in number. The buildings erected for the Exposition numbered
more than 200, including 36 official pavilions erected by
foreign governments. The ground occupied extended on each side
of the Seine for a distance of nearly two miles, comprising,
besides the quays on each side of the river, the Champ de
Mars, the Esplanade des Invalides, the Trocadero Gardens, and
part of the Champs Elysées.
FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (June-December).
Co-operation with the Powers in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA.
FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (August).
Annexation of the Austral Islands.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRAL ISLANDS.
FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (September).
The centenary of the Proclamation of the French Republic.
A gigantic banquet.
On the 22d of September, the centenary of the proclamation of
the French Republic was celebrated in Paris by a gigantic
banquet given by President Loubet, accompanied by his
Ministers, to the assembled Mayors of France, gathered from
near and far. Some 23,000 guests sat down to the déjeuner, for
which a temporary structure had been prepared in the Tuileries
Gardens. It was a triumphant demonstration of the culinary
resources of Paris; but it had more important objects. It was
a political demonstration, organized by the President of the
Republic, in concert with the Cabinet of M. Waldeck-Rousseau,
as a check to certain schemes of the Paris Nationalists,
against the government. It brought the municipal
representatives of the provinces to the capital to show the
array of their feeling for the Republic against that of the
noisy demagogues of the capital. It was a striking success.
FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (October).
Proposal of terms for negotiation
with the Chinese government.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).
FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (December).
The Amnesty Bill.
With the object of making it impossible for the enemies of the
Republic to find such opportunity for a revival of the
dangerous Dreyfus controversy as any new trial of its issues
would give them, the French government, in December,
accomplished the passage of an amnesty bill, which purges
everybody connected with the affair, so far as legal
proceedings are concerned. The measure was strenuously opposed
by the friends of Dreyfus, Picquart and Zola, none of whom are
willing to be left unvindicated by law, nor willing to be
barred from future proceedings against some of the army staff.
It was also fought by the mischievous factions which wish to
keep the Dreyfus quarrel alive for purposes of disorderly
excitement.
{236}
The policy of the measure, from the governmental standpoint,
was thus described at the time it was pending: The Cabinet
"felt that this affair had done great injury to France, that
it was a dangerous weapon in the hands of all the conspirators
against the Republic, that no Court-martial would agree to
acquit Dreyfus, even though convinced of his innocence, and
that, in view of the futility of any attempt to secure an
acquittal, it was necessary to avoid danger to the Republic by
reopening the affair. France had already suffered irreparable
mischief from it. … The affair has falsified the judgment and
opinion of the army, so that it has no longer a clear notion
of its duty at home. In external affairs it is still always
ready to march to the defence of the country, but as to its
duties at home it is in a state of deplorable confusion. …
Considering that the Dreyfus affair has so armed the
adversaries of the Government that it cannot be sure of the
army in internal matters, the Cabinet, it is evident, could
not allow that affair to remain open and produce anarchy. On
the other hand, there was a prosecution pending against M.
Zola, who, it was clearly proved to all, was right in his
famous letter 'J'accuse.' There was a prosecution against
Colonel Picquart, who had sacrificed a brilliant future in the
defence of truth against falsehood. There was likewise a
prosecution against M. Joseph Reinach, who had accused Henry
of having been a traitor or the accomplice of a traitor. I do
not know how far Dr. Reinach had proofs of his allegations,
but these three prosecutions were so closely connected with
the Dreyfus case that, if they had been allowed to go on, that
affair, which was so dangerous to tranquillity, security, and
order, would be reopened. Now the Government will not at any
cost allow the affair to be reopened. The whole Amnesty Bill
hinges on this question. The Government agrees to amnesty
everybody except the persons condemned by the High Court, and
who continue to defy it. … It insists on these three
prosecutions being struck off the rolls of the Tribunals. This
is the whole question. Nothing else in the eyes of the
Government is essential, but it will not allow the further
serious mischief which would result from the reopening of the
affair. The Bill will not stop the civil proceedings against
MM. Zola, Picquart, and Reinach, but such proceedings do not
cause the same excitement as criminal prosecutions. If the
latter are stopped, the dangers occasioned by the confusion in
the spirit of the army will disappear, and it may then be
hoped that the excitement will calm down."
M. Zola protested vigorously against the Amnesty Bill, and, on
its passage, wrote an open letter to the President in which he
said: "I shall not cease repeating that the affair cannot
cease as long as France does not know and repair the
injustice. I said that the fourth act was played at Rennes and
that there would have to be a fifth act. Anxiety remains in my
heart. The people of France always forget that the Kaiser is
in possession of the truth, which he may throw in our face
when the hour strikes. Perhaps he has already chosen his time.
This would be the horrible fifth act which I have always
dreaded. The French Government should not for one hour accept
such a terrible contingency."
FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (December).
Award in the arbitration of French Guiana boundary
dispute with Brazil.
See (in this volume)
BRAZIL: A. D. 1900.
FRANCE: A. D. 1901.
The Bill on Associations.
A measure to place the Religious Orders under strict
regulations of law, and to limit their possession of property.
In a speech delivered at Toulouse on the 28th of October,
1900, the French Prime Minister, M. Waldeck-Rousseau,
announced the intention of the government to bring forward, at
the next session of the Chambers, a measure of critical
importance and remarkable boldness, being no less than the
project of a law (called in general terms a "Bill on
Associations ) for the stringent regulation and restriction of
the religious orders in France,—especially for the restriction
of their acquisition and ownership of property. Forecasting
the measure in that speech, he said: "The question is the
rendering free, and subject only to the common law, all the
associations which are in themselves lawful as regards the
safety of the State. Another object of the same Bill is to
cope with the peril which arises from the continuous
development in a Democratic society of an organism which,
according to a famous definition, the merit of which is due to
our old Parliaments, 'tends to introduce into the State under
the specious veil of a religions institution a political
corporation the object of which is to arrive first at complete
independence and then at the usurpation of all authority.' I
am filled with no sectarian spirit, but merely with the spirit
which dominated as well the policy of the Revolution as the
entire historical policy of France. The fundamental statute
determining the relations between the churches and the State
should be exactly applied so long as it has not been altered,
and we have always interpreted its spirit with the broadest
tolerance. But as things are now going, what will remain of
this pact of reciprocal guarantees? It had been exclusively
confined to the secular clergy owing hierarchic obedience to
their superiors and to the State and to questions of worship,
the preparation for ecclesiastical functions and preaching in
the churches. And, now, lo and behold, we find religious
orders teaching in the seminaries, the pulpit usurped by the
missions, and the Church more and more menaced by the chapel.
The dispersed but not suppressed religious communities cover
the territory with a close network, which has been evidenced
in a recent trial, and have been so bold as to defy the Church
dignitaries not accepting their vassalage. In pointing to the
peril of increasing mortmain threatening the principle of the
free circulation of property, it is sufficient to say that we
are influenced by no vain alarms, that the value of the real
property occupied or owned by the communities was in 1880 as
much as 700,000,000f., and that it now exceeds a milliard.
Starting from this figure, what may be the value of mortmain
personalty? Yet the real peril does not arise from the
extension of mortmain. In this country, whose moral unity has
for centuries constituted its strength and greatness, two
youths are growing up ignorant of each other until the day
when they meet, so unlike as to risk not comprehending one
another. Such a fact is explained only by the existence of a
power which is no longer even occult and by the constitution
in the State of a rival power. All efforts will be fruitless
as long as a rational, effective legislation has not
superseded a legislation at once illogical, arbitrary, and
inoperative. If we attach so much importance to a Law on
Association it is also because it involves the solution of at
least a portion of the education question. This Bill is the
indispensable guarantee of the most necessary prerogatives of
modern society."
{237}
This pre-announcement of the intentions of the government gave
rise, as it must have been intended to do, to a warm
discussion of the project in advance, and showed something of
the strength of the antagonists with whom its supporters must
make their fight. At length, late in December—a few days
before the opening of debate on the bill in the Chambers—the
attitude of the Church upon it was fully declared by the Pope,
in a lengthy interview which M. Henri des Houx, one of the
members of the staff of the "Matin," was permitted to publish
in that Paris journal. "After M. Waldeck-Rousseau's Toulouse
speech, and in presence of the Associations Bill," said the
Pope, "I can no longer keep silent. It is my Apostolic duty to
speak out. French Catholics will know that their father does
not abandon them, that he suffers with them in their trials,
and that he encourages their generous efforts for right and
liberty. They are well aware that the Pope has unceasingly
laboured in their behalf and for the Church, adapting the
means to the utility of the ends. The pilot is the judge of
the manœuvre at the bar. At one moment he seems to be tacking
before the tempest; at another he is bound to sail full
against it. But his one aim ever is to make the port. Now, the
Pope cannot consent to allow the French Government to twist
the Concordat from its real intent and transform an instrument
of peace and justice into one of war and oppression. The
Concordat [see, in volume 2, FRANCE: A. D. 1801-1804]
established and regulated in France the exercise of Catholic
worship and defined, between the Church and the French State,
mutual rights and duties. The religious communities form an
integral part of the Apostolic Church as much as the secular
clergy. They exercise a special and a different mission, but
one not less sacred than that of the pastors recognized by the
State. To try to destroy them is to deal a blow at the Church,
to mutilate it, and to restrain its benefits. Such was not the
intent of the Concordat. It would be a misconstruction of this
treaty to declare illegal and to interdict whatever it was not
able to settle or foresee. The Concordat is silent as to
religious communities. This means that the regular clergy has
no share in the special rights and relative privileges granted
by the Concordat to the members of the secular ecclesiastical
hierarchy. It does not mean that religious orders are to be
excluded from the common law and put outside the pale of the
State. … There was no need of mentioning the religious
communities in the Concordat because these pious bodies were
permitted to live under the shelter of the equal rights
accorded to men and citizens by the fundamental clauses of
your Constitution. But if an exception is to be made to these
solemn declarations in the case of certain citizens it is an
iniquity towards the Church, an infraction of the intentions
of the negotiators of 1801. Look at the countries with which
the Holy See has signed no Concordat, and even at Protestant
countries like England, the United States, and many another.
Are religious communities there excluded from the liberties
recognized as belonging to other citizens? Do they not live
there without being harassed? And thither, perhaps, these
communities would take refuge, as in the evil days of the
Terror, from the iniquity of Catholic France! But since then
France has become bound by the Concordat, and she seems to
forget it. …
"Why does France figure to-day by the side of the great
nations in the concert of the Powers settling the Chinese
question? Whence have your Ministry for Foreign Affairs and
your representative in Peking the authority which gives weight
to their opinion in the assembly of plenipotentiaries? What
interest have you in the north of China? Are you at the head
there in trade and industry? Have you many traders there to
protect? No. But you are there the noblest champions of
Christian civilization, the protectors of the Catholic
missions. Your foreign rivals are envious of this privileged
situation. They are seeking to dispute your rights laid down
in treaties that assign to you the rôle of defenders of native
missions and Christian settlements. … Hitherto your
Governments had had a better notion of the importance of their
rights. It is in the name of treaties guaranteeing them that
they protested to me when the Chinese Emperor asked me to
arrange diplomatic relations directly with the Holy See. Upon
the insistence of M. de Freycinet, the then Minister, I
refused, so fearful was I that France might believe, even
wrongfully, that I wished in any way to diminish her prestige,
her influence, and her power. In the Levant, at
Constantinople, in Syria, in the Lebanon, what will remain of
the eminent position held by your Ambassador and Consuls if
France intends to renounce representing there the rights of
Christianity? …
"M. Waldeck-Rousseau, in his Toulouse speech, spoke of the
moral unity of France. Who has laboured more than I for it?
Have I not energetically counselled Catholics to cease all
conflict against the institutions which your country has
freely chosen and to which it remains attached? Have I not
urged Catholics to serve the Republic instead of combating it?
I have encountered warm resistance among them, but I believe
that their present weakness arises from their very lack of
union and their imperfect deference to my advice. The
Republican Government at least knows in what degree my
authority has been effective towards bringing about that
public peace and moral unity which is proclaimed at the very
moment when it is seriously menaced. It has more than once
thanked me. If the Pontifical authority has not been able
entirely to accomplish the union so much desired I at least
have spared no effort for it. Is there now a desire to
reconstitute the union of Catholics against the Republic? How
could I prevent this if, instead of the Republic liberal,
equitable, open to all, to which I have invited Catholics to
rally, there was substituted a narrow, sectarian Republic,
governed by an inflamed faction governed by laws of exception
and spoliation, repugnant to all honest and upright
consciences, and to the traditional generosity of France? Is
it thought that such a Republic can obtain the respect of a
single Catholic and the benediction of the Supreme Pontiff? I
still hope that France will spare herself such crises, and
that her Government will not renounce the services which I
have been able to render and can still render it.
{238}
On several occasions, for instance, and quite recently, I have
been asked by the head of a powerful State to allow disregard
of the rights of France in the East and Far East. Although
compensations were offered to the Church and the Holy See, I
resolved that the right of France should remain intact,
because it is an unquestionable right, which France has not
allowed to become obsolete. But if in your country the
religious orders, without which no Catholic expansion is
possible, are ruined and suppressed, what shall I answer
whenever such requests are renewed to me? Will the Pope be
alone in defending privileges the possessors of which prize
them so little?"
Of the seriousness of the conflict thus opening between the
French Republicans and the Roman Catholic Church there could
be no doubt.
The threatened bill was brought forward by the government and
debate upon it opened on the 15th of January, 1901. The most
stringent clauses of the measure were translated and
communicated to the "London Times" by its Paris correspondent,
as follows:
"II. Any association founded on a cause, or for an illicit
end, contrary to the laws, to public order, to good manners,
to the national unity, and to the form of the Government of
the Republic, is null and void.
"III. Any member of an association which has not been formed
for a determined time may withdraw at any term after payment
of all dues belonging to the current year, in spite of any
clauses to the contrary.
"IV. The founders of any association are bound to publish the
covenants of the association. This declaration must be made at
the prefecture of the Department or at the sub-prefecture of
the district which is the seat of the association. This
declaration must reveal the title and object of the
association, the place of meeting and the names, professions,
and domiciles of the members or of those who are in any way
connected with its administration. … The founders, directors,
or administrators of an association maintained or
reconstituted illegally after the verdict of dissolution will
be punished with a fine of from 500f. to 5,000f. and
imprisonment ranging from six days to a year. And the same
penalty will apply to all persons who shall have favoured the
assemblage of the members of the dissolved association by the
offer of a meeting place. …
"X. Associations recognized as of public utility may exercise
all the rights of civil life not forbidden in their statutes,
but they cannot possess or acquire other real estate than that
necessary for the object which they have in view. All personal
property belonging to an association should be invested in
bonds bearing the name of the owner. Such associations can
receive gifts and bequests on the conditions defined by Clause
910 of the Civil Code. Real estate included in an act of donation
or in testamentary dispositions, which is not necessary for
the working of the association, is alienated within the period
and after the forms prescribed by the decree authorizing
acceptance of the gift, the amount thereby represented
becoming a part of the association's funds. Such associations
cannot accept a donation of real estate or personal property
under the reserve of usufruct for the benefit of the donor.
"XI. Associations between Frenchmen and foreigners cannot be
formed without previous authorization by a decree of the
Conseil d'Etta. A special law authorizing their formation and
determining the conditions of their working is necessary in
the case, first of associations between Frenchmen, the seat or
management of which is fixed or emanates from beyond the
frontiers or is in the hands of foreigners; secondly, in the
case of associations whose members live in common. …
"XIV. Associations existing at the moment of the promulgation
of the present law and not having previously been authorized
or recognized must, within six months, be able to show that
they have done all in their power to conform to these
regulations."
Discussion of the Bill in the Chamber of Deputies was carried
on at intervals during ten weeks, the government defeating
nearly every amendment proposed by its opponents, and carrying
the measure to its final passage on the 29th of March, by a
vote of 303 to 220. Of the passage of the bill by the Senate
there seems to be no doubt. After disposing of the Bill on
Associations, on the 27th of March, the Chamber adjourned to
May 14.
----------FRANCE: End--------
FRANCHISE LAW, The Boer.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1899 (MAY-JUNE); and (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
FRANCHISES, Taxation of public,
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1899 (MAY).
FRANKLIN, The Canadian district of.
See (in this volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1895.
FRANZ JOSEF LAND: Exploration of.
See (in this volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION, 1896;
1897; 1898-1899; 1900-; and 1901.
FREE SILVER QUESTION, The.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER);
and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
FREE SPEECH:
Restrictions on, in Germany.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1898; and 1900 (OCTOBER 9).
FREE TRADE.
See (in this volume)
TARIFF LEGISLATION.
FREE ZONE, The Mexican.
See (in this volume)
MEXICAN FREE ZONE.
FRENCH SHORE QUESTION, The
Newfoundland.
See (in this volume)
NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1899-1901.
FRENCH WEST AFRICA.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1895;
and NIGERIA: A. D. 1882-1899.
FRIARS, Spanish, in the Philippines.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (NOVEMBER).
{239}
G.
GALABAT, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896.
GALVESTON: A. D. 1900.
The city overwhelmed by wind and waves.
"The southern coast of the United States was visited by a
tropical hurricane on September 6-9, the fury of which reached
its climax at and near Galveston, Texas, 1:45 A. M., on
Sunday, the 9th. Galveston is built upon the east end of a
beautiful but low-lying island some thirty miles long and six
or seven miles wide at the point of greatest extent, though
only a mile or two wide where the city is built. The pressure
of the wind upon the waters of the Gulf was so powerful and so
continuous that it lifted the waves on the north coast many
feet above the ordinary high-tide level, and for a short time
the entire city was submerged. … The combined attack of
hurricane and tidal-wave produced indescribable horrors—the
destruction of property sinking into insignificance when
compared with the appalling loss of life. The new census taken
in June accredited Galveston with a population of 37,789. The
calamity of a few hours seems to have reduced that number by
20 per cent. The loss of life in villages and at isolated
points along the coast-line will probably bring the sum total
of deaths caused by this fatal storm up to 10,000. The
condition of the survivors for two or three days beggars
description. The water had quickly receded, and all means of
communication had been destroyed, including steamships,
railroads, telephone and telegraph lines, and public highways.
Practically all food supplies had been destroyed, and the
drinking-water supply had been cut off by the breaking of the
aqueduct pipes. The tropical climate required the most summary
measures for the disposition of the bodies of the dead. Military
administration was made necessary, and many ghoulish looters
and plunderers were summarily shot, either in the act of
robbing the dead or upon evidence of guilt. …
"Relief agencies everywhere set to work promptly to forward
food, clothing, and money to the impoverished survivors. Great
corporations like the Southern Pacific Railroad made haste to
restore their Galveston facilities, and ingenious engineers
brought forward suggestions for protection of the city against
future inundations. These suggestions embraced such
improvements as additional break-waters, jetties, dikes, and
the filling in of a portion of the bay, between Galveston and
the mainland. The United States Government in recent years has
spent $8,000,000 or $10,000,000 in engineering works to deepen
the approach to Galveston harbor. The channel, which was
formerly only 20 or 21 feet deep across the bar, is now 27
feet deep, and the action of wind and tide between the jetties
cuts the passage a little deeper every year. The foreign trade
of Galveston, particularly in cotton, has been growing by
leaps and bounds."
American Review of Reviews,
October, 1900, page 398.
GARCIA, General:
Commanding Cuban forces at Santiago.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).
GENEVA CONVENTION:
Adaptation to maritime warfare.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
GEORGE, Henry:
Candidacy for Mayor of Greater New York, and death.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1897 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).
GERMAN ORIENT SOCIETY:
Exploration of the ruins of Babylon.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA:
GERMAN EXPLORATION.
GERMAN PARTIES, in Austria.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.
----------GERMANY: Start--------
GERMANY: A. D. 1891-1899.
Recent commercial treaties.
Preparations for forthcoming treaties.
"The new customs tariff of July 15, 1879 [see, in volume 4,
TARIFF LEGISLATION (GERMANY): A. D. 1853-1892] exhibited the
following characteristics: An increase of the existing duties
and the introduction of new protective duties in the interests
of industrial and agricultural products. The grain and wood
duties, abolished in 1864, were reintroduced, and a new
petroleum duty was adopted. Those on coffee, wine, rice, tea,
tobacco, cattle, and textiles were raised. Those on iron were
restored; and others were placed on many new articles formerly
admitted free. In 1885 the tariff was again revised,
especially in the direction of trebling the grain and of
doubling the wood duties. Those on cattle, brandy, etc., were
raised at the same time. The year 1887 saw another general
rise of duties. But, on the other hand, some reductions in the
tariff for most-favored nations came about in 1883 and in 1889 in
consequence of the tariff treaties made with Switzerland and
Spain. Other reductions were made by the four tariff treaties
of 1891 with Belgium, Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Switzerland,
and again in 1892 and 1893, when like treaties were
respectively made with Servia and Roumania. Increases in some
duties took place in 1894 and 1895, such as those on cotton
seeds, perfumes, ether, and honey. … In consequence of the
higher price, rendered possible at home from the protective
duty, the German manufacturer can afford to sell abroad the
surplus of his output at a lower price than he could otherwise
do. His average profit on his whole output is made up of two
parts: Firstly, of a rather high profit on the sales in
Germany; and, secondly, of a rather low profit on the sales
abroad. The net average profit is, however, only an ordinary
one; but the larger total quantity sold (which he could not
dispose of without the foreign market, combined with the extra
low price of sale abroad) enables him to produce the commodity
in the larger quantities at a lower cost of production than he
otherwise could if he had only the German market to
manufacture for. He thereby obtains abroad, when selling
against an Englishman, an indirect advantage from his home
protection, which stands him in good stead and is equivalent
to a small indirect benefit (which the Englishman has not) on
his foreign sales, which is, however, paid for by the German
consumer through the higher sale price at home.
{240}
"The customs tariff now in force provides one general or
'autonomous' rate of duty for all countries, from which
deviations only exist for such nations as have tariff treaties
or treaties containing the most-favored-nation clause. Such
deviations are 'treaty' or 'conventional' duties. At the
present moment treaties of one kind or another exist with most
European powers (excepting Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal)
and with the majority of extra-European countries. So that,
with few exceptions, the German Empire may now be said to
trade with the world on the basis of the lower 'conventional'
or 'treaty' tariff. Most of the tariff treaties existing in
Europe expired early in 1892, whereupon many countries
prepared higher customs tariffs in order to be prepared to
grant certain concessions reciprocally when negotiating for
the new treaties. Germany, therefore, under the auspices of
General Caprivi, set to work to make a series of special
tariff treaties with Belgium, Italy, Austria-Hungary, and
Switzerland, which were all dated December 6, 1891. Later
additions of the same class were those with Servia in 1892,
with Roumania in 1893, and with Russia in 1894.
"Perhaps almost the greatest benefit conferred upon the
country by these seven tariff treaties was the fact of their
all being made for a long period of years and not terminable
in any event before December 31, 1903. This secured for the
mercantile classes the inestimable benefit of a fixed tariff
for most of the important commodities of commerce over a long
period of time—a very valuable factor in trade, which has in
this case greatly assisted the development of commerce. The
reductions in Germany granted by these treaties were not great
except on imported grains, and those in the various foreign
countries were not very considerable either. … The
preparations for the negotiation of the new commercial
treaties which are to replace those which expire on January 1,
1904, were begun in Germany as early as 1897. Immense trouble
has been and is being taken by the Government to obtain
thoroughly reliable data on which to work, as they were by no
means content merely to elaborate a new tariff on the wide
experience already gained from the working of the seven
commercial treaties of 1891 to 1893."
Diplomatic and Consular Reports of the British Government,
January, 1899
(quoted in Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance
of the United States, January, 1899).
GERMANY: A. D. 1894-1895.
The Emperor and the Social Democrats.
His violent and autocratic speeches.
Failure of the Anti-Revolutionary Bill.
Socialist message to France.
At the opening of the winter session of the Reichstag, in
December, 1894, the Emperor, speaking in person, declared it
to be "necessary to oppose more effectually than hitherto the
pernicious conduct of those who attempt to disturb the
executive power in the fulfilment of its duty," and announced
that a bill to that end, enlarging the penal provisions of
law, would be introduced without delay. This was well
understood to be aimed at the Social Democrats, against whom
the Emperor had been making savagely violent speeches of late.
At Potsdam, in addressing some recruits of the Foot Guards, he
had gone so far as to say: "You have, my children, sworn
allegiance to me. That means that you have given yourselves to
me body and soul. You have only one enemy, and that is my
enemy. With the present Socialist agitation I may order
you,—which God forbid!—to shoot down your brothers, and even
your parents, and then you must obey me without a murmur." In
view of these fierce threatenings of the Emperor, and the
intended legislative attack upon their freedom of political
expression and action, six members of the Social Democratic
party, instead of quitting the House, as others did, before
the customary cheers for his Imperial Majesty were called for,
remained silently sitting in their seats. For that behaviour
they were not only rebuked by the president of the Reichstag,
but a demand for proceedings against them was made by the
public prosecutor, at the request of the Imperial Chancellor.
The Reichstag valued its own rights too highly to thus gratify
the Emperor, and the demand was refused, by a vote of three to
one. His Imperial Majesty failed likewise to carry the
bill—the Anti-Revolutionary Bill, as it was called—on which
he had set his heart, for silencing critical tongues and pens.
The measure was opposed so stoutly, in the Reichstag and
throughout the Empire, that defeat appeared certain, and in
May (1895) it was dropped. The Emperor did not take his defeat
quietly. Celebrating the anniversary of the battle of Sedan by
a state dinner at the palace, he found the opportunity for a
speech in which the Socialists were denounced in the following
terms: "A rabble unworthy to bear the name of Germans has
dared to revile the German people, has dared to drag into the
dust the person of the universally honoured Emperor, which is
to us sacred. May the whole people find in themselves the
strength to repel these monstrous attacks; if not, I call upon
you to resist the treasonable band, to wage a war which will
free us from such elements." The Social Democrats replied by
despatching the following telegram to the Socialists in Paris:
"On the anniversary of the battle of Sedan we send, as a
protest against war and chauvinism, our greeting and a clasp
of the hand to our French comrades. Hurrah for international
solidarity!" Prosecutions followed. The editor of "Vorwärts"
got a month's imprisonment for saying the police provoked
brawls to make a pretext for interference; Liebknecht, four,
for a caustic allusion to the Emperor's declarations against
Socialism, and for predicting the collapse of the Empire; and
Dr. Forster, three, for lèse-majesté.
GERMANY: A. D. 1894-1899.
The Emperor's claim to "Kingship by Divine Right,"
A great sensation was produced in Germany by a speech
addressed on September 6, 1894, by the German Emperor to the
chief dignitaries and nobles of East Prussia in the Royal
Palace at Königsberg. The following are the principal
passages of this speech:
"Agriculture has been in a seriously depressed state during
the last four years, and it appears to me as though, under
this influence, doubts have arisen with regard to the
fulfilment of my promises. Nay, it has even been brought home
to me, to my profound regret, that my best intentions have
been misunderstood and in part disputed by members of the
nobility with whom I am in close personal relation. Even the
word 'opposition' has reached my ears.
{241}
Gentlemen, an Opposition of Prussian noblemen, directed
against their king, is a monstrosity. Such an Opposition would
be justifiable only when the king was known to be at its head.
The history of our House teaches us that lesson. How often
have my predecessors had to oppose misguided members of a
single class on behalf of the whole community! The successor
of him who became Sovereign Duke in Prussia in his own right
will follow the same path as his great ancestor. The first
King of Prussia once said, 'Ex me mea nata corona,' and his
great son 'set up his authority as a rocher de bronze.' I, in
my turn, like my imperial grandfather, hold my kingship as by
the grace of God. … We witnessed an inspiring ceremony the day
before yesterday. Before us stands the statue of the Emperor
William, the imperial sword uplifted in his right hand, the
symbol of law and order. It exhorts us all to other duties, to
the serious combating of designs directed against the very
basis of our political and social fabric. To you, gentlemen, I
address my summons to the fight for religion, morality, and order
against the parties of revolution. Even as the ivy winds round
the gnarled oak, and, while adorning it with its leaves,
protects it when storms are raging through its topmost
branches, so does the nobility of Prussia close round my
house. May it, and with it the whole nobility of the German
nation, become a brilliant example to those sections of the
people who still hesitate. Let us enter into this struggle
together. Forward with God, and dishonor to him who deserts
his king."
Time has wrought no change in these extraordinary ideas of the
German Emperor. Speaking at Hamburg, October 19, 1899, on the
necessity of strengthening the naval forces of the Empire, in
order to afford protection to trade over the sea, he said:
"The feeling for these things is only slowly gaining ground in
the German fatherland, which, unfortunately, has spent its
strength only too much in fruitless factional strife. Germans
are only slowly beginning to understand the questions which
are important to the whole world. The face of the world has
changed greatly during the last few years. What formerly
required centuries is now accomplished in a few months. The
task of Kaiser and government has consequently grown beyond
measure, and a solution will only be possible when the German
people renounce party divisions. Standing in serried ranks
behind the Kaiser, proud of their great fatherland, and
conscious of their real worth, the Germans must watch the
development of foreign states. They must make sacrifices for
their position as a world power, and, abandoning party spirit,
they must stand united behind their prince and emperor."
Commenting on this utterance, a recent writer has said: "This
ideal of a docile nation led by a triumphant emperor whose
intelligence embraces everything throws considerable light on
the relations of imperialism to party government and
parliamentary institutions. … There are many other expressions
of the emperor which indicate an almost medieval conception of
his office, a revival of the theory of divine right. The
emperor believes that his grandfather, had he lived in the
Middle Ages, would have been canonized, and that his tomb
would have become a cynosure of pilgrimages from all parts of
the world. … In a speech delivered at Coblenz on August 31,
1897, he speaks of the 'kingship by the grace of God, with its
grave duties, its tremendous responsibility to the Creator
alone, from which no man, no minister, no parliament can
release the monarch.'"
GERMANY: A. D. 1895 (June).
Opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Ship Canal.
The opening of the new ship canal (named the Kaiser Wilhelm
Canal) between the Baltic and the North Sea was made the
occasion of a great celebration, on the 21st of June, in which
the navies of Great Britain, Russia, France, Austria and Italy
took part, steaming in procession with the German squadron
through the canal. It was also made the occasion for an
exhibition of the newly-formed alliance between Russia and
France, the Russian and French fleets entering the harbor of
Kiel together.
See (in this volume),
FRANCE: A. D. 1895.
The canal had been eight years in building, the first spadeful
of earth in the excavation having been turned by Emperor
William I. at Holtenau, near Kiel, on the 3d of June, 1887.
The canal is thus described: It is "98.6 kilometers (61.27
miles) in length. It begins at Holtenau, on the Bay of Kiel,
and terminates near Brunsbüttel, at the mouth of the River
Elbe, thus running clear through the province of
Schleswig-Holstein from northeast to southwest. Both openings
are provided with huge locks. Near Rendsburg, there is a third
lock connecting the canal with the old Eider Canal. The medium
water level of the canal will be about equal to the medium
water level of Kiel harbor. At the lowest tide the profile of
the canal has, in a depth of 6.17 meters (20 feet 6 inches)
below the surface of the water, a navigable width of 36 meters
(118.11 feet), so as to allow the largest Baltic steamers to
pass each other. For the navy, 22 meters (72.18 feet) of canal
bottom are provided, at least 58 meters (190.29 feet) of water
surface, and 8½ meters (27 feet 9 inches) depth of water. The
greatest depth for merchant vessels was calculated at 6.5
meters (21 feet 3 inches). The estimated cost was $37,128,000.
Two-thirds of the cost is defrayed by Germany; the remaining
one-third by Russia. The time saved by a steam-ship sailing
from Kiel to Hamburg via the canal, instead of through the
Skaugh (the strait between Jutland and Sweden), is estimated
at 2, days. The time of passage through the canal, including
stoppages and delays, will be about thirteen hours. In time of
peace, the canal is to be open to men-of-war, as well as
merchant vessels of every nation, but in time of war, its use
will be restricted to vessels of the German navy. Many vessels
have been wrecked and many lives lost on the Danish and
Swedish coasts, in waters which need not be navigated after
the canal is opened to traffic. Its strategic importance to
Germany will also be great, as it will place that country's
two naval ports, Kiel on the Baltic, and Wilhelmshafen on the
North Sea, within easy access of each other."
United States Consular Report,
Number 175, page 603.
{242}
GERMANY: A. D. 1895 (June-December).
Census of the Empire and census of Prussia.
"The results of the last census of the German Empire (the
census being taken every five years in December) … have
produced some surprise in that, notwithstanding the alleged
depression of agriculture and manufactures, the tables show an
increase greater than any census since the formation of the
Empire. The population, according to the official figures, is
52,244,503, an increase since December, 1890, of 2,816,027, or
1.14 per cent increase per year. The percentages of the previous
censuses was: In 1871-1875. 1 per cent; 1875-1880, 1.14 per
cent; 1880-1895, 0.7 per cent; 1885-1890, 1.06 per cent. A
striking illustration is given by a comparison with the
figures of the French census. The increase in France for the
same period (1890-1895) was but 124,000, an annual average of
0.07 per cent of its population, and Germans see in this
proportionally smaller increase a reason for certain classes
in France entertaining a less warlike feeling toward Germany,
and thereby assuring general European peace.
"In 1871, at the foundation of the German Empire, its
population was 40,997,000. [In 1890, it was 49,428,470.] The
percentage of increase differs vastly in northern and southern
Germany. In the former, the annual increase was 1.29 per cent;
in the latter, only 0.71 per cent. This must be attributed in
a great measure to the highly developed mining industries of
the Rhineland and Westphalia, where the soil, besides its
hidden mineral wealth, is devoted to agriculture. The southern
states—Bavaria, Baden, and Würtemberg—being more mountainous,
offer less opportunities for agricultural pursuits and are
favored with less natural riches. It is again noticeable that
those provinces which are ultra-agrarian show a very favorable
increase. It would seem that it is not the peasant, but the
great landowner, whose condition is undesirable and that this
condition is due less to the present low prices of cereals and
the customs-revenue policy of the Government than to the
heavily mortgaged estates and lavish style of living which is
not in keeping with their revenues. … "The number of
marriages, which showed a decrease from the middle of the
eighties, has increased since 1892. An unlooked-for increase
is shown in the country population."
United States, Consular Reports,
June, 1896,
pages. 245-246.
"Some of the results of the last census of Prussia, taken on
the 14th of June, 1895, with special regard to trades and
professions, have appeared in an official journal devoted to
statistics. … The entire population of Prussia, which includes
the provinces wrested from Poland, Denmark, and Saxony, as
well as the seized Kingdom of Hanover, counts up for both
sexes on the 14th of June, 1895, 31,491,209; by the last
census (December 1, 1890), it was 29,955,281, an increase of
1,335,928, or 5.13 per cent. Of males, June 14, 1895, there
were 15,475,202; December 1, 1890, 14,702,151, an increase of
773,051; females, June 14, 1895, 16,016,007; December 1, 1890,
15,253,130, an increase of 762,877. The relatively small
surplus in Prussia of females over males, viz, 540,805, may …
be ascribed in part to the stoppage of emigration to the
United States since 1892. This affects more men than women,
since men emigrate more readily than women.
"The population of Rhineland is the largest unit in Prussia.
This year it is 5,043,979, against 4,710,391 in 1890, an
increase of 333,588; that of Silesia is 4,357,555, against
4,224,458 in 1890, an increase of only 133,097,
notwithstanding the temporary harvest hands in summer. Posen,
its neighbor province, has the lowest increase of all—about
20,000 souls. All parts of Prussia, however, show some
increase. The largest increase of population—that of Rhineland
or the Rhenish provinces (333,588)—may be safely ascribed to
the flourishing manufactures of that district, while the low
figures in Posen, Silesia, and East Prussia are due to the
depression in agriculture produced by the rivalry of the
United States, Argentina, and Australia, as well as by the
unprotected state of the laborer in his relations with the
landed proprietors.
"One of the surprises of the new census is the small increase
of Berlin's population, all the more remarkable owing to the
unprecedented increase of Berlin for the years between 1870
and 1890. It is on]y 36,288, or 2.2 per cent for the past four
years and a half. By the census of 1895, it was 1,615,082;
1890, 1,578,794; increase, 36,288."
United States, Consular Reports,
January, 1896, pages 75-76.
GERMANY: A. D. 1895-1898.
The Agrarian Protectionists and their demands.
"The depression of agriculture in Germany was the subject
which most occupied German politicians throughout the year
[1895]. The policy favoured by the Agrarian League was that
advocated by Count Kanitz, of which the following were the
chief points: (1) That the State should buy and sell the
foreign grain, flour, and meal destined for consumption in
Germany; (2) that the average selling price in Germany from
1850 to 1890 should be fixed as the selling price of grain,
and that the price of flour and meal should be determined by
the proportion they bear to the unground grain and the said
selling price, provided that the buying price is covered
thereby; while in the case of higher buying prices, the
selling prices must be proportionally raised; (3) that the
profit obtained be spent, so that a part at least equal to the
amount of the present grain duty flows into the Imperial
Treasury; (4) that steps should be taken for the accumulation
of stocks to be used in extraordinary time of need, as, for
instance, in the event of war; and (5) that a reserve should
be formed when prices are higher at home and abroad, to secure
the payment of the above-mentioned annual amount to the
Treasury. The Emperor, however, repeatedly expressed his
disapproval of this policy, and Prince Bismarck is said to
have remarked that if he were a deputy he would vote for it,
but as Chancellor he would reject it. … The Agrarians now
started an agitation all over the country in favour of Count
Kanitz's proposal, and even threatened to refuse the supplies
required for the navy if the Government should not accept it.
In March, the Emperor referred the question to the committee
of the Federal State Council, which passed a resolution
declaring the proposals of Count Kanitz for establishing a
State monopoly in cereals to be incompatible with the correct
interpretation of the present position of the State in regard
to industry and international trade, and irreconcilable with
Germany's commercial treaties."
Annual Register, 1895,
pages 256-257.
{243}
"The agrarian protectionists control the Conservative party in
Parliament completely; they are strongly represented in the
Center, or Catholic, party, and are not without a considerable
following among the National Liberals. The Antisemitic party, the
Poles, and other small parties are all infected with the
agrarian protectionist ideas. The only decided opponents, as
well as the only decided free-traders, are to be found among
the three Liberal sections and the Social Democrats. The
agrarian protectionists not only wish to annul the commercial
treaties, because these hinder them from raising the
protective duties on agricultural imports (these duties are by
no means low—for instance, 35 marks per ton on rye or wheat),
but the extreme members of the party advocate the abolition of
the gold standard and the adoption of a so-called bimetallic—in
reality a silver-standard. The most rabid among them oppose
the cutting of canals, because foreign produce would thus
enter Germany on cheaper terms. In short, the agrarian
protectionists oppose the natural evolution of all economic
progress. …
"The old Prussian feudal aristocracy (Junkerthum), forming the
pith and marrow of the agrarian movement, has never been well
off; but for the last twenty years they have suffered from the
competition with the whole world, which is felt so keenly in
all old countries, in the reduction of the rent of land. They
have sunk deeper and deeper into debt, while the standard of
material comfort has risen throughout all classes in Germany.
The 'Junker' has long since given up the hope of making both
ends meet by his own industry, and while endeavoring to raise
the rent of land by various kinds of protective measures, he
is really at the same time struggling for bread-and-butter and
upholding a tradition of political supremacy.
"No government can really satisfy these claims, and hence each
in turn is compelled, sooner or later, to oppose the agrarian
movement. However, considering the strong influence the
Prussian 'Junker' exerts in the army, in the ranks of
government officials, and at court, practical statesmen deem
it advisable to avoid any open rupture with the pack of
famished wolves."
T. Barth,
Political Germany
(American Review of Reviews, April. 1898).
GERMANY: A. D. 1896 (January).
Emperor William's congratulations to the President of the
South African Republic on the defeat of the Jameson Raid.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1896 (JANUARY).
GERMANY: A. D. 1896 (May).
The Berlin Industrial Exposition.
See (in this volume)
BERLIN INDUSTRIAL EXPOSITION.
GERMANY: A. D. 1896 (May).
Sugar bounty and sugar tax legislation.
"The sugar-tax amendment law, over which has been waged in the
German Parliament one of the longest and most determined
battles of recent years, was finally enacted as a concession
to the agrarian interest, and went into effect [May, 1896].
Its influence will be to increase the sugar production of
Germany, and, to that extent, exert a depressing effect upon
the general market and the interests of producers in other
beet-growing countries. The circumstances which have led to
the present situation are, briefly, these: From the time when
the Prussian Government began the systematic encouragement of
the beet-sugar industry down to 1887, the tax on sugar for
home consumption was calculated upon the quantity of beets
worked up by each separate factory, it being assumed that the
quantity of roots required to produce a given weight of sugar
would be uniform and invariable. The proportion adopted was 20
units of raw beet root to 1 unit of sugar, which, at the time
when the law was enacted: was approximately correct.
"But, under the stimulus of the export bounties provided by
the same law, the German beet growers and sugar makers worked
hard and intelligently to improve and increase their product.
By careful selection and cultivation, the beets were so
improved that from 12 to 14 tons of roots would yield a ton of
sugar. Great advance was also made in the machinery and
processes employed in the sugar factories, so that, as a final
result, the German Government, which paid nearly 12 cents per
cwt. bounty on all sugar exported, and charged 11 tax of the
same amount on all sugar for home consumption that could be
made from 20 cwts. of beets, found that the export bounties
completely absorbed the revenue derived from the sugar tax.
This tendency of the system had become apparent as early as
1869, and an attempt was made at that time to revise the law,
but the sugar-producing interest was powerful enough to resist
this effort. … Sugar growing still continued to be the most
profitable form of culture for German farmers, the area of
cultivation and number of sugar factories continued to
increase, loud complaints were heard against a system that
favored one class of farmers at the expense of the entire
population, and, in 1891, the Imperial Diet reduced the sugar
export bounty by half, that is, to 29.7 cents per 100
kilograms, and decreed that such bounty should entirely cease
on the 31st of July, 1897, provided that, in the meantime,
Austria, France, and other bounty-paying countries should
likewise reduce their bounties on exported sugar. Several
attempts have been made to reach such an international
agreement, but without successful result, and under cover of
this failure to secure a general reduction or abolition of
bounties, the German Agrarians have rallied and secured the
adoption of the present law, which restores the export bounty
of 1887 (59.5 cents per 220.46 pounds) and raises the tax on
sugar for home consumption from 18 marks ($4.28) to 21 marks
($4.99) per 100 kilograms, or about 2.2 cents per pound. This
increased tax will, of course, be added to the retail price of
sugar, already very high, and tend to still further retard the
increase of sugar consumption in Germany, which is now only
28.8 pounds per capita, against. 73.68 pounds per capita in
England and 77 pounds in the United States. …
"From the statistics that were brought out in the recent
debate, it appears that the whole system of beet culture and
sugar manufacture in Germany has reached a higher standard of
scientific perfection than has been attained in any other
European country. Every step, from the preparation and
fertilization of the land to the smallest detail in the
factory process, has been reduced as nearly as possible to
exact scientific methods. … Statistics were cited to prove
that the German sugar producers are safe from all European
competition and do not need the protection of an increased
export bounty; but nothing could withstand the demand of the
Agrarians, and their victory is one of the most significant
events in recent German legislation."
United States Consular Reports,
July, 1896, page 512.
See, also, (in this volume)
SUGAR BOUNTIES.
GERMANY: A. D. 1897.
Industrial combinations.
Trusts.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.
{244}
GERMANY: A. D. 1897 (July).
Defeat in Prussia of a bill to restrict the right of
political association and meeting.
In July, the government in Prussia suffered a significant
defeat in the Prussian Landtag on an attempt to give the
police new powers for interference with political meetings and
associations. The bill was especially aimed at the Social
Democrats, enacting in its first clause that "agents of the
police authorities have power to dissolve meetings in which
anarchist or Social Democratic movements are manifest, having
for their object the overthrow of the existing order of state
or of society, and finding an expression in a manner which
endangers public security, and in particular the security of
the state." It passed the upper house overwhelmingly, but was
rejected in the lower by 209 votes to 205.
GERMANY: A. D. 1897 (July).
British notice to terminate existing commercial treaties.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (JUNE-JULY).
GERMANY: A. D. 1897 (September-December).
Demand for indemnity enforced against Hayti.
See (in this volume)
HAYTI: A. D. 1897.
GERMANY: A. D. 1897 (November-December).
Seizure and acquisition of Kiao-chau Bay.
Naval expedition to China.
Speeches of the Emperor and Prince Henry.
The murder of two German missionaries in Shantung province,
China, gave the German government a pretext, in November,
1897, for the seizure of the port of Kiao-chau, on demands for
indemnity which were not satisfied until the Chinese
government had consented to lease that port, with adjacent
territory, to Germany, for 99 years, with extensive rights and
privileges in the whole rich province of Shantung.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1897 (NOVEMBER).
To support this opening of an "imperial policy" in the East, a
German naval expedition was despatched to China, in December,
under the command of the Emperor's brother, Prince Henry, and
its departure was made the occasion for speeches by the
Emperor and Prince Henry, at a royal banquet, at Kiel, which
caused much remark, and some smiling, in Europe and America.
Said the Emperor, addressing his brother, at the end of some
remarks in a similar strain: "As a sign of imperial and of
naval power, the squadron, strengthened by your division, will
now have to act in close intercourse and good friendship with
all the comrades of the foreign fleets out there, for the
protection of our home interests against everybody who tries
to injure Germany. That is your vocation and your task. May it
be clear to every European out there, to the German merchant,
and above all, to the foreigner whose soil we may be on, and
with whom we shall have to deal, that the German Michael has
planted his shield, adorned with the eagle of the empire,
firmly on that soil, in order, once for all, to afford
protection to those who apply to him for it. May our
countrymen abroad, whether priests or merchants, or of any
other calling, be firmly convinced that the protection of the
German Empire, as represented by the imperial ships, will be
constantly afforded them. Should, however, anyone attempt to
affront us, or to infringe our good rights, then strike out
with mailed fist, and if God will, weave round your young brow
the laurel which nobody in the whole German Empire will
begrudge you."
The Prince in reply said: "Most Serene Emperor, most powerful
King and Lord, illustrious brother,—As children we grew up
together. Later on it was granted to us as men to look into
each other's eyes and stand faithfully at each other's side.
To your Majesty the imperial crown has come with thorns. I
have striven in my restricted sphere and with my scanty
strength, as man, soldier, and citizen, to help your Majesty.
We have reached a great epoch, an important epoch for the
nation—an important epoch for your Majesty and the Navy. Your
Majesty has made a great sacrifice, and has shown great favour
to myself in entrusting this command to me. I thank your
Majesty from the bottom of a loyal, brotherly and humble
heart. I well understand your Majesty's feelings. I know what
a heavy sacrifice you made in giving me so fine a command. It
is for this reason, your Majesty, that I am so much moved, and
that I so sincerely thank you. I am further deeply indebted
for the confidence which your Majesty reposes in my weak
person, and I can assure your Majesty of this—I am not allured
by hopes of winning glory or laurels, I am only animated by one
desire—to proclaim and preach abroad to all who will hear, as
well as to those who will not, the gospel of your Majesty's
anointed person. This I will have inscribed on my banner, and
will bear it wherever I go. These sentiments with which I set
out are shared by my comrades. I raise my glass and call upon
those who with me enjoy the happy privilege of being permitted
to go forth, to remember this day, to impress the person of
the Emperor on their minds, and to let the cry resound far out
into the world—Our most Serene, Mighty, Beloved Emperor, King and
Master, for ever and ever. Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!"
GERMANY: A. D. 1897-1900.
Practical operation of the state system of
workingwoman's insurance.
Enlargement of its provisions.
By a series of laws enacted in 1883, 1884, and 1889, a system
of compulsory state insurance of workingmen was established in
Germany, applying in the first instance to sickness, then to
accidents, and finally becoming a pensioning insurance for old
age and permanent invalidity. These laws establish a
compulsion to be insured, but leave freedom of choice as to
the associations in which the insurance shall be maintained,
all such associations being under the surveillance of the
state. In a report from United States Consul J. C. Monaghan,
Chemnitz, made July, 1898. the practical working of the system
to that time is thus described: "Time is proving the practical
value of the German workingmen's insurance system. … The
social and economic influence of so gigantic a system must be
very great.
"The object of the system is to alleviate the sufferings of
workmen and their families: (1) In cases of sickness (sick
insurance); (2) in cases of accidents incurred at work
(accident insurance); (3) in cases of feebleness, wasting
diseases, decreased capacity to work, and old age (invalid and
old-age insurance). In cases coming under Number 1 there is
given free medical treatment; sick money—that is, money during
period of sickness with which to obtain medicine, nourishment,
etc.—or, if desired, free treatment in a hospital and support for
the family; and money, in case of death, is supplied the
family. The fund is furnished by employers and employed—the
former paying one-third, the latter two-thirds. In cases of
accident insurance the parties receive support during
convalescence, from the fourteenth week after the accident
happens.
{245}
Money is given the wounded person from the fifth week. Rents
are paid from the first day of the fourteenth week after the
accident. The rents amount to two-thirds, and in some cases to
three-fifths, of the workman's yearly salary. The fund for burial
expenses is furnished by the employers. In cases coming under
invalid and old-age insurance, the parties receive rents from
the time they are unable to work, without regard to age;
old-age rents, from the seventieth year, even if they can work
and do not draw invalid rent; and assistance against disease
so as to prevent incapacity. In case of his death or marriage,
the full sum paid by the party is returned.
"The following amounts were paid out in the years given:
Sick Accident Invalid and Old Age
insurance insurance insurance
Year.
1885-86. $23,905,005 $460,625 —
1887. 13,138,099 1,412,030 —
1888. 14,651,637 2,304,173 —
1889. 16,892,097 3,442,503 —
1890. 20,013,420 4,835,041 —
1891. 21,243,594 6,289,483 $3,643,089
1892. 22,433,499 7,696,967 5,344,742
1893. 24,269,264 9,082,984 6,700,509
1894. 23,702,063 10,539,044 8,312,475
1895. 24,947,731 11,929,940 10,221,647
1896. 26,114,026 13,602,747 12,293,533
1897. 26,207,417 15,252,301 14,161,000
Total. 257,517,856 86,847,842 60,696,997
"During the years from 1885 to 1897 employers had paid in
1,337,741,176 marks ($318,382,399), and workmen 1,173,449,805
marks ($279,281,053), a total of 2,511,190,981 marks
($597,663,452). Of this amount 1,702,184,100 marks
($405,121,816) have been paid out. Thus the workmen have
already received 528,700,000 marks ($125,830,600) more than
they have paid in. The annual amount paid out is increasing at
the rate of 15,000.000 marks ($3,570,000) per annum. The
reserve fund at the end of 1897 was, in round numbers,
850,000,000 marks ($202,500,000). For every twentieth person
of the Empire's population, one has been paid insurance.
"Besides this system, there are others by which workingmen are
aided. There are State and private insurance and pension
systems. One alone, the Miners' and Smelters' Union, paid out
in the years 1895-1897, inclusive, 320,000,000 marks
($76,160,000). From 1900 on, the annual amount to be paid out
will be upwards of 300,000,000 marks ($71,400,000), or 100
marks ($23.80) for every working-day in the year. Whether a
system which makes so much for paternalism is one to commend,
I can not say. Its effects here have been anything but bad.
Poverty, in spite of poor wages, is practically unknown."
United States Consular Reports,
September, 1898, page 51.
A revision of the accident insurance law in 1900 extended the
compulsory insurance to laborers in breweries and in the shops
of blacksmiths, locksmiths and butchers, and to window
cleaners. It raised the amount of assistance provided for the
injured in many cases, making it in some instances of
permanent, disability equal to the wages previously earned. It
also fixed more sharply the responsibility for carelessness on
the part of an employer.
GERMANY: A. D. 1898.
Lèse-majesté.
"In 1898 there were 246 convictions for 'lèse-majesté,' and
the punishments inflicted amounted to a total of 83 years
imprisonment, in addition to various terms of confinement in a
fortress."
Annual Register,
1899, page 273.
GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (March-December).
In the Chinese "Battle of Concessions."
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-DECEMBER).
GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (April).
The new naval policy.
"One of the most important economic movements taking place in
Germany is the development of her maritime interests. The
mercantile marine and 'over-sea' interests had developed to
such an extent that recently the Government obtained the
consent of the nation to add largely to its navy. During the
year 1897 continuous efforts had been made to bring this
question prominently before the public, and to point out the
absolute necessity of a large increase of the navy in order to
adequately protect Germany's growing maritime interests. The
introductory statement of the bill presented to the Reichstag
in November gave great prominence to the following
considerations of general interest in connection with the new
programme, namely, that during the last twenty years the
increase of imports and exports, the rapid investment of
capital abroad, the acquisition of colonies, the flourishing
fisheries, and the rapidly increasing population had greatly
added to German 'over-sea' interests, but that at the same
time this expansion had brought with it the danger of a
conflict with the interests of foreign nations, which must be
provided against by an increase of the navy, for any injury to
these maritime interests would entail serious consequences on
the whole country.
"The bill, as eventually passed on April 10, 1898, provided
that the nonrecurring expenditure should not exceed
£20,445,000, of which £17,835,000 was to be devoted to the
construction of ships and their armaments. The German fleet
will then be brought up to a total strength of 17 battle ships
of the line, 8 coast-defense vessels, 9 large and 26 small
cruisers, besides a variety of torpedo and other small craft.
It is thought and hoped that, in consequence of the favorable
state of the revenues of the Empire, a total sum of £5,876,274
a year can easily be devoted exclusively to the annual naval
budget of the next six years, by which time the additions to
the fleet are to be completed."
United States Bureau of Statistics,
Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance,
January, 1899.
See, also, (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (JUNE).
GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (April).
Withdrawal from the blockade of Crete and
the "Concert of Europe."
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1897-1899.
GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (June).
Elections to the Imperial Parliament, and their significance.
Elections to the Parliament of the Empire (the Reichstag) took
place in June, and resulted in the following distribution of
seats:
Conservatives, 52;
Imperialists, 22;
National Liberals, 48;
Liberal Unionists, 12;
Liberal Democrats, 29;
German Democrats, 8;
Social Democrats, 56;
Centre (Catholic), 106;
Poles, 14;
Anti-Semites, 10;
Independents, 40;
Total, 397.
{246}
"The elections as a whole show the growing power of German
manufactures and the decline of German agriculture. Germany
has become already, in far less time than it took England, a
great urban community. That appears to us the most prominent
fact in German life, and it was therefore bound to make itself
manifest in German politics. In spite of Imperial patronage,
the rural parties have lost. Both the Conservative sections
have indeed lost rather heavily; the Conservatives proper
standing in the new Reichstag at sixty-two instead of at
seventy-two, as in the Reichstag of 1893, and the Free
Conservatives at twenty instead of twenty-seven. The losses of
the National Liberals, who usually vote solidly with the
Conservatives, are smaller, but still they have lost. Though
they represent 'Particularism,' yet the Poles are a peasant
party, and they have lost, standing as they do at fourteen as
compared with nineteen in 1893. The Anti-Semites, who under
clerical guidance draw their strength largely from country
districts, have also lost. On the other hand, those parties
which have gained are the parties which hold the German
cities,—the Centre, the Radicals, and the Social Democrats.
The Centre, as we have said, represents the nascent Rhenish
and Bavarian industrialism, the Radicals have made significant
gains in Berlin, and the Social Democrats have gained in nearly
all the towns except Berlin, where they have lost seats to the
Radicals,—on what ground does not seem clear, unless it is
that the more Anarchical section, which has all along been
strong in Berlin Socialism, has rebelled against the
centralised dictatorship of the party. We imagine that the
urban professional and trading classes, dependent for their
position on the growth of industry, have mainly voted Radical,
and that the working classes have, on the whole, voted
Socialist, except in those cases where they have, as devout
Catholics, supported the Centre party. It will be seen,
therefore, that what we may call Toryism (of an extreme and
fanatical type, practically unknown in England), representing
rural proprietorial interests, has lost: and that the forces
of democracy, whether Liberal of the 'Manchester' type,
Socialist, or Catholic, but all representing the growth of
industrialism and urban life, have gained. In short, what
strikes us as the most obvious moral of the elections is that
the old forces and forms of German life are weakening, that
the ancient Conservative entrenchments are being destroyed,
and that we now have to deal with a modernised Germany.
"It may perhaps be asked why we place the Centre party in the
same category with the Radicals and Social Democrats, since
the last-named party is avowedly anti-religious, and the
Radicals are largely indifferent on the religious question. We
reply that the Centre party is essentially a democratic party,
and a party, moreover, committed to reforms only less
far-reaching than those of the Social Democrats, for whose
candidates the Catholic democratic electors have often voted
on the second ballots. The Centre party embodies to a large
extent the spirit of Bishop Ketteler of Mainz, the chief
founder of German Catholic 'Christian Socialism': its organs
in the Press are democratic in tone: and so far as the present
Pope has advanced in the direction of wide Catholic social
reform, he has had no stronger supporters than the members of
the German Centre party, with the possible exception of the
democratic American Catholic prelates, with whom the Centre
party has much in common. This being the case, it is clear
that democracy, in some or other of its varied forms, controls
a majority of votes in the Reichstag: a small majority, it is
true."
The Spectator (London),
July 2, 1898.
GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (June).
The Sugar Conference at Brussels.
See (in this volume)
SUGAR BOUNTIES.
GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (July).
Death of Prince Bismarck.
Prince Otto van Bismarck, whose importance in German history
is comparable only with that of Charlemagne, Luther, and
Frederick the Great, died on the 31st of July, at the age of
83. Immediately upon his death his confidential secretary. Dr.
Moritz Busch, made public the full text of the letter of
resignation which Bismarck addressed to the Emperor, William
II., when he withdrew—practically dismissed—from the public
service, in 1890. It showed that the immediate cause of his
resignation was an order from the new sovereign which repealed
an arrangement established by the latter's grandfather, in 1852,
whereby a responsible ministry was created in Prussia, through
the giving of responsible authority to a prime minister at its
head. For nearly half a century that constitutional usage had
been maintained. William II. appears to have made his first
grasp at absolutism by setting it aside, and thereupon
Bismarck resigned, as he was undoubtedly expected to do.
GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (October-November).
The Emperor's visit to Palestine.
A journey made by the Emperor and Empress, with a large
retinue and considerable state, first to Constantinople, and
then to Palestine, in October and November, was suspected of
having some other motive than a love of travel and an interest
in seeing the Holy Land. Looked at in connection with some
other movements, it was supposed to indicate a policy aiming
at the establishment of German influence in the realm of the
Turk.
GERMANY: A. D. 1899.
Complaints from Danish Sleswick.
"It can never be anything but an encroachment and a cruelty to
insist, as is now being done in Danish North Sleswick, that
all teaching in the schools, with the exception of two
miserable hours a week of religious lessons, shall be carried
on in German, and to forbid even private instruction in the
Danish language. It can never be called anything but brutality
and meanness to punish young men who go into Danish territory
for the purpose of study by depriving their parents of their
parental rights, or by expelling innocent persons from the
country. These methods, too, are beside the purpose. The
Germans complain that Danes who have become Prussian subjects
against their will do not feel like Prussians. They are
tortured and annoyed, subjected to the most minute espionage
and the most contemptible police reports, with the persecution
connected therewith, and then it is considered amazing that
they are not changed into enthusiastic admirers of Prussia. …
The Danish language, in spite of its small area, is a language
of culture. And only the same undue self-admiration which the
Germans are in the habit of criticising in the French can look
upon the forcible extermination of Danish culture, for the
sake of spreading German, as a worthy act, an end that
justifies the means. …
{247}
"Some years ago the actors of the Royal Theatre were forbidden
to produce some innocent old vaudevilles in Sleswick towns
(although permission had already been given to the owner of a
theatre in Haderslev; indeed, they were not even allowed to
remain over night at an hotel. Intense indignation was roused
in Denmark by this narrow-minded police rule, which used as a
pretext the danger to the peace and quietness of Germany of a
scenic representation in Danish. This, however, was nothing
compared with recent events, which, however, will in South
Jutland only have a stimulating effect on the self-respect and
patriotism of the people; while in Denmark those who have
hitherto tried to bring about a better understanding between
Danes and Germans will throw up the game, and without
superfluous words take their stand on the side of the
oppressed. The Danes can and must submit to humiliations,
which the stronger nation again and again puts upon the
weaker, humiliations which itself would never stand from any
other Power. But one thing they cannot do. They cannot give up
exerting all their power to preserve their language and
culture within the Sleswick territory, which for a thousand
years has been Danish, and is so still. They would be
miserable creatures if they could. From the Danish side no
attempt has been made, nor can be made, to regain politically
what has been lost. No political agitation has been
undertaken, nor can it be undertaken, to excite the South
Jutlanders against the conditions which by ill-fate have once
been legally imposed upon them. But the alliance of hearts and
minds cannot be broken even by a great Power like Germany.
"How insecure this Prussian rule feels in North Sleswick in
spite of its mailed fist! Everything alarms it. It dares not
allow Danish actors to play an old vaudeville dating from
1830. It fears the storm of applause which would break loose
as soon as the first unimportant, but Danish, words were heard
from the stage. It feels obliged to forbid a Danish orator
from holding any discourse whatsoever on South Jutland
territory. He is not even allowed to speak on literature—not
on German literature, not even on Goethe. For one can really
never know!—One cannot be sure that the audience, in spite of
the subject being of no political significance whatever,
though even it be a German national topic, might not seize the
opportunity to applaud a speaker from Denmark. And in Heaven's
name that must not happen! On such fragile feet of clay does
the Prussian Colossus stand in Sleswick that it cannot bear a
hand-clap after a Danish lecture on Goethe. Still less can it
endure Danish reading-books and Danish song-books in the hands
of little children, or Danish colours in a lady's gown or upon
a house; Danish songs it fears even behind closed doors. What
is the use of gendarmes if not to wage war against colours and
songs? Such is the measure of the anxiety of Prussia, equipped
with all the instruments of power, as to whether German might,
German wealth, German military glory, German science and art,
and half a hundred million of German people will exercise so
great an attraction on the inhabitants of North Sleswick as
the important miniature State which bears the name of
Denmark."
G. Brandes,
Denmark and Germany
(Contemporary Review, July, 1899).
GERMANY: A. D. 1899.
Foreign interests of the German people.
United States Consul J. C. Monaghan wrote from Chemnitz in
1899:
"German economists are not exaggerating when they say this
Empire's people and capital are operating in every part of the
world. Not only Hamburg, Bremen, Stettin, Lübeck, and Kiel—i.
e., the seaport cities—but towns far inland, have invested
millions in foreign enterprises. In the Americas, North and
South, in Australia, in Asia, in a large part of Africa,
German settlements, German factories, German merchants, and
German industrial leaders are at work. Nor is it always in
settlements under the Empire's control that this influence is
strongest. In Senegambia, on the Gold Coast, the Slave Coast,
in Zanzibar and Mozambique, in Australia, Samoa, the Marshall
Islands, Tahiti, Sumatra, and South and Central America, there
are powerful commercial organizations aiding the Empire. From
Vladivostock to Singapore, on the mainland of Asia, and in
many of the world's most productive islands, the influence of
German money and thrift is felt. In Central America and the
West Indies, millions of German money are in the plantations;
so, too, in the plantations along the Gold Coast. In
Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba,
Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Venezuela, Brazil, etc., German capital
plays a very important part in helping to develop the
agricultural and in some cases the manufacturing and
commercial interests. A consequence of this development is
seen in the numerous banking institutions whose fields of
operation show that German commerce is working more and more
in foreign parts. These banks look after and aid foreign
investment as well as the Empire's other commercial relations.
They help the millions of Germans in all parts of the world to
carry on trade relations, not only with the Fatherland, but
with other countries.
"These are the links in a long and very strong chain of gold
uniting the colonies with the Mother Country. Quite recently,
large quantities of German capital have been invested in
various industries. The Empire's capital in United States
railroads is put down at $180,000,000. In America, Germans
have undertaken manufacturing. They have used German money to
put up breweries, hat factories, spinning, weaving, and paper
mills, tanneries, soap-boiling establishments, candle mills,
dye houses, mineral-water works, iron foundries, machine
shops, dynamite mills, etc. Many of these mills use German
machinery, and not a few German help. The Liebig Company, the
Chilean saltpeter mines, the Chilean and Peruvian metal mines,
many of the mines of South Africa, etc., are in large part
controlled by German money and German forces. Two hundred
different kinds of foreign bonds or papers are on the Berlin,
Hamburg, and Frankfort exchanges. Germany has rapidly risen to
a very important place in the financial, industrial, and
mercantile world. Will she keep it? Much will depend on her
power to push herself on the sea."
United States Consular Reports,
September, 1899, page 127.
{248}
GERMANY: A. D. 1899.
Military statistics.
A report presented to the Reichstag showed the total number of
men liable for service in 1899, including the surplus from
previous years, was 1,696,760. Of these 716,998 were 20 years
of age, 486,978 of 21 years, 362,568 of 22 years, and 130,216
of more than 22 years. The whereabouts of 94,224 was unknown,
and 97,800 others failed to appear and sent no excuse; 427,586
had already undertaken military duties, 579,429 cases were
either adjourned or the men rejected (for physical reasons),
1,245 were excluded from the service, 43,196 were exempt,
112,839 were incorporated in the naval reserve, 226,957 were
called upon to join the colors, leaving a surplus of 5,187;
there were 23,266 volunteers for the army and 1,222 for the
navy. Of the 226,957 who joined the colors 216,880 joined the
army as combatants and 4,591 as non-combatants, and 5,486
joined the navy. Of the 5,486 the maritime population
furnished 3,132 and the inland 2,354. There were 21,189 men
who entered the army before attaining the regulation age, and
1,480 under age who entered the navy; 33,652 of the inland
population and only 189 of the maritime were condemned for
emigrating without leave; while 14,150 inland and 150 maritime
cases were still under consideration at the end of the year.
GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (February).
Chinese anti-missionary demonstrations in Shantung.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899.
GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (February).
Purchase of Caroline, Pelew and Marianne Islands from Spain.
See (in this volume)
CAROLINE AND MARIANNE ISLANDS.
GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (May-August).
Advice to the South African Republic.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1899 (MAY-AUGUST).
GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (June).
State of German colonies.
The following report on German colonies for the year ending
June 30, 1899, was made to the British Foreign Office by one
of the secretaries of the Embassy at Berlin:
"The number of Europeans resident in the German African
Protectorates, viz., Togoland, Cameroons, South-West Africa,
and East Africa, at the time of the issue of the latest
colonial reports in the course of 1899 is given as 4,522 men,
women, and children, of whom 3,228 were Germans. The expense
to the home government of the African colonies, together with
Kiao-chao in the Far East, the Caroline and Samoa Islands in
the South Seas, and German New Guinea and its dependencies, is
estimated at close upon £1,500,000 for 1900, the Imperial
Treasury being asked to grant in subsidies a sum nearly double
that required last year. Kiao-chao is included for the first
time in the Colonial Estimates, and Samoa is a new item. The
Imperial subsidy has been increased for each separate
Protectorate, with the single exception of the Caroline
Islands, which are to be granted £5,000 less than last year.
East Africa receives about £33,000 more; the Cameroons,
£10,000; South-West Africa, £14,000; Togoland, £800; New
Guinea, £10,000; and the new items are: £489,000 for Kiao-chao
(formerly included in the Naval Estimates), and £2,500 for
Samoa. A Supplementary Vote of £43,265 for the Protectorate
troops in the Cameroons is also now before the Budget
Committee. …
"Great efforts have been made to encourage German trade with
the African colonies, and it is shown that considerable
success has been attained in South-West Africa, where the
total value of goods imported from Germany amounted to
£244,187, as against £181,961 in the previous year, with an
appreciable falling-off in the value of imports from other
countries. In East Africa the greater part of the import trade
still comes from India and Zanzibar—about £450,000 worth of
goods out of the gross total of £592,630, having been imported
thence. The export trade is also largely carried on through
Zanzibar."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: Miscellaneous Series,
Number 528, 1900, pages 3-5).
GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (August).
Defeat of the Rhine-Elbe Canal Bill.
Resentment of the Emperor.
An extraordinary edict.
Among several new canal projects in Germany, those of "the
Dortmund-Rhine Canal and the Great Midland Canal (joining from
the east to west the rivers Elbe, Weser, and Rhine) are the
most important. The first involves an expenditure of over
£8,000,000 altogether, and the second is variously estimated
at from £10,000,000 to £20,000,000, according to its eventual
scope. The latter is intended to amalgamate the eastern and
western waterways of the nation and to join the Dortmund-Ems
Canal to the Rhine system, in order to give the latter river
an outlet to the sea via a German port, instead of only
through ports in the Netherlands. It will also place the
Rhine-Main-Danube connection in direct communication with all
the streams of North Germany."
United States Bureau of Statistics,
Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance,
January, 1899.
The Rhine-Elbe canal project is one which the Emperor has
greatly at heart, and when, in August, 1899, a bill to promote
it was defeated in the Prussian Landtag by the Agrarians, who
feared that canal improvements would promote agricultural
competition, his resentment was expressed in an extraordinary
edict, which said: "The royal government, to its keen regret,
has been compelled to notice that a number of officials, whose
duty it is to support the policy of His Majesty the King, and to
execute and advance the measures of His Majesty's government,
are not sufficiently conscious of this obligation. … Such
conduct is opposed to all the traditions of the Prussian
administration, and cannot be tolerated." This was followed by
an extensive dismissal of officials, and excited strong
feeling against the government in a class which is nothing if
not loyal to the monarchy.
GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (November).
Railway concession in Asia Minor, to the Persian Gulf.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1899 (NOVEMBER).
GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (November).
Re-arrangement of affairs in the Samoan Islands.
Partition of the islands with the United States.
Withdrawal of England, with compensations in the Tonga
and Solomon Islands and in Africa.
See (in this volume)
SAMOAN ISLANDS.
GERMANY: A. D. 1900.
Military and naval expenditure.
See (in this volume)
WAR BUDGETS.
GERMANY: A. D. 1900.
Naval strength.
See (in this volume)
NAVIES OF THE SEA POWERS.
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (January).
Introduction of the Civil Code.
On the first day of the year 1900 a great revolution was
effected in the laws of Germany, by putting into operation the
new German Civil Code. "Since the close of the fifteenth
century Germany has been the land of documentary right. The
Roman judicial code was recognized as common law; while all
legal procedure distinctly native in its origin was confined
to certain districts and municipalities, and was, therefore,
entirely devoid of Imperial signification in the wider sense.
The Civil Code of the land was represented by the Corpus Juris
Civilis, a Latin work entirely incomprehensible to the layman.
{249}
This very remarkable circumstance can be accounted for only by
the weakness of mediæval German Imperialism. In England and
France royalty itself had, since the fourteenth century,
assumed control of the laws in order that a homogeneous
national code might be developed. German Imperialism of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, however, was incapable of
such a task. …
"An incessant conflict has been waging in Germany between the
Roman Law of the Empire and the native law as perpetuated in
the special enactments of the separate provinces and
municipalities. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
the preponderance of power lay with the Roman system, which
was further supported by the German science of jurisprudence—
a science identified exclusively with the common law of Rome.
Science looked upon the native systems of legal procedure as
irrational and barbarous; and as Roman judicature exercised
complete dominion over all legislation, the consequence was
that it steadily advanced, while native and local law was
gradually destroyed. Only within the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries has the native law of Germany been aroused to the
defence of its interests, … the signal for the attack upon
Roman Law being given by King Frederick William I, of Prussia.
As early as 1713 this monarch decreed that Roman law was to be
abrogated in his dominions, and replaced by the native law of
Prussia. The movement became general; and the era of modern
legal codes was ushered in. The legal code of Bavaria was
established in 1756; Prussia followed in 1794; France, in 1804
(Code Civil); Baden, in 1809; Austria, in 1811 (Das
Oesterreichische Buergerliche Gesetzbuch); and finally Saxony,
in 1863 (the designation here being similar to that adopted by
Austria). Everywhere the motto was the same; viz.,
'Emancipation from the Latin Code of Rome.' The native code
was to supplant the foreign, obscure, and obsolete Corpus
Juris. But the success of these newly established codes was
limited; each being applicable to its own particular province
only. Moreover, many of the German states had retained the
Roman law; confining their reforms to a few modifications. …
"The reestablishment of the German Empire was, therefore,
essential also to the reestablishment of German law. As early
as 1874 the initial steps for the incorporation of a new
German Civil Code had already been taken; and this work has
now at last been completed. On August 18, 1896, the new
system, together with a 'Law of Introduction,' was promulgated
by Emperor William II. It will become effective on January 1,
1900, a day which will ever be memorable as marking the climax
of a development of four centuries. At the close of the
fifteenth century Roman law was accepted in Germany; and now,
at the end of the nineteenth, this entire system is to be
completely abolished throughout the Empire. As a means of
education, and solely for this purpose, the Roman Code will be
retained in the universities. As a work of art it is immortal;
as a system of laws, perishable. The last relic of that grand
fabric of laws, which once dominated the whole world, crumbles
to-day. The national idea is victorious; and German law for
the German Empire is at last secured."
R. Sohm,
The Civil Code of Germany
(Forum, October, 1800).
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (January-March).
The outbreak of the "Boxers" in northern China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH).
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (February).
Adhesion to the arrangement of an "open door" commercial
policy in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1890-1900 (SEPTEMBER-FEBRUARY).
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (February-June).
Increased naval programme.
With much difficulty, and as the result of strenuous pressure,
the Emperor succeeded in carrying through the Reichstag, in
June, a bill which doubles the programme of naval increase
adopted in 1898.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (April).
"After the way had been prepared by a speech of the Emperor to
the officers of the Berlin garrison on January 7, 1900, and by
a vigorous Press agitation, this project was brought before
the Reichstag on February 8. In form it was an amendment of
the Sexennate, or Navy Law of 1898, which had laid down a six
years' programme of naval construction. By the new measure
this programme was revised and extended over a period of 20
years. Instead of the double squadron of 10 battleships, with
its complement of cruisers and other craft, it was demanded
that the Government should be authorized to build two double
squadrons, or 38 battleships and the corresponding number of
cruisers. The Bill also provided for a large increase in the
number of ships to be employed in the protection of German
interests in foreign waters. The Centre party, both through
its speakers in the Reichstag and through its organs in the
Press, at first took up a very critical attitude towards the
Bill. Its spokesmen dwelt especially upon the breach of faith
involved in the extension of the programme of naval
construction so soon after the compromise of 1898 had been
accepted, and upon the difficulty of finding the money to pay
for a fleet of such magnitude. The Clerical leaders, however,
did not persist in their opposition, and finally agreed to
accept the main provisions of the Bill, with the exception of
the proposed increase in the number of ships employed in
foreign waters. They made it a condition that the Government
should incorporate with the Bill two financial projects
designed to provide the money required without burdening the
working classes. Both the Stamp Duties Bill and the Customs
Bill were adopted by the Government, and the Navy Bill was
carried with the aid of the Centre."
Berlin Correspondent, London Times.
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (May).
The Lex Heinze.
The Socialists won a notable triumph in May, when they forced
the Reichstag to adopt their views in the shaping of a measure
known as the Lex Heinze. This Bill, as introduced by the
Government, gave the police increased powers in dealing with
immorality. The Clericals and the Conservatives sought to
extend its scope by amendments which were denounced by the
Radicals and Socialists as placing restrictions upon the
"liberty of art and literature." After a prolonged struggle,
in which the Socialists resorted to the use of obstruction,
the most obnoxious amendments were withdrawn.
{250}
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (May).
Passage of the Meat Inspection Bill.
A much discussed and sharply contested bill, providing for a
stringent inspection of imported meats, and aimed especially
at the obstructing of the American meat trade, was passed by
the Reichstag on the 23d of May. It prohibits the importation
of canned or sausage meat entirely, and imposes conditions on
the introduction of other meats which are thought to be, in
some cases, prohibitory. The measure was originally claimed to
be purely one of sanitary precaution. It "had been introduced
in the Reichstag early in 1899, but the sharp conflict of
interests about it kept it for more than a year in committee,
When the bill finally emerged for discussion in the Reichstag,
it was found that the Agrarian majority had distorted it from
a sanitary to a protective measure. Both in the new form they
gave the bill and in their discussions of it in the Reichstag,
the Agrarians showed that it was chiefly the exclusion of
foreign meats, rather than a system of sanitary inspection,
that they wanted. As finally passed in May the bill had lost
some of the harsh prohibitory features given it by the
Agrarians, the latter contenting themselves with the exclusion
of canned meats and sausages. To the foreign student of German
politics, the Meat Inspection Law is chiefly interesting as
illustrating the tendency of the general government to seize
upon functions which have hitherto been in the hands of the
individual states and municipalities, as well as of bringing
the private affairs of the people under the control of
governmental authority. It is another long step of the German
government away from the principle of 'laissez-faire.' The
task undertaken by the government here is itself a stupendous
one. There is certainly no other great government in the world
that would endeavor to organize the administrative machinery
for inspecting every pound of meat that comes upon the markets
of the country."
W. C. Dreher,
A Letter from Germany
(Atlantic Monthly, March, 1901).
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (June).
Opening of the Elbe and Trave Canal.
"The new Elbe and Trave Canal, which has been building five
years and has been completed at a cost of 24,500,000 marks
($5,831,000)—of which Prussia contributed 7,500,000 marks
($1,785,000) and the old Hansa town of Lübeck, which is now
reviving, 17,000,000 marks ($4,046,000)—was formally opened by
the German Emperor on the 16th [of June]. The length of the
new canal-which is the second to join the North Sea and the
Baltic, following the Kaiser Wilhelm Ship Canal, or Kiel
Canal, which was finished five years ago at a cost of
156,000,000 marks ($37,128,000)-is about 41 miles. The
available breadth of the new canal is 72 feet; breadth of the
lock gates, 46 feet; length of the locks, 87 yards; depth of
the locks, 8 feet 2 inches. The canal is crossed by
twenty-nine bridges, erected at a cost of $1,000,000. The span
of the bridges is in all cases not less than 30 yards and
their height above water level about 15 feet. There are seven
locks, five being between Lübeck and the Möllner See—the
highest point of the canal—and two between Möllner See and
Lauenburg-on-the-Elbe."
United States, Consular Reports,
September, 1900, page 8.
A memorandum by the British Charge d'Affaires in Berlin on the
Elbe-Trave Canal says that the opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm
Canal injuriously affected the trade of Lübeck. This was
foreseen, and in 1894 a plan was sanctioned for the widening
of the existing canal, which only allowed of the passage of
vessels of about thirty tons. The direction of the old canal
was followed only to some extent, as it had immense curves,
while the new bed was fairly straight from Lübeck to
Lauenburg, on the Elbe above Hamburg. The memorandum states
that the undertaking is of great importance to the States
along the Elbe, as well as to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and
Russia. It will to some extent divert traffic from Hamburg,
and possibly reduce somewhat the revenue of the Kaiser Wilhelm
Canal.
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (June-December).
Co-operation with the Powers in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA.
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (September).
Government loan placed in America.
Great excitement and indignation was caused in September by
the action of the imperial government in placing a loan of
80,000,000 marks (about $20,000,000) in the American money
market. On the meeting of the Reichstag, the finance minister,
Dr. von Miquel, replying to attacks upon this measure,
explained that in September the state of the German market was
such that if they had raised the 80,000,000 marks at home the
bank discount rate would have risen above the present rate of
5 per cent. before the end of the year. In the previous winter
the bank rate had been at 6 per cent, for a period of 90 days,
and during three weeks it had stood at 7 per cent. The
government had been strongly urged to do everything in its
power to prevent the recurrence of such high rates of
discount. The London rate was rapidly approaching the German,
and there was reason to fear that there would be a serious
flow of gold from Germany. It was therefore urgently desirable
to attract gold from abroad, and there was no country where money
was so easy at the time as in the United States. This was due
to the extraordinarily favorable balance of American trade and
the remarkable increase in exports out of all proportion to
the development of imports. Another reason was the American
Currency Law, which enabled the national banks to issue as
much as 100 per cent. of their capital in loans, whereas they
formerly issued only 90 per cent. There was no doubt that the
80,000,000 marks could have been obtained in Germany, but the
public must have been aware that other loans of much greater
extent were impending. There was going to be a loan of about
150,000,000 marks for the expedition to China, and it was
certain that before the end of the year 1901 considerable
demands would be made upon the public.
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (September).
Proposal to require leaders of the Chinese attack
on foreigners to be given up.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (October).
Anglo-German agreement concerning policy in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).
{251}
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (October 9).
Lèse-majesté in criticism of the Emperor's speech to soldiers
departing for China, enjoining no quarter and commending the
Huns as a military example.
Increasing prosecutions for Lèse-majesté.
On the 9th of October, a newspaper correspondent wrote from
Berlin: "The Berlin newspapers of yesterday and to-day
chronicle no fewer than five trials for 'lèse-majesté.' The
most important case was that of Herr Maximilian Harden, the
editor of the weekly magazine 'Zukunft.' Herr Harden, who
enjoyed the confidence of the late Prince Bismarck, wields a
very satirical pen, and has been designated 'The Junius of
modern Germany.' In 1898 Herr Harden was convicted of
lèse-majesté and was sentenced to six months' incarceration in
a fortress. In the present instance he was accused of having
committed lèse-majesté in an article, 'The Fight with the
Dragon,' published in the 'Zukunft' of August 11. The article
dealt with the speech delivered by the Emperor at Bremerhaven
on July 27, 'the telegraphic transmission of which, as was
asserted at the time, had been forbidden by Count von Bülow.'
The article noted as a fact that the Emperor had commanded the
troops who were leaving for China to give no quarter and to
make no prisoners, but, imitating the example of Attila and
the Huns, to excite a terror in East Asia which would last for
a thousand years. The Emperor had added, 'May the blessing of
God attend your flags and may this war have the blessed
result that Christianity shall make its way into China.' Herr
Harden in his comments on this speech had critically examined
the deeds of the historic Attila and had contrasted him with
the Attila of popular story in order to demonstrate that he
was not a proper model to set up for the imitation of German
soldiers. The article in the 'Zukunft' had also maintained
that it was not the mission of the German Empire to spread
Christianity in China, and, finally, had described a war of
revenge as a mistake." No publicity was allowed to be given to
the proceedings of the trial. "Herr Harden was found guilty
not only of having been wanting in the respect due to the
Emperor but of having actually attacked his Majesty in a way
that constituted lèse-majesté. The Court sentenced him to six
months' incarceration in a fortress and at the same time
directed that the incriminated number of the 'Zukunft' should
be destroyed.
"The 'Vossische Zeitung' remarks:—'We read in the newspapers
to-day that a street porter in Marburg has been sentenced to
six months' imprisonment for insulting the Empress, that in
Hamburg a workman has been sentenced to five months'
imprisonment for lèse-majesté, that in Beuthen a workman has
been sentenced to a year's imprisonment for lèse-majesté, and
that in Dusseldorf a man who is deaf and dumb has been
sentenced to four months' imprisonment for the same offence.
The prosecutions for lèse-majesté are multiplying at an
alarming rate. We must emphatically repeat that such
proceedings appear to us to be in the last degree unsuited to
promote the principles of Monarchy. … The greater the number
of political prosecutions that are instituted the more
accustomed, under force of circumstances, does the Press
become to the practice of writing so that the reader may read
between the lines. And this attitude is to the advantage
neither of public morals nor of the Throne. … We regret in
particular that the case of yesterday (that of Herr Harden)
was tried 'in camera.' … It has justly been said that
publicity is more indispensable in political trials than in
prosecutions against thieves and murderers. … If there is no
prospect of an improvement in this respect the Reichstag will
have to devote its serious attention to the question how the
present administration of justice is to be dealt with, not
only in the interest of freedom of speech and of the Press,
but also for the good of the Crown and the well-being of the
State.'"
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (October 18).
Change in the Imperial Chancellorship.
On the 18th of October it was announced in the "Imperial
Gazette" that" His Majesty the Emperor and King has been
graciously pleased to accede to the request of the Imperial
Chancellor, the President of the Ministry and Minister for
Foreign Affairs, Prince Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, Prince of
Ratibor and Corvey, to be relieved of his offices, and has at
the same time conferred upon him the high Order of the Black
Eagle with brilliants. His Majesty has further been graciously
pleased to appoint Count von Bülow, Minister of State and
Secretary of State to the Foreign Office, to be Imperial
Chancellor and Minister for Foreign Affairs." Count von Bülow
is the third of the successors of Prince Bismarck in the high
office of the Imperial Chancellor. The latter was followed by
Count von Caprivi, who gave way to Prince Hohenlohe in 1894.
Prince Hohenlohe had nearly reached the age of 82 when he is
said to have asked leave to retire from public life.
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (November).
Withdrawal of legal tender silver coins.
"Germany has lately taken a step to clear off the haze from
her financial horizon by calling in the outstanding thalers
which are full legal tender, and turning them into subsidiary
coins of limited legal tender—a process which will extend
over ten years. At the end of that time, if no misfortune
intervenes, she will be on the gold standard as surely and
safely as England is. Her banks can now tender silver to their
customers when they ask for gold, as the Bank of France can
and does occasionally. When this last measure is carried into
effect the only full legal-tender money in Germany will be
gold, or Government notes redeemable in gold."
New York Nation,
November 29, 1900.
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (November-December).
The Reichstag and the Kaiser.
His speeches and his system of personal government.
In the Reichstag, which reassembled on the 14th of November,
"the speeches of the Kaiser were discussed by men of all
parties, with a freedom that was new and refreshing in German
political debates. Apart from the Kaiser's speeches in
connection with the Chinese troubles, the debates brought out
some frank complaints from the more 'loyal' sections of German
politics, that the Kaiser is surrounded by advisers who
systematically misinform him as to the actual state of public
opinion. It has long been felt, and particularly during the
past few years, that the present system of two cabinets—one of
which is nominally responsible to the Reichstag and public
opinion, while the other is merely a personal cabinet,
responsible to neither, and yet exercising an enormous
influence in shaping the monarch's policies—has been growing
more and more intolerable. This system of personal government
is becoming the subject of chronic disquietude in Germany, and
even the more loyal section of the press is growing restive
under it. Bismarck's wise maxim, 'A monarch should appear in
public only when attired in the clothing of a responsible
ministry,' is finding more and more supporters among
intelligent Germans."
W. C. Dreher,
A Letter from Germany
(Atlantic Monthly, March, 1901).
{252}
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (December).
Census of the Empire.
Growth of Berlin and other cities.
Urban population compared with that in the United States.
A despatch from Berlin, February 26, announced the results of
the census of December, 1900, made public that day. The
population of the German Empire is shown to have increased
from 52,279,901 in 1895 to 56,345,014. Of this population
27,731,067 are males and 28,613,947 females. Over 83 per cent.
of the whole population is contained in the four kingdoms; of
these Prussia comes first with (in round figures) 34,500,000
inhabitants, and Bavaria second with 6,200,000. The figures
for Saxony and Würtemberg are 4,200,000 and 2,300,000
respectively. More than 16 per cent. of the population is
resident in the 33 towns of over 100,000 inhabitants. Of these
33 towns the largest is Berlin, while the smallest is Cassel,
of which the inhabitants number 106,001.
The Prussian Statistical Office had already published the
results of the census, so far as they concern Berlin and its
suburbs. It appears that the population of the German capital
now amounts to 1,884,151 souls, as against 1,677,304 in 1895
and 826,3!1 in 1871. The population of the suburbs has
increased from 57,735 in 1871 and 435,236 in 1895, to 639,310
in 1900. The total population of the capital, including the
suburbs, is given as 2,523,461 souls, as against 2,112,540 in
1895, an increase of over 19 per cent. Some figures relating
to other cities had previously appeared, going to show "an
acceleration of the movement of population from the country
toward the great cities. The growth of the urban population in
five years has been astonishing. The population of Berlin, for
example, increased more than twice as much in the last five
years as in the preceding five. The fourteen German cities now
having a population of above 200,000 have increased more than
17 per cent since 1895. … No other European capital is growing
so fast in wealth and numbers as Berlin; and the city is rapidly
assuming a dominant position in all spheres of German life."
W. C. Dreher,
A Letter from Germany
(Atlantic Monthly, March, 1901).
The percentage of growth in Berlin "has been far outstripped
by many other cities, especially by Nuremberg; and so far as
our own census shows, no American city of over 50,000
inhabitants can match its increase. In five years it has grown
from 162,000 to 261,000—60 per cent increase. That would mean
120 per cent in a decade.
"But though Germany has only one city of more than one
million, and one more of more than half a million, and the
United States has three of each class, Germany has, in
proportion to its population rather more cities of from 50,000
to 100,000 inhabitants, and decidedly more of from 100,000 to
500,000, than the United States. In the United States
8,000,000 people live in cities of over 500,000 inhabitants,
against some 3,000,000 in Germany; yet in the United States a
larger percentage of the population lives in places which have
under 50,000 inhabitants."
The World's Work,
March, 1901.
GERMANY: A. D. 1901 (January).
Celebration of the Prussian Bicentenary.
See (in this volume)
PRUSSIA: A. D. 1901.
GERMANY: A. D. 1901 (January).
Promised increase of protective duties.
In the Reichstag—the Parliament of the Empire—on the 26th of
January, the Agrarians brought in a resolution demanding that
the Prussian Government should "in the most resolute manner"
use its influence to secure a "considerable increase" in the
protective duties on agricultural produce at the approaching
revision of German commercial policy, and should take steps to
get the new Tariff Bill laid before the Reichstag as promptly
as possible. In response, the Imperial Chancellor, Count von
Bülow, made the following declaration of the policy of the
government, for which all parties had been anxiously waiting:
"Fully recognizing the difficult situation in which
agriculture is placed, and inspired by the desire effectively
to improve that situation, the Prussian Government is resolved
to exert its influence in order to obtain adequate protection
for agricultural produce by means of the Customs duties, which
must be raised to an extent calculated to attain that object."
GERMANY: A. D. 1901 (January).
The Prussian Canal scheme enlarged.
The canal scheme which suffered defeat in the Prussian diet in
1899 (see above), and the rejection of which by his dutiful
agrarian subjects roused the wrath of the emperor-king, was
again brought forward, at the opening of the session of the
Diet, or Landtag, in January, 1901, with a great enlargement
of its scope and cost, and with an emphatic expression of the
expectation of his Majesty that the bill providing for it
should be passed. The bill covered no less than seven
different projects, of which the total cost to the State was
estimated at about 389,010,700 marks, or nearly $100,000,000.
These include the Rhine-Elbe Canal, which is calculated to
cost 260,784,700 marks; a ship canal between Berlin and
Stettin, to cost 41,500,000 marks; a waterway connecting the
Oder and the Vistula, of which the cost, together with that of
a channel rendering the Warthe navigable for ships from Posen to
the junction of the Netze, is estimated at 22,631,000 marks,
and a canal connecting the province of Silesia with the canal
joining the Oder to the Spree. The bill further proposed that
the State should participate in the work of improving the flow
of water in the Lower Oder and the Upper Havel to the extent
of 40,989,000 marks and 9,670,000 marks respectively, and
should contribute the sum of 9,336,000 marks towards the
canalization of the Spree.
GERMANY: A. D. 1901 (February).
Annual meeting of the Husbandists.
The annual meeting of the Husbandists, one of the
organizations of German agrarian interests, held at Berlin on
the 11th of February, is reported to have been attended by
some 8,000 delegates. The official report of the organization
showed a membership of 232,000, or an increase of 26,000 over
that of the previous year. Large gains were made during the
year in the southern section of the Empire. It also appeared
that no fewer than 202,000 members represented small farmers.
A resolution was adopted demanding that the Government grant
such protection to agriculture as would enable it to form
prices independent of the Bourse, fixing the duties high
enough to make it possible for tillers of the soil to reap as
large profits for their products as from 1870 to 1800. "Above
all," said the resolution, "Germany must not grant the same
tariffs to countries discriminating in their tariffs, as in
the case of the United States."
----------GERMANY: End--------
{253}
GERRYMANDERING:
Legislation against by the Congress of the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).
GLADSTONE, William Ewart:
Retirement from public life.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1894-1895.
Death and burial.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (MAY).
GOEBEL, Governor William E.:
Assassination.
See (in this volume)
KENTUCKY; A. D. 1895-1900.
GOLD COAST COLONY.
See (in this volume)
ASHANTI; and AFRICA: A. D. 1900.
GOLD DEMOCRATS.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1893 (JUNE-NOVEMBER).
GOLD FIELDS, The Witwatersrand.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1885-1890.
GOLD MINING: Cape Nome discovery.
See (in this volume)
ALASKA: A. D. 1898-1899
GOLD STANDARD.
See (in this volume)
MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES.
GOLDEN STOOL, King Prempeh's.
See (in this volume)
ASHANTI.
GORDON MEMORIAL COLLEGE, at Khartoum.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1898-1899.
GOSCHEN, George J.:
First Lord of the Admiralty in the British Cabinet.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1894-1895.
GOSPODAR.
See (in this volume)
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES (MONTENEGRO).
GOTHENBURG SYSTEM, The.
Dispensary Laws.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1892-1899;
NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1897-1899;
SOUTH DAKOTA: A. D. 1899; and
ALABAMA: A. D. 1899.
GRASPAN, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
GREAT BRITAIN.
See ENGLAND.
GREATER NEW YORK.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1896-1897.
----------GREECE: Start--------
GREECE:
Light on prehistoric times.
Recent explorations in Crete and Egypt.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: CRETE; and same: EGYPT.
GREECE: A. D. 1896 (April).
Revival of Olympic Games.
See (in this volume)
ATHENS: A. D. 1896.
GREECE: A. D. 1897 (February-March).
Interference in Crete.
Expedition of Colonel Vassos.
Appeal for the annexation of the island.
Action of the Great Powers.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).
GREECE: A. D. 1897 (March-June).
Disastrous war with Turkey.
Appeal for peace.
Submission to the Powers on the Cretan question.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).
GREECE: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
GREECE: A. D. 1899-1900.
Attitude towards impending revolt in Macedonia.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1899-1901; and
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.
----------GREECE: End--------
GREENBACKS.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY);
1895-1896 (DECEMBER-FEBRUARY); 1896-1898; and
1900 (MARCH-DECEMBER)
GREENLAND, Recent exploration of.
See (in this volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION, 1895-1896, 1896, 1897, 1898-1899,
1898-, 1899, 1899-1900.
GREYTOWN:
Possession given to Nicaragua.
See (in this volume)
CENTRAL AMERICA (NICARAGUA-COSTA RICA): A. D. 1897.
GRONDWET (CONSTITUTION), of the South African Republic.
See (in this volume)
CONSTITUTION (GRONDWET) OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC.
GUAM, The island of: A. D. 1898 (June).
Seizure by the U. S. S. Charleston.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JUNE), THE WAR WITH SPAIN.
GUAM: A. D. 1898 (December).
Cession to the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).
GUAM: A. D. 1900.
Naval station.
Work planned for the creation of an U. S. naval station at
Guam is expected to cost, it is said, about $1,000,000.
GUANTANAMO:
Capture of harbor by American navy.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).
GUATEMALA.
See (in this volume)
CENTRAL AMERICA.
GUAYAMA, Engagement at.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D.1898 (JULY-AUGUST: PORTO RICO).
GUÉRIN, M.:
The barricade of.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1899-1900 (AUGUST-JANUARY).
GUIANA, British: A. D. 1895-1899.
Venezuela boundary question.
See (in this volume)
VENEZUELA.
GUIANA, French:
Boundary dispute with Brazil.
Award of Swiss arbitrators.
See (in this volume)
BRAZIL: A. D. 1900.
GUINEA, French.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (FRENCH WEST AFRICA).
GUNGUNHANA, Portuguese war with.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1895-1896 (PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA).
{254}
H.
HABANA, or HAVANA.
See (in this volume)
CUBA.
HAFFKINE'S PROPHYLACTIC.
See (in this volume)
PLAGUE.
HAGUE, The, Peace Conference at.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
HALEPA, The Pact of.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1896.
HALL OF FAME, for Great Americans, The.
In the designing of new buildings for the New York University
College of Arts and Science, at University Heights, certain
exigencies of art led to the construction of a stately
colonnade, surrounding a high terrace which overlooks Harlem
River, and the happy idea was conceived by Chancellor
MacCracken of evolving therefrom a "Hall of Fame for Great
Americans." The idea has been carried out, by providing for
the inscription of carefully chosen names on panels of stone,
with a further provision of space for statues, busts,
portraits, tablets, autographs, and other memorials of those
whose names are found worthy of the place. For the selection
of names thus honored, a body of one hundred electors,
representing all parts of the country, was appointed by the
Senate of the University. These electors were apportioned to
four classes of citizens, in as nearly equal numbers as
possible, namely:
(A) University or college presidents and educators.
(B) Professors of history and scientists.
(C) Publicists, editors, and authors.
(D) Judges of the Supreme Court, State or National.
It was required of the electors that they should consider the
claims of eminent citizens in many classes, not less than
fifteen, and that a majority of these classes should be
represented among the first fifty names to be chosen. They
were, furthermore, restricted in their choice to native-born
Americans, a rule which had some reasons in its favor, though
it excluded from the Hall such shining names in American
history as those of John Winthrop, Roger Williams, and
Alexander Hamilton.
As the result of the votes given by 97 electors, in the year
1900, 29 names were found to have received the approval of 51
or more of the electors, and these were ordered to be
inscribed in the Hall of Fame. The 29 names are as follows, in
the order of preference shown them by the 97 electors, as
indicated by the number of votes given to each:
GEORGE WASHINGTON. 97
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 96
DANIEL WEBSTER. 96
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 94
ULYSSES S. GRANT. 92
JOHN MARSHALL. 91
THOMAS JEFFERSON. 90
RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 87
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 85
ROBERT FULTON. 85
WASHINGTON IRVING. 83
JONATHAN EDWARDS. 81
SAMUEL F. B. MORSE. 80
DAVID GLASGOW FARRAGUT. 79
HENRY CLAY. 74
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. 73
GEORGE PEABODY. 72
ROBERT E. LEE. 69
PETER COOPER. 69
ELI WHITNEY. 67
JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 67
HORACE MANN. 67
HENRY WARD BEECHER 66
JAMES KENT. 65
JOSEPH STORY. 64
JOHN ADAMS. 61
WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING 58
GILBERT STUART. 52
ASA GRAY. 51
Resolutions by the Senate of the University have determined
the action to be taken for the selection of further names, as
follows: "The Senate will take action in the year 1902, under
the rules of the Hall of Fame, toward filling at that time the
vacant panels belonging to the present year, being 21 in
number." "Each nomination of the present year to the Hall of
Fame that has received the approval of ten or more electors,
yet has failed to receive a majority, will be considered a
nomination for the year 1902. To these shall be added any name
nominated in writing by five of the Board of Electors. Also
other names may be nominated by the New York University Senate
in such way as it may find expedient. Any nomination by any
citizen of the United States that shall be addressed to the
New York University Senate shall be received and considered by
that body." Furthermore: "Every five years throughout the
twentieth century five additional names will be inscribed,
provided the electors under the rules can agree by a majority
upon so many."
The Senate further took note of the many requests that
foreign-born Americans should be considered, by adopting a
memorial to the University Corporation, to the effect that it
will welcome a similar memorial to foreign-born Americans, for
which a new edifice may be joined to the north porch of the
present hall, containing one fifth of the space of the latter,
providing thirty panels for names.
Chancellor H. M. MacCracken,
The Hall of Fame
(American Review of Reviews, November 1900, page 563).
archive.org/details/sim_review-of-reviews-
us_july-december-1900_22_index/mode/
2up?view=theater&q=MacCracken
HANKOW.
See (in this volume)
SHANGHAI.
HART, Sir Robert:
Testimony as to the causes and character of the "Boxer"
movement in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH).
HARVARD UNIVERSITY:
Summer School for Cuban Teachers.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1900.
HAVANA.
See (in this volume)
CUBA.
Map of Hawaii and Honolulu.
HAWAII.
Names and areas of the islands.
"For practical purposes, there are eight islands in the
Hawaiian group. The others are mere rocks, of no value at
present. These eight islands, beginning from the northwest,
are named Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe,
Maui, and Hawaii. The areas of the islands [in square miles]
are:
Niihau, 97;
Kauai, 590;
Oahu, 600;
Molokai, 270;
Maui, 760;
Lanai, 150;
Kahoolawe, 63;
Hawaii, 4,210.
Total, 6,740.
{255}
As compared with States of the Union, the total area of the
group approximates most nearly to that of the State of New
Jersey—7,185 square miles. It is more than three times that of
Delaware—2,050 square miles."
Bulletin of the Bureau of American Republics,
August, 1898.
HAWAII:
Annexation to the United States.
On the 16th of June, 1897, the President of the United States
transmitted to Congress a new treaty for the annexation of the
Republic of Hawaii to the United States, signed that day by
representatives of the governments of the two countries,
appointed to draft the same. With the treaty he submitted a
report from his Secretary of State, Mr. Sherman, in which the
latter said: "The negotiation which has culminated in the
treaty now submitted has not been a mere resumption of the
negotiation of 1893 (see HAWAIIAN ISLANDS, in volume 3), but
was initiated and has been conducted upon independent lines.
Then an abrupt revolutionary movement had brought about the
dethronement of the late queen and set up instead of the
theretofore titular monarchy a provisional government for the
control and management of public affairs and the protection of
the public peace, such government to exist only until terms of
union with the United States should have been negotiated and
agreed upon. Thus self-constituted, its promoters claimed for
it only a de facto existence until the purpose of annexation
in which it took rise should be accomplished. As time passed
and the plan of union with the United States became an
uncertain contingency, the organization of the Hawaiian
commonwealth underwent necessary changes, the temporary
character of its first Government gave place to a permanent
scheme under a constitution framed by the representatives of
the electors of the Islands, administration by an executive
council not chosen by suffrage, but self-appointed, was
succeeded by an elective and parliamentary regime, and the
ability of the new Government to hold—as the Republic of
Hawaii—an independent place in the family of sovereign States,
preserving order at home and fulfilling international
obligations abroad, has been put to the proof. Recognized by
the powers of the earth, sending and receiving envoys,
enforcing respect for the law, and maintaining peace within
its island borders, Hawaii sends to the United States, not a
commission representing a successful revolution, but the
accredited plenipotentiary of a constituted and firmly
established sovereign State. However sufficient may have been
the authority of the commissioners with whom the United States
Government treated in 1893, and however satisfied the
President may then have been of their power to offer the
domain of the Hawaiian Islands to the United States, the fact
remains that what they then tendered was a territory rather
than an established Government, a country whose administration
had been cast down by a bloodless but complete revolution and
a community in a state of political transition. Now, however,
the Republic of Hawaii approaches the United States as an
equal, and points for its authority to that provision of
article 82 of the constitution, promulgated July 24, 1894,
whereby—'The President, with the approval of the cabinet, is
hereby expressly authorized and empowered to make a treaty of
political or commercial union between the Republic of Hawaii
and the United States of America, subject to the ratification
of the Senate.'" The essential articles of the treaty thus
submitted were the following:
ARTICLE I.
The Republic of Hawaii hereby cedes absolutely and without
reserve to the United States of America all rights of
sovereignty of whatsoever kind in and over the Hawaiian
Islands and their dependencies; and it is agreed that all the
territory of and appertaining to the Republic of Hawaii is
hereby annexed to the United States of America under the name
of the Territory of Hawaii.
ARTICLE II.
The Republic of Hawaii also cedes and hereby transfers to the
United States the absolute fee and ownership of all public,
government or crown lands, public buildings or edifices,
ports, harbors, military equipments and all other public
property of every kind and description belonging to the
Government of the Hawaiian Islands, together with every right
and appurtenance thereunto appertaining. The existing laws of
the United States relative to public lands shall not apply to
such lands in the Hawaiian Islands; but the Congress of the
United States shall enact special laws for their management
and disposition, Provided: that all revenue from or proceeds
of the same, except as regards such part thereof as may be
used or occupied for the civil, military or naval purposes of
the United States, or may be assigned for the use of the local
government, shall be used solely for the benefit of the
inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands for educational and other
public purposes.
ARTICLE III.
Until Congress shall provide for the government of such
Islands all the civil, judicial and military powers exercised
by the officers of the existing government in said Islands,
shall be vested in such person or persons and shall be
exercised in such manner as the President of the United States
shall direct; and the President shall have power to remove
said officers and fill the vacancies so occasioned. The
existing treaties of the Hawaiian Islands with foreign nations
shall forthwith cease and determine, being replaced by such
treaties as may exist, or as may be hereafter concluded
between the United States and such foreign nations. The
municipal legislation of the Hawaiian Islands, not enacted for
the fulfilment of the treaties so extinguished, and not
inconsistent with this treaty nor contrary to the Constitution
of the United States, nor to any existing treaty of the United
States, shall remain in force until the Congress of the United
States shall otherwise determine. Until legislation shall be
enacted extending the United States customs laws and
regulations to the Hawaiian Islands, the existing customs
relations of the Hawaiian Islands with the United States and
other countries shall remain unchanged.
ARTICLE IV.
The public debt of the Republic of Hawaii, lawfully existing
at the date of the exchange of the ratifications of this
Treaty, including the amounts due to depositors in the
Hawaiian Postal Savings Bank, is hereby assumed by the
Government of the United States; but the liability of the
United States in this regard shall in no case exceed
$4,000,000. So long, however, as the existing Government and
the present commercial relations of the Hawaiian Islands are
continued, as hereinbefore provided, said Government shall
continue to pay the interest on said debt.
ARTICLE V.
There shall be no further immigration of Chinese into the
Hawaiian Islands, except upon such conditions as are now or
may hereafter be allowed by the laws of the United States, and
no Chinese by reason of anything herein contained shall be
allowed to enter the United States from the Hawaiian Islands.
{256}
ARTICLE VI.
The President shall appoint five commissioners, at least two
of whom shall be residents of the Hawaiian Islands, who shall
as soon as reasonably practicable, recommend to Congress such
legislation concerning the Territory of Hawaii as they shall
deem necessary or proper."
United States, 55th Congress, 1st Session,
Senate Executive Document E.
A determined opposition to the renewed proposal of Hawaiian
annexation was manifested at once, in Congress and by many
expressions of public opinion at large. It condemned the
measure on grounds of principle and policy alike. It denied
the right of the existing government at Honolulu to represent
the Hawaiian people in such disposal of their country. It
denied the constitutional right of the government of the
United States to annex territory in the circumstances and the
manner proposed. It denied, too, the expected advantages,
whether naval or commercial, that the annexation of the
islands would give to the United States. A protest against the
annexation came also from the deposed Hawaiian queen,
Liliuokalani, and another from a party in the island which
attempted to rally round the presumptive heiress to the
overturned Hawaiian throne, the Princess Kaiulani. The
government of Japan also entered a protest, apprehending some
disturbance of rights which it had acquired for its emigrating
subjects, by treaty with the Republic of Hawaii; but this
protest was ultimately withdrawn. The army of opposition
sufficed, however, to hold the question of annexation in
abeyance for more than a year. No action was taken on the
treaty during the special session of the Senate. When Congress
assembled in December, 1897, President McKinley repeated his
expressions in its favor, and the treaty was reported to the
Senate, from the committee on foreign relations, early in the
following year; but the two-thirds majority needed for its
ratification could not be obtained.
Attempts to accomplish the annexation by that method were
given up in March, 1898, and the advocates of the acquisition
determined to gain their end by the passage of a joint
resolution of Congress, which required no more than a majority
of each House. Over the question in this form the battle was
fiercely fought, until the 15th of June in the House of
Representatives and the 6th of July in the Senate, on which
dates the following "joint resolution to provide for annexing
the Hawaiian Islands to the United States" was passed. It was
signed by the President the following day:
"Whereas the Government of the Republic of Hawaii having, in
due form, signified its consent, in the manner provided by its
constitution, to cede absolutely and without reserve to the
United States of America all rights of sovereignty of
whatsoever kind in and over the Hawaiian Islands and their
dependencies, and also to cede and transfer to the United
States absolute fee and ownership of all public, Government,
or Crown lands, public buildings or edifices, ports, harbors,
military equipment, and all other public property of every
kind and description belonging to the Government of the
Hawaiian Islands, together with every right and appurtenance
thereunto appertaining: Therefore,
"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That said
cession is accepted, ratified, and confirmed, and that the
said Hawaiian Islands and their dependencies be, and they are
hereby, annexed as a part of the territory of the United
States and are subject to the sovereign dominion thereof, and
that all and singular the property and rights hereinbefore
mentioned are vested in the United States of America. The
existing laws of the United States relative to public lands
shall not apply to such lands in the Hawaiian Islands; but the
Congress of the United States shall enact special laws for
their management and disposition: Provided, That all revenue
from or proceeds of the same, except as regards such part
thereof as may be used or occupied for the civil, military, or
naval purposes of the United States, or may be assigned for
the use of the local government, shall be used solely for the
benefit of the inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands for
educational and other public purposes.
"Until Congress shall provide for the government of such
islands all the civil, judicial, and military powers exercised
by the officers of the existing government in said islands
shall be vested in such person or persons and shall be
exercised in such manner as the President of the United States
shall direct; and the President shall have power to remove
said officers and fill the vacancies so occasioned. The
existing treaties of the Hawaiian Islands with foreign nations
shall forthwith cease and determine, being replaced by such
treaties as may exist, or as may be hereafter concluded,
between the United States and such foreign nations. The
municipal legislation of the Hawaiian Islands, not enacted for
the fulfillment of the treaties so extinguished, and not
inconsistent with this joint resolution nor contrary to the
Constitution of the United States nor to any existing treaty
of the United States, shall remain in force until the Congress
of the United States shall otherwise determine. Until
legislation shall be enacted extending the United States
customs laws and regulations to the Hawaiian Islands the
existing customs relations of the Hawaiian Islands with the
United States and other countries shall remain unchanged. The
public debt of the Republic of Hawaii, lawfully existing at
the date of the passage of this joint resolution, including
the amounts due to depositors in the Hawaiian Postal Savings
Bank, is hereby assumed by the Government of the United
States; but the liability of the United States in this regard
shall in no case exceed four million dollars. So long,
however, as the existing Government and the present commercial
relations of the Hawaiian Islands are continued as
hereinbefore provided said Government shall continue to pay
the interest on said debt.
"There shall be no further immigration of Chinese into the
Hawaiian Islands, except upon such conditions as are now or
may hereafter be allowed by the laws of the United States; and
no Chinese, by reason of anything herein contained, shall be
allowed to enter the United States from the Hawaiian Islands.
"The President shall appoint five commissioners, at least two
of whom shall be residents of the Hawaiian Islands, who shall,
as soon as reasonably practicable, recommend to Congress such
legislation concerning the Hawaiian Islands as they shall deem
necessary or proper.
{257}
"SECTION 2.
That the commissioners hereinbefore provided for shall be
appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent
of the Senate.
"SECTION 3.
That the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, or so much
thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated, out of
any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, and to
be immediately available, to be expended at the discretion of
the President of the United States of America, for the purpose
of carrying this joint resolution into effect."
There was no strict division of parties on the passage of the
resolution; but only three Republicans in the House voted
against it. Speaker Reed, who had strenuously opposed the
measure, was absent. Two Republican senators voted against the
resolution and three who opposed it were paired. A large
majority of the Democrats in both Houses were in opposition.
The policy advocated by the opponents of annexation was set
forth in the following resolution, which they brought to a
vote in the House, and which was defeated by 205 to 94:
"1. That the United States will view as an act of hostility
any attempt upon the part of any government of Europe or Asia
to take or hold possession of the Hawaiian islands or to
account upon any pretext or under any conditions sovereign
authority therein.
2. That the United States hereby announces to the people of
those islands and to the world the guarantee of the
independence of the people of the Hawaiian islands and their
firm determination to maintain the same."
Immediately upon the passage of the resolution of annexation,
preparations were begun at Honolulu for the transfer of
sovereignty to the United States, which was performed
ceremoniously August 12. Meantime, the President had
appointed, as commissioners to recommend legislation for the
government of the Islands, Messrs. Shelby M. Cullom, John T.
Morgan, Robert R. Hitt, Sanford B. Dole, and Walter F. Frear.
In the following November the Commission presented its report,
with a draft of several bills embodying the recommended
legislation. When the subject came into Congress, wide
differences of opinion appeared on questions concerning the
relations of the new possession to the United States and the
form of government to be provided for it. As the consequence,
more than a year passed before Congress reached action on the
subject, and Hawaii was kept in suspense for that period,
provisionally governed under the terms of the resolution of
annexation. The Act which, at last, determined the status and
the government of Hawaii, under the flag of the United States,
became law by the President's signature on the 30th of April,
1900, and Sanford B. Dole, formerly President of the Republic
of Hawaii, was appointed its governor.
The fundamental provisions of the "Act to provide a government
for the Territory of Hawaii" are the following:
SECTION 2.
That the islands acquired by the United States of America
under an Act of Congress entitled "Joint resolution to provide
for annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the United States,"
approved July seventh, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight,
shall be known as the Territory of Hawaii.
SECTION 3.
That a Territorial government is hereby established over the
said Territory, with its capital at Honolulu, on the island of
Oahu.
SECTION 4.
That all persons who were citizens of the Republic of Hawaii
on August twelfth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, are
hereby declared to be citizens of the United States and
citizens of the Territory of Hawaii. And all citizens of the
United States resident in the Hawaiian Islands who were
resident there on or since August twelfth, eighteen hundred
and ninety-eight, and all the citizens of the United States
who shall hereafter reside in the Territory of Hawaii for one
year shall be citizens of the Territory of Hawaii.
SECTION 5.
That the Constitution, and, except as herein otherwise
provided, all the laws of the United States which are not
locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect
within the said Territory as elsewhere in the United States:
Provided, that sections eighteen hundred and fifty and
eighteen hundred and ninety of the Revised Statutes of the
United States shall not apply to the Territory of Hawaii.
SECTION 6.
That the laws of Hawaii not inconsistent with the Constitution
or laws of the United States or the provisions of this Act
shall continue in force, subject to repeal or amendment by the
legislature of Hawaii or the Congress of the United States. …
SECTION 12.
That the legislature of the Territory of Hawaii shall consist
of two houses, styled, respectively, the senate and house of
representatives, which shall organize and sit separately,
except as otherwise herein provided. The two houses shall be
styled "The legislature of the Territory of Hawaii." …
SECTION 17.
That no person holding office in or under or by authority of
the Government of the United States or of the Territory of
Hawaii shall be eligible to election to the legislature, or to
hold the position of a member of the same while holding said
office. …
SECTION 55.
That the legislative power of the Territory shall extend to
all rightful subjects of legislation not inconsistent with the
Constitution and laws of the United States locally applicable.
…
SECTION 66.
That the executive power of the government of the Territory of
Hawaii shall be vested in a governor, who shall be appointed
by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate of the United States, and shall hold office for four
years and until his successor shall be appointed and
qualified, unless sooner removed by the President. He shall be
not less than thirty-five years of age; shall be a citizen of
the Territory of Hawaii; shall be commander in chief of the
militia thereof; may grant pardons or reprieves for offences
against the laws of the said Territory and reprieves for
offences against the laws of the United States until the
decision of the President is made known thereon. …
SECTION 68.
That all the powers and duties which, by the laws of Hawaii,
are conferred upon or required of the President or any
minister of the Republic of Hawaii (acting alone or in
connection with any other officer or person or body) or the
cabinet or executive council, and not inconsistent with the
Constitution or laws of the United States, are conferred upon
and required of the governor of the Territory of Hawaii,
unless otherwise provided. …
{258}
SECTION 80.
That the President shall nominate and, by and with the advice
and consent of the Senate, appoint the chief justice and
justices of the supreme court, the judges of the circuit
courts, who shall hold their respective offices for the term
of four years, unless sooner removed by the President. …
SECTION 81.
That the judicial power of the Territory shall be vested in
one supreme court, circuit courts, and in such inferior courts
as the legislature may from time to time establish. …
SECTION 85.
That a Delegate to the House of Representatives of the United
States, to serve during each Congress, shall be elected by the
voters qualified to vote for members of the house of
representatives of the legislature; such Delegate shall
possess the qualifications necessary for membership of the
senate of the legislature of Hawaii. … Every such Delegate
shall have a seat in the House of Representatives, with the
right of debate, but not of voting.
SECTION 86.
That there shall be established in said Territory a district
court to consist of one judge, who shall reside therein and be
called the district judge. The President of the United States,
by and with the advice and consent of the Senate of the United
States, shall appoint a district judge, a district attorney,
and a marshal of the United States for the said district, and
said judge, attorney, and marshal shall hold office for six
years unless sooner removed by the President. Said court shall
have, in addition to the ordinary jurisdiction of district
courts of the United States, jurisdiction of all cases
cognizable in a circuit court of the United States, and shall
proceed therein in the same manner as a circuit court. …
SECTION 88.
That the Territory of Hawaii shall comprise a customs district
of the United States, with ports of entry and delivery at
Honolulu, Hilo, Mahukona, and Kahului.
HAWAII: A. D. 1900.
Census of the Islands.
Progress of educational work.
"The last Hawaiian census, taken in the year 1896, gives a
total population of 109,020, of which 31,019 were native
Hawaiians. The number of Americans reported was 8,485. The
results of the Federal census taken this year [1900] show the
islands to have a total population of 154,001, an increase
over that reported in 1896 of 44,981, or 41.2 per cent. The
total land surface of the Hawaiian Islands is approximately
6,449 square miles: the average number of persons to the
square mile at the last three censuses being as follows: For
1890, 13.9; 1896, 16.9; 1900,23.8.
"Education in Hawaii is making favorable progress. In Honolulu
two large schoolhouses have recently been erected at a cost of
$24,778 and $20,349, respectively. The department of education
is under the management of a superintendent of public
instruction, assisted by six commissioners of public
instruction, two of whom are ladies. The tenure of office of
the commissioners is six years, the term of two of them
expiring each year. They serve without pay. The system is the
same as that existing under the Republic of Hawaii. In the
biennial period ending December 31 there were 141 public and
48 private schools in the Hawaiian Islands; 344 teachers in
the public schools, of whom 113 were men and 231 were women,
and 200 teachers in the private schools, of whom 79 were men
and 121 were women. In the same period there were 11,436
pupils in the public schools, of whom 6,395 were boys and
5,041 were girls, and 4,054 pupils in the private schools, of
whom 2,256 were boys and 1,798 were girls. This gives a total
of 15,490 pupils, of whom 8,651 were boys and 6,839 were
girls. … Of the 15,490 pupils, 5,045 were Hawaiian, 2,721 part
Hawaiian, 601 American, 213 British, 337 German, 3,882
Portuguese, 84 Scandinavian, 1,141 Japanese, 1,314 Chinese, 30
South Sea Islanders, and 124 other foreigners. Each
nationality had its own teacher. The expenditures for the two
years ending December 31, 1899, were $575,353. Since the year
1888 nearly all the common schools, in which the Hawaiian
language was the medium of instruction, have been converted
into schools in which English alone is so employed, 98 per
cent. of the children being at present instructed by teachers
who use English."
United States, Secretary of the Interior,
Annual Report, November 30, 1900.
----------HAWAII: End--------
HAY-PAUNCEFOTE TREATY, The.
See (in this volume)
CANAL, INTEROCEANIC:
A. D. 1900 (DECEMBER); and 1901 (MARCH).
HAYTI: A. D. 1896.
Election of President Sam.
Hayti elected a new President, General Theresias Simon Sam, to
succeed General Hippolyte, who died suddenly on the 24th of
March.
HAYTI: A. D. 1897.
Quarrel with Germany.
The government of Hayti came into conflict with that of
Germany, in September, 1897, over what was claimed to be the
illegal arrest of a Haytien-born German, named Lueders, who
had secured German citizenship. Germany demanded his release,
with an indemnity at the rate of $1,000 per day for his
imprisonment. The demand not being acceded to promptly, the
German consul at Port-au-Prince hauled down his flag. Then the
United States Minister persuaded the Haytien President,
General Simon Sam, to set Lueders free. But the demand for
indemnity, still pending, brought two German war-ships to
Port-au-Prince on the 6th of December, with their guns ready
to open fire on the town if payment were not made within eight
hours. For Hayti there was nothing possible but submission,
and $30,000 was paid, with apologies and expressions of
regret.
HEBREWS, The ancient:
Their position in history as affected by recent archæological
research.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH; IN BIBLE LANDS.
HECKER, Father Isaac Thomas,
and the opinions called "Americanism."
See (in this volume)
PAPACY: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY).
HELIUM, The discovery of.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT; CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.
HENRY, General Guy V.: Military Governor of Porto Rico.
See (in this volume)
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898-1899 (OCTOBER-OCTOBER).
HERVEY, or COOK, ISLANDS:
Annexation to New Zealand.
See (in this volume)
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1900 (OCTOBER).
HEUREAUX, President: Assassination.
See (in this volume)
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: A. D. 1899.
{259}
HICKS-BEACH, Sir Michael,
Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the British Cabinet.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1894-1895.
HILPRECHT, Professor H. V.:
Researches on the site of ancient Nippur.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.
HINTCHAK, The.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1895.
HINTERLAND.
A German word which has come into general use to describe
unnamed and poorly defined regions lying behind, or on the
inland side, of coast districts, in Africa more especially,
which have been occupied or claimed by European powers.
HISTORICAL DISCOVERIES, Recent.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH.
HOAR, Senator George F.:
Action to recover the manuscript of Bradford's History.
See (in this volume)
MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1897.
HOAR, Senator George F.:
Speech in opposition to the retention of the
Philippine Islands as a subject State.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (APRIL).
HOBART, Garret A.: Vice President of the United States.
Death.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (November).
HOBOKEN, Great fire at.
On the 30th of June, 1900, between 200 and 300 people lost
their lives in a fire which destroyed the pier system of the
North German Lloyd steamship line, at Hoboken, N. J. The fire
wrecked three of the large ships of the company, and is said
to have been the most destructive blaze that ever visited the
piers and shipping of the port of New York. An estimate placed
the loss of life at nearly 300, and the damage to property at
about $10,000,000, but the company's estimate of the loss of
life and the value of the property wiped out was considerably
less. The fire started in some cotton on one of the four large
piers at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. In a few minutes the pier
on which it broke out was enveloped in flames, and in six
minutes the whole pier system was burning. The flames spread
so quickly that many men on the piers and on the vessels,
lighters and barges were hemmed in before they realized that
their lives were in danger.
HOBSON, Lieutenant Richmond Pearson:
The sinking of the collier Merrimac at Santiago.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JUNE).
HOLLAND.
See (in this volume)
NETHERLANDS, THE KINGDOM OF THE.
HOLLS, Frederick W.:
American Commissioner to the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
HOLY YEAR 1900, Proclamation of the Universal Jubilee of the,
Its extension.
See (in this volume)
PAPACY: A. D. 1900-1901.
HONDURAS.
See (in this volume)
CENTRAL AMERICA.
HONG KONG: A. D. 1894.
The Bubonic Plague.
See (in this volume)
PLAGUE.
HONG KONG: A. D. 1898.
British lease of territory on the mainland.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-AUGUST).
HORMIGUEROS, Engagement at.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: PORTO RICO).
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, The United States:
The "Spoils System" in its service.
See (in this volume)
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1901.
HOVA, The.
See (in this volume)
MADAGASCAR.
HUA SANG, Massacre of missionaries at.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1895 (AUGUST).
HUDSON BAY, Investigation of.
See (in this volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION, 1897.
HUMBERT I., King of Italy: Assassination.
See (in this volume)
ITALY: A. D. 1899-1900; and 1900 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
HUNGARY.
See ((in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.
HUSBANDISTS, The.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
I.
ICELAND, Recent exploration of.
See (in this volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION, 1898-1899.
IDAHO: A. D. 1896.
Adoption of Woman Suffrage.
On the 11th of December, 1896, an amendment of the
constitution of Idaho, extending the suffrage to women, was
submitted to the then voters of the State, and carried by
12,126, against 6,282. Though carried by a large majority of
the votes given on the suffrage issue, it did not receive a
majority of the whole vote cast on other questions at the same
election; but the supreme court of the State decided that the
amendment had been adopted.
I-HO-CH'UAN, The.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH).
ILLINOIS: A. D. 1898.
Strike of coal miners.
Bloody conflict at Virden.
See (in this volume)
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES: A. D. 1898.
ILOCANOS, The.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: THE NATIVE INHABITANTS.
ILOILO: The American occupation of the city.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY-NOVEMBER).
ILORIN, British subjugation of.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (NIGERIA).
IMPERIAL BRITISH EAST AFRICA COMPANY:
Transfer of territory to the British Government.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (BRITISH EAST AFRICA).
IMPERIAL CONFERENCE:
Meeting of British Colonial Prime Ministers at the Colonial
Office, London.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (JUNE-JULY).
IMPERIALISM:
The question in American politics.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1900 (APRIL); and (MAY-NOVEMBER).
{260}
INCOME TAX: Decision against by United States Supreme Court.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895 (APRIL-MAY).
INDIA: A. D. 1894.
The Waziri War.
A fierce attempt to interrupt the demarcation of the Afghan
boundary was made by the Waziris. The escort of 5,000 troops,
consisting mainly of Sikhs and Goorkhas, was desperately
attacked in camp at Wano, November 3. The attack was repulsed,
but with heavy loss on the British side. It became afterwards
necessary to send three strong columns into the country, under
Sir William Lockhart, in order to carry out the work.
INDIA: A. D. 1895 (March-September).
The defense and relief of Chitral.
The British frontier advanced.
At the extreme northwestern limit of British-Indian dominion
and semi-dominion, under the shadow of the lofty Hindu-Kush
mountains, lie a group of quasi-independent tribal states over
which the Amir of Afghanistan claimed at least a "sphere of
influence" until 1893. In that year the Amir and the
Government of India agreed upon a line which defined the
eastern and southern frontier of Afghanistan, "from Wakhan to
the Persian border," and agreed further as follows: "The
Government of India will at no time exercise interference in
the territories lying beyond this line on the side of
Afghanistan, and his Highness the Amir will at no time
exercise interference in the territories lying beyond this
line on the side of India. The British Government thus agrees
to his Highness the Amir retaining Asmar and the valley above
it, as far as Chanak. His Highness agrees, on the other hand,
that he will at no time exercise interference in Swat, Bajaur,
or Chitral, including Arnawai or Bashgal valley." Under this
agreement, the Indian Government prepared itself to be
watchful of Chitral affairs. The little state was notoriously
a nest of turbulence and intrigue. Its rulers, who bore the
Persian title of Mehtar, signifying "Greater," can never have
expected to live out their days. Changes of government were
brought about commonly by assassination. The reigning prince,
Nizam-ul-Mulk, owed his seat to the murder of his father,
Aman-ul-Mulk, though not by himself. In turn, he fell, on New
Year's day, 1895, slain at the instigation of his
half-brother, Amir-ul-Mulk, who mounted the vacant chair of
state. The usurper was then promptly assailed by two rivals,
one of them his brother-in-law, Umra Khan, a mountain
chieftain of Bajaur, the other an uncle, Sher Afzul, who had
been a refugee at Kabul. On the news of these occurrences at
Chitral, the Government of India sent thither, from Gilgit,
its political agent, Surgeon-Major Robertson, with a small
escort, to learn the state of affairs.
The result of Dr. Robertson's attempt to settle matters was an
alliance of Umra Khan and Sher Afzul in a desperate attempt to
destroy him and his small force of native troops, which had
five English officers at its head. The latter took possession
(March 1) of the fort at Chitral, a structure about 80 yards
square, walled partly with wood, and so placed in a valley
that it was commanded from neighboring hills. In this weak
fortification the little garrison held off a savage swarm of
the surrounding tribes during 46 days of a siege that is as
thrilling in the story of it as any found in recent history.
The first reinforcements sent to Dr. Robertson, from near
Gilgit, were disastrously beaten back, with the loss of the
captain in command and 50 of his men. As speedily as possible,
when the situation was known in India, an army of about 14,000
men was made ready at Peshawur, under the command of
Major-General Sir Robert Low, and relieving columns were
pushed with great difficulty through the Malakand Pass, then
filled deep with snow. A smaller force, of 600 men, under
Colonel Kelly, fought its way from Gilgit, struggling through
the snows of a pass 12,000 feet above the level of the sea.
Colonel Kelly was the first to reach Chitral, which he did on
the 20th of April. The besiegers had fled at his approach. The
beleaguered garrison was found to have lost 40 killed and 70
wounded, out of its fighting force of about 370 men. Sher
Afzul was caught by the Khan of Dir, who led 2,000 of his
followers to the help of the British. Umra Khan escaped to
Kabul, where he was imprisoned by the Amir. Shuja-ul-Mulk, a
younger brother of Amir-ul-Mulk was declared Mehtar. The
question whether British authority should be maintained in
Chitral or withdrawn was now sharply debated in England; but
Lord Salisbury and his party, coming into power at that
moment, decided that the advanced frontier of Indian Empire
must be held. The young Mehtar was installed in the name of
the Maharaja of Kashmir as his suzerain, and the terms under
which his government should be carried on were announced at
his installation (September 2, 1895) by the British Agent, as
follows:
"The general internal administration of the country will be
left in the hands of the Mehtar and of his advisers. The
Government of India do not intend to undertake themselves the
management of the internal affairs of Chitral, their concern
being with the foreign relations of the State, and with its
general welfare. It, however, has to be remembered that
Shuja-ul-Mulk is only a boy, and that, at an age when other
boys are engaged in education and amusement, he has been
called upon to hold the reins of State. Bearing this fact in
mind, the Government of India recognise the necessity of his
receiving some help during the time of his minority, and it
has consequently been decided to leave at Chitral an
experienced Political Officer upon whom the Mehtar may always
call for advice and assistance, while it is proposed to
appoint three persons, Raja Bahadur Khan, the Governor of
Mastuj, Wazir Inayat Khan and Aksakal Fateh Ali Shah, to give
him help, instruction and advice in the management of his
State and in the laws and customs of the people. Ordinarily
the entire country will be governed in accordance with their
experience and judgment; but nevertheless the Assistant
British Agent, if he thinks it necessary to do so, may, at any
time, ask the Mehtar to delay action recommended by his three
advisers, until the opinion of the British Agent at Gilgit has
been obtained, whose decision shall be final and
authoritative.
{261}
"The desirability of abolishing traffic in slaves is a matter
to which the Government of India attach much importance, and
that they have lately interested themselves with some success
in procuring the release of Natives of Kashmir and her
dependencies, including Chitralis, who are held in bondage in
Chinese Turkistan. It is in accordance therefore with the
general policy of the Government of India that in Chitral also
all buying and selling of slaves, whether for disposal in the
country or with the intention of sending them abroad, should
be altogether prohibited. Any such selling of slaves is
therefore from this time forward absolutely illegal."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications:
Papers by Command, 1896 (C.-8037).
Also in:
C. Lowe,
The Story of Chitral
(Century magazine, volume 55, page 89).
INDIA: A. D. 1895 (April).
Report of the Opium Commission.
"The long-deferred publication of the report of this
commission was made in April, and the report was signed by
eight out of nine members of the commission. The commissioners
declared that it had not been shown to be necessary, or to be
demanded by the people, that the growth of the poppy and the
manufacture of opium in British India should be prohibited.
Such a prohibition, if extended to the protected States, would
be an unprecedented act of interference on the part of the
paramount Power, and would be sure to be resisted by the
chiefs and their people. The existing treaties with China in
regard to the importation of Indian opium into that country
had been admitted by the Chinese Government to contain all
they desired. The evidence led the commissioners to the
conclusion that the common use of opium in India is moderate,
and its prohibition is strongly opposed by the great mass of
native opinion."
Annual Register, 1895,
pages 337-338.
INDIA: A. D. 1896-1897.
Famine in northwestern and central provinces.
A failure of rains, especially in northwestern and central
India, produced the inevitable consequence of famine, lasting
with awful severity from the spring of 1896 until the autumn
of 1897. In December of the former year there were 561,800
persons employed on relief works which the Indian government
organized. In the following March the number had risen to more
than three millions, and in June it exceeded four millions.
Rain fell in July, and August, and the distress began soon
afterwards to grow less. In addition to the heavy expenditures
of the government, the charitable contributions for the relief
of sufferers from this famine were officially reported to have
amounted to 1,750,000 pounds sterling ($8,750,000).
INDIA: A. D. 1896-1900.
The Bubonic Plague.
See (in this volume)
PLAGUE.
INDIA: A. D. 1897.
Change in the government of Burmah.
See (in this volume)
BURMAH: A. D. 1897.
INDIA: A. D. 1897.
Rejection of American proposals for a
reopening of mints to silver.
See (in this volume)
MONETARY QUESTIONS: A. D. 1897 (APRIL-OCTOBER).
INDIA: A. D. 1897-1898.
Frontier wars.
From the early summer of 1897 until beyond the close of the
year, the British were once more seriously in conflict with
the warlike tribes of the Afghan frontier. The risings of the
latter were begun in the Tochi Valley, on the 10th of June,
when a sudden, treacherous attack was made by Waziri tribesmen
on the escort of Mr. Gee, the political agent, at the village
of Maizar. A number of officers and men were killed and
wounded, and the whole party would have been destroyed if
timely reinforcements had not reached them. Over 7,000 troops
were subsequently employed in the suppression and punishment
of this revolt. The next outbreak, in the Swat Valley, was
more extensive. It was ascribed to the preaching of a
fanatical Mohammedan priest, known as "the mud mullah," who
labored to excite a religious war, and was opened, July 26, by
a night attack on the British positions at Malakand and
Chakdarra. The latter outpost, guarding the bridge over the
Swat river, on the road to Chitral, was held by a small
garrison of less than 300 men, who were beleaguered for a
considerable time before relief came. According to an official
return of "wars and military operations on or beyond the
borders of British India in which the Government of India has
been engaged," made to Parliament on the 30th of January,
1900, there were 11,826 troops employed in the operations
immediately consequent on this rising, with the result that
"the insurgents were defeated and the fanatical gatherings
were dispersed; large fines were taken in money and arms." But
other neighboring tribes either gave help to the Swats or were
moved to follow their example, and required to be subdued,
their countries traversed by punitive expeditions and "fines
of money and arms" collected. Before the year closed, these
tasks employed 6,800 men in the Mohmand country, 3,200 in the
Utman Khel country, 7,300 in the Buner country, 14,231 in the
Kurram Valley; and then came the most serious business of all.
The Afridis, who had been subsidized by the government of
India for some years, as guardians of the important Khyber
Pass, were suddenly in arms against their paymasters, in
August, destroying the Khyber posts. This serious hostility
called nearly 44,000 British-Indian troops into the field,
under General Sir William Lockhart, whose successful campaign
was not finished until the following spring. The most serious
engagement of the war with the Afridis was fought at the
village of Dargai, October 18. The final results of the
campaign are thus summarized in the return mentioned above:
"British troops traversed the country of the tribes,
inflicting severe loss on the tribesmen, who were ultimately
reduced to submission: they paid large fines in money and
arms, and friendly relations have since been restored."
Great Britain,
House of Commons Reports and Papers, 1900, 13.
INDIA: A. D. 1898.
Discovery of the birthplace and the tomb of Gautama Buddha.
See (in this volume)
BUDDHA.
INDIA: A. D. 1898 (September).
Appointment of Lord Curzon to the Viceroyalty.
In September, 1898, the Right Hon. George N. Curzon, lately
Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, was appointed
Viceroy and Governor-General of India, to succeed the Earl of
Elgin. In the following month, Mr. Curzon was raised to the
peerage, as Baron Curzon of Kedleston.
INDIA: A. D. 1899-1900.
Famine again.
There was a recurrence of drought and famine in 1899, far more
extensive than that of 1896-1897; producing more death and
suffering, and calling out more strenuous exertions for its
relief. The regions afflicted were largely the same as two
years before, embracing much of northwestern and central
India. The relief measures which it demanded were carried far
into the summer of 1900. In October of the latter year Lord
Curzon, the Viceroy, addressing the Legislative Council at
Simla, and reviewing the experience through which the
government and the country had passed, made some important
statements of fact:
{262}
"In a greater or less degree," he said, "nearly one-fourth of
the entire population of the Indian continent came within the
range of the relief operations. The loss occasioned may be
roughly put in this way. The annual agricultural production of
India and Burma averages in value between 300 and 400 crores
of rupees [the crore being ten millions, and the rupee
equivalent to about one-third of a dollar]. On a very cautious
estimate the production of 1899-1900 must have been at least
one-quarter, if not one-third, below the average, or at normal
prices 75 crores, or £50,000,000 sterling. If to this be added
the value of some millions of cattle, some conception may be
formed of the destruction of property which great drought
occasions. There have been many great droughts in India, but
no other of which such figures could be predicated as these. …
"If a special characteristic can be attributed to our campaign
of famine relief in the past year, it has been its
unprecedented liberality. There is no parallel in the history
of India or any country of the world to the total of over
6,000,000 persons who, in British India and the native States
for weeks on end, have been dependent upon the charity of the
Government. The famine cost ten crores in direct expenditure,
while 238 lakhs were given to landholders and cultivators on
loans and advances, besides loans to native States. … There
has never been a famine when the general mortality has been
less, when the distress has been more amply or swiftly
relieved, or when the Government and its officers have given
themselves with more whole-hearted devotion to the saving of
life and the service of the people. It is impossible to tell
the actual mortality, but there has apparently been an excess
of mortality over the normal of 750,000. Cholera and smallpox
have accounted for 230,000, which is probably below the mark,
so that the excess in British India has equalled 500,000
during the year. To say that the greater part of these died of
starvation or even of destitution would be an unjustifiable
exaggeration, since many other contributory causes have been
at work."
Referring to the charitable help received from various parts
of the world, Lord Curzon said: "In 1896-1897 the total
collections amounted to 170 lakhs [the lakh being 100,000
rupees] of which 10 lakhs remained over at the beginning of
the recent famine. In the present year the Central Relief
Committee has received a sum of close upon 140 lakhs, not far
short of £1,000,000 sterling. To analyze the subscriptions:
India has contributed about the same amount to the fund as in
1896-1897—namely, 32 lakhs. If the contributions from the
European community are deducted, India may be considered to
have contributed less than one-fifth of the total collections
of 140 lakhs. More might have been expected from the native
community as a whole, notwithstanding individual examples of
remarkable generosity. The little colony of the Straits
Settlements, which has no connexion with India beyond that of
sentiment, has given more than the whole Punjab. A careful
observation of the figures and proceedings in each province
compels me to say that native India has not yet reached as
high a standard of practical philanthropy and charity as might
reasonably be expected. … The collections from abroad amounted
to 108 lakhs, as against 137 in 1896-1897. The United
Kingdom's contribution of 88½ lakhs compared indifferently
with its contribution of 123 lakhs in 1896-1897, but in the
circumstances of the year it is a noble gift. Glasgow has been
especially generous with a donation of 8¼ lakhs and Liverpool
with 4½, in addition to nearly 16 lakhs from the rest of
Lancashire. Australasia has given nearly 8 lakhs in place of 2
lakhs. The Straits Settlements, Ceylon, and Hong-Kong have
also been extremely generous. Even the Chinese native
officials have collected handsome sums. The liberal donation
of Germany at the instigation of the Emperor has already been
publicly acknowledged. The United States, both through direct
contributions to the fund and by means of
privately-distributed gifts of money and grain, have once more
shown their vivid sympathy with England's mission and India's
need."
INDIA: A. D. 1901.
Census of the Empire.
Decrease of population in several of the Native States.
The Indian census, begun on the 1st of March, 1901, was
completed for the entire empire in fourteen days, the result
being announced on the 15th. It showed a total population in
British territory of 231,085,000, against 221,266,000 in 1891;
in Native States 63,181,000, against 66,050,000 in 1891; total
for all India, 294,266,000, against 287,317,000 in 1891. The
Native States, it will be seen, have declined in population to
the extent of nearly 3,000,000, showing greater severity in
those states of the effects of famine and disease. In several
provinces, however, of the British territory, a decrease of
population appears: Berar declining from 2,897,000 in 1891 to
1,491,000 in 1901; Bombay (British Presidency) from 15,957,000
to 15,330,000; Central Provinces from 10,784,000 to 9,845,000;
Aden from 44,000 to 41,000; Coorg from 173,000 to 170,000. Of
the Native States the greatest loss of population was suffered
in Rajputana, which sank from 12,016,000 to 9,841,000; in
Central India, where the numbers fell from 10,318,000 to
8,501,000; and in the Bombay States, which were reduced in
population from 8,059,000 to 6,891,000. The provinces in
British India which show the greatest percentage of gain are
Upper and Lower Burma, Assam and Sind. The present population
of the greater British provinces is as follows: Bengal,
74,713,000; Madras, 38,208,000; Northwest provinces,
34,812,000; Punjab, 22,449,000.
INDIA: A. D. 1901 (February).
Continued famine.
On the 24th of January, 1901, the Viceroy of India reported to
the British Government, by telegram, that the winter rainfall
had been unusually good in Upper India, Rajputana, Central
Provinces, and Central India, and agricultural prospects were
very favorable: but that in Gujarat, Deccan, and the Karnatik
districts of Bombay, through the early cessation of the
monsoon in September and the absence of rain, the crop
prospects were bad and serious distress was expected between
then and August. Relief measures would be required. The
affected district included Baroda and part of Haidarabad. On
the 14th of February the Viceroy reported further that the
number on the relief works and gratuitous relief showed little
increase, but greater pressure was expected in the affected
area after the reaping of the scanty harvests there.
{263}
In Upper
and Central India some damage by storm and damp had been done
to crops which promised to be very good. The number of persons
then in receipt of relief was:
Bombay, 176,000;
Bombay Native States, 17,000;
Baroda, 15,000;
Haidarabad, 2,000;
Madras, 3,000;
Central India States, 1,000.
Total, 214,000.
INDIA: A. D. 1901 (February).
Creation of a new administrative province on the
northwestern frontier.
A despatch from Calcutta, February 13, announced the
determination of the government of India to create "a new
frontier agency or province, formed out of the four
trans-Indus districts of the Punjab, under an Agent to the
Governor-General of similar status to the Agent in
Baluchistan, with revenue and judicial commissioners, all the
officers being under the Supreme Government and enrolled in
the Political Department. The districts which form the new
province will be Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu, and Dera Ismail Khan,
with the tribal country beyond their limits, and also the
existing political agencies of Dir, Swat, Chitral, the
Khaibar, the Kuram, Tochi, and Wana. The scheme takes as
little as possible away from the Punjab, while making a
compact charge, easily controllable by one officer."
INDIA: A. D. 1901 (February).
Message of King Edward VII. to the princes and people.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
INDIANAPOLIS CONVENTION, and Monetary Commission, The.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896-1898.
INDIANS, The American: A. D. 1893-1899.
Negotiations and agreements with the Five Civilized Tribes.
Work of the Dawes Commission.
In his annual Message to the Congress of the United States,
December 7, 1896, President Cleveland made the following
reference to the work of a commission created in 1893, for
negotiating with what are known as the Five Civilized Tribes
of Indians: "The condition of affairs among the Five Civilized
Tribes, who occupy large tracts of land in the Indian
Territory and who have governments of their own, has assumed
such an aspect as to render it almost indispensable that there
should be an entire change in the relations of these Indians
to the General Government. This seems to be necessary in
furtherance of their own interests, as well as for the
protection of non-Indian residents in their territory. A
commission organized and empowered under several recent laws
is now negotiating with these Indians for the relinquishment
of their courts and the division of their common lands in
severalty, and are aiding in the settlement of the troublesome
question of tribal membership. The reception of their first
proffers of negotiation was not encouraging, but through
patience and such conduct on their part as demonstrated that
their intentions were friendly and in the interest of the
tribes the prospect of success has become more promising. The
effort should be to save these Indians from the consequences
of their own mistakes and improvidence and to secure to the
real Indian his rights as against intruders and professed
friends who profit by his retrogression. A change is also
needed to protect life and property through the operation of
courts conducted according to strict justice and strong enough
to enforce their mandates. As a sincere friend of the Indian,
I am exceedingly anxious that these reforms should be
accomplished with the consent and aid of the tribes and that
no necessity may be presented for radical or drastic
legislation."
United States,
Message and Documents
(Abridgment, 1896-1897).
The Act of March 3, 1893, by which the commission was created,
set forth its character, its duties and its powers, as
follows: "The President shall nominate and, by and with the
advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint three
commissioners to enter into negotiations with the Cherokee
Nation, the Choctaw Nation, the Chickasaw Nation, the Muscogee
(or Creek) Nation, the Seminole Nation, for the purpose of
extinguishment of the national or tribal title to any lands
within that territory now held by any and all of such nations
or tribes, either by cession of the same or some part thereof
to the United States, or by the allotment and division of the
same in severalty among the Indians of such nations or tribes,
respectively, as may be entitled to the same, or by such other
method as may be agreed upon between the several nations and
tribes aforesaid, or each of them, with the United States,
with a view to such an adjustment, upon the basis of justice
and equity, as may, with the consent of such nations or tribes
of Indians, so far as may be necessary, be requisite and
suitable to enable the ultimate creation of a State or States
of the Union which shall embrace the lands within said Indian
Territory. …
"Such commissioners shall, under such regulations and
directions as shall be prescribed by the President, through
the Secretary of the Interior, enter upon negotiation with the
several nations of Indians as aforesaid in the Indian
Territory, and shall endeavor to procure, first, such
allotment of lands in severalty to the Indians belonging to
each such nation, tribe, or band, respectively, as may be
agreed upon as just and proper to provide for each such Indian
a sufficient quantity of land for his or her needs, in such
equal distribution and apportionment as may be found just and
suited to the circumstances; for which purpose, after the
terms of such an agreement shall have been arrived at, the
said commissioners shall cause the land of any such nation, or
tribe, or band to be surveyed and the proper allotment to be
designated; and, secondly, to procure the cession, for such
price and upon such terms as shall be agreed upon, of any
lands not found necessary to be so allotted or divided, to the
United States; and to make proper agreements for the
investment or holding by the United States of such moneys as
may be paid or agreed to be paid to such nation, or tribes, or
bands, or to any of the Indians thereof, for the extinguishment
of their [title?] therein. But said commissioners shall,
however, have power to negotiate any and all such agreements
as, in view of all the circumstances affecting the subject,
shall be found requisite and suitable to such an arrangement
of the rights and interests and affairs of such nations,
tribes, bands, or Indians, or any of them, to enable the
ultimate creation of a Territory of the United States with a
view to the admission of the same as a State in the Union."
{264}
A subsequent Act, of March 2, 1895, authorized the appointment
of two additional members of the commission; and an Act of
June 10, 1896, provided that "said commission is further
authorized and directed to proceed at once to hear and
determine the application of all persons who may apply to them
for citizenship in any of said nations, and after said hearing
they shall determine the right of said applicant to be so
admitted and enrolled. … That the said commission … shall
cause a complete roll of citizenship of each of said nations
to be made up from their records, and add thereto the names of
citizens whose right may be conferred under this act, and said
rolls shall be, and are hereby, made rolls of citizenship of
said nations or tribes, subject, however, to the determination
of the United States courts, as provided herein."
A further Act of Congress, known as the Curtis Act, June 28,
1898, ratified, with some amendments, an agreement made by the
commission with the Choctaws and Chickasaws, in April. 1897,
and with the Creeks in September of that year, to become
effective if ratified by a majority of the voters of those
tribes at an election held prior to December 1, 1898. In the
annual report, for 1899, made by the commission (of which the
Honorable Henry L. Dawes, of Massachusetts, is chairman, and
which is often referred to as "the Dawes Commission,") the
following account of results is given: "A special election was
called by the executives of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations
to be held August 24, and the votes cast were counted in the
presence of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes at
Atoka, August 30, resulting in the ratification of the
agreement by a majority of seven hundred ninety-eight votes.
Proclamation thereof was duly made, and the 'Atoka agreement,'
so called, is therefore now in full force and effect in the
Choctaw and Chickasaw nations. Chief Isparhecher of the Creeks
was slow to call an election, and it was not until November 1,
1898, that the agreement with that tribe was submitted in its
amended form for ratification. While no active interest was
manifested, the full-bloods and many of the freedmen were
opposed to the agreement and it failed of ratification by
about one hundred and fifty votes. …
"The Cherokees now began to realize the sensations of 'a man
without a country,' and again created a commission at a
general session of the national council in November, 1898,
clothed with authority to negotiate an agreement with the
United States. The earlier efforts of this commission to
conclude an agreement with that tribe were futile, owing to
the disinclination of the Cherokee commissioners to accede to
such propositions as the Government had to offer. The
commission now created was limited in its power to negotiate
to a period of thirty days. The United States Commission had
advertised appointments in Mississippi extending from December
19, 1898, to January 7, 1899, for the purpose of identifying
the Mississippi Choctaws, a duty imposed upon the commission
by the act of June 28, 1898, but on receiving a communication
from the chairman of the Cherokee Commission requesting a
conference it was deemed desirable to postpone the
appointments in Mississippi and meet the Cherokee Commission,
which it did on December 19, 1898, continuing negotiations
until January 14, 1899, producing the agreement which is
appended hereto. In the meantime the Creeks had, by act of
council, created another commission with authority to
negotiate an agreement with the United States, and a
conference was accorded it immediately upon conclusion of the
negotiations with the Cherokees, continuing to February 1,
1899, when an agreement was concluded. The agreement with the
Cherokees was ratified by the tribe at a special election held
January 31, 1899, by a majority of two thousand one hundred six
votes, and that with the Creeks on February 18, 1899, by a
majority of four hundred eighty-five.
"While these agreements do not in all respects embody those
features which the commission desired, they were the best
obtainable, and the result of most serious, patient, and
earnest consideration, covering many days of arduous labor.
The commissions were many times on the point of suspending
negotiations, there having arisen propositions upon the part
of one of the commissions which the other was unwilling to
accept. Particularly were the tribal commissioners determined
to fix a maximum and minimum value for the appraisement of
lands, while this commission was equally vigorous in its views
that the lands should be appraised at their actual value,
excluding improvements, without limitations in order that an
equal division might be made. The propositions finally agreed
upon were the result of a compromise, without which no
agreement could have been reached. The desirability, if not
the absolute necessity, of securing a uniform land tenure
among the Five Tribes leads the commission to recommend that
these agreements, with such modifications and amendments as
may be deemed wise and proper, be ratified by Congress. …
"The Choctaw and Chickasaw governments, in a limited way, are
continued, by agreement, to March 4, 1906, and certain of
their laws are therefore effective within the territory of
those tribes. A similar condition exists as to the Seminoles,
with which an agreement was concluded at the close of the year
1897. To supply needed laws to replace various tribal statutes
which had by Congress been made inoperative, the laws of
Arkansas pertaining to certain matters have been extended over
Indian Territory. The Federal laws have been made to apply to
still other subjects, and officials under the Interior
Department are charged with the enforcement of rules and
regulations governing still further matters, and so on. So
complicated and complex a state of affairs does this system of
jurisprudence present that the people are dazed and often
unable to determine what is law and who is authorized to
enforce it. Indeed, none other than an able lawyer can
reasonably hope to understand the situation, and even he must
be content to look upon certain phases of it as not being
susceptible of solution.
"Conditions are not yet ripe for the immediate installation of
a Territorial or State government. 'Tis a consummation
devoutly to be wished,' but wholly impracticable at this time
for various reasons, not the least of which is found in the
fact that there are four non-citizens in Indian Territory to
every citizen. The non-citizen does not own a foot of soil,
save as provisions have recently been made for the segregation
and sale of town sites, and with a voice in legislation, the
non-citizen would soon legislate the Indian into a state of
innocuous desuetude. On the other hand, it would be manifestly
unjust and at ill-accord with the spirit of our institutions
to deny the right of franchise to so great a number of people,
in all respects otherwise entitled to enjoy that prerogative.
{265}
Another very serious obstacle to the establishment of a
territorial form of government is the lack of uniform land
tenures. The commission indulges in the hope and belief that
at no great distant date some method may be devised whereby
the lands of all the Five Tribes may be subjected to a uniform
tenure. It will be seen that the legislative feature of the
popular form of government is not possible at this time, and
while legislation by Congress for all the petty needs of the
Territory is impracticable in the highest degree, the more
urgent requirements of the people must be met by this means
for the present. The judicial branch is well represented by
the United States courts. …
"The commission, in conclusion, most earnestly urges the
importance of adequate appropriations for pushing to an early
completion the work contemplated by the various laws and
agreements under which a transformation is to be wrought in
Indian Territory. The all-important and most urgent duty now
devolving upon the Government of the United States incident to
the translation of conditions among the Five Tribes is the
allotment of lands in severalty, and the most pressing and
essential preliminary steps toward that end are the completion
of citizenship rolls, the appraisement of lands, and the
subdivision of sections into forty-acre tracts, all of which
have been already discussed in detail in this report. The
commission believes that the enrollment of citizens is
progressing as rapidly as the nature of the work will permit,
and unless some unforeseen obstacle arises to prevent, the
rolls in four of the nations will be completed and delivered
to the Secretary during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1900,
and very material progress made in the fifth."
Sixth Annual Report of the Commission
to the Five Civilized Tribes, 1899,
page 66-67, and 9-29.
INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1898.
Outbreak in northern Minnesota.
An alarming outbreak of hostility on the part of some of the
Indians of the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota
occurred in October, 1898, provoked, as was afterwards shown,
by gross frauds and abuses on the part of certain of the
officials with whom they had to deal. They had been shamefully
defrauded in the sale of their timber lands, which the
government assumed to undertake for their benefit; but the
immediate Cause of trouble appeared to be a scandalous
practice on the part of deputy marshals, who made arrests
among them for trivial reasons, conveyed prisoners and
witnesses to the federal court at St. Paul, in order to obtain
fees and mileage, and left them to make their way home again
as they could. The outbreak began on the arrest of a chief of
the Pillager band of Chippewas, on Bear Island. He was to be
taken to St. Paul as a witness in a case of alleged
whiskey-selling; but his followers rescued him. The marshal,
thereupon, called for military aid, and a company of United
States infantry was sent to the Reservation. They were
ambuscaded by the Indians and suffered a loss of 5 killed and
16 wounded. The Pillager band was joined by Indians from
neighboring tribes, and all in the region were dangerously
excited by the event, while the whites were in great dread of
a general Indian war. But reinforcements of troops were
promptly sent to the scene, and peace was soon
restored,—measures being taken to remedy the wrongs of which
the Indians complained.
INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1899-1900.
The recent Indian policy of the government, and its results.
Indian schools and education.
Present Indian population.
"This, then, is the present Indian policy of the nation,—to
fit the Indian for civilization and to absorb him into it. It
is a national work. It is less than twenty-five years since
the government turned from the policy of keeping him on
reservations, as quiet as possible, out of the way of
civilization, waiting, with no excess of patience, for the
race to fade out of existence and to cease from troubling. It
was in 1877 that the nation made the first appropriation from
its own treasury to fit for its own citizenship this portion
of the human race living under its own flag and constitution,
but without legal status or constitutional immunities. … The
first appropriation was a mere pittance of $20,000; it was
given only after a hard struggle. But the first step met with
encouragement, and the next year the sum was increased to
$30,000, and then to $60,000, and in two years more it became
$125,000. The policy has at last so grown in public confidence
that, while there is still much discussion of the best methods
of expenditure, not a word is heard among the lawgivers for
its abandonment. It has in the meantime so broadened in its
scope that the appropriations for this work have increased
from year to year, till this year (1899) it has risen to
$2,638,390. … There are now 148 well-equipped boarding schools
and 295 day schools, engaged in the education of 24,004
children, with an average attendance of 19,671. How near this
comes to including the whole number of children of school age,
in a total population of a quarter of a million of Indians,
every inquirer can form a pretty close estimate for himself.
No one will deny that, at this rate of progress, the
facilities for the education of Indian children will soon
reach, if they have not already reached, those enjoyed by
their white neighbors in the remote regions of the West. The
results thus far are of a most encouraging character.
"But the work does not stop with the rising generation of the
race; it embraces also the adult Indian. … Soon after the
beginning of appropriations for Indian schools, Congress, in
what is called the Severalty Act, provided for every Indian
capable of appreciating its value, and who chose to take it, a
homestead of one hundred and sixty acres to heads of families,
and a smaller number to other members, inalienable and
untaxable for twenty-five years, to be selected by him on the
reservation of his tribe. If he prefer to abandon his tribe
and go elsewhere, he may take his allotment anywhere on the
public domain, free of charge. No English baron has a safer
title to his manor than has each Indian to his homestead. He
cannot part with it for twenty-five years without the consent
of Congress, nor can the United States, without his consent,
be released from a covenant to defend his possession for the
same period. This allotment carries with it also all the
rights, privileges, and immunities of an American citizen;
opens to these Indians, as to all other citizens, the doors of
all the courts; and extends to them the protection of all the
laws, national and state, which affect any other citizen. Any
Indian, if he prefers not to be a farmer, incumbered with one
of these homesteads, may become a citizen of the United
States, and reside and prosecute any calling in any part of
the United States, as securely under this law as anyone else,
by taking up his residence separate and apart from his tribe,
and adopting the habits of civilized life. Thus every door of
opportunity is thrown wide open to every adult Indian, as well
as to those of the next generation.
{266}
"This recognition of the home and family as a force in Indian
civilization became a part of the present policy of dealing
with the race only twelve years ago. These are some of its
results: 55,467 individual Indians, including a few under
former treaty stipulations, have taken their allotments,
making an aggregate of 6,708,628 acres. Of these, 30,000 now
hold complete patents to their homes, and the rest are
awaiting the perfection and delivery of their title deeds. …
Not alone in these statistics are manifest the evidences of
permanent advance of the race toward the goal of orderly,
self-supporting citizenship. Bloody Indian wars have ceased.
The slaughter of warring clans and the scalping of women and
children fleeing from burning wigwams are no longer recorded.
Geronimo himself has become a teacher of peace. The recent
unfortunate difficulty with the Chippewas in Minnesota, caused
more by lack of white than of red civilization, is no
exception. We are at peace with the Indian all along the
border, and the line between the Indian and the white
settlements is fast fading out."
H. L. Dawes, Have we failed with the Indian?
(Atlantic Monthly, August, 1899).
"Indian education is accomplished through the means of
nonreservation boarding schools, reservation boarding schools,
and reservation and independent day schools, all under
complete Government control, State and Territorial public
schools, contract day and boarding schools, and mission day
and boarding schools. The Indian school system aims to provide
a training which will prepare the Indian boy or girl for the
every day life of the average American citizen. It does not
contemplate, as some have supposed on a superficial
examination, an elaborate preparation for a collegiate course
through an extended high-school curriculum. The course of
instruction in these schools is limited to that usually taught
in the common schools of the country. Shoe and harness making,
tailoring, blacksmithing, masonry work, plastering, brick
making and laying, etc., are taught at the larger
nonreservation schools, not, it is true, with the
elaborateness of special training as at the great polytechnic
institutions of the country, but on a scale suited to the
ability and future environment of the Indian. There are
special cases, however, where Indian boys are, and have been,
trained so thoroughly that their work compares favorably with
that of the white mechanic. … Phoenix, Haskell, Albuquerque,
and other institutions, have well-organized schools of
domestic science, where the girls are practically taught the
art of preparing a wholesome meal, such as appears on the
tables of persons of moderate means. …
"Nonreservation schools … are as a rule the largest
institutions devoted to Indian education. As indicated by
their designation, they are situated off the reservations and
usually near cities or populous districts, where the object
lessons of white civilization are constantly presented to the
pupils. They are recruited principally from the day and
boarding schools on the reservations. The majority are
supported by special appropriations made by Congress, and are
adapted to the teaching of trades, etc., in a more extended
degree than are schools on the reservations. The largest of
these schools is situated at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where
there are accommodations for 1,000 pupils; the next largest is
at Phoenix, Arizona, with a capacity for 700; the third, at
Lawrence, Kansas, and known as Haskell Institute,
accommodating 600 pupils. These three large schools are types
of their class, and are not restricted in territory as to
collection of pupils. Chemawa school, near Salem, Oregon, and
Chilocco school, near Arkansas City, Oklahoma, are types of
the medium-sized schools, and each has a capacity of 400
pupils. The remainder of the schools are of less capacity and
have not been developed so highly. There are altogether 25 of
these schools. …
"There are 81 boarding schools located on the different
reservations, an increase of 11 over last year. At these
institutions the same general line of policy is pursued as at
the nonreservation schools. Frequently located far from the
centers of civilization, conditions are different, and their
conduct must be varied to suit their own special environment.
Many were formerly mission schools and army posts, unsuited to
Indian school purposes, but by constant modification are being
brought into general harmony with the system. … Government day
schools are small schools with capacity for 30 or 40 pupils
each. As a rule they are located at remote points on the
reservations, and are conducted by a teacher and a
housekeeper. A small garden, some stock, and tools are
furnished, and the rudiments of industrial education are given
the boys; and the girls are taught the use of the needle in
mending and sewing, and of the washtub in cleanliness. … There
were 147 day schools in operation during the year, an increase
of 5 over last year."
The number of government schools reported for the year 1900
was 253, total enrollment, 22,124, average attendance, 17,860;
contract schools, 32, with an enrollment of 2,806, average
attendance, 2,451; public and mission schools, 22, with an
enrollment of 1,521, and an average attendance of 1,257; the
aggregate being 307 schools, with an enrollment of 26,451, and
an average attendance of 21,568. "Statistics of the schools
for the New York Indians are not included in the above, for
the reason that as they are cared for by the State of New York
this office has no jurisdiction over them. … The Indian
population of the United States under the control of the
Indian Office (excluding the Five Civilized Tribes) was
187,312 in 1899, which would give a scholastic population of
between 45,000 and 47,000. Deduct 30 per cent for the sick and
otherwise disabled, and those in white schools or away from
the direct control of the office, and it would leave about
34,000 children for whom educational facilities should be
provided. There are now 26,000 of them in school, leaving
about 8,000 unprovided for."
Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
1900, pages 15-23.
{267}
"Taking the concurrent facts of history and experience into
consideration, it can, with a great degree of confidence, be
stated that the Indian population of the United States has
been very little diminished from the days of Columbus,
Coronado, Raleigh, Captain John Smith, and other early
explorers." The number of Indians in the United States in the
year 1900, according to the report of the Indian Office, was
272,023. This excludes "the Indians of Alaska, but includes
the New York Indians (5,334) and the Five Civilized Tribes in
Indian Territory (84,750)—a total population of 90,084. These
Indians are often separated from the others in statistics
because they have separate school and governmental systems."
Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
1900, pages 47-49.
INDONESIAN RACE.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: THE NATIVE INHABITANTS.
INDUSTRIAL ARBITRATION.
See (in this volume)
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1891-1900; and
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE).
INDUSTRIAL COMBINATIONS.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS; UNITED STATES.
INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION, The United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE).
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES, Wide-spread: A. D. 1895-1896.
Strike of glassworkers in France.
A great strike of French glass workers, beginning in the
summer of 1895, ended the following January in a lockout of
the men, leaving thousands without means of subsistence.
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES, Wide-spread: A. D. 1897.
The great dispute in the British engineering trades.
"The strike originated in an effort on the part of some of the
men employed in London to introduce the eight-hour day. As a
consequence of this movement, the Employers' Federation voted,
on July 1st, that in case the threatened movement in favor of
eight hours should be carried out 'notices will immediately be
given by the members of the associations affiliated to the
federation that a reduction of hands of 25 per cent. will take
place of the members of such unions in their employment.' This
challenge of the employers was quickly taken up by the
Unionists. The Amalgamated Society at once gave instructions
that in all cases in which notices of lockout were issued to
25 per cent. of their members, the remaining 75 per cent.
should hand in notices to cease work at the same time. The
result was the inauguration of a dispute, which took in part
the form of a lockout, in part that of a strike, but which
from the beginning was carried on with an ominous display of
bitterness and obstinacy on both sides. The membership of the
different societies concerned in the dispute was estimated, by
the Labor Gazette in July, at over 109,000. All of these were
not, of course, actually on strike. … It seems as if the
employers had been quite ready to enter into this contest with
the view of crushing the union, or at least of teaching it a
lesson; but the result is a very widespread industrial
conflict, which is producing results far beyond those
immediately concerned."
Yale Review
(November, 1897).
"The number of work people directly affected by the dispute
was about 25,000 at the outset, but as the area of the dispute
widened the number of firms and of workmen involved gradually
increased, until the lock-out involved 702 firms and 35,000
workmen directly and 12,500 indirectly. … Though the immediate
cause of the general dispute was the demand for an eight
hours' day in London, the real questions at issue between the
parties had become of a much more far-reaching kind, and now
involved the questions of workshop control and the limits of
trade union interference. During October and November
negotiations under the Conciliation Act took place between the
Board of Trade and the representatives of the parties with a
view to arrange a conference between them. As a result of the
correspondence both sides assented to the following basis for
a conference suggested by the Board of Trade:
1. The Federated Employers, while disavowing any intention of
interfering with the legitimate action of trade unions, will
admit no interference with the management of their business.
The Trade Unions on their part, while maintaining their right
of combination, disavow any intention of interfering with the
management of the business of the employers.
2. The notices demanding a 48 hours' week served on the
Federated Employers in London without previous request for a
conference are withdrawn.
3. A conference between representatives of the Federated
Employers and the Trade Unions concerned in the dispute shall
be held forthwith. …
Pending the conference the employers agreed to suspend all
pending lockout notices, and the Unions not to interfere in
any way with men in employment. …
"The sittings were held on November 24th and two following
days, and again on November 30th and three following days,
after which an adjournment took place until December 14th in
order to allow the men to vote as to the acceptance or
otherwise of the proposals made by the employers. … When the
Conference resumed its sittings on December 14th the result of
the ballot of the men was declared to be:—For the terms, 752;
against, 68,966. Discussion of the proposals was, however,
resumed and continued over four days by a sub-committee of
three representatives on each side, who consulted with their
colleagues when necessary. The terms were somewhat amended. …
On submitting these amended conditions to the vote of the men
1,041 voted in favour of their acceptance and 54,933 against.
The truce which had been arranged over the period of
negotiations was brought to an end by this vote, and fresh
notices of lock-out were given in various centres, which
considerably increased the numbers affected. …
"On January 13th, however, an important change was made in the
position of the men. The London Joint Committee, the body
which took the first actual step in the dispute by ordering
strike notices to be given in certain London shops, passed the
following resolution:—That we intimate to the Employers'
Federation that the demand for an eight hours' day, or
forty-eight hours' week be withdrawn. That before such
intimation is given the above resolution to be sent to the
Executive Councils of the Societies represented on the Joint
Committee for their approval or otherwise. … This resolution
received the approval of the trade unions concerned, and the
withdrawal of the demand for a 48 hours' week was intimated to
the Employers' Federation, which, however, still insisted on
the acceptance by the unions of the 'conditions of management
mutually adjusted at the recent Westminster Conference' as a
condition of returning to work. The men asked that the
employers' notes and explanations should be read as part of
the proposed agreement, and eventually, after renewed
negotiations between the parties, a provisional agreement was
arrived at and submitted to the votes of the men, who ratified
it by 28,588 to 13,727. The final agreement was signed in
London on January 28th, and work was resumed in the following
week. …
{268}
"Naturally, after so long a stoppage the resumption of work by
the men was a gradual process, but the number unemployed owing
to the dispute, including those indirectly affected, sank from
44,500 at the close of the lock-out to 7,500 at the end of
February, 2,000 at the end of April, 1,500 at the end of May,
and 1,000 at the end of June. … Some idea of the indirect
effects of the stoppage on trades related to those engaged in
the struggle may be formed from the fact that the percentage
of unemployed members in trade unions of the ship-building
group rose from 4.4 per cent. in July, to 14.1 per cent. in
December."
Great Britain, Board of Trade (Labour Department),
Report on the Strikes and Lock-outs of 1897.
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES, Wide-spread: A. D. 1897.
Great coal miners' strike in the United States.
A general strike of the coal miners in the various districts
of the United States began in July, 1897. The territory
covered five states and involved about 157,000 men. The
strikers asked for an advance in wages on the ground that it
was their right to share in the increase of business
prosperity and advanced prices. A grievance for which redress
was asked was that of being obliged to buy at the company
stores, paying in company's orders, to be deducted from their
wages. The principal grievance was the 54-cent rate, paid by
Mr. W. P. De Armitt of the New York and Cleveland Gas Coal
Company. The men employed by Mr. De Armitt had signed a
contract to accept a rate 10 cents below that of other
operators, in return for which he had abolished company
stores, gave steady employment, and paid promptly in cash. His
men were satisfied with the arrangement, although the
prevailing price for mining coal was 64 cents a ton. Most of
them, however, were finally forced by the organization to join
the strikers. The strike lasted until September 12, when
matters were arranged in a convention at Columbus, Ohio, when
a uniform rate of 65 cents was adopted.
A tragic feature of the strike occurred at Lattimer,
Pennsylvania, where a mob of marching miners, resisting the
sheriff and handling him roughly, were fired upon by armed
deputies. Eighteen were killed and about forty wounded.
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES, Wide-spread: A. D. 1898.
New England cotton mill strike.
In January a general strike, affecting 125,000 operatives,
resulted from a reduction in wages in 150 cotton mills of New
England. By April most of the strikers returned to work at the
manufacturers' terms.
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES, Wide-spread: A. D. 1898.
Coal miners' strike in Illinois.
This strike, beginning in May, originated in the refusal of
the mine operators to grant the rate of 40 cents a ton, agreed
upon after the strike of 1897. The operators refused to
compromise and the miners were upheld by the United Mine
Workers. Riots arose in the towns of Pana and Virden upon the
attempt of the mine owners to import negro workers from the
south. Governor Tanner, in sending troops to restore order,
enjoined upon them to protect citizens, but on no account to
assist mine owners to operate their mines with imported labor,
The governor's attitude provoked much criticism. A serious
outbreak occurred on October 12, at Virden, when 14 persons
were killed and 25 wounded. The strike at Virden was settled
in November, the mine owners agreeing to the demands of the
miners. The trouble at Pana lasted until April, when a
settlement was arrived at.
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES, Wide-spread: A. D. 1900.
Anthracite coal miners' strike in Pennsylvania.
A great strike of the anthracite mine workers of Pennsylvania,
which began September 17, practically ended October 17, when
the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company and the
Lehigh Valley Coal Company agreed to abolish the sliding scale
in their respective regions and to grant an advance in wages
of 10 per cent. net, the advance to remain in operation until
April 1, 1901, and thereafter till further notice. Mr. John
Mitchell, president of the Mine Workers' National Union, in a
speech soon after the end of the strike, said that of the
142,000 men concerned "at first only 8,000 men were in the
union or organized. Nevertheless, the day the strike began,
112,000 men laid down their tools; and when the strike ended,
after 39 days of non-employment, all but 2,000 of them had
joined the ranks of the union."
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, in the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897.
INITIATIVE IN SWITZERLAND, The.
See (in this volume)
SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1894-1898.
INSURANCE, Compulsory, in Germany.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1897-1900.
INTERCONTINENTAL RAILWAY, The.
See (in this volume)
RAILWAY, INTERCONTINENTAL.
INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION.
See (in this volume)
ARBITRATION, INTERNATIONAL.
INTERNATIONAL CATALOGUING, of Scientific Literature.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL CONGRESS.
An important step in promotion of the development of
international commerce was taken at Philadelphia, in October,
1899, by the assembling of an International Commercial
Congress, under the auspices of the Philadelphia Commercial
Museum and the Franklin Institute, with the co-operation, not
only of the city and the State, but also of the Congress of
the United States. Some forty governments, and a great number
of chambers of commerce and other business organizations were
represented, and much good was expected from the meeting. It
adopted resolutions urging co-operative and assimilated action
by all nations, in the registration of trade marks, in the
preparation of trade statistics and agricultural reports, and
in the establishing of the parcels post. It commended the
Philadelphia Commercial Museum as an example to be imitated;
urged the construction of an interoceanic canal, recommended
free trade in artistic works, and pleaded for the pacific
settlement of international disputes by arbitration.
At the time of the session of the Congress, a National Export
Exposition was being held at Philadelphia, under the same
auspices, with great success.
{269}
INTEROCEANIC CANAL.
See (in this volume)
CANAL, INTEROCEANIC.
INTEROCEANIC RAILWAY, The Tehuantepec.
See (in this volume)
MEXICO: A. D. 1898-1900.
INTER-STATE COMMERCE, American.
Arbitration of industrial disputes.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE).
INVENTIONS:
Comparison of the Nineteenth Century with preceding ages.
See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY: COMPARISON.
IRADE.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1895.
----------IRELAND: Start--------
IRELAND: A. D. 1890-1900.
Hopeful work in the organization and systematization
of Irish agriculture.
"Can nothing be made of an essentially food-producing country
situated at the very door of the greatest market for
food-stuffs that the world has ever seen? Government has at
last moved in this matter, but, as usual, not before private
initiation had shamed them into action. Mr. Horace Plunkett
and his friends went to work ten years ago, pointing out that
Ireland had natural resources equal or superior to those of
countries which were driving her few products out of the
English market, and preached the organisation, the
co-operation, and the scientific methods of agriculture which
in those other countries were inculcated and subsidised by
state agencies. Then the Congested Districts Board, under the
auspices of Mr. Arthur Balfour, began its beneficent work.
Then came in 1895 the Recess Committee, on Mr. Plunkett's
suggestion; and finally, in 1899, the recommendations of that
Committee's invaluable Report were practically embodied in the
creation of a Board of Agriculture and Technical Instruction.
This body has scarcely as yet begun its work, but its main
business will be to do throughout the whole of Ireland what
has been done in the least hopeful districts by the Congested
Districts Board, and over a larger area, but with very
inadequate means, by the Irish Agricultural Organisation
Society, of which Mr. Plunkett has been the moving spirit.
Things are therefore only at their beginning. … The main
purpose of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society has
been not to create new industries but to organize and
systematise the one already existing—the characteristic Irish
industry of agriculture. It has done the work which in France,
Denmark, Canada, and a dozen other countries that can be
named, is being done by a State department; and the efforts of
its promoters have brought into being such a department for
Ireland also. The Society spent in nine years £15,000 of
subscriptions. This neither can last nor ought to last. It is
the business of the Department, if it does not supersede the
Society, to subsidise it."
Stephen Gwynn,
A Month in Ireland
(Blackwood's Magazine, October, 1900, page 573).
The most effective work done thus far, by the official and
private agencies above mentioned, appears to have been in the
organization of co-operative creameries and dairies.
IRELAND: A. D. 1894.
Cooling of the Liberal party towards Irish Home Rule.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1894-1895.
IRELAND: A. D. 1896.
A new Land Act.
"The celebrated Land Act of 1881, supplemented by Acts in the
same direction, placed the land of Ireland, as everyone knows,
under a system of perpetual leases, at State-settled rents,
renewable every fifteen years; and, in 1896, the time was at
hand for revising the rents fixed from 1881 onwards, and for
renewing the leases made during this interval of time. An Act,
accordingly, was passed through Parliament in order fully to
accomplish this end; and, incidentally, it dealt with many
other things connected with the Irish Land System, and with
the legislation inaugurated in 1881. It enlarged the sphere of
State-settled rent, bringing within it certain classes of
tenants which, hitherto, had been excluded from it; it placed
the law for exempting tenants' improvements from rent, to a
considerable extent, on a new basis; and it introduced, for
the first time, what is called the principal of 'compulsory
purchase' into the system of 'Land Purchase,' so named in
Ireland, always a favourite policy of Lord Salisbury's
Governments."
Judge O'Connor Morris,
The Report of the Fry Commission
(Fortnightly Review, November, 1898).
The new bill (59 & 60 Vict. ch. 47) was carried successfully
through Parliament by the Government, with skillful management
on the part of Mr. Gerald Balfour, the Secretary for Ireland,
after many amendments and much debate. It was a compromise
measure, reluctantly accepted and satisfying no interest or
party. The general feeling with which it was passed is
described as follows: "The practical result of the discussion
was to show that the bill did not go so far as Mr. T. W.
Russell, a member of the Government and the representative of
the Ulster farmers, wished; that the section of the
Nationalists headed by Mr. Dillon were anxious to throw cold
water upon it, but afraid to oppose it openly; and that Mr.
Healy and his friends, as well as the Parnellites, were ready
to do their best to ensure its passing. But while the
representatives of the tenants were ready to accept the bill
as an installment of their claims, they at the same time
pronounced it, to be inadequate. … The Dillonites were
unwilling to give the Healyites and the Parnellites the chance
of taunting them with having lost the bill, whilst the
landlords hoped for an improvement of the purchase clauses and
a reform of procedure in the law courts. … The debate on the
third reading, although not forced to a division, was
spirited; the landlords opposing it because it was too much of
a tenant's bill, and Mr. Davitt opposing it because it was too
much of a landlords' bill. Mr. Dillon and his followers voted
for it, but in their speeches did all they could to run it
down, while the Parnellites and Healyites did all in their
power to support it."
Annual Register, 1896,
pages 160-161.
{270}
IRELAND: 1896-1897.
Report of a Royal Commission on the Financial Relations
between Great Britain and Ireland.
"At various times since the passing of the Act of Legislative
Union between Great Britain and Ireland, complaints have been
made that the financial arrangements between the two countries
were not satisfactory, or in accordance with the principles of
that Act, and that the resources of Ireland have had to bear
an undue pressure of taxation. Inquiries into the truth of
these allegations have frequently been called for"; but it was
not until 1894 that provision was made for a thorough
investigation of the subject. In that year a Royal Commission
was appointed, with Mr. Childers, ex-Chancellor of the
Exchequer, at its head, "to inquire into the financial
relations between Great Britain and Ireland, and their
relative taxable capacity, and to report:
(1.) Upon what principles of comparison, and by the
application of what specific standards, the relative capacity
of Great Britain and Ireland to bear taxation may be most
equitably determined.
(2.) What, so far as can be ascertained, is the true
proportion, under the principles and specific standards so
determined, between the taxable capacity of Great Britain and
Ireland.
(3.) The history of the financial relations between Great
Britain and Ireland at and after the Legislative Union, the
charge for Irish purposes on the Imperial Exchequer during
that period, and the amount of Irish taxation remaining
available for contribution to Imperial expenditure; also the
Imperial expenditure to which it is considered equitable that
Ireland should contribute."
The Commission made its "Final Report" in 1896, submitting the
conclusions on which its members were unanimously agreed, and
presenting, further, no less than seven differing reports on
other points upon which agreement could not be reached. The
summary of conclusions in the unanimous joint report was as
follows:
"In carrying out the inquiry we have ascertained that there
are certain questions upon which we are practically unanimous,
and we think it expedient to set them out in this joint
report. Our conclusions on these questions are as follows:
I. That Great Britain and Ireland must, for the purpose of
this inquiry, be considered as separate entities.
II. That the Act of Union imposed upon Ireland a burden which,
as events showed, she was unable to bear.
III. That the increase of taxation laid upon Ireland between
1853 and 1860 was not justified by the then existing
circumstances.
IV. That identity of rates of taxation does not necessarily
involve equality of burden.
V. That whilst the actual tax revenue of Ireland is about
one-eleventh of that of Great Britain the relative taxable
capacity of Ireland is very much smaller, and is not estimated
by any of us as exceeding one-twentieth."
Great Britain,
Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: C.—8262, pages 1-2).
The report was keenly criticised in England, and the fact that
it emanated from a Commission in which the majority were
partisans of Irish Home Rule was used by the Conservatives to
disparage its conclusions. A new investigation of the subject
was called for. The subject came before Parliament in the
session of 1897,—first in the Lords, and later in the Commons.
On the 30th of March, Mr. Blake, a member from Ireland, moved
a resolution in the House of Commons, to the effect that the
report of the Commission had established the existence of an
undue burden of taxation on Ireland and made it the duty of
the Government to propose remedial legislation at an early
day. The debate which this opened was continued during three
nights, at the end of which the motion was negatived by a vote
of 317 to 157.
IRELAND: A. D. 1898 (July).
The Local Government Act.
A bill which had great success, so far as it went, in
satisfying the representatives of Ireland in the Parliament of
the United Kingdom, was brought forward there, by the
Conservative Government, in February, 1898, and carried
through both Houses in July. It was accepted by the Irish as
"no substitute for Home Rule," but as a recognized "step in
that direction." It had been foreshadowed in the Queen's
Speech at the opening of Parliament, and described as a
measure "for the organisation of a system of local government
in Ireland substantially similar to that which, within the
last few Years, has been established in Great Britain." This
important Act established County Councils, Urban District
Councils, Rural District Councils, and Boards of Guardians,
all elected by ballot every three years, on a franchise
broader than the Parliamentary franchise, since it gave the
local suffrage to women. The same Act extended to Ireland the
provisions of the Act for the relief of agricultural land, and
contained some other welcome provisions of financial relief.
61 & 62 Vict. chapter 37.
"To understand the extent of the change which is now
determined on … it is necessary first to describe the system
of Irish Local Government which is about to pass away forever.
Broadly speaking, that system consisted of three parts, viz.:
the Grand Jury, the Poor Law Boards, and various forms of
Municipal Government in towns and cities. … The Grand Jury was
about the most anomalous and indefensible institution which
can be conceived. It consisted, usually, of a couple of dozen
persons chosen from a larger number selected by the High
Sheriff for the county or the city, as the case might be, the
High Sheriff himself being the nominee of the Lord Lieutenant,
who acted on the recommendation of the Superior Court Judges,
who, in their turn, always recommended some leading landlord
and magistrate. … The Grand Jury in every Irish county, down
even to the present year, has always consisted almost entirely
of members of the landlord class, and mainly of Protestants
also. To bodies thus constituted was entrusted the control of
all public roads and other public works of the county, the
contracts therefor, the management of the prisons, the care of
the public buildings, the power to contribute to infirmaries,
lunatic asylums and fever hospitals, the appointment of all
the paid officials of the county, and the right to levy a tax
called the county cess, which, of late years, has produced
considerably more than a million pounds sterling annually.
Associated with the Grand Juries were smaller bodies, the
members of which met at 'Presentment Sessions' once or twice a
year to initiate county works. Those bodies also were
non-elective, and represented mainly the landlords and
magistrates of the respective counties. In the old days, these
Grand Juries became—not unnaturally—not merely nests of jobbery
and corruption, but an agency of social and political
oppression. …
{271}
For many years past, indeed, the Grand Juries have not been
open to all those charges. They have not, as a rule, been the
corrupt jobbers they were forty or fifty years ago. Their
administration of the business entrusted to them has been
fairly honest and efficient. But in their constitution they
have, on the whole, continued to be what they were. …
"The Boards of Poor Law Guardians have in the course of time
become more or less popular bodies, and, besides their
original function of dispensing relief out of the rates to the
destitute poor, have been invested with the management of so
many other matters in recent years that their title is now
really a misnomer. They are, for instance, the sanitary
authorities in all rural and in some urban districts; they
have to do with the registration of births, deaths, and
marriages, and—not to go through the whole list of their
powers and duties—they have had the administration of the
Laborers' Acts, under which a good deal has been done, since
the year 1883, to improve the homes of agricultural laborers.
"It remains to notice the system of Government in the towns
and cities. In this case there has been some degree of reality
in the phrase, 'local self-government'—at least, for the last
forty or fifty years. Down to 1840 there was no really
representative system of government in any Irish town or city.
… Since the year mentioned the corporations have been more or
less representative, and since 1854 the smaller towns in
Ireland have been allowed the right to possess municipal
institutions of a less important, but still representative,
character. In respect, however, of both the corporations of
the cities and of the town boards of the smaller civic
communities, the franchise for municipal purposes has been
ridiculously restricted. In Dublin, the population exceeds
300,000; the Parliamentary electorate is upwards of 40,000;
but the municipal electorate amounts to only about 8,000 or
9,000; and the same story is true of all the other
municipalities, except a few which, like Belfast, have by
special acts of Parliament obtained extensions of the suffrage
peculiar to themselves.
"Here, then, was a state of thing's which, assuredly, required
mending, and, as I have said, innumerable efforts to mend it
had been made up to last year with no result. Last summer,
however, the reform now virtually accomplished was announced
to the House of Commons one afternoon by Mr. Arthur Balfour,
without anyone having asked for it and without any warning
whatever. The chief features of the measure may be briefly
described. In the first place, the ground is cleared by
absolutely sweeping away the Grand Juries for fiscal purposes.
Those bodies are still retained for their original
purpose—that, namely, of dealing with indictments. … With them
go the Boards of Guardians as they are at present constituted.
Bodies will still continue to exist under that name, but they
will be no longer constituted as they are now. … In the place
of the Grand Juries and the Boards of Guardians there has been
set up a rather complicated system of County Councils and
District Councils, these latter being sub-divided into two
classes—Urban District Councils and Rural District Councils;
and at this point one provision applicable to all those
bodies, and also to every Corporation and Town Board in the
country, may be conveniently mentioned. It is that which
enacts that the electorate in each case shall be the
Parliamentary electorate, in addition to peers and to such
women as would, if they were men, be qualified for the
Parliamentary franchise. Here is manifestly a great reform in
itself. … The change is a vast one, in view of the narrow
foundation on which even the most popular Irish local
institutions have hitherto rested. It means the transfer of
power from a class to the people. It means the ousting of what
used to be the English garrison in Ireland from what it had
come to regard as its inalienable heritage. It marks the entry
of the Irish Nation, after ages of weary waiting, into at
least a considerable portion of its birthright. To the County
Councils, which will thus repose on a thoroughly popular
basis, and one of which will be established in every county,
will be entrusted all the fiscal business of the Grand Juries,
with one exception. The excepted business is that of assessing
compensation for malicious injuries."
J. J. Clancy,
The Latest Reform in Ireland
(North American Review, September, 1898).
IRELAND: A. D. 1900 (April).
Visit of Queen Victoria.
For the first time in nearly forty years, Queen Victoria paid
a visit to Ireland in April, and held court in Dublin for
three weeks, being cordially received and treated throughout
with respect by well-mannered crowds. Apparently the visit
gave satisfaction to most of the Irish people.
IRELAND: A. D. 1900-1901.
Parliamentary elections.
Triumph of the United Irish League.
Its absorption of the Nationalist party.
Its programme.
The elections to a new Parliament (see, in this volume,
ENGLAND: A. D. 1900, SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER), held in October,
resulted in a sweeping victory for the United Irish League, a
new organization formed by Mr. William O'Brien, which,
according to the "London Times," "has practically absorbed the
whole of the Irish Nationalist party" and "is the successor in
title of the old Land League." "Mr. William O'Brien," says the
"Times," "returned his own followers to Parliament from
practically every Nationalist constituency in Ireland. … For
the moment at least all the other successors of Mr. Parnell
are vanquished or in captivity, and Mr. O'Brien finds himself
at the head of a party which for the first time in ten years
has the right to call itself 'united.'"
On the opening of the Parliament, in the following February,
the new League was soon brought to its attention by Mr.
O'Brien, who moved, on the 22d, to amend the Address to the
King, which was then under discussion, by adding to it the
following: "Humbly to represent to your Majesty that this
House has observed that a combination of the agricultural
classes in Ireland has been formed, under the name of the
United Irish League, with the object of accomplishing reforms
which alone, in the opinion of nine-tenths of the
constitutional representatives of Ireland, can arrest the
continued depopulation of that country and the decay of its
only great national industry.
{272}
These reforms being, first, the creation of an occupying
proprietary in substitution for the present unsettled and
vexatious system of dual ownership of land; and, secondly, the
utilization of extensive tracts, at present lying practically
waste in the congested districts, for the purpose of supplying
holdings of sufficient extent to a hard-working and deserving
population, who for want of land are compelled to live in a
condition of chronic privation and even famine on the borders
of those fertile depopulated areas; that the movement which
has been carried on for the past three years for the promotion
of these objects has been marked by the disappearance of those
crimes of violence and secret conspiracies which were used to
the discredit of all former agrarian combinations in Ireland,
and the league, basing itself on the principle that its
struggle is in the nature of a great economic industrial
dispute between the tillers of the soil on the one side and
the rent-owners, supported by a vast capital and territorial
influence, on the other, has relied for success upon those
combinations for mutual protection and appeals to public
opinion which the trade union laws have expressly authorized
in the cause of disputes between capital and labour of a
non-agricultural character; that, nevertheless, this House has
observed that the forces of the Crown have been
unconstitutionally employed, and public justice has been
polluted in the interest of one of the parties to the dispute;
that the right of public meeting has been capriciously
suppressed; that prosecutions for conspiracy and Whiteboyism
have been instituted in reference to open and advised appeals
to public opinion and measures of mutual protection, which are
indisputably within the right of trade unions in ordinary
industrial struggles; that the power of contempt of Court has
been unconstitutionally and oppressively abused for the
purpose of inflicting prolonged sentences of imprisonment
without trial; that the right of trial by jury has been
outraged by the systematic exclusion from the jury-box of all
jurors sharing the politics or creed of the accused, and the
empanelling of juries composed exclusively of sympathizers
with the territorial class, that the liberty of the Press in
Ireland has been assailed, and influential organs of opinion
prosecuted in the endeavour to silence public comment on this
iniquitous system; that grievous and vindictive fines have
been exacted from districts obnoxious to the landlord interest
by means of charges for extra police quartered upon peaceful
populations, and that the people of Ireland have been
subjected to divers others the like cruel oppressions and
provocations; and humbly to represent to your Majesty that, it
being of the highest constitutional import to encourage the
Irish people to seek the redress of their grievances by the
fullest freedom of speech and of combination which is
warranted by the example of the trade unions of Great Britain,
this House is of opinion that the attacks at present directed
by the Executive against the rights of free speech and of
combination in Ireland should cease, and that the legislation
protecting the trade unions in the exercise of their rights of
combination against capital and non-union labour should be
extended to all agricultural combinations of a similar
character in that country."
In his speech supporting the amendment Mr. O'Brien charged
that, "there being no real crime in Ireland, the Executive
there had made crime of perfectly legitimate actions, treating
the people as if the object was to goad them into conspiracy
and violence. The record of the league was virtually a
crimeless one, it had carried on its work now for three years
without any of those blood-curdling incidents which coercion
Ministers used to smack their lips over in that House. … The
league, which had been tested by time and had proved its power
at the general election, had started and carried on in Ireland
an irresistible agitation for the suppression, for the
abolition of landlordism, and had elicited in the King's first
Speech a promise, such as it was, of another land Bill,
although two years ago that House was assured that there was
no longer an Irish land question."
An extensive combination, he said, was going on in Ireland
against the taking of evicted farms, and "what form of trade
unionism could be more legitimate?" But charges of
intimidation and conspiracy; he claimed, were trumped up, and
juries were packed, for the suppression of this movement,
though it went no farther than trades unions in England could
go with no interference. "The Irish people exercised the right
of combination in the United Irish League, and they would
continue to exercise it whether the Government liked it or
not, in order to obtain the land on conditions that would give
its cultivators a living wage. In the ranks of the
organization were 500,000 farmers and labourers, representing
with their families three-fourths of the population of
Ireland. Their object was to parcel out the vast grazing lands
lying derelict among the cottagers who were starving on their
verge. A department of the Government was actually engaged in
carrying out the programme of the league, but at such a
snail's pace that it would take centuries to make any
impression upon the mass of misery which existed in the
country."
After several hours of debate the amendment to
the Address was rejected by 203 votes against 109.
----------IRELAND: End--------
IRON, Combinations in the production of.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: UNITED STATES.
IRON GATES OF THE DANUBE, Opening of the.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1896.
ISLE DU DIABLE.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1897-1899.
ISRAEL, The People of:
Discovery of the sole mention of them in Egyptian inscriptions.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT: RESULTS.
ISTHMIAN CANAL, The.
See (in this volume)
CANAL, INTEROCEANIC.
ISTHMIAN RAILWAY, The Tehuantepec.
See (in this volume)
MEXICO: A. D. 1898-1900.
ITAGAKI, Count: Leader of the Japanese Liberal party.
See (in this volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1890-1898.
{273}
----------ITALY: Start--------
ITALY: Recent archæological explorations.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: ITALY.
ITALY: A. D. 1895-1896.
Accusations against the Crispi Ministry.
Fresh offense to the Vatican.
Disastrous war with Abyssinia.
Fall of Crispi.
In elections to the Italian Chamber of Deputies, which took
place in May, 1895, the government, under Signor Crispi, was
accused of audacious practices, striking the names of opposed
electors from the voting lists, to the number, it is said, of
several hundreds of thousands, and contriving otherwise to
paralyze the opposition to itself. The result of the elections
was the return of 336 government candidates, against 98 of
other parties. An attempt to obtain an official return of all
the deputies who were receiving pay from the State, directly
or indirectly, was skilfully baffled by Signor Crispi, and
remained a matter of rumor and guess. In September, the
government gave fresh offense to the Vatican by an imposing
celebration of the 25th anniversary of the entry of the
Italian troops into Rome, with a display of the flag of
free-masonry. Hostility of France and Russia to Italy was made
acute "by the renewal, on the return of Lord Salisbury to
office in 1895, of an agreement between England, Austria and
Italy for common action in the Eastern question, originally
made in 1887. In virtue of this agreement Italy sent her fleet
to the Aegean to support Great Britain at the opening of the
Armenian question [see, in this volume, TURKEY: A. D. 1895,
and after], and the consequence was that France and Russia put
pressure on Abyssinia to renew hostilities against Italy. This
new campaign Crispi was ill-prepared to meet, as he had
detailed a corps d'armée for an expedition to Asia Minor in
conjunction with the naval preparations, and the strength of
the forces under arms did not enable the minister of war to
detach another corps to Erythrea. To complete the difficulties
of the position, a coolness arose between the Emperor of
Germany and the government of Crispi, the latter having
notified the German government that he should at the proper
time denounce the Treaty of the Triple Alliance with the
object of providing better security for Italian interests in
Africa. The Emperor in reply advised the King of Italy that
Crispi was becoming importunate and must be got rid of. This
defection probably determined the fall of Crispi. It gave such
strength to the opposition at home, that the intrigues of the
Court and military circles succeeded in paralyzing all his
military plans, and especially in preventing him from
superseding Baratieri, now recognized as incompetent for the
enlarged operations which were in view. The King refused to
consent to the suppression until it became imperative through
the increase of the force to a point at which a superior
officer was necessitated by the regulations, when Baldissera
was appointed to the superior command. But before Baldissera
could enter on his command, Baratieri, against the distinct
orders of the government, attacked with a force of 14,000 men
the impregnable positions near Adowah which Menelek held with
80,000. He was met by the most crushing defeat that Italy has
had to undergo in modern times. Out of the total force no less
than 6,000 perished.
"The history of this affair still remains more or less a
secret, the court-martial which followed being rather
calculated to bury than expose the facts of the case, but the
immediate effect was to induce the ministry to resign without
waiting for the assembling of parliament. The magnitude of the
disaster made it evident that, considering the Italian
temperament and its tendency to panic, the responsibility for
it would be visited on the ministry, though it was only
responsible in so far as it had submitted to the Royal
decision deferring the recall of Baratieri. The King,
unwilling to accept the programme of Rudini, gave the
formation of the new ministry to General Ricotti, a Senator,
Rudini taking the portfolio of home affairs (March, 1896). …
The scheme of army reorganization proposed by Ricotti, which
aimed at improving the efficiency of the force by devoting
money rather to the instruction of the rank and file than to
the maintenance of superfluous officers, was opposed, … the
law was defeated in the chamber, and Ricotti gave place to
Rudini as President of the Council. The rejection of Ricotti's
plan was a triumph for the Franco-Russian party, which had
re-assumed the direction of foreign affairs. Africa, under
this policy, being excluded from the Italian sphere of action,
peace was made with Menelek [October 26, 1896] on terms which
practically implied withdrawal from Erythrea to the port of
Massowah. This measure satisfied the exigencies of the old
Right, while the Radicals were conciliated by the exclusion
and proscription of Crispi and by the understanding with
France, as well as by the reversal of the repressive policy
towards the extreme members of their party. Thus the year 1897
saw Italy reduced to inertia abroad and apathy within."
W. J. Stillman,
The Union of Italy,
chapter 15
(Cambridge: University Press).
The peace made with King Menelek in 1896 ended the Italian
claim to a protectorate over Abyssinia, which seems never to
have had any basis of right. It started from a treaty
negotiated in 1889, known as the Treaty of Uchali, which
purported to be no more than an ordinary settlement of
friendly relations, commercial and political. But the
convention contained a clause which is said to have read in
the Amharic (the court and official language of Abyssinia),
"the King of Abyssinia may make use of the government of the
King of Italy in all matters whereon he may have to treat with
other governments." In the Italian version of the treaty, the
innocent permissive phrase, "may make use," became, it is
said, an obligatory "agrees to make use," &c., and was so
communicated to foreign governments, furnishing grounds for a
claim of "protection" which the Abyssinians rejected
indignantly. Hence the wars which proved disastrous to Italy.
ITALY: A. D. 1897.
Dissolution of the Chamber.
Election of Deputies.
Reconstruction of the Ministry.
Early in the year a royal decree dissolved the Chamber of
Deputies, and elections held in March gave the Rudini Ministry
a large majority. The Catholic party refrained almost entirely
from voting. But divisions arose in the course of the year
which brought about a reconstruction of the Cabinet in
December, Signor Rudini still being at the head. An important
event of the year was the resolution of the Italian government
to evacuate Kassala, on the Abyssinian frontier, directly
eastward from Khartum. The Italians had taken it from the
Mahdists in 1894. It now became part of the Anglo-Egyptian
territory.
{274}
ITALY: A. D. 1898.
Arbitration Treaty with Argentine Republic.
See (in this volume)
ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1898.
ITALY: A. D. 1898 (March-June).
Report on charges against Signor Crispi.
His resignation from Parliament and re-election.
Change of Ministry.
In March, a special commission, appointed the previous
December, to investigate certain serious charges against the
ex-Premier, Signor Crispi, reported his culpability, but that
nothing in his conduct could be brought for trial before the
High Court. The charges were connected with a scandalous
wrecking of several banks, at Rome, Naples, and elsewhere,
which had occurred during Signor Crispi's administration, and
which was found to be due to political extortions practiced on
those institutions by members and agents of the government.
Personally, it did not appear that the ex-Premier had profited
by what was done; but his wife seemed to have been a large
recipient of gain, and moneys wrung from the banks had been
used for party political purposes and for the government
secret service fund. On the report made by the commission
Signor Crispi resigned his seat in Parliament, and was
promptly re-elected from Palermo by an overwhelming majority.
In May, the Ministry of the Marquis di Rudini, much weakened
by the troubled state of the country, was reconstructed, but
only to hold its ground for another month. On the 17th of
June, upon a threatened vote of want of confidence, it
resigned, and, on the 28th, a new Liberal Ministry took
office, with General Pelloux at its head.
ITALY: A. D. 1898 (April-May).
Bread riots in the south and
revolutionary outbreaks in the north.
"May 1898 will be remembered for a long time in Italy, and one
may wish that the eventful month may mark the turning-point in
political life of the new kingdom. The revolt was general, the
explosion broke out almost suddenly, but long was the period
of preparation. 'Malcontento' is quite a household word in
Italy—and the Italians had more than one reason to be
dissatisfied with their national government. The rise in the
price of bread, as a consequence of the Hispano-American war,
was the immediate, but by no means the only, cause of the
uprising which darkened the skies of sunny Italy for several
days. The enormous taxation imposed upon a people yet young in
its national life, in order to carry out a policy far too big for
the financial means of the country; the failure in the attempt
to establish a strong colony in the Red Sea; the economic war
with France; the scanty help Italy received from her allies in
time of need; the political corruption, unchecked when not
encouraged by those who stood at the helm of the State; the
impotence of the Chambers of Deputies to deal with the
evil-doers as the claims of justice and the voice of the
people required, all these evils have prepared a propitious
ground for the agitators both of the radical and reactionary
parties.
"The Bread Riots began towards the end of April, and in a few
days they assumed a very alarming aspect, especially in the
small towns of the Neapolitan provinces, inhabited by people
ordinarily pacific and law-abiding. The destruction of
property was wanton and wide-spread, women careless of their
lives leading the men to the assault. In many cases the riots
soon came to an end; in others the immediate abolition of the
'octroi' did not produce the desired effect. … There was no
organization in the Neapolitan provinces; the riots were
absolutely independent of one another, but they were
originated by the same cause—misery; they aimed at the same
object—a loud protest by means of devastation; they all ended
in the same way—viz., after two or three days the soldiers
restored order, the dead were buried, and the ringleaders
taken to prison to be dealt with by the military court. In the
north, at Milan, the uprising was of quite a different
character. In the south of Italy it was truly a question of
bread and bread alone. In Central Italy it was a question of
work, in Lombardy a truly revolutionary movement. The
Neapolitan mob shouted for bread and bread alone, some asking
for cheaper bread, some others for 'free bread.' In Tuscany
the cry was, 'Pane o Lavoro!' (bread or work). In Lombardy
quite another trumpet was sounded: 'Down with the Government!
Down with the Dynasty!'
"The Milanese, of all the people of Italy, have plenty of work
and bread, and it is admitted by all that bread had nothing to
do with the revolt of Milan. I have studied this movement from
its inception, and my conclusion is that the revolt broke out
long before it was expected, thus making the discomfiture more
certain. The great majority of the population of Milan was,
and is, conservative and loyal to the King, although not
pleased with the doings of the Government. Only a minority,
but a very noisy and active minority, is against monarchical
institutions. For some time past the revolutionary party of
Milan have made no mystery of their political aspirations
towards the establishment of a Milanese republic, to be called
'Republica Ambrogiana.' … Milan is also the headquarters of
Socialism and Anarchism. Socialists and Republicans once upon
a time were implacable foes. Many a battle they fought one
against the other; but since 1886 the two have come to love
each other more, or to hate each other less, whichever it may
be; and towards the end of 1895 they entered into partnership
against their common enemy—Crispi! Then the Anarchists came
in. Decent Republicans and timid Socialists were rather averse
to ally themselves with anarchy; the very name was loathsome
to them. However, this natural mistrust soon disappeared, and
the Anarchists were welcomed into the dual alliance. Still
another element was to enter—the clerical party. … The
clericals have not a special cry of their own. They satisfied
themselves by rubbing their hands and saying: 'Down it goes at
last.' Little they knew that not the dynasty, not united Italy
was then going down, but society itself. … A friend of mine,
who was in the midst of the revolt, assures me that its
importance has been very much exaggerated in the first reports
sent abroad; and from the official documents, since published,
it appears that about 90 barricades were erected, and some 20
houses ransacked to provide the necessary material to build
them. The number of the killed amounted to 72, and that of the
seriously wounded to 63. On Monday evening [May 9] order was
restored in Milan. … On Wednesday morning shops and factories
were reopened, but it will take years to undo the mischief
done on May 7, 8, and 9, 1898. All are sadder now; one may
hope that they will be wiser also. The agitators, the deluded,
the masses, the governing classes, the Government, all have
had their lesson."
G. D. Vecchia,
The Revolt in Italy
(Contemporary Review, July, 1898).
{275}
ITALY: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
ITALY: A. D. 1899-1900.
Parliamentary disorder, leading to arbitrary government.
Assassination of King Humbert.
Much feeling was excited in Italy by the agreement between
Great Britain and France which practically awarded most of the
Sahara Hinterland of Tripoli (a possession long hoped for and
expected by the Italians), as well as that of Tunis, Algiers,
and Morocco, to France (see, in this volume, NIGERIA). The
government was accused of want of vigor in opposing this, and
was held responsible, at the same time, for the humiliating
failure of an attempt to secure a share of spoils in China, by
lease of Sammun Bay. The resignation of the Ministry was
consequent, early in May; but the King retained General
Pelloux at the head of the government, and new associates in
his cabinet were found. The Chamber of Deputies became
unmanageable; obstruction, very much in the Austrian manner,
was carried to such an extent that Parliament was prorogued.
The King then, by royal decree, conferred extraordinary powers
on the Ministry, suspending, at the same time, rights of meeting
and association, to suppress political agitation, and taking,
in fact, a serious backward step, toward government outside of
constitutional law. Liberals of all shades, and, apparently, many
constitutional Conservatives, were alarmed and outraged by
this threatening measure, and, when Parliament was reconvened,
the proceedings of obstruction were renewed with more persistency
than before. The government then attempted an arbitrary
adoption of rules to prevent obstruction; whereupon (April 3,
1900) the entire Opposition left the House in a body. The
situation at length became such that the King adjourned the
Parliament sine die, on the 16th of May, and a new Chamber of
Deputies was elected on the 3d of the month following. The
Opposition was considerably strengthened in the election, and
the Ministry of General Pelloux, finding itself more helpless
in Parliament than ever, resigned on the 18th of June. A new
Cabinet under Signor Saracco was formed.
On the 29th of July, 1900, King Humbert was assassinated by an
Italian anarchist, named Angelo Bresci, who went to Italy for
the purpose, from Paterson, New Jersey, in the United States,
where he had latterly been living. The King was at Monza, and
had been distributing prizes at a gymnasium. At the close of
the ceremony, as he entered his carriage, the assassin fired
three shots at him, inflicting wounds from which the King died
within an hour. The murderer was seized on the spot, tried and
convicted of the crime. He received the severest penalty that
Italian law could inflict, which was imprisonment for life.
The son who succeeds King Humbert, Victor Emmanuel III., was
in his thirty-first year when thus tragically raised to the
throne. He is weak in body, but is reputed to have an
excellent mind. He was wedded in 1896 to Princess Helene of
Montenegro.
ITALY: A. D. 1900.
Military and naval expenditure.
See (in this volume)
WAR BUDGETS.
ITALY: A. D. 1900.
Naval strength.
See (in this volume)
NAVIES OF THE SEA POWERS.
ITALY: A. D. 1900 (January).
Adhesion to the arrangement of an "open door" commercial
policy in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899-1900 (SEPTEMBER-FEBRUARY).
ITALY: A. D. 1900 (January).
Exposure of the Mafia.
Circumstances came to light in the course of the year 1899
which compelled the government to enter upon an investigation
of the doings of the Sicilian secret society known as the
Mafia. This resulted in the arrest of a number of persons,
including a Sicilian member of the Chamber of Deputies, named
Palizzolo, charged with complicity in the murder, seven years
before, of the Marquis Notarbartolo, manager of the Bank of
Sicily at Palermo. The accused were brought to Milan for
trial, which took place in January, 1900, and the disclosures
then Made showed that Sicily had long been terrorized and
tyrannized, in all departments of affairs, by a few men who
controlled this murderous secret organization, Palizzolo
being, apparently, the head of the fiendish crew. One of the
ministers in the Italian government, General Mirri, Secretary
of War, was found to have had, at least, some scandalous
understandings with the Mafia, and he was forced to resign.
ITALY: A. D. 1900 (January-March).
The outbreak of the "Boxers" in northern China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH).
ITALY: A. D. 1900 (June-December).
Co-operation with the Powers in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA.
ITALY: A. D. 1900 (July-September).
An Italian view of the state of the country.
"Appearances, it is well known, are often deceptive, and the
present condition of Italy is a case in point. Discontent is
not a new thing for the Italian mind to be agitated by, but
there is an enormous difference between being discontented
with the Government of the day and being dissatisfied with the
national institutions. Italians have a quick perception and
are extremely impulsive; they often act suddenly and on the
impression of the moment, but they are also apt to fall into a
state of lethargy, during which the will of the nation is very
weak, both as a stimulus to good government and as repressive
of that which is bad. There are, however, times in which this
will asserts itself. Italy is just passing through one of
these lucid intervals.
"The assassination of King Humbert seems to have awakened the
whole nation from a long sleep. Those who thought there was no
affection left for monarchical institutions in Italy must have
experienced a very depressing disappointment. For forty-eight
hours there was no king at all in Italy. King Humbert was dead
and his successor was somewhere on the high seas, but nobody knew
exactly where, yet not a single disorderly movement was
noticed anywhere. Clericals, Socialists, Republicans, the
three declared enemies of the monarchy, entirely disappeared
from the scene during the crisis.
{276}
If anyone of these parties, which during the last period of
national lethargy had grown more audacious and bolder, had
only attempted to assert itself, the Italian public 'en masse'
would have revolted against it, and performed one of those
acts of summary justice of which the history of Italy
furnishes abundant examples. I think this absence of disorder
of any kind is the most convincing proof that can be adduced
in favour of the present state of things in Italy. Surely, if
the people had been nursing in their hearts a general revolt,
that was the moment for action.
"Of course a few anarchists here and there have rejoiced over
the crime of their comrade; however, I venture to assert that
it is not quite correct to call Italy the hotbed of anarchy.
It is true that many of the most fierce anarchists are Italian
by birth; but anarchism did not originate in Italy, it was
imported there. France and Russia had—under another
name—anarchists long before the name of any Italian was ever
connected with anarchism. … Political education is still in
Italy of very poor quality—truthfully speaking, there is none.
Even the anarchists go elsewhere to perfect their education.
The assassins of Carnot, of the Empress Elizabeth, and of
Canovas, had their political education perfected in Paris or
in London. Italy does not export political murderers, as was
very unkindly said on the occasion of the assassination of the
Empress of Austria. Italy at the worst exports only the rough
material for the making of anarchical murderers. Even the
assassin of King Humbert belongs to this category. He left
Italy with no homicidal mania in him. He was not then a wild
beast with a human face, to make use of an expression uttered
by Signor Saracco, the Premier of Italy. The anarchist clubs
of Paris, London, and New York were his university colleges."
G. D. Vecchia,
The Situation in Italy
(Nineteenth Century Review, September, 1900).
ITALY: A. D. 1901.
Fall of the Saracco Ministry.
Formation of a Liberal Cabinet under Signor Zanardelli.
Census of the kingdom.
The Saracco Ministry, which took direction of the government
in June, 1900, was defeated on the 6th of February, 1901, and
compelled to resign. An extraordinarily heavy vote (318 to
102) was cast against it in condemnation of its conduct in
matters relating to a "Chamber of Labor" at Genoa. First, it
had ordered the dissolution of that body, as being subversive
in influence, and then, when a "strike" occurred in Genoa, as
the consequence, it receded from its action and reconstituted
the Chamber. By the first proceeding it had disgusted the
Conservatives; by the second the Radicals, and by its
indecision the Moderates. They combined to overthrow it. With
some difficulty a new Cabinet was formed containing Liberals
of various shades, with Signor Zanardelli, a veteran
republican of the Garibaldi generation, at its head. A writer
who has frequently discussed foreign politics with a good deal
of knowledge in the columns of the "New York Tribune," over
the signature "Ex-Attache," believes that Zanardelli is
committed "to anti-clerical legislation of the most drastic
and far reaching character," and "may be depended upon to
proceed against the Vatican with a vigor unprecedented in the
annals of united Italy. And there will be," he thinks, "no
attempt on the part of Victor Emmanuel to hold him in leash.
Existing laws will be enforced to the utmost against the
Papacy, while new measures may be looked for to restrict
further the activity of the Church as a factor in political
life, to extend the control of the government over all
ecclesiastical enterprises and undertakings and to emphasize
the fact that all Italians, no matter whether they form part
of the Papal Court or not, are Italian citizens, as well as
subjects of the Italian crown, and required to obey the laws
and to fulfil their obligations as such."
A Press despatch from Rome, in February, announced that "the
result of the first Italian census in 20 years has proved a
surprise. It shows that the population is 35,000,000, while it
was not expected that it would exceed 31,000,000. The ratio of
increase is greater than in any other European country. This
is ascribed to improved sanitation. The birthrate continues
high. It is estimated that 5,000,000 Italians have gone to the
United States and South America."
----------ITALY: End--------
ITO, Marquis:
Administration and political experiments.
See (in this volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1890-1898; 1898-1899;
and 1900 (AUGUST-OCTOBER).
J.
JACKSON-HARMSWORTH EXPEDITION, Return of the.
See (in this volume)
POLAR EXPEDITION, 1897.
JAMAICA: A. D. 1898.
Industrial condition.
See (in this volume)
WEST INDIES, THE BRITISH: A. D. 1897.
JAMAICA: A. D. 1899.
Financial crisis and conflict between
the Governor and the Legislative Assembly.
A crisis in the financial circumstances of the Colony,
consequent on expenditures exceeding revenue for several
years, was reached in 1899, and led to a serious conflict of
views between the Governor and the Legislative Assembly. The
latter is constituted of members partly elected and partly
appointed by the Governor. The elected members of the Assembly
had been in the majority, hitherto, but the Governor possessed
authority to add to the nominated membership, and he exercised
that authority, as a means of obtaining action on a tariff
bill which he held to be a necessary measure. He did so under
instructions from the British Colonial Secretary. Before this
occurred, an agent of the Colonial Office, Sir David Barbour,
had been sent to Jamaica to report on the financial situation.
His report, submitted in June, besides recommending financial
remedies, contained some references to the political
constitution of the colony—among them these:
{277}
"The peculiar constitution of the Government had … an
influence in bringing about, or aggravating the present
financial difficulties: When it was apparent that either more
revenue must be raised or expenditure must be reduced, the
Government was in favour of increasing taxation, while the
elected members of the Legislative Council pressed for
reductions of expenditure. From the nature of the
Constitution, the Government was practically unable to carry
proposals for increased taxation in opposition to the votes of
nine elected members, while the elected members could not in
any satisfactory manner enforce reduction of expenditure. The
present state of things shows that both increase of taxation
and reduction of expenditure were necessary, but though there
has been much friction in recent years, and great loss of time
in the Legislative Council, neither increase of taxation nor
reduction of expenditure was effected in any degree at all
adequate to avert the difficulties which were approaching. …
The Home Government are, in the last resort, responsible for
the financial condition of Jamaica, while, under ordinary
circumstances, the Colonial Office exercises at present no
real direct and immediate control over the finances. … It may
be taken for granted that under any circumstances Her
Majesty's Government would be unwilling to see the Colony sink
into a condition of insolvency without an effort for its
relief, and as the ultimate responsibility must, therefore,
rest on Her Majesty's Government it would seem better to
exercise the power of control, while it is still possible to
apply a remedy, rather than to wait until the mischief can
only be redressed at the cost of the British taxpayer. On the
other hand, as no real responsibility can be enforced on the
Elected Members, it seems necessary to give the Governor some
practicable means of enforcing his policy, and I would suggest
that this might be done by keeping the number of nominated
Members at its full strength so that in case of need the
Governor would only have to make the necessary declaration,
and would not have to go through the preliminary operation of
adding to the number of nominated Members."
On the 22d of August, the report of Sir David Barbour was
reviewed at length by the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Chamberlain,
in a despatch to Governor Hemming, and the above
recommendations were substantially approved and made
instructions to the Governor. "Two plain facts in connection
with this matter," said the Colonial Secretary, "must force
themselves upon the attention of all who study the question,
still more of all who are called upon to find a solution of
it. The first is, that 'the Home Government,' in Sir David
Barbour's words, 'are in the last resort responsible for the
financial condition of Jamaica.' The second is that as a
'working compromise,' the existing system has failed. It is a
compromise, but it has not worked. I am not now so much
concerned with principle as with practice. As a machine for
doing the work which has to be done the present system has
failed. It is in fact impossible, except where tact and
goodwill and friendly feeling exist in an unusual degree, for
the government of a country to be carried on when those who
are responsible for it are in a permanent minority in the
Legislature. I decline to allow the Jamaica Government to
remain in that position any longer, not merely because it is
unfair to them, but also because, recognizing the ultimate
responsibility of Her Majesty's Government for the solvency of
the Colony, I must ensure that the measures which they may
consider necessary are carried out. I must instruct you,
therefore, before the Legislative Council is again summoned,
to fill up the full number of nominated members and to retain
them, using at your discretion the power given you by the
Constitution to declare measures to be of paramount
importance. You will give the Council and the public to
understand that this step is taken by my express instructions.
It is my hope that the Elected Members will recognise that my
decision is based on public grounds, and has become
inevitable, that they will loyally accept it, and co-operate
with me and with you for the good of the Colony."
Great Britain,
Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command:
Jamaica, 1899 [C.-9412] and 1900 [Cd.-125]).
----------JAMESON, Dr. Leander S.: Start--------
JAMESON, Dr. Leander S.:
Administrator of Rhodesia.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY):
A. D. 1894-1895.
JAMESON, Dr. Leander S.:
Raid into the Transvaal.
Surrender.
Trial in England.
Imprisonment.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1895-1896.
JAMESON, Dr. Leander S.:
The German Emperor's message to President Kruger
concerning the Jameson Raid.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1896 (JANUARY).
JAMESON, Dr. Leander S.:
Investigation of the Raid by the Cape Colony Assembly.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE COLONY): A. D. 1896 (JULY).
JAMESON, Dr. Leander S.:
Indemnity for the Raid claimed by South African Republic.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D.1897 (FEBRUARY).
JAMESON, Dr. Leander S.:
British Parliamentary investigation of the Raid.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY-JULY).
----------JAMESON, Dr. Leander S.: End--------
----------JAPAN: Start--------
JAPAN: A. D. 1890-1898.
Rise of Parliamentary parties.
Working of Constitutional Government.
"When the Emperor's nominal authority was converted into a
reality by the overthrow of the Shogun in 1868, the work was
largely due to the four clans of Satsuma, Choshu, Hizen, and
Tosa. Their aim was to destroy the Shogunate and to create an
Imperial Government, and though many other motives actuated
them, these were the two main ideas of the revolution which
grew in importance and left political results. No sooner,
however, was the Imperial Government established than it was
found that the Satsuma clan was strongly divided. There were
within it a party in favour of reform, and another party, led
by Shimazu Saburo and Saigo Takamori, who clung to old
traditions. The sword had not yet given place to the
ballot-box, and the result of a bloody contest was the
annihilation of the reactionaries. There remained, therefore,
the Satsuma men loyal to the Emperor and to the absolute
government of 1868, and with them the Choshu, Hizen, Tosa, and
other clans. Some of these clans had not always been friendly
in the past. They found it difficult to work together now.
Marquis Ito has observed that Japanese politicians are more
prone to destroy than to construct, and an opportunity to
indulge this proclivity soon presented itself.
{278}
Although the four clans were equally pledged to secure
representative government eventually, jealousy of one another
drove two of them to take up this cry as a pretext for
dissolving the alliance. The Tosa clan, now represented by
Count Itagaki, seceded accordingly in 1873, and the Hizen
clan, represented by Count Okuma, followed its example eight
years afterwards. The former organised a party called the
Fuyu-to, or Liberals, and the latter the Kaishin-to, or
Progressives. The two remaining clans of Satsuma and Choshu
were called for shortness the Sat-Cho. Such was the origin of
parliamentary parties in Japan. There was no political issue
at stake; the moving cause was simply clan jealousy, and hence
it was that Hizen and Tosa did not join hands, though both
strenuously opposed the Sat-Cho Government and each posed as
the friend of the people. Consequently, when the first Diet
met, in November, 1890, the Sat-Cho Ministry, with Marquis
Yamagata as Premier, found itself face to face with a bitter
and, it must be added, an unscrupulous opposition."
H. N. G. Bushby,
Parliamentary Government in Japan
(Nineteenth Century, July, 1899).
"The history of the Japanese Parliament [see CONSTITUTION OF
JAPAN, in volume 1], briefly told, is as follows: The first
Diet was opened in November, 1890, and the twelfth session in
May, 1898. In this brief space of time there have been four
dissolutions and five Parliaments. From the very first the
collision between the Government and the Diet has been short
and violent. In the case of the first dissolution, in
December, 1891, the question turned on the Budget estimate,
the Diet insisting on the bold curtailment of items of
expenditure. In the second dissolution, in December, 1893, the
question turned on the memorial to be presented to the Throne,
the Opposition insisting in very strong terms on the necessity
of strictly enforcing the terms of treaties with Western
Powers, the Diet regarding the Cabinet as too weak-handed in
foreign politics. The third dissolution, in June, 1894, was
also on the same question. The Cabinet, in these two latter
cases, was under the presidency of Marquis Ito (then Count),
and was vigorously pushing forward negotiations for treaty
revision, through the brilliant diplomacy of Count Mutsu, the
Foreign Minister. This strict-enforcement agitation was looked
upon by the Government as a piece of anti-foreign agitation—a
Jingo movement—and as endangering the success of the
treaty-revision negotiations. In fact, the revised treaty with
Great Britain was on the latter date well-nigh completed, it
being signed in July following by Lord Kimberley and Viscount
Aoki. It was at this stage that the scepticism of foreign
observers as to the final success of representative
institutions in Japan seemed to reach its height. … Marquis
Ito and some of the most tried statesmen of the time were out
of office, forming a sort of reserve force, to be called out
at any grave emergency. But great was the disappointment when
it was seen that after Marquis Ito, with some of the most
trusted statesmen as his colleagues, had been in office but
little over a year, dissolution followed dissolution, and it
seemed that even the Father of the Constitution was unable to
manage its successful working. … There is no question that the
Constitutional situation was at that time exceedingly critical.
"But when the war broke out the situation was "But when the
war broke out the situation was completely changed. In the
August following the whole nation spoke and acted as if they
were one man and had but one mind. In the two sessions of the
Diet held during the war the Government was most ably
supported by the Diet, and everybody hoped that after the war
was over the same good-feeling would continue to rule the
Diet. On the other hand, it was well known that the Opposition
members in the Diet had clearly intimated that their support
of the Government was merely temporary, and that after the
emergency was over they might be expected to continue their
opposition policy. Sure enough, many months before the opening
of the ninth session, mutterings of deep discontent,
especially with reference to the retrocession of the Liaotung
peninsula, began to be widely heard, and it was much feared
that the former scenes of fierce opposition and blind
obstruction would be renewed. However, as the session
approached (December, 1896), rumours were heard of a certain
'entente' between the Government and the Liberal party, at
that time the largest and the best organised in the country.
And in the coming session the Government secured a majority,
through the support of the Liberals, for most of its important
Bills.
"Now this 'entente' between Marquis Ito and the Liberals was a
great step in advance in the constitutional history of the
country, and a very bold departure in a new direction on the
part of the Marquis. He was known to be an admirer of the
German system, and a chief upholder of the policy of Chozen
Naikaku, or the Transcendental Cabinet policy, which meant a
Ministry responsible to the Emperor alone. Marquis Ito saw
evidently at this stage the impossibility of carrying on the
Government without a secure parliamentary support, and Count
Itagaki, the Liberal leader, saw in the Marquis a faithful
ally, whose character as a great constructive statesman, and
whose history as the author of the Constitution, both forbade
his ever proving disloyal to the Constitution. The 'entente'
was cemented in May following by the entrance of Count Itagaki
into the Cabinet as the Home Minister. On the other hand, this
entente' led to the formation of the Progressist party by the
union of the six Opposition parties, as well as to the union
of Count Okuma, the Progressist leader, and Count Matsugata,
leader of the Kagoshima statesmen. Their united opposition was
now quite effective in harassing the administration. At this
stage certain neutral men, particularly Count Inouye,
suggested compromise, offering a scheme of a Coalition
Cabinet. … But Count Itagaki was firm in opposing such a
compromise, saying it was tantamount to the ignoring of party
distinction, and as such was a retrogression instead of being
a forward step in the constitutional history of the country.
He finally tendered his resignation. When Marquis Ito saw that
the Count was firm in his determination, he, too, resigned,
saying that he felt so deeply obliged to the Liberals for
their late parliamentary support that he would not let the
Count go out of office alone. Thus fell the Ito Ministry after
five years' brilliant service.
{279}
"The new Cabinet, formed in September, 1896, had Count
Matsukata for Premier and Treasury Minister; Count Okuma for
Foreign Minister; and Admiral Kabayama, the hero of the Yaloo
battle, for Home Minister. There were at this time three
things that the nation desired. It wanted to be saved from the
impending business depression. It wished to see Japanese
Chauvinism installed at the Foreign Office, and the shame of
the retrocession of the Liaotung peninsula wiped off. It
hoped, lastly, to see a Parliamentary Government inaugurated
and all the evils of irresponsible bureaucracy removed. The
statesmen now installed in office aspired to satisfy all these
desires, and they were expected to work wonders. But,
unfortunately, the Cabinet lacked unity. … Early in the fall
[of 1897] Count Okuma resigned office, saying that he felt
like a European physician in consultation over a case with
Chinese doctors. … Count Okuma led away the majority of the
Progressist party, and the Government was left with but an
insignificant number of supporters. As soon as the Diet met,
the spirit of opposition manifested was so strong that the
Ministers asked the Emperor to issue an edict for dissolution.
It was expected that the government would at once appeal to
the country with some strong programme. But to the
astonishment of everybody the Ministry resigned the very next
day. In the midst of the general confusion which followed,
Marquis Ito's name was in the mouth of everybody. He was
unanimously hailed as the only man to bring order into the
political situation. In January following [1898] the new
Cabinet was announced with Ito for Premier, Count Inouye for
the Treasury, and Marquis Saionji, one of the best cultured,
most progressive, and, perhaps, also most daring of the
younger statesmen, for Education Minister."
Tokiwo Yokoi,
New Japan and her Constitutional Outlook
(Contemporary Review, September, 1898).
JAPAN: A. D. 1895.
The war with China.
Treaty of Shimonoseki.
Korean independence secured.
Part of Feng-tien, Formosa and the Pescadores ceded by China.
Relinquishment of Feng-tien by Japan.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895.
JAPAN: A. D. 1896.
Affairs in Formosa.
Retirement of Marquis Ito.
Progressists in power.
Destructive sea-wave.
Serious risings of the Chinese in Formosa against the newly
established Japanese rule in that island were said to have
been caused by insolent and atrocious conduct on the part of
the Japanese soldiery. Possibly a decree which prohibited the
importation of opium into Formosa, and which placed the
medicinal sale of the drug under close restrictions, had
something to do with the discontent. In Japan, the able
statesman, Marquis Ito, was made unpopular by his yielding of
the Liao Tung peninsula (in the Fêng-tien province of
China,—see, in this volume, CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895), under
pressure from Russia, Germany and France. He retired from the
government, and Count Matsukata became Premier in September,
with a cabinet of the Progressist (Kaishinto) party, which
advocated resistance to Russia, and opposition generally to
the encouragement of foreign enterprises in Japan. A frightful
calamity was suffered in June, when a prodigious wave, probably
raised by some submarine volcano, overwhelmed a long stretch
of northeastern coast, destroying some 30,000 people, and
sweeping out of existence a number of considerable towns.
Annual Register, 1896.
JAPAN: A. D. 1897.
New tariff.
A new tariff, regulating the customs duties levied in all
cases wherein Japan is not bound by treaty stipulations, was
adopted in March, 1897. The duties imposed range from 5 to 40
per cent., ad valorem, the higher being laid upon liquors and
tobacco. The "Japan Gazette" is quoted as saying in
explanation: "The statutory tariff fixes the duties to be
collected on every article imported into Japan from countries
that have not concluded tariff conventions with her, or that
are not entitled to the most-favored-nation treatment in
regard to the tariff. Spain, Portugal, Greece, and many other
countries have no tariff conventions with Japan and no
favored-nation clause, in regard to tariff, in their new
treaties with this country. The United States, Belgium,
Holland, Russia, and others have the favored-nation clause and
will get the benefit of the lesser duties on items named in
the different mentioned tariffs. There will, therefore, be two
columns of figures in the printed general tariff list, showing in
the first column the duties on the articles named in the
conventional tariffs, and in the second column the duties on
the same articles imported from countries that have no tariff
convention with Japan, and that are not entitled to
favored-nation treatment. For instance, most textile articles
are subject to a duty of 10 per cent in the conventional
tariff column and to a duty of 15 per cent in the statutory
column."
United States Consular Reports,
July and September, 1897,
pages 475 and 91.
JAPAN: A. D. 1897 (October).
Introduction of the gold standard.
See (in this volume)
MONETARY QUESTIONS: A. D. 1897 (MARCH).
JAPAN: A. D. 1897 (November).
Treaty with the United States and Russia to suspend pelagic
sealing.
See (in this volume)
BERING SEA QUESTIONS.
JAPAN: A. D. 1897-1898.
Contentions with Russia in Korea.
See (in this volume)
KOREA: A. D. 1895-1898.
JAPAN: A. D. 1898-1899.
The struggle between clan government and party government.
"When, in January 1898, Marquis Ito made an attempt to win the
country back to non-party government and efficiency by forming
an independent Ministry in defiance of the Liberal demands, he
was acting no doubt from no mere clan instinct, but, as he
conceived, in the highest interests of the realm. His
experiment was not destined to succeed. In the general
election of March 1898, 109 Progressives and 94 Liberals were
returned as Representatives in a House of 300. A common hunger
for office and a common sense of humiliation at their
treatment by the greater statesmen of the clans united the two
parties under one banner as they had not been united since 1873.
At last they took up in earnest the crusade against clan
government, which, logically, they should have commenced
together exactly a quarter of a century before. They called
their coalition the 'Kensei-to,' or Constitutional Party.
Japan is a country of rapid progress, but she is lucky that
for twenty-five years the formation of the Kensei-to was
deferred while she was content to be guided through difficult
times by clansmen more skilled in statecraft than the usurient
nobodies who were kicking at the heels of Counts Okuma and
Itagaki.
{280}
"Meanwhile Marquis Ito had to decide how he would act. He had
tried to govern with the help of a party and had partially
succeeded. He had tried to govern without one, and had
discovered that it was impossible. The two parties could no
longer be played off one against the other. They were united,
and with fifty new recruits formed the Kensei-to, 253 strong.
There remained only nineteen clan government sympathisers,
calling themselves National Unionists, and twenty-eight
Independents. In these difficult circumstances Marquis Ito's
decision was a bold one, and in its consequences far-reaching.
He advised that Count Okuma, the Progressive leader of the
Kensei-to should be summoned to form a Cabinet in conjunction
with his Liberal colleague, Count Itagaki. His advice was
followed by the Emperor, but with the significant condition
that the Ministries of War and the Navy were to be retained by
clansmen. The Emperor was not disposed to allow constitutional
experiments in these departments. On the 28th of June 1898,
Marquis Ito resigned, and on the 30th the Okuma-Itagaki
Cabinet was formed.
"It now seemed to many that the death-blow had been given to
clan government, and that at last the era of government by
party had commenced. … The elements of which the Kensei-to was
composed were the two great ones of the Progressives, led by
Count Okuma, and the Liberals, led by Count Itagaki. These two
parties acted together in a condition of veiled hostility.
There was coalition without any approach to amalgamation. A
common hunger for office, a common dislike for clan
government, obscured for a little while a mutual jealousy and
distrust. Meanwhile the Kensei-to as a whole, and both wings
of it, were divided into endless clubs, cliques, and
associations. Our own Temperance, Colonial, Church, and China
parties are affable and self-effacing in comparison. Thus, to
name only a few of the political divisions of the Kensei-to,
there were the territorial associations of the Kwanto-kai (led
by Mr. Hoshi), the Hokuriku-kai (led by Mr. Sugita), the
Kyushu Kurabu (led by Mr. Matsuda), the Tohoku-dantai, the
Chugoku-kai, and the Shigoku-kai; there were the Satsuma
section, the Tosa section, the Kakushinto, the Young
Constitutionalists, the Senior Politicians (such as Baron
Kusumoto, Mr. Hiraoka, the chief organiser of the coalition,
and others), the Central Constitutionalist Club, and so forth.
Each clique had its private organisation and animosities; each
aspired to dictate to the Cabinet and secure portfolios for
its members in the House. They combined and recombined among
themselves. … Clearly, however loyally the two leaders wished
to work together, each must find it impossible in such
circumstances to preserve discipline among his own followers.
Indeed, the leaders scarcely tried to lead. … It was
impossible to carry on the Government under such conditions.
The Okuma-Itagaki Cabinet fell, and Field Marshal the Marquis
Yamagata, Premier of the first Japanese Ministry, was summoned
by the Emperor. Once more a clan Ministry, independent of
party, was formed; once more it seemed as though party
government was to be indefinitely postponed. … Marquis
Yamagata formed his Ministry in November 1898, on strictly
clan lines. … Being an old soldier, he wisely determined to
profit by experience and seek an ally. No one knew better than
himself the need of passing the Land Tax Bill, on which the
efficiency of the national defence and the future of Japan
depended. … It was natural, therefore, for him to approach the
Liberals, who had shown themselves favourable to an increase
of the Land Tax. … On the 27th of November the support of the
Liberals was assured, an event which prompted the 'Jiji' to
express its joy that Marquis Yamagata had become a party man,
leaving 'the mouldy, effete cause of the non-partisan
Ministry.' The Government party consisted now of the National
Unionists (in favour of clan government' and loyal followers
of Marquis Yamagata), the Liberals, and a few so-called
Independents (who, of course, speedily formed themselves into
a club), giving the Government a majority of about fifteen or
twenty votes in the House. …
"The first session of Marquis Yamagata's second Ministry will
always be remembered in Japan because the Land Tax Bill was
successfully passed through both Houses. … But the most
important episode of the session, from a parliamentary point
of view, was a remarkable act of self-denial on the part of
the Liberals. In March of this year [1899] they agreed not to
demand office from Marquis Yamagata for any of their number,
though they were to be free to accept such offices as he might
of his own bounty from time to time be able to offer them. If
this unprecedented pledge be loyally adhered to, it marks a
very great stride towards effective party government in the
future. … The hope of the Liberals now lies, not in the
immediate enjoyment of the sweets of office, but in winning
over Marquis Ito to their party. If he were to show the way,
it is probable that many more of the leading clan statesmen
would take sides, in which case, to adopt Mr. Bodley's phrase,
political society would be divided vertically as in England, not
horizontally as in France, and either party on obtaining a
majority in the House would be able to find material in its
own ranks for an efficient Cabinet. At present neither is in
that happy position."
H. N. G. Bushby,
Parliamentary Government in Japan
(Nineteenth Century, July, 1899).
JAPAN: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
JAPAN: A. D. 1899 (July).
Release from the treaties with Western Powers
which gave them exterritorial rights.
Consular jurisdictions abolished.
"Japan has been promoted. The great sign that Europe regards a
Power as only semi-civilised is the demand that all who visit
it, or trade in it, should be exempted from the jurisdiction
of the local Courts, the Consuls acting when necessary as
Judges. This rule is maintained even when the Powers thus
stigmatised send Ambassadors, and is, no doubt, very keenly
resented. It seems specially offensive to the Japanese, who
have a high opinion of their own merits, and they have for
seventeen years demanded the treatment accorded to fully
civilised States. As the alliance of Japan is now earnestly
sought by all Europe this has been conceded, and on Monday,
July 17th, the Consular jurisdiction ceased. (Owing to some
blunder, the powers of the French and Austrian Consuls last a
fortnight longer, but the difference is only formal.) The
Japanese are highly delighted, and the European traders are
not displeased, as with the Consular jurisdictions all
restrictions on trading with the interior disappear."
The Spectator
(London), July 22, 1899.
{281}
The early treaties of Japan with Western Powers, which gave
the latter what are called rights of extra-territoriality, or
exterritoriality, for all their subjects (the right, that is,
to administer their own laws, by their own consular or other
courts, upon their own subjects, within a foreign country),
were modified in 1894. Japan then became free to extinguish
the foreign courts on her soil at the end of five years, upon
giving a year's notice, which she did as stated above. Her
government has thus attained a recognized peerage in
sovereignty with the governments of the Western world. At the
same time, the whole country has been thrown open to foreign
trade—restricted previously to certain ports.
In careful preparation of the Japanese people for this
important change in their relations with the foreign world,
the following imperial rescript was issued at the end of June,
1899: "The revision of the treaties, our long cherished aim,
is to-day on the eve of becoming an accomplished fact; a
result which, while it adds materially to the responsibilities
of our Empire, will greatly strengthen the basis of our
friendship with foreign countries. It is our earnest wish that
our subjects, whose devoted loyalty in the discharge of their
duties is conspicuous, should enter earnestly into our
sentiments in this matter, and, in compliance with the great
policy of opening the country, should all unite with one heart
to associate cordially with the peoples from afar, thus
maintaining the character of the nation and enhancing the
prestige of the Empire. In view of the responsibilities that
devolve upon us in giving effect to the new treaties, it is
our will that our ministers of state, acting on our behalf,
should instruct our officials of all classes to observe the
utmost circumspection in the management of affairs, to the end
that subjects and strangers alike may enjoy equal privileges
and advantages, and that, every source of dissatisfaction
being avoided, relations of peace and amity with all nations
may be strengthened and consolidated in perpetuity."
Obedient to this command, the Minister President of State,
Marquis Yamagata, published the following instruction on the
1st of July: "The work of revising the treaties has caused
deep solicitude to His August Majesty since the centralization
of the Government, and has long been an object of earnest desire
to the people. More than twenty years have elapsed since the
question was opened by the dispatch of a special embassy to
the West in 1871. Throughout the whole of that interval,
numerous negotiations were conducted with foreign countries
and numerous plans discussed, until finally, in 1884, Great
Britain took the lead in concluding a revised treaty, and the
other powers all followed in succession, so that now the
operation of the new treaties is about to take place on the
17th of July and the 4th of August.
"The revision of the treaties in the sense of placing on a
footing of equality the intercourse of this country with
foreign states was the basis of the great liberal policy
adopted at the time of the restoration, and that such a course
conduces to enhance the prestige of the Empire and to promote
the prosperity of the people is a proposition not requiring
demonstration. But if there should be anything defective in
the methods adopted for giving effect to the treaties, not
merely will the object of revision be sacrificed, but also the
country's relations with friendly powers will be impaired and its
prestige may be lowered. It is, of course, beyond question
that any rights and privileges accruing to us as a result of
treaty revision should be duly asserted. But there devolves
upon the Government of this Empire the responsibility, and
upon the people of this Realm the duty, of protecting the
rights and privileges of foreigners, and of sparing no effort
that they may one and all be enabled to reside in the country
confidently and contentedly. It behooves all officials to
clearly apprehend the august intentions and to pay profound
attention to these points."
With still finer care for the honor and good name of Japan,
the following instruction to schools was published on the same
day by Count Kabayma, the Minister of State for Education:
"The schools under the direct control of the Government serve
as models to all the public and private educational
institutions throughout the country. It is therefore my
earnest desire that the behavior of the students at such
schools should be regulated with notably strict regard to the
canons of propriety, so that they may show themselves worthy
of the station they occupy. The date of the operation of the
revised treaties is now imminent, and His Imperial Majesty has
issued a gracious rescript. It may be expected that the coming
and going of foreigners in the interior of the country will
henceforth grow more frequent, and if at such a time students
be left without proper control, and suffered to neglect the
dictates of propriety by cherishing sentiments of petty
arrogance and behaving in a violent, outrageous, or vulgar
manner, not only will the educational systems be brought into
discredit, but also the prestige of the country will be
impaired and its reputation may even be destroyed. For that
reason I have addressed an instruction to the local governors
urging them to guard against any defects in educational
methods, and I am now constrained to appeal to the Government
schools which serve for models. I trust that those upon whom
the functions of direction and teaching devolve, paying
respectful attention to the august intention, will discharge
their duties carefully towards the students, and, by securing
the latter's strict adherence to rules, will contrive that
they shall serve as a worthy example to the schools throughout
the country."
United States Consular Reports,
October, 1899, page 285.
JAPAN: A. D. 1899 (August).
Prohibition of religious instruction in the government schools.
Some important regulations for the national schools were
promulgated in August by the Minister of Education, having the
effect, probably intended, of discouraging attendance at the
Christian mission schools, and stimulating a preference for
the schools of the national system. They forbade religious
exercises or instruction in any schools that adopt the
curriculum of the national schools, while, at the same time,
they allow admission from no others to the higher schools of
the national system without examination. Students in the
middle schools of the national system are exempted from
conscription, while others are not. That the aim in this
policy is to strengthen the national schools, rather than to
interfere with religious freedom, seems probable.
{282}
JAPAN: A. D. 1899 (December).
Adhesion to the arrangement of an "open door" commercial
policy in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899-1000 (SEPTEMBER-FEBRUARY).
JAPAN: A. D. 1900.
Naval strength.
See (in this volume)
NAVIES OF THE SEA POWERS.
JAPAN: A. D. 1900 (June-December).
Co-operation with the Powers in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA.
JAPAN: A. D. 1900 (July)
Failure of attempts to entrust the Japanese government
with the rescue of the foreign Legations at Peking.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JUNE-JULY).
JAPAN: A. D. 1900 (August-October).
The new party of Marquis Ito.
The letters of the Tokio correspondent of the London "Times"
describe interestingly the genesis of a new party of which
Marquis Ito has taken the lead, and which took control of the
government in October, 1900. Various parties, the career of
which the writer reviews, had been formed in opposition to the
veteran statesmen who continued to hold the reins of government
after constitutional forms were introduced in 1880. But very
few of the party politicians who constructed these parties,
says the writer, had held high office. "They were without the
prestige of experience. To put such men on the administrative
stage while the gallery was occupied by the greybeards—the
'Meiji statesmen,' as they are called—who had managed the
country's affairs since the Restoration, would have seemed a
strange spectacle in the eyes of the nation. The Meiji
statesmen, however, persistently declined to be drawn into the
ranks of the political parties. They gave the latter plenty of
rope; they even allowed them to administer the State, which
essay ended in a fiasco; and they took them into alliances
which served chiefly to demonstrate the eagerness of these
politicians for office and emoluments. But there was no
amalgamation. The line of demarcation remained indelible. …
"The political parties, discovering the impossibility of
becoming a real power in the State without the coöperation of
the Meiji statesmen, asked Marquis Ito to assume their
leadership. Marquis Ito may be said to possess everything that
his country can give him. He has the unbounded confidence of
his Sovereign and his countrymen; he is loaded with titles and
honours, and a word from him can make or mar a Ministry. It
seems strange that such a man should step down from his
pedestal to become a party leader; to occupy a position which
can bring no honour and must at once create enemies. Yet
Marquis Ito has consented. He issued his manifesto. It is in
two respects a very remarkable document. First, it tells the
politicians that their great fault has been self-seeking; that
they have set party higher than country; office and emolument
above public duty and political responsibility. Secondly, it
informs them in emphatic terms that Parliamentary Cabinets are
unconstitutional in Japan; that "Ministers and officials must
be appointed by the Sovereign without any reference to their
party connexions. The politicians who place themselves under
Marquis Ito's leadership must eschew the former failing and
abandon the latter heresy. It would be impossible to imagine a
more complete reversal of the tables. The men who, ten years
ago, asked the nation to condemn the Meiji statesmen on a
charge of political self-seeking are now publicly censured by
the chief of these statesmen for committing the very same sin
in their own persons; and the men who for ten years have made
Parliamentary Cabinets the text of their agitation now enrol
themselves in a party which openly declares such Cabinets to
be unconstitutional."
The new party calls itself the "Association of Friends of the
Constitution" (Rikken Seiyukai). "In its ranks are found the
whole of the Liberals, and many members of the Diet who had
hitherto maintained an independent attitude, so that it can
count on 152 supporters among the 300 members of the Lower
House. … The Opposition, the Progressists, command only 90
votes, and the remainder of the House is composed mainly of
men upon whose support the Cabinet can always reckon. In fact,
now for the first time since the Diet opened, does the
direction of State affairs come into the hands of Ministers
who may rest assured of Parliamentary cooperation."
Marquis Yamagata, who had conducted the administration for
nearly two years, resigned in October, and Marquis Ito brought
his new party into power. His Cabinet "does not include one of
the elder statesmen—the 'clan statesmen'—except the marquis
himself. Among the seven portfolios that have changed
hands—those of War and of the Navy are still held as before—
three have been given to unequivocal party politicians,
leaders of the Liberals, and four to men who may be regarded
as Marquis Ito's disciples. … The Yamagata Cabinet consisted
entirely of clan statesmen and their followers. The Ito
Cabinet has a clan statesman for leader and his nominees for
members. It may be called essentially a one man Ministry, so
far does the Premier tower above the heads of his colleagues."
JAPAN: A. D. 1900-1901.
Strategic importance of Korea.
Interest in the designs of Russia.
See (in this volume)
KOREA: A. D. 1900.
JAPAN: A. D. 1901.
Movement to erect a monument to commemorate the
visit of Commodore Perry.
A movement in Japan to erect a monument at Kurihama, the
landing place of the American expedition, commanded by
Commodore Matthew C. Perry, which visited Japan in 1853 and
brought about the opening of that country to intercourse with
the western world (see, in volume 3, JAPAN: A. D. 1852-1888),
was announced to the State Department at Washington by the U.
S. Consul-General at Yokohama, in March, 1901. The undertaking
is directed by the "American Association of Japan," of which
the Japanese Minister of Justice is President, and its purpose
is to commemorate an event which the Association, in a
published circular, declares to be "the most memorable" in the
annals of Japan. The language of the circular, in part, is as
follows: "This visit of Commodore Perry was in a word the
turning of the key which opened the doors of the Japanese
Empire to friendly intercourse with the United States, and
subsequently to the rest of the nations of Europe on similar
terms, and may in truth be regarded as the most memorable
event in our annals—an event which paved the way for and
accelerated the introduction of a new order of things, an
event that enabled the country to enter upon the unprecedented
era of National ascendancy in which we are now living.
{283}
Japan has not forgotten—nor will she ever forget—that next to
her reigning and most beloved sovereign, whose high virtues
and great wisdom are above all praise, she owes, in no small
degree, her present prosperity to the United States of
America, in that the latter rendered her a great and lasting
service already referred to. After the lapse of these
forty-eight years, her people, however, have come to entertain
but an uncertain memory of Kurihama, and yet it was there that
Commodore Perry first trod on the soil of Japan and for the
first time awoke the country from a slumberous seclusion of
three centuries—there it was where first gleamed the light
that has ever since illumined Japan's way in her new career of
progress."
----------JAPAN: End--------
JESUS, Discovery of a fragment of the Logia or Sayings of.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT: DISCOVERY OF A FRAGMENT.
----------JEWS: Start--------
JEWS:
Discovery of the sole mention of the people of Israel in
Egyptian inscriptions.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT: RESULTS.
JEWS:
General results of recent archæological research as affecting
our knowledge of the ancient Hebrews.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: IN BIBLE LANDS.
JEWS: A. D. 1897:
Freedom of residence in Russia given
to the university educated.
See (in this volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1897.
JEWS: A. D. 1897-1901.
The Zionist movement.
"The three closing days of August [1897] saw a congress at
Basle concerning the significance of which friends and foes
alike seem already pretty well agreed. It was the Congress of
Zionists. Zionists! Until then that word was almost unknown to
the public at large. Zionism virtually made its bow to the
Gentile world at Basle, and disclosed for the first time what
its aims and its needs were. … It was in my work, 'The Jewish
State,' which appeared a year and a half ago, that I first
formulated what the Congress at Basle virtually adopted as an
axiom. In the terms of that definition: 'Zionism has for its
object the creation of a home, secured by public rights, for
those Jews who either cannot or will not be assimilated in the
country of their adoption.'
"Nothing was more instructive at the Basle Congress than the
vigour—I might almost say violence—with which the
representatives of the great Jewish strata of population
resisted any attempt to limit the guarantees for a State based
on public rights. The executive appointed to draw up a
programme had proposed 'a legally secured home.' The
delegates, however, were not satisfied, and clamoured for an
alteration to 'secured on the basis of international rights.'
It was only by adopting the intermediary expression 'public
rights' that an agreement was arrived at. The significance of
this logomachy is, that what the Jews desire is not to acquire
more tracts of land, but a country for the Jewish people, and
to emphasise that desire in terms as plain as possible without
wounding certain legitimate and sovereign susceptibilities. We
can acquire land any day in our private right everywhere. But
that is not the point with Zionists. In our case we have
nothing to do with private rights. That will come later—as
well as the land speculators—once our movement has achieved
success. What the Zionists are alone directing their attention
to is the 'public rights' idea. In that they hope to find a
remedy for the old evil. Were I to express myself
paradoxically, I should say that a country belonging to the
Jews on the basis of public rights, even though down to the
very last parcel it was the legally secured property of
non-Jews, would mean the final solution of the Jewish
question. … We have held a gathering at Basle before the whole
world, and there we saw the national consciousness and the
popular will break forth, at times like a convulsive upheaval.
To Basle came Jews of all countries, of all tongues, of all
parties, and of all forms of religious confession. There were
more than 200 representatives of the Jewish people—most of
them delegates for hundreds and thousands. Men from Roumania
alone brought over 50,000 signatures of those who had sent
them there. There surely was never such a motley assembly of
opinions in such a narrow space before. On the other hand,
there would certainly have been more conflict of opinion in
any other deliberative assembly than there was in this. …
"It would … appear to be to the interest of Turkey to come to
an arrangement with the Jews. But, what are the interests
which other Governments would have in assisting the
realisation of a legally guaranteed Jewish home? The interest
would vary with each country, but it is present in some form
or other everywhere. It would mean the drawing off of an
unhappy and detested element of population which is reduced
more and more to a condition of despair, and which, scattered
over the face of the earth, and in a state of unrest, must
perforce identify itself with the most extreme parties
everywhere. Governments and all friends of the existing order
of things cannot bring themselves to believe that, by helping
us in the solution we propose, they could give peace to an
element which has been driven to revolution and rendered
dangerous through its dispersion. That a highly conservative
people, like the Jews, have always been driven into the ranks
of revolutionists is the most lamentable feature in the
tragedy of our race. Zionism would mean an end to all that. We
should see results accrue for the general condition of
mankind, the full benefits of which we cannot even guess.
There are, of course, a great number of existing political
difficulties to be overcome, but these, given the necessary
good will, might be surmounted."
Theodor Herzl,
The Zionist Congress
(Contemporary Review, October, 1897).
{284}
"The programme of the Philo-Zionists as defined in their
printed constitution is as follows:
(a) To foster the national idea in Israel.
(b) To promote the colonization of Palestine and neighbouring
territories by Jews, by establishing new colonies and
assisting those already established.
(c) To diffuse the knowledge of Hebrew as a living language.
(d) To further the moral, intellectual, and material status of
Israel.
The English Association, known as the Chovevi Zion, is
presided over by Colonel Albert Edward Goldsmid, Assistant
Adjutant-General of Her Majesty's Forces; it has 35
established 'Tents' spread through the length and breadth of
the United Kingdom. … Similar associations have been
established in America, Germany, France, Russia, Austria,
Denmark, Switzerland, and other countries; and there is a
central committee meeting at Paris, where the organisation of
new colonies and development of existing ones in the Holy Land
is systematically carried out. Even before these associations
had been called into existence Baron Edmond de Rothschild of
Paris, encouraged by the success of the agricultural schools
at Jaffa, founded by the late Charles Netter, had devoted his
vast influence and his open purse to the work; and there is a
separate administration in Palestine charged with the control
and management of what are known as 'the Baron's colonies.'
"To-day we have in Palestine between twenty and thirty
distinct colonies or communities spreading along the coast
from Askalon in the south to Carmel in the north, and along
the Jordan from the Waters of Meron to the Sea of Galilee in
the east. The population of these colonies varies from 100 to
700 souls, and they may safely be estimated to number 10,000
souls in all, independently of the large number of Jewish day
labourers from neighbouring towns and villages, to whom they
give occasional employment. There are 50,000 more Jews—mostly
refugees—in the various Holy Cities, and the immediate problem
is to get these—or the better part of them—also on the land.
The current language of the colonists is the Hebrew of the
Bible, although many of them have acquired the native Arabic,
and also French, which is taught in their schools. They have
their places of worship, their houses of study, their modest
institutes, their public baths, and in fact the counterpart in
small of all the features of the model European village: and
they have, thanks to the Baron and the Philo-Zionists'
Associations, the most modern appliances and complete
installations for the prosecution of their agricultural
works."
Herbert Bentwich,
Philo-Zionists and Anti-Semites
(Nineteenth Century, October, 1897).
"At the beginning of March, 1898, an important Conference was
held in London, attended by delegates from nearly 50
societies, representing 10,000 English Zionists, and
resolutions were passed adopting the International programme,
and making provisions for a federation of all the English
Zionist bodies. Similar conferences were held in New York, in
Berlin, in Galatz (Roumania), and other great centres; and
local federations were everywhere formed to give greater
strength and solidity to the general organization. At the
second International Congress, which was held at Basle in
August, 1898, and was attended by an imposing body of more
than 500 delegates, the Executive Committee were able to
report that the 'Basle programme' had received the support of
913 Zionist organizations (out of which over 700 had sprung up
since the first Congress), it being calculated that these
represented at least a quarter of a million of active members.
The Congress had become the authorised representative and
exponent of the people's wishes, and the Zionists had become a
power to be reckoned with in any settlement of the Jewish
question. Prominent among the attendants at this world
gathering were the Rabbis—crown officials from orthodox Russia
and Poland, as well as the elect of reform congregations from
America—who took an active interest in the settlement of the
programme of work for the ensuing year, which was the main
business of the meeting."
H. Bentwich,
The Progress of Zionism
(Fortnightly Review, December, 1898).
At the International Zionist Congress which assembled in
London on the 13th of August, 1900, the report of the
executive committee on the progress which the movement has
made showed as follows: "In Russia there are at least 100,000
members of Zionist societies; in England the movement is
supported by 38 societies, as against 16 last year, and all
these societies have increased membership. Thanks to the work
of the English Zionist Federation Zionism has made great
headway in England. In the United States there are 135
societies, as against 102 last year. Notwithstanding the war
in South Africa, the contributions towards the expenses of the
movement have been well maintained. Having regard to the
returns received by the executive committee the reporter felt
no hesitation in saying that to-day the vast majority of the
Jewish nation were in favour of Zionism."
London Times,
August 15, 1900.
Late in December, 1900, it was announced at Vienna that the
Sultan had issued or renewed a decree, according to which the
Jews are forbidden to remain in Palestine for longer than
three months. This measure, which applies both to traders and
pilgrims, further prohibits the acquisition by Jews of landed
property. It was suggested that the wholesale exodus of Jews
from Russia and their recent emigration from Rumania gave rise
to the apprehension that they might overcrowd Palestine. This
apprehension is said to have been strengthened by the
increasing activity of the Zionists, who are suspected in
certain circles in Constantinople of pursuing distinct
political ends. According to another suggestion, Russia had
grown jealous of the Jewish colonization of Palestine, fearing
it to be in the interest of German policy, and had used
influence to check it.
"Viewed merely on its prosaic side, Zionism is by no means a
visionary scheme. The aggregation of Jews in Palestine is only
a matter of time, and it is better that they should be
aggregated there under their own laws and religion, and the
mild suzerainty of the Sultan, than under the semi-barbarous
restrictions of Russia or Roumania, and exposed to recurrent
popular outbreaks. True, Palestine is a ruined country, and
the Jews are a broken people, but neither is beyond
recuperation. Palestine needs a people, Israel needs a
country. If, in regenerating the Holy Land, Israel could
regenerate itself, how should the world be other than the
gainer? In the solution of the problem of Asia, which has just
succeeded the problem of Africa, Israel might play no
insignificant part. Already the colony of Rishon le Zion has
obtained a gold medal for its wines from the Paris Exposition,
which is not prejudiced in the Jew's favor.
{285}
We may be sure the spiritual wine of Judæa would again pour
forth likewise that precious vintage which the world has drunk
for so many centuries. And as the unscientific activities of
the colonization societies would have paved the way for the
pastoral and commercial future of Israel in its own country,
so would the rabbinical sing-song in musty rooms prove to have
been but the unconscious preparation of the ages for the
Jerusalem University.
"But Palestine belongs to the Sultan, and the Sultan refuses
to grant the coveted Judæan Charter, even for dangled
millions. Is not this fatal? No, it matters as little as that
the Zionists could not pay the millions, if suddenly called
upon. They have barely collected a quarter of a million (in
English pounds). But there are millionaires enough to come to
the rescue, once the charter was dangled before the Zionists.
It is not likely that the Rothschilds would see themselves
ousted from their familiar headship in authority and
well-doing, nor would the millions left by Baron Hirsch be
altogether withheld. And the Sultan's present refusal is
equally unimportant, because a national policy is independent
of transient moods and transient rulers. The only aspect that
really matters is whether Israel's face be, or be not, set
steadily Zionwards,—for decades and even for centuries. Much
less turns on the Sultan's mind than on Dr. Herzl's. Will he
lose patience? for leaders like Herzl are not born in every
century."
I. Zangwill,
The Wandering Jew and the New Century
(Sunday School Times, January 12, 1901).
JEWS: A. D. 1899.
In Palestine.
"In view of the impetus given the Zionist movement by the
second Zionist congress, held at Basel in September, and also
by the Palestine journey of Emperor Wilhelm II, the present
status of Jews in Palestine becomes a matter of general
interest. Out of a total population in Palestine of some
200,000 souls, about 40,000 are Jews, as against 14,000 twenty
years ago. In Jerusalem, there are 22,000 Jews, half of whom
have immigrated from Europe and America and are called
Asehkenazim to distinguish them from the oriental Israelites,
the Sephardists. Nine hundred and sixty families, numbering
about 5,000 souls, inhabit the twenty-two Jewish colonies in
Palestine which have been founded and subsidized by Europeans
—ten by Baron Edmond de Rothschild, representing the Alliance
Israélite Universelle; the rest by the Jewish Colonization
Association and by the Odessa Company.
"The idea of gathering in Palestine homeless Jews scattered
all over the globe was championed in the forties by Moses
Montefiore, but with indifferent success. In the eighties,
however, the immigration of Jews to Palestine assumed
significant proportions. Of the twenty-two present colonies,
the 'Jacob Memorial' is the largest, supporting more than
1,000 souls. It boasts a graded school (five teachers), a
synagogue, etc., and 4,000 acres of land under cultivation, on
which are raised fruit (chiefly grapes), honey, and mulberry
leaves, the rearing of silkworms being a leading industry. The
'First to Zion' is another quite important colony, owning
2,000 acres of land. Some forty two-storied stone dwelling
houses greet the eye of the approaching stranger; also a
school house with a Hebrew library, a synagogue, and a
hospital. One million five hundred thousand vines and 25,000
olive, almond, orange, and mulberry trees belong to this
colony, which also possesses famous wine cellars. The 'Hope of
Israel,' a mile beyond Yafa, in the plains of Sharon, is
perhaps best known for its agricultural school, in which one
hundred or more pupils are taught gardening. Recently, a high
school for Jewish girls was established in Yafa. The 'Head
Corner Stone,' amid the hills beyond Tiberias, with
snow-capped Hermon in the background, is another quite
prosperous Jewish colony in Palestine. Being near the source
of the Jordan, water is plentiful; and its situation, high up
above the level of Lake Gennesareth, insures fair climatic
conditions. In the 'Door of Hope,' dairy farming is profitably
followed and experiments made in tea planting. This colony is
said to have 1,000,000 vines.
"Entirely irrespective of whether or not the Zionists will
succeed in awakening in the Jewish people a national spirit
and forming a Judean monarchy or republic, with its parliament
in Jerusalem and its representation in foreign capitals, the
present agitation makes for the development of a country which
is but a shadow of its former self, and which will generously
respond to modern influences. The Sultan seems quite disposed
to grant railway, harbor, and other franchises, and it is
possible that the new Jewish Colonial Bank, the organization
of which was decided upon in Basel, will be permitted, under
certain guaranties, to play an important part in the
industrial advancement and growth of Palestine. The movement
is furthermore bringing out new qualities in the Jews residing
in Palestine. They are no longer content with studying the
Talmud and living on charity, but are waking to the fact, as
the Hebrew would put it, that to till the ground is worship of
God.
"It should not be inferred from statements here made that
peace and prosperity have suddenly become the lot of the Jews
in Palestine. Only a few days ago, Rev. William King Eddy, of
Sidon, returned from beyond the Jordan, and he informs me that
a Jewish colony situated not far from El Mzerib (on the
caravan route from Damascus to Mekka) was recently attacked by
predatory Bedouin tribes. The settlers were all driven away,
their gardens and crops destroyed. Even a road built by the
Jews to connect their frontier colony with older ones in
Galilee, west of the river, was at least partially
obliterated. Taxes are more oppressive than ever, officials
are corrupt, and prohibitive measures regarding immigration
are still in force, although inadequate. I think, however, I
am justified in saying that the prospects are brighter than
ever for the Jews in Palestine and for Palestine itself.
European influence has obtained a foothold in the country, and
the tide of modern ideas can not be long debarred. Only four
or five weeks ago, an English company announced its
determination to build a broad-gauge railway from the sea at
Haifa through the very heart of Samaria and Galilee to
Damascus and on to Bagdad, and active operations have already
commenced."
G. B. Ravndal,
United States Consul at Beirut
(United States Consular Reports, April, 1899, page 691).
{286}
JEWS: A. D. 1901.
Turkish order regulating visits to Palestine.
A Press telegram from Washington, February 16, 1901, states
that "Consul Merrill, at Jerusalem, has reported to the State
Department that the Turkish Minister of the Interior at
Constantinople has issued an order relative to Jews who visit
Palestine, which went into effect on January 29. The order
applies to an Jews who come to Palestine from other countries
as pilgrims or visitors. The conditions of the order are as
follows: On arriving at Joppa the visitor must deliver his
passport to the Turkish authorities and receive therefor a
Turkish document. The visitor is allowed to stay in the
country three months, when he must leave, surrendering the
Turkish permit and receiving his own. Foreign consuls are to
compel the Jews who overstay the three months' period to leave
Turkey."
----------JEWS: End--------
JOAN OF ARC, The Beatification of.
The beatification of Joan of Are, recommended by the
Congregation of Rites, at Rome, was pronounced by the Pope,
January 28, 1894.
JOHANNESBURG: Origin.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1885-1890.
JOHANNESBURG: A. D. 1895-1896.
Revolutionary conspiracy of Uitlanders.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1895-1896.
JOHANNESBURG: A. D. 1900.
Taken by the British forces.
See (in this volume))
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1900 MAY-JUNE).
JOINT HIGH COMMISSION, Anglo-American.
See (in this volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1898-1899.
JOLO, The Sultan of.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (MAY-AUGUST).
JONES, Samuel M., Mayor of Toledo.
See (in this volume)
TOLEDO, OHIO: A. D. 1899-1901.
JOUBERT, General Pietrus Jacobus:
In the South African War.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
JOUBERT, General Pietrus Jacobus:
Death.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1900 (MARCH).
JUBILEE, The Diamond, of Queen Victoria.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (JUNE).
JUBILEE OF THE HOLY YEAR 1900, Proclamation of the Universal.
See (in this volume)
PAPACY: A. D. 1900-1901.
JU JU SACRIFICE.
See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1807.
K.
KAFIRISTAN: Its conquest by the Afghans.
See (in this volume)
AFGHANISTAN: A. D. 1896.
KAGAYAN, or CAGAYAN, The American acquisition of.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).
KAIRWAN: Opened to tourists.
See (in this volume)
TUNIS: A. D. 1881-1898.
KAISER WILHELM II.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY.
KAISER WILHELM SHIP CANAL, The.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1895 (JUNE).
KAMERUNS, The: Cost of maintenance.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1809 (JUNE).
KANG YEU-WEI, Chinese reformer.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-SEPTEMBER), and after.
KAPILAVASTU, Discovery of the ruins of.
See (in this volume)
BUDDHA.
KARNAK, Fall of eleven columns of the temple of.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT: FALL OF KARNAK COLUMNS.
KASSALA, Italian evacuation of.
See (in this volume)
ITALY: A. D. 1897.
KATIPUNAN, The.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1896-1898.
KEARSARGE, Loss of the.
The United States cruiser Kearsarge, destroyer of the
Alabama, was totally wrecked, February 2. 1894, on
Roncadore Reef, off the Mosquito coast, her crew being
saved.
KENGI.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.
KENTUCKY: A. D. 1895-1900.
Political conflicts.
Assassination of Governor Goebel.
In 1895 a Republican Governor, William O. Bradley, was elected
in Kentucky by a majority of nearly 9,000 votes. In 1896 the
conflict of political parties became fierce and dangerous, on
the occasion of the election of au United States Senator to
succeed the Democratic incumbent, J. C. S. Blackburn, whose
term would expire March 3d, 1897. On joint ballot in the
Legislature the Republicans and Democrats had 68 votes each,
and the Populists had 2,—the latter thus bolding a balance of
power: But the two Populist members were divided, and the
Democrats could not act together, owing to the division in
their party on the money question. The "sound-money" Democrats
refused support to Senator Blackburn, who obtained the caucus
nomination of his party for re-election, and their votes were
scattered. The Republicans were united on a candidate, and
secured one of the Populist votes, but needed one more to give
them a majority. They attempted to win the needed vote by
unseating a Democrat in the Lower House whose seat was
contested; but the Democrats promptly neutralized their move
by unseating two Republicans in the Upper House. The passions
excited by the factious contest had by this time become so
violent and threatening that in March, 1897, the Governor of
the State deemed it necessary to call out several companies of
militia to preserve peace at Frankfort. In the end, the
Legislature adjourned without electing an United States
Senator; but a special session was called and the election
accomplished, on the 28th of April, William J. Deboe,
Republican, winning the senatorial seat.
{287}
In the following year (1898) the Democrats secured strong
majorities in both branches of the Legislature, and, under the
lead of Senator William Goebel, passed an election bill which was
bitterly denounced as a contrivance for fraud. It created a
State election board, appointed by the existing Legislature
for four years, which board should name three commissioners in
each county, by whom all election and registration officers
should be chosen. Notwithstanding this provision of partisan
returning officers, the Democrats were so divided on the
silver question in the gubernatorial election of 1899, and
further weakened by personal hostilities which Goebel, who
became their candidate for governor, had stirred up, that the
official returns of the election gave William S. Taylor, the
Republican candidate, a plurality of more than 2,000 votes
over Goebel. There had been fear of riot in Louisville on
election day, and the Governor had called out State troops to
preserve order. The defeated party claimed that military
interference in that city had made the election illegal, and
demanded that the returns from Louisville should be thrown
out. On both sides there were accusations of fraud, and a
dangerous state of political excitement ensued again. But two
of the three members (all Democrats) of the State Board of
Election Commissioners decided that Taylor, the Republican
candidate, had been lawfully elected, and he was inaugurated
Governor on the 12th of December. Goebel and his partisans,
refusing to accept the decision, determined to unseat Governor
Taylor, by authority of the Legislature, in which they
controlled a considerable majority of votes.
The Legislature met and organized on the 1st of January, 1900.
The Governor prepared to defend his possession of the office
by summoning troops of the State Guard from the strong
Republican districts of the mountain region, and 1,000 or more
armed men arrived in Frankfort on the 25th. There had been
fighting between the two parties already, and the situation
now became desperately strained. Some kind of a bloody outcome
seemed inevitable, but no one could anticipate the barbarous
tragedy which ensued. As Senator Goebel was walking to the
state house, on the 30th of January, he was shot from one of
its windows, by a hidden assassin, receiving a wound from
which he died February 3d. The Legislature at once closed its
investigation of the election, and voted to recognize the
dying William E. Goebel as Governor, with J. C. W. Beckham as
his Lieutenant and the successor to the office in the event of
his death. Governor Taylor issued an address to the people of
the State, denouncing the murder and enjoining the
preservation of order. At the same time he proclaimed an
adjournment of the Legislature, closed the State House against
it, and summoned its members to reassemble on the 6th of
February, not at Frankfort, but at the distant small mountain
town of London. Goebel, on his death-bed, took the oath of
office, and issued orders dismissing Governor Taylor's
Adjutant-General, appointing another in his place, and
commanding the force at Frankfort to return to their homes.
The President of the United States was applied to by Governor
Taylor for recognition and support, but decided that he had no
authority to interfere. The supporters of Goebel applied with
more effect to the Circuit Court of Kentucky, which issued a
writ enjoining Governor Taylor from the use of armed force to
prevent the Legislature from meeting. A clerk who succeeded in
serving the writ by tacking it on the door of the Governor's
office was seized and held prisoner by the military, and a
writ of habeas corpus requiring his deliverance was disobeyed
for several days. All authority was breaking down, and a state
of political chaos being produced. To save the State from
actual anarchy and civil war, a conference of leaders in both
parties was held at Louisville, February 5, and an agreement
reached to withdraw troops from the capital, allow the
Legislature to meet there, and abide by its action, with
promise to repeal the obnoxious election law. Governor Taylor
refused acceptance of the agreement. He dismissed the troops,
however, on the 12th, and called the Legislature to meet at
the capital. The Democratic members of that body were holding
meetings at Louisville, the Republican members at London. The
latter obeyed the call to Frankfort, while the former
continued at Louisville, both fragments claiming to be the
Legislature of the State. A petition to the United States
Circuit Court, for injunctions against the Democratic
claimants for certain of the minor State offices, was denied
by Judge Taft on the 14th.
On the 21st, Republican and Democratic leaders came to another
agreement, that the gubernatorial question should be settled
in the courts,—first in those of the State, and then carried
by appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. This
agreement prevailed, and the case, as between Governor Taylor
and Governor Beckham (declared to be Governor by a majority of
the members of the Legislature after Governor Goebel's death)
was peacefully adjudicated in favor of the latter. The Circuit
Court of the State recognized the Legislature's decision of
the election as final; the Court of Appeals, with only one of
three Republican judges dissenting, did the same, April 6. On
April 30 the case was argued, on appeal, before the Supreme
Court of the United States, and on the 21st of May that
tribunal decided that it had no jurisdiction. This ended
attempts to dispute the authority of Governor Beckham.
Strenuous efforts were being made to implicate his competitor,
Mr. Taylor, as accessory to the murder of Goebel. Several
persons had been arrested and put on trial for that crime,
including Caleb Powers, the Secretary of State in Governor
Taylor's fallen government, from the window of whose office it
was claimed that the cowardly shot had been fired. The trials
were scandalized by confessions of perjury and charges and
counter-charges of subornation on the part of witnesses. In
August, Powers was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment
for life. Subsequently, Henry E. Youtsey received the same
sentence, while James Howard was condemned to death. Appeals
were taken in each case. Mr. Taylor, under indictment as an
accomplice, had left the State, and a requisition for his
rendition was refused by the Governor of Indiana, where he
sojourned. He indignantly denied all knowledge of the alleged
conspiracy to kill his competitor, but claimed that a fair
trial could not be secured to him if he was placed in the
power of his political enemies.
{288}
In October, a new election law was passed by the Legislature
and signed by the Governor. It provides that, of the three
State Election Commissioners, one is to be taken from each of
the dominant parties, upon the recommendation of the State
Central Committee, and the Clerk of the Court of Appeals, an
elective officer, is to act as umpire. The Commissioners are
to be appointed by the Governor. They are to appoint the
county boards, one from each party, with the Sheriff as
umpire. All the boards are to have only ministerial powers,
and the law gives the right of appeal in all cases of contests
to the courts except in the case of Governor and
Lieutenant-Governor, which must be tried by the Legislature,
as the constitution prescribes. The Goebel law made the boards
supreme. The new law also provides for an equitable division
of election officers.
KHAIBAR:
Inclusion in a new British Indian province.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
KHALIFA, The.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896; 1897-1898; and 1899-1900.
KHARTUM, Destruction of.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896.
KHARTUM, Gordon Memorial College.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1898-1899.
KIANG-HUNG: Cession to France.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895 (MARCH-JULY).
KIAO-CHAU: A. D. 1897.
Seizure by Germany.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1897 (NOVEMBER).
KIAO-CHAU: A. D. 1899.
Cost of maintenance.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (JUNE).
KIEL:
Opening of the Baltic Canal.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1895 (JUNE).
KIENNING, Anti-missionary riot at.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899.
KIMBERLEY, Siege of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER); (OCTOBER-DECEMBER);
and 1900 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
KINGSHIP BY DIVINE RIGHT:
German revival of the doctrine.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1894-1899.
KIS, The city of.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.
KITCHENER, Major-General Sir Herbert (afterwards Lord):
Sirdar of the Egyptian army.
Expedition to Dongola.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896.
KITCHENER, Major-General Sir Herbert (afterwards Lord):
Final campaigns against the Dervishes.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1897-1898.
KITCHENER, Major-General Sir Herbert (afterwards Lord):
Dealing with the French expedition at Fashoda.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1898 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).
KITCHENER, Major-General Sir Herbert (afterwards Lord):
In the South African War.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY), and after.
KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS, The.
"Many years ago gold was known to exist on the Yukon. The
Hudson Bay Company's men tested the bars of the main river,
and found 'the color,' but not in sufficient quantity to
warrant working. The reason is, that, in the disintegration of
the rocks by the smaller streams and the action of frost and
melting snow, the metallic burden of the waters is dropped in
the causeway of the smaller tributaries; only the finest float
gold and the lighter sand and gravel being carried as far as the
Yukon itself. In 1880, after years of fruitless search on the
main stream, a body of prospectors under the protection of
Captain (now Admiral) Beardsley, United States Navy, landed at
the head of Lynn Canal, crossed the divide, and proceeded to
explore the head-waters. Not much being found at first in
Canadian territory, the prospectors descended the river to the
region near the lower end of the Upper Ramparts. In this
region lies the boundary, formed by the one hundred and
forty-first degree of west longitude from Greenwich. Here the
Yukon receives from the southwest a tributary called
Forty-Mile Creek. A few miles of the lower part of this creek,
including its mouth, are on the Canadian side of the line: the
head-waters—on which the gold is chiefly found—are, for the
most part, on the American side. In this vicinity the first
substantial deposits were discovered, many of which are still
worked. …
"The site of the new diggings—which have produced an
excitement recalling the 'Fraser River rush' of 1857—is on a
stream tributary to the Yukon from the northeast, wholly in
Canadian territory, and entering the main river about fifty
miles eastward from the boundary. Here a mining camp, called
Dawson City,—after the head of the Dominion Geological
Survey,—has been established. … The stream above referred to
has been named the Klondyke,—signifying 'reindeer': on some of
the older maps it is designated Reindeer River. It is said
however that the name should really be Throndak,—a Tinneh term
meaning 'plenty of fish.' The existence of gold on this stream
and its branches appears to have been first made known by
Indians. One of the first prospectors to locate upon it with
success was J. A. Carmich, who staked out his claim in August,
1896, and with two helpers, in a few weeks, washed out over
$14,000."
W. H. Dall,
Alaska and the New Gold-Field
(Forum, September, 1897).
KNIGHTHOOD: Victorian Order.
See (in this volume)
VICTORIAN ORDER.
KNOSSOS, Archæological excavations at.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: CRETE.
KOKANG: Cession to Great Britain.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1897 (MAY-JUNE).
KOREA: A. D. 1895-1898.
Nominal independence of Korea.
Japanese influence supplanted by Russian.
On the 7th of January, 1893, the independence of Korea (see,
in this volume, CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895) was formally
proclaimed at Seoul. For a time, Japanese influence
prevailed, and the party favorable to it controlled affairs.
But Russian jealousy gave encouragement to the opposing
faction, headed by the queen, and the latter succeeded at
length in thwarting most of the aims of the Japanese. The
result was a revolutionary conspiracy in October, carried out
by a murderous band which broke into the palace and killed
three women, one of whom was supposed to be the queen. The
assassins were dressed in Japanese costume, and were said to
belong to the "soshi," or hireling cutthroats, of that
country; but the Japanese government indignantly repudiated
the crime, recalled and arrested its Minister, who was
suspected of complicity, and forbade its subjects to enter
Korea without special permission. Russian influence,
nevertheless, became dominant soon after; the king yielded to
it completely, and obtained riddance of opposing ministers
with Russian support. In the end, Russia and Japan came to an
agreement, nominally establishing a joint protectorate over
Korea; but practically the Japanese seemed to be fairly
shouldered out.
{289}
In the later part of 1897, the Russian Minister to Korea
brought about the dismissal of an English official, Mr. Brown,
who had been the financial adviser of the Korean government
and its commissioner of customs, putting a Russian in his
place, and secured a written agreement that none but Russians
or Koreans should fill that important post in future. The
vigorous remonstrance of the British government, however,
caused this action to be reversed.
Russia and Japan came to a new understanding in 1898, more
favorable to the interests of the latter in Korea. This was
embodied in a protocol, signed at Tokyo on the 25th of April,
1898, in terms as follows:
"I. That the Governments of Japan and Russia, recognizing the
sovereignty and complete independence of Korea, shall in no
way directly interfere with the domestic government of that
country.
II. That in order to avoid misunderstandings in the future,
whenever either Japan or Russia is applied to by Korea for
advice or assistance, neither contracting party shall take any
steps toward the appointment of military instructors or
financial advisers without previous consultation with the
other.
III. That Russia, recognizing the great progress made in
commercial and industrial enterprises by Japan in Korea, and
the great number of Japanese subjects residing in the
settlements, will do nothing to injure the development of the
commercial and industrial relations between Japan and Korea."
United States Consular Reports,
August, 1898, page 591.
A reform party had begun to manifest influence at this time,
even aspiring to representative institutions in the
government. Various progressive measures were undertaken in
1898; the gold monetary standard was adopted; American
engineers were engaged to plan roads, bridges, etc., and new
ports were opened.
KOREA: A. D. 1900.
Strategic importance of Korea to Russia and Japan.
Japanese jealousy of Russian encroachments in
Manchuria and its grounds.
"Considerable as are the material interests which Japan is
building up in Korea, it is still from the strategical point
of view that she is most deeply concerned with the future of
the Korean peninsula, which, in the hands of a great military
Power like Russia, would be a permanent threat to her safety.
And the Japanese appear to be firmly convinced that, when
once Russia is firmly seated in Northern China, she must
inevitably seek to absorb Korea. In any other hands but her
own the Korean peninsula would always be a wedge
inconveniently driven in between her older acquisitions on
the Pacific seaboard and her more recent acquisitions in the
Gulf of Chi-li, nor could she regard her strategical position
in the Far East as thoroughly secured so long as she did not
command one shore of the straits through which lies the
natural waterway between her two naval bases at Vladivostok
and at Port Arthur. … Port Arthur is situated practically on
an inland sea to which the approaches can be dominated not
only by positions already in the hands of other European
Powers, such as Wei-hai-wei and Kiaochau, but by the Korean
peninsula and islands as well as by the Japanese archipelago,
from Tsushima down to Formosa. With Port Arthur as her main
base Russia's position as a naval Power in the Far East would
be subject to natural limitations not altogether unlike those
which hamper her in the Black Sea and the Baltic.
"Considered in this light the question of Russian
aggrandisement in Northern China is so closely interwoven with
that of the future of Korea that it must necessarily wear a
much more serious aspect for Japan than for any other Power
—so serious, indeed, that not a few Japanese deem the time to
be close at hand when Japan should retort upon Russia in
precisely the same terms which the latter used in 1895 and
demand the evacuation of territories where her presence must
be a permanent threat to the independence of the Chinese
Empire and the peace of the Far East."
London Times,
Tokio Correspondence, December 27, 1900.
KOTZE, Chief-Justice:
Conflict with President Kruger of the Transvaal.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1897 (JANUARY-MARCH);
and 1898 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
KROONSTAD:
Temporary seat of Orange Free State government.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1900 (MARCH-MAY).
KRUGER: President Stephanus Johannes Paulus.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1885-1890, and after.
KUANG HSU, Emperor of China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-SEPTEMBER), and after.
KUMASSI, or COOMASSIE:
Occupation by the British.
Siege and relief.
See (in this volume)
ASHANTI.
KURAM, The:
Inclusion in a new British Indian province.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
KURRAM VALLEY, British-Indian war with tribes in the.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1897-1898.
KWANGCHOW WAN, Lease of, to France.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-AUGUST).
KWANG-SI, Rebellion in.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JULY).
{290}
L.
LABOR COLONIES: In Australia.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRALIA; RECENT EXTENSIONS OF DEMOCRACY.
LABOR CONFLICTS.
See (in this volume)
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES.
LABOR LEGISLATION:
Compulsory insurance in Germany.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1897-1900.
LABOR LEGISLATION:
Eight-hours day in Utah.
See (in this volume)
UTAH: A. D. 1895-1896.
LABOR LEGISLATION:
New Zealand Labor Laws.
See (in this volume))
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1891-1900.
LABOR LEGISLATION:
Workmen's Compensation Act in Great Britain.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (MAY-JULY).
LABOR LEGISLATION:
The United States Industrial Commission.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE).
LABRADOR, Recent exploration of.
See (in this volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION, 1893-1900, 1896.
LABYRINTH, The Cretan:
Its supposed discovery.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: CRETE.
LADRONE ISLANDS:
Sale by Spain to Germany.
See (in this volume)
CAROLINE AND MARIANNE ISLANDS.
LADYSMITH, Siege of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER);
and 1900 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
LAGAS, The ancient city of.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH; BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.
LAGOS.
See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1899.
LA GUASIMA, Battle at.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).
LAKE SUPERIOR CONSOLIDATED IRON MINES:
In the United States Steel Corporation.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: UNITED STATES: THE CLIMAX.
LAND BILL, Irish (1896).
See (in this volume)
IRELAND: A. D. 1896.
LAND SYSTEM, The New Zealand.
See (in this volume)
NEW ZEALAND; A. D. 1891-1900.
LAND TAXATION:
In Australia and New Zealand.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRALIA: RECENT EXTENSIONS OF DEMOCRACY.
LANDLORDS, Irish, New League against.
See (in this volume)
IRELAND: A. D. 1900-1901.
LATTIMER,
Conflict of striking coal miners with sheriffs' deputies at.
See (in this volume)
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES: A. D. 1897.
LAURIER, Sir Wilfrid:
Prime Minister of Canada.
See (in this volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1890-1896, and after.
LAWS OF WAR.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
LAWTON, General Henry W.:
Command at Santiago de Cuba.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: CUBA).
LAWTON, General Henry W.:
Military operations in the Philippine Islands.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY-NOVEMBER).
LAWTON, General Henry W.:
Death.
See (in this volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899-1900.
LECHER, Dr.:
Twelve-hours speech.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
LEE, General Fitzhugh:
U. S. Consul-General at Havana.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1897-1898 (NOVEMBER-FEBRUARY);
and (DECEMBER-MARCH).
LEE, General Fitzhugh:
Command at Havana.
Report.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1898-1899 (DECEMBER-OCTOBER).
LEICHAU PENINSULA, Leases in, to France.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-AuGUST).
LEO XIII., Pope,
See PAPACY.
LÈSE MAJESTÉ.
A hurt to Majesty.
Any offense or crime against the sovereign.
For lèse majesté in Germany,
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1898; and 1900 (OCTOBER).
LEX FALKENHAYN, The.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
LEX HEINZE, The.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (MAY).
LEXOW INVESTIGATION, The.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK CITY; A. D. 1894-1895.
LIAOTUNG PORTS: A. D. 1895.
Russo-Chinese Treaty relating to.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1895.
See, also, references from PORT ARTHUR;
TALIENWAN; and FÊNG-TIEN PENINSULA.
LIBRARIES, The gifts of Mr. Andrew Carnegie to.
Of neither the manifold items nor the stupendous total of the
gifts made by Mr. Andrew Carnegie for the founding or for the
assistance of public libraries in America and Great Britain is
there any authentic account; but a tentative record of them,
compiled mainly from the news columns of the "Library
Journal," and published, on the 17th of March, 1901, in the
"Buffalo Illustrated Express," is probably not far from
correct. It begins in 1881, with the founding of a public
library at Dunfermline, Scotland, the birthplace of Mr.
Carnegie, who then gave for it $40,000. Two years later, he is
said to have given $50,000 to a library at Inverness. In 1885
the New York Free Circulating Libraries were helped by him to
the extent of $5,000. In the following year his benefactions
were raised to their larger scale by his gift of $250,000 to
the Free Public Library of Edinburgh; besides which he gave
$28,000 to the Workmen's Library of the Keystone Bridge Works,
and smaller donations elsewhere. In 1889 he founded the
Carnegie Library at Braddock, Pennsylvania, at a cost of
$300,000.
{291}
In 1890 he contributed $325,000 to the founding of the
Carnegie Free Public Library at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, which
the city undertook to support; he replaced the Cambria
Library, which the great flood at Johnstown had destroyed,
expending $65,000 in that kindly work; gave $40,000 to a
library at Fairfield, Iowa, and $9,000 to another at Augusta,
Maine. Five thousand dollars to a library in Airdrie, $50,000
to one in Ayr, and $2,500 to a third at Jedburgh, all three in
Scotland, are the gifts recorded in 1893 and 1894.
In 1895 Mr. Carnegie seemed to be crowning his munificence by
the creation, at Pittsburg, of the great institution,
combining library, art gallery, and museum, on which, between
that year and 1899 he is said to have expended no less than
$3,860,000. In the same year he founded a small library at
Wick, in Scotland. In 1897 the donations appear to have been
small. In 1898 Dumfries, in Scotland, received for a public
library $50,000 from his open purse, and $250,000 went from it
to the creation of the Carnegie Library at Homestead,
Pennsylvania, the seat of the Carnegie works.
Hitherto the stream of Mr. Carnegie's bounty to public
libraries had been a rivulet: it now, in 1899, began to pour
like the fertilizing flood of the Nile, and that first
twelvemonth of the amazing tide was celebrated by American
librarians, at the annual meeting of their Association, as
"the Carnegie year." In reality, it but opened a series of
"Carnegie years," which have filled the period since, and may
still go on. As compiled by the "Express," supplemented by a
later record in the "Library Journal" for April, 1901, the
list of the library gifts and offers of Mr. Carnegie, from the
beginning of 1899 until March, 1901, includes $5,200,000,
tendered to the city of New York for branches to its Public
Library (see below); $1,000,000 tendered to St. Louis;
$350,000 to the city of Washington; $260,000 to Syracuse;
$125,000 each to Atlanta and Louisville; $100,000, or $150,000
(there seems to be uncertainty as to the sum) to Seattle;
$100,000 each to Richmond, Conneaut, Grand Rapids, Ottawa,
Ont., and the State College in Pennsylvania; $75,000 each to
Lincoln, Nebraska, Springfield, Illinois, Davenport, Iowa,
Tacoma, Washington, and the Bellevue Medical College, New
York; $50,000 each to San Diego, Oakland, Duluth Sedalia, East
Liverpool, Ohio, Steubenville, Sandusky, Connellsville,
McKeesport, Beaver, Beaver Falls, Tyrone, Pennsylvania,
Clarion, Oil City, Fort Worth, Dallas, Cheyenne, Dubuque,
Ottumwa, Emporia College, East Orange, York, Coal Center and
Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, Chattanooga, Houston, San Antonio,
Vancouver, British Columbia., Aurora, Illinois, Lewiston,
Maine, Niagara Falls, Yonkers, Canton, Ohio, Montgomery,
Alabama, Marion, Indiana, Galesburg, Illinois, Schenectady,
New York, and Hawick, Scotland; besides a great number of
lesser sums, ranging from a few hundred dollars to $40,000.
The total of the library gifts and proffers of Mr. Carnegie,
from the beginning to March, 1900, is thought to exceed
$23,000,000.
To many other educational institutions Mr. Carnegie has been
munificently generous, giving, for example, $500,000 for the
Manual Training School of Cooper Institute, New York; $250,000
to Birmingham University; $50,000 to the engineering
laboratory of Stevens Institute, Hoboken; $50,000 to the
Edinburgh Technical School, and making other gifts of like
kind.
LIBRARY,
New York Public, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
Andrew Carnegie's offered gift.
"The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden
Foundations, was formed by the consolidation, on the 23d of
May, 1895, of the three corporations, 'The Trustees of the
Astor Library,' originally incorporated January 18, 1849, 'The
Trustees of the Lenox Library,' originally incorporated
January 20, 1870, and 'The Tilden Trust,' originally
incorporated March 26, 1887. … In the agreement for
consolidation it was provided that the name of the new
corporation should be 'The New York Public Library, Astor,
Lenox and Tilden Foundations'; that the number of its trustees
should be twenty-one, to be selected from the thirty-three
members of the separate boards; and that 'the said new
corporation shall establish and maintain a free public library
and reading room in the city of New York, with such branches
as may be deemed advisable, and shall continue and promote the
several objects and purposes set forth in the respective acts
of incorporation of 'The Trustees of the Astor Library,' 'The
Trustees of the Lenox Library,' and the 'Tilden Trust.' … In
December, Dr. John Shaw Billings, United States Army
(retired), was chosen Director, but he did not enter fully
upon his duties until June, 1896. …
"At the time of the consolidation the Astor library owned its
site and buildings, had an endowment fund of about $941,000,
producing an annual income of about $47,000, and contained
267,147 volumes. The Lenox library owned its site and
building, had an endowment fund of $505,500, producing an
annual income of $20,500, and contained about 86,000 volumes.
The Tilden Trust possessed Mr. Tilden's private library,
containing about 20,000 volumes, and an endowment fund
estimated at $2,000,000, making the total number of volumes in
the New York Public Library 373,147, and the total endowment
fund about $3,446,500. … The joint libraries now contain about
500,000 volumes and 175,000 pamphlets."
Immediately upon the completion of the consolidation of the
three libraries, the city of New York was asked to provide a
suitable building for the great institution contemplated, and
the ground covered by the old reservoir, on Fifth Avenue,
between Fortieth and Forty-second Streets, was suggested as an
advantageous site. "The result of this appeal, which met with
cordial public support, was that an act was passed by the
legislature and approved May 19, 1897, giving the necessary
authority to the city to issue bonds for the construction of a
library building, the result of which was that on November 10,
1897, the plans prepared by Messrs. Carrère & Hastings, of New
York City, were selected and approved, and were laid before
the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of the City of New
York on December 1, 1897. These plans were approved by the
Board of Estimate and on December 8 a contract was entered
into between the City of New York and the New York Public
Library, by which the library building to be erected upon
Bryant Park was leased to the New York Public Library. … The
sketch plans provide for a building about 350 feet in length
and about 250 feet in width from east to west, giving shelving
for about 1,500,000 volumes and seating capacity for about 800
readers in the main reading room. …
{292}
"Plans and specifications for the removal of the Forty-second
Street reservoir and laying the foundations for the new
building having been approved the contract for this work was
awarded to Mr. Eugene Lentilhon, and the work of removing was
begun on June 6th, 1899."
Handbook to the New York Public Library, 1900.
In October, 1900, it was stated in the newspapers of the city
that Mayor Van Wyck, Controller Coler, and the other members
of the Board of Estimate had come to an understanding
regarding the consolidation of all the libraries of the
Greater New York under the New York Public Library. "It was
announced officially that all the smaller libraries would be
allowed about the same amount of money for maintenance this
year as was allowed last year. A practical plan of
consolidation will be perfected, and when the matter comes up
before the Board of Estimate next year it was agreed that the
libraries would be put under one head. … It is proposed to
spend $5,000,000 on the New York Public Library now in course
of erection in Bryant Park on the site of the old reservoir.
It will be four years before the building can be completed.
Controller Coler's idea is to gradually merge the smaller
libraries so that when the new building is completed New York
will have the largest and best equipped library for sending
out books of any city in the world."
On the 12th of March, 1901, Mr. Andrew Carnegie addressed the
following letter to Dr. Billings, the Director of the New York
Public Library, making a proposal of unparalleled munificence:
"Dear Dr. Billings: Our conferences upon the needs of greater New
York for branch libraries to reach the masses of the people in
every district have convinced me of the wisdom of your plans.
Sixty-five branches strike one at first as a very large order,
but as other cities have found one necessary for every sixty
thousand or seventy thousand of population, the number is not
excessive. You estimate the average cost of these libraries
at, say, $80,000 each, being $5,200,000 for all. If New York
will furnish sites for these branches for the special benefit
of the masses of the people, as it has done for the central
library, and also agree in satisfactory form to provide for
their maintenance as built, I should esteem it a rare
privilege to be permitted to furnish the money as needed for
the buildings, say, $5,200,000. Sixty-five libraries at one
stroke probably breaks the record, but this is the day of big
operations, and New York is soon to be the biggest of cities.
Very truly yours, ANDREW CARNEGIE."
In communicating this extraordinary proposal to the New York
Public Library Board, Dr. Billings made the following
statement of the plan contemplated in the suggestions he had
made:
"In the conferences referred to by Mr. Carnegie the
suggestions which I have made have related mainly to a free
public library system for the boroughs of Manhattan and The
Bronx. I have stated that such a system should include the
great central reference library in Forty-second street and
Fifth avenue, about forty branch libraries for circulation,
small distributing centres in those public school buildings
which are adapted to such purpose, and a large travelling
library system operated from the central building. Each of the
branch libraries should contain reading rooms for from 50 to 100
adults and for from 75 to 125 children, and in these reading
rooms should be about 500 volumes of encyclopædias,
dictionaries, atlases and large and important reference books.
There should be ample telephone and delivery arrangements between
the branches and the central library.
"To establish this system would require at least five years.
The average cost of the branch libraries I estimated at from
$75,000 to $125,000, including sites and equipment. The cost
of maintaining the system when completed I estimated at
$500,000 a year. The circulation of books for home use alone
in these boroughs should amount to more than 5,000,000 of
volumes a year, and there should be at least 500,000 volumes
in the circulation department, with additions of new books and
to replace worn out books of at least 40,000 a year.
"With regard to the other boroughs of greater New York I have
made no special plans or estimates, but have said that about
twenty-five libraries would be required for them."
LIBRARY, The Temple, of ancient Nippur.
See (in this vol.)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.
LIBRARY, The U. S. House of Representatives:
Its management under the spoils system.
See (in this volume)
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1901.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, at Washington.
The new building.
"By the act of April 15, 1886, the present site, one-quarter
of a mile south of east from the Capitol, was selected, its
acquisition by the United States provided for, and the
construction of a building authorized. During this long period
of discussion many schemes for attaining the desired end,
including a variety of plans for enlarging and occupying the
Capitol and many different sites in the city of Washington,
were considered. Several times did the legislation reach an
advanced state and fail through the pressure of more absorbing
interests. Finally the law referred to adopted sketch plans that
had been prepared by Messrs. Smithmeyer and Pelz, a firm of
Washington architects, but it fixed no limit of cost, nor did
it specify the materials of construction or character of
execution of the design other than to stipulate that the
building should be fireproof. A commission, composed of the
Secretary of the Interior, the Librarian of Congress, and the
Architect of the Capitol, was designated to conduct the
construction of the building. The site, comprising two city
squares—nearly nine acres, within the city building lines and
with the included streets—was purchased of the private owners,
the ground cleared of some seventy buildings occupying it, and
by the summer of 1888 about one-half of the foundation
footings for the building were laid. During that year,
however, Congress became dissatisfied with the progress that
had been made and the uncertainties involved in the operation
of the inadequate original law, and accordingly, on October 2,
modified it and lodged the entire control of the work, including
the preparation of new plans at a limited cost, in the hands
of Brigadier General Thomas Lincoln Casey, Chief of Engineers
of the United States Army. He immediately placed the writer in
local charge.
{293}
On March 2, 1889, Congress enacted that the building should be
erected at a total cost of $6,500,000, including previous
expenditures, according to a plan that had been prepared and
submitted by General Casey, pursuant to the previous act of
October 2, 1888. This plan was based on that adopted by the
original act, and provided a building of similar form,
dimensions, and architecture. The project embodied the
principal materials of construction and a detailed estimate of
the cost. Under these auspices operations were begun in the
spring of 1889 where the operations had left off the year
before, and the construction thence proceeded without
interruption until the building was finally completed, in the
spring of 1897. It was 470 feet in length by 340 feet in
width, having three stories and a subbasement, and fronts
west—toward the Capitol. … The foundations of the building are
of hydraulic cement concrete, 6 feet deep in ground which is a
mixture of clay and sand of very uniform character. The cellar
walls are of hard red brick; the exterior face of the
superstructure of a fine grained light blue granite from
Concord, New Hampshire; the stone of the rotunda and the
trimmings of the court walls a light blue granite from near
Woodstock, Maryland; the facing of the court walls enameled
brick from Leeds, England; and the backing and interior walls
as well as all of the vaulting of the basement and first
stories are of hard red brick. Most of the floors that are
flat ceiled are of terra cotta, and this material also forms
the covering and filling of the roofs and main dome, of which
the supporting members are of rolled steel in beams, girders,
and trusses. All of the floors are leveled up with concrete
and surfaced with tiles, terrazzo, or mosaic in the public
spaces, while in the office and working rooms they are covered
with a carpet of southern pine boards. The most important of
the strictly useful features of the building are the book
stacks, of which the design is largely original. The problem
was new, not only through the capacity to be provided but the
numerous other conditions to be met, such as light,
ventilation, adjustability to several uses, communication,
immunity from fire, cleanliness, durability, and simplicity.
It was also necessary that rapid mechanical transmission of
books between the shelving and the reading room should be
provided, coupled with a quick and reliable means of
communication, both written and oral. … The book carrier is a
pair of parallel, endless chains, running in a vertical shaft
in the middle of the stack; thence in a horizontal duct in the
cellar to a point below the central desk of the reading room,
where it turns upward and ascends vertically to the delivery
outlet at the desk. A series of equidistant book trays,
eighteen in number, are suspended between the chains. The
machine runs continuously and automatically takes on and
delivers books of the size of a quarto or less at its reading
room terminal and at each of the stack stories. The speed of
the carrier is about 100 feet per minute. The pneumatic
message tube is also convenient as a speaking tube. The great
rotunda or public reading room of the building, the main
staircase hall or foyer, the private reading rooms for the
members of Congress, the Librarian's office, the corridors
communicating with these, and the exhibition halls as well as
many portions of the exterior walls, especially the west main
pavilion, have received a good degree of artistic treatment
and embellishment, but all within strict architectural
requirements. Some forty sculptors and mural painters, about
equally divided in numbers, furnished the principal works of
art under the architects' supervision and direction. Many
appropriate quotations and names are inscribed on the walls in
the architectural tablets, friezes and panels, adding to the
general impressiveness and interest of the building. In all
ways and from all points of view the library building is
eminently instructive as an example of good design, good
appointment for its great purpose, good building and good
administration in the execution, and therefore the more
appropriate to house the nation's library. The unusual success
of the undertaking under Government auspices is almost wholly due
to the selection of a known competent, sturdy, and faithful
individual such as General Casey was, and giving him the sole
charge directly under Congress without an executive superior
liable to interfere and cause delays. The work went on
quietly, but with energy; and was completed within the
originally estimated time and well within the legal limit of
cost. The total cost of the building was $6,344,585.34—that of
the site, $585,000."
Bernard R. Green,
The Building for the Library of Congress
(Annual Report Smithsonian Institution, 1897, page 625).
LI HUNG-CHANG:
Negotiation of peace with Japan.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895.
LI HUNG-CHANG:
Tour in Europe and America.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1896.
LI HUNG-CHANG:
Charged with being in Russian pay.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JULY).
LI HUNG-CHANG:
Acting Viceroy at Canton.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899 (DECEMBER).
LI HUNG-CHANG:
Attempt to open negotiations with allied Powers.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JULY).
LI HUNG-CHANG:
Chinese Plenipotentiary to negotiate with the allied Powers.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).
LIKIN, The Chinese taxes called.
"Chinese tariff rates, where they exist, average about 5 per
cent ad valorem. Many articles are admitted free of duty, and
on some the rates are higher than 5 per cent, but in general
terms this is about the average rate. To this, however, there
is a material addition where the goods are intended for
interior points. The Chinese Government, while it collects a
part of its revenue from customs, relies largely upon the
provinces to supply revenue, and arbitrarily names each year
the sum which each province must supply, leaving to the
officers of that province the methods by which this is
obtained. The consequence is that each province is permitted
to collect a tax on goods entering it from the adjacent
provinces, and this custom has been extended to the
subdivision of the provinces, so that goods in transit are
frequently compelled to pay taxes every few miles. As a
consequence, the interior taxes, known as 'likin,' became not
only the terror of importers, but sometimes almost
prohibitory. So serious was this system in its effects upon
attempts to introduce foreign goods that, upon the insistence
of foreign ministers, the Chinese Government announced that an
addition of 50 per cent to the rates paid at the custom-houses
would insure passage of the goods to any point in the interior
without the exaction of likin taxes.
{294}
This was gladly accepted by foreigners desiring to do business
in the interior of China. The additional 50 per cent on duties
was paid and 'transit passes' issued for the goods in question,
purporting to authorize their free transit to any point in the
Empire. Actual experience, however, shows that these transit
passes do not always accomplish what was expected. … Every 8
or 10 miles along the principal waterways or caravan routes a
likin station is found, where a tax is levied upon some
article or articles carried through by boat, pack animal, or
wheelbarrow. At some points every article is taxed. This is
the usual rule at the gates of cities. In some cases the tax
is as little as 2 per cent ad valorem; in others, such as
silk, satin, and native opium, much more, amounting at times
to 6, 8, or even 10 per cent. Between Shanghai and Soochow, a
distance of 84 miles, there are 8 likin stations. At the first
and last stations all goods are dutiable; at the rest all
goods must be examined, and there is scarcely a single article
that does not in that distance pay at least three taxes. It is
easily seen that under such a system foreign goods cannot be
carried very far from the coast before their prices become
prohibitive for ordinary people."
United States, Bureau of Statistics, Monthly Summary,
March, 1899, pages 2188, 2231.
LINCOLN PARTY, The.
See (in this volume).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER),
SILVER REPUBLICAN.
LIQUID AIR, The production of.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.
LIQUOR SELLING, The regulation of.
Abolition of the Army Canteen.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
LIQUOR SELLING:
Dispensary Laws.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1892-1899;
NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1897-1899;
SOUTH DAKOTA: A. D. 1899; and
ALABAMA: A. D. 1899.
LIQUOR SELLING:
International convention respecting the
liquor traffic in Africa.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1899 (JUNE).
LIQUOR SELLING:
The question in American politics.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER);
and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
LIQUOR SELLING:
The Raines Liquor Law.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1896-1897.
LISCUM, Colonel Emerson H.:
Death.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JULY).
LITTLE ENGLAND PARTY.
A name given by its opponents to the section of the Liberal
party in Great Britain which condemns the boundless
enlargement of British annexations, protectorates and spheres
of influence in all parts of the world, and which is critical
of expansive and imperialistic wars.
LIU KUN-YI, Viceroy at Nanking:
Admirable conduct during the Chinese outbreak.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JUNE-DECEMBER).
LOCH, Sir H. B.:
British High Commissioner in South Africa.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1894.
LOCKOUTS.
See (in this volume)
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES.
LOG OF THE MAYFLOWER, The so-called.
See (in this volume)
MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1897.
LOGIA, Discovery of a fragment of the.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT; DISCOVERY OF A FRAGMENT.
LOMBOK.
See (in this volume)
DUTCH EAST INDIES.
LONDON: A. D. 1894.
The Tower Bridge.
The Tower Bridge was formally opened on the 30th of June,
eight years after the beginning of the work. Its cost was
£1,250,000.
LONDON: A. D. 1897.
Great fire.
On November 19, 1897, occurred one of the largest fires in
London since 1606. Beginning in Aldersgate, it spread over six
acres of a densely populated quarter, destroying over 100
warehouses and buildings. The loss was estimated at
£2,000,000.
LONDON: A. D. 1899.
The London Government Act.
"The London Government Act is the most important measure
passed by Lord Salisbury's Government during the year 1899;
indeed, in some respects it is the most valuable reform
carried by the Parliament which [expired in 1000]. There was
urgent need for such a measure. The machinery of London
Government was hopelessly out of gear. It was both cumbrous
and intricate; it was controlled by a network of small local
authorities whose duties were ill-defined and often clashed
with each other. There was no uniformity or harmony in the
system." The old Roman wall, "built somewhere between A. D.
350 and A. D. 370 … played a most important part in the
history of London; and, indeed, it had a large share in
creating the problems with which Mr. Balfour had to deal in
1899. Little did its unknown builder dream that his wall, so
admirable in itself, would cause us trouble fifteen centuries
after his death. But such is the fact. He was a wise man, this
nameless benefactor of the infant municipality; he took care
that the wall should be thoroughly well built; and he allowed,
as he thought, ample room for later growth. The exact position of
this wall is well known to antiquaries. Many portions of it
still remain; it included in its ambit about a square mile of
territory, with wells and trees, gardens and pastures,
bordering on the great Roman roads. For a thousand years or
more this area was sufficient for all purposes. … So far as we
now can guess, it was not till the 16th century that any
Londoner felt cramped within the wall and craved more
elbow-room. Gradually the City expanded, and at first it
incorporated its extra-mural parishes, such as Bishopsgate and
Farringdon Without. The borough of Southwark was supposed for
some purposes to be annexed to the City; it was till last year
by a fiction regarded as a ward of the City—the ward of Bridge
Without. To this extent, then, the City spread outside its
wall. But here its natural expansion stopped. … The City
proper remained a compact town, well organized and well
governed, but the suburbs were treated as mere country
villages; their only local authority was the parish vestry,
and its only officers the churchwardens and the overseers.
{295}
"This state of things obviously could not last. It soon became
impossible for the parishioners to assemble in the vestry; no
room, indeed, would hold them. First one parish and then
another applied to Parliament for an Act creating what was
called a 'select vestry,' and many representative bodies were
thus formed with diverse and very miscellaneous powers. …
Where the parishes were small, instead of a select vestry a
district board was formed, under which several small parishes
were grouped. And so when the London Government Act was passed
there were 78 parishes and extra-parochial places within the
county, but outside the City of London. … These vestries and
boards were the sanitary authorities for their respective
areas: they superintended the removal of nuisances, and the
lighting, paving, watering, and cleansing of the streets; they
also attended to some minor works of drainage, ancillary to
the main system. … In 1855, the Metropolitan Board of Works
was created to control the main drainage, to carry out
improvements, to regulate the streets and bridges, and to
maintain and manage the Fire Brigade. But its members were
elected on a vicious system—by the various vestries and
boards, and not directly by the ratepayers. … Its place was
taken [in 1888] by the London County Council. But besides
these vestries, local boards, district boards, and the
Metropolitan Board, it was deemed necessary from time to time
to create many minor authorities to meet various pressing
needs; such were the Metropolitan Asylums Board, the Thames
Conservators, the Lee Conservators, the commissioners of baths
and washhouses, the commissioners of free libraries, the
burial boards, &c., in addition to 30 boards of guardians and
the London School Board. As the population of London outgrew
its existing institutions, the defects and shortcomings were
remedied by patchwork. …
"From this position of affairs we have been rescued by two
important measures, … the Local Government Act, 1888, and the
London Government Act, 1899. … The Local Government Act of
1888 abolished the Metropolitan Board of Works: it created the
administrative county of London; it called into existence the
London County Council. The London Government Act of 1899 has
done still more for London. It has abolished some 127 local
authorities, whose place will be taken by the 28 borough
councils which must be elected on November 1. The London
County Council, the City Corporation, the Metropolitan Asylums
Board, the boards of guardians, and the London School Board
remain practically untouched. But 73 vestries, 12 district
boards, the Woolwich Local Board of Health (the last of its
race), 12 burial boards, 19 boards of library commissioners,
and 10 boards of baths and washhouses commissioners, for all
purposes of civic government, cease to exist."
London Times, October 16, 1900.
LONDON CONVENTION (British-Boer), of 1884.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1884-1894.
LONGEVITY, Human:
The Nineteenth Century increase of.
See (in this vol.)
NINETEENTH CENTURY: THE LENGTHENED AVERAGE.
LOOTING, in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST 5-16, and 15-28).
"LOS VON ROM" MOVEMENT, The.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1899-1900.
LOUBET, Émile: Election to the Presidency of the French Republic.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1899 (FEBRUARY-JUNE).
LOUISIANA: A. D. 1898.
New State Constitution.
An educational qualification of the suffrage which applies
to all negroes and few whites.
The framing of a new constitution for the State was completed
in May. Its distinctive feature is an educational
qualification of the suffrage which does not apply to men who
were qualified in any State to vote at the beginning of the
year 1867, nor to the sons and grandsons of such men, nor to
foreigners naturalized before the 1st of January, 1898. The
amendment is as follows:
"SECTION 3.
He (the voter) shall be able to read and write, and shall
demonstrate his ability to do so when he applies for
registration, by making, under oath administered by the
registration officer or his deputy, written application
therefor, in the English language, or his mother tongue, which
application shall contain the essential facts necessary to
show that he is entitled to register and vote, and shall be
entirely written, dated, and signed by him, in the presence of
the registration officer or his deputy, without assistance or
suggestion from any person or memorandum whatever, except the
form of application hereinafter set forth: Provided, however,
That if the applicant be unable to write his application in
the English language, he shall have the right, if he so
demands, to write the same in his mother tongue from the
dictation of an interpreter; and if the applicant is unable to
write his application by reason of physical disability, the
same shall be written at his dictation by the registration
officer or his deputy, upon his oath of such disability. The
application for registration, above provided for, shall be a
copy of the following form, with the proper names, dates, and
numbers substituted for the blanks appearing therein, to wit:
"I am a citizen of the State of Louisiana. My name is --. I
was born in the State (or country) of --, parish (or county)
of --, on the -- day of --, in the year --. I am now -- years
-- months and -- days of age. I have resided in this State
since --, and am not disfranchised by any provision of the
constitution of this State.
"SECTION 4.
If he be not able to read and write, as provided by section 3
of this article, then he shall be entitled to register and
vote if he shall, at the time he offers to register, be the
bona fide owner of property assessed to him in this State at a
valuation of not less than $300 on the assessment roll of the
current year, if the roll of the current year shall then have
been completed and filed, and on which, if such property be
personal only, all taxes due shall have been paid.
"SECTION 5.
No male person who was on January 1, 1867, or at any date
prior thereto, entitled to vote under the constitution or
statute of any State of the United States, wherein he then
resided, and no son or grandson of any such person not less
than 21 years of age at the date of the adoption of this
constitution, and no male person of foreign birth, who was
naturalized prior to the first day of January, 1898, shall be
denied the right to register and vote in this State by reason
of his failure to possess the educational or property
qualifications prescribed by this constitution: Provided, He
shall have resided in this State for five years next preceding
the date at which he shall apply for registration, and shall
have registered in accordance with the terms of this article
prior to September 1, 1898; and no person shall be entitled to
register under this section after said date."
{296}
LOW, Seth:
Citizens' Union candidate for Mayor of Greater New York.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1897 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER.)
LOW, Seth:
American commissioner to the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
LÜBECK: A. D. 1900.
The Elbe and Trave Canal.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (JUNE).
LUDLOW, General William:
Military Governor of Havana.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1898-1899 (DECEMBER-OCTOBER).
LUEGER, Dr.:
Anti-Semitic agitation in Vienna.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1895-1896.
LUXEMBOURG: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
LUZON.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.
LYNCH LAW, in the United States.
Statistics, compiled by the "Chicago Tribune," of the cases of
mob-murder, called "lynchings," which were reported in the
newspapers as having occurred in the United States during the
year 1899, showed a total of 107, being 20 less than a similar
record for 1898 had shown. Of the reported cases, 3 were in
Kansas, 1 in Pennsylvania, and 103 in Southern States. Georgia
led in the latter list, being credited with 20 executions
under lynch law. Mississippi followed with 14, Louisiana with
13, Arkansas with 11, and other States of the South with
lesser numbers. Of the victims (mostly colored) 44 were
accused of murder; 11 of complicity in murder; 11 with rape or
attempted rape; 1 with rape and murder.
The "Political Science Quarterly," in its Record of Political
Events between November 11, 1897, and May 10, 1898, cites 31
incidents of lynching, exclusive of a mob-murder committed at
Lake City, South Carolina, where a negro postmaster and one of
his children were killed, his wife and three other children
wounded, and their house burned down. Of these incidents, 23
were reported from the South, the victims in every case being
black; 8 were from northwestern States, the victims being
white.
For 1897, the "Buffalo Express" compiled statistics of
reported lynchings from its news columns, which showed 38
between January 1 and June 8, and 77 during the remainder of
the year, making a total of 115.
M.
MACARTHUR, General:
Military operations in the Philippine Islands.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY-NOVEMBER).
MACDONALD, Sir Claude:
British Minister at Peking.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY), and after.
MACEDONIA, Impending revolt in.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1899-1901; and
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.
MACEO, Antonio:
Death of the Cuban leader.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897.
MACHADADORP:
Temporary seat of Transvaal government.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1900 (MAY-JUNE).
MACKENZIE, The district of.
See (in this volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1895.
MCKINLEY, William:
Election and reelection to the Presidency of the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER);
and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
MCKINLEY, William:
Administration.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (MARCH), and after.
MCKINLEY, William:
Message on the condition of Cuba in 1897.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897.
MCKINLEY, William:
Message on the destruction of the battleship Maine.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).
MCKINLEY, William:
Message asking for power to intervene in Cuba.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (MARCH-APRIL).
MCKINLEY, William:
Message announcing state of war with Spain.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL).
MCKINLEY, William:
Civil Service order in 1899.
See (in this volume)
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1899.
MCKINLEY, William:
Negotiation of peace with Spain.
Instructions to and correspondence with Commissioners at Paris.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).
MCKINLEY, William:
Instructions to the military commander and
to the two commissions in the Philippines.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS:
A. D. 1898-1899 (DECEMBER-JANUARY);
1899 (JANUARY); and 1900 (APRIL).
MADAGASCAR.
The island of Madagascar, which stretches through more than
thirteen degrees of latitude, in close neighborhood to the
eastern African coast, opposite Mozambique, though often
called "the great African island," is more Malayan than
African in its population. The dominant tribe is the Hova. For
more than a century the French have been covetous of the
island, and since 1883, when they opened a war with its Hova
rulers, they have pursued a steady policy toward the end of
making it their own. The result of the war of 1886 was a
treaty under which the French claimed a certain protectorate
or control of Malagasy foreign relations,—a claim concerning
which there remained much dispute. In 1890 the British
government recognized the French protectorate, but the native
government continued steadily to refuse acknowledgment that
the treaty had given any such rights.
{297}
MADAGASCAR:
Subjugation of the island by the French.
Anti-foreign and anti-Christian risings.
Revival of idolatry.
Final possession of the island by France proclaimed.
Submissive Declaration of the Queen.
In 1894 the French government took decisive measures looking
toward the subjugation of the island, and, early in 1895, a
strong expedition under General Duchesne was landed on the
coast. The Malagasy were much divided among themselves, and
they were poorly prepared for war. They made feeble resistance
to the invaders; but the latter had a difficult and costly
campaign, notwithstanding, on account of the nature of the
country and the absence of roads, which they were obliged to
construct as they advanced. They are said to have lost only 20
men killed in action, but 6,000 by disease. They reached
Antananarivo, the Hova capital, at the end of September.
"Immediately on the arrival of General Duchesne a treaty was
signed by the Malagasy authorities, by which the whole power
of the country was ceded to the French. The queen remained in
her place, and the Hova Prime Minister was also allowed to be
nominally at the head of affairs. Part of this arrangement was
found impracticable after a short time; the Prime Minister had
enjoyed unlimited power for too long a period to accept a
subordinate position, and General Duchesne was forced to
remove him. According]y, he was taken to a house of his own at
a short distance from the capital, where he was kept under
surveillance for two or three months, but as he was still
supposed to be plotting he was deported to Algiers, in which
country he died after a very short exile.
"It seemed at first as if the change of masters in the island
was to be accomplished without any serious disturbance. … In
the early part of November (1895), however, this satisfactory
state of affairs was rudely interrupted. A paltry quarrel
between two clans about a piece of ground, which each claimed,
gradually developed into a serious rising. The two parties
came to an understanding by agreeing to make an attack upon
the Europeans. As soon as General Duchesne was informed of
what had been happening to the south-west of the capital, he
sent a column … with orders to punish the insurgents and to
pacify the district. … The resistance on the part of the
natives was vigorous, and for a time well sustained. …
Discipline and Lebel rifles, however, were more than a match
for all their efforts, and after a loss of about 150 men they
desisted. … One distressing feature in the insurrection was
the revival of idolatry, which was thought to be extinct in
Imerina, but which evidently has been scotched and not killed.
Almost the first move on the part of the rebels had been to
reinstate a local idol called Ravololona, and the performance
of certain acts of worship in the presence of the idol was
considered the mark of a good patriot. Naturally under these
circumstances the teachers and the more prominent Christians
in the various churches and chapels were objects of dislike
and hatred, and in the disaffected district these men with
their wives and families had to fly for their lives. It is
useless to shut one's eyes to facts; a considerable number of
those who were held in esteem by the missionaries failed to
stand the test of persecution, and if not guilty of actually
worshipping idols were actively in league with those who did
so. … After the suppression of this first outbreak matters
remained quiet in Imerina for some months. …
"The next serious event in the island was an outbreak of a
different character. With the exception of the Hova, few if
any of the tribes were thought to be opposed to French rule. …
The Hova were as much hated as they were feared, and, from
whatever quarter it might come, release from their rule would
be welcome. The arrival of the French was the long-wished-for
moment; but news spreads slow]y in Madagascar, and though the
Hova power came to an end at the beginning of October, it was
not realised on the coast until the new year [1896]. When,
however, it was known that the French were masters of the
country the explosion came. The two large tribes of the
Betsimisaraka and the Taimoro on the east rose against the
Hova, and ruthlessly killed them wherever they could catch
them. … The buildings used as churches and schools were also
burnt, for, as the greater part of the teachers came from
Imerina, religion and education were associated with the Hova.
In one or two instances Europeans were murdered, but only when
they were mixed up with the Hova."
F. A. Gregory,
The French in Madagascar
(Nineteenth Century, January, 1897).
Formal possession of the island was now proclaimed, and, on
the 18th of January, 1896, the submissive queen signed the
following "Declaration": "Her Majesty the Queen of Madagascar,
having been made acquainted with the Proclamation taking
possession of the Island of Madagascar by the French
Government, declares her acceptance of the following
conditions:
"ARTICLE I.
The Government of the French Republic shall be represented at
the Court of Her Majesty the Queen of Madagascar by a
Resident-General.
"ARTICLE II.
The Government of the French Republic shall represent
Madagascar in all relations with foreign Powers. The
Resident-General shall be intrusted with the conduct of
relations with the Agents of foreign Powers; and all questions
affecting foreigners in Madagascar shall be dealt with through
him. The French Diplomatic and Consular Agents abroad shall be
charged with the protection of Malagasy subjects and
interests.
"ARTICLE III.
The Government of the French Republic reserve to themselves
the right of maintaining in Madagascar the armed forces
necessary for the exercise of their authority.
"ARTICLE. IV.
The Resident-General shall control the internal administration
of the island. Her Majesty the Queen of Madagascar undertakes
to introduce such reforms as the French Government shall deem
expedient for the economic development of the island, and for
the advancement of civilization.
"ARTICLE. V.
The Government of Her Majesty the Queen of Madagascar
undertake to contract no loan without the authorization of the
Government of the French Republic.
(Signed) RANAVALOMANJAKA, Mpanjakany Madagascar."
On the 11th of February the following "Notification" was
officially communicated to all the Powers: "In consequence of
difficulties which have arisen in Madagascar, the Government
of the Republic, in the exercise of their Protectorate, have
been obliged to intervene by force of arms in order to make
their rights respected, and to obtain guarantees for the
future. They have thus been obliged to occupy the island with
their troops, and to take final possession thereof."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: Africa, No.8, 1897).
{298}
About this time, "M. Laroche, the first Resident-General,
arrived at the capital and began to organise the government of
the country. A new Prime Minister was appointed, in whose name
laws might be issued, for it had been settled that the
administration should be indirect, that is to say conducted
through the medium of the natives. A considerable number of
regulations were promulgated, affecting the development of the
industries of the country, the granting of concessions, and
the education of the natives. Most of these were much too
elaborate to be useful, and up to the present time nearly all
of them have remained a dead letter. Some may be useful when
the insurrection has been quelled, when the country is such as
to invite capitalists, and when schools have been
re-established. In March there were again signs of trouble,
though at first these were faint and perhaps too far off to
attract the serious attention of the authorities. …
"A petty disturbance in the beginning, fomented for private
purposes and fostered by an appeal to patriotic feeling, has
developed into a formidable insurrection. I say formidable,
but I do not mean to give the idea that the insurrection is
formidable from a military point of view. … But from
industrial, educational, and religious points of view, the
rebellion has been a complete success, and however soon it may
be suppressed, the progress of the country in some parts has
been thrown back for years, a large tract reduced to
desolation, and the inhabitants to little better than savages.
This destruction has been effected in five months, for,
beginning in May, it has spread over the whole of Avaradrano,
Vonizongo, part of Imarovatana, and Vakin Ankaratoa, four out
of the six divisions of Imerina. … To mark the, anti-European
character of the rising, the churches were burnt without
distinction, and in some places leper hospitals were
destroyed, and their unhappy inmates rendered houseless. The
English and Norwegian missions have suffered the most
severely. It is impossible to estimate correctly the number of
churches and chapels that have been burnt, but at the lowest
computation it must amount to 600. … As in the West,
idol-worship was practised, the idol in this case being
Ramahavaly, the war-god or goddess; the pillaging of houses
and property became almost universal, and soon it came to pass
that no one was safe unless he either joined the insurgents or
paid them to leave him unmolested. …
"The greatest move in the organisation of the country is the
abolition of slavery throughout the island. This was
proclaimed in the official gazette issued on the 27th of
September [1896] by decree of the Resident-General. It was
wholly unexpected at the time, though there had been rumours
two or three months previously to the effect that the step was
contemplated, but would be effected gradually. Naturally, it
fell upon the Hova like a clap of thunder, and, as the law was
published on a Sunday, some worthy folk found themselves, on
their return from service, without a slave to cook the dinner.
… It would have been better to have proceeded more slowly to
the desired end; to have made an children born after a fixed
day free; and to have made the redemption of the rest, either
by themselves or by others, cheap and easy. However, it has
been decided otherwise, and certainly the state of the country
is such as to justify any measure, for, when everything is in
a state of upheaval the exact amount of pressure is of small
importance. In addition to this it must be remembered that in
consequence of the outbreak Madagascar has been declared a
French colony, and that this carries with it the abolition of
the status of slavery. While, then, the greater number of
Europeans who know Madagascar would have preferred that
slavery should have been abolished by degrees, few would be
prepared to say that it was altogether a mistake."
F. A. Gregory,
The French in Madagascar
(Nineteenth Century, January, 1897).
An Act for the annexation of Madagascar was passed by the
French Chamber and Senate in the early summer of 1896, with a
declaration for the immediate abolition of slavery. In the
following year Queen Ranavalomanjaka was banished to the
French Island of Reunion, and in 1899 she was removed to a
more distant and more cruel exile in Algiers.
MAFEKING, Siege of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER); and 1900 (MARCH-MAY).
MAFIA, Exposure in Italy of the.
See (in this volume)
ITALY: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY).
MAHAN, Captain Alfred T.:
American Commissioner to the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
MAHDI, The death of the.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896.
MAINE, The battle-ship:
Destruction in Havana harbor.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).
MAJESFONTEIN, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
MALAGASY, The.
See (in this volume)
MADAGASCAR.
MALAKAND, Attack by Swat tribes on.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1897-1898.
MALARIA, Discovery of the secret of.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: MEDICAL AND SURGICAL.
MALAYAN RACE.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: THE NATIVE INHABITANTS.
MALOLOS:
The seat of Aguinaldo's government in the Philippines.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL.
See (in this volume)
CANAL, MANCHESTER SHIP.
MANCHURIA: A. D. 1895-1900.
Trans-Siberian Railway.
Russo-Chinese Treaty.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1895; and
RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1891-1900.
{299}
MANCHURIA: A. D. 1900-1901.
Chinese Boxer attack on the Russians and
savage Russian retaliation.
Russian occupation of Niu-chwang.
Russo-Chinese negotiations concerning the province.
Distrust of Russian designs.
The Boxer outbreak in and around Peking, in the early summer
(see, in this volume, CHINA: A. D. 1900-MAY-JUNE, and after),
was followed, in July, by an attack on the Russians in
Manchuria, along the line of the Manchurian branch of their
Trans-Siberian Railway (see, in this volume, RUSSIA IN ASIA),
and on the Amur. The retaliation of the Russians appears to
have been simply ferocious. Professor G. Frederick Wright, who
was travelling in Manchuria at the time, gives a sickening
account of what he saw on the Amur, above Blagovestchensk, in
a letter written, August 6, from Stretensk, Siberia, to "The
Nation," of New York. The Chinese fort at Aygun, on the
Manchurian side of the Amur, began, without warning, on the
14th of July, he writes, "to fire upon passing steamboats,
and, on the 15th, fire was opened upon Blagovestchensk, and
some Russian villages were burned opposite the fort. The
actual injury inflicted by the Chinese was slight; but the
terror caused by it was indescribable, and it drove the
Cossacks into a frenzy of rage. The peaceable Chinese, to the
number of 3,000 or 4,000, in the city were expelled in great
haste, and, being forced upon rafts entirely inadequate, were
most of them drowned in attempting to cross the river. The
stream was fairly black with their bodies. Three days after,
we counted hundreds of them in the water. In our ride through
the country to reach the city on Thursday, the 19th, we saw as
many as thirty villages and hamlets of the Chinese in flames.
One of them was a city of 8,000 or 10,000 inhabitants. We
estimated that we saw the dwellings of 20,000 peaceable
Chinese in flames that awful day, while parties of Cossacks
were scouring the fields to find Chinese, and shooting them
down at sight. What became of the women and children no one
knew; but there was apparently no way for them to escape to a
place of safety. On our way up the river for 500 miles above
the city, every Chinese hamlet was a charred mass of ruins.
The large village of Motcha was still smoking, and we were
told that 4,000 Chinese had been killed. We do not mention
these facts to excite prejudice against the Russian
authorities or against the Cossacks. This work of devastation
has not been ordered by those high in authority. It is rather
the result of mob violence such as instigates the promoters of
lynch law in the Southern States, or, more nearly, such as has
from time immemorial animated the pioneers in America against the
Indians. The wholesale destruction, both of property and of
life, was thought to be a military necessity. The wives and
children of the Cossacks were in terror."
Russian troops were poured into Manchuria in vast numbers, and
however much or little there may have been of the Boxer
movement, it was crushed with merciless rigor. A letter from
the Manchurian treaty port of Niu-chwang, on the Liao-tung
Gulf, written August 13, to the "London Times," describes the
Russian occupation of that town and region, in the previous
week. After some 1,500 or 2,000 Chinese soldiers and
civilians, in flight from the town, had been intercepted and
killed, "the Russian general," says the writer, "was about to
order a general assault on the town when the foreign residents
interceded, as there were no longer any soldiers or 'Boxers'
left. He declared his intention was to kill all, as it was
impossible to distinguish between soldiers, 'Boxers' and
civilians. Some foreigners then went down into the city and
brought up the principal merchants, who were given until 10 a.
m. to deliver up all the guns in the town. This, of course,
they could not and did not do, so some foreign residents
offered to enter the city with the Russian soldiers, and
guaranteed peaceful occupation. This offer was accepted, and
the town was spared enormous loss of life, though there was a
certain amount of looting, and a few people were bayoneted in
the outlying houses. Outside the walls men, women, and
children were killed, and from all sides came reliable reports
of violation of women. There is no possible doubt about the
truth of these reports. The Russians are carrying out a policy
of destruction of property and extermination of the people.
Kai-chau, the district city, 24 miles south of this port, and
nearly all the villages have been burnt and the inhabitants
killed. The soldiers, both infantry and Cossacks, have been
allowed to do what they like for some days."
The same correspondent goes on to say: "The Russians hoisted
their naval flag over the Custom-house at 7.30 p. m. on August
4. Neither in the attack and bombardment of the town nor in
hoisting their flag did they consult any of the foreign
Consuls or the commanders of the two Japanese gunboats in
port. Admiral Alexeieff arrived on the 5th and issued a
circular announcing the occupation of the treaty port by
Russian military forces. … What the other Powers will say to
the seizure of a treaty port and hoisting of only one flag
remains to be seen." The "one flag" seems to have been still
waving over Niu-chwang as late as the 15th of February, 1901,
since a member in the British House of Commons, on that day,
arraigning his government for want of vigor in China, said
that "though British people traded with Niu-chwang to the
extent of three millions sterling a year, the port was now
under the civil and military administration of Russia alone.
He should like to know what undertaking his Majesty's
Government had obtained that Russia would speedily evacuate
Niu-chwang, and that the administration of the port would
revert to the hands of the Chinese Government.
A few days later, the Under Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs, Viscount Cranborne, said in reply to this statement:
"We made proper inquiry from our representative, and he
assured us that any agreement which exists between Russia and
China in respect to Manchuria is in the nature of a 'modus
vivendi,' consisting merely in the simultaneous presence of
the Russian and Chinese forces in Manchuria, and in order to
prevent disturbances on their frontier. He assured us that the
occupation of the railway is of a purely temporary character,
and that, although a guarantee is expected by the Russian
Government that upon their withdrawal the disturbances shall
not breakout again, yet that guarantee will not take the form
of an acquisition of territory or of a virtual or actual
protectorate in Manchuria. … In respect to Niu-chwang we have
received assurances at least equal to those which have been
given us in respect to the province of South Manchuria. We
understand the Russians are prepared to restore Niu-chwang at
the end of their occupation precisely to its former
condition."
{300}
For the time being, however, the Russians seem to have
established in practice a very real protectorate over the
province of Fêng-tien, in Southern Manchuria, by an agreement
between the Russian governor of the territory leased from
China in the Liao-tung peninsula and the Chinese Tartar
general of Fêng-tien, signed on the 11th of November, 1900.
The general terms of this agreement were reported late in
December, and excited much uneasiness as to Russian designs.
The full text was communicated to the "London Times," in the
February following, by its Peking correspondent, with the
information that the Tartar general who signed it, in
transmitting a copy to Li Hung-chang, "states that grief
pierces his very soul, but what alternative has he?" The
agreement required the Tartar general to disband his troops
and disarm them, on account of the rebellions which had
occurred among them; to deliver up all munitions of war and
dismantle all forts and defences, and to give full information
of all important measures taken by him to a Russian resident
who should be stationed at Mukden, with "general powers of
control."
Late in February, 1901, it was ascertained that the Russian
Minister at Peking, M. de Giers, was negotiating a more
definite and binding convention relative to Manchuria with the
Chinese imperial government, as represented by Li Hung-chang;
and, on the 7th of March, the Peking correspondent of the
"London Times" telegraphed to that journal what claimed to be
a translation of the full text of the treaty, as follows:
"I. The Emperor of Russia, being desirous to manifest his
friendly feelings, agrees to restore Manchuria completely to
China without keeping in mind the fact of the recent warfare
in that province. The Chinese administration shall be restored
in all respects to the 'status quo ante.'
"II. China granted to the railway company, as stipulated in
Article VI. of the Eastern China Railway Concession, the right
of guarding the line with troops, but the country being still
in disorder and the number of troops being insufficient, it
has been found necessary to station a body of troops in the
province, which will be withdrawn as soon as peace and order
are restored and the provisions of the last four articles of
the present convention are carried out.
"III. In case of emergency, the Russian troops stationed in
the province shall render all possible assistance to China to
suppress any disturbances.
"IV. The recent attacks against Russia having been conducted
principally by regular troops, China agrees not to organize
any army before the completion of the railway and the opening
thereof for traffic. When China subsequently organizes her
military forces, the number of troops shall be fixed in
consultation with Russia. The importation of arms and
ammunition into Manchuria is prohibited.
"V. In order to safeguard the province, China shall
immediately dismiss such Governors-General and high local
officials as have committed improper acts in connexion with
foreign relations against which Russia would protest. China
can organize infantry and cavalry in Manchuria for police
purposes, but the number shall be fixed in consultation with
Russia. Artillery should be excluded, and arms given to no
subjects of any other Power employed in connexion with the
exercise of functions.
"VI. China, as previously agreed, shall not employ the
subjects of any other Power for training her naval and
military forces in the northern provinces.
"VII. In order to maintain peace and order, the local
authorities, residing in the vicinity of the neutral zone
provided for by the fifth article of the convention relating
to the lease of the territory of Leao-tong, shall establish
special regulations suitable to the circumstances, and shall
relinquish the administrative autonomy of Kin-chau, which is
reserved to China by Article IV. of the special convention.
"VIII. China shall not grant, without the consent of Russia,
to any other Power or their subjects advantages relative to
mines, railways, or other matters in the Russo-Chinese
Frontier provinces—namely, Manchuria, Mongolia, Kashgar,
Yarkand, Khotan, and Turkestan; neither shall she construct
her own railways in those provinces without the consent of
Russia. Leases of land outside Niu-chwang shall not be granted
to the subjects of any other Power.
"IX. China being under obligations to pay the war expenses of
Russia and the claims of the various other Powers, the amount
of Russia's indemnity, and the terms of payment and the
security for it, shall be adjusted conjointly with the other
Powers.
"X. Indemnities shall be paid and compensation granted for the
destruction of railway property and to the employés of the
company. Losses accruing from delay in the work shall be
adjusted between China and the railway company.
"XI. When the indemnities for the various damages shall have
been agreed upon between China and the company the whole or
part of the amount of such indemnities should be met by
advantages other than pecuniary compensation—that is, either
by revision of the existing agreement relating to the railway
or by the grant of new advantages.
"XII. China shall, as previously agreed, grant to Russia a
concession for the construction of a railway from the main or
branch line of the Manchuria Railway towards Peking and to the
Great Wall."
Notwithstanding the very positive agreement contained in the
first article of this treaty, that the Emperor of Russia will
"restore Manchuria completely to China," the publication of
its terms excited new and greater distrust of the designs and
the action of the Muscovite Power. It was seen that Chinese
authority, for the time being, would be pushed out of
Manchuria so completely, and that of Russia would be
established so firmly, that any future restoration of the
former was improbable, to say the least. Moreover, the entire
exclusion of all people except Russians from any share in the
development of Manchurian resources was exceedingly offensive
to the money-making desires with which the whole western world
is looking toward the great decaying empire of the East. That
such an exclusion should extend beyond Manchuria, even to
Mongolia, Kashgar, Yarkand, Khotan and Turkestan, as set forth
in the above report of the pending treaty, was an idea at
which capitalistic circles in Europe and America stood aghast.
{301}
Very soon there was denial that the exclusiveness asked for by
the modest Russian went farther than the bounds of Manchuria;
but, even as thus limited, it roused strenuous protest from
the Press of the western world, if not from the governments.
What diplomatic action was taken by the Powers in general is
not known at the time of this writing; but the United States
remonstrated to China (see CHINA: A. D. 1901, MARCH-APRIL,),
and, as stated by the British Foreign Minister, Lord
Lansdowne, in Parliament, on the 28th of March, the British
and German governments did the same. The Chinese government
was nerved accordingly to resist the Russian demands, though
Li Hung-chang appears to have urged submission to them. The
contemplated treaty was not signed.
Before and after this determination the Russian government
maintained that it had no ulterior designs in the arrangement
it sought with China. Lord Lansdowne, in the speech to
Parliament referred to above, spoke as follows of the
assurances he had received from Count Lamsdorff, the Russian
Foreign Minister: "He told us that it was the object of the
Russian Government 'to arrange with the local civil
authorities the terms of a "modus vivendi" between them for
the duration of the simultaneous presence of Russian and
Chinese authorities in Southern Manchuria, the object being to
prevent the recurrence of disturbances in the vicinity of the
Russian frontier and to protect the railway from the Russian
frontier to Port Arthur.' And he told us that his government
had 'no intention of seeking this guarantee in any acquisition
of territory or of an actual or virtual protectorate over
Manchuria.'"
Similar assurances are reported to have been given to the
American government, on the 4th of April; and, for the time
being at least, the Manchurian question has ceased to be
disturbing to the "Concert of the Powers."
MANCHURIA AND MONGOLIA.
The following information concerning Manchuria and Mongolia is
taken from notes made in 1897 by Colonel Browne, Military
Attache to the British Legation at Peking: "The area of
Manchuria is computed to contain no less than 362,310 square
miles, or just three times as large as that of Great Britain
and Ireland. It is divided into three provinces, of which the
most southerly, Feng-tien or Shên-king, with its capital at
Mukden, has for several hundred years formed an integral part
of the Chinese Empire, and is consequently more opened up and
more densely inhabited than the two northern provinces, which
were regarded until the beginning of this century as waste
lands, outside the pale of civilization, fit only for the
transportation of criminals. Though the old palisades have
long disappeared, their trace still marks the boundary between
Manchuria and Mongolia, and the gateways on the main roads are
still used as posts for the collection of transit dues. These
places may be recognized by the termination 'mên' (a gate),
such as Fa-k'u-mên, Fa-ta-ha-mên. The province of Kirin and
its capital bear the same name, while the huge northern
province of Hei-lung-chiang has its seat of government at
Tsi-tsi-har. It is generally said that the Governor of
Fêng-tien (Mukden) occupies somewhat the position, as regards
the two northern provinces, as a viceroy in China holds
towards the provinces comprised in his Viceroyalty, but this
does not appear to be so, except in his capacity as High
Commissioner for the defence of the three Manchurian
provinces. The Governors of the three provinces are styled in
the official Gazette by the same title of Military Governor of
the Provincial Capital and Tartar General of the Province, but
the Governor of Fêng-tien holds the more honourable post,
because Mukden is an Imperial city, within its walls is an
Imperial Palace, without its walls the tombs of the founders
of the Manchu dynasty. It has also, in miniature, Boards
similar to those at the capital for regulating ceremonies,
punishments, and civil appointments; in short, all the
theoretical paraphernalia to carry on the government of the
country, should the Emperor visit this quarter of his
dominions. … The great grain and bean producing area in the
three provinces is contained in a strip of country, extending
from the Treaty Port of Newchwang to 30 miles north of
Pei-tuan-lin-tzu. To the west of this belt of arable are the
Mongolian steppes, all in grass, but fading away into sand as
they merge in the great desert of Gobi; to the east is a hilly
or mountainous region, in which the only large cultivated area
is that watered by the River Hwei-fa, an affluent of the Upper
Sungari; elsewhere the cultivated areas are small, such as
those at Mergen, Tsi-tsi-har, the Valley of the Yen, and at
Sansing, Ninguta, Hun-chun, and Omoso. Exclusive of patches of
cultivation in remote districts and valleys, the great
cultivated area may be estimated to amount to 16,000 square
miles, or about one twenty-fourth of the total area of the
country. To what extent under improved communications,
drainage, and more favourable conditions generally, the
cultivated area is capable of expansion, it is difficult to
say. … The population of Manchuria has been variously
estimated from a few millions by the Chinese to as much as
25,000,000 by Europeans. A Russian engineer, who has travelled
all over the country, estimates it as between 10,000,000 and
15,000,000. … Before I received these figures I had arrived at
a somewhat similar result by taking the cultivated area at 700
per square mile which gives a population of 11,250,000, and
assuming 2,500,000 scattered throughout the more remote
districts, or a population in all of about 14,000,000. What
proportion of these are Manchus is also a vexed question to
which no definite answer can be given. Certainly the Manchus
are in the minority, for though there are several towns almost
wholly Chinese, I know of no town in which it is not
acknowledged that the Chinese form more than half the
population. The Manchus are nearly all concentrated in towns;
there are Manchu villages, but they are small, possibly their
numbers amount to between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000, or about 20
per cent. of the population. The chief appointments in
Manchuria are, without exception, held by Manchus, the
descendants of the conquerors of China. In four centuries of
ease and sloth they have lost the wild courage, the spirit of
adventure that inspired them to overrun China, and the
hardihood and skill at arms that brought success to their
venture. But if they have lost the warlike instincts of their
savage ancestors, they have retained all their pride, their
ignorance, their cruelty, and their superstition. All these
qualities a Manchu possesses far in excess of the liberal
share that nature has bestowed on the Chinese.
{302}
It is true that skill at arms still nominally opens the door
to military preferment, but such arms and such skill! Shooting
arrows from a moderately strung bow when cantering on a pony
is a test which displays neither skill, strength, nor
endurance. Even according to Chinese ideas they are ignorant.
… As regards their privileges, the Manchus pay no land tax;
but in so far as I have been able to ascertain, the opinion
generally held, that they are all pensioned by Government, is
erroneous. … But though the mass of the Manchus receive no
pension, nearly all are in pay as hangers-on at Yamêns,
body-guard to officials, soldiers, care-takers at the Palace
or Imperial tombs, and similar posts. The emoluments are
small, just sufficient to enable the man to support his family
without working, or making his way in the world as an ordinary
Chinese must do. Formerly the Manchus did not intermarry with
Chinese women, but at the present time this custom is
frequently broken through, though of course no Chinese would
be permitted to marry a Manchu woman. The Manchus, especially
the dependents, hangers-on, and soldiers, are great opium
smokers, and a very worthless class; probably intermarriage
with the Chinese will prevent the extinction of the race,
which, were the present dynasty to fall, would be speedily
absorbed, for, without being propped up with State assistance,
it could not on its merits hold the position it does at
present. As regards the Chinese, few of the rich merchants
make Manchuria their home. They come to the country for a
definite number of years, and the same applies to their
agents, managers, and staff generally, who leave their
families in China. The settlers, on the contrary, have made
the country their home. They are a fine, healthy, and vigorous
race. Driven from China by poverty or famine, they regard
Manchuria as a land flowing with milk and honey. … Whether it
be the rigour of the climate which softens their manners, or
the absence of the Chinese Mandarin, or living under the sway
of an alien race which humbles their pride, or a combination
of all these elements, it is difficult to say, but the people
are far less hostile to the foreigner than those in China
proper. …
"Mongolia extends for 1,500 miles along the northern frontier
of China, and as its eastern border is coterminous with
Manchuria, a few words regarding the Mongols may not be out of
place in these notes. The race is said to come with the Manchus
from a common Tartar stock, but, except in colour and
features, there is little resemblance between the two races.
The Mongol is essentially a nomad, hating towns and houses. He
prefers to wander about the steppes, pitching his 'yourt,' or
felt tent, wherever water and pasture are for the time most
plentiful. As the nature of the country they inhabit prohibits
agriculture, the art is unknown among his people, who are
entirely engaged in tending their flocks and herds, ponies,
and camels. They are mere children in the hands of the
Chinese, who can outwit them as easily as a member of the
'confidence trick' fraternity outwits a rustic from the
shires. … A small portion of their territory is rented by the
Chinese on the west of the Provinces of Kirin and Fêng-tien,
of which it has now become an integral part. Kuan-cheng-tzu
was originally in Mongolia, and so are all the towns and
villages to the west of the palisade, of which the principal
are Mai-mai-kai (Fenghua), Ch'ang-tu, and Cheng-chia-tun.
Mongolia is the great breeding land for horses and cattle. At
first sight when travelling through the country one is
astonished at the enormous size of the troops of ponies; but
when one considers that this territory supplies Siberia,
China, and Manchuria with animals, it is easy to see that the
supply is not greater than the demand. … The Mongols are
governed by their hereditary Princes, Chinese authority being
maintained by Imperial Residents at Ching-hai, in Western
Mongolia (Ko-ko-nor), and at Urga, in the north."
Great Britain,
Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command, China,
Number 1, 1899, pages 34-37).
MANCHUS:
Increasing ascendancy in Chinese Government.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899 (APRIL).
MANETHO, Vindication of the list of.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH; EGYPT: RESULTS.
MANHATTAN BOROUGH.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1896-1897.
MANILA:
The capital city of the Philippine Islands.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.
MANILA: A. D. 1898 (April-July).
Destruction of the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay.
Blockade and siege.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JULY).
MANILA: A. D. 1898 (July-September).
Capture by the Americans.
Relations of Americans with Filipino insurgents.
General Merritt's report.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
MANILA: A. D. 1900.
Regulation of the sale of liquors.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).
MANITOBA SCHOOL QUESTION.
See (in this volume)
CANADA; A. D. 1890-1896; and 1898 (JANUARY).
MARCHAND'S EXPEDITION.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1898 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).
MARCONI, Guglielmo:
Development of wireless telegraphy.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: ELECTRICAL.
MARIANNE ISLANDS:
Sale by Spain to Germany.
See (in this volume)
CAROLINE AND MARIANNE ISLANDS.
MARITIME CANAL COMPANY.
See (in this volume)
CANAL, INTEROCEANIC.
MARITIME POWERS.
See (in this volume)
NAVIES; and WAR BUDGETS.
MARITIME WARFARE, Convention relative to.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
MARRIAGE LAWS, Hungarian.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1894-1895.
{303}
MARYLAND:
New election law, establishing a qualification of the suffrage.
A new election law, said to have been driven through the
Legislature by partisan pressure, and for the purpose of
disfranchising the majority of colored citizens, was passed by
both houses on the 20th of March, 1901. It is said to be
"considerably more fair than the North Carolina and similar
laws in States farther south. It disfranchises by means of
regulations which practically make it necessary for a voter to
be able to read his ballot. The illiterate are denied any
assistance when they go into the booths, and all emblems are
omitted from the ticket. The color line is not drawn. It is
believed that there are about 32,000 negroes and 16,000 whites
who will not be able to vote under this law. Practically all
of the negroes are supposed to be Republicans, while it is
estimated that the whites are divided about evenly between the
parties."
MASHONALAND:
Embraced in Rhodesia.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY):
A. D. 1894-1895.
MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1897.
Recovery of the original manuscript of Governor Bradford's
History of Plymouth Colony, sometimes called "The Log of the
Mayflower."
"It has long been well known that Governor Bradford wrote and
left behind him a history of the settlement of Plymouth. It
was quoted by early chroniclers. There are extracts from it in
the records at Plymouth. Thomas Prince used it when he
compiled his annals, Hubbard depended on it when he wrote his
'History of New England,' Cotton Mather had read it, or a copy
of a portion of it, when he wrote his 'Magnalia,' Governor
Hutchinson had it when he published the second volume of his
history in 1767. From that time it disappeared from the
knowledge of everybody on this side of the water. All our
historians speak of it as lost, and can only guess what had
been its fate. …
"In 1844 Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, afterward
Bishop of Winchester, One of the brightest of men, published
one of the dullest and stupidest of books. It is entitled 'The
History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America.' It
contained extracts from manuscripts which he said he had
discovered in the library of the Bishop of London at Fulham.
The book attracted no attention here until, about twelve years
later, in 1855, John Wingate Thornton … happened to pick up a
copy of it while he was lounging in Burnham's book store. He
read the bishop's quotations, and carried the book to his
office, where he left it for his friend, Mr. Barry, who was
then writing his 'History of Massachusetts,' with passages
marked, and with a note which is not preserved, but which,
according to his memory, suggested that the passages must have
come from Bradford's long-lost history. That is the claim for
Mr. Thornton. On the other hand, it is claimed by Mr. Barry
that there was nothing of that kind expressed in Mr.
Thornton's note, but in reading the book when he got it an
hour or so later, the thought struck him for the first time
that the clue had been found to the precious book which had
been lost so long. He at once repaired to Charles Deane, then
and ever since, down to his death, as President Eliot
felicitously styled him, 'the master of historical
investigators in this country.' Mr. Deane saw the importance
of the discovery. He communicated at once with Joseph Hunter,
an eminent English scholar. Hunter was high authority on all
matters connected with the settlement of New England. He
visited the palace at Fulham, and established beyond question
the identity of the manuscript with Governor Bradford's
history, an original letter of Governor Bradford having been
sent over for comparison of handwriting.
"How the manuscript got to Fulham nobody knows. Whether it was
carried over by Governor Hutchinson in 1774; whether it was
taken as spoil from the tower of the Old South Church in 1775;
whether, with other manuscripts, it was sent to Fulham at the
time of the attempts of the Episcopal churches in America,
just before the Revolution, to establish an episcopate here,
—nobody knows."
George F. Hoar,
address, May 26, 1897,
on the Return of the Manuscript to Massachusetts.
After the discovery of the manuscript, several attempts to
bring about its return to America were made: by Justin Winsor,
in 1860, and again in 1877; by Mr. Motley, in 1869; and by
others. At length, Senator Hoar, after delivering an address
at Plymouth, in 1895, on the anniversary of the landing of the
Pilgrims, went abroad, with his interest in the matter warmly
stirred up, and took steps, in concurrence with Ambassador
Bayard, which led to the enlistment of potent influences on
both sides of the sea in favor of the restoration of the
precious piece of writing to its proper home. There were many
difficulties in procuring the necessary legal authority for
the surrender of the manuscript by the Bishop of
London,—difficulties not created wilfully, but by questions
and processes of law; but they were all overcome, with kindly
help from everybody concerned, and, on the 12th of April,
1897, the coveted manuscript book was formally delivered to
the United States Ambassador, Mr. Bayard, for conveyance to
the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It was
delivered by Mr. Bayard in person, on the 26th of May
following, in the presence of the Senate and the House of
Representatives of Massachusetts, sitting together in the
chamber of the latter, with many guests invited for the
occasion. The ceremonies of the occasion included the address
by Senator Hoar from which the above account is taken.
The manuscript volume is now deposited in the State Library of
Massachusetts at Boston. A new edition, carefully reproducing
the text of the history from it, with a full report of the
proceedings incident to its return to Massachusetts, was
printed in 1900, under the direction of the Secretary of the
Commonwealth, by order of the General Court. The following
remarks on the manuscript are from the Introduction to that
edition:
"By very many it has been called, incorrectly, the log of the
'Mayflower.' Indeed, that is the title by which it is
described in the decree of the Consistorial Court of London.
The fact is, however, that Governor Bradford undertook its
preparation long after the arrival of the Pilgrims, and it
cannot be properly considered as in any sense a log or daily
journal of the voyage of the 'Mayflower.' It is, in point of
fact, a history of the Plymouth Colony, chiefly in the form of
annals, extending from the inception of the colony down to the
year 1647. The matter has been in print since 1856, put forth
through the public spirit of the Massachusetts Historical
Society, which secured a transcript of the document from
London, and printed it in the Society's Collections of the
above-named year."
{304}
MASSACRES:
Of Armenians in Constantinople.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1896 (AUGUST).
MASSACRES:
Of Chinese by the allied troops.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST 5-16).
MASSACRES:
Of Chinese in Manchuria by the Russians.
See (in this volume)
MANCHURIA: A. D. 1900.
MASSACRES:
Of Christian missionaries and converts in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA:
A. D. 1895 (AUGUST);
1898 (MAY);
1898-1899 (JUNE-JANUARY);
1899;
1900 (JANUARY-MARCH), (MAY-JUNE); and
1901 (MARCH).
MATABELES.
Matabeleland.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY):
A. D. 1894-1895; and
(RHODESIA); 1896 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).
MATTHEW, The Gospel of:
Discovery of a fragment of an early copy.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT: RESULTS.
MAYFLOWER, The so-called Log of the.
See (in this volume, page 303)
MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1897.
MAZET INVESTIGATION, The.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1899 (APRIL-DECEMBER).
MEAT INSPECTION BILL, The German.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (MAY).
MEDICAL SCIENCE, Recent advances in.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: MEDICAL AND SURGICAL.
MEHTAR OF CHITRAL, The.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1895 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).
MEIJI STATESMEN.
See (in this volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-OCTOBER).
MENA, The tomb of.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT: RESULTS.
MENELEK II., King of Shoa and Negus of Abyssinia.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896.
MERENPTAH I., The funeral temple of.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT: RESULTS.
MERRIMAC, The sinking of the collier, at Santiago.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JUNE).
MERRITT, General: Report of capture of Manila.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
MESOPOTAMIA, Recent archæological research in.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA.
MESOPOTAMIA:
Projected railways.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1899 (NOVEMBER); and
JEWS: A. D. 1899.
MEXICAN FREE ZONE, The.
"The Department of State has received through Consul-General
Barlow a report of the Free Zone, compiled by the Secretary of
the Treasury of Mexico, giving a history of the original
creation of the zone and defining its limits, and the
privileges and restrictions applicable thereto. The Free Zone
is a narrow strip of territory extending along the northern
border from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean, with a
latitudinal area of about 12½ miles to the interior, and
embracing a portion of the States of Tamaulipas, Coahnila,
Chihuahua, Sonora, and the territory of Lower California. It
was established many years ago [1861] by the Central
Government, as a compromise or concession to the States
bordering the Rio Grande, as a protection against smuggling
from the United States. The principal cities of the zone are
Matamoras, Camargo, Mier, Guerrero, Laredo, Porfirio Diaz
(Piedras Negras), Juarez, and Nogales. The total population
does not exceed 100,000 people. According to the official
reports, there exist within the limits of the free zone no
industries worth mentioning, which is explained by the fact
that all industrial products manufactured in the zone when
sent into the interior of the country are required to pay the
regular duties charged on imports into the country; and, on
account of the protective tariff of the United States, it is
impracticable to export such products to that country. Thus
the manufacturing industries would have to depend upon the
home consumption, which is not sufficient to maintain them.
All merchandise imported into the zone destined for
consumption therein is admitted on a basis of 10 per cent of
the regular tariff duties, but such merchandise when reshipped
into the interior of Mexico is required to pay an additional
duty of 90 per cent, making, in connection with the 10 per
cent already paid, the regular tariff duty of Mexico. In his
report the secretary of the treasury, Senor Limantour, makes
this statement: 'Many distinguished financiers and eminent
statesmen are opposed to the Free Zone, but all recognize the
fact that, on account of existing circumstances in the
northern frontier, its sparse population, without resources in
agriculture, industry, or mining, the privilege could not be
abolished without compensation, and the problem lies in
choosing some other advantage without prejudice to the rest of
the country.'"
Bulletin of the American Republics,
August, 1898.
"The franchise granted the Free Zone consisted, in the
beginning, in not levying any duty upon imported articles;
afterwards, however, some small duties, purely local, were
established, and the ordinance of 1887 established as a fixed
basis 3 per cent on the value of the duties according to
tariff—a basis which was raised to 10 per cent by the
ordinance of 1891. By subsequent decrees the duties were
raised l½ per cent for the municipality and 7 per cent for
stamps for internal revenue, the result of all this being that
the merchandise introduced into the Free Zone from abroad now
paid 18½ per cent upon the importation duties according to
tariff. … As the records of the frontier custom-houses of the
north make no distinction in the duties, those for the Free
Zone as well as those for the interior appearing in the same
classification, it is impossible to know exactly what the
treasury loses by the 90 per cent rebate on the duties of the
merchandise destined for consumption in the Free Zone; but,
admitting as an exaggerated estimate that the total
consumption of the Free Zone represents in duties $400,000
($177,600) a year, with the 10 per cent charge on this amount,
the average annual loss would be $365,000 ($162,060).
{305}
"The institution of the Free Zone obliges the Mexican
Government, in order to prevent the introduction clandestinely
into the interior of merchandise proceeding therefrom, to
maintain a body of fiscal guards at an annual expense of
$562,525.95 ($249,762). The guards of the custom-houses must
not be reckoned in this account; for these, with or without
the Free Zone, are necessary to prevent the smuggling which
would be carried on from the United States, and which is even
now done. In case of abolishing the Free Zone, it would not be
possible to completely suppress the fiscal guards; lessened in
number and with a distinct organization, they would have to be
maintained, especially since in case of their abolition the
entire duties would be charged (that is to say, 90 per cent
more than is now levied), and this would be inducement enough
to provoke attempts at smuggling. This body of guards, fiscal
as well as administrative, supplies the place of an interior
custom-house (although it does not levy duties), as it reviews
in certain instances the merchandise shipped through the
frontier custom-houses and in a military capacity guards the
roads leading to and from the frontier to prevent smuggling.
It has a system of fixed sections situated at convenient
locations between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific, and of
flying detachments continually patrolling the strip of
territory named. Experience has demonstrated the usefulness of
the body, for instances of smuggling by wagons, carts, or
animals can be said to no longer exist."
Of smuggling, "there are two divisions to be made, as follows:
Smuggling to the interior of the Republic and smuggling to the
United State, of America. The first was at one time of
importance, since it was practiced on a large scale. Bands of
smugglers, resorting at times to violence, conducted
merchandise to the interior, but since the Republic entered
the period of peace the Government has been able to take
measures to end this illegal traffic. The custom-houses, which
formerly scarcely produced enough to pay the employees, now
render from $4,000,000 to $5,000,000 annually from import
duties.
"Smuggling from Mexico to the United States of America has
never been practiced to any great extent."
United States Consular Reports,
August, 1898, page 619.
----------MEXICO: Start--------
MEXICO: A. D. 1892-1895.
Boundary surveys.
The international commission which had been engaged since 1892
in resurveying the incorrectly marked boundary between Mexico
and the United States from San Diego, California, to El Paso,
Texas, finished its work in 1895. Another commission began in
the same year to resurvey the remainder of the boundary, along
the Rio Grande from El Paso to the Gulf.
MEXICO: A. D. 1895.
Boundary dispute with Guatemala.
There was a quite serious threatening of war between Mexico
and Guatemala in 1895, consequent upon a disputed boundary
line. The mediation of the United States brought about a
settlement, which gave the disputed district to Guatemala, and
provided for an arbitration of indemnities, the United States
Minister to Mexico being selected as arbitrator.
MEXICO: A. D. 1895.
Census of population.
Its distribution.
"The population of Mexico appears to be, from our … census …
in 1895, 12,570,195, which would give 16.38 for each square
mile; but from my personal knowledge of the country, I am
quite sure that it is not less than 15,000,000. It is very
difficult to take a correct census in Mexico, because there is
not the proper machinery in operation for that purpose, and
especially because a great many districts are inhabited by
Indians, who are impressed with the fear that if they inscribe
themselves in the census they will be taxed or drafted into
the military service, and they try to avoid registration.
"A great many of our people live in such remote districts that
they are practically cut off from communication with other
portions of the country, and in fact are almost isolated; and
this constitutes still another difficulty in the way of taking
a correct census. … The upper lands being the healthiest, most
of the population in Mexico is settled in the central plateau;
a relatively small portion lives in the temperate zone, while
the torrid zone is very thinly populated. I imagine, at a
rough calculation, that about 75 per cent. of the population
make their abode in the cold zone, from 15 to 18 per cent. in
the temperate zone, and from 7 to 10 per cent. in the torrid
zone.
"From the synopsis of our censuses, … it appears that the
population in Mexico has duplicated during the last century,
and although that increase does not keep pace with the
increase in the United States, because this has been really
wonderful, it compares favorably with the increase in other
countries."
M. Romero,
Mexico and the United States,
volume 1, pages 89-90
(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons).
MEXICO: A. D. 1896.
Amendments to the Constitution.
See (in this volume)
CONSTITUTION OF MEXICO.
MEXICO: A. D. 1896.
Re-election of President Diaz.
By a popular election held on the 28th of June, 1896, followed
by a vote of "electors" cast July 13, Porfirio Diaz was chosen
President of the Republic of Mexico for a fifth term of four
years, to begin December 1, 1896.
MEXICO: A. D. 1896 (July).
Abolition of inter-state taxes.
The following announcement was reported in May, 1896, by the
United States Consul-General at the City of Mexico: "'All the
States and Territories having approved the amendment to the
constitution prohibiting any interstate tax on commerce
(alcabalas), Congress has passed the bill, the President has
signed it, the Diario Official has published it, and it will
soon be promulgated by "bando." as the Vice-Presidency was the
other day. The law takes effect July 1.' This tax has been in
existence for many years in Mexico, and has been a source of
much embarrassment to internal and external trade. Its repeal
meets with general approval, although some of the States will
be compelled to seek other modes of taxation to replace the
money heretofore obtained by this interstate tax."
United States Consular Reports,
June, 1806, page 354.
{306}
MEXICO: A. D. 1896-1899.
Revolts of the Yaquis.
The Yaquis, one of the native tribes of northwestern Mexico,
taking their name from the river, in Sonora, on which they
dwell, have been in frequent revolt. In 1896, and again in
1899, some of the tribe were fiercely in arms, excited, it was
said, by a religious enthusiast, Teresa Urrea, who claimed a
divine mission and obtained boundless influence over her
tribe, as a saint. She was expelled from the country by the
Mexican government, but stayed on the border, in United States
territory, and continued to stir up hostilities. Though
repeatedly beaten by the government troops, with heavy loss,
their late rising was obstinately persisted in for many
months; but early in 1900 their chief, Tetabiate, was slain,
and a few sharp engagements after that time seems to have
brought the revolt, practically, to an end. A writer in the
California magazine, entitled "The Land of Sunshine" (July,
1899), says of the Yaquis that they are "the backbone of the
population of Sonora. They are the best workmen in the
republic, commanding from 10 to 20 per cent. higher wages in
many localities than Mexican or other Indian labor. There is
not a lazy bone in the Yaqui body. They are a peaceable,
law-abiding people when justly treated. From time immemorial
they have been hunters, miners, and tillers of the soil. They
have the nomad instinct in less degree than almost any other
Indian tribe."
Another writer makes this statement: "There are about three
hundred wild and rebellious Yaqui Indians hidden in the
fastnesses of the Bacatete Mountains, and some thirty thousand
peaceful Yaquis working all over Sonora—among the best workers,
the most successful farmers, and the quietest citizens in the
whole state. … There are few things in the history of the
native races of North America of such absorbing interest as
the career of the Yaqui Indians. The Spanish conquistadores
found them living in this country three hundred and fifty
years ago. They were a strong and stalwart race. Put a Yaqui
by the side of an Iroquois and you can hardly tell them apart.
Put a Yaqui and an Iroquois by the side of any other Indians
in North America, and their physical superiority is seen at
once. Compare them physically with all the other races of the
earth and you will find that they have few, if any, superiors.
The Yaquis were not, however, like their prototypes, the
Iroquois, dependent upon the chase for their food. From the
beginning they were not woodsmen, but farmers. Cabeza de Vaca,
after his long, romantic and perilous journey across the
continent, found great fields of Indian corn waving on the
Yaqui River as far back as 1636. When the early Spanish
missions were established in the Californias they obtained
their supplies from the agricultural Indians in the Yaqui
Valley, and many are the Spanish armies that have been saved
from starvation in times past by the Yaqui corn fields."
W. S. Logan,
Yaqui, the Land of Sunshine and Health,
pages 15, 17.
MEXICO: A. D. 1898.
Completion of the great drainage tunnel and canal
of the City of Mexico.
"Mexico is finishing a great work, the drainage of the valley
where the capital city is located, which has required for its
completion nearly three hundred years and many millions of
dollars, and has cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of
men. … The Valley of Mexico is an immense basin, of
approximately circular shape, with one extreme diameter of
about 60 miles, completely bounded by high mountains, and
having only two or three quite high passes out of it. No water
drains out of the basin. The surface of this valley has a mean
altitude above the sea of 7,413 feet and an area of about
2,220 square miles. Mountain ranges rise on every side, making
a great corral of rock containing dozens of villages and
hamlets, with the ancient capital in the centre. … Evaporation
is so excessive at certain periods of the year that malaria,
consequent on drouth, was far more dreaded by the inhabitants
than the periodical floods, and thousands perished annually,
so that proper drainage was an absolute necessity for the
preservation of health. Nearly fifty years before the
discovery of America, which took place in 1492,
Netzahualcoyotl saw the necessity for a drainage canal, and
commenced the work in 1450." The Spaniards, throughout their
rule, labored at projects to the same end, and sacrificed the
lives of vast numbers of the natives in the work, without much
result.
"Frequent floodings of the old Aztec city and of the Spanish
capital, situated almost at the lowest point of the valley,
were sure to come in times of unusually heavy rains. In early
days, when the Aztecs lived in the middle of Lake Mexico, when
their temples and wigwams were built on piles and the streets
were often only canals, the periodical overflows from the
upper lakes were a matter of small concern, though even then
the Nahua engineers were called upon to protect the city by
dykes. But when by evaporation, by filling in at the site of
the city, by lessened waters, due to the fissures caused by
earthquakes, Lake Mexico had disappeared, and the city had
come to be built on the spongy soil, above all, when the
short-sighted choice of Cortez had been confirmed and the
capital of New Spain had come to stand on the ruins of the
Aztec town, increasing rapidly in population and wealth,—it
became a serious matter that on an average of once in
twenty-five years the streets should be from two to six feet
under water for an indefinite time. …
"In 1866 the works now [1895] nearing completion were
commenced. A project proposed by Señor Don Francisco de Garay,
a well-known engineer of the city of Mexico, was pronounced
the most feasible. But the revolutionary struggle succeeded,
and for many years the work was relegated to the background. …
The present gigantic work cannot have been considered to have
been seriously undertaken, with a view of completion at any
cost, until the year 1885, when the City Council of Mexico
submitted a project to the Government to which they offered to
contribute largely in the event of its being adopted. A
special commission, with ample authority to deal with the
funds set aside for the work, was appointed by President
Porfirio Diaz. …
"The drainage works, when carried out, will receive the
surplus waters and sewage of the City of Mexico and carry them
outside of the valley, and will also control the entire waters
of the valley, affording an outlet, whenever found necessary,
to those which might otherwise overflow fields and towns,
rendering the soil stagnant and marshy. The work consists of
three parts—1st, the tunnel; 2d, a canal starting from the
gates of San Lazaro, and having a length of 47½ kilometres, or
43 miles; … and 3d, the sewage of the City of Mexico. …
{307}
As this paper goes to press, the drainage works of the Valley
of Mexico are practically finished, as the waters of the
valley have been for several years passing through the canal
and the tunnel to their outlet in the river which takes them
to the Gulf of Mexico, and the company with whom the canal was
contracted is now giving the finishing touches to the sides
and bottom of the canal and will deliver it to the Government
Board of the Drainage Directors in January, 1898. …
"The canal and six-mile tunnel through the mountain range have
a total length approaching 37 miles. The present works will
take rank with the great achievements of modern times, just as
the immense 'cut' of Nochistongo, their unsuccessful predecessor,
was the leader among ancient earthworks in all the world. The
completed system will have cost $20,000,000."
M. Romero,
Mexico and the United States,
pages 266-280
(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons).
MEXICO: A. D. 1898-1900.
The results of twenty years of the presidency of Porfirio Diaz.
The wonderful advance of the Republic.
In his interesting book on Mexico, entitled "The Awakening of
a Nation," written in 1898, Mr. Charles F. Lummis expresses
the opinion that, under the Presidency of Porfirio Diaz, that
country "has graduated to be the most compact and unified
nation in the New World"; that "she has acquired not only a
government which governs, but one which knows how to govern—
and contemporaneously a people which has learned how to be
ruled"; and he characterizes its government as "logical
paternalism—a scheme frightfully dangerous under a bad father,
incalculably beneficial under a good one." Two years later, in a
contribution to an elaborate "Review of the Nineteenth
Century," by many writers, which was published by the "New
York Evening Post," January 12, 1901, Mr. Lummis wrote:
"Before Diaz, the rich and ancient capital had spent two and a
half centuries and ten millions in vain attempts to relieve
its recurrent Hoods. Sewerage was unknown. Today the valley is
drained and sewered by a system nowhere surpassed. Electric
lighting, transit, and power-transmission are in vogue. Law
and order are of a proportion we may well envy. Public
education and individual scholarship have no call to blush in
any fair comparison with any land. Business is prosperous,
almost without individual exceptions. Factories of all sorts—
and some of the costliest and finest factories in the
world—have sprung up by the thousand. The comminuted bones of
a national spirit have knit as they never were before.
Nowadays, it is not Mexico, but we, who are 'fooled' when we
omit her from the category of the nations that count. She does
count; she will count far more. She has mastered anarchy, she
has triumphed even over free silver. She is busily engaged in
practising one of the first gospels and mottoes of the
American colonies—'Mind Your Own Business'—and is making a
magnificent success at it. It is a curious problem in the
philosophies of history, what shall be the outcome of a nation
which instead of being born rugged and growing old and easy, was
born old and in the last quarter-century has come into the
heritage of sturdy youth. For it is as a young nation, with
muscles still growing, that we must think of new Old Mexico."
Honorable John W. Foster, writing to the "New York Tribune,"
on the 9th of January, 1901, from the City of Mexico, where he
formerly resided for some years as United States Minister, has
borne similar testimony to the astonishing progress of the
country. "Since the advent of General Porfirio Diaz to power
in 1876," writes Mr. Foster, "there has been no foreign war
and no serious disturbance of an internal character, the only
exception being the outbreak of certain semi-independent
Indian tribes. In the previous fifty years of the existence of
the republic there had been as many presidents, the majority
of whom owed their existence to revolutionary movements. The
wretched story of Mexican history of that period is too
familiar to be repeated here. … In his inaugural address to
Congress last month, on being again installed as President, he
[president Diaz] referred to the achievements of Mexico in the
last twenty-five years, and modestly said that in it there
were no brilliant deeds to chronicle. From that notable
address I make this extract: 'If it were true that a peaceful
and laborious people have no history, the administration
period I am about to review would almost be devoid of history.
But, on the contrary, those nations that deserve to be called
happy in the only intelligible sense of the word, far from
being without a history, have a very glorious and interesting
one, if, besides being peaceful and laborious, they are also
progressive. That history is the history of their progress,
their achievements, their growing prosperity, of the
improvements of every kind which they have introduced—a
history which, in this modern age and the present constitution
of civilized societies, is as interesting as that of their
past and just as deserving of attention.'"
A report for 1900 by the British Consul at Vera Cruz is to the
same effect. The result of the recent elections he describes
as an assurance of prosperity and a guarantee of the foreign
capital invested in the country. Few countries, the Consul
observes, can boast of such rapid and beneficial reforms as
Mexico; these have, in a short time, prepared the way for the
development of her extensive resources, which are themselves a
sufficient assurance of the future. The finances have of
recent years been brought to a high state of excellence, and
commerce throughout the Republic has flourished. Foreign
capital has flowed in steadily, railway construction has
progressed, and other modes of communication have improved,
the telegraph and postal service have been reformed. The
improvement of inter-oceanic communication across the
Tehuantepec isthmus, with the harbors now being constructed on
both coasts, will revolutionize the foreign trade of Mexico.
It will take more than three years to complete the
reconstruction of the railway and to put the ports in a
condition to enable freight to be taken from the ship's side
at one port and placed alongside the ship at the other within
24 hours. The Consul thinks the route is destined to become
one of the principal thoroughfares of the world, competing
with all other routes between Europe and the Far East.
{308}
Of what has been done for public education in Mexico under the
Diaz government the following account is given in one of the
publications (1900) of the Bureau of the American Republics:
"Education in Mexico has been for many years the subject of
serious consideration on the part of the Government, on
account of the difficulty experienced in combating the
conservative ideas prevailing in the Republic. The main
obstacles have, however, been overcome, and the country to-day
enjoys the benefit of a liberal system of education, which is
administered under three branches—gratuitous, lay, and
obligatory. … The law making education compulsory was
promulgated March 23, 1888, but its enforcement was not
decreed at that time, and the first Congress of Public
Education was convened for the purpose of adopting such
measures as should tend to establish an efficient and uniform
system of education. This congress met on December 1, 1889,
and closed its sessions on March 31, 1890. … A second congress
was convened on December 1, 1890, which solved certain
problems on compulsory elemental education, fixed the methods
to be followed in the schools of superior primary education,
and settled matters pertaining to normal schools, preparatory
education, and special schools. As the result of this
congress, the law of March 21, 1891, was enacted, regulating
compulsory education in the Federal District and the
Territories of Tepic and Lower California, which law became
effective on January 17, 1892. …
"On May 19, 1896, the law of public education was promulgated,
its salient points being as follows:
Official primary elemental education in the Federal Districts
and Federal Territories was placed under the exclusive control
of the Executive; primary superior education was organized as
an intermediate educational system between elementary and
preparatory instruction. A general board of primary education
was created, charged to develop and maintain the same under a
scientific and administrative plan. Preparatory education was
decreed to be uniform for all professions, its extent being
limited to the study of such matters as are necessary to the
development of the physical and intellectual faculties and the
morals of youth, it being further directed that professional
education be reorganized, limiting it to technical matters
which pertain to the profession or professions to which each
particular school is devoted.
"By virtue of this law public education ceased to be in charge
of the Board of Aldermen (ayuntamientos) of the
above-mentioned sections. At the time of its promulgation the
municipality of Mexico contained 113 schools, supported by the
Board of Aldermen, 14,246 students being entered on the rolls,
with an average attendance of 9,798. Each State defrays the
expenses of public education, either with funds specially
appropriated for that purpose or with the municipal funds.
"According to statistical data, in 1876, there were throughout
the country 8,165 primary schools, with 368,754 students of
both sexes. In 1895 Government schools reached the number of
4,056, of which 2,189 were for males, 1,119 for females, and
748 for both sexes; municipal schools numbered 3,394—for
males, 1,754; females, 932; both sexes, 708. These comprised
7,380 primary, 32 secondary, and 35 professional schools, the
number of students enrolled being 310,496 males and 181,484
females (a total of 491,980), and the mean attendance 338,066.
The total cost to the Government and the municipalities for
the maintenance of these institutions was $3,973,738. In the
same year private schools to the number of 1,816 were being
conducted, 659 for males, 460 for females, and the remainder
under a coeducational system. In addition, 276 were supported
by the clergy and 146 by associations, the total number of
students enrolled being 68,879, of which 40,135 were males and
38,744 females. The total number of private schools was
accordingly 2,238, of which 2,193 were devoted to primary
education, 34 to secondary instruction, and 11 to professions.
"The statistics for 1897, which are the latest available, give
the following figures:
SCHOOLS. 1896. 1897.
Federal and State Governments. 5,852 6,141
Municipal. 3,218 1,953
Private institutions. 1,953 1,797
Supported by the clergy. 303 285
Supported by associations. 186 122
"Using the figures given in 1896 for Vera Cruz and the Federal
District as identical for 1897, it may be safely assumed that
on December 31, 1897, the public schools in Mexico (Federal,
State, and municipal) stood as follows:
Number of schools. 9,065
Students enrolled. 666,787
Average monthly attendance. 458,035
Private institutions. 2,361
Number of students. 92,387
Average attendance. 75,857
"The total expenditures for the support of Federal, State, and
municipal schools amounted in 1897 to $6,291,000. In addition
to the normal and primary schools, the Government also
supports the following institutions:
School of jurisprudence,
school of medicine,
school of agriculture and veterinary instruction,
school of engineers,
school of fine arts,
school of arts and trades for men,
and a similar institution for women,
school of commerce and administration.
National conservatory of music,
preparatory school,
schools for the blind, for deaf-mutes;
reform schools, etc.,
also 9 museums, and 17 libraries containing from 400 to
159,000 volumes. Beside the Government institutions above
mentioned, there are throughout the country 26 museums, 83
libraries, 32 scientific and literary associations, and 457
periodical publications."
Bureau of American Republics,
Mexico: a Geographical Sketch,
page 313.
MEXICO: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
MEXICO: A. D. 1900 (January).
Re-election of President Diaz.
President Porfirio Diaz was reelected on January 1, for
a sixth term of four years.
MEXICO: A. D. 1900 (October).
Census of the Republic.
Gains shown in five years.
Announcement was made from Washington, on the 24th of
February, 1901, that "complete official returns of the census
taken on October 28, 1900, received by the Bureau of American
Republics, shows that the population of Mexico is 13,570,545,
against a population of 12,632,427 [given by M. Romero as
12,570,195—see above] in 1895. The gain in five years was
938,118, or 7.43 per cent. due in part to the greater accuracy
of the latest enumeration. The Federal District, in which is
located the City of Mexico, is the most densely populated
portion of the republic, and contains 530,723 people.
{309}
The City of Mexico increased about 20,000 in five years, and
now has nearly 357,000 inhabitants. The population of seven
States, Jalisco, Guanajuato, Puebla. Vera Cruz, Oaxaca,
Michoacan and Mexico, is 6,995,880, or a little more than
one-half of the entire population of the country. The
population of the States of Sonora, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala,
Morelos, Tabasco, Aguas Calientes, Campeche, Colima, and the
territories of Tepic and Lower California, the total area of
which is more than one-fourth the entire country, is slightly
in excess of 1,380,000, or a density of only about 2.7
inhabitants to the square kilometre. The central and southern
portions of the republic are the most thickly populated, the
Western and Northern States being the most sparsely settled,
and the Gulf region, or eastern coast, contains a larger
number of inhabitants than the Pacific Coast region. … The
greatest percentage of increase is noted in the northern
States. These States, in addition to being good agricultural
districts, are enormously rich in mineral wealth, and the
large increase in population in this part of the country is
chiefly due to the rapid development of the mines of the
republic, the erection of smelters and manufacturing plants,
and to the general stimulus given to trade and commerce by the
construction of railroads and the heavy investments of foreign
capital in the republic."
----------MEXICO: End--------
MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD POPULISTS, The.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1896 (JUNE-November); and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
MILAN, Ex-King:
His later years and death.
See (in this volume)
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES (SERVIA).
MILAN: A. D. 1898.
Revolutionary outbreak.
See (in this volume)
ITALY: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-MAY).
MILES, General Nelson A.:
Operations against Santiago de Cuba.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).
MILES, General Nelson A.:
Commanding expedition against Porto Rico.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: PORTO RICO).
MILES, General Nelson A.:
Charges against the Commissary Department, U. S. Army.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898-1899.
MILITARY ESTABLISHMENTS:
Armies of Europe and America and their cost.
See (in this volume)
WAR BUDGETS.
MILLENNIUM, The Hungarian.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1896.
MILNER, Sir Alfred:
Governor of Cape Colony and High Commissioner for South Africa.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY), and after.
MILNER, Sir Alfred:
Governor of the Transvaal and British High Commissioner.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH COLONIES): A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).
MINDANAO.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.
MINERS, Strikes among.
See (in this volume)
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES.
MINNESOTA: A. D. 1896.
Constitutional amendments.
Use of the Referendum.
Several constitutional amendments were submitted to the voters
of the State and adopted; among them one requiring citizenship
of the United States for three months and residence in the
State for six months before permitting a new-comer to vote;
another vesting the pardoning power in a Board of Pardons;
another empowering cities to frame their own charters, subject
to the State laws. At the same time, the Referendum was
brought into practical use, by the submission of several
legislative acts to the popular vote. One of the acts thus
submitted, providing for the holding of a constitutional
convention, was rejected.
MINNESOTA: A. D. 1898.
Outbreak of Pillager Indians.
See (in this volume)
INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1898.
MINOS, The Palace of:
Its supposed discovery.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: CRETE.
MISSIONARIES, Christian:
The outbreak against in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1895 (AUGUST);
1898 (MAY);
1898-1899 (JUNE-JANUARY);
1899; 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH), (MAY-JUNE);
and 1901 (MARCH).
MISSIONARIES, Christian:
Outbreak against in Madagascar.
See (in this volume)
MADAGASCAR.
MISSIONS, Christian:
The Ecumenical Conference of 1900 in New York.
Statistics of the Protestant foreign missionary
work of the world.
The third Ecumenical Conference on Protestant foreign missions
(the second having been held in London in 1888) was assembled
at New York on the 21st of April, 1900, under circumstances
related as follows in volume I. of the official report: "The
immediate origin of the Ecumenical Conference of 1900 was the
discussion of a question put in the 'question box' at the
Annual Conference of Foreign Missions Boards of the United
States and Canada, which met in New York in January, 1896, as
to whether it would be advisable to invite the secretaries or
representatives of societies from the other side of the
Atlantic to meet with the Annual Conference of the American
societies as it was then held, consisting chiefly of the
officers of the Boards. The Reverend F. F. Ellinwood. D. D.,
speaking to the question, said: 'I have had a hope that in the
year 1898, ten years from the great London Conference, we
might invite our brethren from all lands to a great Ecumenical
Conference on Missions.'
"Following this suggestion, a committee of five, consisting of
the Reverend Drs. Judson Smith, F. F. Ellinwood, A. B.
Leonard, S. W. Duncan, and William S. Langford was appointed
'to consider the advisability of calling an Ecumenical
Missionary Conference, to meet in this country within the next
four years, to make preliminary preparation therefor, if
deemed advisable, and to report at the Conference of the
following year.' This committee corresponded with missionary
societies throughout the world, and at the next Annual
Conference recommended that such a Conference be held in New
York City in April of the year 1900; that this recommendation
be communicated to the societies, and a final date agreed
upon. In January, 1898, after further correspondence, the
place and date were finally decided." Measures were taken to
raise a guarantee fund of $30,000 for expenses, and other
preparations were made. Then "under date of June 1, 1899, a
general invitation was sent to every missionary whose name and
address could be secured, to attend the Conference and
participate in the discussions."
{310}
The Conference was opened in Carnegie Hall, New York, on the
21st of April, 1900, and continued its sessions, there and in
neighboring churches, until the 1st of May. "The personnel of
the Conference was broadly representative. It consisted
(1) of delegates appointed by organizations conducting foreign
missions outside of Europe and America;
(2) the missionaries of such organizations, and
(3) members elected by the Executive Committee.
The British and Continental and other foreign societies were
invited to send as many delegates as possible. The American
and Canadian societies were limited in the number of their
delegates; the total from both countries, being fixed at
1,666, was apportioned among the societies on the basis of
their expenditures in foreign missions. All foreign
missionaries in active service or retired were received as
full members. Some of the honorary members and vice-presidents
who were unable to attend desired to have their names
connected with so historic a gathering. Members of committees
and speakers, who were not already delegates, were by a
general act of the Executive Committee, constituted 'special
members.' In addition to the members of the Conference a large
number of persons came from far and near to attend the
meetings. Over fifty thousand tickets to the Carnegie Hall and
alternate meetings were distributed among this class of
visitors. Many thousands more attended the sectional and
overflow meetings where no tickets were required. The
Honorable Benjamin Harrison, for four years President of the
United States of America, occupied the chair, and made an
opening speech."
The magnitude of the organizations of missionary work, all the
interests, needs and fruits of which were discussed in the
Conference, is most succinctly represented in the subjoined
tables, prepared by Dr. James S. Dennis, which are given in
the appendix to the official report (pages 424-426, volume 2).
The classification appearing in the tables is explained as
follows:
"The Bible Societies, the Tract and Literature Societies, the
United Society of Christian Endeavor, the Epworth Leagues, and
similar organizations, philanthropic specialties like that of
the Pundita Ramabai in India, with a considerable number of
organizations, foreign missionary in title and purpose, but
simply rendering financial or other aid to existing
societies—demand recognition, and yet should they be counted
as strictly and technically foreign missionary societies? It
was chosen for the present purpose, to differentiate and
classify, naming three classes of societies as follows;
Class I. Societies directly engaged in conducting foreign
missions.
Class II. Societies indirectly co-operating or aiding in
foreign missions.
Class III. Societies or Institutions independently engaged in
specialized effort in various departments of foreign
missions."
MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1890-1892.
New State Constitution.
Qualification of the suffrage.
A new State Constitution, framed and put in force in 1890 by a
constitutional convention, without submission to the people,
established a qualification of the suffrage which heavily
diminished the negro vote by its effect. It imposed a pool tax
of two dollars per head, to which any county might add a
further tax not exceeding one dollar per head, which poll tax
for the year every voter must have paid before his ballot
would be received at any election. A further clause of the
Constitution on the subject was as follows: "On and after the
first day of January, A. D. 1892, the following qualifications
are added to the foregoing: Every qualified elector shall be
able to read any section of the Constitution of this State, or
he shall be able to understand the same when read to him, or
to give a reasonable interpretation thereof. A new
registration shall be made before the next ensuing election
after these qualifications are established. Electors in
municipal elections shall possess all the qualifications
herein prescribed, and such additional qualifications as may
be prescribed by law." In 1892 the Supreme Court of the State
affirmed the validity of the Constitution, which had been
challenged on two grounds, namely: that it had not been
submitted to the vote of the people, and that it was in
conflict with the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of
the United States.
So far, the disfranchisement of the mass of blacks seems to
have had an unlooked for evil effect. "The Negro eliminated,
only one political party remains, and political stagnation has
followed. In Mississippi, the requirement that a poll tax be
paid long before the election deprives many white men also of
their votes. But it does not bar them out of nominating
conventions. Many communities are ruled by a mere handful of
whites who cannot even cast a ballot. For instance, there are
320,000 males of voting age in Mississippi, but the whole vote
cast in the State in November was only 59,000. This is 11,000
votes less than were cast four years ago under the same
restrictions of suffrage. In other words, the whole State of
Mississippi cast practically 110 more ballots to elect seven
members of Congress than were cast in a single congressional
district in New York. (The fourteenth New York district cast
58,000 votes.) In the town of Eudora, where a mayor, a
marshal, a treasurer, and four aldermen were elected, only
eight votes were cast, and of the eight voters seven are said
to have been candidates for office.
"'The same men,' says a trustworthy despatch from New Orleans,
'were voters, candidates for office, and judges of election to
pass as judges on their own votes as voters for themselves;
and in spite of all their efforts they could get only one
outsider to come to the polls and cast his ballot.' This is an
extreme case; but in every State that has disfranchised the
Negro (making a discrimination between him and the ignorant
white man, in the white man's favor) political activity has
constantly disappeared, the vote has shrunk, public spirit in
politics has died. In Louisiana the total vote in November
fell from 99,000 in 1896 to 61,000; of Mississippi, from
69,000 to 59,000; of South Carolina, from 68,000 to 50,000—the
shrinkage in four years in these three States being nearly
68,000 votes, in spite of the increase of population."
The World's Work,
February, 1901.
MODDER RIVER, Military operations on.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER); and
1900 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
{311}
{312}
{313}
{314}
MODUS VIVENDI, Alaskan Boundary.
See (in this volume)
ALASKA BOUNDARY QUESTION.
MODUS VIVENDI, The Newfoundland.
See (in this volume)
NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1899-1901.
MOMBASA-VICTORIA RAILWAY, The.
See (in this volume)
UGANDA RAILWAY.
----------MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: Start--------
MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: A. D. 1895.
The situation of the Treasury of the United States.
Contract for replenishing its gold reserve.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: A. D. 1895-1896.
The gold reserve in the U. S. Treasury again imperilled.
Refusal of relief by the Senate.
See (in this volume)
MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1895-1896 (DECEMBER-FEBRUARY).
MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: A. D. 1896-1900.
The Silver Question in the United States
Presidential elections.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER); and
1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: A. D. 1896-1898.
Movements for monetary reforms in the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896-1898.
MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: A. D. 1897.
Renewal of the privileges of the Bank of France.
The privileges of the Bank of France, as the fiscal agent of
the French Government, expired with the close of the year
1897, and renewal of them was opposed by the Radicals and
Socialists, who demanded the creation of a State Bank. The
government succeeded, however (June, 1897), in carrying the
measure necessary for continuing the existing system, on terms
somewhat more favorable to the state than before.
MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: A. D. 1897 (March).
Adoption of the gold standard in Japan.
By a law of the Japanese Parliament, passed in March, 1897, to
come into force October 1, a gold monetary standard was
adopted, at the ratio of 32½ to 1, the silver dollar to be
legal tender until six months after notice given of its
withdrawal.
MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: A. D. 1897 (April-October).
Negotiation by American Commissioners in Europe for an
international bi-metallic agreement.
In fulfilment of the pledge given by the Republican party, at
its national convention, in 1896, that it would use efforts to
bring about an international agreement for free coinage of
gold and silver at some common ratio, the following Act was
passed by the two Houses of Congress in January and February,
1897: "That whenever after March 4, 1897, the president of the
United States shall determine that the United States should be
represented at any international conference called by the
United States or any other country with a view to securing by
international agreement a fixity of relative value between
gold and silver as money by means of a common ratio between
these metals, with free mintage at such ratio, he is hereby
authorized to appoint five or more commissioners to such
international conference; and for compensation of said
commissioners, and for all reasonable expenses connected
therewith, to be approved by the secretary of state, including
the proportion to be paid by the United States of the joint
expenses of any such conference, the sum of $100,000, or so
much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated. That
the president of the United States is hereby authorized, in
the name of the government of the United States, to call, in
his discretion, such international conference, to assemble at
such point as may be agreed upon. And he is further
authorized, if in his judgment the purpose specified in the
first section hereof can thus be better attained, to appoint
one or more special commissioners or envoys to such of the
nations of Europe as he may designate, to seek by diplomatic
negotiations an international agreement for the purpose
specified in the first section hereof. And in case of such
appointment so much of the appropriation herein made as shall
be necessary shall be available for the proper expenses and
compensation of such commissioners or envoys." Pursuant to
this Act, President McKinley, on the 12th of April, appointed
Senator Edward O. Wolcott; of Colorado, ex-Vice-President
Adlai E. Stevenson, of Illinois, and General Charles J. Paine,
of Massachusetts, to be commissioners for the purpose which
the bill describes. The commissioners first visited Paris, and
there obtained assurances from the French government of
cordial cooperation and support. They then proceeded to
London, for negotiation with the British authorities, on whose
attitude towards the movement for international action in the
matter its success was well known to depend. Some members of
the British government, conspicuously Mr. Balfour, were
outspoken advocates of bi-metallism, and much was hoped from
the discussion to be opened with them. The American
commissioners were cordially received, and they were invited
to a formal meeting, on the 12th of July, with Lord Salisbury,
the Prime Minister, Mr. Balfour, First Lord of the Treasury, Sir
Michael Hicks-Beach, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Lord
George Hamilton, Secretary of State for India. The American
Ambassador, Mr. Hay, accompanied them to the conference, which
was held at the Foreign Office. A memorandum of the
conversation at this meeting, and at a second one held on the
15th, together with a correspondence which followed, were
published later in a parliamentary "blue book," from which the
following account is drawn. Mr. Wolcott explained the wish of
the American envoys to obtain the views of several
governments, preliminary to the inviting of an international
bi-metallic conference. He added that they expected to have,
in England, the full cooperation of the Ambassador of the
French Republic, who happened, for the moment, to be absent
from the country, but who had requested them to proceed with
the meeting in his absence. "Mr. Wolcott then presented some
reasons which, in the opinion of the Special Envoys, rendered
it desirable that some international agreement for the
restoration of bimetallism should be reached, and explained
why, in their opinion, the success of this effort depended
upon the attitude which England would take regarding the
question. He then stated that the Special Envoys requested
that England should agree to open English mints as its
contribution to an attempt to restore bimetallism by
international agreement, and dwelt upon the importance of the
fact that France and the United States were together engaged
in an attempt to bring about such an agreement, and were
cooperating together to that end. Lord Salisbury desired to
know if the French Government would co-operate upon the basis
of opening their mints to the free and unlimited coinage of
silver.
{315}
Mr. Wolcott answered in the affirmative. Lord Salisbury then
asked at what ratio, and was informed by Mr. Wolcott that the
French Government preferred the ratio of 15½ to 1, and that
the United States were inclined to yield this point and accept
this as a proper ratio. Considerable discussion on the
question of the ratio and the method by which it should be
settled then took place. … It was then suggested that further
proceedings should be deferred until the French Ambassador
might be also present. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in
further conversation, said that if the suggestion of opening
the English mints was to be made, he thought an answer in the
negative would undoubtedly be given. The First Lord of the
Treasury asked whether, assuming this request for opening
English mints to be refused, it was desired that the subject
be discussed upon the basis of something different and less
than the opening of English mints. Upon a mutual understanding
that in the absence of the French Ambassador, anything said
should be considered as said informally, a discussion then
took place as to the concessions that England might make
towards an international solution of the question, if it
should refuse to open English mints. Mr. Wolcott, for the
Special Envoys, presented the following as a list of
contributions which, among others, England might make towards
bimetallism if an international agreement could be effected:
1. Opening of the Indian mints. Repeal of the order making the
sovereign legal tender in India.
2. Placing one-fifth of the bullion in the Issue Department of
the Bank of England in silver.
3.
(a.) Raising the legal tender limit of silver to, say, £10.
(b.) Issuing the 20s. notes based on silver, which shall be
legal tender.
(c.) Retirement, gradual or otherwise, of the 10s. gold
pieces, and substitution of paper based on silver.
4. Agreement to coin annually £ … of silver [present silver
coinage average for five years about £1,000,000, less annual
withdrawal of worn and defaced coin for recoinage, £350,000].
5. Opening of English mints to coinage of rupees, and for
coinage of British dollar, which shall be full tender in
Straits Settlements and other silver standard Colonies, and
tender in the United Kingdom to the limit of silver legal
tender.
6. Colonial action, and coinage of silver in Egypt.
7. Something having the general scope of the Huskisson plan.
Some general conversation followed in regard to the preceding
suggestions, and the interview terminated, to be resumed on
the 15th July, 1897, when it was understood that the French
Ambassador would also be present."
At the second meeting, July 15, Baron de Courcol, Ambassador
of the French Republic, and M. L. Geoffray, French Minister
Plenipotentiary, were present, and the former spoke at length,
stating the position of the French government on the question
of the free coinage of silver. He said: "'Our population,
notably the agricultural population, finds that it has not at
its disposition sufficient resources in currency, in metallic
money. On the other hand, if the Government in the actual
state of affairs reopens the mints to the free coinage of
silver, we would be flooded by the abundance of this metal
coming from all other countries of the world, and we could not
resist the even greater evil of the inevitable depreciation of
one of our precious metals, that is to say, of the effective
destruction of the legal ratio upon which our monetary system
is based. … In other words, we think that the production of
silver, more active in certain quarters of the globe in the
last quarter of a century, is not of itself considerable
enough to change in an enduring manner the normal ratio
between gold and silver after these two metals will have been
scattered over the entire surface of the world among all
nations who are called upon to absorb them. There is, then, in
our eyes, a need which is perhaps transitory, but which is
actually common to all the commercial nations, of taking
measures adequate for assuring, by a common understanding, the
re-establishment of the normal ratio of 15½ between silver and
gold. If measures of this kind should be adopted by all the
commercial nations, we would be able to reopen our mints to
the free coinage of silver without fear of being submerged by
an excessive influx of this metal. The reopening of the mints
of all the commercial countries to the free coinage of silver
in the ratio of 15½ with gold would be the most natural and
the most efficacious means of arriving at the result sought
for. This is the desideratum which I am instructed to bring
forward here, and which I am particularly to urge upon the
English Government as a primordial condition of the success of
the common understanding. If the Government of the Queen, even
in consenting to reopen the mints in India, should refuse to
adopt the same measure for England, at least would they not be
able to take certain measures which would be, up to a certain
point, equivalent, in order to maintain the full value of
silver, and to prevent India from being the victim of a
depreciation of this metal in consequence of an unlimited
coinage? … By way of suggestion, I would indicate, as one of
the measures which the English Government might usefully
adopt, the annual purchase of a certain quantity of silver
metal, which might afterwards be disposed of as seemed
best-either it might be preserved in ingots, or it might be
used for regular consumption, or it might be sent to India.
This quantity might be fixed approximately, at least, for a
number of years, at a sum of £10,000,000 in nominal value.
This is, perhaps, only a palliative; it is, in any event, only
one of the expedients which would be deemed necessary. But I
am to urge strongly that the English Government determine to
take measures of this kind, or other equivalent measures, if,
as I believe, it recognizes with us the necessity of improving
the monetary situation in a great part of its Empire—I may
say, in a great part of the entire world.' Lord Salisbury then
asked whether the French Government would decline to open its
mints unless England would also open her mints. The French
Ambassador replied that he preferred to discuss the subject
upon the basis that France would go to open mints if England
would consent to open her mints, but that he would not exclude
from his view the question of contributions by England towards
maintaining the value of silver, short of open mints. The
Chancellor of the Exchequer, in response to this, stated
definitely that the English Government would not agree to open
English mints to the unlimited coinage of silver, and that,
whatever views he and his colleagues might separately hold on
the question of bimetallism, he thought he could say they were
united upon this point. …
{316}
The suggestions made by the Special Envoys at the interview on
the 12th July were again read, and the Special Envoys accepted
also as important and desirable the proposal that the English
Government should purchase annually, say, £10,000,000 of
silver, with proper safeguards and provisions as to the place
and manner of its use. The French Ambassador expressed his
approval generally of the suggestions of the Special Envoys,
as being serviceable in the consideration of the question. It
was then understood that the proposals submitted by the French
Ambassador and by the Special Envoys of the United States
should be considered, and due notice given when a reply could
be made."
The proposal for the reopening of the Indian mints to silver
was submitted at once by the home authorities of the India
Office, at London, to the government of India, and the reply
of the latter was not received until the following October.
When the reply came, it extinguished hopes of the arrangement
which the American and French governments desired. In a long
despatch, the Indian government explained with clearness the
monetary situation in that country, and discussed the effect
which a return to the unrestricted mintage of silver would
have upon it, under the circumstances and prospects of the
time. "The currency system of India," said the despatch, "is
in a transition state; the Government of India in 1893 decided
to establish a gold standard, and the first step towards that
object was the closing of the mints to silver by Act VIII of
1893. The silver rupee is still the sole legal tender coin,
though the Government has by Executive orders undertaken to
receive gold and sovereigns under certain restrictions, … the
rate of exchange adopted being 16d. the rupee or 15 rupees=£1.
The measures to be taken when the transition period has passed
have not been laid down, but it is probable that the Indian mints
will be opened to gold, and gold coins will be made legal
tender to an unlimited amount; silver rupees would also
continue to be legal tender to an unlimited amount, and the
ratio between the rupee and the gold coins as legal tender
would at the same time be finally settled. The system towards
which India is moving is thus a gold standard of the same kind
as that which now exists in France and the United States, but
with a different ratio for legal tender; but for the present
the mints are closed both to gold and silver. The transition
period has lasted for more than four years, but there is
ground for hope that it is now drawing to a close. The changes
which are involved in the arrangements proposed to Her
Majesty's Government are the following. France and the United
States are to open their mints to the free coinage of silver,
continuing the free coinage of gold and the unlimited legal
tender of coins of both metals, the ratio remaining unchanged
in France and being altered to the French ratio of 15½ to 1 in
the United States. India is to open her mints to silver, to
keep them closed to gold, and to undertake not to make gold
legal tender. France and the United States would thus be
bimetallic: India would be monometallic (silver); while most
of the other important countries of the world would be
monometallic (gold). The object which the proposers have in
view is the establishment of a stable relation between the
values of gold and of silver. This would include the
establishment of a stable exchange between the rupee and
sterling currency, which was the object of the Government of
India in the proposals made in our financial despatch of the
21st June, 1892, which proposals ultimately resulted in the
adoption, in view to the attainment of that object, of the
policy of a gold standard, and in the closing of the mints to
the free coinage of silver. If, then, it were certain that the
suggested measures would result in the establishment of a
stable ratio, the Government of India might well consider
whether their adoption would not be preferable to the policy
to which they committed themselves in 1893 in the hope of
attaining the same result by isolated action on the part of
India alone. The principal questions therefore for us to
consider are whether the measures are more likely to succeed
than the policy of 1893, and what consequences to India may be
apprehended if the measures should fail of success after being
brought into operation. … The first result of the suggested
measures, if they even temporarily succeed in their object,
would be an intense disturbance of Indian trade and industry
by the sudden rise in the rate of exchange, which, if the
ratio adopted were 15½ to 1, would be a rise from about 16d.
to about 23d. the rupee. Such a rise is enough to kill our
export trade, for the time at least. If the public were not
convinced that the arrangement would have the effect intended,
or believed that it would not be permanent, the paralysis of
trade and industry would be prolonged and accompanied by acute
individual suffering, none of the advantages expected would be
attained, and the country would pass through a critical period
which would retard its progress for years. How long the crisis
would last before normal or stable conditions were restored it
is not possible to conjecture. It would be long even if the
mercantile and banking community saw that silver was being
steadily maintained at the prescribed ratio, while any
indication of unsteadiness would greatly prolong the period by
giving foundation for doubt. If the doubt should happen to be
justified by the results, the position would be disastrous
alike to the State, to individuals, and to trade generally. …
We cannot help seeing that if the policy of 1893 is now
abandoned, and if the triple union now proposed as a
substitute should fail in its operation or should terminate,
and in its failure subject Indian trade to the violent shocks
we have described, the Government of India could not, as a
responsible Government, call upon the commercial public to
face another prolonged period of doubt, suspense, agitation,
and difficulties. For it must be clearly and fully recognized
that if India joins in the proposed measures, we shall be left
dependent, as the sole means of attaining stability in
exchange, on the success of those measures, and that if they
should fail, India must be content to remain permanently under
the silver standard with all its admitted disadvantages. … We
have given very careful consideration to the question whether
France and the United States are likely, with the help of
India, to be able to maintain the relative value of gold and
silver permanently at the ratio they intend to adopt, and have
come to the conclusion that while we admit a possibility of
the arrangements proposed resulting in the permanent
maintenance of the value of gold and silver at the ratio of
15½ to 1, the probability is that they will fail to secure
that result, and that it is quite impossible to hold that
there is anything approaching a practical certainty of their
doing so.
{317}
One reason for this conclusion is, that the arrangement would
rest on too narrow a basis. A union consisting of two
countries, with a third lending assistance, is a very
different thing from the general international union of all or
most of the important countries of the world, which was
advocated by the Government of India in the despatches of
March and June 1892 and of February and September 1886. To
afford a hope that a monetary union will succeed in
establishing stability in the relative value of gold and
silver, it is essential that the nations adhering to it should
be of such number and importance that the metallic currency of
the whole body shall be of sufficient extent to allow of the
exercise of adequate influence on the value of the two metals.
We doubt whether any two, or even three, nations in the world,
unless, indeed, one of them was Great Britain, could comply
with this condition, and we have no hesitation in saying that
France and the United States and India certainly could not. …
We have no hesitation in recommending your Lordship to refuse
to give the undertaking desired by the Governments of France
and the United States. We are quite clearly of opinion that
the interests of India demand that her mints shall not be
opened as part of an arrangement to which two or three
countries only are parties, and which does not include Great
Britain." Immediately on receiving this reply, Lord Salisbury
informed Ambassador Hay that "Her Majesty's Government feel it
their duty to state that the first proposal of the United States
Representatives is one which they are unable to accept," and
expressing a wish to know "how far the views of the American
and French Governments are modified by the decision now
arrived at, and whether they desire to proceed further with
the negotiations at the present moment."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: Commercial, Number 8, 1897).
In the view of the American envoys, it seemed useless to
proceed, with no hope of cooperation from Great Britain, and
they returned to America with a discouraging report.
MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: A. D. 1897 (December).
Adoption of the gold standard in Russia.
An imperial ukase declared the adoption of the gold standard
in Russia, authorizing the issue of a new five-rouble gold
piece.
MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: A. D. 1900.
Settlement of the monetary system in the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (MARCH-DECEMBER).
MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: A. D. 1900 (November).
Withdrawal of legal tender silver coins in Germany.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (NOVEMBER).
----------MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES: End--------
MONGOLIA.
See (in this volume)
MANCHURIA AND MONGOLIA.
MONOPOLIES.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: UNITED STATES.
MONROE DOCTRINE, The:
As emphasized in the Treaty of International Arbitration.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
MONROE DOCTRINE, The:
Its discussion as involved in the Venezuela Boundary Question.
See (in this volume)
VENEZUELA; A. D. 1895 (JULY) and (NOVEMBER).
MONTAUK POINT, Removal of troops from Santiago de Cuba to.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: CUBA).
MONTENEGRO.
See (in this volume)
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.
MOROS, The.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS; THE NATIVE INHABITANTS;
and A. D. 1899 (MAY-AuGUST).
MORTMAIN, Proposed restrictions on, in France.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).
MOSLEMS AND CHRISTIANS:
Conflicts in Armenia.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1895.
MOSLEMS AND CHRISTIANS:
Conflicts in Crete.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).
MOSQUITO, The, as a carrier of disease.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: MEDICAL, AND SURGICAL.
MUKDEN.
See (in this volume)
MANCHURIA AND MONGOLIA; also,
RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1891-1900.
MUNICIPAL EVENTS, Notable.
See (in this volume)
BOSTON, CHICAGO, NEW YORK, TOLEDO, LONDON.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENTS:
Institution in Cuba.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1900 (JUNE-NOVEMBER).
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENTS:
Institution in the Philippines.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (MARCH).
MUSIC: In the Nineteenth Century.
See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY: THE MUSICAL CENTURY.
N.
NABONIDOS, Discovery of an inscription of.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA:
DISCOVERY OF AN INSCRIPTION.
NANSEN'S EXPEDITION, Return of.
See (in this volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION, 1896.
NASHVILLE EXPOSITION.
See (in this volume)
TENNESSEE: A. D. 1897.
NATAL.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA.
NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF 1896.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER.)
NATIONAL PARTY, The.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER); and
1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
NATIONAL SILVER PARTY.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER).
{318}
NATIONAL STEEL COMPANY, The.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: UNITED STATES.
NATIONALISTS, FRENCH, Revolutionary conspiracy of.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1899-1900 (AUGUST-JANUARY).
NAVAL POLICY, German.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (FEBRUARY-JUNE).
NAVIES OF THE SEA POWERS: A. D. 1900.
The following tables are compiled from a return issued by the
British Admiralty in the spring of 1900, showing the state of
the fleets of Great Britain, France, Russia, Germany, Italy,
the United States, and Japan, including vessels then built and
in progress of construction.
Of battle-ships, there were built and building in the several
navies:
Count with a displacement of
Great Britain. 70 821,605
France. 35 339,599
Russia. 24 262,912
Germany. 25 191,259
Italy. 19 193,001
United States. 16 184,144
Japan. 7 92,420
Of armored and protected cruisers, there were built and
building:
Count with a displacement of
Great Britain. 147 827,430
France. 60 297,486
Russia. 23 144,673
Germany. 22 107,844
Italy. 25 93,673
United States. 26 140,274
Japan. 23 114,479
Of unprotected cruisers, armored coast-defence vessels,
and special vessels there were built and building:
Count with a displacement of
Great Britain. 31 104,250
France. 29 93,385
Russia. 26 66,886
Germany. 35 59,617
Italy. 3 13,821
United States. 30 77,150
Japan. 13 24,065
Of torpedo vessels and torpedo-boat destroyers
the number built and building was:
Count with a displacement of
Great Britain. 238 70,311
France. 305 34,002
Russia. 233 37,735
Germany. 130 20,094
Italy. 180 24,863
United States. 50 12,121
Japan. 71 9,537
A consolidation of the above figures shows a
total of ships in the principal navies as follows:
Great Britain, 486;
France, 429;
Russia, 306;
Germany, 212;
Italy, 227;
United States, 122;
Japan, 114.
A writer in the "Fortnightly Review," discussing the above
returns, points out the imperfectness of the representation
which such gross figures give of the actual naval strength of
the several Powers, and he has undertaken to correct them by a
calculation of what he calls the "fighting weight" of the
ships, based on the age of each and its displacement in tons.
He says: "The scale of depreciation for age that I have used
is as follows: Ships, built and now building, that were
launched, or which will be launched, during 1895-1899 (and
later), are reckoned at their full value of fighting weight;
i. e., at 100 per cent. Ships launched during 1890 1894 are
reckoned as now worth only 80 per cent. of their fighting
weight. The other depreciations being: Ships launched
1885-1889 are valued at 60 per cent. of their nominal fighting
weight; 1880-1884, at 40 per cent.; before 1880, at 20 per
cent."
By this mode of reckoning, the table of battleships is
converted to the following exhibit of estimated "naval
strength":
Count adjusted fighting weight
Great Britain. 70 604,141
France. 35 220,635
Russia. 24 221,988
Germany. 25 152,929
Italy. 19 112,899
United States. 16 176,708
Japan. 7 88,088
This method of depreciating the tonnage on the basis of the
age of a ship causes the respective proportions of Great
Britain, France and Italy, in battle-ships, to become smaller,
while the respective proportions of Russia, Germany, United
States and Japan become larger. The United States lose but 4
per cent. of the nominal value of their battle-ships; Japan, 5
per cent.; Russia, 16; Germany, 20; Great Britain, 26; France,
35; Italy, 42.
Applying the same arithmetic to the returns of armored and
protected cruisers, the writer shows that Japan suffers a loss
of 10 per cent. of their nominal fighting weight, France 14,
United States 14, Italy 18, Great Britain 21, Russia 23,
Germany 24.
Reducing in like manner all the remaining returns, he arrives
at the following summary of "the seven navies arranged in the
order of their strength"—taking the navy of Japan as the unit:
Degree of strength.
Great Britain, 6.38
France, 2.57
Russia, 1.88
United States, 1.65
Germany, 1.34
Italy, 1.03
Japan, 1.00.
Stated in "tons of fighting weight," his comparison stands:
Great Britain, 1,347,000
France, 543,000
Russia, 397,000
United States, 349,000
Germany, 282,000
Italy, 218,000
Japan, 211,000.
Turning next to the consideration of armaments, the writer has
compiled the following table, which shows "for each class of
gun separately, and for all classes of guns combined, the
number of these guns that are possessed by the seven naval
powers":
POWER Breech Quick Muzzle Torpedo All Classes
Loading Firing Loading Tubes of Guns
Guns Guns Guns
Great Britain. 912 7,454 340 1,534 10,240
France. 471 3,653 - 928 5,052
Russia. 393 2,589 - 625 3,607
Germany. 258 1,995 - 611 2,864
Italy. 140 1,791 4 573 2,508
United States. 303 1,791 - 230 2,324
Japan. 110 1,168 - 314 1,592
----------
All the Powers
combined. 2,587 20,441 344 4,815 28,187
In this comparison the United States drops from the fourth
rank to the sixth. For a comparison of the naval expenditure
of the Powers,
See (in this volume)
WAR BUDGETS.
NEBUCHADREZZAR, Exploration of the ruins of the palace of.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA; GERMAN EXPLORATION.
NEELY EXTRADITION CASE, The.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1900-1901.
{319}
NEGRITOS.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: THE NATIVE INHABITANTS.
NEGRO, Disfranchisement of the.
See (in this volume)
MARYLAND, MISSISSIPPI, NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1900;
SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1896;
LOUISIANA: A. D. 1898; and
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).
NEGROS, The island of:
American occupation.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY-NOVEMBER).
Acceptance of American sovereignty.
Establishment of provisional government.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (MARCH-JULY).
NEMI, Lake: Sunken Roman vessels found in.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: ITALY.
NETHERLANDS, The Kingdom of the (Holland): A. D. 1894.
War in Lombok.
See (in this volume)
DUTCH EAST INDIES: A. D. 1894.
-------NETHERLANDS, The Kingdom of the (Holland): Start------
NETHERLANDS, The Kingdom of the (Holland): A. D. 1896.
Electoral Reform Act.
A notable extension of the franchise was accomplished by an
Act passed this year by the States General, to have effect in
the elections of 1897. It made voters of all Dutch citizens
not under 25 years of age who present "certain outward and
positive signs of capacity and well-being. The chief sign is
the fact of payment of one or more direct State taxes (for the
land tax an amount of 1 florin is sufficient). Besides these,
the Reform Act admits as electors all those who can prove that
they are householders, and have paid rent of houses or
lodgings during a fixed term, or that they are owners or
tenants of boats of not less than 24 tons capacity, or that
they have been during a fixed term in employment with an
annual wage or salary of at least £22 18s. 4d., or possess a
certificate of State interest of at least 100 florins, or a
State savings bank deposit of at least 50 florins, or the
legal qualifications for any profession or employment."
Statesman's Year-Book,
1899, page 807.
NETHERLANDS, The Kingdom of the (Holland): A. D. 1897.
First election under the new Franchise Law.
The first election in Holland under the new franchise law,
held June 15-25, 1897, returned to the Chamber 47 Liberals, 22
Catholics, 22 Protestant anti-Revolutionists, 4 Radicals, and one
deputy who is styled an Historic Christian.
NETHERLANDS, The Kingdom of the (Holland):A. D. 1898.
Enthronement of Queen Wilhelmina.
Queen Wilhelmina, who succeeded to the crown on the death of
her father, William III., in 1890, reached the age of 18 on
the 31st of August, 1898, and received the reins of government
from her mother, Queen Emma, who had acted as Regent until
that time. The young Queen was enthroned September 6 in the
New Church at Amsterdam, where she delivered, with a
simplicity and fervor which impressed those present, her
address to the States-General and took her oath of allegiance
to the Constitution. "I am happy and thankful," the Queen
said, "to rule over the people of the Netherlands, who,
although small in numbers, are great in virtue and strong by
nature and character. I esteem it a great privilege that it is
my life's task and duty to dedicate all my powers to the
prosperity and interests of my dear fatherland; and I adopt
the words of my beloved father,—'Yes, Orange can never do
enough for the Netherlands.'" After the Queen and the
Queen-Mother, the most striking figures at the ceremony were
the Princes from the Dutch Indies.
NETHERLANDS, The Kingdom of the (Holland): A. D. 1898 (June).
The Sugar Conference at Brussels.
See (in this volume)
SUGAR BOUNTIES.
NETHERLANDS, The Kingdom of the (Holland): A. D. 1899 (April).
Invitation to the Peace Conference to be held at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
NETHERLANDS, The Kingdom of the (Holland): A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See,(in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
NETHERLANDS, The Kingdom of the (Holland): A. D. 1899 (May-August).
Advice to President Kruger of the South African Republic.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1899 (MAY-AuGUST).
NETHERLANDS, The Kingdom of the (Holland):A. D. 1901.
Marriage of Queen Wilhelmina.
Queen Wilhelmina was married, on the 7th of February, to Duke
Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who received the title of
Prince of the Netherlands by proclamation on the same day.
Both civil and religious ceremonies of marriage were
performed.
--------NETHERLANDS, The Kingdom of the (Holland): End------
NEW BRUNSWICK.
See (in this volume)
CANADA.
NEWEL, Stanford:
American Commissioner to the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1895.
Union with Canada refused.
Terms proposed for the union of Newfoundland with the Dominion
of Canada were rejected, and negotiations abandoned.
NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1897.
Conference of colonial premiers with the
British Colonial Secretary.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (JUNE-JULY).
NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1897-1900.
The Reid contract.
The question in politics.
In the fall of 1897 a line of narrow-gauge railway, with
branches over six hundred miles in total length, was completed
and opened to traffic. The main line of rail extends from the
capital, St. Johns, to Port aux Basques, at the southwestern
extremity of the island, and is expected to produce an
important development of resources from the forests and mines,
as well as from agricultural lands. The railway was
constructed by a contractor, Mr. Reid, who agreed to operate
it for seven years at his own expense, receiving therefor a
land grant of 5000 acres per mile. In 1898 a new contract was
made with Mr. Reid, which placed most of the resources of the
island under his control. For an additional land-grant of 2500
acres per mile of road he undertook to operate the road for
fifty years. By a present cash payment of $1,000,000 to the
colony treasury, he purchased the reversion of its right to
the possession of the road at the end of that period. At the
same time he secured the right to purchase from the government
its telegraph lines and the dry-dock at St. Johns, for half a
million of dollars, and was given a monopoly for 30 years of
the coast mail steam service, with an annual subsidy of
$150,000, he undertaking to maintain in it eight steamers,
well equipped. This remarkable contract was bitterly denounced
by a large party in the island, and the Imperial government was
strongly petitioned to nullify the whole transaction: but the
British Colonial Secretary, Mr. Chamberlain, while he
characterized the contract as representing "the most
unparalleled abrogation of its functions by a responsible
government," decided that he could not properly interfere.
{320}
The "Reid Deal," as it was known, then became a burning issue
in Newfoundland politics, and the Ministry responsible for it,
led by Sir James Winter, was ousted from the government in
February, 1900. Mr. Reid was then arranging to transfer his
Newfoundland contract and franchises to a company, which
required the sanction of the colonial government. The new
(Liberal) Ministry, of which Mr. Robert Bond was Premier,
refused consent to the transfer unless Mr. Reid would amend
his bargain with the colony in several very important
particulars. He offered some concessions, but not to the
extent demanded; and so the question between him and the Bond
Ministry went into the canvass of 1900, for the election of a
new Assembly, and the Conservatives, heavily backed by Mr.
Reid, were defeated overwhelmingly, winning but 4 seats out of
36 in the Lower House of the Legislature. On this result of
the elections the "London Times" of November 26, 1900,
comments as follows: "The course which the victorious Bond
Ministry will now take must be awaited with interest. … A
policy of compromise would certainly appear to be the wisest
and the safest for all parties. Mr. Reid, it seems to be
acknowledged, has carried out his part of the bargain of 1898
fully and even generously, and the colony, it is stated, has
profited largely in consequence. In the absence of actual
fraud or corruption it would be difficult in these
circumstances to justify the rescission or even the material
modification of the agreement, on the faith of which he has
spent his money, without his assent. A repeal of the Act of
1898 against his will would savour of repudiation. It would
assuredly damage the credit of the colony very seriously."
NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1899-1901.
The French Shore Question.
The Modus Vivendi.
"At the period of the negotiation of the Treaty of Utrecht, in
1713, by which the rights of the French fishermen were regulated
[see, in volume 4, NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1713], thousands of
French fishing vessels availed themselves of the inshore
fisheries about the island; and that they might be not
altogether without facilities for the drying and curing of
their fish, they were granted under the Treaty the 'right to
use a strip of the coast seven hundred miles long and half a
mile wide.' Accompanying the Treaty, but, be it noted, not a
part of it, was a declaration of King George, that British
subjects on the island were not to interfere with these French
coast rights by erecting permanent structures upon it,
calculated to obstruct the operations of the French fishermen.
This Royal declaration was harmless and unimportant when the
population of the island was very small, and the French
fishermen resorted to the inshore fisheries of Newfoundland.
But to-day, a different condition exists. The French fishermen
no longer use the inshore fisheries of the island, but
prosecute, instead, their fishing operations on the Grand
Banks, several hundred miles distant, drying their product
either at the French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, which
are more adjacent to the Banks, or transporting the fish
direct to France. … The need for which the French shore right
was granted has practically ceased to exist; and inasmuch as
the prohibition to the people of the island from erecting
permanent structures on the island was merely a mandate
emanating from the King, and not an integral part of the
Treaty itself; and because the reason for the observance of
the mandate has thus ceased to exist, it is imperative that,
in the interests of the prosperity of the island, this Royal
concession should be revoked. … But what, it may be asked, on
a perusal of the whole case, has caused the Newfoundland
question to suddenly become paramount? Why is its urgency
greater in 1899 than it was in 1889? Is there not some
concentrated force, some propelling power, at work behind the
scenes? There is—and that power is a millionaire. The name of
this millionaire is Robert Gillespie Reid, who, having
voluntarily assumed, by means of the measure known as the Reid
contract, the responsibility of developing the island's
resources, finds himself, at the outset, confronted by a
situation which precludes all present enterprise. This
gentleman has acquired, in fee simple, some three or four
million acres of land in Newfoundland; and where the islanders
were content to wait patiently for justice, he, as a
business-man, eager to exploit his mines and timber, can
hardly be expected to pin his faith to assurances so frail,
and of fulfilment so remote."
B. Wilson,
Newfoundland's Opportunity
(Fortnightly Review, February, 1899).
A royal commission which lately investigated the situation of
affairs on the Treaty Coast of Newfoundland found that the
coast "is 800 miles in extent, with a permanent population of
13,300, all but 76 of whom are native-born, while the total of
French frequenting the territory during the fishing season
does not exceed 600 men. The French, last year, according to
the official reports furnished to the Admiralty, occupied only
eight cod and nine lobster stations, with a personnel as
above, while their catch of cod was but 18,000 qtls., worth
about 36,000 dollars, and their pack of lobsters about 7,000
cases, of about equal value. And is it not monstrous that, in
order to satisfy vexatious French claims and perpetuate
obsolete treaty claims, the people of the Treaty Coast should
he coerced and victimised, and the development of the whole
colony retarded, as has been the case? The Commissioners
found that, despite the liberal bounties given by France for
fishing on the Treaty Coast, the allowance of 50 francs per
head by the St. Pierre municipality for the same purpose, and
the special appropriation the past two seasons in the French
colonial grant 'for extending operations on the Newfoundland
coast, 4,000 francs,' the number of men frequenting there and
the number of stations operated are steadily declining every
year, and in ten years' time it is doubtful if there would be
a Frenchman on the coast. Still, so powerful is the French
fetish that the shore is tabooed as far as industrial
development is concerned, and the hinterland likewise. No
grant of land can be given there except with the stipulation
that it is subject to French rights. No permanent building can
be erected within half a mile of high-water mark, because the
French claim the strand for drying their fish. No wharves can
be built by which to load minerals, because they will
interfere with the French fishery. (Only last year they
stopped the erection of one which was twenty-two miles from
their nearest station, and Mr. Reid, the railway contractor,
when he wanted to build a wharf at Bay St. George to land
construction materials, had to seize the opportunity of the
French warship in the Bay leaving to coal and renew stores,
and put an army of men to work, who built it in seventeen
days, so that it was completed when the Frenchmen returned.)
{321}
No mineral developments are permitted because they may hamper
the French. Competition on near-by fishing grounds is
prohibited for the same reason. Illicit (?) lobster packers
are hunted like malefactors for disregarding a 'modus vivendi'
as unjust as it is ridiculous. Bait-selling is only possible
by permission of the French and on their terms. The railway
was deflected 120 miles out of its proper course because of
French objection to a terminus on the shore. In fact, fishing
is only pursued with the greatest difficulty, while the land
is closed to agricultural settlement and mining enterprise.
And that, too, in the face of the fact that the French 'army
of occupation' consists of about one vessel, one station, and
about sixty fishermen on every 100 miles of coast, whose
annual catch is worth about 10,000 dollars."
P. T. McGrath, France in Newfoundland
(Nineteenth Century, January, 1899).
In 1890, a temporary agreement ("modus vivendi") concerning
the lobster packing and other questions, was arranged between
the British and French governments, which has been extended
from time to time, very much to the dissatisfaction of the
Province. The last extension expired at the end of the year
1900, and the Newfoundlanders showed a strong disposition to
resist any renewal of it. A letter from St. Johns, in
December, 1900, stated the feeling of the colony as follows:
"Last year the term of the 'modus vivendi' was allowed to run
out, and a deadlock, such as now seems inevitable, would
doubtless have been created; but when the end of December came
the reverses in South Africa appealed to our patriotism as the
oldest British colony, and the Legislature unanimously passed
at one sitting a Bill renewing the arrangement for another
year. The colony was unable to afford any more substantial aid
at the time, as her naval reserve had not then been
inaugurated, but this course on her part testified to her
sympathy with the Imperial mother, and her readiness to
relieve her from other difficulties. This year Newfoundland is
taking the bit between her teeth, and the result must be a
complication which, however unwelcome to the Imperial Cabinet,
cannot but have been regarded as inevitable sooner or later.
If our case is as strong as we are led to believe that the
Royal Commission represents it to be, there is certainly good
ground for our insisting upon remedial measures. It must not
be forgotten that the French now keep up less than 15 cod and
lobster stations altogether on the treaty coast, and that
about 550 men is the number they had there last season. As
against this the resident population is nearly 14,000, and the
objections which they urged against the 'modus vivendi' in its
early days apply with equal strength now. These people are
shamefully treated, the colony as a whole is humiliated, and
the recognition of such conditions by England without making
an attempt to get rid of them is a cause of reproach which she
should remove without delay."
Much newspaper discussion of the subject has been going on in
both England and France, with an apparent showing of readiness
on the part of the latter country to bargain with the British
for cessions in West Africa or elsewhere. How much of a price
Great Britain is willing to pay for release from the treaty of
Utrecht is a question the answer to which cannot be forever
postponed.
Despite its reluctance, the Newfoundland Legislature was
prevailed upon, in February, 1901, to pass an Act renewing the
"modus vivendi" for another year. Several members who
supported the measure declared that they did so for the last
time, and only because of an unwillingness to embarrass the
British government during the continuance of the South African
war.
NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1901.
Change of Government.
Early in the year, Sir Henry McCallum was transferred from the
governorship of Newfoundland to that of Natal, and Sir
Cavendish Boyle was appointed to succeed him.
NEW JERSEY: A. D. 1897.
Constitutional Amendments.
On the 28th of September, several proposals of constitutional
amendment were voted on in New Jersey. One prohibitory of
gambling was adopted by a small majority. Another, that would
give the suffrage in school elections to women, was rejected
by about 10,000 majority.
NEW SOUTH WALES.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRALIA; and CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRALIA.
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1894-1895.
The Lexow Investigation of Tammany government.
Election of Mayor Strong.
"On the second Sunday in February 1892 the minister of a
wealthy Presbyterian church, Dr. Charles Parkhurst, startled
his congregation by preaching an outspoken political sermon,
in which he attacked the Tammany administration in most
unmeasured language. 'The mayor and those associated with him
are polluted harpies [he declared]. Under the pretence of
governing this city they are feeding day and night on its
quivering vitals. They are a lying, perjured, rum-soaked, and
libidinous lot. … Every effort to make men respectable,
honest, temperate, and sexually clean is a direct blow between
the eyes of the mayor and his whole gang of lecherous
subordinates, in the sense that while we fight iniquity they
shield and patronise it; while we try to convert criminals
they manufacture them, and they have a hundred dollars
invested in the manufacturing business to every one invested
in converting machinery. … Police and criminals all stand in
with each other. It is simply one solid gang of criminals, one
half in office and the other half out.' This sermon was the
starting point of the new anti-Tammany movement. Dr. Parkhurst
was called before the grand jury to prove his words, but he
was obliged to admit that all he knew was the repeated
accusations that appeared in almost every local newspaper.
Thereupon the grand jury publicly rebuked him, and sent a
formal presentment to the Recorder declaring their
'disapproval and condemnation' of the sermon. Everyone at once
concluded that no more would be heard of Parkhurst in
politics, but they did not know the man. The clergyman called
a couple of detectives to his aid, and personally visited the
lowest resorts, to obtain the necessary evidences of
corruption. A month later he preached a second political
sermon, and this time he took into the pulpit with him a
bundle of affidavits. He repeated and emphasised his former
accusations, and again he was summoned before the grand jury.
This time the result was different. 'The police are either
incompetent or corrupt,' the jury declared, and citizens
generally agreed. …
{322}
"In 1894, the State Senate … appointed a committee, this time
under Senator Lexow, to inquire into New York municipal
affairs. Soon after the committee was appointed Mr. Croker
found it convenient to hastily resign the leadership of
Tammany and go to Europe. The worst accusations of the
bitterest enemies of Crokerism were almost all more than
substantiated by the evidence given before the committee. It
was found that the police were utterly corrupt, that they
extorted blackmail from gambling house keepers, women of ill
fame, saloon keepers, and others, and in return gave them
their protection. Even thieves, in some instances, were found
to be regularly paying their police dues in return for
immunity from arrest. One police justice had to admit that he
received a hundred dollars from a keeper of a disorderly
house. Everywhere that the Lexow Committee probed, or that
other competent critics examined, the same thing was found.
For several years New York had been living under a system of
universal blackmail. Saloon keepers had to pay Tammany to be
allowed to evade the Sunday closing law, merchants to be
granted the simplest conveniences for getting their goods into
their premises. But in the case of Mr. Croker no dishonesty
could be proved. It was known that he had in a few years risen
from a poor man to a millionaire, but in no instance could it be
shown that he had acquired this wealth by corruption. His
friends said he had made his money by horse-racing and real
estate speculation, but unfortunately Mr. Croker did not go
before the witness stand to finally clear up the matter. While
the committee was sitting he remained in Europe.
"The usual storm of indignation followed the 'Lexow' exposure,
and most reputable citizens united once more to overthrow
Tammany. Colonel Strong, a well-known banker, was chosen
reform candidate for mayor, and secured a majority of fifty
thousand. In 1895 he began his administration, and initiated a
vigorous reform movement. The police force was entirely
reorganised; municipal offices were given for merit rather
than political reward; the streets, for the first time in the
memory of the oldest inhabitant, were really kept clean, and
the whole local government was taken out of politics. Mayor
Strong's time of office has not been without its faults, but
among those faults dishonesty has not been one. Rather the
mistake has been to enforce all laws too rigidly, and make too
few allowances for the weaknesses of human nature in a
cosmopolitan resort. Police President Roosevelt's strict
enforcement of the Sunday closing and social purity laws was
only his duty, but yet it cost the reformers many votes.
Although the report of the 'Lexow' Committee did Tammany much
temporary harm, it recovered quickly. After the mayoral defeat
of 1894 it pulled its forces together again, and rallied
around it all the ambitions men who were disappointed in Mayor
Strong's bestowal of his patronage. In the autumn of 1895 it was
able to score a minor victory at the polls, and it carefully
nursed its strength for the election of November 1897. Mr.
Croker, notwithstanding his repeated declarations that he was
'out of politics,' came back to New York, and at once took
over command of his party."
F. A. McKenzie,
Tammany
(Nineteenth Century, December, 1897).
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1895.
Consolidation of the Astor, Lenox and Tilden foundations
to form the New York Public Library.
See (in this volume)
LIBRARY, NEW YORK PUBLIC.
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1896-1897.
Consolidation of New York, Brooklyn, and neighboring towns,
in the Greater New York.
"The project of uniting the cities of New York, Brooklyn, and
the cities, towns and villages contiguous to the same, into
one great municipality, although long mooted before 1890,
first took definite form in that year, by the passage on May
8th, by the Legislature, of Laws 1890, Chapter 11, entitled
'An Act to create a commission to inquire into the expediency
of consolidating the various municipalities in the State of
New York, occupying the several islands in the harbor of New
York.' …
Pursuant to the provisions of this act, a commission
consisting of the following members was appointed, viz.:
Andrew H. Green, Frederick W. Devoe, John L. Hamilton, J.
Seaver Page of New York; J. S. T. Stranahan, Edward F. Linton,
William D. Veeder of Brooklyn; John H. Brinkerhoff of Queen's
county; George G. Greenfield of Richmond county; Charles P.
McClelland of Westchester county; and Campbell W. Adams, State
Engineer and Surveyor, ex officio, and Albert E. Henschel
acting as secretary. In 1893, the commission presented to the
Legislature a bill providing for the submission of the
question of consolidation to a vote of the residents of the
various municipalities proposed to be united into one city.
The following year the Legislature provided for the referendum
suggested by the commission. … The following vote was cast
upon the question of consolidation in the ensuing election on
November 6, 1894:
for consolidation; against;
New York, 96,938; 59,959;
Kings, 64,744; 64,467;
Queens, 7,712; 4,741;
Richmond, 5,531; 1,505;
Mount Vernon, 873; 1,603;
Eastchester, 374; 260;
Westchester, 620; 621;
Pelham, 261; 153.
At the opening of the Legislature in 1895, the Commission of
Municipal Consolidation Inquiry presented a report with a
proposed bill declaring the entire district before mentioned
(with the exception of the city of Mount Vernon) consolidated
with the city of New York. The bill, however, failed of
passage because of the addition of an amendment of referendum
in the last hours of the session of 1895, too late for further
action. The Legislature, as a result no doubt of this vote on
consolidation, did annex to New York city the towns of
Westchester, Eastchester, Pelham and other parts of
Westchester county.
"Early in January, 1896, the Legislature appointed a joint
sub-committee of the Cities Committees of both Houses to
inquire into the subject of the proposed consolidation and
report March 1, 1806. The committee made a report and
submitted a bill favoring consolidation. The bill as reported
was passed by the Legislature and was submitted to the Mayors
of the cities of New York and Brooklyn, and to the Mayor and
Common Council of Long Island City pursuant to the provisions
of the Constitution.
{323}
The bill was returned to the Legislature without the
acceptance of the cities of New York and Brooklyn. The
Legislature repassed the bill over the vetoes of the Mayors of
New York and Brooklyn, and it became a law May 11, 1896, with
the approval of the Governor. This act (L. 1896, ch. 488) is
entitled, 'An Act consolidating the local governments of the
territory within the city and county of New York, the counties
of Kings and Richmond and Long Island City and the towns of
Newtown, Flushing and Jamaica and part of the town of
Hempstead, in the county of Queens, and providing for the
preparation of bills for enactment into laws for the
government thereof.' … Pursuant to the act of consolidation,
the Governor (Levi P. Morton) appointed on June 9, 1896, the
following members of the commission to draft the proposed
charter, viz.: Seth Low, Benjamin F. Tracy, John F. Dillon,
Ashbel P. Fitch, Stewart L. Woodford, Silas B. Dutcher,
William. C. De Witt, George M. Pinney, Jr., Harrison S. Moore.
Mr. Fitch having resigned from the commission, the Governor
appointed Thomas F. Gilroy in his place. By virtue of the act,
the following gentlemen were members of the commission: Andrew
H. Green, president of the commission appointed by L. 1890,
ch. 311; Campbell W. Adams, State Engineer; Theodore E.
Hancock, Attorney-General; William L. Strong, Mayor of New
York; Frederick W. Wurster, Mayor of Brooklyn; and Patrick
Jerome Gleason, Mayor of Long Island City. The commission
organized on June 25, 1896, appointed Benjamin F. Tracy as
president and George M. Pinney, Jr., as secretary, and named
William C. De Witt, John F. Dillon, Thomas F. Gilroy, Seth
Low, Andrew H. Green, Benjamin F. Tracy, and George M. Pinney,
Jr., as a committee on draft of proposed charter."
M. Ash,
The Greater New York Charter,
introduction.
The committee submitted a draft charter to the commission on
the 24th of December, with a report in which a fundamental
feature of its plan is thus set forth: "It is clear that the
work of administering all of the Departments over so large a
space of territory, situated on three islands and partly on
the main land, must be subdivided in order to be successfully
done. The draft, therefore, proposes to divide the city into
the five Boroughs which nature and history have already
formed; that is to say:
(1.) Manhattan, which consists of the island of Manhattan and
the outlying islands naturally related to it.
(2.) The Bronx; that is to say, all that part of the present
City of New York lying north of the Harlem, a territory which
comprises two-thirds of the area of the present City of New
York.
(3.) Brooklyn.
(4.) Queens, consisting of that portion of Queens County to
be incorporated into the Greater New York.
(5.) Richmond, that is, Staten Island.
Power is given to the Municipal Assembly to subdivide these
Boroughs still further, in case of need. The Greater New York
will start with these five Boroughs for administrative
purposes. Your Committee have reconstructed the Borough
system, as submitted in the tentative draft, upon lines which
we are of one accord in believing to be a better and more
appropriate development of the plan for the Greater New York.
These lines give to each Borough various boards through which
the prosecution of local improvements may be facilitated
within the limits of small districts, but reserve to the
Municipal Assembly the right to incur indebtedness and to
authorize the making of contracts."
The draft thus prepared was subjected to criticism in the
commission and in public hearings, and, after amendment and
revision, was reported to the Legislature in February, 1897,
as the charter recommended by the Commission for the
consolidated city called "The Greater New York." It received
some amendment and was passed. On submission, as required by
the State constitution, to the mayors of New York and Brooklyn
and the mayor and Common Council of Long Island City, it was
approved in Brooklyn and Long Island City, but returned
without approval by the mayor of New York. The Legislature
then re-enacted the bill, and it was made law, by the
governor's signature, on the 4th of May, 1897.
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1897 (September-November).
Election of the first Mayor of Greater New York.
The first municipal election in Greater New York excited a
passion of interest that was natural in the city itself, but
extraordinary in the degree and the extent to which it spread,
not only throughout the United States, but widely in the
foreign world. The election was looked upon as the test of a
vastly important experiment in the democratic government of an
enormous city. The charter of the great consolidated
municipality had lodged tremendous, unprecedented power and
responsibility in the office of its mayor. The people were
given an opportunity to determine by a single act of suffrage—
by their choice of a single man—the character of their
government. Would they choose that man, at the beginning of
the new system, in the interest of the corrupting organization
in party politics which had misruled the old city of New York
for years, or would they rise to the grand opportunity
afforded them, and set a strong, free, independently honest
man at the head of their local government. Democracy in
municipal affairs, at least, had never been put on trial so
sharply before. To a great number of the citizens of New York
the duty of the hour was plain, and they promptly set their
hands to it. Many months before the election they began the
organization of a Citizens' Union, in which men of all
political parties, sinking every other difference, should join
for the defeat of Tammany and "Boss" Croker, and for the
election to the mayor's office of the best mayor to be found.
With remarkable unanimity, their thought of the man turned to
Seth Low, President of Columbia University, but one time mayor
of Brooklyn, where his vigor, his firmness and his
independence had been conspicuously proved. An extensive
canvass of the city showed so widely spread a feeling in favor
of Mr. Low that he was named at the beginning of September as
the candidate of the non-partisan Citizens' Union. It was
hoped that the whole opposition to Tammany Hall could be
united in support of Mr. Low, representing as he did no
partisan hostility to any organization in national or state
politics. It was especially hoped and believed that the
Republican party organization would endorse the choice of the
Citizens' Union and make Mr. Low (himself a strong Republican)
its own candidate. By nothing less than a general combination
could the compact forces of Tammany Hall be overcome, and that
fact was well understood.
{324}
It was a fact so plain, indeed, that when the head of the
Republican organization in New York persisted in setting a
party candidate in the field, to divide the opposing voters of
the city, there seemed to be small doubt of the intention with
which it was done. The master politicians of the party were
evidently more willing that the vast powers of the mayoralty,
in the organization of the government of Greater New York,
should be wielded by their prototypes of Tammany than that
they should be given to independent hands. The party was
obedient to them, and General Benjamin F. Tracy was put
forward, by a Republican convention held September 28, in
opposition to Mr. Low. The night previous, another candidate
had appeared, in the person of Mr. Henry George, author of the
economic doctrine of the "single tax," supported ardently by a
large following, especially in the Democratic party. A section
of that party, organized under the name of the United Democracy,
had nominated Mr. George, and his nomination was endorsed a
week later by a great assembly which claimed to represent the
Jeffersonian Democracy of New York. On the 30th of September
the nomination of the Tammany Democracy was given to Judge
Robert A. Van Wyck. Between these four principal candidates,
the result of the election was only put in doubt by some
question as to the strength of the Democratic vote which Mr.
George would draw away from Judge Van Wyck. It was a question
extinguished sadly, three days before the election, by the
sudden death of Mr. George. He had not been in good health,
and the strain of the exciting canvass broke him down. His
followers made a hasty nomination of his son, Henry George,
Jr., in his place; but the personal prestige which might have
carried a large vote with them was lost. Of the triumph of
Tammany there was no longer any doubt, and no surprise was
felt (though abundant grief and anger found expression) when
the returns of the voting on November 2d were announced. Judge
Van Wyck was elected by the ballots of 233,997 citizens, against
151,540 cast for Mr. Low, 102,873 for General Tracy, 21,693
for the younger Mr. George. Tammany would have been beaten if
the Republican vote had gone to Mr. Low. Besides the four
principal candidates here named, there were four other
nominees who received small numbers of votes. Lucien Sanial,
put forward by the Social Democrats, received 14,467; William
T. Wardwell, named by the Prohibitionists, received 1,359;
Patrick J. Gleason and Alfred B. Cruikshank, running with
little more than some personal support, received a few
hundreds of votes each.
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1899 (April-December).
The Mazet Investigation.
An investigation of charges against the city government, by a
committee of the Legislature, Mr. Robert Mazet, chairman, was
opened in April, 1899, the examination of witnesses being
conducted by Mr. Frank Moss. The investigation followed lines
much the Same as those pursued by the Lexow committee, in
1894, and revealed much the same foul state of things,
especially in the department of police. But there was
evidently less earnestness in the committee; the probing of
iniquities was fill less thorough, and the whole proceeding
was stopped with suspicious suddenness as soon as it drew near
to prominent members of the party by which it was controlled.
It called fresh attention to the rottenness in municipal
politics, and it led to the creation of a new commission for
the revision of the Greater New York charter; but otherwise it
was most unsatisfactory.
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1899-1900.
The Ramapo Water Contract.
In August, 1899, Bird S. Coler, Controller of the City,
exposed a gigantic scheme of plunder involved in a contract
with the Ramapo Water Company, which Tammany officials,
assisted, it was said, by some interested Republicans, were
attempting to crowd through the Board of Public Improvements.
The contract would have bound the city for forty years to pay
to the Ramapo Company $70 per million gallons for 200,000,000
gallons of water daily. In his Message to the State
Legislature, January 2, 1901, Governor Odell thus referred to
the matter: "Under chapter 985 of the laws of 1895, as
amended, the Ramapo Water Company was given the power of
condemnation for the purpose of securing to it the water and
lands necessary for its purposes. During the year 1899 an
attempt was made to enter into a contract with this company by
the municipal board empowered to make such contracts. This
proposition, when presented to the citizens of New York, was
severely criticised by them, and the question of continued
municipal ownership of their water supply was thus brought to
their attention. The Legislature of 1900 enacted a law which
made the consummation of such a contract impossible without
the unanimous consent of those empowered to make such
contract. The ownership of water rights sufficient to provide
the city of New York with an ample supply of pure and
wholesome water should be entirely under the control and
direction of the municipality." Action on the subject was
taken by the Legislature, which, in March, repealed the Act of
1895, thus stripping the Ramapo Company of its extraordinary
powers.
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1900 (January-September).
The Rapid Transit Tunnel Contract.
Projected Tunnel to Brooklyn.
"The great project of underground rapid transit is now an
assured thing. A few months ago the prospect seemed very dark.
It is true that the rapid transit commissioners, a very able
and upright body of men, with the invaluable aid of a
distinguished engineer, Mr. Parsons, had a good while ago
decided on the route and the plans; but the way seemed blocked
by a series of semi-political and semi-legal difficulties. …
Suddenly these difficulties began to disappear. … The
financial plan adopted was that the city should provide the
money which a contractor would expend in building the road,
the contractor following the plans furnished by the city,
submitting to municipal inspection, and agreeing upon his part
to pay the interest on the bonds sold by the city to obtain
the money, and also to pay enough into a sinking fund to
provide for the ultimate redemption of the bonds. Bids were
called for on November 15, to be opened on January 15. … It
turned out that two well-known contractors were the only
bidders, and the award was given to Mr. John B. McDonald. His
bid was $35,000,000. The theory of this contract is that the
road is to be the property of the city, leased for fifty years
to the contractor, who is to pay a rental that will be large
enough so that the taxpayers will not have expended a penny. …
{325}
The main trunk line will start at the post-office (City Hall
Square) on the south and proceed northward along the spine of
Manhattan Island, following the general direction of Broadway
to Kingsbridge, a distance from the point of beginning of
twelve or thirteen miles. Near the upper end of Central Park,
at a distance of six or seven miles from the point of
beginning, a branch of the tunnel road will take a
northeasterly direction, terminating at Bronx Park, which is
about the same distance north as Kingsbridge, but several
miles further east. The road will have four tracks for six
miles of main line, two of which will be used for local trains
and two for express trains."
American Review of Reviews,
February, 1900.
Work on the great undertaking was begun promptly, and had made
great progress within the first twelve months.
In September, 1900, preliminary steps were taken toward the
construction of a connecting tunnel, under the East River, to
Brooklyn, and through the congested districts of the latter
borough. "At least three years will be necessary for the
preliminary work and actual construction before trains are
running. … Tentative estimates have been made, and these are
said to be from $8,000,000 to $10,000,000. … The route as
contemplated … starts in connection with the Manhattan
proposed tunnel at a point at or near the intersection of
Broadway and Park Row; thence under Broadway and Bowling Green
to Whitehall Street; under Whitehall Street to South Street;
thence under South Street to the East River, and under the
river, striking the Brooklyn shore at a point in Joralemon
Street between the East River and Furman Street, under
Joralemon Street to Fulton Street, to the Borough Hall, out
Fulton Street to Flatbush Avenue, and under this thoroughfare
to the railroad station. On the New York side the route
includes a loop to be built whose debouching point shall lie
between Bowling Green and Exchange Place in Broadway, running
under Broadway to Bowling Green, and thence under Bowling
Green to State Street, to and under Battery Park to Whitehall
Street, thence returning under Whitehall Street and Battery
Park to State Street and to Broadway. The construction calls
for two tracks, and avoids all grade crossings, each track to
have a separate tubular tunnel."
New York Times,
September 28, 1900.
On the 25th of January, 1901, announcement was published that
the Board of Rapid Transit Commissioners had adopted a
resolution definitely providing for the extension of the Rapid
Transit Railroad to Brooklyn. The original plan of route in
Brooklyn had been chosen. The only change made was in
Manhattan. The trains would be run through State St. instead
of Whitehall, as formerly planned, with a loop at the Battery
for Manhattan trains.
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1900 (April-May).
Ecumenical Conference on Missions.
See (in this volume)
MISSIONS.
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1900 (June).
Great fire at the Hoboken piers.
See (in this volume)
HOBOKEN.
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1900-1901.
Revision of the charter.
Carefully as the Greater New York charter had been drawn, it
proved unsatisfactory in the working, in various respects, and
a commission to revise it was appointed in 1900. The report of
the commission was submitted to the Governor on the 1st of
December, and transmitted, with his approval, to the
Legislature in the following month. In the hands of the
Legislature, the bill embodying the revised charter underwent
considerable amendment, very much, it would seem, to its
detriment. It was passed by the Senate on the 3d of April and
by the Assembly on the 4th, and went to the Mayor of New York
for the submission to his judgment which the State
Constitution of New York requires. Some of the more important
changes in the charter made by the revision, as passed, are
the shortening of the mayor's term of office from four years
(which the revision commission had advised retaining) to two
years, with eligibility for re-election (which the commission
had advised against); an increase of the administrative powers
of the presidents of boroughs; abolition of the municipal
Council and creation of a Board of Aldermen of 73 members;
reorganization of various departments of the municipal
administration.
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1901 (March).
Offered gift of $5,200,000 to the Public Library
by Andrew Carnegie.
See (in this volume)
LIBRARY, NEW YORK PUBLIC.
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1894.
The revised Constitution.
See (in this volume)
CONSTITUTION OF NEW YORK.
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1896-1897.
Passage of the Raines Liquor Law.
An Act for the regulation of the liquor traffic, which was and
is the subject of much controversy, was passed in March, 1896,
by the Legislature of the State of New York. From its author,
Senator John Raines, it has borne the name of the Raines Law.
It heavily increased the tax on the selling of liquor, raising
it to $800 on common "saloons" in the city of New York; to $650
in Brooklyn; to $500 in other cities having more than 50,000
and not more than 500,000 inhabitants; and to rates in lesser
cities and towns which ranged from 8100 to $350. It forbade
the licensing of any liquor shop within 200 feet of a
schoolhouse or a church, and also forbade the opening of any
new shop of that character in a residence district without
consent of two-thirds of the property owners. It prohibited
the sale of liquor on Sundays, except in hotels and clubs; but
this provision furnished a means of evasion which was speedily
brought into use. "Raines hotels" and "Raines Clubs," as they
were called, sprang into existence everywhere, sufficiently
answering the requirements of the law to escape its penalties.
These and other defects were considerably remedied by
amendments of the Act in April, 1897. It survived a powerful
attack in the Legislature at that time, the whole strength of
the leading cities in the State being brought against the law.
The country districts were generally united in supporting it,
partly on principle, and partly because of the extent to which
it lightened the burdens of taxation. By apportioning
two-thirds of the enormous revenue raised under the Act to the
towns, counties and cities in which it is collected, and
one-third to the state treasury, the Raines Law fortified
itself strongly in more than the moral sentiment of the
people. Under the Raines Law all local excise boards are
abolished, and the whole licensing and regulating of the
liquor traffic is placed under the supervision of a State
commissioner.
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1897.
The Black Civil Service Law.
See (in this volume)
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1897-1899.
{326}
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1898.
Primary Election Law.
An Act which aims to make the political party caucus for
nominating candidates, and for choosing delegates to
nominating conventions, a "primary election," conducted under
strict regulations of law and guarded by registration, was
passed by the New York State Legislature and signed by the
Governor March 23, 1898.
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1899.
New Civil Service Enactment.
See (in this volume)
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1897-1899.
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1899 (May).
Taxation of public franchises.
A measure of great importance, introducing a new and eminently
just principle in taxation, was carried through the
Legislature of New York in May, by the energetic influence of
Governor Roosevelt. Recommended by the Governor in a special
message on the 27th of March and passed in an unsatisfactory
form, a bill to provide for the taxing of public franchises
which did not promise successful working was being left on his
hands when the Legislature adjourned. He promptly called a
special session and renewed to it his urgent recommendations.
"I recommend," he said, "the enactment of a law which shall
tax all these franchises as realty, which shall provide for
the assessment of the tax by the Board of State Tax
Commissioners, and which shall further provide that from the
tax thus levied for the benefit of each locality, there shall
be deducted the tax as now paid by the corporation in
question. Furthermore, as the time for assessing the largest
and wealthiest corporations, those of New York and Buffalo,
has passed for this year, and as it will be preferable not to
have the small country corporations taxed before the larger
corporations of the city are taxed, I suggest that the
operations of the law be deferred until October 1, of this
year."
Within a few days, the desired bill was passed by both Houses
of the Legislature, signed by the Governor and became a law.
The public franchises to which it relates are defined in its
first section, as follows:
"The terms 'land,' 'real estate,' and 'real property,' as used
in this chapter, include the land itself above and under
water, all buildings and other articles and structures,
substructures, and superstructures, erected upon, under or
above, or affixed to the same; all wharves and piers,
including the value of the right to collect wharfage, cranage,
or dockage thereon; all bridges, all telegraph lines, wires,
poles, and appurtenances; all supports and inclosures for
electrical conductors and other appurtenances upon, above, and
underground; all surface, underground, or elevated railroads,
including the value of all franchises, rights, or permission
to construct, maintain, or operate the same in, under, above,
on, or through streets, highways, or public places; all
railroad structures, substructures, and superstructures,
tracks, and the iron thereon, branches, switches, and other
fixtures permitted or authorized to be made, laid, or placed
on, upon, above, or under any public or private road, street,
or grounds; all mains, pipes, and tanks laid or placed in,
upon, above, or under any public or private street or place
for conducting steam, heat, water, oil, electricity, or any
property, substance or product capable of transportation or
conveyance therein, or that is protected thereby, including
the value of all franchises, rights, authority, or permission
to construct, maintain, or operate in, under, above, upon, or
through any streets, highways, or public places, any mains,
pipes, tanks, conduits, or wires, with their appurtenances,
for conducting water, steam, heat, light, power, gas, oil, or
other substance, or electricity for telegraphic, telephonic,
or other purposes; all trees and underwood growing upon land,
and all mines, minerals, quarries, and fossils in and under
the same, except mines belonging to the state. A franchise,
right, authority, or permission, specified in this
subdivision, shall, for the purpose of taxation, be known as a
special franchise. A special franchise shall be deemed to
include the value of the tangible property of a person,
co-partnership, association, or corporation, situated in,
upon, under, or above any street, highway, public place, or
public waters in connection with the special franchise. The
tangible property so included shall be taxed as a part of the
special franchise."
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY:
The Hall of Fame for Great Americans.
See (in this volume)
HALL OF FAME.
----------NEW ZEALAND: Start--------
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1891-1900.
Democratic experiments.
Labor laws and the land system.
Compulsory industrial arbitration and its working.
"I have been a studious observer of every phase of social life
and legislative change that has taken place in this colony
during the past seven years," wrote U. S. Consul Connolly, at
Auckland, in July, 1896. "I arrived at the very beginning of
the experimental era—and it is no misnomer to call much of the
legislation of the past few years experimental in the truest
sense [see, also (in this volume), AUSTRALIA: RECENT
EXTENSIONS OF DEMOCRACY]. But while it is so, there is a most
gratifying feature which compensates for the violence done to
the feelings of those whose motto has been 'let us permit
matters to remain as they are, they suit us well enough.' That
the legislative innovations of the immediate past have shocked
the sensibilities of a large number of prominent and
well-to-do colonists is unquestionably true, but, at the same
time, as against any inconvenience they may have experienced
on this account, there is the fact of increased prosperity in
nearly every branch of trade and industrial life throughout
the country, farm products are fetching satisfactory prices,
manufacturing industries are running full time and paying good
wages and fair interest on the capital invested, labor is
remuneratively employed, interest on money has fallen from 6
and 7 per cent to 4 and 5 per cent (this of itself, is
sufficient to prove that money is abundant). Millions of
English capital are flowing in for the development of the gold
fields of the colony, and the credit of the country at no
period of its history stood so high on the English market as
it does to-day.
{327}
I may also mention that, through the genuine encouragement
given by the Government to the small-farmer class, the waste
lands of the country are being rapidly taken up wherever land
is found suitable for farming or grazing purposes.
Notwithstanding the admitted prosperity of the colony and the
fact that the Government have had a substantial surplus over
expenditure now for a number of years, the national debt
continues to increase. But the increased indebtedness is not
of the usual character, for the reason that the country has
security for nearly all the money borrowed in recent years.
Money had to be borrowed under Government guaranty to save the
Bank of New Zealand from closing its doors. This was done to
avert financial disaster. …
"Money has been borrowed to purchase large estates for the
purposes of settlement. Those who take up land under this
system, as already stated, pay an annual rental sufficient to
cover the interest on the purchase money and the cost of
administration. The land is always vested in the Government
and this must be regarded as a good asset. One million and a
Half sterling was borrowed last year in England at 3 per cent
per annum. This £1,500,000 loan is called the ' advances to
settlers loan.' This money is lent out to farmers at 4 per
cent per annum. … I need scarcely add that the large
landholders, the mortgage companies, and the money lenders
generally did not favor this kind of legislation, particularly
the cheap advances to settlers, but their opposition was utterly
futile. With the advent of the one-man-one-vote and the
extension of the franchise to women, the power of corporate
wealth in this country appears to have been irrevocably
destroyed. Whether this be for good or evil, I am not, of
course, in a position to say. I can say, however, that no ill
effects of the change are apparent up to the present; on the
contrary, the country is more prosperous and at least as
honestly and as economically administered as it was under the
old régime.
"To say that this country is, in my opinion, more truly
democratic than any country in the world would be merely
stating a simple truth; and to say that the present Government
is a workingman's Government is equally true. A great deal of
the legislation of recent years, however, is in advance of the
requirements and ideas of the people, with the result that
some of it has proved to be annoying and irksome to many. This
is especially true of some of the labor laws. The Government
are honestly endeavoring to place the masses in possession of
their legitimate rights with as little friction as possible,
and at the same time with due regard to vested interests and
the propriety of things generally. But while struggling thus
with the duties and responsibilities of their official
positions, the members of the Ministry are torn asunder by the
clamorous and impracticable demands of the unreasonable and
irresponsible. The sympathies of the Government are
unmistakably with the people, but the honor, the dignity, and
the welfare of the country will not permit them to depart from
a course too inconsistent with the sense of obligation, fair
dealing, integrity, and responsibility which are the admitted
characteristics and duty of all civilized governments. The
great danger at the present moment is too much legislation in
one direction. This is the one thing wherein the Government
find it really hard to resist the demands of organized labor.
There is, however, a very gratifying disposition manifesting
itself among the more reasonable members of the labor
societies to let well enough alone for the present—a
disposition it is much to be hoped may extend throughout the
whole body of the workers. If not, I have no hesitation in
predicting a serious revulsion of public sentiment and
sympathy within the next few years."
United States Consular Reports,
January, 1897, page 35.
"Australian experience seems in many ways to prove the value
of our system of written constitutions, to be construed and
enforced by the courts. The effect on the minds of
ill-informed legislators of the knowledge that they can do
anything for which they can get a majority, is naturally to
beget extravagance and an overweening sense of power, and lead
to excessive experimentation. … It is in devices for the
protection of labor that most of this experimentation occurs.
New Zealand affords the best example of it. It provides
elaborate legal protection for the eight-hour day. A workman
cannot consent to work overtime without extra pay. The state
sees that he gets the extra pay. It looks closely after the
condition of women and children in the factories. It sees that
servant girls are not overcharged by the registry offices for
getting them places. It prescribes one half-holiday a week for
all persons employed in stores and offices, and sees that they
take it. It will not allow even a shopkeeper who has no
employees to dispense with his half-holiday; because if he
does not take it, his competition will injure those who do.
The 'labor department' of the government has an army of
inspectors, who keep a close watch on stores and factories,
and prosecute violations of the law which they themselves
discover. They do not wait for complaints; they ferret out
infractions, so that the laborer may not have to prejudice
himself by making charges. The department publishes a
'journal' once a month, which gives detailed reports of the
condition of the labor market in all parts of the colony, and
of the prosecutions which have taken place anywhere of
employers who have violated the law. It provides insurance for
old age and early death, and guarantees every policy. It gives
larger policies for lower premiums than any of the private
offices, and depreciates the private offices in its documents.
It distributes the profits of its business as bonuses among the
policy-holders, and keeps a separate account for teetotalers,
so that they may get special advantages from their abstinence.
The 'journal' is, in fact, in a certain sense a labor manual,
in which everything pertaining to the comfort of labor is
freely discussed. The poor accommodation provided for servants
in hotels and restaurants is deplored, and so is the
difficulty which middle-aged men have in finding employment.
More attention to the morals and manners of nursemaids is
recommended. All the little dodges of employers are exposed
and punished. If they keep the factory door fastened, they are
fined. If housekeepers pretend that their servants are
lodgers, and therefore not liable to a compulsory
half-holiday, they are fined. If manufacturers are caught
allowing girls to take their meals in a workshop, they are
fined.
{328}
"As far as I can make out, too, without visiting the country,
there is as yet no sign of reaction against this minute
paternal care of the laborer. The tendency to use the powers
of the government chiefly for the promotion of the comfort of
the working classes, whether in the matter of land settlement,
education, or employment, seems to undergo no diminution. The
only thing which has ceased, or slackened, is the borrowing of
money for improvements. The results of this borrowing have
been so disastrous that the present generation, at least, will
hardly try that experiment again."
E. L. Godkin,
The Australian Democracy
(Atlantic Monthly, March, 1898).
NEW ZEALAND:
Labor Laws.
Compulsory industrial arbitration.
"There is not in any other country in the world a more
valuable or more enlightened body of Labour laws than those
now upon the statute book of this progressive colony. They
cover almost every risk to life, limb, health, and interest of
the industrial classes. They send the law, as it were,
everywhere a worker is employed for daily wages to fling the
shield of the state over him or her in the labour of
livelihood. The bare enumeration of these laws will indicate
the far-reaching ground they cover:—The Coal Mines Act, the
Master and Apprentices Act, the Conspiracy Law Amendment Act,
the Trade Union Act, the Servant's Registry Offices Act (for
the protection of servant girls against the risks of dishonest
offices of that kind), Contractors and Workmen's Lien Act,
three amended Employer's Liability Acts, three amended
Shipping and Seamen's Acts, two Shops and Shop-assistants
Acts, the Factories Act, and the Industrial Conciliation and
Arbitration Act of 1894. … The Industrial Conciliation and
Arbitration Act, passed in 1894 … has attracted much attention
outside New Zealand. An Act with a similar purpose, but
permissive in its operations, was passed … in the New South
Wales Legislature in 1892. It was limited in duration to four
years, and was not a success. The New Zealand bill was more
skilfully drawn, and, possessing the element of a gentle
compulsion, has so far achieved its aim. The Act begins by
inviting all parties to join 'in lawful association for the
purpose of protecting or furthering the interests of employers
or workmen in, or in connection with, any industry in the
colony.' Such parties as accept the legal invitation are
allowed to register themselves as 'an industrial union,' and
this step once taken they are enticed on through a network of
solicitations, provisions, and safeguards, until they find
themselves, almost without knowing it, agreeing to everything
that follows. Trades Unions, or any other labour organization,
or any combination of employers, can register as individual
bodies without a mixed association of workers and employers.
Once registered, they are in the network of arbitration:—'The
effect of registration shall be to render the industrial
union, and all persons who may be members of any society or
trade union, so registered as an industrial union at the time
of registration, or who after such registration may become
members of any society or trade union so registered, subject
to the jurisdiction by this Act given to a Board and the Court
respectively, and liable to all the provisions of this Act,
and all such persons shall be bound by the rules of the
industrial union during the continuance of the membership.' …
'Every industrial agreement duly made and executed shall be
binding on the parties thereto, and on every person who at any
time during the term of such agreement is a member of any
industrial union, trade union, or association party thereto,
and on every employer who shall in the prescribed manner
signify to the Registrar of the Supreme Court where such
agreement is filed concurrence therein, and every such
employer shall be entitled to the benefit thereof, and be
deemed to be a party thereto.' … 'In and for every district
there shall be established a Board of Conciliation, to have
jurisdiction for the settlement of industrial disputes
occurring in such district, which may be referred to it by one
or more of the parties to an industrial dispute, or by
industrial agreement.' … 'Every Board shall consist of such
equal number of persons as the Governor may determine, being
not more than six nor less than four persons, who shall be
chosen by the industrial unions of employers and of workmen in
the industrial district respectively, such unions voting
separately, and electing an equal number of such members.' …
Should this body itself be unable to come to a satisfactory
decision it may refer the matter in question to a small
committee of its members fairly representing each side. If a
settlement or reconciliation be unattainable in this way,
either party to the dispute can appeal to the Court of
Arbitration, which is constituted as follows:—'There shall be
one Court of Arbitration for the whole colony for the
settlement of industrial disputes pursuant to this Act. … The
Court shall consist of three members to be appointed by the
Governor, one to be so appointed on the recommendation of the
councils or a majority of the councils of the industrial
associations of workmen in the colony, and one to be so
appointed on the recommendation of the councils or a majority
of the councils of the industrial associations of employers of
the colony.' … 'No recommendation shall be made as to the
third member, who shall be a Judge of the Supreme Court, and
shall be appointed from time to time by the Governor, and
shall be President of the Court.'"
M. Davitt,
Life and Progress in Australasia,
chapter 68.
Honorable W. P. Reeves, lately Agent-General of New Zealand in
England, but who was Minister of Education and Labor in New
Zealand from 1891 to 1896, and who is looked upon as the
principal author of the industrial arbitration laws in that
colony, wrote, during the summer of 1900, on the working of
those laws, in an article contributed to the "London Express,"
as follows:
"The arbitration law has been in constant use in New Zealand
for about four years and a half. During those years there has
never been a time when there has not been a dispute pending
before one or other of the Conciliation Boards or the Central
Arbitration Court. Writing, as I do, at some distance from
London, I cannot say from memory what the exact number of
disputes finally adjusted has been; but, so far, they cannot
be less than sixty or seventy. Most of these have been
carried, on appeal from some Conciliation Board, to the
Arbitration Court and settled there. In about two cases out of
seven the Conciliation Boards have been able successfully to
arrange the disputes. Even where they have not done so, it by
no means follows that their labors have been useless. Very
often the appeal to the Arbitration Court is merely on one or
two points out of many involved, and the advice of the
Conciliation Board is accepted on the others. Often, too, most
of the parties to a dispute have been ready to accept a board's
suggestions, but it has needed the firm hand of the
Arbitration Court to bring one or two stubborn men to
acquiescence.
{329}
"The process may be tedious, but it is not costly. Lawyers are
not employed as counsel before either the boards or the court
unless all parties to the action agree thereto, and they very
seldom do agree. A firm of employers may appear by a manager
or accredited representative, a trade union is usually
represented by its Secretary or other official. During the
hearing, of course, the factories concerned remain open, and
work goes on as usual. Employers are secured not only against
a dead stop of business, but against the meaner kinds of
competition of undercutting rivals. In the organized trades
all the shops of a district have to keep the same hours and
pay the same wages. No man may filch trade from a neighbor by
sweating his own people. The fair-minded employer now knows
where he is, and is freed from many anxieties.
"For six years there has virtually been neither strike nor
lockout in New Zealand. All these, except the first, have been
years of remarkable and increasing prosperity. During the time
of depression which came before them, wages had fallen. With
improving times employers would have been faced by resolute
demands from trade unions for a return to former high rates of
pay, and had there been no arbitration system in working order
a series of very bitter conflicts must have ensued. This has
been avoided. Workmen and workwomen have gained notable
advances of pay, and also improved conditions as to hours of
labor and otherwise. But this has come about gradually, and
only after careful and painstaking inquiry. Many of the
demands of labor have been refused; many more have been
modified. In no case has an industry been throttled or
crippled. Not only can we claim that no factory has been
closed for a single day in New Zealand by labor war, but we
can claim that the peace thus obtained has not been bought at
the dear price of hampered industry and discouraged
enterprise.
"When the Arbitration act came into operation the number of
hands returned as employed in the registered factories was
about 26,000. It is now not far short of 50,000. A percentage
of this striking increase may be due to more thorough
registration. Far the larger part of it represents an actual
increase of industry. During these years the imports and
exports of the colony have grown apace. The revenue received
from the customs, from the income tax, from the stamps, and
the railways has risen in each case rapidly. Employment from
being scarce has grown plentiful. Building has been brisk in
all centres of population. The marriage rate has gone up. In a
word, New Zealand shows all the signs which we connect with a
highly prosperous country. It would be too much to claim that
this is chiefly due to the working of the Arbitration act. It
is perfectly fair, however, to claim that the Arbitration act
and the improved condition of labor, and of confidence which
it has brought about, have had some share in leading up to
this happy state of things.
"It is frequently asked, How could you possibly enforce an
award of the Arbitration Court upon an employer or a union
stubbornly determined to go to all lengths rather than obey
it? In the first place, for nearly five years the law has been
in constant use without a single exhibition of this desperate
resistance. That alone should be evidence of some weight that
such a duel is not likely in a British community. It is quite
true that an employer could go out of business rather than
obey an award, and that the court could not prevent him from
doing so. But employers are not given to ruining themselves
merely because they may not like the decision of an impartial
tribunal. It is suggested that the decision itself might be
ruinous. There need be no fear of that. Experience has shown
that if arbitrators err at all it is almost invariably in the
direction of overcaution. They may show too great a desire to
'split the difference'; they are not in the least likely to
impose intolerable conditions either upon masters or men. An
employer who has the choice between accepting a legal decision
arrived at after painstaking inquiry, and being taken into
court and fined, will almost always accept the decision. In a
very few cases he may run the risk of being fined once, but he
will not lay himself open to a second penalty. That is the New
Zealand experience.
"On the other hand, it has been flatly declared that the court
cannot coerce trade unions. Vivid pictures have been painted
of the tragic absurdity of endeavoring to collect fines from
trade unionists by distraining on the goods of poor workmen
whose union is without funds, and who are themselves
penniless. The answer to that is that poverty-stricken unions,
composed of penniless workers, are only too thankful to accept
the decision of a State tribunal. They cannot strike against a
powerful employer; much less can they hope to starve out a
court of arbitration. Its decision may not altogether please
them, but it is all they are likely to get. The Arbitration
Court, therefore, is as potent to deal with trade unions as
with employers. Wealthy unions it can fine. Penniless unions
are helpless to fight it. Finally, at its back is the mighty
force of public opinion, which is sick of labor wars and
determined that the experiment of judicial adjustment shall
have a full and fair trial."
The full text of the New Zealand "Industrial Conciliation and
Arbitration Act" is published in pamphlet form by the United
States Department of Labor, and appeared also in one of the
Bulletins of the Department, in 1900.
NEW ZEALAND:
Land system.
"The Crown lands of New Zealand are administered under 'the
land act, 1892,' and the regulations made thereunder. The
distinguishing features of the present land system are the
outcome of ideas which have been gradually coming to maturity
for some years past in this colony. These features involve the
principle of State ownership of the soil, with a perpetual
tenancy in the occupier. This, whatever may be the difference
in detail, is the prevailing characteristic of the several
systems under which land may now be selected. In New Zealand,
this tendency to State ownership has taken a more pronounced
form than in any other of the Australasian colonies, and the
duration of the leases has become so extended as to warrant
the name, frequently given to them, of 'everlasting leases.'
In point of fact, most of the Crown lands are now disposed of
for terms of 999 years. The rentals are based on the assessed
value of the land at the time of disposal, without increase or
recurring valuations.
{330}
Under this system there is a fixity of tenure practically
equal to freehold, and which, like freehold, necessarily
carries with it the power of sale, sub-lease, mortgage, or
disposition by will. Since all lands held under the Crown 'by
lease in perpetuity' are subject to the land tax, the
necessity for the periodical revaluations under the
perpetual-lease system is done away with, the State reaping
the advantage of the unearned increment through the
before-mentioned tax. At the same time, the improvements made
in the soil by cultivation, etc., are secured to the tenant.
"The advantages of this system to the selector are manifest.
When it is taken into consideration that, with few exceptions,
the Crown lands are, in their prairie condition, incapable of
producing anything until brought into cultivation, the
advantage to the settler of setting free his capital to
develop the capabilities of the soil, rather than having to
expend it in the purchase of a freehold, is very apparent. One
of the most striking benefits of this system is the advantage
it gives to the poor man, who, with little more capital than
his strong right arm, is enabled to make a home for himself,
which, under the freehold system, he is frequently unable to
accomplish. The values placed on the Crown lands are, as a
rule, low, for the State does not so much seek to raise a
revenue directly therefrom as to encourage the occupation of
the lands by the people; this secures indirectly an increased
revenue, besides other advantages, resulting from a numerous
rural population.
"Again, underlying the whole of the New Zealand land system is
a further application of the principle of 'the land for the
people,' viz, the restriction in area which any man may hold.
This subject has been forced upon the attention of the
legislature by defects in former systems, under which one
individual with means at his command could appropriate large
areas, to the exclusion of his poorer fellow-settler. Under
conditions where the price at which the land is offered is
fixed and where choice of selection is by ballot, the poor
settler has the same chance as the rich one and may, should he
wish it, hold as much land. The limit that a selector may hold
is so fixed as to encourage the class of small farmers, and up to
that limit the amount he may select is left entirely to
himself. The act defines the amount of land anyone may select
at 640 acres of first-class or 2,000 acres of second-class
land, inclusive of any land he may already hold. These limits
apply to lands which are thrown open for 'free selection,' as
it is termed, but in some cases, where found desirable, the
limit is by regulation made much smaller.
"In addition to the many advantages offered by the
'lease-in-perpetuity' system, the land act provides others to
meet the wants of different classes. The rule is almost
invariable that land thrown open for so-called 'free
selection' is offered to the public under three different
tenures, and the choice left entirely to the would-be settler.
The three tenures are:
(1) For cash, in which one-fourth of the purchase-money is
paid down at once, and the remainder within thirty days. The
title does not issue until certain improvements have been made
on the land.
(2) Lease with a purchasing clause, at a 5-per-cent rental on
the value of the land; the lease being for twenty-five years,
with the right to purchase at the original upset price at any
time after the first ten years.
(3) Lease in perpetuity, at a rental of 4 per cent on the
capital value, as already described above.
"The present [1895] land laws have been in force since the 1st
of November, 1892, and, therefore, the returns of the
Department of Lands and Survey for the year ending the 31st of
March, 1895, will give a fair idea of the proportions in which
lands are selected under the three tenures above described
during the past two and a half years. The figures given below
include the 'special settlements,' all of which must by law be
held on lease in perpetuity:
(1) Selected for cash, 1,542; area, 110,570 acres.
(2) Occupation with right of purchase, 1,060; area, 236,270
acres.
(3) Lease in perpetuity, 3,224; area, 634,086 acres.
"'The land act, 1892,' provides for a special class of
settlement, which has found favor with the public to a very
considerable extent during the last two years. This is known
as the 'small-farm association' system. It provides that,
where not less than twelve individuals have associated
themselves together for mutual help, such an association can,
with the approval of the Minister of Lands, select a block of
land of not more than 11,000 acres, but there must be a
selector to each 200 acres in the block. The extreme limit
that one person may hold is fixed at 320 acres. Settlements of
this class are held on 'lease in perpetuity' for 999 years, in
the same way as lands under the same tenure when thrown open
for free selection. The conditions of residence and
improvements are the same."
S. Percy Smith,
in New Zealand Official Year-Book, 1895
(reprinted in United States Consular Reports,
January, 1897, page 4).
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1899.
Old-Age Pension Act.
In the winter of 1899 an old-age pension act was added to the
radical legislation of New Zealand. The Agent-General for New
Zealand in England has described the measure in a review
article, as follows: "As finally licked into shape, the act is
one for giving a small pension to the poorest section of aged
colonists without any contribution on their part whatever.
Briefly summarized, its effect will be that any New
Zealander—man or woman—who has come to the age of sixty-five,
after living not less than twenty-five years in New Zealand,
shall be entitled to 6s. 11d. a week, or £18 a year. The full
pension is to be paid to those whose income from any source is
less than £34. When the private income is above £34 a year £1
is deducted from the pension for every £1 of such excess
income. When, therefore, the private income is large enough to
be £18 a year in excess of £34 no state pension is paid. In
other words, no one who has an income of £52 a year is
entitled to even a fraction of the pension. A rather more
elaborate portion of the act deals with deductions to be made
from the pension where the applicant for it is possessed of
accumulated property. Under this the applicant's real and
personal property are assessed, and his debts, if any, are
subtracted from the total value thereof. Then he is allowed to
own £325 without suffering any deduction therefor. After that
he loses £1 of pension for every £15 worth of accumulated
property. The result is that any one possessed of £600 worth
of accumulated property ceases to be entitled to any allowance
whatever. Men and women are equally entitled to the pension, and
where a husband and wife are living together their property or
income is divided by two for the purpose of the calculations
above mentioned. That is to say, their united income must
amount to £104 or their united property to £1,200 before they
are altogether disentitled to any part of the pension. They
may have, between them, an income of £68, or as much as £650
of property, and yet be entitled to draw their respective
pensions in full."
{331}
The government is only authorized to pay the required amounts
during three years from the passage of the Act, after which
Parliament will have to decide on its continuance or
amendment. Mr. Reeves expects that "the opposition will, more
or less in unison, submit a rival old-age pension scheme to
the constituencies. One of their prominent members, Mr. George
Hutchison, indicated in the debate on the third reading of the
measure scheme which some think will be generally adopted by
his party. This is to draw a distinction between the older
poor of the colony now living and the younger generation of
colonists. All now over fifty years of age are to be permitted
as they attain sixty-five to take advantage of Mr. Seddon's
act without let or hindrance. But for the younger people a
contributory scheme is to be drawn up, under which they would
have to pay some such sum as sixpence a week, to go in aid of
a substantial pension in their old age. Whatever may be
thought of the economic merits of such a scheme, it might
conceivably be expected at election-time to disarm the
hostility of the aged poor to any such interference with their
prospects under the present system as would be entailed by a
complete repeal of the Seddon act."
National Review, February, 1899.
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1900 (March).
Looking towards federation with Australia.
New Zealand did not take part in the movements which led to
the federation of the Australian colonies in the Commonwealth
of Australia, but watched them with evident interest and a
final wakening of inclination to be joined in union with them.
When the Act of the Imperial Parliament "to constitute the
Commonwealth of Australia" was under discussion in England
(see, in this volume, AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1900), the
Agent-General for New Zealand in London addressed to the
Colonial Office (March 30, 1900) the following Memorandum,
which explains the attitude of that colony towards the
federation movement in Australia: "The Government of New
Zealand desires to secure the insertion of certain amendments
in the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Bill shortly to
be laid before the Imperial Parliament. These amendments are
three in number. The first of them is, in effect, that New
Zealand should preserve the right of joining the proposed
Commonwealth of Australia on the same terms as the original
States now about to be united in such Commonwealth. The second
is, that while New Zealand remains outside the Commonwealth,
litigants in her higher Courts, though reserving the right
they now possess to appeal to the Queen in Council, should, as
an alternative, have the right to appeal to the High Court of
Australia on paying the fees and complying with the rules of
that tribunal. The third amendment is, that the Australian
Commonwealth and the Colony of New Zealand should be empowered
to make the necessary arrangements to employ their naval and
military forces for mutual aid and defence, including
operations outside their own boundaries, and for that purpose
to co-operate in forming a homogeneous Australasian force.
"The importance of the first amendment to New Zealand is
great. The Colony is divided from Australia by 1,200 miles of
unbroken sea. It still takes from four to five days for
persons quitting New Zealand to reach any port in Australia.
Though a large and valuable trade is carried on between the
two countries, and though New Zealand is linked to Australia,
not merely by financial ties, but by bonds of intercourse,
cordial friendship, and sympathy, she has also vital and
separate interests. Many, also, of the leading matters on
which the discussions on Federation in Australia during the
last 12 years have turned are topics with which the New
Zealand people is almost unacquainted. It is therefore only to
be expected that the Colony should watch the Federal movement
with caution and reserve. It is also true that, until June of
last year, New Zealand was unable to judge as to the
intentions of the great Colony of New South Wales with regard
to the Commonwealth Bill. It was not until the month of
September that Queensland decided to enter the Commonwealth;
Western Australia has not even yet done so. And it was
directly after the decision of Queensland had become known
that, in response to a request from Sir John Forrest, the
leading statesmen of Australia intimated that, in their
opinion, it was impossible to consider any further amendments
of the Commonwealth Bill. From that moment the only course
left open to New Zealand has been that now taken. About that
time there appeared in New Zealand evidences of the growth of
a feeling in the Colony in favour of a closer union with
Australia. This was on the eve of the general elections, and
Mr. Seddon, the Prime Minister, then defined his position,
stating that the future relations of New Zealand with
Australia were a matter for education and careful examination:
that for himself he kept an open mind, but that prudent
deliberation was advisable. At the general elections which
took place in December last, Mr. Seddon was returned to power
with an unusually large majority. It may therefore very safely
be assumed that this cautious but not hostile attitude fairly
represents the present view of the people of the Colony. Some
stress may be laid on the foregoing facts in view of the
possible objection that New Zealand's action now comes too
late. The Colony virtually asks that, in view of its position
of distance and difficulty, it should have more time given it
to make up its mind than has been found necessary by colonies
which are contiguous or almost so. If it should be proposed to
fix a limit of time to this, that would clearly be a matter
for reasonable consideration.
"In so far as the second amendment would give certain New
Zealand litigants a right of resort to the High Court of
Australia, it is scarcely likely to meet with objection in
Australia unless on the general ground that no amendment
whatever of the Commonwealth Bill is now desirable. In the
event of the amendment being admitted, it is obvious that
certain precautions might have to be taken to conserve the
existing rights of New Zealand litigants, and also to prevent
clashing of appeals, but doubtless these could be provided
for. The third amendment, that providing for a species of
partial federation for purposes of defence and mutual
assistance, seems not only desirable but unobjectionable in
every way.
{332}
It does not propose that any kind of compulsion should be
applied to either the Commonwealth or New Zealand: it merely
empowers them to make such arrangements as may be deemed
mutually advantageous. At present it seems more than doubtful
whether either the Commonwealth or the Colony has the power to
make simple, binding and effective arrangements which would
involve operations and expenditure outside their own
boundaries, and under which each would have to act so as to
affect colonists not subject to their respective
jurisdictions. Recent events have clearly shown that the time
has passed by for regarding the military forces of a colony as
something never to be employed outside of its own boundaries. I
need not point out that such a co-operation would be of value
not only to Australia and New Zealand, but to the Empire which
both are so anxious to serve."
The reply of the Colonial Office to this Memorandum set forth
that its suggestions had been submitted to the delegates of
the federating colonies and did not meet their approval. "They
pointed out that during the period of grace proposed to be
allowed circumstances might arise which would cause grave
embarrassment to the Commonwealth if it were open to New
Zealand to claim admission on the same terms as the original
States, and that Article 121 of the draft Bill provided
sufficiently for the admission of New Zealand at any time upon
such conditions as might be found mutually acceptable to the
Colony and the Commonwealth." It was added that "the suggested
amendments as to the appeal from New Zealand Courts to the
High Court of Australia, and the arrangements for mutual
defence, would, if undertaken now, lead to great delay, and
involve a fresh referendum to the people of the Federating
Colonies, while there does not appear to be any probability
that the Federation would not favourably entertain any
proposals of the kind, if put forward after Federation."
In the Constitution Act as passed, however, New Zealand is
mentioned specifically among the "States" to which its
provisions may apply, though not included in what relates to
the "Original States."
See (in this volume)
CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRALIA.
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command:
Cd. 158, 1900, pages 30-31, and 51).
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1900 (October).
Annexation of the Cook Islands.
A correspondent of the "London Times," writing from Rarotonga,
the largest of the Cook (or Hervey) Islands, on the 10th of
October, 1900, reported the arrival there of the Earl of
Ranfurly, Governor of New Zealand, for the purpose of
effecting the annexation of the islands to that colony, in
accordance with the expressed wish of the natives. "Lord
Ranfurly," he writes, "landed this morning, and, as the
representative of her Majesty, addressed the Arikis, or high
chiefs, on the question of annexation, for which they had
asked. This is his second visit to the island, and he
congratulated the people on now finding such a satisfactory
condition of affairs in Rarotonga. He expressed pleasure at
their liberality in subscribing so large a sum of money for
the relief of those families who, in the fortunes of the war
in South Africa, might lose their main support, and in sending
one of their representative residents to represent them on the
field of battle. All this and much more about the interest
they took in the British Empire the Queen was aware of, and
their petition for annexation had been laid at the foot of the
Throne and duly considered. He urged them, however, to
consider carefully their decision in this matter, and,
further, that it should be arrived at of their own free and
untrammelled will. He had heard from the British Resident that
the high chiefs and all the people wanted annexation, but he
wished to hear it from their own lips. It would then remain
but for them to perform the act of cession to her Majesty, and
for him formally to annex the group, hoisting the British
flag, and proclaiming that from henceforth they were part of
the British Empire whose prestige and honour they would from
that moment share. The high chiefs unanimously agreed to
annexation. … There are 2,300 Maoris on this island and 70
Europeans. All are intensely loyal to Queen Victoria. The
island was discovered in 1823 by Messrs. Williams and Bourne,
two officers of the London Mission Society, which for many
years has had its headquarters for the Eastern Pacific located
here. The volcanic soil of the island is marvellously fertile,
coffee, cocoa, cotton, oranges, limes, cocoanuts and many
other tropic fruits and trees growing without almost any
cultivation. A British protectorate was declared over the
group by Captain Bourke, of H. M. S. Hyacinth, in 1888. Since
1892 the interests of the protectorate have been guarded and
directed by a British Resident, paid by the New Zealand
Government, so that the islands will now probably be included
within the boundaries of that colony. Nearly the whole of the
trade is with New Zealand. There are six islands in the group
annexed [700 miles southeast of Samoa] the total population of
which is about 4,500." The "Times," commenting on the
annexation, remarked: "The New Zealand Legislature has passed
resolutions expressing its desire that the Suwaroff Island, to
the north of the Cook group and about half-way to the Penrhyn
group, should also be annexed to the colony. This island,
although thinly inhabited, is said to possess one of the best
ports in that part of the Pacific. The only quarter from which
any protest against the acquisition of the Cook Islands has
come so far seems to be New South Wales, which fears the
influence of the introduction of the New Zealand tariff on its
trade with that place."
----------NEW ZEALAND: End--------
NIAGARA, Electric power at.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: ELECTRICAL.
NICARAGUA.
Nicaragua Canal.
See (in this volume)
CENTRAL AMERICA; also,
CANAL, INTEROCEANIC; and
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899-1901.
NICHOLAS II. OF RUSSIA:
Coronation.
See (in this volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1896 (MAY-JUNE).
NICHOLSON'S NEK, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
NIFFER,
NUFFAR, Explorations at.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.
{333}
NIGERIA: A. D. 1882-1899.
History of the formation of the Niger Coast Protectorate.
Conventions of Great Britain with Germany and France.
Settlement of the boundary of the French Sudan and
Sahara Sphere.
The following "Notes on the Niger Districts and Niger Coast
Protectorates, 1882-1893," tracing the several steps by which
the existing Protectorate was formed, appear in a paper
"presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her
Majesty, 1899 (C.—9372)":
"In 1882 a Company, entitled the 'National African Company,
Limited,' was formed to take over the business of the 'United
Africa Company, Limited,' in Central Africa and in the Niger
Regions. In October, 1884, the Company purchased the business
and objects of the 'Compagnie Française de l'Afrique
Equatoriale.' In the same year various treaties were concluded
between Consul Hewett and native chiefs of the Niger Districts,
by which these territories were placed under British
protection. On the 26th February, 1885, the General Act of the
Berlin Conference was signed, Chapter V. of which contained an
'Act of Navigation for the Niger,' which applied, generally,
to the Niger and its affluents the free navigation articles of
the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna of 1815. In
April-June, 1885, the British and German Governments entered
into an Agreement, by an exchange of Notes, defining their
respective spheres of action in the Gulf of Guinea. By this
Agreement Germany engaged not to make acquisition, accept
Protectorates, or interfere with the extension of British
influence in that part of the Gulf of Guinea lying between the
right river bank of the mouth of the Rio del Rey entering the
sea between 8° 42' and 8° 46' longitude east of Greenwich and
the British colony of Lagos, nor in the interior, to west of a
line following the right river bank of the Rio del Rey from
the said mouth to its source, thence striking direct to the
left river bank of the Old Calabar or Cross River, and
terminating, after crossing that river, at the point about 9°
8' of longitude east of Greenwich, marked 'Rapids' on the
English Admiralty chart.
"On the 5th June, 1885, a Notification was inserted in the
'London Gazette' to the effect that a British Protectorate had
been established over the Niger Districts; the territories
comprised within the Protectorate were defined to be—the line
of coast between the British Protectorate of Lagos, and the
right or western bank of the mouth of the Rio del Rey; and
also the territories on both banks of the Niger, from its
confluence with the River Benué at Lukoja to the sea, as well
as the territories on both banks of the River Benué, from the
confluence up to and including Ibi. On the 10th July, 1886, a
Royal Charter was granted to the 'National African Company,
Limited.' In July-August, 1886, a Supplementary Agreement was
entered into between the British and German Governments
defining their respective spheres of action in the Gulf of
Guinea from the Rio del Rey to a point to the east and near to
Yola. On the 18th October, 1887, another Notification was
inserted in the 'London Gazette,' in which it was stated that
the British Protectorate of the Niger Districts then comprised
the following territories:—On the line of coast between the
British Protectorate of Lagos and the right or western river
bank of the mouth of the Rio del Rey, and all territories in
the basin of the Niger and its affluents, which were or might
be for the time being subject to the government of the
'National African Company, Limited' (then called the 'Royal
Niger Company'), in accordance with the provisions of the
Charter of the said Company, dated 10th July, 1886.
"On the 5th August, 1890, a Declaration was signed by the
British and French Governments, which contained the following
clause:—'The Government of Her Britannic Majesty recognises
the sphere of influence of France to the south of her
Mediterranean Possessions up to a line from Say on the Niger
to Barrawa on Lake Tchad, drawn in such manner as to comprise
in the sphere of action of the Niger Company all that fairly
belongs to the kingdom of Sokoto; the line to be determined by
Commissioners to be appointed.' On the 1st July, 1890, another
Agreement was entered into between the British and German
Governments defining their spheres of influence in the Gulf of
Guinea and in other parts of Africa. On the 18th June, 1892,
that portion of the Niger Protectorate which lies on, or to
the north of, the 7 degree of north latitude was, by
notification to the Signatory Powers of the Brussels Act,
placed under the terms of Article 91 of that Act, within the
zone of prohibition of alcoholic liquors. On the 14th April,
1893, an agreement was signed between the British and German
Governments, in which it was declared that the right bank of
the Rio del Rey waterway should be the boundary between the
Oil Rivers Protectorate and the Colony of the Cameroons.
"On the 13th May, 1893, a Notification was inserted in the
'London Gazette,' announcing that the portion of the British
Protectorate of the Niger Districts which was under the
administration of Her Majesty's Commissioner and Consul would,
from the date of that Notification, be administered under the
name of the 'Niger Coast Protectorate,' and would cease to be
known as the 'Oil Rivers Protectorate.' And on the 15th
November, 1893, a further Agreement was signed between the
British and German Governments defining the boundary between
their respective spheres of influence in the region extending
from the Rio del Rey to 'a point to the east of, and close to
Yola,' and on Lake Chad.
"Between 1884 and 1893 numerous Treaties were concluded by the
National Africa Company and by the Royal Niger Company with
native Chiefs and others possessing territories in the basin
of the Niger districts, by which they engaged to make no
cession of territory or to enter into any Treaty negotiations
with Foreign States without the previous consent of the
British Government, and in return for which they were placed
under British protection."
Great Britain,
Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command, C.—9372).
{334}
In October, 1897, after a number of threatening collisions
between English and French claims and undertakings had
occurred in the Niger region, representatives of the two
nations met in Paris to negotiate an agreement concerning
boundaries. The result of their work was embodied in a
convention signed June 14, 1898, but not ratified by both
governments until June 13, 1899. By this agreement, the
frontiers separating the British colony of the Gold Coast from
the French colonies of the Ivory Coast and Sudan, and the British
colony of Lagos from the French colony of Dahomey, were
defined with precision, and the British and French possessions
east of the Niger were then in the IVth article of the
Convention, delimited as follows: Starting from a point on the
left bank of the Niger which is fixed by the median line of
the Dallul Mauri at its mouth, "the frontier shall follow this
median line until it meets the circumference of a circle drawn
from the centre of the town of Sokoto with a radius of 100
miles (160,932 metres). From this point it shall follow the
northern are of this circle as far as its second intersection
with the 14th parallel of north latitude. From this second
point of intersection it shall follow this parallel eastward
for a distance of 70 miles (112,652 metres); then proceed due
south until it reaches the parallel of 13° 20' north latitude,
then eastward along this parallel for a distance of 250 miles
(402,230 metres); then due north until it regains the 14th
parallel of north latitude; then eastwards along this parallel
as far as its intersection with the meridian passing 35° east
of the centre of the town of Kuka, and thence this meridian
southward until its intersection with the southern shore of
Lake Chad. The Government of the French Republic recognizes,
as falling within the British sphere, the territory to the
east of the Niger, comprised within the above-mentioned line,
the Anglo-German frontier, and the sea. The Government of Her
Britannic Majesty recognizes, as falling within the French
sphere, the northern, eastern, and southern shores of Lake
Chad, which are comprised between the point of intersection of
the 14th degree of north latitude, with the western shore of
the lake and the point of incidence on the shore of the lake
of the frontier determined by the Franco-German Convention of
the 15th March, 1894."
On the 21st of March, 1899, the following Declaration was
added to the Convention, and ratified with it in the following
June: "The IVth Article of the Convention of the 14th June,
1898, shall be completed by the following provisions, which
shall be considered as forming an integral part of it:
"1. Her Britannic Majesty's Government engages not to acquire
either territory or political influence to the west of the
line of frontier defined in the following paragraph, and the
Government of the French Republic engages not to acquire
either territory or political influence to the east of the
same line.
"2. The line of frontier shall start from the point where the
boundary between the Congo Free State and French territory
meets the water-parting between the watershed of the Nile and
that of the Congo and its affluents. It shall follow in
principle that water-parting up to its intersection with the
11th parallel of north latitude. From this point it shall be
drawn as far as the 15th parallel in such manner as to
separate, in principle, the Kingdom of Wadai from what
constituted in 1882 the Province of Darfur; but it shall in no
case be so drawn as to pass to the west beyond the 21st degree
of longitude east of Greenwich (18° 40' east of Paris), or to
the east beyond the 23rd degree of longitude east of Greenwich
(20° 40' east of Paris).
"3. It is understood, in principle, that to the north of the
15th parallel the French zone shall be limited to the
northeast and east by a line which shall start from the point
of intersection of the Tropic of Cancer with the 16th degree
of longitude east of Greenwich (13° 40' east of Paris), shall
run thence to the southeast until it meets the 24th degree of
longitude east of Greenwich (21° 40' east of Paris), and shall
then follow the 24th degree until it meets, to the north of
the 15th parallel of latitude, the frontier of Darfur as it
shall eventually be fixed.
"4. The two Governments engage to appoint Commissioners who
shall be charged to delimit on the spot a frontier-line in
accordance with the indications given in paragraph 2 of this
Declaration. The result of their work shall be submitted for
the approbation of their respective Governments.
"It is agreed that the provisions of Article IX of the
Convention of the 14th June, 1898, shall apply equally to the
territories situated to the south of the 14° 20' parallel of
north latitude, and to the north of the 5th parallel of north
latitude, between the 14° 20' meridian of longitude east of
Greenwich (12th degree east of Paris) and the course of the
Upper Nile."
Great Britain,
Papers by Command: Treaty Series, Number 15, 1899.
Of the territorial partition in West Africa which this
important treaty as first signed in 1898 determined, and of
the magnitude of the empire which it conceded to France, a
striking English view was given at the time in the following
article:
"Though we are perfectly satisfied with the agreement, and
though we believe that the country as a whole will be
perfectly satisfied, we do not disguise from ourselves the
fact that under the Convention France receives the full
title-deeds for the most magnificent piece of empire obtained
this century by any European Power,—a dominion which, though
'in partibus infidelium,' is yet within easy reach of both the
western and the southern shores of France. We do not grudge
France the great possession that was finally rounded off and
consolidated on Tuesday; nay, rather we are glad to see it in
her hands, for we want monopoly neither in trade nor in
empire. We see, however, no good in pretending that she has
not obtained the most magnificent opportunity for over-sea
development which has fallen to any Power within recent times.
The best way of understanding the Convention is to realise
what it is that France now possesses in West Africa. Let our
readers look at a map of Africa, and first fix their eyes on
Algiers and Tunis, with their rich soil and splendid harbours
and their remains of an ancient and splendid
civilisation,—Phœnician, Greek, Roman, Christian, and Arab.
Then let them allow their eyes to travel downwards to the
right bank of the greatest river of Africa, the Congo. From
Constantine, with its great memories and its scenery almost
European in charm and splendour, to Brazzaville and Stanley
Pool, with their tropical vegetation and savage life, there is
a continuous and uninterrupted stretch of French territory. As
they say in our country districts, the French President might now
ride on his own land from Tunis to Loango. The French dominion
of West Africa (as says an official 'communique' to the Paris
Press with very natural exultation) now extends over a space
as great as that from Paris to Moscow. From Algeria to the
Congo, from Senegal to Lake Chad—i. e., almost to the centre
of Africa—stretches this vast tract of French territory. 'At
the present moment,' to quote the words of the 'communique,'
'all our West African colonies—Algeria, Tunis, Senegal,
Futa-Jallon, the Ivory Coast, the Soudan, and the Congo—are in
communication by their respective Hinterlands.'
{335}
"But probably this will not convey much to the ordinary
English reader. Perhaps we can best make him realise the
immensity of the French West African Empire by pointing out
that, with the exception of certain great German and English
and other 'enclaves' the whole of the huge piece of Africa
which bulges out on the map towards the west now belongs to
France. She has all the connecting links, all that does not
specifically belong to some one else, and she cuts off short
the Hinterlands of all the Powers with possessions on the West
African coast. Let us begin at the most western point of the
coast-line of Tripoli in the Mediterranean, and travel round
the coast, marking off all that is not French.
"First, we come to Tunis,—that is in the possession of France
just as Egypt is in our possession. Algiers comes next,—that
is French. Then Morocco. Morocco is at present independent,
but at the back of Morocco all the land, be it desert or
cultivable, is French. Next comes a strip of Spanish coast,
but it goes only a very little way inland, and all the back
country is French. Next come the great French colonies of
Senegambia and Futa-Jallon, with two little colonies embedded
in them, one belonging to us—the Gambia—and the other
belonging to Portugal. Next come our Sierra Leone and
independent Liberia, but here again the Hinterlands are all
French. Next comes the French Ivory Coast colony, then the
British Gold Coast, then German Togoland, and then French
Dahomey. Here again all the Hinterlands beyond, say, four
hundred miles inland, belong, since the signing of the
Convention, to France. After that comes our Colony of Lagos,
then the German Cameroons, and finally the French Congo—the
last French possession in West Africa. Here, too, the
Hinterlands have been cut off by the French, and our Colonies
have been made into 'enclaves' in the mighty French dominion.
It is true that the Niger or Lagos 'enclave' is a very vast
one, and stretches now up to Lake Chad, which becomes
henceforth as international a sheet of water as the Lake of
Constance. Still, it is an 'enclave,' for, as we read the
Convention, he who embarks upon Lake Chad from the British
shore and steers eastward will land on French territory. In
other words, Nigeria cannot now cross Lake Chad and expand
beyond it. We should be glad to hear that this is not the true
reading of the Convention, but we fear it is. We have
travelled, then, round the map of Africa, from Tunis to the
Congo, and found that France is everywhere the chief owner,
—that hers is the great estate, and that the other Powers only
have odd bits of land here and there. We do not say this in
any grumbling spirit, for our odd bit—Nigeria—is very possibly
worth as much as the great estate if Algiers and Tunis are not
counted. We merely wish to make the public understand clearly
that West Africa as a political and geographical expression
has finally passed to France, though we no doubt have carved
one very valuable piece out of it."
The Spectator (London)
June 18, 1898.
Nine months later, when the agreement embodied in the
Declaration of March 21, 1899, had been added to the Original
convention, the "Spectator" explained its effect as follows:
"It will be remembered that last year we and the French agreed
upon a delimitation of 'spheres' in West Africa which extended
as far as Lake Chad. As to the country east of Lake Chad
nothing was said. It was left as a kind of No-man's Land. What
has now been done is to extend the area of the French 'sphere'
eastward beyond Lake Chad till it reaches Darfur and the
Bahr-el-Ghazel. Darfur and the region of the Bahr-el-Ghazel
are declared to be in the English 'sphere.' All the rest of
Northern Central Africa is to become French. France, that is,
is to have the great Mahommedan State of Wadai as well as
Baghirmi and Kanem. In the territory between Lake Chad and the
Nile each Power, however, is to allow the other equality of
treatment in matters of commerce. This will no doubt allow
France to have commercial establishments on the Nile and its
affluents, but it will also allow us to have similar
privileges for trade on the eastern shore of Lake Chad. But as
our system of giving equal trading rights to all foreigners
would in any case have secured commercial rights to France, we
are not in the least hampered by this provision, while the
concession to us of equal rights on the eastern shore of Lake
Chad will improve our position in the face of French Colonial
Protection. …
"The first thing that strikes one in considering the French
possessions in Africa, after this latest addition, is their
vastness. Practically, France will now have all North-Western,
and all Northern, and all North Central Africa, except
Morocco, our West African Colonies, Tripoli, Darfur, and the
Valley of the Nile,—giving that phrase its widest
interpretation, and regarding it as the whole of the country
whence water flows into the Nile. … That, if she plays her
cards properly, she ought to make a success of her African
Empire we cannot doubt, for she starts with immense
advantages. To begin with, she is nearer her African
possessions than any other Power. You can go in a couple of
days from Marseilles to Algiers and Tunis. Next, in Algiers
and Tunis she has rich colonies with a temperate climate which
may be made the basis for great developments in the way of
railway extension. Lastly, her African possessions are
conterminous, or, at any rate, connected with each other by
land. She owns, that is, Northern Africa, and the rest of the
Powers have only, as it were, enclaves—very large enclaves, no
doubt, in many cases—in her territory. At present this
advantage may not seem very great owing to the vast distances
and the desert character of many of the French Hinterlands,
but if and when France completes her Soudan railways, the
strength of this continuity of territory will become apparent.
But though France has many advantages, it would be foolish to
deny that she has also many serious problems to solve. We
shall perhaps be stating the most dangerous of them when we
say that France now becomes the undisputed master of the great
sect of El Senoussi. There are reported to be over twenty
million followers of El Senoussi in North Africa, and, except
in Tripoli, an these may now be said to be within the French
'sphere of influence.' The Sultanate of Wadai—which, be it
remembered, is a very formidable State, and one which has
never yet come into contact with any European Power—is a
Senoussi State. But the followers of the Senoussi, besides
being numerous, are extremely fanatical. Though practising a
much purer form of Mahommedanism than the Dervishes, they hate
Europeans quite as ardently, and if once their religious zeal
were to be thoroughly roused they would prove most formidable
foes. We do not envy the French their task if they attempt to
conquer Wadai."
The Spectator, March 25, 1899.
{336}
NIGERIA: A. D. 1897:
Massacre of British officials near Benin.
Capture of Benin.
An unarmed expedition from the Niger Coast Protectorate,
going, in January, on a peaceful mission to the King of Benin,
led by Acting Consul-General Phillips, was attacked on the way
and the whole party massacred excepting two, who were wounded,
but who hid themselves in the bush and contrived to make their
way back. The Consul-General had been warned that the king
would not allow the mission to enter Benin, but persisted in
going on. A "punitive expedition" was sent against Benin the
following month, and the town was reached and taken on the
18th, but the king had escaped.
"The city presented the most appalling sight, particularly
around the King's quarters, from which four large main roads
lead to the compounds of the bigger Chiefs, the city being
very scattered. Sacrificial trees in the open spaces still
held the corpses of the latest victims[of 'Ju Ju'
sacrifice]—seven in all were counted—and on every path a
freshly-sacrificed corpse was found lying, apparently placed
there to prevent pursuit. One large open space, 200 to 300
yards in length, was strewn with human bones and bodies in all
stages of decomposition. Within the walls, the sight was, if
possible, more terrible. Seven large sacrifice compounds were
found inclosed by walls 14 to 16 feet high, each 2 to 3 acres
in extent; against the end wall in each, under a roof, was
raised a daïs with an earthen (clay) sacrificial altar about
50 feet long close against the wall on which were placed the
gods to whom sacrifice is made—mostly being carved ivory
tusks, standing upright, mounted at base, in hideously
constructed brass heads. In front of each ivory god was a
small earthen mound on which the victim's forehead would
apparently be placed. The altars were covered with streams of
dried human blood and the stench was too frightful. It would
seem that the populace sat around in these huge compounds
while the Ju Ju priests performed the sacrifices for their
edification. In the various sacrifice compounds were found
open pits filled with human bodies giving forth most trying
odours. The first night several cases of fainting and sickness
occurred owing to the stench, which was equally bad
everywhere. In one of the pits, partially under other bodies,
was found a victim, still living, who, being rescued, turned
out to be a servant of Mr. Gordon's, one of the members of Mr.
Phillips' ill-fated expedition. At the doors and gates of
houses and compounds were stinking goats and fowls, sacrificed
apparently to prevent the white man entering therein. The
foregoing is but a feeble attempt to describe the horrors of
this most terrible city, which after five days' continuous
fatigue, working with about 1,000 natives, still presents most
appalling and frightful sights. In the outlying parts of the
city the same sights are met and the annual expenditure of
human life in sacrifice must have been enormous. Most of the
wells were also found filled with human bodies."
Great Britain,
Papers by Command: Africa, Number 6, 1897, page 28.
NIGERIA: A. D. 1897:
Subjugation of Fulah slave-raiders.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (NIGERIA).
NIGERIA: A. D. 1899:
Transfer to the British Crown.
The Royal Niger Company transferred its territories to the
crown in July, 1899, receiving the sum of £865,000. It was
announced to Parliament that three governments would be
formed, named North Nigeria, South Nigeria, and Lagos.
NILE, Barrage and reservoir works on the.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1898-1901.
NILE VALLEY: The question of possession.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1898 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).
NINETEEN HUNDRED, The Universal Jubilee of.
See (in this volume)
PAPACY: A. D. 1900.
----------THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: Start--------
NINETEENTH CENTURY:
The date of the ending of the Century.
Controversy as to whether the Nineteenth Century came to its
end at the ending of the year 1899 or the year 1900 seems
nearly incomprehensible to one who takes the trouble to begin
a counting of years from the beginning of the Christian Era,
and so reaches in his reckoning the fact that the first
century did not end until the 100th year was ended. That seems
to clear all confusion from the question, since the 200th,
300th, 400th, and so on up to the 1900th, must be the closing
years of the successive centuries, just as certainly as the
100th is the last year of the first century. Arithmetically,
there is no question left; but some minds refuse to recognize
the century as a merely arithmetical fact. They see in it an
entity of time with which the counting of years has little to
do. Their somewhat mystical view is set forth in the
following, which we quote from a communication that appeared
in the "New York Times":
"The centurial figures are the symbol, and the only symbol, of
the centuries. Once every hundred years there is a change in
the symbol, and this great secular event is of startling
prominence. What more natural than to bring the century into
harmony with its only visible mark? What more consonant with
order than to make each group of a hundred years correspond
with a single centennial emblem? Be it noticed that, apart
from the centennial emblems, there is absolutely nothing to
give the centuries any form. The initial figures 18 are time's
standard which the earth carries while it makes 100 trips around
the sun. Then a new standard, 19, is put up. Shall we wait now
a whole year for 1901, at the behest of the abacists? No, we
will not pass over the significant year 1900, which is stamped
with the great secular change, but with cheers we will welcome
it and the new century. The 1900 men, who compose the vast
majority of the people, say to their opponents: 'We freely
admit that the century you have in your mind, the artificial
century, begins in 1901, but the natural century (which we
prefer) begins in 1900.'"
{337}
A consistent application of this view to the defining and
naming of the centuries would seem to require that the years
which carry the initial figures 18 should make up the
Eighteenth, not the Nineteenth Century, and that we should
turn back our centurial nomenclature a whole round.
NINETEENTH CENTURY:
The epoch of a transformation of the world.
In the last years of the Eighteenth Century a new epoch in
history was entered,—an epoch marked by many distinctions, but
most strikingly by what may be called the transformation of
the world. The earlier great ages had been ages of simple
expansion,—of a widening theatre for the leading races,—of a
widening knowledge of the earth and the heavens,—of a widening
range for human thought; but those expansive movements in
civilization led up, at last, to more wonderful processes of
transformation, which were just in their beginning when the
Nineteenth Century dawned. For all the generations of mankind
that had lived before this century, the earth, as a dwelling
place, remained nearly unchanged. They had cleared some
forests from its face, and smoothed some paths; but, in every
substantial feature, the France, for example, of Napoleon was
the unaltered Gaul that Julius Cæsar knew. Everywhere the
material conditions of life were essentially the same for the
man of the Eighteenth Century that they had been for the man
of the First. Then began the amazing work of the brain and
hand of man, by which he has been refashioning and refitting
the planet he inhabits, and making a new world for his
dwelling. As a habitable earth, to-day, it bears no likeness
to the earth on which the first day of this century dawned.
Its distances mean nothing that they formerly did; its
dividing seas and mountains have nothing of their old effect;
its pestilences have lost half their terror; its very storms
are sentinelled and rarely surprise us in our travels or our
work. Netted with steam and electric railways, seamed with
canals, wire-strung with telegraphic and telephonic lines, its
ocean-voyages made holiday excursions, its every-day labors,
of the forge, the plough, the sickle, the spindle, the loom,
the needle, and even of the pen, done with magical deftness by
machines, which its coal mines and its waterfalls lend forces
to move, it is nothing less than a new world that men are
making for themselves, out of that in which they lived at the
beginning of the era of mechanism and electricity and steam.
"Yet these are but outward features of the transformation that
is being wrought in the world. Socially, politically, and
morally, it has been undergoing a deeper change. A growth of
fellow-feeling which began in the last century has been an
increasing growth. It has not ended war, nor the passions that
cause war, but it is rousing an opposition which gathers
strength every year. It has made democratic institutions of
government so common that the few arbitrary governments now
remaining in civilized countries seem disgraceful to the
people who endure them so long. It has broken old yokes of
conquest, and revived the independence of long subjugated
states. It has swept away unnatural boundary lines, which
separated peoples of kindred language and race. It is pressing
long-neglected questions of right and justice on the attention
of an classes of men, everywhere, and requiring that answers
shall be found.
"And, still, even these are but minor effects of the
prodigious change which the Nineteenth Century has brought
into the experience of mankind." Beyond them all in importance
are the new conceptions of the universe, and of the method of
God's working in it, which can, with no exaggeration, be said
to have imparted a wholly new spirit and quality to the human
mind. By what it learned from Copernicus, it was given a new
standpoint in thinking. By what it learned from Newton, it was
given a new and larger grasp. By what it has learned from
Darwin and Spencer it has been equipped with a new insight,
and looks at even the mystery of life as a problem to be
solved. "If we live in a world that is different from that
which our ancestors knew, it is still more the fact that we
think of a different universe, and feel differently in all our
relations to it."
J. N. Larned,
History of England for the Use of Schools,
page 561.
NINETEENTH CENTURY:
Comparison of the Century with all preceding ages,
as regards man's power over Nature.
"No one, so far as I am aware, has yet pointed out the
altogether exceptional character of our advance in science and
the arts, during the century which is now so near its close.
In order to estimate its full importance and grandeur—more
especially as regards man's increased power over nature, and
the application of that power to the needs of his life to-day,
with unlimited possibilities in the future—we must compare it,
not with any preceding century, or even with the last
millennium, but with the whole historical period,—perhaps even
with the whole period that has elapsed since the stone age."
Such a comparison is made in the following lists of "the great
inventions and discoveries of the two eras":
"Of the Nineteenth Century."
1. Rail ways.
2. Steam-ships.
3. Electric Telegraphs.
4. The Telephone.
5. Lucifer Matches.
6. Gas illumination.
7. Electric lighting.
8. Photography.
9. The Phonograph.
10. Röntgen Rays.
11. Spectrum-analysis.
12. Anæsthetics.
13. Antiseptic Surgery.
14. Conservation of energy.
15. Molecular theory of Gases.
16. Velocity of Light directly measured
and Earth's Rotation experimentally shown.
17. The uses of Dust.
18. Chemistry, definite proportions.
19. Meteors and the Meteoritic Theory.
20. The Glacial Epoch.
21. The Antiquity of Man.
22. Organic Evolution established.
23. Cell theory and Embryology.
24. Germ theory of disease and
the function of the Leucocytes.
"Of all Preceding Ages."
1. The Mariner's Compass.
2. The Steam Engine.
3. The Telescope.
4. The Barometer and Thermometer.
5. Printing.
6. Arabic numerals.
7. Alphabetical writing.
8. Modern Chemistry founded.
9. Electric science founded.
10. Gravitation established.
11. Kepler's Laws.
12. The Differential Calculus.
13. The circulation of the blood.
14. Light proved to have finite velocity.
15. The development of Geometry.
{338}
"Of course these numbers are not absolute. Either series may
be increased or diminished by taking account of other
discoveries as of equal importance, or by striking out some
which may be considered as below the grade of an important or
epoch-making step in science or civilization. But the
difference between the two lists is so large, that probably no
competent judge would bring them to an equality. Again, it is
noteworthy that nothing like a regular gradation is
perceptible during the last three or four centuries. The
eighteenth century, instead of showing some approximation to
the wealth of discovery in our own age, is less remarkable
than the seventeenth, having only about half the number of
really great advances."
A. R. Wallace,
The Wonderful Century,
chapter 15
(copyright, Dodd, Mead & Company, New York,
quoted with permission).
NINETEENTH CENTURY:
Difference of the Century from preceding ages.
"In the last 100 years the world has seen great wars, great
national and social upheavals, great religious movements,
great economic changes. Literature and art have had their
triumphs and have permanently enriched the intellectual
inheritance of our race. Yet, large as is the space which
subjects like these legitimately fill in our thoughts, much as
they will occupy the future historian, it is not among these
that I seek for the most important and the most fundamental
differences which separate the present from preceding ages.
Rather is this to be found in the cumulative products of
scientific research, to which no other period offers a
precedent or a parallel. No single discovery, it may be, can
be compared in its results to that of Copernicus; no single
discoverer can be compared in genius to Newton; but, in their
total effects, the advances made by the 19th century are not
to be matched. Not only is the surprising increase of
knowledge new, but the use to which it has been put is new
also. The growth of industrial invention is not a fact we are
permitted to forget. We do, however, sometimes forget how much
of it is due to a close connection between theoretic knowledge
and its utilitarian application which, in its degree, is
altogether unexampled in the history of mankind. I suppose
that, at this moment, if we were allowed a vision of the
embryonic forces which are predestined most potently to affect
the future of mankind, we should have to look for them not in
the Legislature, nor in the Press, nor on the platform, nor in
the schemes of practical statesmen, nor the dreams of
political theorists, but in the laboratories of scientific
students whose names are but little in the mouths of men, who
cannot themselves forecast the results of their own labors,
and whose theories could scarcely be understood by those whom
they will chiefly benefit. …
"Marvellous as is the variety and ingenuity of modern
industrial methods, they almost all depend in the last resort
upon our supply of useful power; and our supply of useful
power is principally provided for us by methods which, so far
as I can see, have altered not at all in principle, and
strangely little in detail, since the days of Watt. Coal, as
we all know, is the chief reservoir of energy from which the
world at present draws, and from which we in this country must
always draw; but our main contrivance for utilizing it is the
steam engine, and, by its essential nature, the steam engine
is extravagantly wasteful. So that, when we are told, as if it
was something to be proud of, that this is the age of steam,
we may admit the fact, but can hardly share the satisfaction.
… We have, in truth, been little better than brilliant
spendthrifts. Every new invention seems to throw a new strain
upon the vast but not illimitable, resources of nature. Lord
Kelvin is disquieted about our supply of oxygen; Sir William
Crookes about our supply of nitrates. The problem of our coal
supply is always with us. Sooner or later the stored-up
resources of the world will be exhausted. Humanity, having
used or squandered its capital, will thenceforth have to
depend upon such current income as can be derived from that
diurnal heat of the sun and the rotation of the earth till, in
the sequence of the ages, these also begin to fail. …
"After all, however, it is not necessarily the material and
obvious results of scientific discoveries which are of the
deepest interest. They have affected changes more subtle and
perhaps less obvious which are at least as worthy of our
consideration and are at least as unique in the history of the
civilized world. No century has seen so great a change in our
intellectual apprehension of the world in which we live. Our
whole point of view has changed. The mental framework in which
we arrange the separate facts in the world of men and things
is quite a new framework. The spectacle of the universe
presents itself now in a wholly changed perspective. We not
only see more, but we see differently. The discoveries in
physics and in chemistry, which have borne their share in thus
re-creating for us the evolution of the past, are in process of
giving us quite new ideas as to the inner nature of that
material whole of which the world's traversing space is but an
insignificant part. Differences of quality once thought ultimate
are constantly being resolved into differences of motion or
configuration. What were once regarded as things are now known
to be movement. … Plausible attempts have been made to reduce
the physical universe, with its infinite variety, its glory of
color and of form, its significance and its sublimity, to one
homogeneous medium in which there are no distinctions to be
discovered but distinction of movement or of stress. And
although no such hypothesis can, I suppose, be yet accepted,
the gropings of physicists after this, or some other not less
audacious unification, must finally, I think, be crowned with
success. The change of view which I have endeavored to
indicate is purely scientific, but its consequences cannot be
confined to science. How will they manifest themselves in
other regions of human activity, in literature, in art, in
religion?"
A. J. Balfour,
The Nineteenth Century
(Address before the University Extension Students
at Cambridge, August 2, 1900).
NINETEENTH CENTURY:
The intellectual and social trend of the Century.
"The two influences which have made the nineteenth century
what it is seem to me to be the scientific spirit and the
democratic spirit. Thus, the nineteenth century, singularly
enough, is the great interpretative century both of nature and
of the past, and at the same time the century of incessant and
uprooting change in all that relates to the current life of
men. It is also the century of national systems of popular
education, and at the same time of nation-great armies; the
century that has done more than any other to scatter men over
the face of the earth, and to concentrate them in cities; the
century of a universal suffrage that is based upon a belief in
the inherent value of the individual; and the century of the
corporation and the labor union, which in the domain of
capital and of labor threaten to obliterate the individual. …
{339}
"The mind has been active in all fields during this fruitful
century; but, outside of politics, it is to science that we
must look for the thoughts that have shaped all other
thinking. When von Helmholtz was in this country, a few years
ago, he said that modern science was born when men ceased to
summon nature to the support of theories already formed, and
instead began to question nature for her facts, in order that
they might thus discover the laws which these facts reveal. I
do not know that it would be easy to sum up the scientific
method, as the phrase runs, in simpler words. It would not be
correct to say that this process was unknown before the
present century; for there have been individual observers and
students of nature in all ages. … But it is true that only in
this century has this attitude toward nature become the
uniform attitude of men of science. …
"One of the chief results of the scientific method as applied
to nature and the study of the past is the change that it has
wrought in the philosophic conception of nature and of human
society. By the middle of the century, Darwin had given what
has been held to be substantial proof of the theory of the
development of higher forms out of lower in all living things;
and since then, the doctrine of evolution, not as a body of
exact teaching, but as a working theory, has obtained a
mastery over the minds of men which has dominated all their
studies and all their thinking. …
"Every public educational system of our day, broadly speaking,
is the child of the nineteenth century. The educational system
of Germany, which in its results has been of hardly less value
to mankind than to Germany itself, dates from the reconstitution
of the German universities after the battle of Jena. Whatever
system France may have had before the Revolution went down in
the cataclysm that destroyed the ancient regime, so that the
educational system of France also dates from the Napoleonic
period. In the United States, while the seeds of the public
school system may have been planted in the eighteenth, or
perhaps even in the seventeenth century, it has only been in
the nineteenth century, with the development of the country,
that our public school system has grown into what we now see;
while in England, the system of national education, in a
democratic sense, must be dated from 1870. … Out of the growth
of the democratic principle has come the belief that it is
worth while to educate all the children of the state: and out
of the scientific method, which has led to the general
acceptance of the evolutionary theory, has been developed the
advance in educational method which is so marked a feature of
the last decades of the century. …
"Not only has the scientific method furnished a philosophy of
nature and of human life, but, by the great increase in man's
knowledge of natural law to which it has led, it has resulted
in endless inventions, and these, in turn, have changed the
face of the world. … The rapid progress of invention during
the century has been coincident with one far-reaching change
in the habits of society, the importance of which is seldom
recognized. I refer to deposit banking. Of all the agencies
that have effected the world in the nineteenth century, I am
sometimes inclined to think that this is one of the most
influential. If deposit banking may not be said to be the
result of democracy, it certainly may be said that it is in
those countries in which democracy is most dominant that
deposit banking thrives best. … Some one has said that it
would have been of no use to invent the railroad, the
submarine cable, or the telephone at an earlier period of the
world's history, for there would have been no money at command
to make anyone of them available before this modern banking
system had made its appearance. If this be so, then indeed the
part that has been played by deposit banking in the
developments of the century cannot be overestimated.
"During the century the conditions of the world's commerce
have been radically altered. It is not simply that the
steamboat and the locomotive have taken the place of the
sailing-ship and the horse; that the submarine cable has
supplanted the mails; nor even that these agencies have led to
such improvements in banking facilities that foreign commerce
is done, for the most part, for hardly more than a brokerage
upon the transaction. These are merely accidents of the
situation. The fundamental factors have been the opening up of
virgin soil in vast areas to the cultivation of man, and the
discovery of how to create artificial cold, which makes it
possible to transport for long distances produce that only a
few years ago was distinctly classed as perishable. The net
result of these influences has been to produce a world
competition at every point of the globe. …
"Democracy, as a political theory, emphasizes the equality of
men and the equal rights and privileges of all men before the
law. The tendency of it has been, in this country, to develop
in multitudes of men great individuality and self-reliance.
Side by side with this tendency, however, we see the
corporation supplanting the individual capitalist, and the
trade union obliterating the individual laborer, as direct
agents in the work of the world. Strange as this contrast is,
both tendencies must be consistent with democracy, for the
corporation and the trade union flourish most where democracy
is most developed. Indeed, they seem to be successful and
powerful just because democracy pours into them both its vital
strength. …
"The tendency to democracy in politics is unquestionably the
dominant political fact of the century. … Outside of Russia,
and possibly even there, monarchical government in Europe is
obliged to depend for its support upon the great body of the
nation, instead of upon the power of the great and the noble.
… In the United States, the century, though it began with a
limited suffrage, ends with universal manhood suffrage, and
even with woman suffrage in some of the Western States. …
Undoubtedly, universal suffrage and the large immigration of
people without any experience in self-government have given
form to many of our problems; but I often think there is far
too great a disposition among us to magnify the difficulties
which these conditions present. …
{340}
The fact is, in my judgment, that our problems arise not so
much from universal suffrage as from the effect of the
multiplication table applied to all the problems of life. …
Anyone building a house in the country, when he has dug a well
has solved the problem of his water supply; but to supply
water for a great city calls for the outlay of millions of
dollars, and for the employment of the best engineering talent
in the land. Yet nothing has happened except that the problem
has been magnified. Thus the difficulties created by the
multiplication table are real; so that the very enlargement of
opportunity that democracy has brought with it has faced
democracy with problems far harder than were formerly
presented to any government. …
"To sum up, therefore, I should say that the trend of the
century has been to a great increase in knowledge, which has
been found to be, as of old, the knowledge of good and evil;
that this knowledge has become more and more the property of
all men rather than of a few; that, as a result, the very
increase of opportunity has led to the magnifying of the
problems with which humanity is obliged to deal; and that we
find ourselves, at the end of the century, face to face with
problems of world-wide importance and utmost difficulty, and
with no new means of coping with them other than the patient
education of the masses of men."
Seth Low,
The Trend of the Century
(Atlantic Monthly, August, 1898).
NINETEENTH CENTURY:
Dominant lines in the intellectual development of the Century.
"The future historian of thought will no doubt regard the
promulgation and the rapid triumph of evolutionist doctrines
as the most remarkable phenomenon in the intellectual
development of the nineteenth century."
Leslie Stephen,
Evolution and Religious Conceptions
(Review of the Nineteenth Century,
in New York Evening Post, January 12, 1901).
"In the briefest sketch of what the nineteenth century has
done in literature, it is absolutely imperative to mention the
publication of 'The Origin of Species' [Darwin, 1859] and
'Principles of Psychology' [Spencer, 1855], because, although
neither work is written with an attractive elegance, each is
the starting point of an intellectual and moral revolution so
vast that every branch of life is affected by it, and
literature itself—in its lightest forms—can no longer ignore
the germinal forces with which evolution has quickened all our
emotions."
Edmund Gosse,
A Century of English Literature
(Review of the Nineteenth Century,
in New York Evening Post, January 12, 1901).
"To an earlier age knowledge was power, merely that and
nothing more; to us it is life and the 'summum bonum.'
Emancipation from the bonds of self, of one's own
prepossessions, importunately sought at the hands of that
rational power before which all must ultimately bow—this is
the characteristic that distinguishes all the great figures of
nineteenth century science from those of former periods."
Professor Charles S. Peirce,
The Century's Great Men in Science
(Review of the Nineteenth Century,
in New York Evening Post, January 12, 1901).
"The mark of the century has been a continuous attempt at a
comprehensive understanding of nature, after the manner of
Newton, but not limited or governed solely by his dynamical
ideas. … The Newtonian laws of dynamics as applied to matter
still hold, and will always hold, but they may no longer be
fundamental or ultimate, they may be derivatives from a still
deeper scheme; and it is towards this deeper scheme that
physicists at present are groping. The realization of a need
for some such scheme constitutes the chief philosophic feature
of the latter part of the century."
Oliver J. Lodge.
The Scope and Tendencies of Physics
(Review of the Nineteenth Century,
in New York Evening Post, January 12, 1901).
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY:
The failures of the Century.
Its sinful mismanagement of the powers which Science has
given it.
"The Nineteenth Century … has been characterised by a
marvellous and altogether unprecedented progress in knowledge
of the universe and of its complex forces; and also in the
application of that knowledge to an infinite variety of
purposes, calculated, if properly utilized, to supply all the
wants of every human being, and to add greatly to the
comforts, the enjoyments, and the refinements of life. The
bounds of human knowledge have been so far extended that new
vistas have opened to us in directions where it had been
thought that we could never penetrate, and the more we learn
the more we seem capable of learning in the ever-widening
expanse of the universe. …
"But the more we realize the vast possibilities of human
welfare which science has given us, the more we must recognise
our total failure to make any adequate rational use of them.
With ample power to supply to the fullest extent necessaries,
comforts, and even luxuries for all, and at the same time
allow ample leisure for intellectual pleasures and æsthetic
enjoyments, we have yet so sinfully mismanaged our social
economy as to give unprecedented and injurious luxury to the
few, while millions are compelled to suffer a lifelong
deficiency of the barest necessaries for a healthy existence.
Instead of devoting the highest powers of our greatest men to
remedy these evils, we see the governments of the most
advanced nations arming their people to the teeth, and
expending much of their wealth and all the resources of their
science, in preparation for the destruction of life, of
property, and of happiness.
"With ample knowledge of the sources of health, we allow, and
even compel, the bulk of our population to live and work under
conditions which greatly shorten life; while every year we see
from 50,000 to 100,000 infants done to death by our criminal
neglect. In our mad race for wealth, we have made gold more
sacred than human life; we have made life so hard for the
many, that suicide and insanity and crime are alike
increasing. With all our labour-saving machinery and all our
command over the forces of nature, the struggle for existence
has become more fierce than ever before; and year by year an
ever-increasing proportion of our people sink into paupers'
graves.
"Even more degrading, and more terrible in its consequences,
is the unblushing selfishness of the greatest civilized
nations. While boasting of their military power, and loudly
proclaiming their Christianity, not one of them has raised a
finger to save a Christian people, the remnant of an ancient
civilization, from the most barbarous persecution, torture,
and wholesale massacre. A hundred thousand Armenians murdered
or starved to death while the representatives of the great
powers coldly looked on—and prided themselves on their
unanimity in all making the same useless protests—will surely
be referred to by the historian of the future, as the most
detestable combination of hypocrisy and inhumanity that the
world has yet produced, and as the crowning proof of the utter
rottenness of the boasted civilization of the Nineteenth
Century.
{341}
When the brightness of future ages shall have dimmed the
glamour of our material progress, the judgment of history will
surely be, that the ethical standard of our rulers was a
deplorably low one, and that we were unworthy to possess the
great and beneficent powers that science had placed in our
hands.
"But although this century has given us so many examples of
failure, it has also given us hope for the future. True
humanity, the determination that the crying social evils of
our time shall not continue; the certainty that they can be
abolished; an unwavering faith in human nature, have never
been so strong, so vigorous, so rapidly growing as they are
to-day."
A. R. Wallace,
The Wonderful Century,
chapter 21
(copyright, Dodd, Mead &; Company, New York,
quoted with permission).
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY:
Expansion of the European races during the Century.
Changes in the distribution of political power.
Dominance of the Anglo-American peoples.
Rise of the United States of America to the highest rank.
At a dinner given by the Manchester Statistical Society,
October 17, 1900, Sir Robert Giffen, the eminent statistician,
made a notable speech on the political ideas which the
statistics of the Nineteenth Century suggest. "The first of
these was the prodigious rate at which the civilized world—
the community of European nations and nations of European
origin—was growing. The population of Europe and of nations of
European origin like the United States might now be put at
something over 500,000,000. The United States themselves might
be put at nearly 80 millions; Russia in its recent census
showed a population which must already have grown to about 135
millions; Germany about 55 millions; the United Kingdom, with the
self-governing colonies of Canada and Australasia and the
white population of South Africa, 55 millions;
Austria-Hungary, 45 millions; France, 40 millions; Italy, 32
millions; Spain and Portugal, 25 millions; Scandinavian
countries, ten millions; Holland and Belgium, ten millions;
and other European countries, 20 millions. A century ago the
corresponding figure to this 500,000,000 would not have been
more than about 170,000,000. The economic development of the
people had been even more marvellous. The wealth of the people
all told, which would probably not have been reckoned at more
than £5,000,000,000 at the beginning of the century, must be
reckoned now by tens of thousands of millions.
"Again the development was for the most part not uniform among
the European populations. It was most marked in the
Anglo-American section. The increase here was from a
population of not more than about 20 millions, which was the
population of the United States and the United Kingdom
together 100 years ago, to a population of not less than 130
millions at the present time. Russia and Germany also showed
remarkable increases, but nothing like this. This astonishing
growth of population meant a great change in the relative
position of the European nations in the world—their relative
weight in international politics. Practically the non-European
races of the world had all the time been stationary, except in
India, where the 'pax Britannica' had permitted the native
population to expand. The result was that the forces of
civilization, as against those of the black and yellow races,
had become practically irresistible. The numbers were
relatively far greater than ever they were before, and the
economic force was indefinitely greater. A great change in the
distribution of political power among European nations
themselves was also indicated. The existence alone of the
United States implied an immense change. If we considered that
an empire like that of Britain had its strength rather
diminished than increased by the possession of territories
like India, then the United States having a larger European
population than that of the British Empire might be considered
the most powerful State in the world as far as population and
resources were concerned. No doubt Russia had a much larger
population, but the inferiority of the units was so great that
the preeminence of the United States was not in question.
Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom had all grown, while
France and Austria had by comparison remained stationary, so
that now the great world Powers were four only—the United
States, Britain, Russia, and Germany, with France a doubtful
fifth. The extent of the revolution that had taken place in a
century was evident, and obviously accounted for much that was
going on in international politics.
"If the forces now in existence continue to operate as they
had done in the past century for only a few more generations,
the close of the coming century must witness a further
transformation, whose beginnings would be apparent in the
lifetime of some amongst us. It was a reasonable probability
that unless some great internal change should take place in
the ideas and conduct of the European races themselves, the
population of 500 millions would in another century become one
of 1,500 to 2,000 millions. The black and yellow races still
remaining, as far as one could see, comparatively stationary,
this would make a greatly changed world. The yellow peril, for
instance, of which we heard so much, would have vanished,
because the yellow races themselves would be so much
outnumbered. What would be the 400 millions of China compared
with 1,500 to 2,000 millions of European race? Further
progress must also be made in the redistribution of power
among European nations. International politics would be more
and more limited to the affairs of what were already the four
great Powers—the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany,
and Russia. The most serious problem would of course be
whether the dilemma stated by Malthus and hitherto put aside
by the occupation of new lands, would at length become an
urgently practical question. It was impossible not to wonder
which of the two forces—the growth of population and the
increase of the needs of the growing population on the one
side, and the growth of invention and mechanical power in
supplying human wants on the other side—would gain as time
went on. Referring to the desire to secure new markets abroad,
Sir Robert Giffen said that the figures with which he had been
dealing pointed to quite another source of new markets. Surely
there could be no lack of new customers if the 500 millions of
the advanced races themselves were to be doubled in from 30 to
50 years and trebled or quadrupled in a century."
London Times, October 18, 1900.
{342}
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY:
The lengthened average of human life.
"What has been the chief characteristic of the nineteenth
century? No two critics agree, nor can they, because each
prefers a different quality. One singles out science, another,
invention, as the dominant trait. A third, who looks mainly at
the political aspect of life, says democracy. Others, again,
say pessimism, philanthropy, doubt, or toleration. So many
features, so much diversity, argue at least for
many-sidedness.
"There is one characteristic, however, which distinguishes the
nineteenth century from all previous centuries—a
characteristic which has become too common to attract the
attention it deserves, although it really measures all the
rest: this is longevity. During the past one hundred years the
length of life of the average man in the United States and in
the more civilized parts of Europe has increased from a little
over 30 to about 40 years. A multitude of causes, mostly
physical, have contributed to this result. Foremost among
these should be placed
(1) whatever may be included under the general term sanitation;
(2) improved methods in medicine; and
(3) the more regular habits of living which are the direct
outcome of industrial life on a large scale.
"These are some of the evident means by which life has been
lengthened. Inventions, which have made production cheap and
the transportation of all products both cheap and easy, have
had an influence too great to be computed. And no doubt much
has been due to a general improvement in methods of
government; although, in the main, there has been much less
progress in practical government than is commonly supposed. No
great railroad company or banking house or manufacturing
corporation could prosper if its officers and employees were
chosen and kept in office according to the system by which
political offices, almost everywhere, are filled. 'None hut
experts wanted,' is the sign written over the entrance to
every profession, trade, and occupation—except government.
"But, whatever governments have done or left undone, the fact
to be insisted on here is, that the average man to-day lives
almost ten years longer than his grandfather lived."
W. R. Thayer,
Longevity and Degeneration
(Forum, February, 1900).
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY:
The Musical Century.
"Music is the only one of the fine arts of which it can be
said that it reached its highest development in the nineteenth
century. It is the modern art par excellence; and while
everybody has been told that it is the youngest of the arts,
few realize how much is implied in that assertion."
Henry T. Finck,
The Musical Century
(New York Evening Post, January 12, 1901).
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY:
The Woman's Century.
"Victor Hugo predicted that the nineteenth century would be
known as Woman's Century. The comparison of the woman of 1800
and the woman of 1900 offers abundant proof of the correctness
of the prophecy."
Mrs. Carrie C. Catt,
Women in the Industries and Professions
(New York Evening Post, January 12, 1901).
"In 1900 a third of all the college students in the United
States are women. Sixty per cent. of the pupils in the
secondary schools, both public and private, are girls—i. e.,
more girls are preparing for college than boys. Women having
in general more leisure than men, there is reason to expect
that there will soon be more women than men in our colleges
and graduate schools. The time, too, has passed when girls
went to college to prepare themselves solely for teaching or
for other bread-winning occupations. In considerable numbers
they now seek intellectual resources and the enrichment of
their private lives. Thus far between 50 and 60 per cent. of
women college graduates have at some time taught. In the
country at large more than 70 per cent. of the teaching is
done by women, in the North Atlantic portion over 80 per cent.
Even in the secondary schools, public and private, more women
than men are teaching, though in all other countries the
advanced instruction of boys is exclusively in the hands of
men. Never before has a nation intrusted all the school
training of the vast majority of its future population, men as
well as women, to women alone."
Mrs. Alice F. Palmer,
The Higher Education of Women
(New York Evening Post, January 12, 1901).
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY:
The Age of Steel succeeding the Age of Iron.
"The age of iron, which passed away during the last century,
was succeeded by the age of Bessemer steel, which enjoyed a
reign of only thirty-six years, beginning, as it did, in 1864,
and is in turn now passing away to be succeeded by the age of
Siemens open-hearth steel. Already the product of open-hearth
is far beyond that of Bessemer in Britain, and such the writer
ventures to predict will soon be the case in the United
States."
Andrew Carnegie,
The Development of Steel Manufacture
(New York Evening Post, January 12, 1901).
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY:
As the "Age of Steam."
See (in volume 4)
STEAM ENGINE, STEAM LOCOMOTION, etc.; and
(in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: MECHANICAL.
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY:
As the "Electric Age."
See (in volume 2)
ELECTRICAL, DISCOVERY; and
(in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: ELECTRICAL.
----------THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: End--------
NIPPUR, Explorations of the ruins of.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.
NIUCHWANG:
"Niuchwang, while a comparatively small city of but 60,000
population, is of especial importance to the United States as
a treaty port. It is located at the extreme north of the Gulf
of Pechili, considerably farther north than Tientsin, and is
of especial importance to the United States because of the
demand for goods from this country in that section. … The
proposed Russian railway line, which is projected through
Manchuria and the province of Shingking to the port of Port
Arthur, passes near Niuchwang and is to be connected by a
short line. Another line, to be built by British capital, will
connect Niuchwang with Shanhaikwan, which is already in railway
connection with Peking, the capital of the Empire."
United States, Bureau of Statistics, Monthly Summary,
March, 1899, page 2196.
NIUCHWANG:
Russian occupation.
See (in this volume)
MANCHURIA: A. D. 1900.
NORFOLK ISLAND:
Change of government.
(in this volume)
AUSTRALIA (NEW SOUTH WALES): A. D. 1896.
{343}
NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1897-1899.
Local Dispensary Laws.
An Act applying the South Carolina "dispensary" system of
regulation for the liquor traffic (see, in this volume, SOUTH
CAROLINA: A. D. 1892-1899) to Fayetteville was passed by the
Legislature in 1897, and several smaller towns secured local
legislation to the same effect in 1899; but attempts to carry
a general dispensary law for the State were defeated.
NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1898.
Race war in Wilmington.
Wilmington, North Carolina, was the scene, in November, of
what can only be called a fierce revolution, whereby the city
government, dominated by the colored population, which
outnumbered the white, was violently overturned by the latter.
The race conflict was precipitated by an article in a Republican
newspaper, edited by a negro, which reflected on the honor of
some of the white women, and caused wild excitement among the
white men. The offending newspaper office was destroyed and
its editor fled. Resistance being offered, furious fighting
occurred, in which a considerable number of negroes was
killed, many were wounded, and hundreds were driven by terror
from the town. White Republican officials were also expelled
or took to flight, and their opponents secured control of city
affairs.
NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1900.
Constitutional amendment for the qualification of the suffrage.
By a constitutional amendment, adopted in August, 1900, the
following qualification of the suffrage was established:
"SECTION 4.
Every person presenting himself for registration shall be able
to read and write any section of the constitution in the
English language: and, before he shall be entitled to vote, he
shall have paid, on or before the 1st day of May of the year
in which he proposes to vote, his poll tax for the previous
year as prescribed by Article V, section 1, of the
constitution. But no male person who was, on January 1, 1867,
or at any time prior thereto, entitled to vote under the laws
of any State in the United States wherein he then resided, and
no lineal descendant of any such person, shall be denied the
right to register and vote at any election in this State by
reason of his failure to possess the educational qualification
herein prescribed, provided he shall have registered in
accordance with the terms of this section prior to December,
1908. The general assembly shall provide for the registration
of all persons entitled to vote without the educational
qualifications herein prescribed, and shall, on or before
November 1, 1908, provide for the making of a permanent record
of such registration, and all persons so registered shall
forever thereafter have the right to vote in all elections by
the people in this State, unless disqualified under section 2
of this article: Provided, Such person shall have paid his
poll tax as above required."
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES, Canadian:
Self-government granted.
See (in this volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1897 (OCTOBER).
NORWAY.
See (in this volume)
SWEDEN AND NORWAY.
NOVA SCOTIA.
See (in this volume)
CANADA.
NOVA ZEMBLA, Recent exploration of.
See (in this volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION, 1895, 1896, 1897, 1900.
NUFFAR,
NIFFER, Explorations at.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.
NUPÉ, British subjugation of.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (NIGERIA).
NUREMBERG: A. D. 1900.
Remarkable growth in five years.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (DECEMBER).
NYASSALAND.
See (in this volume)
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE.
O.
OIL RIVERS PROTECTORATE, The.
See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1882-1899.
OLD-AGE INSURANCE: In Germany.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1897-1900.
OLD-AGE PENSIONS:
In New South Wales.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRALIA (NEW SOUTH WALES): A. D. 1900.
OLD-AGE PENSIONS:
In New Zealand.
See (in this volume)
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1899;
and AUSTRALIA: RECENT EXTENSIONS OF DEMOCRACY.
OLD-AGE PENSIONS:
The question in England.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1896; and 1899-1900.
OLNEY, Richard:
Correspondence with Lord Salisbury on the Venezuela boundary
question.
See (in this volume)
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1895 (JULY), and (NOVEMBER).
OLYMPIC GAMES, Revival of.
See (in this volume)
ATHENS: A. D. 1896.
OMAHA: A. D. 1898.
The Trans-Mississippi Exposition.
A highly successful Trans-Mississippi Exposition was opened on
the 1st of June and closed on the last day of October, having
been attended by 2,600,000 people. Buildings and grounds were
prepared with beautiful effect, at a cost of $2,500,000.
OMDURMAN:
Capital of the Khalifa.
Capture by the Anglo-Egyptian Army.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896; and 1897-1898.
ONTARIO.
See (in this volume)
CANADA.
"OPEN DOOR,"
The commercial policy of the.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899-1900 (SEPTEMBER-FEBRUARY).
OPIUM COMMISSION, Report of the.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1895 (APRIL).
ORANGE FREE STATE: A. D. 1895.
Proposed federal union with the Transvaal.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (ORANGE FREE STATE).
ORANGE FREE STATE: A. D. 1897.
Treaty with the South African Republic.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (ORANGE FREE STATE AND TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1897 (APRIL).
ORANGE FREE STATE: A. D. 1899-1900.
Making common cause with the South African Republic.
War with Great Britain.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (ORANGE FREE STATE):
A. D. 1899 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER), and after.
ORANGE FREE STATE: A. D. 1900 (May.)
Proclamation of annexation to the British dominions.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (ORANGE FREE STATE): A. D. 1900 (MAY).
{344}
OSMAN DIGNA.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896; 1897-1898; and 1899-1900.
OTIS, General:
Reports as Military Governor of the Philippines.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).
OTTAWA: A. D. 1900.
Great fire.
The city of Ottawa, capital of the Dominion of Canada, and the
lumber manufacturing town of Hull, on the opposite side of the
Ottawa River, were both devastated, on the 26th of April, by
one of the most destructive fires of the century. It
originated in the upsetting of a lamp in a dwelling in Hull.
This was at half-past ten o'clock in the morning. A big gale
blowing from the northeast made quick work of the inflammable
houses in Hull, and by twelve o'clock the flames had
reached the river-bank and leaped across to the Ottawa side.
The fire then retraced its steps in Hull, and destroyed a
group of factories. It "blazed a crescent-shaped path five
miles long and a mile wide, destroying in its journey the
public buildings and the residential part of Hull, the
industrial area of the Chaudiere, and the suburbs of the
Ottawa laboring classes at Mechanicsburg, Rochesterville, and
Hintonburg. Fully 15,000 people were rendered homeless, and
$15,000,000 worth of property was annihilated."
Canadian Magazine, July, 1900.
OTTOMAN BANK:
Attack of Armenian revolutionists at Constantinople.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1896 (AUGUST).
P.
PAARDEBERG, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
PACT OF HALEPA, The.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1896.
PAGO PAGO: Acquisition by the United States.
See (in this volume)
SAMOAN ISLANDS.
PALESTINE: A. D. 1897-1901.
The Zionist movement for Jewish colonization.
See (in this volume)
JEWS: A. D. 1897-1901.
PALESTINE: A. D. 1898.
Visit of the German Emperor.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER).
PALESTINE: A. D. 1901.
Turkish restriction on Jewish visits.
See (in this volume)
JEWS: A. D. 1901.
PALMER, General John M.:
Candidacy for the American Presidency in 1896.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER).
PAMIR REGION, The:
Anglo-Russian agreement concerning.
See (in this volume)
AFGHANISTAN: A. D. 1895.
PAMPANGAS, The.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: THE NATIVE INHABITANTS.
PANA, Riotous coal-mining strike at.
See (in this volume)
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES: A. D. 1898.
PANAMA CANAL, The: A. D. 1900.
See (in this volume)
PANAMA CANAL;
and (in this volume)
CANAL, INTEROCEANIC: A. D. 1900 (NOVEMBER).
PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION, The.
See (in this volume)
BUFFALO: A. D. 1901.
PANGASINANS, The.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: THE NATIVE INHABITANTS.
PAN-GERMANIC UNION.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1901.
----------PAPACY: Start--------
PAPACY: A. D. 1894.
Conference with Eastern Patriarchs.
A conference of Eastern Patriarchs to consider the reunion of
the Eastern Churches (Armenian, Maronite, Melchite, etc.) with
the Church of Rome was opened at the Vatican, in October,
under the presidency of the Pope. The meeting had no result.
PAPACY: A. D. 1894-1895.
The Hungarian Ecclesiastical Laws.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1894-1895.
PAPACY: A. D. 1896 (March).
Resumption of authority over the Coptic Church.
The authority of the Pope over the Coptic Church was resumed
on the 30th of March, 1896, after a suspension of four
centuries, by the re-establishment of the Catholic
Patriarchate of Alexandria. Bishop Macarius was appointed
Patriarch and two bishops were appointed for Upper and Lower
Egypt.
PAPACY: A. D. 1896 (September).
Decision on the invalidity of Anglican orders.
In September, 1896, the final decision of the Vatican, on a
reopened question as to the validity of ordinations under the
ritual of the Church of England, was announced by Pope Leo
XIII. in a bull which declares: "After long study, I must
confirm the decree of my predecessors, that all ordinations
made under the Anglican rite are absolutely invalid." Soon
after the decision was announced, a writer in the
"Contemporary Review" gave the following account of
circumstances connected with it:
"The question of Anglican Orders was taken up in connection
with the appeal for union made by Leo XIII. in the Encyclical'
Præclara' of 1894, and more particularly in his letter to the
English people. The group of Anglicans of whom Lord Halifax is
the spokesman took this appeal seriously, and ever since that
time negotiations have been going on more or less continuously
between them and the Vatican. … The idea of an incorporate
union, so dear to Lord Halifax, and so much favoured in the
first instance by the Pope, could only be carried out on the
basis of a prior admission that the Anglican Church had an
existence as a Church, and was therefore in a position to
discuss a union with the Roman Church.
{345}
Once recognise the validity of her Orders, and it would be
possible to go into conference as to the points of difference
between the two Churches, and the means of coming to an
agreement. It is quite certain that the Pope entered heartily
into these views. The Abbé Duchesne was accordingly deputed to
inquire into the validity of the Anglican Orders, and was well
aware that a favourable conclusion would be very well
received. This was before the Abbé was put at the head of the
French College at Rome. He made his investigation, arrived at
the conclusion that the Orders were valid, sent his report to
the Vatican, and received from Cardinal Rampolla a letter of
thanks and congratulations, together with a grand silver
medal, which the Holy Father sent him as a sign of his
satisfaction and particular goodwill. All this happened in the
winter of 1894-95.
"In the autumn of 1895 the idea of union was in higher favour
at the Vatican than ever. Cardinal Rampolla encouraged the
foundation of the 'Revue Anglo-Romaine,' a journal devoted to
the treatment of problems concerning the union of Churches,
and particularly the re-union of the Anglican Church, and
edited by the Abbé Portal, a French priest, and a personal
friend of Lord Halifax. This movement in favour of union was,
however, regarded by the Catholics in England with no little
apprehension and mistrust, and their opposition alone would
have been sufficient to wreck it for the time being. Cardinal
Vaughan viewed the idea of incorporate union as a chimera, but
treated the efforts to realise it as a real danger. … Leo, who
would fain have maintained an attitude of judicial
impartiality, soon found out that he must take a side: he must
either definitely encourage the hopes of the Anglicans, or he
must do something to calm the excited fears of the Catholics.
Even at Rome, if we except the Pope and Cardinal Rampolla, who
for a long time fondly hoped that they could make this policy
of union a means of accomplishing very large results,
theological opinion was adverse to the validity. Were there
not, indeed, decisions of the Sacred Congregations which
settled the dispute? There were, but in spite of them all the
Pope was not disabused of his fancy. Compelled at last to take
some action, he named a Commission of theologians, which sat
at Rome in the spring of the present year [1896], under the
presidency of Cardinal Mazzella. … The theologians set forth
the arguments which favoured their respective views; papers
were written, and, after a series of deliberations, a report
was placed in the hands of the Pope. No conclusion was arrived
at: none could be come to in this preliminary assembly. Only the
materials for a judgment were worked out, in case his Holiness
should think fit to pronounce a decision. … The Pope himself
tells us, in the Bull Apostolicæ Curæ, that he left the final
examination of the question to the congregation of cardinals
called ' Suprema.' … The 'Suprema' met on July 16, under the
presidency of the Pope. All the cardinals were of opinion that
the matter had been long since decided, and that the debates
in the preliminary commission had served to show how wise the
decision had been. … The Bull declaring Anglican Orders null
and void was published about the middle of September."
Catholicus,
The Pope and the Anglicans: The Policy of the Bull
(Contemporary Review, December, 1896).
PAPACY: A. D. 1897.
Influence in Austria.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897.
PAPACY: A. D. 1898 (January).
Encyclical Letter of Pope Leo XIII. on the
Manitoba School Question.
See (in this volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1898 (JANUARY).
PAPACY: A. D. 1899.
Secession of German Catholics in Austria from the Church.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1899-1000.
PAPACY: A. D. 1899 (January).
Encyclical Letter of Pope Leo XIII. condemning certain
opinions "called by some 'Americanism.'"
The following passages are from the translation of an
encyclical letter addressed, on the 22d of January, 1899, by
Pope Leo XIII. to Cardinal Gibbons, for communication to the
bishops and clergy of the Catholic Church in America:
"To Our Beloved Son, James, Cardinal Gibbons, Cardinal Priest
of the Title Sancta Maria, Beyond the Tiber, Archbishop of
Baltimore: … We have often considered and admired the noble
gifts of your nation which enable the American people to be
alive to every good work which promotes the good of humanity
and the splendor of civilization. Although this letter is not
intended, as preceding ones, to repeat the words of praise so
often spoken, but rather to call attention to some things to
be avoided and corrected; still because it is conceived in
that same spirit of apostolic charity which has inspired all
our letters, we shall expect that you will take it as another
proof of our love; the more so because it is intended to
suppress certain contentions which have arisen lately among
you to the detriment of the peace of many souls.
"It is known to you, beloved son, that the biography of Isaac
Thomas Hecker, especially through the action of those who
undertook to translate or interpret it in a foreign language,
has excited not a little controversy, on account of certain
opinions brought forward concerning the way of leading
Christian life. We, therefore, on account of our apostolic
office, having to guard the integrity of the faith and the
security of the faithful, are desirous of writing to you more
at length concerning this whole matter.
"The underlying principle of these new opinions is that, in
order to more easily attract those who differ from her, the
Church should shape her teachings more in accord with the
spirit of the age and relax some of her ancient severity and
make some concessions to new opinions. Many think that these
concessions should be made not only in regard to ways of
living, but even in regard to doctrines which belong to the
deposit of the faith. They contend that it would be opportune,
in order to gain those who differ from us, to omit certain
points of her teaching which are of lesser importance, and to
tone down the meaning which the Church has always attached to
them. It does not need many words, beloved son, to prove the
falsity of these ideas if the nature and origin of the
doctrine which the Church proposes are recalled to mind. The
Vatican Council says concerning this point: 'For the doctrine
of faith which God has revealed has not been proposed, like a
philosophical invention to be perfected by human ingenuity,
but has been delivered as a divine deposit to the Spouse of
Christ to be faithfully kept and infallibly declared. Hence
that meaning of the sacred dogmas is perpetually to be
retained which our Holy Mother, the Church, has once declared,
nor is that meaning ever to be departed from under the pretense
or pretext of a deeper comprehension of them.'
Constitutis de Fide Catholica, Chapter iv. …
{346}
"Let it be far from anyone's mind to suppress for any reason
any doctrine that has been handed down. Such a policy would
tend rather to separate Catholics from the Church than to
bring in those who differ. There is nothing closer to our
heart than to have those who are separated from the fold of
Christ return to it, but in no other way than the way pointed
out by Christ.
"The rule of life laid down for Catholics is not of such a
nature that it cannot accommodate itself to the exigencies of
various times and places. The Church has, guided by her Divine
Master, a kind and merciful spirit, for which reason from the
very beginning she has been what St. Paul said of himself: 'I
became all things to all men that I might save all.'
"History proves clearly that the Apostolic See, to which has
been intrusted the mission not only of teaching but of
governing the whole Church, has continued 'in one and the same
doctrine, one and the same sense, and one and the same
judgment.'
Constitutis de fide, Chapter iv.
"But in regard to ways of living she has been accustomed to so
yield that, the divine principle of morals being kept intact,
she has never neglected to accommodate herself to the
character and genius of the nations which she embraces. Who
can doubt that she will act in this same spirit again if the
salvation of souls requires it? In this matter the Church must
be the judge, not private men who are often deceived by the
appearance of right. In this, all who wish to escape the blame
of our predecessor, Pius the Sixth, must concur. He condemned
as injurious to the Church and the spirit of God who guides
her the doctrine contained in proposition lxxviii of the Synod
of Pistoia, 'that the discipline made and approved by the
Church should be submitted to examination, as if the Church
could frame a code of laws useless or heavier than human
liberty can bear.'
"But, beloved son, in this present matter of which we are
speaking, there is even a greater danger and a more manifest
opposition to Catholic doctrine and discipline in that opinion
of the lovers of novelty, according to which they hold such
liberty should be allowed in the Church, that her supervision
and watchfulness being in some sense lessened, allowance be
granted the faithful, each one to follow out more freely the
leading of his own mind and the trend of his own proper
activity. They are of opinion that such liberty has its
counterpart in the newly given civil freedom which is now the
right and the foundation of almost every secular state.
"In the apostolic letters concerning the constitution of
states, addressed by us to the bishops of the whole Church, we
discussed this point at length; and there set forth the
difference existing between the Church, which is a divine
society, and all other social human organizations which depend
simply on free will and choice of men. It is well, then, to
particularly direct attention to the opinion which serves as
the argument in behalf of this greater liberty sought for and
recommended to Catholics.
"It is alleged that now the Vatican decree concerning the
infallible teaching authority of the Roman Pontiff having been
proclaimed that nothing further on that score can give any
solicitude, and accordingly, since that has been safe-guarded
and put beyond question a wider and freer field both for
thought and action lies open to each one. But such reasoning
is evidently faulty, since, if we are to come to any
conclusion from the infallible teaching authority of the
Church, it should rather be that no one should wish to depart
from it and moreover that the minds of all being leavened and
directed thereby, greater security from private error would be
enjoyed by all. And further, those who avail themselves of
such a way of reasoning seem to depart seriously from the
over-ruling wisdom of the Most High—which wisdom, since it was
pleased to set forth by most solemn decision the authority and
supreme teaching rights of this Apostolic See—willed that
decision precisely in order to safeguard the minds of the
Church's children from the dangers of these present times.
"These dangers, viz., the confounding of license with liberty,
the passion for discussing and pouring contempt upon any
possible subject, the assumed right to hold whatever opinions
one pleases upon any subject and to set them forth in print to
the world, have so wrapped minds in darkness that there is now
a greater need of the Church's teaching office than ever
before, lest people become unmindful both of conscience and of
duty.
"We, indeed, have no thought of rejecting everything that
modern industry and study has produced; so far from it that we
welcome to the patrimony of truth and to an ever-widening
scope of public well-being whatsoever helps toward the
progress of learning and virtue. Yet all this, to be of any
solid benefit, nay, to have a real existence and growth, can
only be on the condition of recognizing the wisdom and
authority of the Church. …
"From the foregoing it is manifest, beloved son, that we are
not able to give approval to those views which, in their
collective sense, are called by some 'Americanism.' But if by
this name are to be understood certain endowments of mind
which belong to the American people, just as other
characteristics belong to various other nations, and if,
moreover, by it is designated your political condition and the
laws and customs by which you are governed, there is no reason
to take exception to the name. But if this is to be so
understood that the doctrines which have been adverted to
above are not only indicated, but exalted, there can be no
manner of doubt that our venerable brethren, the bishops of
America, would be the first to repudiate and condemn it as
being most injurious to themselves and to their country. For
it would give rise to the suspicion that there are among you
some who conceive and would have the Church in America to be
different from what it is in the rest of the world.
"But the true church is one, as by unity of doctrine, so by
unity of government, and she is catholic also. Since God has
placed the centre and foundation of unity in the chair of
Blessed Peter, she is rightly called the Roman Church, for
'where Peter is, there is the church.' Wherefore, if anybody
wishes to be considered a real Catholic, he ought to be able
to say from his heart the self-same words which Jerome
addressed to Pope Damasus; 'I, acknowledging no other leader
than Christ, am bound in fellowship with Your Holiness: that
is, with the chair of Peter. I know that the church was built
upon him as its rock, and that whosoever gathereth not with
you, scattereth.' …"
American Catholic Quarterly Review,
April, 1899.
{347}
PAPACY: A. D. 1900 (September-October).
Church and State in Austria.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1900 (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER).
PAPACY: A. D. 1900 (December).
Pope Leo XIII. on the French Associations Bill.
See (in this volume))
FRANCE; A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).
PAPACY: A. D. 1900-1901.
Proclamation of the Universal Jubilee of the
Holy Year Nineteen Hundred.
Its extension for six months.
The following is the text of the Papal proclamation of the
Universal Jubilee, in its English translation, as published in
the "American Catholic Quarterly Review":
"To all the Faithful of Christ who shall read these Letters,
Health and Apostolic Benediction. The century, which, by the
grace of God, we have ourselves seen almost from its
commencement, draws rapidly to its close. Willingly have we
followed the institutions of our predecessors in so ordering
things that they may redound in the good of all Christian
peoples, and which may be perhaps for them the last proof of
our care to the government of the Sovereign Pontificate. We
speak of the Great Jubilee introduced in ancient times among
Christian customs and observed by our predecessors, who
bestowed upon the years of general jubilee the title of the
Holy Year, because it was usual for such a year to be blessed
by a greater number of holy ceremonies, as these furnish the
most copious means of help for the correction of morals and
the leading of souls to sanctity.
"We have ourselves seen with our own eyes the fruitful result
of the last solemn celebration of the Holy Year. It was in the
Pontificate of Leo XII, and we were as yet in the years of our
youth. It was truly a grand sight to see then the manifestations
of religious fervor in Rome. We can remember as if the scene
were still before our eyes, the immense concourse of pilgrims,
the multitudes which flocked processionally to one or other of
the great basilicas, the sacred orators who preached in the
public streets, and the most frequented quarters of the city
resounding with the Divine praises. The Sovereign Pontiff
himself, with a numerous suite of Cardinals and in the sight
of all the people, gave a noble example of piety and charity.
"From such thoughts as these we turn with renewed sorrow to
the times in which we now live; for such practices of piety,
when without hindrance they were fulfilled under the eyes of
all the citizens, augmented admirably the fervor and piety of
the whole people; but now, on account of the changed condition
of Rome, it is impossible to renew them, for in order to do so
in any measure we must depend upon the arbitration of others.
But however that may be, God, who ever blesses salutary
counsels, will concede—such is our hope—success to this our
design, undertaken solely for Him and for His glory. At what
do we aim or what do we wish? Nothing else truly than to
render more easy the way of eternal salvation to the souls
confided to us, and for this end to administer to the infirm
of spirit those remedies which it has pleased our Lord Jesus
Christ to place in our hands. This administration seems to us
not alone a duty of our apostolic office, but a duty which is
peculiarly necessary to our times. The present age, however,
cannot be said to be sterile, either in regard to good works
or to Christian virtues. Thanks be to God, we have examples of
both in abundance, nor is there any virtue, however lofty and
arduous its attainment and practice, in which many are not
found to signalize themselves, because it is a power proper to
the Christian religion, Divinely founded, inexhaustible and
perpetual, to generate and nourish virtue. Yet, casting our
eyes around, we see, on the other hand, with what blindness,
with what persistent error, whole peoples are hurrying to
eternal ruin. And this thought strikes bitterly to our
heart—how many Christians, led away by the license of hearing
and of thought, absorbing with avidity the intoxicating errors
of false doctrine, go on day by day dissipating and destroying
the grand gift of the faith. Hence arise repugnance to
Christian living, that insatiable appetite for the things of
this world, and hence cares and thoughts alienated from God
and rooted in the world. It is almost impossible to express in
words the damage which has already accrued from this
iniquitous source to the very foundations of society. The
minds of men ordinarily rebellious, the blind tendency of
popular cupidity, hidden perils, tragical crimes, are nothing
more to those who seek their source and cause than the
unrestrained strife to possess and enjoy the goods of this
world.
"It is of supreme importance, therefore, to public no less
than private life, to admonish men as to the duties of their
state, to arouse souls steeped in forgetfulness of duty, to
recall to the thought of their own salvation those who run
imminent risk of perishing and of losing through their
negligence and pride those celestial and unchangeable rewards
for the possession of which we are born. This is the aim of
the Holy Year. The Church, mindful only of her intrinsic
benignity and mercy as a most tender Mother, studies at this
time, with love and by every means within her ample power, to
re-conduct souls to better counsels and to promote in each
works of expiation by means of penance and emendation of life.
To this end, multiplying prayers and augmenting the fervor of
the faithful, she seeks to appease the outraged majesty of God
and to draw down His copious and celestial gifts. She opens
wide the rich treasury of indulgences, of which she is the
appointed dispenser, and exhorts the whole of Christianity to
the firm hope of pardon. She is purely intent upon vanquishing
with unconquerable love and sweetness the most rebellious
wills. How, then, may we not hope to obtain, with God's help,
rich fruits and profuse, and such as are most adapted to the
present needs?
"Several extraordinary solemnities, the notices of which we
believe to be already sufficiently diffused, and which will
serve in some manner to consecrate the end of the nineteenth
century and the beginning of the twentieth, greatly increase
the advantage of the opportunity now given. We speak of the
honors to be rendered at this time in every part of the world
to Jesus Christ as our Redeemer. On this account we were
profuse in our approbation and praise of a project which had
its source in the piety of private individuals, and, in fact,
what could be more holy and salutary? All that which man
should hope for and desire is contained in the only-begotten
Son of God, our Salvation, Life, and Resurrection.
{348}
To desire to abandon Him is to desire eternal perdition. We
could never silence adoration, praise, thanksgiving due to our
Lord Jesus Christ, and without intermission they should be
repeated everywhere, for in every place no thanksgiving, no
honor, can be so great but that it may be increased. Our age
produces perhaps many men who are forgetful and ungrateful,
who ordinarily respond to the mercy of their Divine Saviour
with disdain and to His gifts with offenses and injuries.
Certainly the lives of many are so far removed from His laws
and His precepts as to argue in themselves ungrateful and
malicious souls. And what shall we say to see renewed again in
these times and not once alone, the blasphemy of the Arian
heresy regarding the Divinity of Jesus Christ. Courage, then,
and to work, all you who with this new and most beautiful
proposition seek to excite the piety of the people to new
fervor. Do what you can in such manner that you impede not the
course of the Jubilee and the appointed solemnities. Let it be
added that in the forthcoming manifestations of faith and
religion this special intention shall be kept in view—hatred
of all that which within our memory has been impiously said or
done, especially against the Divine Majesty of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and to satisfy publicly for the injuries publicly
inflicted upon Him. Now if we are really in earnest, we must
know that to repent of evil done, and, having implored peace
and pardon of God, to exercise ourselves with great diligence,
in the duties necessary to virtue, and to assume those we have
cast aside, is the means of satisfaction most desirable and
assured, and which bears upon it the impress of truth. Since
the Holy Year offers to all the opportunities which we have
touched on in the beginning, it is a necessary provision that
the Christian people enter upon it full of courage and of
hope.
"For which reason, raising our eyes to heaven and praying from
our heart that God, so rich in mercy, would vouchsafe to
concede benignly His blessing and favor to our desires and
works, and would illuminate with His Divine light the minds of
all men, and move their souls to conform with His holy will
and inestimable goodness, We, following in this the example of
the Roman Pontiffs, our predecessors, with the assent of the
Cardinals of the Holy Roman College, our Venerable Brethren,
in virtue of these letters, with the authority of Christ, of
the blessed Peter and Paul, and with our own authority, order
and promulgate from this hour the great and universal jubilee,
which will commence in this holy city of Rome at the first
Vespers of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ of the year
1899, and which will close at first Vespers of the Nativity of
our Lord of the year 1900. May all redound to the glory of
God, the salvation of souls, and the good of the Church.
During this year of jubilee we concede and impart mercifully
in our Lord full indulgence, remission and pardon of sin to
all faithful Christians of either sex, who, being truly
penitent shall confess and communicate, visiting devoutly the
Roman basilicas of SS. Peter and Paul, St. John Lateran, and
St. Mary Major, at least once a day for twenty days
continuously or at intervals; that is, the obligation is to be
fulfilled between the first Vespers of each day and the last
Vespers of the day following, whether the Faithful be citizens
of Rome or not, if they are residing permanently in Rome. If
they come to Rome as pilgrims, then they must visit the said
basilicas in the same manner for ten days, praying devoutly to
God for the exaltation of Holy Church, for the extirpation of
heresies, for peace and concord amongst Christian princes, and
for the salvation of the whole Christian people.
"And since it may happen to many that with all their good-will
they cannot or can only in part carry out the above, being
either, while in Rome or on their journey, impeded by illness
or other legitimate causes, we, taking into account their
good-will, can, when they are truly repentant and have duly
confessed and communicated, concede to them the participation
in the same indulgences and remission of sins as if they had
actually visited the basilicas on the days appointed. Rome,
therefore, invites you lovingly to her bosom, beloved
children, from all parts of the world, who have means of
visiting her. Know also that to a good Catholic in this sacred
time it is fitting that he come to Rome guided purely by
Christian faith, and that he should renounce especially the
satisfaction of sight-seeing merely idle or profane, turning
his soul rather to those things which predispose him to
religion and piety. And that which tends greatly so to
predispose him, if he look within, is the natural character of
the city, a certain character divinely impressed upon her, and
not to be changed by human means, nor by any act of violence.
For Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, chose only,
amongst all its cities, that of Rome to be the centre of an
action more than earthly, consecrating it to Himself. Here He
placed, and not without long and careful preparation, the
throne of His own empire; here He commanded that the see of
His Vicar should be raised to the perpetuity of time; here He
willed that the light of revealed truth should be jealously
and inviolably guarded, and that from here light should be
diffused throughout the whole earth in such a manner that
those who are alienated from the faith of Rome are alienated
from Christ. The religious monuments raised by our fathers,
the singular majesty of her temples, the tomb of the Apostles,
the Catacombs of the martyrs, all serve to increase the aspect of
holiness and to impress those who visit her in the spirit of
faith. Whosoever knows the voice of such monuments feels that
he is no pilgrim in a foreign city, but a citizen in his own,
and by God's grace he will realize this fact at his going,
more forcibly than at his coming.
"We wish, in order that these present letters may be brought
more easily under the notice of all, that printed copies,
signed by a public notary and furnished with the seal of some
ecclesiastical dignitary, shall be received with the same
faith as would be given to the original by those who have
heard or read it.
"To no one will it be lawful to alter any word of this our
disposition, promulgation, concession, and will, or to rashly
oppose it. If any should presume to make any such attempt, let
them know that they incur thereby the indignation of God
Almighty and of His Apostles Peter and Paul.
"Given at St. Peter's, Rome, on the 11th of May, in the year
of the Incarnation of our Lord 1899, and the 22d of our
Pontificate. C. Card. ALOISI-MASELLA, Pro-Datory. L. Card.
MACCHI.
{349}
"Witnessed on behalf of the Curia: G. DELL' AQUILA VISCONTI.
Registered in the Secretariate of Briefs, J. CUGNONI. In the
year of the Nativity of our Lord 1899, on the 11th day of May,
feast of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the 22d year
of the Pontificate of our Holy Father and Lord in Christ, Leo
XIII, by Divine Providence Pope, I have read and solemnly
promulgated the present apostolical letters in the presence
of the people, in the porch of the Holy Patriarchal Vatican
Basilica. GIUSEPPE DELL' AQUILA VISCONTI, Official of the
Curia."
On the termination of the "holy year," by a letter "given at
Rome in the year of Our Lord 1901," the Pope announced: "We
do, therefore, by the authority of Almighty God, of the
Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own, extend and
prorogue, for a period of six months, the Great Jubilee which
has just been celebrated in the Holy City. Wherefore, to all
the faithful of both sexes, in all parts of the earth,
including even those that have come to Rome during the past
year and there or elsewhere gained the Jubilee under any
conditions, we grant and accord mercifully in the Lord, for
once, the fullest indulgence, remission and pardon of their
sins, the annual Paschal confession and communion being,
however, not valid as conditions for gaining the Jubilee,
provided that within six months from the date of the
publication in each diocese of this letter they visit the
cathedral in the episcopal city or the principal church in
other parts of the different dioceses, together with three
other churches in the same place, as appointed by the Ordinary
either directly or through his officials, the parish priests
or Vicar Foran, at least once a day for fifteen continuous or
uninterrupted days, natural or ecclesiastical (the
ecclesiastical day being that which commences with the first
vespers of one day and ends with the dusk of the day
following), and pray devoutly to God for the exaltation of the
Church, the extirpation of heresy, the concord of Catholic
princes and the salvation of the Christian people. In places
where there are not four churches, power is granted in the
same way to the Ordinaries to fix a smaller number or
churches, or even one church where there is only one, in which
the faithful may make the full number of visits, separate and
distinct, on the same natural or ecclesiastical day, in such a
way that the sixty visits be distributed through fifteen
continuous or interrupted days."
Provisions relating to the circumstances of persons at sea or
traveling, or in religious community, or in prison, are
prescribed in the papal letter, and special privileges and
powers are granted to "Jubilee confessors,"
PAPACY: A. D. 1901.
Encyclical Letter of Pope Leo XIII. concerning Social and
Christian Democracy.
In a letter dated January 18, 1901, addressed "to the
Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and other Local
Ordinaries in communion with the Apostolic See," the Pope has
discussed the subjects of Democracy and Socialism, with
reference to controverted views and opinions "defining what
Catholics ought to think," and giving them "some injunctions
so as to make their own action larger in scope and more
beneficial to the commonwealth." The letter opens with these
words: "Venerable Brethren—Grave economical disputes in more
than one country have long been raging; peace and concord are
affected; the violence of the disputants grows every day,
insomuch that the thoughts of the wiser part are laden with
doubt, and apprehension. These disputes arise in the first
instance from widespread philosophical and moral error. The
scientific resources belonging to the age, increased
facilities of communication and appliances of all kinds for
economizing labor and making it more productive have resulted
in a keener struggle for existence. Through the malefic
influence of agitators the gulf between rich and poor has been
widened, so that frequent disturbances arise and even great
calamities seem impending such as would bring ruin on a
country."
The Pope then refers to his early encyclicals ("Quod
Apostolici Muneris," issued in 1878, on the error in
socialistic opinions, and "Rerum Novarum," issued in 1891, on
"the rights and duties binding together the two classes of
capitalists and laborers"), and to the good influence which he
finds reason to believe they have had, and says further:
"Thus, therefore, under the guidance of the Church, some sort
of concerted action and institutional provision has been set
up among Catholics for the protection of the lower classes,
who are very often as much the victims of dangerous
machinations and snares as they are suffering from hardship
and poverty. The creed of the benefactor of the people had
originally no name of its own; that of Christian Socialism and
its derivatives, which some brought in, has not undeservedly
grown obsolete. Afterward many wanted, very rightly, to name
it Popular Christianity. In some places those who devote
themselves to such work are called Christian Socialists;
elsewhere it is called Christian Democracy, and its supporters
Christian Democrats, as opposed to the Social Democracy, which
Socialists uphold. Of these two appellations, certainly that
of Christian Socialists, if not also of Christian Democracy,
is offensive to many right-minded people, inasmuch as they
think there is a perilous ambiguity attaching to it. They are
afraid of the name for several reasons—popular government may
be covertly promoted or preferred to other forms of political
constitution; the influence of Christianity may seem to be
confined to the benefit of the common people, all other ranks
being as it were left out in the cold; beneath the specious
designation may lurk some design or other of subverting all
legitimate authority, being civil and religious.
"There is now commonly much dispute, and sometimes over-bitter
dispute, on this topic, and we deem it our duty to put an end
to the controversy by defining what Catholics ought to think;
moreover we intend to give them some injunctions so as to make
their own action larger in scope and more beneficial to the
commonwealth.
"What Social Democracy means, and what Christian ought to
mean, does not surely admit of doubt. The former, more or less
extreme, as the case may be, is by many carried to such
extravagance of wickedness as to reckon human satisfaction
supreme and acknowledge nothing higher, to pursue bodily goods
and those of the natural world, and to make the happiness of man
consist in attaining and enjoying them. Hence they would have
the supreme power in a state to be in the hands of the common
people, in such sort that all distinction or rank being
abolished and every citizen made equal to every other, all
might have equal access also to the good things of life; the
law of lordship is to be abolished, private fortunes
confiscated and even socialization of the appliances of labor
carried out.
{350}
But Christian Democracy, as Christian, ought to have as its
foundation the principles laid down by divine faith, having
regard, indeed, to the temporal advantage of the lower orders,
but designing therewith to fit their minds for the enjoyment
of things eternal. Accordingly, to Christian Democracy, let
there be nothing more sacred than law and right; let it bid
the right of having and holding be kept inviolate; let it
maintain the diversity of ranks which properly belong to a
well-ordered state; in fine, let it prefer for human
association that form and character which its divine author
has imposed upon it. Clearly, therefore, Social and Christian
Democracy can have nothing in common; the difference between
them is no less than that between the sectarianism of
socialism and the profession of the Christian law.
"Far be it from any one to pervert the name of Christian
Democracy to political ends. For although democracy by its
very name and by philosophical usage denotes popular rule, yet
in this application it must be employed altogether without
political significance, so as to denote nothing whatever
besides this beneficent Christian action upon the people. For
natural morality and the precepts of the Gospel, for the very
reason that they transcend the chances of human existence,
must necessarily be independent of any particular form of
civil government and adapt themselves to all, so long as there
is nothing to conflict with virtue and right. They are,
therefore, and remain in themselves, absolutely external to
all conflict of parties and vicissitudes of occurrence, so
that, under whatever kind of government, people may and ought
to abide by these precepts, which bid them love God above all
and their neighbors as themselves. This has ever been the
morality of the Church: by it Roman Pontiffs have constantly
dealt with states whatever might be their executive
government. And this being so, the mind and action of
Catholics, when devoted to promoting the good of the lower
orders, cannot by any possibility aim at embracing and
introducing any one form of government in preference to
another.
"Just in the same way must Christian Democracy repudiate the
other ground of offense, which arises from paying so much
regard to the interests of the lower classes as to seem to
pass over the higher, who are nevertheless of equal importance
to the preservation and development of the State. The
Christian law of charity, which we have just mentioned,
forbids this. It is large enough to embrace all ranks as the
aim and the task of those who would have the common people in
a Christian spirit on the one hand suitably relieved, and, on
the other, preserved against the contagion of socialism. …
"We have recalled these various topics on which we have before
this found occasion to dilate according to our ability, and we
trust that all dispute over the name of Christian Democracy
may now be laid aside, as well as any suspicion of dangerous
signification attaching to it. This trust we rightly cherish.
For making exception of the ideas of certain persons regarding
the force and virtue of this kind of Christian Democracy,
ideas which are not free from extravagance or error, surely
there will be no single person to find fault with an endeavor,
conformably to the law of nature and of God, to do merely
this, to make the lives of laborers and artisans more
tolerable, and gradually to give them the opportunity of
self-culture, so that at home and in the world they may freely
fulfil the obligations of virtue and religion, may feel
themselves to be men, and not mere animals, Christian men, not
pagans, and so strive with more felicity and earnestness to
attain that 'one thing needful,' that final good, for which we
came into the world. This is belonging to one and the same
family, the offspring of the same all-beneficent Father,
redeemed by one Saviour and called to the same eternal
inheritance. …
"God forbid that under the name of Christian democracy should
lie the surreptitious aim of throwing off all obedience and
turning away from those in lawful authority. The law of
nature, no less than that of Christ, enjoins respect for all
such as in their several degree hold office in the State, and
further enjoins obedience to their lawful commands. This is
the only attitude worthy of a man and a Christian, and ought
to be taken up heartily and as a matter of duty, 'for
conscience's sake,' as the Apostle himself has admonished,
when he ordained: 'Let every soul be subject to the highest
powers.' …
"We spoke just now advisedly of virtue and religion. For it is
the opinion of some, which is caught up by the masses, that
the social question, as they call it, is 'economical' merely.
The precise opposite is the truth—that it is first of all
moral and religious, and for that reason its solution is to be
expected mainly from the moral law and the pronouncements of
religion. … Without the instincts which Christian wisdom
implants and keeps alive, without providence, self-control,
thrift, endurance and other natural qualities, you may try
your hardest, but prosperity you cannot provide. That is the
reason why we have never encouraged Catholics to form
associations for the assistance of the poor, or introduce
other schemes of the kind, without at the same time warning
them that such things must not be attempted without the
sanction of religion, without its inclusion and aid. … It is a
laudable charity not merely to relieve the temporary needs of
the poor, but to have an organized system of relief; this will
be a more real and reliable assistance. It must be considered
still more laudable to desire to instill into the minds of the
mechanic and of the laborer notions of thrift and prudence, so
that they may at least in part make provision for their
declining years. It is an aim which not only relieves the cost
of the wealthy, but it is a moral step for the poor
themselves; it encourages them to approve their position,
while it keeps them away from temptations, checks
self-indulgence and leads them on to virtuous behavior. …
"Finally, we again enjoin with greater insistence that
whatever schemes people take up in the popular cause, whether
individually or in association, they should remember that they
must be entirely submissive to episcopal authority. Do not let
them be beguiled by an excessive ardor for charitable
enterprise, which, if it induces any relaxation of due
obedience, is itself false, unproductive of solid benefit and
displeasing to God. Those who please God are those who are
ready to give up their own ideas and listen to the bidding of
the rulers of the Church, absolutely as to His own."
Catholic Union and Times,
February 21, 1901.
{351}
PARIS: A. D. 1897.
Burning of the Charity Bazaar.
An awful destruction of life was caused on the 4th of May by
fire breaking out in a charity bazaar, held in the Rue Jean
Goujon, at Paris. Temporary structures had been erected, of
wood and other combustible materials, to represent a street of
Old Paris shops, and the flames ran through them like
wildfire. The place was thronged with people, mostly of the
aristocratic class and more than 200 are said to have
perished.
PARIS: A. D. 1900 (April-November).
Exposition.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (APRIL-NOVEMBER).
PARIS: A. D. 1900 (September).
Gigantic banquet to the Mayors of France.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (SEPTEMBER).
PARIS, Treaty of (1898), between the United States and Spain.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).
PARKHURST, Reverend Dr. Charles:
His attack on the Tammany administration of New York City.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1894-1895.
PARLIAMENT, The British:
Ceremonious opening by King Edward VII.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
PARLIAMENTARY REFORM, Austrian.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1895-1896.
----------PARTIES AND FACTIONS, POLITICAL
AND POLITICO-RELIGIOUS: Start--------
PARTIES:
Afrikander Bund, or Bondsmen.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE COLONY):
A. D. 1881-1888; 1898; 1898(MARCH-OCTOBER);
and 1900 (DECEMBER).
PARTIES:
Agrarian Protectionists, German.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1895-1898.
PARTIES:
Anti-Imperialists.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
PARTIES:
Anti-Semites.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1895-1896, and after;
FRANCE: A. D. 1897-1899, and after;
GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (JUNE).
PARTIES:
Blancos, or Whites.
See (in this volume)
URUGUAY: A. D. 1896-1899.
PARTIES:
The Bond.
See above,
AFRIKANDER BUND.
PARTIES:
Centre (Catholic, of Germany).
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D.1898 (JUNE).
PARTIES:
Christian Social party.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897.
PARTIES:
Clerical party, Austria.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897.
PARTIES:
Colorados, or Reds.
See (in this volume)
URUGUAY: A. D. 1896-1899.
PARTIES:
Deutsch Fortschrittliche.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897.
PARTIES:
"Fanatics."
See (in this volume)
BRAZIL: A. D. 1897.
PARTIES:
"Free Silver" Democracy.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER)
and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
PARTIES:
Fuyu-to (Liberals).
See (in this volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1890-1898.
PARTIES:
German Democrats.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (JUNE).
PARTIES:
German Liberal party, Austria.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897.
PARTIES:
German People's party.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897.
PARTIES:
Gold Democrats.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER).
PARTIES:
Hintchak, The.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1895.
PARTIES:
Historic Christian party.
See (in this volume)
NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1897.
PARTIES:
Kai-shin-to (Progressives).
See (in this volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1890-1898.
PARTIES:
Kensei-to (Constitutional party).
See (in this volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1898-1899.
PARTIES:
Labor party, French (Parti Ouvrier).
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1896 (APRIL-MAY).
PARTIES:
Liberal Democrats (German).
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (JUNE).
PARTIES:
Liberal Unionists (German).
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (JUNE).
PARTIES:
Lincoln party.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER), SILVER REPUBLICAN.
PARTIES:
Little England party.
See (in this volume)
LITTLE ENGLAND PARTY.
PARTIES:
Middle-of-the-Road Populists.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER);
and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
PARTIES:
National Democratic party.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER).
PARTIES:
National Liberals (German).
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (JUNE).
PARTIES:
National party, 1896 and 1900.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER);
and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
PARTIES:
National Silver party.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER).
PARTIES:
New Radical party.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1896 (MAY).
PARTIES:
Old Czechs.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897.
PARTIES:
Pan-Germanic Union.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1901.
PARTIES:
Patriotic League.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1898 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
PARTIES:
Polish Club.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897.
PARTIES:
Progressives (Kaishin-to).
See (in this volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1890-1898.
PARTIES:
Progressives (Cape).
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE COLONY):
A. D. 1898; and 1898 (MARCH-OCTOBER).
PARTIES:
Protestant Anti-Revolutionists.
See (in this volume)
NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1897.
PARTIES:
Rikken Seiyu-kai
Association of Friends of the Constitution.
See (in this volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-OCTOBER).
PARTIES:
Siah Chai, The.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1895 (AUGUST).
PARTIES:
Silver Republicans.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER);
and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
PARTIES:
Socialist parties.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897;
FRANCE: A. D. 1896 (APRIL-MAY);
GERMANY: A. D. 1894-1895, and 1898 (JUNE);
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER),
and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
PARTIES:
"Sound Money" Democrats.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER).
PARTIES:
United Christian party.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
PARTIES:
United Irish League.
See (in this volume)
IRELAND: A. D. 1900-1901.
PARTIES:
"Vegetarians."
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1895 (AUGUST).
PARTIES:
Verfassungstreue Grossgrundbesitz.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897.
PARTIES:
Volkspartei.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897.
PARTIES:
Young Czechs.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897.
PATRIARCHATE: Re-established at Alexandria.
See (in this volume)
PAPACY: A. D. 1896 (MARCH).
PATRIOTIC LEAGUE.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1898 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
{352}
PAUNCEFOTE, Sir Julian:
British commissioner to the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
----------PARTIES: End--------
----------PEACE CONFERENCE.: Start--------
PEACE CONFERENCE:
On the 24th of August, 1898, without previous heralding or
intimation, Count Mouravieff, the Russian Minister for Foreign
Affairs, placed copies of the following momentous proposal
from the Tsar in the hands of all the foreign representatives
attending his weekly reception at St. Petersburg:
"The maintenance of universal peace and a possible reduction
of the excessive armaments which weigh upon all nations
represent, in the present condition of affairs all over the
world, the ideal towards which the efforts of all Governments
should be directed. This view fully corresponds with the
humane and magnanimous intentions of His Majesty the Emperor,
my august Master. Being convinced that this high aim agrees
with the most essential interests and legitimate aspirations
of all the Powers, the Imperial Government considers the
present moment a very favourable one for seeking, through
international discussion, the most effective means of assuring
to all peoples the blessings of real and lasting peace, and
above all of limiting the progressive development of existing
armaments. During the last twenty years aspirations towards
general pacification have particularly asserted themselves in
the consciences of civilized nations. The preservation of
peace has been made the aim of international policy; for the
sake of peace the Great Powers have formed powerful alliances,
and for the purpose of establishing a better guarantee of peace
they have developed their military forces in an unprecedented
degree, and continue to develop them without hesitating at any
sacrifice. All these efforts, however, have not yet led to the
beneficent results of the desired pacification. The ever
increasing financial burdens strike at the root of public
prosperity. The physical and intellectual forces of the
people, labour and capital, are diverted for the greater part
from their natural application and wasted unproductively.
Hundreds of millions are spent in acquiring terrible engines
of destruction which are regarded to-day as the latest
inventions of science, but are destined to-morrow to be
rendered obsolete by some new discovery. National culture,
economical progress, and the production of wealth are either
paralysed or developed in a wrong direction. Therefore, the
more the armaments of each Power increase, the less they
answer to the objects aimed at by the Governments. Economic
disturbances are caused in great measure by this system of
excessive armaments, and the constant danger involved in this
accumulation of war material renders the armed peace of to-day
a crushing burden more and more difficult for the nations to
bear. It consequently seems evident that if this situation be
prolonged, it will inevitably lead to that very disaster which
it is desired to avoid, and the horrors of which make every
humane mind shudder by anticipation. It is the supreme duty,
therefore, at the present moment of all States to put some
limit to these unceasing armaments, and to find means of
averting the calamities which threaten the whole world. Deeply
impressed by this feeling, His Majesty the Emperor has been
pleased to command me to propose to all Governments who have
Representatives at the Imperial Court the meeting of a
Conference to discuss this grave problem. Such a Conference,
with God's help, would be a happy augury for the opening
century. It would concentrate in one powerful effort the
strivings of all States which sincerely wish to bring about
the triumph of the grand idea of universal peace over the
elements of trouble and discord. It would, at the same time,
cement their agreement by a united affirmation of the
principles of law and equity on which rest the security of
States and the welfare of peoples."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: Russia, Number 1, 1899).
Having allowed his supremely noble proposition to stand before
the world for consideration during a period of four months,
and having received from almost every governing authority a
formal expression of willingness to join in the Conference
recommended, the sovereign of Russia pursued his grand design,
on the 11th of January, 1899, by the following communication
to the foreign representatives at his court:
"When, in the month of August last, my August master
instructed me to propose to the Governments which have
Representatives in St. Petersburg the meeting of a Conference
with the object of seeking the most efficacious means for
assuring to all peoples the blessings of real and lasting
peace, and, above all, in order to put a stop to the
progressive development of the present armaments, there
appeared to be no obstacle in the way of the realization, at
no distant date, of this humanitarian scheme. The cordial
reception accorded by nearly all the Powers to the step taken
by the Imperial Government could not fail to strengthen this
expectation. While highly appreciating the sympathetic terms
in which the adhesions of most of the Powers were expressed,
the Imperial Cabinet has been also able to collect, with
lively satisfaction, evidence of the warmest approval which
has reached it, and continues to be received, from all classes
of society in various parts of the globe. Notwithstanding the
strong current of opinion which set in favour of the ideas of
general pacification, the political horizon bas recently
undergone a sensible change. Several Powers have undertaken
fresh armaments, striving to increase further their military
forces, and in the presence of this uncertain situation, it
might be asked whether the Powers considered the present
moment opportune for the international discussion of the ideas
set forth in the Circular of the 12th (24th) August. In the
hope, however, that the elements of trouble agitating
political centres will soon give place to a calmer disposition
of a nature to favour the success of the proposed Conference,
the Imperial Government is of opinion that it would be
possible to proceed forthwith to a preliminary exchange of
ideas between the Powers, with the object:
(a.) Of seeking without delay means for putting a limit to the
progressive increase of military and naval armaments, a question
the solution of which becomes evidently more and more urgent
in view of the fresh extension given to these armaments; and
(b.) Of preparing the way for a discussion of the questions
relating to the possibility of preventing armed conflicts by
the pacific means at the disposal of international diplomacy.
{353}
In the event of the Powers considering the present moment
favourable for the meeting of a Conference on these bases, it
would certainly be useful for the Cabinets to come to an
understanding on the subject of the programme of their
labours. The subjects to be submitted for international
discussion at the Conference could, in general terms, be
summarized as follows:
"1. An understanding not to increase for a fixed period the
present effective of the armed military and naval forces, and
at the same time not to increase the Budgets pertaining
thereto; and a preliminary examination of the means by which a
reduction might even be effected in future in the forces and
Budgets above-mentioned.
"2. To prohibit the use in the armies and fleets of any new
kind of fire-arms whatever and of new explosives, or any
powders more powerful than those now in use either for rifles
or cannon.
"3. To restrict the use in military warfare of the formidable
explosives already existing, and to prohibit the throwing of
projectiles or explosives of any kind from balloons or by any
similar means.
"4. To prohibit the use in naval warfare of submarine
torpedo-boats or plungers, or other similar engines of
destruction; to give an undertaking not to construct vessels
with rams in the future.
"5. To apply to naval warfare the stipulations of the Geneva
Convention of 1864, on the basis of the Additional Articles of
1868.
"6. To neutralize ships and boats employed in saving those
overboard during or after an engagement.
"7. To revise the Declaration concerning the laws and customs
of war elaborated in 1874 by the Conference of Brussels, which
has remained unratified to the present day.
"8. To accept in principle the employment of good offices, of
mediation and facultative arbitration in cases lending
themselves thereto, with the object of preventing armed
conflicts between nations; to come to an understanding with
respect to the mode of applying these good offices, and to
establish a uniform practice in using them.
"It is well understood that all questions concerning the
political relations of States and the order of things
established by Treaties, as generally all questions which do
not directly fall within the programme adopted by the
Cabinets, must be absolutely excluded from the deliberations
of the Conference. In requesting you, Sir, to be good enough
to apply to your Government for instructions on the subject of
my present communication, I beg you at the same time to inform
it that, in the interest of the great cause which my august
master has so much at heart, His Imperial Majesty considers it
advisable that the Conference should not sit in the capital of
one of the Great Powers, where so many political interests are
centred which might, perhaps, impede the progress of a work in
which all the countries of the universe are equally
interested."
General assent being given to the suggestions here offered,
the next step toward realization of the grand project was
taken, by an arrangement with the government of the Kingdom of
the Netherlands, in accordance with which an invitation was
addressed from The Hague, in April, to many governments, both
the greater and the less of the political world, in the
following terms:
"For political reasons the Imperial Russian Government
considered that it would not be desirable that the meeting of
the Conference should take place in the capital of one of the
Great Powers, and after securing the assent of the Governments
interested, it addressed the Cabinet of The Hague with a view of
obtaining its consent to the choice of that capital as the
seat of the Conference in question. The Minister for Foreign
Affairs at once took the orders of Her Majesty the Queen in
regard to this request, and I am happy to be able to inform
you that Her Majesty, my august Sovereign, has been pleased to
authorize him to reply that it will be particularly agreeable
to her to see the proposed Conference meet at The Hague.
Consequently, my Government, in accord with the Imperial
Russian Government, charges me to invite [the Government
named] to be good enough to be represented at the
above-mentioned Conference, in order to discuss the questions
indicated in the second Russian Circular of the 30th December,
1898 (11th January, 1899), as well as all other questions
connected with the ideas set forth in the Circular of the 12th
(24th) August, 1898, excluding, however, from the
deliberations everything which refers to the political
relations of States or the order of things established by
Treaties. My Government trusts, that [the Government named]
will associate itself with the great humanitarian work to be
entered upon under the auspices of His Majesty the Emperor of
All the Russias, and that it will be disposed to accept this
invitation, and to take the necessary steps for the presence
of its Representatives at The Hague on the 18th May next for
the opening of the Conference, at which each Power, whatever
may be the number of its Delegates, will only have one vote."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: Miscellaneous,
Number 1, 1899, pages 3-4 and 8).
In response to this definite invitation, the governments of
Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Denmark, France,
Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg,
Mexico, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Persia, Portugal,
Roumania, Russia, Servia, Siam, Spain, Sweden and Norway,
Switzerland, Turkey, and the United States of America,
appointed representatives who met at The Hague, on the 18th of
May, 1899, and organized the Conference by electing M. de
Staal, Russian Ambassador, to preside. The United States was
represented by the Honorable Andrew D. White, Ambassador to
Berlin, the Honorable Seth Low, President of Columbia
University, the Honorable Stanford Newel, Envoy Extraordinary,
&c., to The Hague, Captain Alfred T. Mahan, U. S. N., Captain.
William Crozier, U. S. A., and the Honorable Frederick W.
Holls, of New York. The representatives of Great Britain were
Sir Julian Pauncefote, Ambassador to the United States, Sir
Henry Howard, Envoy Extraordinary, &c., to The Hague,
Vice-Admiral Sir John A. Fisher, Major-General Sir J. C.
Ardagh, and Lieutenant-Colonel C. à Court.
{354}
"The Conference at The Hague was a Parliament of Man
representing, however imperfectly, the whole human race. The
only independent ones not represented at the Huis ten Bosch
were the South American republics, the Emperor of Morocco, the
King of Abyssinia, and the Grand Lama of Tibet. That the South
American republics were not represented is not the fault of
the Russian Emperor. Mexico received and accepted an
invitation. Brazil received, but rejected, the invitation to
be present, and so did one other South American republic. The
original Russian idea was to assemble representatives from
every independent government in the world; nor did they even
confine themselves to the secular governments. They were very
anxious that the Pope should also be directly represented in
this supreme assembly. Even with the Pope and South America
left out, the Congress represented more of the world and its
inhabitants than any similar assembly that has ever been
gathered together for the work of international legislation.
That circumstance in itself is sufficient to give distinction
to the Conference at The Hague, which, it is expected, will be
the forerunner of a series of conferences, each of which will
aim at being more and more universally representative. On the
eve of the twentieth century the human race has begun to
federate itself. That is the supreme significance of the
assembly which has just spent two months in the capital of
Holland."
W. T. Stead,
The Conference at The Hague
(Forum, September, 1899).
To systematize and facilitate the discussions of the
Conference, three Commissions or Committees were appointed,
between which the several subjects suggested in the Russian
circular of January 11 (as given above), and agreed to by the
several governments, were distributed. The 1st, 2d, 3d and 4th
propositions of the programme were referred to the First
Commission, the 5th, 6th and 7th to the Second, the 8th
(concerning mediation and arbitration) to the Third. This was
done on the 23d of May, after which the general Conference was
held only at intervals, to receive and consider reports from
the several Commissions, of agreements reached or
disagreements ascertained. This went on until the 29th of
July, when the several Conventions, Declarations, and
Recommendations agreed upon for submission to the governments
represented were summarized in the following "Final Act,"
signed by all:
"In a series of meetings, between the 18th May and the 29th
July, 1899, in which the constant desire of the Delegates
above mentioned has been to realize, in the fullest manner
possible, the generous views of the august Initiator of the
Conference and the intentions of their Governments, the
Conference has agreed, for submission for signature by the
Plenipotentiaries, on the text of the Conventions and
Declarations enumerated below and annexed to the present Act:
"I. Convention for the pacific settlement of international
conflicts.
"II. Convention regarding the laws and customs of war by land.
"III. Convention for the adaptation to maritime warfare of the
principles of the Geneva Convention of the 22nd August, 1864.
"IV. Three Declarations:
1. To prohibit the launching of projectiles and explosives
from balloons or by other similar new methods,
2. To prohibit the use of projectiles, the only object of
which is the diffusion of asphyxiating or deleterious
gases.
3. To prohibit the use of bullets which expand or flatten
easily in the human body, such as bullets with a hard
envelope, of which the envelope does not entirely cover the
core, or is pierced with incisions.
"These Conventions and Declarations shall form so many
separate Acts. These Acts shall be dated this day, and may be
signed up to the 31st December, 1899, by the Plenipotentiaries
of the Powers represented at the International Peace
Conference at The Hague.
"Guided by the same sentiments, the Conference has adopted
unanimously the following Resolution:—'The Conference is of
opinion that the restriction of military budgets, which are at
present a heavy burden on the world, is extremely desirable
for the increase of the material and moral welfare of
mankind.'
"It has, besides, formulated the following wishes:
"1. The Conference, taking into consideration the preliminary
steps taken by the Swiss Federal Government for the revision
of the Geneva Convention, expresses the wish that steps may be
shortly taken for the assembly of a Special Conference having
for its object the revision of that Convention. This wish was
voted unanimously.
"2. The Conference expresses the wish that the questions of
the rights and duties of neutrals may be inserted in the
programme of a Conference in the near future.
"3. The Conference expresses the wish that the questions with
regard to rifles and naval guns, as considered by it, may be
studied by the Governments with the object of coming to an
agreement respecting the employment of new types and calibres.
"4. The Conference expresses the wish that the Governments,
taking into consideration the proposals made at the
Conference, may examine the possibility of an agreement as to
the limitation of armed forces by land and sea, and of war
budgets.
"5. The Conference expresses the wish that the proposal, which
contemplates the declaration of the inviolability of private
property in naval warfare, may be referred to a subsequent
Conference for consideration.
"6. The Conference expresses the wish that the proposal to
settle the question of the bombardment of ports, towns, and
villages by a naval force may be referred to a subsequent
Conference for consideration.
"The last five wishes were voted unanimously, saving some
abstentions.
"In faith of which, the Plenipotentiaries have signed the
present Act, and have affixed their seals thereto. Done at The
Hague, 29th July, 1899, in one copy only, which shall be
deposited in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and of which
copies, duly certified, shall be delivered to all the Powers
represented at the Conference."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: Miscellaneous,
Number 1, 1899, pages 3-4, 8 and 288-9).
{355}
The accompanying Conventions and Declarations were in no case
unanimously signed, several delegations, in each case,
claiming time for the governments they represented to consider
certain questions involved. The most important of the proposed
Conventions, namely, that "For the Pacific Settlement of
International Disputes," was signed at The Hague by the
delegates from Belgium, Denmark, Spain, the United States of
America, Mexico, France, Greece, Montenegro, the Netherlands,
Persia, Portugal, Roumania, Russia, Siam, Sweden and Norway,
and Bulgaria; but not by Austria-Hungary, Germany, Italy,
Japan, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Servia, Turkey,
or China. Ultimately, however, the great Treaty of Arbitration
was signed by everyone of the Powers represented. The
signature of the delegates of the United States was given
under reserve of a declaration which will be found in the
following excerpt from the general report of the American
Commission. The full text of each of the Conventions is given
below.
"The entire plan for the tribunal and its use is voluntary, so
far as sovereign States are concerned. The only seeming
exceptions to this rule are contained in Article 1, which
provides that the Signatory Powers agree to employ their
efforts for securing the pacific regulation of international
differences; and Article 27, which says that the Signatory
Powers consider it to be a duty, in the case where an acute
conflict threatens to break out between two or more of them,
to remind those latter that the permanent court is open to
them. The obligation thus imposed is not legal or diplomatic
in its nature. These articles merely express a general moral
duty for the performance of which each State is accountable
only to itself. In order, however, to make assurance doubly
sure and to leave no doubt whatever of the meaning of the
Convention, as affecting the United States of America, the
Commission made the following declaration in the full session
of the Conference, held July 25:—
The Delegation of the United States of America, in signing the
Convention regulating the peaceful adjustment of international
differences, as proposed by the International Peace
Conference, make the following declaration:—Nothing contained
in this Convention shall be so construed as to require the
United States of America to depart from its traditional policy
of not intruding upon, interfering with, or entangling itself
in the political questions or policy or internal
administration of any foreign State; nor shall anything
contained in the said Convention be construed to imply a
relinquishment by the United States of America of its
traditional attitude toward purely American questions.' Under
the reserve of this declaration the United States delegates
signed the Arbitration Convention itself. Article 8 of the
Convention, providing for a special form of Mediation, was
proposed individually by Mr. Holls of the United States
Commission. … It is hoped that in particular crises, when the
other means provided by the Convention for keeping or
restoring peace have failed, it may prove to have real and
practical value. It is certain that, by the Continental States
of Europe, it has been exceedingly well received."
General Report of the American Commission.
"Objection has been made to [the International Court of
Arbitration] on the ground that submission to it is purely
voluntary and that no executive authority has been provided to
carry out its decrees. The answer to all such objections is
simply that the power of enlightened public opinion is relied
upon to be amply sufficient for the purpose of insuring
obedience to every just mandate of this Court. In the case of
the United States of America the judgments of the Court,
according to the decisions now in force, will have a
peculiarly binding force. An agreement to submit a case to the
Court cannot be made by the United States, except by way of a
treaty, which, when ratified by the Senate, becomes the
supreme law of the land. In the case of La Ninfa, Whitelaw v.
The United States (75 Fed. Rep., 513), it was decided by the
United States Circuit Court of Appeals in California that by
virtue of the treaty the judgment of the Court of Arbitration
provided for by the terms of the treaty has all the force of a
federal statute, and it is itself the supreme law of the land,
binding upon every individual citizen of the United States,
including all federal and State authorities. For us, at least,
the International Court of Arbitration at The Hague will, if
this view prevails, in reality be the highest possible
tribunal, with an authority binding even on our own United
States Supreme Court.
"Article 27 aims, in a measure, to supply the deficiency of
the provision for obligatory arbitration, in that it declares
it to be the duty of all Signatory Powers to remind anyone or
more of themselves, in case of a threatened dispute, that the
permanent Court of Arbitration is open to them. What
particular effect this particular article will have must be
left to the future. Without modification or reservation the
article, when ratified by the United States, would have
constituted a complete abandonment of the time-honored Monroe
Doctrine. Accordingly the representatives of the United States
declined to sign the treaty, except under a reservation or
declaration, which was solemnly accepted by the Peace
Conference, thus materially modifying the jurisdiction of the
Court [see above]. … By this declaration the Monroe Doctrine
was not only self-guarded, but it was stated and vindicated
more emphatically than ever before in our history, and the
people of this country are, therefore, in a position to
cordially support the International Court of Arbitration,
without the fear that the Court itself, or the fact of its
establishment, may ever be used against this country, or to
the embarrassment of its diplomacy and traditional policy. …
"The effect of the establishment of the Court upon European
diplomacy is necessarily surrounded by great uncertainty. In
a recent review of the work of the Peace Conference I ventured
to use this language: 'It is most encouraging and of the
highest importance that upon the whole Continent the
governments are apparently in advance of public opinion upon
the entire subject of the Peace Conference. The reason is not
far to seek. No man who is fit for the position can to-day
hold a place involving the direction of his country's
international policy without feeling an almost intolerable
pressure of responsibility. To him every remote chance of a
lightening of his burden comes as a promise of blessed relief.
It is a historical fact that none of the obstacles to success
which the Peace Conference had to overcome originated in the
mind of any sovereign or of any high minister of State. In
every case they were raised by underlings without
responsibility and anxious to show superior wisdom by finding
fault. So long as this favorable governmental attitude
continues there is every reason for encouragement.'
{356}
'Continental public opinion, especially in questions of
foreign policy, seems more pliable than ever before, and is as
clay in the hands of a potter, so far as alliances and
sympathies are concerned, when following a popular monarch or
foreign minister.' I have since been assured by the highest
officials of at least two great European Powers, that this
statement meets with their unqualified approval. The sneers of
irresponsible journals and politicians cannot and will not
affect the deliberate purposes of a high-minded and serious
minister of State."
F. W. Holls,
The International Court of Arbitration at The Hague;
a paper read before the New York State Bar Association,
January 15, 1901.
PEACE CONFERENCE:
Convention for the Pacific Settlement of
International Disputes.
TITLE I.
On the Maintenance of the General Peace.
ARTICLE I.
With a view to obviating as far as possible, recourse to
force in the relations between States, the Signatory Powers
agree to use their best efforts to insure the pacific
settlement of international differences.
TITLE II.
On Good Offices and Mediation.
ARTICLE II.
In case of serious disagreement or conflict, before an
appeal to arms, the Signatory Powers agree to have
recourse, as far as circumstances allow, to the good
offices or mediation of one or more friendly Powers.
ARTICLE III.
Independently of this recourse, the Signatory Powers
recommend that one or more Powers, strangers to the
dispute, should, on their own initiative, and as far as
circumstances may allow, offer their good offices or
mediation to the States at variance. Powers, strangers to
the dispute, have the right to offer good offices or
mediation, even during the course of hostilities. The
exercise of this right can never be regarded by one or the
other of the parties in conflict as an unfriendly act.
ARTICLE IV.
The part of the mediator consists in reconciling the
opposing claims and appeasing the feelings of resentment
which may have arisen between the States at variance.
ARTICLE V.
The functions of the mediator are at an end when once it is
declared, either by one of the parties to the dispute, or
by the mediator himself, that the means of reconciliation
proposed by him are not accepted.
ARTICLE VI.
Good offices and mediation, either at the request of the
parties at variance, or on the initiative of Powers
strangers to the dispute, have exclusively the character of
advice and never have binding force.
ARTICLE VII.
The acceptance of mediation can not, unless there be an
agreement to the contrary, have the effect of interrupting,
delaying, or hindering mobilization or other measures of
preparation for war. If mediation occurs after the
commencement of hostilities it causes no interruption to
the military operations in progress, unless there be an
agreement to the contrary.
ARTICLE VIII.
The Signatory Powers are agreed in recommending the
application, when circumstances allow, for special
mediation in the following form:—In case of a serious
difference endangering the peace, the States at variance
choose respectively a Power, to whom they intrust the
mission of entering into direct communication with the
Power chosen on the other side, with the object of
preventing the rupture of pacific relations. For the period
of this mandate, the term of which, unless otherwise
stipulated, cannot exceed thirty days, the States in
conflict cease from all direct communication on the subject
of the dispute, which is regarded as referred exclusively
to the mediating Powers, who must use their best efforts to
settle it. In case of a definite rupture of pacific
relations, these Powers are charged with the joint task of
taking advantage of any opportunity to restore peace.
TITLE III.
On International Commissions of Inquiry.
ARTICLE IX.
In differences of an international nature involving neither
honour nor vital interests, and arising from a difference
of opinion on points of fact, the Signatory Powers
recommend that the parties, who have not been able to come
to an agreement by means of diplomacy, should as far as
circumstances allow, institute an International Commission
of Inquiry, to facilitate a solution of these differences
by elucidating the facts by means of an impartial and
conscientious investigation.
ARTICLE X.
The International Commissions of Inquiry are constituted by
special agreement between the parties in conflict. The
Convention for an inquiry defines the facts to be examined and
the extent of the Commissioners' powers. It settles the
procedure. On the inquiry both sides must be heard. The form
and the periods to be observed, if not stated in the inquiry
Convention, are decided by the Commission itself.
ARTICLE XI.
The International Commissions of Inquiry are formed, unless
otherwise stipulated, in the manner fixed by Article XXXII
of the present Convention.
ARTICLE XII.
The powers in dispute engage to supply the International
Commission of Inquiry, as fully as they may think possible,
with all means and facilities necessary to enable it to be
completely acquainted with and to accurately understand the
facts in question.
ARTICLE XIII.
The International Commission of Inquiry communicates its
Report to the conflicting Powers, signed by all the members
of the Commission.
ARTICLE XIV.
The Report of the International Commission of Inquiry is
limited to a statement of facts, and has in no way the
character of an Arbitral Award. It leaves the conflicting
Powers entire freedom as to the effect to be given to this
statement.
TITLE IV.
On International Arbitration.
CHAPTER I.
On the System of Arbitration.
ARTICLE XV.
International arbitration has for its object the settlement
of differences between States by judges of their own
choice, and on the basis of respect for law.
ARTICLE XVI.
In questions of a legal nature, and especially in the
interpretation or application of International Conventions,
arbitration is recognized by the Signatory Powers as the
most effective, and at the same time the most equitable,
means of settling disputes which diplomacy has failed to
settle.
ARTICLE XVII.
The Arbitration Convention is concluded for questions
already existing or for questions which may arise
eventually. It may embrace any dispute or only disputes of
a certain category.
{357}
ARTICLE XVIII.
The Arbitration Convention implies the engagement to submit
loyally to the Award.
ARTICLE XIX.
Independently of general or private Treaties expressly
stipulating recourse to arbitration as obligatory on the
Signatory Powers, these Powers reserve to themselves the
right of concluding, either before the ratification of the
present Act or later, new Agreements, general or private,
with a view to extending obligatory arbitration to all
cases which they may consider it possible to submit to it.
CHAPTER II.
On the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
ARTICLE XX.
With the object of facilitating an immediate recourse to
arbitration for international differences, which it has not
been possible to settle by diplomacy, the Signatory Powers
undertake to organize a permanent Court of Arbitration,
accessible at all times and operating, unless otherwise
stipulated by the parties, in accordance with the Rules of
Procedure inserted in the present Convention.
ARTICLE XXI.
The Permanent Court shall be competent for all arbitration
cases, unless the parties agree to institute a special
Tribunal.
ARTICLE XXII.
An International Bureau, established at The Hague, serves
as record office for the Court. This Bureau is the channel
for communications relative to the meetings of the Court.
It has the custody of the archives and conducts all the
administrative business. The Signatory Powers undertake to
communicate to the International Bureau at The Hague a duly
certified copy of any conditions of arbitration arrived at
between them, and of any award concerning them delivered by
special Tribunals. They undertake also to communicate to
the Bureau the Laws, Regulations, and documents eventually
showing the execution of the awards given by the Court.
ARTICLE XXIII.
Within the three months following its ratification of the
present Act, each Signatory Power shall select four persons
at the most, of known competency in questions of
international law, of the highest moral reputation, and
disposed to accept the duties of Arbitrators. The persons
thus selected shall be inscribed, as members of the Court,
in a list which shall be notified by the Bureau to all the
Signatory Powers. Any alteration in the list of Arbitrators
is brought by the Bureau to the knowledge of the Signatory
Powers. Two or more Powers may agree on the selection in
common of one or more Members. The same person can be
selected by different Powers. The Members of the Court are
appointed for a term of six years. Their appointments can
be renewed. In case of the death or retirement of a member
of the Court, his place shall be filled in accordance with
the method of his appointment.
ARTICLE XXIV.
When the Signatory Powers desire to have recourse to the
Permanent Court for the settlement of a difference that has
arisen between them, the Arbitrators called upon to form the
competent Tribunal to decide this difference, must be
chosen from the general list of members of the Court.
Failing the direct agreement of the parties on the
composition of the Arbitration Tribunal, the following
course shall be pursued:—Each party appoints two
Arbitrators, and these together choose an Umpire. If the
votes are equal, the choice of the Umpire is intrusted to a
third Power, selected by the parties by common accord. If
an agreement is not arrived at on this subject, each party
selects a different Power, and the choice of the Umpire is
made in concert by the Powers thus selected. The Tribunal
being thus composed, the parties notify to the Bureau their
determination to have recourse to the Court and the names
of the Arbitrators. The Tribunal of Arbitration assembles
on the date fixed by the parties. The Members of the Court,
in the discharge of their duties and out of their own
country, enjoy diplomatic privileges and immunities.
ARTICLE XXV.
The Tribunal of Arbitration has its ordinary seat at The
Hague. Except in cases of necessity, the place of session
can only be altered by the Tribunal with the assent of the
parties.
ARTICLE XXVI.
The International Bureau at The Hague is authorized to
place its premises and its staff at the disposal of the
Signatory Powers for the operations of any special Board of
Arbitration. The jurisdiction of the Permanent Court, may,
within the conditions laid down in the Regulations, be
extended to disputes between non-Signatory Powers, or
between Signatory Powers and non-Signatory Powers, if the
parties are agreed on recourse to this Tribunal.
ARTICLE XXVII.
The Signatory Powers consider it their duty, if a serious
dispute threatens to break out between two or more of them,
to remind these latter that the Permanent Court is open to
them. Consequently, they declare that the fact of reminding
the conflicting parties of the provisions of the present
Convention, and the advice given to them, in the highest
interests of peace, to have recourse to the Permanent
Court, can only be regarded as friendly actions.
ARTICLE XXVIII.
A Permanent Administrative Council, composed of the
Diplomatic Representatives of the Signatory Powers
accredited to The Hague and of the Netherland Minister for
Foreign Affairs, who will act as President, shall be
instituted in this town as soon as possible after the
ratification of the present Act by at least nine Powers.
This Council will be charged with the establishment and
organization of the International Bureau, which will be
under its direction and control. It will notify to the
Powers the constitution of the Court and will provide for
its installation. It will settle its Rules of Procedure and
all other necessary Regulations. It will decide all
questions of administration which may arise with regard to
the operations of the Court. It will have entire control
over the appointment, suspension or dismissal of the
officials and employés of the Bureau. It will fix the
payments and salaries, and control the general expenditure.
At meetings duly summoned the presence of five members is
sufficient to render valid the discussions of the Council.
The decisions are taken by a majority of votes. The Council
communicates to the Signatory Powers without delay the
Regulations adopted by it. It furnishes them with an annual
Report on the labours of the Court, the working of the
administration, and the expenses.
ARTICLE XXIX.
The expenses of the Bureau shall be borne by the Signatory
Powers in the proportion fixed for the International Bureau
of the Universal Postal Union.
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CHAPTER III.
On Arbitral Procedure.
ARTICLE XXX.
With a view to encourage the development of arbitration,
the Signatory Powers have agreed on the following Rules
which shall be applicable to arbitral procedure, unless
other Rules have been agreed on by the parties.
ARTICLE XXXI.
The Powers who have recourse to arbitration sign a special
Act ("Compromis"), in which the subject of the difference
is clearly defined, as well as the extent of the
Arbitrators' powers. This Act implies the undertaking of
the parties to submit loyally to the award.
ARTICLE XXXII.
The duties of Arbitrator may be conferred on one Arbitrator
alone or on several Arbitrators selected by the parties as
they please, or chosen by them from the members of the
Permanent Court of Arbitration established by the present
Act. Failing the constitution of the Tribunal by direct
agreement between the parties, the following course shall
be pursued: Each party appoints two Arbitrators, and these
latter together choose an Umpire. In case of equal voting,
the choice of the Umpire is intrusted to a third Power,
selected by the parties by common accord. If no agreement
is arrived at on this subject, each party selects a
different Power, and the choice of the Umpire is made in
concert by the Powers thus selected.
ARTICLE XXXIII.
When a Sovereign or the Chief of a State is chosen as
Arbitrator, the arbitral procedure is settled by him.
ARTICLE XXXIV.
The Umpire is by right President of the Tribunal. When the
Tribunal does not include an Umpire, it appoints its own
President.
ARTICLE XXXV.
In case of the death, retirement, or disability from any
cause of one of the Arbitrators, his place shall be filled
in accordance with the method of his appointment.
ARTICLE XXXVI.
The Tribunal's place of session is selected by the parties.
Failing this selection the Tribunal sits at The Hague. The
place thus fixed cannot, except in case of necessity, be
changed by the Tribunal without the assent of the parties.
ARTICLE XXXVII.
The parties have the right to appoint delegates or special
agents to attend the Tribunal, for the purpose of serving
as intermediaries between them and the Tribunal. They are
further authorized to retain, for the defense of their
rights and interests before the Tribunal, counselor
advocates appointed by them for this purpose.
ARTICLE XXXVIII.
The Tribunal decides on the choice of languages to be used
by itself, and to be authorized for use before it.
ARTICLE XXXIX.
As a general rule the arbitral procedure comprises two
distinct phases; preliminary examination and discussion.
Preliminary examination consists in the communication by
the respective agents to the members of the Tribunal and to
the opposite party of all printed or written Acts and of
all documents containing the arguments invoked in the case.
This communication shall be made in the form and within the
periods fixed by the Tribunal in accordance with Article
XLIX. Discussion consists in the oral development before
the Tribunal of the arguments of the parties.
ARTICLE XL.
Every document produced by one party must be communicated
to the other party.
ARTICLE XLI.
The discussions are under the direction of the President.
They are only public if it be so decided by the Tribunal,
with the assent of the parties. They are recorded in the
"procès-verbaux" drawn up by the Secretaries appointed by
the President. These "procès-verbaux" lone have an
authentic character.
ARTICLE XLII.
When the preliminary examination is concluded, the Tribunal
has the light to refuse discussion of all fresh Acts or
documents which one party may desire to submit to it
without the consent of the other party.
ARTICLE XLIII.
The Tribunal is free to take into consideration fresh Acts
or documents to which its attention may be drawn by the
agents or counsel of the parties. In this case, the
Tribunal has the right to require the production of these
Acts or documents, but is obliged to make them known to the
opposite party.
ARTICLE XLIV.
The Tribunal can, besides, require from the agents of the
parties the production of all Acts, and can demand all
necessary explanations. In case of refusal, the Tribunal
takes note of it.
ARTICLE XLV.
The agents and counsel of the parties are authorized to
present orally to the Tribunal all the arguments they may
think expedient in defence of their case.
ARTICLE XLVI.
They have the right to raise objections and points. The
decisions of the Tribunal on those points are final, and
cannot form the subject of any subsequent discussion.
ARTICLE XLVII.
The members of the Tribunal have the right to put questions
to the agents and counsel of the parties, and to demand
explanations from them on doubtful points. Neither the
questions put nor the remarks made by members of the
Tribunal during the discussions can be regarded as an
expression of opinion by the Tribunal in general, or by its
members in particular.
ARTICLE XLVIII.
The Tribunal is authorized to declare its competence in
interpreting the "Compromis" as well as the other Treaties
which may be invoked in the case, and in applying the
principles of international law.
ARTICLE XLIX.
The Tribunal has the right to issue Rules of Procedure for
the conduct of the case, to decide the forms and periods
within which each party must conclude its arguments, and to
arrange all the formalities required for dealing with the
evidence.
ARTICLE L.
When the agents and counsel of the parties have submitted
all explanations and evidence in support of their case, the
President pronounces the discussion closed.
ARTICLE LI.
The deliberations of the Tribunal take place in private.
Every decision is taken by a majority of members of the
Tribunal. The refusal of a member to vote must be recorded
in the "procès-verbal."
ARTICLE LII.
The award, given by a majority of votes, is accompanied by
a statement of reasons. It is drawn up in writing and
signed by each member of the Tribunal. Those members who
are in the minority may record their dissent when signing.
ARTICLE LIII.
The award is read out at a public meeting of the Tribunal,
the agents and counsel of the parties being present, or
duly summoned to attend.
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ARTICLE LIV.
The award, duly pronounced and notified to the agents of
the parties at variance, puts an end to the dispute
definitely and without appeal.
ARTICLE LV.
The parties can reserve in the "Compromis" the right to
demand the revision of the award. In this case, and unless
there be an agreement to the contrary, the demand must be
addressed to the Tribunal which pronounced the award. It
can only be made on the ground of the discovery of some new
fact calculated to exercise a decisive influence on the
award, and which, at the time the discussion was closed,
was unknown to the Tribunal and to the party demanding the
revision. Proceedings for revision can only be instituted
by a decision of the Tribunal expressly recording the
existence of the new fact, recognizing in it the character
described in the foregoing paragraph, and declaring the
demand admissible on this ground. The "Compromis" fixes the
period within which the demand for revision must be made.
ARTICLE LVI.
The award is only binding on the parties who concluded the
"Compromis." When there is a question of interpreting a
Convention to which Powers other than those concerned in
the dispute are parties, the latter notify to the former
the "Compromis" they have concluded. Each of these Powers
has the right to intervene in the case. If one or more of
them avail themselves of this right, the interpretation
contained in the award is equally binding on them.
ARTICLE LVII.
Each party pays its own expenses and an equal share of
those of the Tribunal.
General Provisions.
ARTICLE LVIII.
The present Convention shall be ratified as speedily as
possible. The ratification shall be deposited at The Hague.
A "procès-verbal" shall be drawn up recording the receipt
of each ratification, and a copy duly certified shall be
sent, through the diplomatic channel, to all the Powers who
were represented at the International Peace Conference at
The Hague.
ARTICLE LIX.
The non-Signatory Powers who were represented at the
International Peace Conference can adhere to the present
Convention. For this purpose they must make known their
adhesion to the Contracting Powers by a written
notification addressed to the Netherland Government, and
communicated by it to all the other Contracting Powers.
ARTICLE LX.
The conditions on which the Powers who were not represented
at the International Peace Conference can adhere to the
present Convention shall form the subject of a subsequent
Agreement among the Contracting Powers.
ARTICLE LXI.
In the event of one of the High Contracting Parties
denouncing the present Convention, this denunciation would
not take effect until a year after its notification made in
writing to the Netherland Government, and by it
communicated at once to all the other Contracting Powers.
This denunciation shall on]y affect the notifying Power. In
faith of which the Plenipotentiaries have signed the
present Convention and affixed their seals to it. Done at
The Hague, the 29th July, 1899, in a single copy, which
shall remain in the archives of the Netherland Government,
and copies of it, duly certified, be sent through the
diplomatic channel to the Contracting Powers.
United States, 56th Congress,
1st Session., Senate Document 159.
PEACE CONFERENCE:
The Permanent Court of Arbitration.
The following is the membership of the Permanent Court of
Arbitration, as finally organized, in January, 1901, and
announced to be prepared for the consideration of any
international dispute that may be submitted to it. Fifteen of
the greater nations of the world are represented in this most
august tribunal that has ever sat for judgment of the disputes
of men:
Austria-Hungary.
His Excellency Count Frederic Schonborn, LL. D., president
of the Imperial Royal Court of Administrative Justice,
former Austrian Minister of Justice, member of the House of
Lords of the Austrian Parliament, etc.
His Excellency Mr. D. de Szilagyi, ex-Minister of Justice,
member of the House of Deputies of the Hungarian
Parliament.
Count Albert Apponyi, member of the Chamber of Magnates and
of the Chamber of Deputies of the Hungarian Parliament,
etc.
Mr. Henri Lammasch, LL. D., member of the House of Lords of
the Austrian Parliament, etc.
Belgium.
His Excellency Mr. Beernaert, Minister of State, member of
the Chamber of Representatives, etc.
His Excellency Baron Lambermont, Minister of State, Envoy
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary,
Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Chevalier Descamps, Senator.
Mr. Rolin Jacquemyns, ex-Minister of the Interior.
Denmark.
Professor H. Matzen, LL. D., Professor of the Copenhagen
University, Counsellor Extraordinary of the Supreme Court,
President of the Landsthing.
France.
M. Leon Bourgeois, Deputy, ex-President of the Cabinet
Council, ex-Minister for Foreign Affairs.
M. de Laboulaye, ex-Ambassador.
Baron Destournelles de Constant, Minister Plenipotentiary,
Deputy.
M. Louis Renault, Minister Plenipotentiary, Professor in
the Faculty of Law at Paris, Law Office of the Department
of Foreign Affairs.
Germany.
His Excellency Mr. Bingner, LL. D., Privy Councillor,
Senate President of the Imperial High Court at Leipsic.
Mr. von Frantzius, Privy Councillor, Solicitor of the
Department of Foreign Affairs at Berlin.
Mr. von Martitz, LL. D., Associate Justice of the Superior
Court of Administrative Justice in Prussia, Professor of
Law at the Berlin University.
Mr. von Bar, LL. D., Judicial Privy Councillor, Professor
of Law at the Göttingen University.
Great Britain.
His Excellency the Right Honorable Lord Pauncefote of
Preston, G. C. B., G. C. M. G., Privy Councillor,
Ambassador at Washington.
The Right Honorable Sir Edward Baldwin Malet,
ex-Ambassador.
The Right Honorable Sir Edward Fry, member of the Privy
Council, Q. C.
Professor John Westlake, LL. D., Q. C.
Italy.
His Excellency Count Constantin Nigra, Senator of the
Kingdom, Ambassador at Vienna.
His Excellency Commander Jean Baptiste Pagano
Guarnaschelli, Senator of the Kingdom, First President of
the Court of Cassation at Rome.
His Excellency Count Tornielli Brusati di Vergano, Senator
of the Kingdom, Ambassador at Paris.
Commander Joseph Zanardelli, Attorney at Law, Deputy to the
National Parliament.
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Japan.
Mr. Motono, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary at Brussels.
Mr. H. Willard Denison, Law Officer of the Minister for
Foreign Affairs at Tokio.
Netherlands.
Mr. T. M. C. Asser, LL. D., member of the Council of
State, ex-Professor of the University of Amsterdam.
Mr. F. B. Coninck Liefsting, LL. D.,
President of the Court of Cassation.
Jonkheer A. F. de Savornin Lohman, LL. D.,
ex-Minister of the Interior, ex-Professor of the Free
University of Amsterdam, member of the Lower House of the
States-General.
Jonkheer G. L. M. H. Ruis de Beerenbrouck,
ex-Minister of Justice, Commissioner of the Queen in the
Province of Limbourg.
Portugal.
Count de Macedo, Peer of the Realm,
ex-Minister of Marine and Colonies, Envoy Extraordinary and
Minister Plenipotentiary at Madrid.
Rumania.
Mr. Theodore Rosetti, Senator,
ex-President of the High Court of Cassation and Justice.
Mr. Jean Kalindero, Administrator of the Crown Domain,
ex-Judge of the High Court of Cassation and Justice.
Mr. Eugene Statsco,
ex-President of the Senate, ex-Minister of Justice and
Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Jean N. Lahovari, Deputy, ex-Envoy Extraordinary and
Minister Plenipotentiary, ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Russia.
Mr. N. V. Mouravieff, Minister of Justice, Active Privy
Councillor, Secretary of State of His Majesty the Emperor.
Mr. C. P. Pobedonostzeff, Attorney-General of the Most
Holy Synod, Active Privy Councillor, Secretary of State of
His Majesty the Emperor.
Mr. E. V. Frisch,
President of the Department of Legislation of the Imperial
Council, Active Privy Councillor, Secretary of State of His
Majesty the Emperor.
Mr. de Martens, Privy Councillor,
permanent member of the Council of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs.
Spain.
His Excellency the Duke of Tetuan,
ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Senator of the Kingdom,
Grandee of Spain.
Mr. Bienvenido Oliver,
Director-General of the Ministry of Justice, ex-Delegate of
Spain to the Conference on Private International Law at The
Hague.
Dr. Manuel Torres Campos,
Professor of international law at the University of
Grenada, associate member of the Institute of International
Law.
Sweden and Norway.
Mr. S. R D. K. D'Olivecrona,
member of the International Law Institute, ex-Associate
Justice of the Supreme Court of the Kingdom of Sweden,
Doctor of Laws and Letters at Stockholm.
Mr. G. Gram,
ex-Minister of State of Norway, Governor of the Province of
Hamar, Norway.
United States.
Mr. Benjamin Harrison,
ex-President of the United States.
Mr. Melville W. Fuller,
Chief Justice of the United States.
Mr. John W. Griggs,
Attorney-General of the United States.
Mr. George Gray,
United States Circuit Judge.
First Secretary of the Court
J. J. Rochussen.
Second Secretary of the Court
Jonkheer W. Roell.
The Administrative Council consists of the Minister of Foreign
Affairs of the Netherlands and the diplomatic representatives
at The Hague of the ratifying Powers.
Secretary-General
Mr. R Melvil, Baron Van Leyden,
Judge of the District Court of Utrecht and a member of the
First Chamber of the States-General.
PEACE CONFERENCE:
Convention with respect to the Laws and Customs of
War on Land.
ARTICLE I.
The High Contracting Parties shall issue instructions to their
armed land forces, which shall be in conformity with the
"Regulations respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land"
annexed to the present Convention.
ARTICLE II.
The provisions contained in the Regulations mentioned in
Article I. are only binding on the Contracting Powers, in case
of war between two or more of them. These provisions shall
cease to be binding from the time when, in a war between
Contracting Powers, a non-Contracting Power joins one of the
belligerents.
ARTICLE III.
The present Convention shall be ratified as speedily as
possible. The ratifications shall be deposited at The Hague. A
"procès-verbal" shall be drawn up recording the receipt of
each ratification, and a copy, duly certified, shall be sent
through the diplomatic channel, to all the Contracting Powers.
ARTICLE IV.
Non-Signatory Powers are allowed to adhere to the present
Convention. For this purpose they must make their adhesion
known to the Contracting Powers by means of a written
notification addressed to the Netherland Government, and by it
communicated to all the other Contracting Powers.
ARTICLE V.
In the event of one of the High Contracting Parties denouncing
the present Convention, such denunciation would not take
effect until a year after the written notification made to the
Nethterland Government, and by it at once communicated to all
the other Contracting Powers. This denunciation shall affect
only the notifying Power.
In faith of which the Plenipotentiaries have signed the
present Convention and affixed their seals thereto.
[Signed by representatives of Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Mexico,
France, Greece, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Persia, Portugal,
Roumania, Russia, Siam, Sweden and Norway, and Bulgaria.]
REGULATIONS.
SECTION I.
On Belligerents.
CHAPTER I.
On the qualifications of Belligerents.
ARTICLE I.
The laws, rights, and duties of war apply not only to armies,
but also to militia and volunteer corps, fulfilling the
following conditions:
1. To be commanded by a person responsible for his
subordinates;
2. To have a fixed distinctive emblem recognizable at a
distance;
3. To carry arms openly; and,
4. To conduct their operations in accordance with the laws
and customs of war. In countries where militia or volunteer
corps constitute the army, or form part of it, they are
included under the denomination "army."
ARTICLE II.
The population of a territory which has not been occupied who,
on the enemy's approach, spontaneously take up arms to resist
the invading troops without having time to organize themselves
in accordance with Article I, shall be regarded a belligerent,
if they respect the laws and customs of war.
ARTICLE III.
The armed forces of the belligerent parties may consist of
combatants and non-combatants. In case of capture by the enemy
both have a right to be treated as prisoners of war.
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CHAPTER II.
On Prisoners of War.
ARTICLE IV.
Prisoners of war are in the power of the hostile Government,
but not in that of the individuals or corps who captured them.
They must be humanely treated. All their personal belongings,
except arms, horses, and military papers remain their
property.
ARTICLE V.
Prisoners of war may be interned in a town, fortress, camp, or
any other locality, and bound not to go beyond certain fixed
limits; but they can only be confined as an indispensable
measure of safety.
ARTICLE VI.
The State may utilize the labour of prisoners of war according
to their rank and aptitude. Their tasks shall not be
excessive, and shall have nothing to do with the military
operations. Prisoners may be authorized to work for the Public
Service, for private persons, or on their own account. Work
done for the State shall be paid for according to the tariffs
in force for soldiers of the national army employed on similar
tasks. When the work is for other branches of the Public
Service or for private persons, the conditions shall be
settled in agreement with the military authorities. The wages
of the prisoners shall go towards improving their position,
and the balance shall be paid them at the time of their
release, after deducting the cost of their maintenance.
ARTICLE VII.
The Government into whose hands prisoners of war have fallen
is bound to maintain them. Failing a special agreement between
the belligerents, prisoners of war shall be treated as regards
food, quarters, and clothing, on the same footing as the
troops of the Government which has captured them.
ARTICLE VIII.
Prisoners of war shall be subject to the laws, regulations,
and orders in force in the army of the State into whose hands
they have fallen. Any act of insubordination warrants the
adoption, as regards them, of such measures of severity as may
be necessary. Escaped prisoners, recaptured before they have
succeeded in rejoining their army, or before quitting the
territory occupied by the army that captured them, are liable
to disciplinary punishment. Prisoners who, after succeeding in
escaping, are again taken prisoners, are not liable to any
punishment for the previous flight.
ARTICLE IX.
Every prisoner of war, if questioned, is bound to declare his
true name and rank, and if he disregards this rule, he is
liable to a curtailment of the advantages accorded to the
prisoners of war of his class.
ARTICLE X.
Prisoners of war may be set at liberty on parole if the laws
of their country authorize it, and, in such a case, they are
bound, on their personal honour, scrupulously to fulfil, both
as regards their own Government and the Government by whom
they were made prisoners, the engagements they have
contracted. In such cases, their own Government shall not
require of nor accept from them any service incompatible with
the parole given.
ARTICLE XI.
A prisoner of war cannot be forced to accept his liberty on
parole; similarly the hostile Government is not obliged to
assent to the prisoner's request to be set at liberty on
parole.
ARTICLE XII.
Any prisoner of war, who is liberated on parole and
recaptured, bearing arms against the Government to whom he had
pledged his honour, or against the allies of that Government,
forfeits his right to be treated as a prisoner of war, and can
be brought before the Courts.
ARTICLE XIII.
Individuals who follow an army without directly belonging to
it, such as newspaper correspondents and reporters, sutlers,
contractors, who fall into the enemy's hands, and whom the
latter think fit to detain, have a right to be treated as
prisoners of war, provided they can produce a certificate from
the military authorities of the army they were accompanying.
ARTICLE XIV.
A Bureau for information relative to prisoners of war is
instituted, on the commencement of hostilities, in each of the
belligerent States and, when necessary, in the neutral
countries on whose territory belligerents have been received.
This Bureau is intended to answer all inquiries about
prisoners of war, and is furnished by the various services
concerned with all the necessary information to enable it to
keep an individual return for each prisoner of war. It is kept
informed of internments and changes, as well as of admissions
into hospital and deaths. It is also the duty of the
Information Bureau to receive and collect all objects of
personal use, valuables, letters, &c., found on the
battlefields or left by prisoners who have died in hospital or
ambulance, and to transmit them to those interested.
ARTICLE XV.
Relief Societies for prisoners of war, which are regularly
constituted in accordance with the law of the country with the
object of serving as the intermediary for charity, shall
receive from the belligerents for themselves and their duly
accredited agents every facility, within the bounds of
military requirements and Administrative Regulations, for the
effective accomplishment of their humane task. Delegates of
these Societies may be admitted to the places of internment
for the distribution of relief, as also to the halting places
of repatriated prisoners, if furnished with a personal permit
by the military authorities, and on giving an engagement in
writing to comply with all their Regulations for order and
police.
ARTICLE XVI.
The Information Bureau shall have the privilege of free
postage. Letters, money orders, and valuables, as well as
postal parcels destined for the prisoners of war or despatched
by them, shall be free of all postal duties, both in the
countries of origin and destination, as well as in those they
pass through. Gifts and relief in kind for prisoners of war
shall be admitted free of all duties of entry and others, as
well as of payments for carriage by the Government rail ways.
ARTICLE XVII.
Officers taken prisoners may receive, if necessary, the full
pay allowed them in this position by their country's
regulations, the amount to be repaid by their Government.
ARTICLE XVIII.
Prisoners of war shall enjoy every latitude in the exercise of
their religion, including attendance at their own church
services, provided only they comply with the regulations for
order and police issued by the military authorities.
ARTICLE XIX.
The wills of prisoners of war are received or drawn up on the
same conditions as for soldiers of the national army. The same
rules shall be observed regarding death certificates, as well as
for the burial of prisoners of war, due regard being paid to
their grade and rank.
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ARTICLE XX.
After the conclusion of peace, the repatriation of prisoners
of war shall take place as speedily as possible.
CHAPTER III.
On the Sick and Wounded.
ARTICLE XXI.
The obligations of belligerents with regard to the sick and
wounded are governed by the Geneva Convention of the 22d
August, 1864, subject to any modifications which may be
introduced into it.
SECTION II.
On Hostilities.
CHAPTER I.
On means of injuring the Enemy, Sieges: and Bombardments.
ARTICLE XXII.
The right of belligerents to adopt means of injuring the enemy
is not unlimited.
ARTICLE XXIII.
Besides the prohibitions provided
by special Conventions, it is especially prohibited:
(a.) To employ poison or poisoned arms;
(b.) To kill or wound treacherously individuals belonging
to the hostile nation or army;
(c.) To kill or wound an enemy who, having laid down arms,
or having no longer means of defence, has surrendered at
discretion;
(d.) To declare that no quarter will be given;
(e.) To employ arms, projectiles, or material of a nature
to cause superfluous injury;
(f.) To make improper use of a flag of truce, the national
flag, or military ensigns and the enemy's uniform, as well
as the distinctive badges of the Geneva Convention;
(g.) To destroy or seize the enemy's property, unless such
destruction or seizure be imperatively demanded by the
necessities of war.
ARTICLE XXIV.
Ruses of war and the employment of methods necessary to obtain
information about the enemy and the country, are considered
allowable.
ARTICLE XXV.
The attack or bombardment of towns, villages, habitations or
buildings which are not defended, is prohibited.
ARTICLE XXVI.
The Commander of an attacking force, before commencing a
bombardment, except in the case of an assault, should do all
he can to warn the authorities.
ARTICLE XXVII.
In sieges and bombardments all necessary steps should be taken
to spare as far as possible edifices devoted to religion, art,
science, and charity, hospitals, and places where the sick and
wounded are collected, provided they are not used at the same
time for military purposes. The besieged should indicate these
buildings or places by some particular and visible signs,
which should previously be notified to the assailants.
ARTICLE XXVIII.
The pillage of a town or place, even when taken by assault, is
prohibited.
CHAPTER II.
On Spies.
ARTICLE XXIX.
An individual can only be considered a spy if, acting
clandestinely, or on false pretences, he obtains, or seeks to
obtain information in the zone of operations of a belligerent,
with the intention of communicating it to the hostile party.
Thus, soldiers not in disguise who have penetrated into the
zone of operations of a hostile army to obtain information are
not considered spies. Similarly, the following are not
considered spies: soldiers or civilians, carrying out their
mission openly, charged with the delivery of despatches
destined either for their own army or for that of the enemy.
To this class belong likewise individuals sent in balloons to
deliver despatches, and generally to maintain communication
between the various parts of an army or a territory.
ARTICLE XXX.
A spy taken in the act cannot be punished without previous
trial.
ARTICLE XXXI.
A spy who, after rejoining the army to which he belongs, is
subsequently captured by the enemy, is treated as a prisoner
of war, and incurs no responsibility for his previous acts of
espionage.
CHAPTER III.
On Flags of Truce.
ARTICLE XXXII.
An individual is considered as bearing a flag of truce who is
authorized by one of the belligerents to enter into
communication with the other, and who carries a white flag. He
has a right to inviolability, as well as the trumpeter,
bugler, or drummer, the flag-bearer, and the interpreter who
may accompany him.
ARTICLE XXXIII.
The Chief to whom a flag of truce is sent is not obliged to
receive it in all circumstances. He can take all steps
necessary to prevent the envoy taking advantage of his mission
to obtain information. In case of abuse, he has the right to
detain the envoy temporarily.
ARTICLE XXXIV.
The envoy loses his rights of inviolability if it is proved
beyond doubt that he has taken advantage of his privileged
position to provoke or commit an act of treachery.
CHAPTER IV.
On Capitulations.
ARTICLE XXXV.
Capitulations agreed on between the Contracting Parties must
be in accordance with the rules of military honour. When once
settled, they must be scrupulously observed by both the
parties.
CHAPTER V.
On Armistices.
ARTICLE XXXVI.
An armistice suspends military operations by mutual agreement
between the belligerent parties. If its duration is not fixed,
the belligerent parties can resume operations at any time,
provided always the enemy is warned within the time agreed
upon, in accordance with the terms of the armistice.
ARTICLE XXXVII.
An armistice may be general or local. The first suspends all
military operations of the belligerent States; the second,
only those between certain fractions of the belligerent armies
and in a fixed radius.
ARTICLE XXXVIII.
An armistice must be notified officially, and in good time, to
the competent authorities and the troops. Hostilities are
suspended immediately lifter the notification, or at a fixed
date.
ARTICLE XXXIX.
It is for the Contracting Parties to settle, in the terms of
the armistice, what communications may be held, on the theatre
of war, with the population and with each other.
ARTICLE XL.
Any serious violation of the armistice by one of the parties
gives the other party the right to denounce it, and even, in
case of urgency, to recommence hostilities at once.
ARTICLE XLI.
A violation of the terms of the armistice by private
individuals acting on their own initiative, only confers the
right of demanding the punishment of the offenders, and, if
necessary, indemnity for the losses sustained.
{363}
SECTION III.
On Military Authority over Hostile Territory.
ARTICLE XLII.
Territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed
under the authority of the hostile army. The occupation
applies only to the territory where such authority is
established, and in a position to assert itself.
ARTICLE XLIII.
The authority of the legitimate power having actually passed
into the hands of the occupant, the latter shall take all
steps in his power to re-establish and insure, as far as
possible, public order and safety, while respecting, unless
absolutely prevented, the laws in force in the country.
ARTICLE XLIV.
Any compulsion of the population of occupied territory to take
part in military operations against its own country is
prohibited.
ARTICLE XLV.
Any pressure on the population of occupied territory to take
the oath to the hostile Power is prohibited.
ARTICLE XLVI.
Family honours and rights, individual lives and private
property, as well as religious convictions and liberty, must
be respected. Private property cannot be confiscated.
ARTICLE XLVII.
Pillage is formally prohibited.
ARTICLE XLVIII.
If, in the territory occupied, the occupant collects the
taxes, dues, and tolls imposed for the benefit of the State,
he shall do it, as far as possible, in accordance with the
rules in existence and the assessment in force, and will in
consequence be bound to defray the expenses of the
administration of the occupied territory on the same scale as
that by which the legitimate Government was bound.
ARTICLE XLIX.
If, besides the taxes mentioned in the preceding Article, the
occupant levies other money taxes in the occupied territory,
this can only be for military necessities or the
administration of such territory.
ARTICLE L.
No general penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, can be inflicted
on the population on account of the acts of individuals for
which it cannot be regarded as collectively responsible.
ARTICLE LI.
No tax shall be collected except under a written order and on
the responsibility of a Commander-in-chief. This collection
shall only take place, as far as possible, in accordance with
the rules in existence and the assessment of taxes in force.
For every payment a receipt shall be given to the taxpayer.
ARTICLE LII.
Neither requisitions in kind nor services can be demanded from
communes or inhabitants except for the necessities of the army
of occupation. They must be in proportion to the resources of the
country, and of such a nature as not to involve the population
in the obligation of taking part in military operations
against their country. These requisitions and services shall
only be demanded on the authority of the Commander in the
locality occupied. The contributions in kind shall, as far as
possible, be paid for in ready money; if not, their receipt
shall be acknowledged.
ARTICLE LIII.
An army of occupation can only take possession of the cash,
funds, and property liable to requisition belonging strictly
to the State, depots of arms, means of transport, stores and
supplies, and, generally, all movable property of the State
which may be used for military operations. Railway plant, land
telegraphs, telephones, steamers, and other ships, apart from
cases governed by maritime law, as well as depots of arms and,
generally, all kinds of war material, even though belonging to
Companies or to private persons, are likewise material which
may serve for military operations, but they must be restored
at the conclusion of peace, and indemnities paid for them.
ARTICLE LIV.
The plant of railways coming from neutral States, whether the
property of those States, or of Companies, or of private
persons, shall be sent back to them as soon as possible.
ARTICLE LV.
The occupying State shall only be regarded as administrator
and usufructuary of the public buildings, real property,
forests, and agricultural works belonging to the hostile
State, and situated in the occupied country. It must protect
the capital of these properties, and administer it according
to the rules of usufruct.
ARTICLE LVI.
The property of the communes, that of religious, charitable,
and educational institutions, and those of arts and science,
even when State property, shall be treated as private
property. All seizure of, and destruction, or intentional
damage done to such institutions, to historical monuments,
works of art or science, is prohibited, and should be made the
subject of proceedings.
SECTION IV.
On the Internment of Belligerents and the Care of the Wounded
in Neutral Countries.
ARTICLE LVII.
A neutral State which receives in its territory troops
belonging to the belligerent armies shall intern them, as far
as possible, at a distance from the theatre of war. It can
keep them in camps, and even confine them in fortresses or
localities assigned for this purpose. It shall decide whether
officers may be left at liberty on giving their parole that
they will not leave the neutral territory without
authorization.
ARTICLE LVIII.
Failing a special Convention, the neutral State shall supply
the interned with the food, clothing, and relief required by
humanity. At the conclusion of peace, the expenses caused by
the internment shall be made good.
ARTICLE LIX.
A neutral State may authorize the passage through its
territory of wounded or sick belonging to the belligerent
armies, on condition that the trains bringing them shall carry
neither combatants nor war material. In such a case, the neutral
State is bound to adopt such measures of safety and control as
may be necessary for the purpose. Wounded and sick brought
under these conditions into neutral territory by one of the
belligerents, and belonging to the hostile party, must be
guarded by the neutral State, so as to insure their not taking
part again in the military operations. The same duty shall
devolve on the neutral State with regard to wounded or sick of
the other army who may be committed to its care.
{364}
ARTICLE LX.
The Geneva Convention applies to sick and wounded interned in
neutral territory. The Convention establishing these
regulations was not signed by the delegates from the United
States, nor by those of Great Britain. The reasons for
abstention on the part of the latter were stated in a
communication from the British War Office, as follows: "Lord
Lansdowne … considers it essential that the revised Articles,
together with the Preamble and final dispositions, should be
submitted to the most careful examination by the high military
authorities and by the legal advisers of Her Majesty's
Government, before he can pronounce a definitive opinion on
the three points raised. Subject to such reserves as may
result from this examination, Lord Lansdowne is of opinion
that the Project of Convention is in general of such a nature
that it may, in principle, be accepted as a basis of
instructions for the guidance of the British army, but he is
unable, until that examination has been completed, to offer an
opinion as to whether it is desirable to enter into an
international engagement. Lord Lansdowne would therefore
suggest, for Lord Salisbury's consideration, that instructions
should be given to Sir Julian Pauncefote to reserve full
liberty for Her Majesty's Government, to accept only such
Articles as, after mature examination by their military and
legal advisers, they may approve of." Probably the delegates
from the United States were similarly instructed by their
government.
Added to the Convention relative to Laws and Customs of War
were three Declarations, separately signed, as follows:
1. "The contracting powers agree to prohibit, for a term of
five years, the launching of projectiles and explosives from
balloons, or by other new methods of a similar nature."
2. "The contracting parties agree to abstain from the use of
bullets which expand or flatten easily in the human body, such
as bullets with a hard envelope which does not entirely cover
the core, or is pierced with incisions."
3. "The contracting parties agree to abstain from the use of
projectiles the object of which is the diffusion of
asphyxiating or deleterious gases."
The first of these Declarations was signed by the delegates
from the United States, but not by those from Great Britain.
The second and third were signed by neither British nor
American representatives. In the discussion that preceded the
adoption of the second Declaration by a majority of the
Conference, Captain Crozier, of the American delegation,
presented the objections to it, on which he and his colleagues
were in agreement with the British representatives. He said
"there was a great difference of opinion as to whether the
bullets of small calibre rifles sufficed to put men 'hors de
combat,' which was admitted on all sides to be the object
which rifle fire was expected to achieve. He considered the
proposition before the Conference to be unsatisfactory, since
it limited the prohibition to details of construction which
only included a single case, and left all others out of
consideration. He would not enter into a recapitulation of all
the advantages of small calibre rifles, since they were
perfectly well known; but he felt sure that certain Powers
might adopt calibres even smaller than those at present in
use, and, in this case, he maintained that they would be
compelled to secure increased shock by some new method of
construction of the projectile. He considered that it would be
perfectly easy to devise such projectiles while keeping within
the terms of the proposed interdiction, and he thought that
the result might be the ultimate adoption of a bullet of an
even less humane character than those aimed at by the
Resolution. He declared that he had nothing to say for or
against the Dum-Dum bullet [see, in this volume, DUM-DUM
BULLET], of which he knew nothing except what had been stated
during the meetings of the First Commission, but that he was
not disposed to make any condemnation without proofs, and
these proofs had not been forthcoming."
As for the third Declaration, it was opposed by Captain Mahan,
who spoke for the Americans, because "he considered the use of
asphyxiating shell far less inhuman and cruel than the
employment of submarine boats, and as the employment of
submarine boats had not been interdicted by the Conference
(though specially mentioned with that object in the Mouravieff
Circular), he felt constrained to maintain his vote in favour of
the use of asphyxiating shell on the original ground that the
United States' Government was averse to placing any
restriction on the inventive genius of its citizens in
inventing and providing new weapons of war."
PEACE CONFERENCE:
Convention for the adaptation to maritime warfare of the
principles of the Geneva Convention of August 22, 1864.
ARTICLE I.
Military hospital-ships, that is to say, ships constructed or
assigned by States specially and solely for the purpose of
assisting the wounded, sick, or shipwrecked, and the names of
which shall have been communicated to the belligerent Powers
at the commencement or during the course of hostilities, and
in any case before they are employed, shall be respected and
cannot be captured while hostilities last. These ships,
moreover, are not on the same footing as men-of-war as regards
their stay in a neutral port.
ARTICLE II.
Hospital-ships, equipped wholly or in part at the cost of
private individuals or officially recognized relief Societies,
shall likewise be respected and exempt from capture, provided
the belligerent Power to whom they belong has given them an
official commission and has notified their names to the
Hostile Power at the commencement of or during hostilities,
and in any case before they are employed. These ships should
be furnished with a certificate from the competent
authorities, declaring that they had been under their control
while fitting out and on final departure.
ARTICLE III.
Hospital-ships, equipped wholly or in part at the cost of
private individuals or officially recognized Societies of
neutral countries, shall be respected and exempt from capture,
if the neutral Power to whom they belong has given them an
official commission and notified their names to the
belligerent Powers at the commencement of or during
hostilities, and in any case before they are employed.
ARTICLE IV.
The ships mentioned in Articles I, II, and III shall afford
relief and assistance to the wounded, sick, and shipwrecked of
the belligerents independently of their nationality. The
Governments engage not to use these ships for any military
purpose. These ships must not in any way hamper the movements
of the combatants. During and after an engagement they will
act at their own risk and peril. The belligerents will have
the right to control and visit them; they can refuse to help
them, order them off, make them take a certain course, and put
a Commissioner on board; they can even detain them, if important
circumstances require it. As far as possible the belligerents
shall inscribe in the sailing papers of the hospital-ships the
orders they give them.
{365}
ARTICLE V.
The military hospital-ships shall be distinguished by being
painted white outside with a horizontal band of green about a
metre and a half in breadth. The ships mentioned in Articles
II and III shall be distinguished by being painted white
outside with a horizontal band of red about a metre and a half
in breadth. The boats of the ships above mentioned, as also
small craft which may be used for hospital work, shall be
distinguished by similar painting. All hospital-ships shall
make themselves known by hoisting, together with their
national flag, the white flag with a red cross provided by the
Geneva Convention.
ARTICLE VI.
Neutral merchantmen, yachts, or vessels, having, or taking on
board, sick, wounded, or shipwrecked of the belligerents,
cannot be captured for so doing, but they are liable to
capture for any violation of neutrality they may have
committed.
ARTICLE VII.
The religious, medical, or hospital staff of any captured ship
is inviolable, and its members cannot be made prisoners of
war. On leaving the ship they take with them the objects and
surgical instruments which are their own private property.
This staff shall continue to discharge its duties while
necessary, and can afterwards leave when the
Commander-in-chief considers it possible. The belligerents
must guarantee to the staff that has fallen into their hands
the enjoyment of their salaries intact.
ARTICLE VIII.
Sailors and soldiers who are taken on board when sick or
wounded, to whatever nation they belong, shall be protected
and looked after by the captors.
ARTICLE IX.
The shipwrecked, wounded, or sick of one of the belligerents
who fall into the hands of the other, are prisoners of war.
The captor must decide, according to circumstances, if it is
best to keep them or send them to a port of his own country,
to a neutral port, or even to a hostile port. In the last
case, prisoners thus repatriated cannot serve as long as the
war lasts.
ARTICLE X.
The shipwrecked, wounded, or sick, who are landed at a neutral
port with the consent of the local authorities, must, failing
a contrary arrangement between the neutral State and the
belligerents, be guarded by the neutral State, so that they
cannot again take part in the military operations. The
expenses of entertainment and internment shall be borne by the
State to which the shipwrecked, wounded, or sick belong.
ARTICLE XI.
The rules contained in the above Articles are binding only on
the Contracting Powers, in case of war between two or more of
them. The said rules shall cease to be binding from the time
when, in a war between the Contracting Powers, one of the
belligerents is joined by a non-Contracting Power.
ARTICLE XII.
The present Convention shall be ratified as soon as possible.
The ratifications shall be deposited at The Hague. On the
receipt of each ratification a "procès-verbal" shall be drawn
up, a copy of which, duly certified, shall be sent through the
diplomatic channel to all the Contracting Powers.
ARTICLE XIII.
The non-Signatory Powers who accepted the Geneva Convention of
the 22d August, 1864, are allowed to adhere to the present
Convention. For this purpose they must make their adhesion
known to the Contracting Powers by means of a written
notification addressed to the Netherland Government, and by it
communicated to all the other Contracting Powers.
ARTICLE XIV.
In the event of one of the High Contracting Parties denouncing
the present Convention, such denunciation shall not take
effect until a year after the notification made in writing to
the Netherland Government, and forthwith communicated by it to
all the other Contracting Powers. This denunciation shall only
affect the notifying Power.
In faith of which the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed
the present Convention and affixed their seals thereto.
[Signed by the representatives of Belgium, Denmark, Spain,
Mexico, France, Greece, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Persia,
Portugal, Roumania, Russia, Siam, Sweden and Norway, and
Bulgaria]
----------PEACE CONFERENCE: End--------
PEARY'S EXPLORATIONS.
See (in this volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION, 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898—.
PEKING: A. D. 1900.
The siege of the Foreign Legations and their rescue.
Occupation of the city by the allied forces.
Looting and outrage.
March through the "Forbidden City."
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JUNE-AUGUST);
and (AUGUST 4-16, and 15-28).
PEKING: A. D. 1900-1901.
Seizure of grounds for a fortified Legation Quarter.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900-1901 (NOVEMBER-FEBRUARY).
PEKING SYNDICATE, Chinese concessions to the.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-DECEMBER).
PELAGIC SEAL KILLING, The question of.
See (in this volume)
BERING SEA QUESTIONS.
PELEW ISLANDS:
Sale by Spain to Germany.
See (in this volume)
CAROLINE AND MARIANNE ISLANDS.
PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1897.
Great strike of coal miners.
Conflict at Lattimer.
See (in this volume)
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES: A. D. 1897.
PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1900.
Strike of anthracite coal miners.
See (in this volume)
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES: A. D. 1900.
PENNSYLVANIA, University of:
Expeditions to explore the ruins of Nippur.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA:
AMERICAN EXPLORATION.
PENNY POSTAGE, British Imperial.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (DECEMBER).
PENSIONS, Old-Age.
See references (in this volume) under
OLD-AGE PENSIONS.
PEONES.
See (in this volume)
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898-1899 (AUGUST-JULY).
PEOPLE'S PARTY, The.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER);
and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
{366}
PERRY'S EXPEDITION TO JAPAN,
Proposed monument to commemorate.
See (in this volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1901.
PERSIA: A.D. 1896.
Assassination of the Shah.
The Shah of Persia, Nâsr-ed-din, was shot, on the 1st day of
May, when entering the mosque of Shah Abdul Azim, by one Mirza
Mahomed Reza, said to be of the Babi sect. Nâsr-ed-din had
reigned since 1848. He was succeeded by his son,
Muzaffar-ed-din, who was forty-three years old at his
accession.
PERSIA: A. D. 1897-1899.
Recent exploration of the ruins of Susa.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: PERSIA.
PERSIA: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
PERSIA: A. D. 1900.
Russian railway projects.
See (in this volume)
RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1900.
PERSIAN GULF, Railways to the.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1899 (NOVEMBER);
and RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1900.
PERU: A. D. 1894-1899.
Overthrow of an unconstitutional government.
Legitimate authority restored.
The death of President Bermudez, in March, 1894, brought about
a revolutionary movement in the interest of ex-President
Caceres. Constitutionally, the First Vice-President, Dr. del
Solar, would have succeeded the deceased President, until a
new election was held; but the Second Vice-President, who was
a partisan of Caceres, and who had the army with him, seized
control of the government. In May, Caceres was proclaimed
Provisional President, and in August it was claimed for him
that he had been elected by Congress; but the election was not
recognized by his opponents. A formidable rebellion was
organized, under the lead of ex-President Pierola, who had
been in exile and now returned. Civil war raged for nearly a
year, Pierola gaining steadily. In February, 1895, his forces
reached the capital and laid siege to it. On the 17th of March
they entered the city, and there was desperate fighting in the
streets of Lima for three days, nearly 2,000 of the
combatants being killed and more than 1,500 wounded. Chiefly
through the efforts of the Papal delegate, the bloody conflict
was finally stopped and terms of peace arranged. A provisional
government, made up from both parties, was formed, under which
a peaceable election was held in the following July. Pierola
was then elected President. Caceres and his partisans
attempted a rising the next year (1896), but it had no
success. In the northern department of Loreto, on the border
of Ecuador, an abortive movement for independence was set on
foot by an ambitious official, who gave the government
considerable trouble, but accomplished nothing more. In 1899,
President Pierola was succeeded by Eduardo L. de Romana,
elected in May. A rebellion attempted that year by one General
Durand was promptly suppressed.
PERU: A. D. 1894.-1900.
The dispute with Chile concerning Tacna and Arica.
See (in this volume)
CHILE: A. D. 1884-1900.
PESCADORES ISLANDS:
Cession by China to Japan.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895.
PHILADELPHIA: A. D. 1897.
Opening of the Commercial Museum.
A Commercial Museum which has acquired great importance was
opened in Philadelphia on the 2d of June, 1897. "In both aim
and results the institution is unique. Other countries, also,
have their commercial museums, which are doing excellent work.
Their scope, however, is much more limited; the Museum of
Philadelphia differing from them in that it is an active, not
merely a passive, aid to the prospective exporter. The foreign
museums, situated in London, Bremen, Hamburg, Stuttgart,
Vienna, Havre, Brussels, and various other commercial centres,
do not extend active aid, but content themselves with more or
less complete displays of samples of domestic and foreign
competitive goods sold in export markets. The theory of their
organization is, that the manufacturer, contemplating a
foreign business campaign, will be enabled to pursue it
intelligently through the study of these samples. The
initiative is left to the exporter himself, who must discover
what opportunities exist for him abroad; and it is also left
to him to take advantage of his opportunities in the way that
may seem best to him. The display of manufactured samples is
only a small part of the work of the Philadelphia Museum. This
institution shows not only what goods are sold in foreign
markets, but also where those markets are, what commercial
conditions obtain in connection with them, what particular
kinds of goods they demand, how these markets may be best
competed for, and where the raw material may be most
profitably purchased. It furnishes information, furthermore,
as to business connections as well as the credit ratings of
the agents or firms recommended. To secure specific
information it is not necessary to visit the institution
itself; for reports of trade opportunities abroad are
distributed by the Museum to its members; and these reports
are provided with photographs of many of the articles which,
at that particular time, are in demand, in certain parts of
the world. Under these circumstances, the exporter is
practically provided with a staff of expert, foreign
representatives, without any expense to himself beyond the
merely nominal fee for membership. While its activities are
dependent to a certain extent upon the income derived from
subscribers, the Museum is not a money-making institution.
Indeed, its income from this source does not cover half the
expenditures. It is enabled to carry on its work only by
reason of the generous, annual appropriation provided for it
by the City Councils of Philadelphia. But a very large income
is required to maintain a staff of 150 employees in
Philadelphia, as well as 500 regular and several thousand
occasional correspondents scattered throughout the world. The
only advantage which the city itself derives from the Museum
is that resulting indirectly from the presence of foreign
buyers attracted to Philadelphia by the Museum's work."
W. P. Wilson,
The Philadelphia Commercial Museum
(Forum, September, 1899).
PHILADELPHIA: A. D. 1899.
National Export Exposition and International
Commercial Congress.
See (in this volume)
INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL CONGRESS.
{367}
----------PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: Start--------
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS:
Number, area, shore line, and population.
"In regard to the number and areas of the islands in the
archipelago there must necessarily be a certain inaccuracy,
because the group has never been properly surveyed, and the
only method of determining the number and areas is by counting
and measuring on the charts. The following figures are
probably the best ever compiled. They are drawn from
enumeration and mensuration on maps recently obtained by the
United States commissioners to the Philippines and which are
without doubt the most complete and the most thorough ever
made. The following is quoted from the introduction to these
maps, which are being published by the United States Coast and
Geodetic Survey. All the islands or groups having an area of over
20 square miles have been measured, and the areas are here
given in square miles and square kilometers. Many different
statements have been made in regard to the number of the
islands composing the archipelago. The cause for this must be
attributed to the scale of the charts on which the count was
made and the difficulty of distinguishing between rocks and
formations of sufficient area to dignify them by the name of
islands. Thus on a small-scale Spanish chart of the entire
group 948 islands were counted; on various large-scale charts
of the same area there were found 1,725. The principal
islands, with the extent of shore line of some of them and
their area, are given on the following lists. The areas were
carefully measured, but are subject to the inaccuracy of the
length of general shore line.
Name. Square Miles. Square kilometers.
Babuyan 36 93
Bagata, or Quinalasag 27 70
Balabae 38 98
Basilan 350 907
Batan 21 54
Bantayan 26 67
Bohol 1,430 3,727
Bucas 41 106
Burias 153 422
Busuanga 328 850
Calayan 37 96
Calamian 117 303
Camiguin (Babnyanes group) 54 140
Camiguin 71 184
Catandunanes 680 1,761
Cebu 1,742 4,512
Dalupiri 20 53
Dinagat 259 671
Dumaran 95 246
Fuga 21 54
Guimaras 176 456
Leite (Leyte) 2,713 7,027
Linapacan 40 104
Luzon 47,238 122,346
Mactan 20 52
Malhou (Homonkon) 35 91
Marindugna 287 743
Masbate 1.200 3,341
Mindanao 36,237 93,854
Mindoro 3,972 10,987
Negros 4,854 12,571
Olutanga 71 184
Panaon 57 148
Panay 4,708 12,194
Panglao 24 62
Pangutaran 32 85
Polillo 231 598
Samal 105 272
Samar 5,040 13,054
Saranguani 36 93
Semerara 23 60
Siargao 134 347
Sibuyan 131 339
Siquijor 83 215
Sulu, or Jolo 241 624
Tablas 250 648
Ticao 94 243
Ybayat, or Ibayat 22 57
Ylin 24 62
GROUPS.
Alabat 76 197
Jomalig
Banton 44 114
Simara
Romblon
Daram 41 106
Buad
Camotes group: 74 192
Ponson
Poro
Pasijan
Calaguas group:
Tinagua 19 49
Guintinua
Cuyos group: 28 73
Cuyos
Cugo
Agutaya
Hamipo
Bisukei
Laguan 23 60
Batag
Limbancauyan 184 477
Mesa, or Talajit
Maripipi
Balupiri
Biliran
Lubang 53 163
Ambil
Golo
San Miguel 82 212
Batan
Cacraray
Rapurrapu
Tawi Tawi group: 183 414
Tawi Tawi
Tabulinga
Tandubato
Others of the
Tawi Tawi group. 54 140
Total measured 118,542 307,025
Estimated area of
unmeasured islands 1,000 2,500
Total area 119,542 309,615
{368}
Length of general shore line.
Name. Miles Kilometers
Bohol 161 259
Cebu 310 499
Jolo Archipelago 858 1,381
Kalamines 126 203
Leite 363 584
Luzon 2,144 3,450
Masbate 244 393
Mindanao 1,592 2,562
Mindoro 322 518
Negros 386 621
Palawan 644 1,036
Panay 377 607
Samar 412 663
Minor islands 3,505 5,641
Total 11,444 18,417
"The following [as to population] is a quotation from an
article by W. F. Wilcox, of the United States Census Bureau.
It is well to notice that the last official census was in 1887
and that the figures of that census, though probably
underestimating the population of the islands, are the ones
which, in default of better, we are obliged to take as final.
It is probable that these are an understatement of the true
population of the Philippines for several reasons, among which
is one not observed by Mr. Wilcox, and which is therefore
mentioned. It is, of course, only supposition, but is at least
suggestive. For every adult counted in the census the
officials were obliged to return a poll tax. Thus, for
instance, if 100,000 persons were counted 100,000 pesetas
would have to be returned to the treasury. It has therefore
been supposed that the officials counted, say, 150,000 and
returned only 100,000 pesetas and 100,000 names. Mr. Wilcox
says (American Statistical Association Publ., September,
1899): 'The population of the islands in 1872 was stated in a
letter to Nature (6:162), from Manila, by Dr. A. B. Meyer, who
gives the latest not yet published statistics as his
authority. The letter gives the population of nine islands, as
follows:
Luzon 4,467,111
Panay 1,052,586
Cebu 427,356
Leite 285,495
Bohol 283,515
Negros 255,873
Samar 250,062
Mindanao 191,802
Mindoro 70,926
"It also gives the population of each of the 43 provinces of
the islands. The population was not counted, but estimated.
The number who paid tribute was stated as 1,232,544. How this
was ascertained we are not informed. The total population,
7,451,352, was approximated 'on the supposition that about the
sixth part of the whole has to pay tribute.' In reality this
population is 6.046 times the assigned tribute-paying
population. But Dr. Meyer adds: 'As there exist in all the
islands, even in Luzon, independent tribes and a large number
in Mindanao, the number of 7,451,352 gives no correct idea of
the real population of the Philippines. This is not known at
all and will not be known for a long time to come.'
"Since 1872 there have been actual enumerations of the
Philippines, but authorities differ as to the time when they
occurred and the detailed results. These enumerations were
usually confined to the subject and Catholic population, and
omitted the heathen, Mohammedan, and independent tribes. Four
reports of the entire population have been printed:
1. A report made by the religious orders in 1876 or 1877, in
which the nationalities and creeds of the population were
distinguished.
2. A manuscript report to Professor Blumentritt of the
enumeration made by the religious orders in December, 1879.
3. The official report of the civil census of December 31,
1877, contained in Reseña geog. y estad. de España, 1888, p.
1079.
4. The official report upon the census taken by the civil
officers December 31, 1887, and printed in the first volume of
Censo de la Poblacion de España, at Madrid, in 1891.
The first two may be compared, and tend somewhat to
corroborate each other, as follows:
1. Tribute-paying natives. 5,501,356
2. Army 14,545
3. Navy 2,924
4. Religious officers (Geistlichkeit) 1,962
5. Civil officers 5,552
6. Other Spaniards 13,265
Total Spaniards 38,248
1876-77. 1879.
Total Catholics 5,539,604 5,777,522
Heathen and Mohammedan natives 602,853 632,640
Foreigners (In 1876 there were:
British, 176; German, 109;
Americans, 42; French, 30) 378 592
Chinese 30,797 39,054
Total 6,173,632 6,449,813
"The third enumeration reported 5,567,685 as the
tribute-paying population. To this number should be added the
estimated number of the independent tribes, 'Indios no
sometidos'; this according to the missionaries' count was
about 600,000, making a total of 6,167,685. Most experts agree
that this official report is untrustworthy and involves
serious omissions, but believe that the facts are so
imperfectly known that they are unable to correct it. One
author, del Pac, writing in 1882, started from the
missionaries' census of 1876-77, viz, 6,173,632, assumed that
this omitted as many as 600,000 members of independent tribes
and that the increase of 1876-1882 would be 740,000. In this
way he got 7,513,632. A second writer, Sanciano, estimated the
population in 1881 as 10,260,249. The missionaries made an
estimate of their own in 1885 which showed 9,529,841.
Seat of War in the Island of Luzon.
{369}
"The fourth enumeration of those mentioned above showed a
population of 5,985,123 in 1887, and the totals both for the
group as a whole and for the fifty odd provinces tend to
confirm and to be confirmed by the civil count of 1877. This
number, however, represents only the nominally Catholic or
tribute-paying population. To it must be added the Mohammedan
or heathen tribes set down by clerical authorities as about
600,000. Perhaps the highest authority in this field,
Professor Blumentritt, is confident that this number does not
include all the independent tribes, but only those in the
mountains who have a special arrangement freeing them from all
the dues of the subject tribes. On the whole, therefore, Prof.
H. Wagner is inclined to estimate these omissions of
independent or non-Christian tribes at about 1,000,000 and the
population of the group at about 7,000,000. This result is
indorsed by the latest German authority, Hübner's
Geographisch-Statistische Tabellen for 1898, which gives the
population as
5,985,124 + 1,000,000 = 6,985,124, as follows:
Spanish Estimated number
census. not counted.
Luzon and adjacent islands 3,443,000 150,000
Mindoro and Masbate 126,000 100,000
Visayas Archipelago 2,181,000 200,000
Mindanao 209,000 400,000
Calamianes and Palawan 22,000 50,000
Jolo (Sulu) Islands 4,000 100,000
Total 5,985,000 1,000,000
"Personally I am disposed to suspect that this number,
although called by Professor Wagner an outside estimate, is
below rather than above the truth. In favor of this position
it may be urged that Professor Wagner's estimate makes no
allowance either for the natural increase of population,
1887-1898, or for the fact that the first careful census of
densely populated regions, like India and Japan, usually
reveals a larger population than had been previously
estimated. This analogy might reasonably be applied to Luzon
and the Visayas."
United States, 56th Congress, 1st Session,
Senate Document Number 171, pages 4-7.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS:
The native inhabitants.
"The inhabitants of the Philippines belong to three sharply
distinct races—the Negrito race, the Indonesian race, and the
Malayan race. It is universally conceded that the Negritos of
to-day are the disappearing remnants of a people which once
populated the entire archipelago. They are, physically,
weaklings of low stature, with black skin, closely-curling
hair, flat noses, thick lips, and large, clumsy feet. In the
matter of intelligence they stand at or near the bottom of the
human series, and they are believed to be incapable of any
considerable degree of civilization or advancement. Centuries
ago they were driven from the coast regions into the wilder
interior portions of the islands by Malay invaders, and from
that day to this they have steadily lost ground in the
struggle for existence, until but a few scattered and
numerically insignificant groups of them remain. … It is
believed that not more than 25,000 of them exist in the entire
archipelago, and the race seems doomed to early extinction. …
"So far as is at present known, the Philippine tribes
belonging to the Indonesian race are confined to the great
island of Mindanao, the surface of which constitutes about
one-third of the total land area of the archipelago. … The
Philippine representatives of this race are physically
superior not only to the Negritos, but to the more numerous
Malayan peoples as well. They are tall and well developed,
with high foreheads, aquiline noses, wavy hair, and often with
abundant beards. The color of their skins is quite light. Many
of them are very clever and intelligent. None of the tribes
have been Christianized. Some of them have grown extremely
fierce and warlike as a result of their long struggle with
hostile Malayan peoples. Others, more happy in their
surroundings, are pacific and industrious.
"The great majority of the inhabitants of the Philippines are
of Malayan extraction, although the race is not found pure in
any of the islands, but is everywhere more or less modified
through intermarriage with Chinese, Indonesians, Negritos,
Arabs, and, to a limited extent, Spaniards and other
Europeans. The individuals belonging to these Malayan tribes
are of medium size, with straight black hair. As a rule the
men are beardless, and when they have a beard it is usually
straggling, and appears late in life. The skin is brown and
distinctly darker than that of the Indonesians, although very
much lighter than that of the Negritos. The nose is short and
frequently considerably flattened. The representatives of
these three races are divided into numerous tribes, which
often differ very greatly in language, manners, customs, and
laws, as well as in degree of civilization. …
"Any estimate of the total population must manifestly depend
on the number of inhabitants assigned to the various wild
tribes, of which there are no less than 69. For the purposes
of this report the commission has adopted as the total figure
8,000,000, considering this a conservative estimate. Baranera,
whose figures are believed to be carefully prepared, places
the total at 9,000,000. The extent of territory occupied in
whole or in part by each of the more important civilized
tribes can be estimated with a greater degree of accuracy, and
is approximately as follows: Visayans (occupying 28,100 square
miles) 2,601,600; Tagalogs (15,380 sq. miles) 1,663,900;
Bicols (6,900 sq. miles) 518,100; Ilocanos (6,170 sq. miles)
441,700; Pangasinaus (1,950 sq. miles) 365,500; Pampangas
(1,950 sq. miles) 337,900; Moros (12,860 sq. miles) 268,000;
Cagayans(11,500 sq. miles) 166,300. All of these peoples,
although ignorant and illiterate, are possessed of a
considerable degree of civilization, and, with the exception
of the Mohammedan Moros, are Christianized."
Philippine Commission,
Report, January 31, 1900, volume 1, pages 11-15.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1896-1898.
The Katipunan and the rising against Spanish rule.
Appearance of Aguinaldo as a leader.
Dr. José Rizal.
The Treaty of Biac-na-bato.
Departure of Aguinaldo and his return with
the American forces.
The Philippine Islands, discovered in 1521 by Magellan (or
Maghallanes or Magalhaes), and occupied by the Spaniards in
1565, seems, for a long period, to have interested that people
more as a missionary than as a commercial field. Indeed, the
doings of the church and of the religious orders, and the
acceptance of Roman teachings of Christianity by the greater
part of the native population, make up the essential history
of the Philippines until quite recent times. If the islands
had offered gold mines, or pearl fisheries, or spice forests
to their European discoverers, the story would certainly have
been different. As it was, the Spaniards were not moved to
much eagerness in exploiting such resources of commerce as
they found; and so, through fortunate circumstances, the
natives were made converts instead of slaves.
{370}
By missionaries, more than by soldiers, they were subdued; by
the church, more than by the Spanish state, they were ruled.
It is certain that there were great corruptions and
oppressions in the government, and it follows that a large
share of responsibility for them rests on those who controlled
the affairs of the church. For the past hundred years, at
least, the more spirited part of the native population has
been restive under the misrule and its burdens, and frequent
attempts at insurrection have been made. Such an outbreak in
1872 was suppressed and punished with a vengefulness, in
executions and banishment, which rankled ever afterwards in
the hearts of the people.
A secret society, called the "Katipunan," or League, was then
formed, which became a revolutionary organization, and from
which sprang the most serious of Filipino rebellions, in 1896.
The province of Cavite was the center of revolt, and it was
there that Emilio Aguinaldo, then the schoolmaster at Silan,
came into prominence as a leader. Mr. John Foreman, who was in
the Philippines at the time of the insurrection, states that
Aguinaldo was personally humane, but fearful atrocities were
committed in the first months of the rising by some of the
insurgents of his band. One captured priest, according to Mr.
Foreman's account, "was cut up piecemeal; another was
saturated with petroleum and set on fire; and a third was
bathed in oil and fried on a bamboo spit run through the
length of his body." The Spaniards, on their side, were
equally inhuman in their treatment of captured rebels and
"suspects." Says Mr. Foreman: "About 600 suspects were
confined in the dungeons of Fort Santiago at the mouth of the
Pasig River. Then occurred a frightful tragedy. The dungeons
are below water-mark at high tide; the river filtered in
through the crevices in the ancient masonry; thus twice a day
these unfortunates were up to their waists or necks in water,
according to the height of the men. The Spanish sergeant on
duty threw his rug over the only light and ventilating shaft,
and, in a couple of days, carts were seen by many citizens
carrying away the dead, calculated to number 70. Provincial
governors and parish priests seemed to regard it as a duty to
supply the capital with batches of 'suspects' from their
localities. In Vigan, where nothing had occurred, many of the
heads of the best families and monied men were arrested and
brought to Manila in a steamer. They were bound hand and foot,
and carried like packages of merchandise in the hold. I
happened to be on the quay when the steamer discharged her
living freight, with chains and hooks to haul up and swing out
the bodies like bales of hemp. …
"Thousands of peaceful natives were treated with a ferocity
which would have shocked all Europe. … Within three months of
the outbreak, hundreds of the richest natives and half-castes
in Manila were imprisoned for a few days and released
conditionally"—the condition being a payment of ransom,
sometimes said to be as high as $40,000. But General Blanco,
the then Governor-General, was not vigorous enough in his
measures to satisfy the all-powerful clerical party in the
islands, and he was replaced by General Polaveja, who received
large reinforcements from Spain, and who succeeded in breaking
the strength of the rebellion to a great extent. But the
character of Polaveja's administration is thus described by
Mr. Foreman: "Apart from the circumstances of legitimate
warfare, in which probably neither party was more merciful
than the other, he initiated a system of striking terror into
the non-combatant population by barbarous tortures and
wholesale executions. … Men were escorted to the prisons by
pure caprice and subjected to horrible maltreatment. Many of
them were liberated in the course of a few days, declared
innocent, but maimed for life and forever unable to get a
living. … The only apparent object in all this was to
disseminate broadcast living examples of Spanish vengeance."
The most notable victim at this period was Dr. José Rizal, a
physician, highly educated in Europe, distinguished as an
oculist, and the author of certain novels in which the
condition of things in his native country was set forth. On
his return to the Islands, Dr. Rizal incurred the enmity of
the friars by opposing them, and was pursued by their
hostility. From 1893 to 1896 he was kept in banishment,
closely watched, at a small town in the island of Mindanao.
Then he sought and obtained permission to go to Cuba in the
medical staff of the Spanish army; but, just as he arrived at
Manila, on his way to Spain, the insurrection of 1896 broke
out, and though he was suffered to depart, his enemies pursued
him with accusations of complicity in the rising and caused
him to be brought back. Says Mr. Foreman, who was an
eye-witness of what occurred: "Not a few of us who saw the
vessel leave wished him 'God speed.' But the clerical party
were eager for his extermination. … The lay authorities always
had to yield to the monks, and history herein repeated itself.
Dr. Rizal was cabled for to answer certain accusations, and so
on his landing in the Peninsula he was incarcerated in the
celebrated fortress of Montjuich (the scene of so many
horrors), pending his re-shipment by the returning steamer. He
reached Manila as a state prisoner in the Colon, isolated from
all but his jailors. It was materially impossible for him to
have taken any part in the rebellion, whatever his sympathies
may have been." Nevertheless, he was tried by court-martial
for sedition and rebellion, condemned and shot; and his memory
is cherished in the islands as that of a martyred patriot.
"The decree of execution was one of Polaveja's foulest acts."
Having scotched but not killed the insurrection, Polaveja went
home, with broken health, in the spring of 1897, and was
succeeded by General Primo de Rivera, who, after some months
of continued warfare, opened negotiations with Aguinaldo, the
recognized leader of the revolt. The result was a treaty,
known as the "Pacto de Biac-na-bato, signed December 14. By
this treaty "the rebels undertook to deliver up their arms and
ammunition of all kinds to the Spaniards; to evacuate the
places held by them; to conclude an armistice for three years
for the application and development of the reforms to be
introduced by the other part, and not to conspire against
Spanish sovereignty in the Islands, nor aid or abet any
movement calculated to counteract the reforms.
{371}
Emilio Aguinaldo and 34 other leaders undertook to quit the
Philippine Islands, and not to return to them until so
authorised by the Spanish Government. On behalf of the Spanish
Government it was agreed to pay, through the medium of Pedro
A. Paterno, to the rebels the sum of $1,000,000, and to the
families who had sustained loss by reason of the war $700,000,
in instalments and conditionally,"—the condition being that no
renewal of rebellion or conspiracy occur. Aguinaldo and other
chiefs of the insurrection left the Islands, accordingly; but
they are said to have been utterly duped. One instalment, only
($400,000), of the promised money was ever paid; the promised
reforms were not carried out, and persecution of those who had
been in sympathy with the rising was renewed.
J. Foreman,
The Philippine Islands,
chapter 26 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons).
"Aguinaldo and his associates went to Hongkong and Singapore.
A portion of the money, $400,000, was deposited in banks at
Hongkong, and a lawsuit soon arose between Aguinaldo and one
of his subordinate chiefs named Artacho, which is interesting
on account of the very honorable position taken by Aguinaldo.
Artacho sued for a division of the money among the insurgents
according to rank. Aguinaldo claimed that the money was a
trust fund, and was to remain on deposit until it was seen
whether the Spaniards would carry out their promised reforms,
and if they failed to do so, it was to be used to defray the
expenses of a new insurrection. The suit was settled out of
court by paying Artacho $5,000. No steps have been taken to
introduce the reforms, more than 2,000 insurgents, who had
been deported to Fernando Po and other places, are still in
confinement, and Aguinaldo is now using the money to carry on
the operations of the present insurrection."
F. V. Greene,
Memorandum concerning the Situation in the Philippines,
August 30, 1898 (Treaty of Peace and Accompanying Papers:
55th Congress, 3d Session,
Senate Document Number 62, part 1, page 421.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1897.
Refusal of United States Government to negotiate
with the insurgent republic.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (NOVEMBER).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (April-May).
Circumstances in which Aguinaldo was brought to
Manila to co-operate with American forces.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (APRIL-MAY: PHILIPPINES).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (April-July).
Destruction of the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay.
Blockade and siege of the city.
Co-operation of insurgents under Aguinaldo.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JULY).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (May-August).
Conduct of English and German naval officers at Manila.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (MAY-AUGUST).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (July-August).
Correspondence between the American commander and Aguinaldo.
This is fully given (showing the relations between the
American and Filipino forces, before the capture of Manila),
in the general account of the Spanish-American War.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: PHILIPPINES).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (July-September).
American capture of Manila.
Relations with the Filipino insurgents.
General Merritt's report.
Aguinaldo declared President of the Philippine Republic.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (August).
Suspension of hostilities between the United States and Spain.
Manila held by the former pending the conclusion
of a treaty of peace.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (August).
Losses of the American army during the war with Spain.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (JUNE).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (August-December).
The state of things following the occupation of Manila
by American forces.
Growing distrust and unfriendliness of the Tagalos.
General Otis's report.
Of the state of things which followed the departure of General
Merritt, August 30, General Otis, who succeeded him in
command, reported subsequently as follows:
"Until October 14 [1898], the United States troops in the
Philippines remained stationed at Manila and Cavite, as
provided in General Merritt's orders of August 23, with very
slight exceptions, Major-General Anderson retaining
supervision of the district of Cavite and Major-General
MacArthur of the troops stationed in Manila, the three
organizations composing the provost guard continuing, however,
under the control of Brigadier-General Hughes. They were most
bountifully supplied with subsistence and medicines, but light
clothing suited to the climate and facilities necessary for
occupying and messing in barracks were needed. These were soon
obtained through contract and purchase from the merchants of
Hongkong and Manila and by shipment from the United States.
The troops received tactical instructions daily, but the
weather was too hot for much physical exertion, and time hung
heavily upon them. They entertained the impression that the
Spanish war had terminated, and the volunteers appeared to
believe that they should be recalled to the United States at
once and regular troops sent out to perform the monotonous
garrison duties which were about to follow the victory of
Manila. Many became ill from too free indulgence in the fruits
and manufactured drinks of the country, and indifference to
that care and attention of person which a tropical climate
makes necessary. Homesickness alone produced illness in
numerous cases, so that early in September the hospitals began
to be rapidly filled. This led to the adoption of judicious
precautionary measures. … In November improvement was
noticeable, and in January the health of this army would
compare favorably with those of any concentrated army of like
proportions in existence. To be sure the men had become by
this time fairly acclimatized, and new troops arriving here
will be obliged to pass through this period of acclimatization
before they become properly efficient for prolonged service in
the field.
{372}
"During my first weeks of duty here I was impressed with the
spirit of suspicion and the partially concealed unfriendly
feeling manifested by the Tagalos toward the American forces.
That they either had very little confidence in our promises or
were then forming conclusions to oppose any establishment of
United States authority in Luzon was apparent, however loudly
they might disclaim hostile intent or declare as an excuse for
their attitude fear of the return of Spain. I saw, however,
with satisfaction, their ablest men by education, and mental
equipment taking part in their authoritative deliberations,
and I had considerable confidence in the efficacy of their
suggestions and advice. Still, after carefully weighing
conditions, I was unable to arrive at any satisfactory
conclusions. …
"Measures were being applied constantly to improve the
sanitary condition of the city, to increase the efficiency of
the troops, and to meet any emergency which might develop from
an uprising of the inhabitants, or from hasty action by any
portion of our or the insurgent forces, which, though
maintaining amicable intercourse, were, in fact, in an
attitude of resistance and hostility upon all questions
involving the right of armed occupation of the suburbs and
defenses of Manila. The insurgent soldiers had looted
extensively the portions of the city to which they gained
access, and were greatly disappointed that this privilege over
other parts of the same was not accorded them. Their enforced
withdrawal to outer lines was the cause of discontent, and
augmented any desire which they may have formerly entertained
to resist or attack the American troops. This growing
discontent was observable among the lower classes of the
city's inhabitants, from whom a considerable share of
Aguinaldo's army was drawn, and was undoubtedly increased by
the reprehensible conduct and illegal actions of some of our
own men, who were severely punished for their misdeeds when
detected. Outwardly, however, relations of the most friendly
character were maintained. The officers and enlisted men of
the two armies mingled in friendly social intercourse. To the
casual observer the only discordant element in this dense
complex population, made up of every nation and tongue in
existence, were the hated Spanish prisoners, whom the
Filipinos still longed to persecute and kill, and who were
obliged to keep within the walls of Old Manila for safety.
Repeated conferences were held with influential insurgents,
whose chief aim appeared to be to obtain some authoritative
expression on the intent of the United States with regard to
the Philippines, and complained that they were unable to
discover anyone who could speak ex cathedra. They asserted
that their Malolos arrangement was a government de facto,
which had the right to ask an expression of intent from the
United States Government. …
"My own confidence at this time in a satisfactory solution of
the difficulties which confronted us may be gathered from a
dispatch sent to Washington on December 7, wherein I stated
that conditions were improving and that there were signs of
revolutionary disintegration; that I had conferred with a
number of the members of the revolutionary government and
thought that the most of them would favor peaceful submission
to United States authority. I had strong reasons for this
expressed confidence from assurances made to me by some of the
ablest Filipinos who had occupied positions of importance in the
insurgent government and had signified their intention to
withdraw from it."
Report of General Otis,
August 31, 1899
(Message and Documents: Abridgement, 1899-1900,
volume 2, pages 1048-1052).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (August-December).
The state of things following the occupation of Manila,
as represented by English witnesses.
The writer of the following remarks, in an interesting book on
"The Inhabitants of the Philippines," published late in 1900, is
an English civil engineer, who had resided in Luzon for
fourteen years and knew the country and people thoroughly
well:
"Personally, I think that if a sympathetic and conciliatory
attitude had been adopted, had the local government
established been recognized, had Aguinaldo and his staff been
given commissions in the Native Army or Civil Service, and the
flower of the Tagal Army taken into the service of the United
States, a peaceful settlement could have been made on the
lines of a Protectorate. I therefore look upon the war as
unnecessary, and consider the lives already sacrificed, and
that will have to be sacrificed, as absolutely thrown away.
The tragical side of American unpreparedness is manifest in
the state of anarchy in which the whole Archipelago has been
plunged by the American unreadiness to occupy the military
posts as soon as they were vacated by the Spanish garrisons. A
hideous orgy of murder, plunder, and slave-raiding has
prevailed in Visayas, and especially in Mindanao.
"Three conditions were essential to a peaceful settlement:
First.
A broad-minded and sympathetic representative of America,
fully authorized to treat, and a lover of peace.
Second.
A strict discipline amongst the American forces.
Third,
The principal aim and object of the Tagal insurrection must be
secured.
"General Otis does not seem to me to fulfil the first
condition, he lacked prestige and patience, and he showed that
he had an insufficient conception of the magnitude of his task
by occupying himself with petty details of all kinds and by
displaying an ill-timed parsimony. Apparently he had no power
to grant anything at all, and only dealt in vague generalities
which the Tagals could not be expected to accept.
"As regards the second point, I regret that I am not
personally acquainted with the gentlemen from Nebraska,
Colorado, Dakota and other states serving in the United States
Army or volunteers. I have no doubt that they are good
fighting-men, but from all I can hear about them they are not
conspicuous for strict military discipline, and too many of
them have erroneous ideas as to the most suitable drink for a
tropical climate. Manila was in the time of the Spaniards a
most temperate city; a drunken man was a very rare sight, and
would usually be a foreign sailor. Since the American
occupation, some hundreds of drinking saloons have been
opened, and daily scenes of drunkenness and debauchery have
filled the quiet natives with alarm and horror. When John L.
Motley wrote his scathing denunciation of the army which the
great Duke of Alva led from Spain into the Low Countries, to
enforce the high religious purposes of Philip II., he could
not foresee that his words would be applicable to an American
Army sent to subjugate men struggling to be free 'for their
welfare, not our gain,' nor that this army, besides bringing
in its train a flood of cosmopolitan harlotry, would be
allowed by its commander to inaugurate amongst a strictly
temperate people a mad saturnalia of drunkenness that has
scarcely a parallel.
{373}
Such, however, is undoubtedly the case, and I venture to think
that these occurrences have confirmed many of the Tagals in
their resolve rather to die fighting for their independence
than to be ruled over by such as these."
F. H. Sawyer,
The Inhabitants of the Philippines,
page 113-114 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons).
Substantially the same account of things at Manila in this
period has been given in a magazine article by Mr. John
Foreman, the well known writer on the Philippine Islands. "The
conduct," he declares, "of the boisterous, undisciplined
individuals who formed a large percentage of the first
volunteer contingents sent to Manila had had an ineffaceably
demoralizing effect on the proletariat, and has inspired a
feeling of horror and loathful contempt in the affluent and
educated classes who guide the Philippine public opinion. From
the outset it was a mistake to treat the Christian Philippine
population like savages ignorant of western civilization,
considering that there are thousands of Filipinos mentally
equal to the invading forces, and comparable, in intellectual
training, with the average middle-class Europeans.
"Within a fortnight after the capitulation of Manila the
drinking saloons had increased four-fold. According to the
latest advices, there are at least twenty to one existing in
the time of the Spaniards. Drunkenness, with its consequent
evils, is rife all over the city among the new white
population. The orgies of the new-comers, the incessant street
brawls, the insults offered with impunity to natives of both
sexes, the entry with violence into private houses by the
soldiery, who maltreated the inmates and laid hands on what
they chose, were hardly calculated to arouse in the natives
admiration for their new masters. Brothels were absolutely
prohibited under the Spanish rule, but since the evacuation
there has been a great influx of women of ill fame, whilst
native women have been pursued by lustful tormentors. During a
certain period after the capitulation there was indiscriminate
shooting, and no peaceable native's life was safe in the
suburbs. Adventurers of all sorts and conditions have flocked
to this centre of vice, where the sober native is not even
spoken of as a man by many of the armed rank and file, but, by
way of contempt, is called a yuyu. A few miles from Manila,
the villages of Mandaloyan and Sant Ana were looted by the
victors, much of the spoil being brought up to the capital and
included in auction sales or sold to the Chinese. In Taal the
houses of families, with whom I have been long acquainted,
were ransacked, effects of little value, or too difficult to
transport, being carelessly strewn about from sheer
wantonness. And presumably no greater respect for private
property was shown in the other numerous villages overrun by
the invaders. …
"The situation then during this period was somewhat as
follows: The Filipinos, aided by Dewey's victory, had driven
the Spaniards from practically the whole Archipelago except
the city of Manila, they had established a government of their
own, and they looked upon the country as belonging both by
nature and by right of conquest to them. We upon the other
hand, having destroyed the Spanish fleet and captured the city
of Manila, and being in the process of acquiring by treaty the
Spanish title to the whole country regarded it as belonging to
us. The situation was therefore critical."
J. Foreman,
Will the United States withdraw from the Philippines?
(National Review, September, 1900).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (September-December).
Instructions from the President of the United States to the
Commissioners for the negotiation of peace with Spain
concerning the Philippine Archipelago.
Cession of the Islands to the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (October-November).
State of the country under the native government of Aguinaldo,
as witnessed by two U. S. naval officers who traversed it.-
Conflicting opinions as to the fitness of the Filipinos
for self-government.
During October and November, 1898, while the only authority in
Luzon, outside of Manila and Cavite, was that exercised by the
native government organized under Aguinaldo, two American
naval officers, Paymaster W. B. Wilcox and Cadet Leonard R.
Sargent, with permission from Admiral Dewey, made a tour of
observation through seven provinces of the island, and
rendered a report of what they saw and what they experienced,
which Admiral Dewey sent to Washington, commending it to the
attention of the government as containing "the most complete
and reliable information obtainable in regard to the present
state of the northern part of Luzon Island." Subsequently Mr.
Sargent wrote articles descriptive of the journey, which were
published in "The Outlook" and "The Independent," and which
were reprinted, with the official report, in a document
compiled for the U. S. Senate. The following is from the
article in "The Outlook," September 2, 1899:
"Although this government has never been recognized, and in
all probability will go out of existence without recognition,
yet it cannot be denied that, in a region occupied by many
millions of inhabitants, for nearly six months it stood alone
between anarchy and order. The military forces of the United
States held control only in Manila, with its environs, and in
Cavite, and had no authority to proceed further; while in the
vast remaining districts the representatives of the only
recognized power on the field were prisoners in the hands of
their despised subjects. It was the opinion at Manila during
this anomalous period in our Philippine relations, and
possibly in the United States as well, that such a state of
affairs must breed something akin to anarchy. I can state
unreservedly, however, that Mr. Wilcox and I found the
existing conditions to be much at variance with this opinion.
During our absence from Manila we travelled more than 600
miles in a very comprehensive circuit through the northern
part of the island of Luzon, traversing a characteristic and
important district. In this way we visited seven provinces, of
which some were under the immediate control of the central
government at Malolos, while others were remotely situated,
separated from each other and from the seat of government by
natural divisions of land, and accessible only by lengthy and
arduous travel. As a tribute to the efficiency of Aguinaldo's
government and to the law-abiding character of his subjects, I
offer the fact that Mr. Wilcox and I pursued our journey
throughout in perfect security, and returned to Manila with
only the most pleasant recollections of the quiet and orderly
life which we found the natives to be leading under the new
regime."
{374}
The following is from the official report, jointly made by
Cadet Sargent and Paymaster Wilcox:
"The Philippine officers, both military and civil, that we
have met in all the provinces we have visited, have, with very
few exceptions, been men of intelligent appearance and
conversation. The same is true of all those men who form the
upper class in each town. The education of most of them is
limited, but they appear to seize every opportunity to improve
it. They have great respect and admiration for learning. Very
many of them desire to send their children to schools in the
United States or Europe. Many men of importance in different
towns have told us that the first use to be made of the
revenues of their government, after there is no more danger of
war, will be to start good schools in every village. The
poorer classes are extremely ignorant on most subjects, but a
large percentage of them can read and write. …
"Of the large number of officers, civil and military, and of
the leading townspeople we have met, nearly every man has
expressed in our presence his sentiment on this question [of
independence]. It is universally the same. They all declare
that they will accept nothing short of independence. They
desire the protection of the United States at sea, but fear
any interference on land. …
"There is much variety of feeling among the Philippines with
regard to the debt of gratitude they owe the United States. In
every town we found men who said that our nation had saved
them from slavery, and others who claimed that without our
interference their independence would have been recognized
before this time. On one point they are united, however, viz.,
that whatever our Government may have done for them it has not
gained the right to annex them. They have been prejudiced
against us by the Spaniards. The charges made have been so
numerous and so severe that what the natives have since
learned has not sufficed to disillusion them. With regard to
the record of our policy toward a subject people, they have
received remarkable information on two points,—that we have
mercilessly slain and finally exterminated the race of Indians
that were natives of our soil, and that we went to war in 1861
to suppress an insurrection of negro slaves, whom we also
ended by exterminating. Intelligent and well-informed men have
believed these charges. They were rehearsed to us in many
towns in different provinces, beginning at Malolos. The
Spanish version of our Indian problem is particularly well
known."
United States, 56th Congress, 1st Session,
Senate Document 66.
In the third number of the first series of its publications,
the Philippine Information Society—see below: A. D. 1899
(JANUARY-FEBRUARY)—has brought together a number of
conflicting opinions expressed by various persons concerning
the capacity of the Filipinos for self-government, among them
the following:
"The population of Luzon is reported to be something over
3,000,000, mostly natives. These are gentle, docile, and under
just laws and with the benefits of popular education would
soon make good citizens. In a telegram sent to the department
on June 23 I expressed the opinion that 'these people are far
superior in their intelligence and more capable of
self-government than the natives of Cuba, and I am familiar
with both races.' Further intercourse with them has confirmed
me in this opinion."
Admiral Dewey,
Letter, August 29, 1898,
Replying to inquiry of War Department.
"They [the natives] would have to be educated up to it
[self-government]. They want a protectorate, but they do not
exactly understand what that means. Their idea is that they
should collect the revenues and keep them in their treasury,
and that we should be at the expense of maintaining an army
and a navy there for their protection, which is the kind of a
protectorate they would like very much."
General Merritt,
statement before United States Peace Commission at Paris,
October 4, 1898.
"If the United States should evacuate these islands, anarchy
and civil war will immediately ensue and lead to foreign
intervention. The insurgents were furnished arms and the moral
support of the navy prior to our arrival, and we cannot ignore
obligations, either to the insurgents or to foreign nations,
which our own acts have imposed upon us. The Spanish
Government is completely demoralized, and Spanish power is
dead beyond all possibility of resurrection. … On the other
hand, the Filipinos cannot govern the country without the
support of some strong nation. They acknowledge this
themselves, and say their desire is for independence under
American protection, but they have only vague ideas as to what
our relative positions would be—what part we should take in
collecting and expending the revenue, and administering the
government."
General F. V. Greene,
Memorandum concerning the Philippine Islands,
made August 27, 1898.
"The capability of the Filipinos for self-government cannot be
doubted. Such men as Arellano, Aguinaldo, and many others whom
I might name are highly educated; nine tenths of the people
can read and write, all are skilled artisans in one way or
another; they are industrious, frugal, temperate, and, given a
fair start, could look out for themselves infinitely better
than our people imagine. In my opinion they rank far higher
than the Cubans or the uneducated negroes to whom we have
given right of suffrage."
General Charles King,
Letter to Milwaukee Journal,
June 22, 1899.
"Concerning the capacity of the Filipinos to govern themselves
I regret to say that I see no reason to change the opinion
previously expressed, that they are unfit. I wish my opinion
might be otherwise, for I prefer to believe them capable of
self-government. There are a number of Filipinos whom I have
met, among them General Aguinaldo and a few of his leaders,
whom I believe thoroughly trustworthy and fully capable of
self-government, and the main reliance for small official
positions and many larger ones would be upon people who know
no standard of government other than that the Spaniards have
furnished. Their sense of equity and justice seems not fully
developed, and their readiness to coerce those who come under
their power has been strongly illustrated in this city since
our occupation. A regularly organized system of blackmail has
been instituted under the guise of making subscriptions to the
insurgent cause."
Major J. F. Bell
[of Engineers, on "secret service"]
Letter to General Merritt, Manila, August 29, 1898.
{375}
"The people are the most enlightened and vigorous branch of
the Malay race, and have been Christians for centuries, in
fact longer than the principles of the Reformation were
established in Great Britain, and are the nearest akin to
European people of any alien race, and it is simply ridiculous
to imagine that eight to ten millions of such people can be
bought and sold as an article of commerce without first
obtaining their consent. Let all those who are greedy for a
slice of the archipelago ponder well over this before burning
their fingers."
H. W. Bray
[merchant and planter in the islands for fifteen years],
Letter to Singapore Free Press, June 8, 1898.
"The native has no expansive ideas; he cannot go far enough to
understand what it is to rule matters for the benefit of the
common weal; he cannot get past his own most personal
interest, or his town, at the most. I think the greatest
length he would go would be his own town. But constructing
laws, and obeying them, for the benefit of the commonwealth, I
do not think he is capable of it at all. I think an attempt at
a native government would be a fiasco altogether."
John Foreman,
Testimony before United States Peace Commission at Paris.
"The excuse that they [the Filipinos] are not ripe for
independence is not founded on facts. The Filipinos number
more educated people than the kingdom of Servia and the
principalities of Bulgaria and Montenegro. They have fewer
illiterates than the states of the Balkan peninsula, Russia,
many provinces of Spain and Portugal, and the Latin republics
of America. There are provinces in which few people can be
found who do not at least read. They pay more attention to
education than Spain or the Balkan states do. There is no lack
of trained men fit to govern their own country, and indeed in
every branch, because under the Spanish rule the official
business was entirely transacted by the native subalterns. The
whole history of the Katipunan revolt and of the war against
Spain and America serves to place in the best light the
capability of the Filipinos for self-government."
F. Blumentritt,
The Philippine Islands,
page 61.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898-1899 (December-January).
Instructions by the President of the United States to
General Otis, Military Governor and Commander in
the Philippines.
Their proclamation to the people of the Islands as
modified by General Otis.
The effect.
On the 27th of December, 1898, the following instructions,
dated December 21, and signed by the President, were cabled by
the Secretary of War to General Otis, in command of the United
States forces in the Philippines. They were not made public in
the United States until the 5th of January following, when
they appeared in the newspapers of that day: "The destruction
of the Spanish fleet in the harbor of Manila by the United
States naval squadron commanded by Rear Admiral Dewey,
followed by the reduction of the city and the surrender of the
Spanish forces, practically effected the conquest of the
Philippine Islands and the suspension of Spanish sovereignty
therein. With the signature of the treaty of peace between the
United States and Spain by their respective plenipotentiaries
at Paris, on the 10th inst., and as the result of victories of
the American arms, the future control, fulfilment disposition
and government of the Philippine Islands are ceded to the
United States. In of the offices of the sovereignty thus
acquired, and the responsible obligations of government thus
assumed, the actual occupation and administration of the
entire group becomes immediately necessary, and the military
government heretofore maintained by the United States in the
city, harbor and bay of Manila is to be extended with all
possible despatch to the whole of the ceded territory. In
performance of this duty, the military commander of the United
States is enjoined to make known to the inhabitants of the
Philippine Islands that in succeeding to the sovereignty of
the islands, in severing the former political relations of the
inhabitants and in establishing a new political power, the
authority of the United States is to be exerted for the
security of the persons and property of the people of the
islands and for the confirmation of all their private rights.
It will be the duty of the commander of the forces of
occupation to announce and proclaim in the most public manner
that we come, not as invaders or conquerors, but as friends,
to protect the natives in their homes, in their employments
and in their personal and religious rights. All persons who,
either by active aid or by honest submission, cooperate with
the government of the United States to give effect to these
beneficent purposes, will receive the reward of its support
and protection. All others will be brought within the lawful
rule we have assumed, with firmness if need be, but without
severity so far as may be possible.
"Within the absolute domain of military authority, which
necessarily is and must remain supreme in the ceded territory
until the government of the United States shall otherwise
provide, the municipal laws of the territory in respect to
private interests and property and the repression of crime are
continued in force, the authority to be administered by the
ordinary tribunals so far as practicable. The operations of
civil and municipal government are to be performed by such
officers as may accept the supremacy of the United States by
taking the oath of allegiance, or by officers chosen, as far
as may be practicable, from the inhabitants of the islands.
While the control of all the public property and the revenues
of the state passes with the cession, and while the use and
management of all public means are of necessity reserved to
the authority of the United States, private property, whether
belonging to individuals or corporations, is to be respected
except for cause duly established. The taxes and duties
heretofore payable by the inhabitants to the late government
become payable to the authorities of the United States, unless
it be seen fit to substitute for them other reasonable rates
or modes of contribution to the expenses of government,
whether general or local. If private property be taken for
military use, it shall be paid for when possible in cash at a
fair valuation, and when payment in cash is not practicable
receipts are to be given.
{376}
"All ports and places in the Philippine Islands in the actual
possession of the land and naval forces of the United States
will be opened to the commerce of all friendly nations. All
goods and wares not prohibited for military reasons by due
announcement of the military authority will be admitted upon
payment of such duties and other charges as shall be in force
at the time of their importation. Finally, it should be the
earnest and paramount aim of the military administration to
win the confidence, respect and affection of the inhabitants
of the Philippines by assuring to them in every possible way
that full measure of individual rights and liberties which is
the heritage of free peoples, and by proving to them that the
mission of the United States is one of benevolent
assimilation, substituting the mild sway of justice and right
for arbitrary rule. In the fulfilment of this high mission,
supporting the temperate administration of affairs to the
greatest good of the governed, there must be sedulously
maintained the strong arm of authority, to repress disturbance
and to overcome all obstacles to the bestowal of the blessings
of good and stable government upon the people of the
Philippine Islands under the free flag of the United States.
WILLIAM McKINLEY."
On receiving President McKinley's "proclamation," as the
instructions of December 21 were commonly described, General
Otis promptly forwarded a copy to General Miller, who had been
sent to occupy the city of Iloilo, and the latter made it public.
Meantime General Otis had studied the document with care and
arrived at conclusions which he sets forth in his subsequent
annual report as follows: "After fully considering the
President's proclamation and the temper of the Tagalos with
whom I was daily discussing political problems and the
friendly intentions of the United States Government toward
them, I concluded that there were certain words and
expressions therein, such as 'sovereignty,' 'right of
cession,' and those which directed immediate occupation, etc.,
though most admirably employed and tersely expressive of
actual conditions, might be advantageously used by the Tagalo
war party to incite widespread hostilities among the natives.
The ignorant classes had been taught to believe that certain
words, as 'sovereignty,' 'protection,' etc., had peculiar
meaning disastrous to their welfare and significant of future
political domination, like that from which they had recently
been freed. It was my opinion, therefore, that I would be
justified in so amending the paper that the beneficent object
of the United States Government would be brought clearly
within the comprehension of the people, and this conclusion
was the more readily reached because of the radical change [a
change of cabinet] of the past few days in the constitution of
Aguinaldo's government, which could not have been understood
at Washington at the time the proclamation was prepared. …
"The amended proclamation of January 4 appeared in the
English, Spanish, and Tagalo languages, and was published in
Manila through newspapers and posters. The English text is as
follows: 'To the people of the Philippine Islands:
Instructions of His Excellency the President of the United
States relative to the administration of affairs in the
Philippine Islands have been transmitted to me by direction of
the honorable the Secretary of War, under date of December 28,
1898. They direct me to publish and proclaim, in the most
public manner, to the inhabitants of these islands that in the
war against Spain the United States forces came here to
destroy the power of that nation and to give the blessings of
peace and individual freedom to the Philippine people; that we
are here as friends of the Filipinos; to protect them in their
homes, their employments, their individual and religious
liberty, and that all persons who, either by active aid or
honest endeavor, co-operate with the Government of the United
States to give effect to these beneficent purposes, will
receive the reward of its support and protection. The
President of the United States has assumed that the municipal
laws of the country in respect to private rights and property
and the repression of crime are to be considered as continuing
in force in so far as they be applicable to a free people, and
should be administered by the ordinary tribunals of justice,
presided over by representatives of the people and those in
thorough sympathy with them in their desires for good
government; that the functions and duties connected with civil
and municipal administration are to be performed by such
officers as wish to accept the assistance of the United
States, chosen in so far as it may be practicable from the
inhabitants of the islands; that while the management of
public property and revenues and the use of all public means
of transportation are to be conducted under the military
authorities, until such authorities can be replaced by civil
administration, all private property, whether of individuals
or corporations, must be respected and protected. If private
property be taken for military uses it shall be paid for at a
fair valuation in cash if possible, and when payment in cash
is not practicable at the time, receipts therefor will be
given to be taken up and liquidated as soon as cash becomes
available. The ports of the Philippine Islands shall be open
to the commerce of all foreign nations, and goods and
merchandise not prohibited for military reasons by the
military authorities shall be admitted upon payment of such
duties and charges as shall be in force at the time of
importation. The President concludes his instructions in the
following language: "Finally, it should be the earnest and
paramount aim of the Administration to win the confidence,
respect, and affection of the inhabitants of the Philippines
by insuring to them in every possible way the full measure of
individual rights and liberty which is the heritage of a free
people, and by proving to them that the mission of the United
States is one of beneficent assimilation, which will
substitute the mild sway of justice and right for arbitrary
rule. In the fulfillment of this high mission, while upholding
the temporary administration of affairs for the greatest good
of the governed, there will be sedulously maintained the
strong arm of authority to repress disturbance, and to
overcome all obstacles to the bestowal of the blessings of
good and stable government upon the people of the Philippine
Islands."
"'From the tenor and substance of the above instructions of
the President, I am fully of the opinion that it is the
intention of the United States Government, while directing
affairs generally, to appoint the representative men now
forming the controlling element of the Filipinos to civil
positions of trust and responsibility, and it will be my aim
to appoint thereto such Filipinos as may be acceptable to the
supreme authorities at Washington. It is also my belief that
it is the intention of the United States Government to draw
from the Filipino people so much of the military force of the
islands as is possible and consistent with a free and
well-constituted government of the country, and it is my
desire to inaugurate a policy of that character.
{377}
I am also convinced that it is the intention of the United
States Government to seek the establishment of a most liberal
government for the islands, in which the people themselves
shall have as full representation as the maintenance of law
and order will permit, and which shall be susceptible of
development, on lines of increased representation and the
bestowal of increased powers, into a government as free and
independent as is enjoyed by the most favored provinces of the
world. It will be my constant endeavor to cooperate with the
Filipino people, seeking the good of the country, and I invite
their full confidence and aid.
E. S. OTIS, Major-General,
U. S. V., Military Governor.'
"Before publication of this proclamation I endeavored to
obtain from able Filipino residents of the city an expression
of opinion as to its probable effect upon the population, but
was not much encouraged. A few days thereafter they declared
the publication to have been a mistake, although the foreign
residents appeared to believe the proclamation most excellent
in tone and moderation, offered everything that the most
hostile of the insurgents could expect, and undoubtedly would
have a beneficial influence. It was received by the better
classes of natives with satisfaction, as it was the first
authoritative announcement of the attitude which the United
States assumed toward the islands and declared the policy
which it intended to pursue, and because the declared policy
was one which, in their opinion, conditions imperatively
demanded should be imposed for the interests of the Filipino
people who were incapable of self-government. The publication
separated more widely the friendly and war factions of the
inhabitants and was the cause of exciting discussion. The
ablest of insurgent newspapers, which was now issued at
Malolos and edited by the uncompromising Luna, … attacked the
policy of the United States as declared in the proclamation,
and its assumption of sovereignty over the islands, with all
the vigor of which he was capable. …
"Aguinaldo met the proclamation by a counter one in which he
indignantly protested against the claim of sovereignty by the
United States in the islands, which really had been conquered
from the Spaniards through the blood and treasure of his
countrymen, and abused me for my assumption of the title of
military governor. Even the women of Cavite province, in a
document numerously signed by them, gave me to understand that
after all the men were killed off they were prepared to shed
their patriotic blood for the liberty and independence of
their country. The efforts made by Aguinaldo and his
assistants made a decided impression on the inhabitants of
Luzon outside of Manila. … Shortly before this time the
insurgents had commenced the organization of clubs in the
city, membership in which now, I was informed, amounted to
10,000. The chief organizer was a shrewd mestizo, a former
close companion of Aguinaldo, by whom he had been commissioned
to perform this work. He was a friend and associate of some of
our officers; was engaged in organizing the clubs only, as he
stated, to give the poorer classes amusement and education;
held public entertainments in athletics to which our officers
were invited, and in which our soldiers were asked to
participate. Gradually arms were being secretly introduced and
bolos were being manufactured and distributed. The arms were
kept concealed in buildings, and many of them were
subsequently captured. The Chinamen were carrying on a
lucrative business in bolo making, but the provost-marshal had
cruelly seized considerable of their stock. These clubs had
received military organization and were commanded by cunning
Filipino officers regularly appointed by the Malolos
government. The chief organizer departed after organization
had been perfected and thereafter became a confidential
adviser in Malolos affairs. This organization was the subject
of grave apprehension, as it was composed of the worst social
element of the city, and was kept under police supervision as
closely as possible. … The streets of the city were thronged
with unarmed insurgent officers and enlisted men from the
numerically increasing insurgent line on the outskirts, proud
of their uniforms and exhibiting matchless conceit, amusing to
our men, who were apparently unconcerned observers, but who
were quick to take in the rapidly changing conditions. …
"Greater precautionary measures were directed and taken in the
way of redistributing organizations throughout the city, in
advancing and strengthening (though still far within our own
mutually conceded military lines) our posts of observation,
and for the quick response of the men if summoned for
defensive action. Otherwise no change in the conduct,
condition, or temper of the troops was observable. So quietly
were these precautions effected that Filipino citizens,
noticing the apparent indifference of our men, warned me
repeatedly of the danger to be apprehended from a sudden
simultaneous attack of the insurgents within and without the
city, and were quietly informed that we did not anticipate any
great difficulty. Another very noticeable proof of
premeditated intent on the part of the insurgents was
perceived in the excitement manifested by the natives and
their removal in large numbers from the city. All avenues of
exit were filled with vehicles transporting families and
household effects to surrounding villages. The railway
properties were taxed to their utmost capacity in carrying the
fleeing inhabitants to the north within the protection of the
established insurgent military lines. Aguinaldo, by written
communications and messages, invited his old-time friends to
send their families to Malolos, where their safety was
assured, but Hongkong was considered a more secure retreat and
was taken advantage of. A carefully prepared estimate showed
that 40,000 of the inhabitants of the city departed within the
period of fifteen days."
Report of General Otis, August 31, 1899
(Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,
volume 2, pages 1075-88).
The counter-proclamation of Aguinaldo, referred to above by
General Otis, was issued on the 5th of January, 1899, from
Malolos, addressed to My brothers, the Filipinos, all the
honorable consuls, and other foreigners." It said:
"Major General E. S. Otis's proclamation published yesterday
in the Manila papers obliges me to circulate the present one,
in order that all who read and understand it may know of my
most solemn protest against said proclamation, for I am moved
by my duty and my conscience before God, by my political
obligations with my beloved country, by my official and
private relations to the North American nations.
{378}
In the above mentioned proclamation, General Otis calls
himself 'Military Governor in the Philippines,' and I protest
once and a thousand times, with all the energy in my soul,
against such an authority. I solemnly proclaim that I have
never had, either at Singapore or here in the Philippines, any
verbal or written contract for the recognition of American
sovereignty over this cherished soil. … Our countrymen and
foreigners are witnesses that the land and naval forces of the
United States existing here have recognized by act the
belligerency of the Philippines, not only respecting but also
doing public honor to the Filipino banner, which triumphantly
traversed our seas in view of foreign nations represented here
by their respective consuls.
"As in his proclamation General Otis alludes to some
instructions issued by His Excellency the President of the
United States relating to the administration of affairs in the
Philippines, I solemnly protest in the name of God, root and
source of all justice and all right, who has visibly acceded
me the power to direct my dear brethren in the difficult task
of our regeneration, against this intrusion of the United
States Government in the administration of these islands. In
the same manner I protest against such an unexpected act which
treats of American sovereignty in these islands in the face of
all antecedents that I have in my possession referring to my
relations with the American authorities, which are unequivocal
testimony that the United States did not take me out of Hong
Kong to make war against Spain for their own benefit, but for
the benefit of our liberty and independence, to which end said
authorities verbally promised me their active support and
efficacious co-operation. So that you all may understand it,
my beloved brothers, it is the principle of liberty and
absolute independence that has been our noble ambition for the
purpose of obtaining the desired object, with a force given by
the conviction, now very widespread, not to retrace the path
of glory that we have passed over."-
United States, 56th Congress, 1st Session,
Senate Document 208, page 103.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (January).
Appointment of the First Commission to the Philippines
and the President's instructions to it.
On the 20th of January, 1899, the President of the United
States addressed the following communication to the Secretary
of State: "My communication to the Secretary of War, dated
December 21, 1898, declares the necessity of extending the
actual occupation and administration of the city, harbor, and
bay of Manila to the whole of the territory which by the
treaty of Paris, signed on December 10, 1898, passed from the
sovereignty of Spain to the sovereignty of the United States,
and the consequent establishment of military government
throughout the entire group of the Philippine Islands. While
the treaty has not yet been ratified, it is believed that it
will be by the time of the arrival at Manila of the
commissioners named below. In order to facilitate the most
humane, pacific, and effective extension of authority
throughout these islands, and to secure, with the least
possible delay, the benefits of a wise and generous protection
of life and property to the inhabitants, I have named Jacob G.
Schurman, Rear-Admiral George Dewey, Major General Elwell S.
Otis, Charles Denby, and Dean C. Worcester to constitute a
commission to aid in the accomplishment of these results. In
the performance of this duty, the commissioners are enjoined
to meet at the earliest possible day in the city of Manila and
to announce, by a public proclamation, their presence and the
mission intrusted to them, carefully setting forth that, while
the military government already proclaimed is to be maintained
and continued so long as necessity may require, efforts will
be made to alleviate the burden of taxation, to establish
industrial and commercial prosperity, and to provide for the
safety of persons and of property by such means as may be
found conducive to these ends.
"The commissioners will endeavor, without interference with
the military authorities of the United States now in control
of the Philippines, to ascertain what amelioration in the
condition of the inhabitants and what improvements in public
order may be practicable, and for this purpose they will study
attentively the existing social and political state of the
various populations, particularly as regards the forms of
local government, the administration of justice, the
collection of customs and other taxes, the means of
transportation, and the need of public improvements. They will
report through the Department of State, according to the forms
customary or hereafter prescribed for transmitting and preserving
such communications, the results of their observations and
reflections, and will recommend such executive action as may
from time to time seem to them wise and useful. The
commissioners are hereby authorized to confer authoritatively
with any persons resident in the islands from whom they may
believe themselves able to derive information or suggestions
valuable for the purposes of their commission, or whom they
may choose to employ as agents, as may be necessary for this
purpose.
"The temporary government of the islands is intrusted to the
military authorities, as already provided for by my
instructions to the Secretary of War of December 21, 1898, and
will continue until Congress shall determine otherwise. The
commission may render valuable services by examining with
special care the legislative needs of the various groups of
inhabitants, and by reporting, with recommendations, the
measures which should be instituted for the maintenance of
order, peace, and public welfare, either as temporary steps to
be taken immediately for the perfection of present
administration, or as suggestions for future legislation. In
so far as immediate personal changes in the civil
administration may seem to be advisable, the commissioners are
empowered to recommend suitable persons for appointment to
these offices from among the inhabitants of the islands who
have previously acknowledged their allegiance to this
Government.
"It is my desire that in all their relations with the
inhabitants of the islands the commissioners exercise due
respect for all the ideals, customs, and institutions of the
tribes which compose the population, emphasizing upon all
occasions the just and beneficent intentions of the Government
of the United States. It is also my wish and expectation that the
commissioners may be received in a manner due to the honored
and authorized representatives of the American Republic, duly
commissioned on account of their knowledge, skill, and
integrity as bearers of the good will, the protection, and the
richest blessings of a liberating rather than a conquering
nation.
WILLIAM McKINLEY."
Report of the Philippine Commission, January 31, 1900,
volume 1, exhibit 2 (page 185).
{379}
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (January-February).
Causes of and responsibility for the outbreak of hostilities
between the Americans and the Filipinos.
"The Philippine Information Society," organized for the
purpose of "placing within reach of the American people the
most reliable and authoritative evidence attainable in regard
to the people of the Philippine Islands and our relations to
them," has published in Number VII of the First Series of its
pamphlets a carefully made collection of information, from
official and other sources, relative to the circumstances in
which hostilities between the American and Filipino forces
came about. On this as on other subjects which the society has
investigated it seems to have pursued its inquiries with no
aim but to learn and set forth the truth. Its conclusions,
resting on the evidence which it submits, are stated in an
introduction to the pamphlet as follows:
"It will presumably he admitted that the important question
with regard to the Outbreak of Hostilities, February 4, 1899,
is not, who fired the first shot, but who was responsible for
the conditions that made it evident to every observer weeks
before the clash came that a single shot might bring on war. …
The situation may be briefly explained as follows: We believed
that the Philippine Archipelago was and ought to be ours, and
we were moving to take possession as rapidly as possible. The
Filipinos, or at least Aguinaldo's government and followers,
believed that the country was theirs and they resented every
effort on our part to occupy it. We considered it ours through
cession from Spain and right of conquest. They claimed that
Spain no longer held possession of the country and therefore
had no right to cede it to us; moreover, that by right of
conquest we were entitled only to temporary occupation of
Manila. We wished to extend our sovereignty throughout the
Archipelago with all possible dispatch. They desired
independence, or at least a protectorate which, while securing
them from foreign aggression, should leave them control of
their internal affairs. While a discussion of the justice of
either position does not come within the limits of the present
inquiry, it is important to remember that from the first a
minority in this country urged that the Filipinos were
entitled to a promise of ultimate independence, and that a
resolution of Congress, similar to that passed in the case of
Cuba, would avert all occasion for war. This course having
been rejected by our country, the question arises, did the
assertion of United States sovereignty render war inevitable? …
"No doubt most Americans believe that left to themselves the
Filipinos would soon have lapsed into anarchy, while a few
maintain that with temporary assistance in international
affairs they would have developed a government better suited
to their peculiar needs than we can ever give them. Still
others who are familiar with the Filipinos and kindred races
believe that their aspiration for an independent national
existence was not deep rooted, that had we adopted an
affectionate, admiring tone to their leaders, had we
recognized their government and approved of it, we could soon
have made their government our government, could have been as
sovereign as we pleased, and had the people with us. Whatever
view one may hold, it must be admitted that if we were to
establish our sovereignty by peaceful methods it was essential
to win the confidence and affection of the Filipinos. … There
is every indication that the Filipinos were prepared, at
first, to treat us as friends and liberators. General Anderson
tells the following interesting story: The prevailing
sentiment of the Filipinos towards us can be shown by one
incident. About the middle of July the insurgent leaders in
Cavite invited a number of our army and navy officers to a
banquet. There was some post-prandial speech-making, the
substance of the Filipino talk being that they wished to be
annexed but not conquered. One of our officers in reply
assured them that we had not come to make them slaves, but to
make them free men. A singular scene followed. All the
Filipinos rose to their feet, and Buencomeno, taking his
wine-glass in his hand, said: We wish to be baptized in that
sentiment. Then he and the rest poured the wine from their
glasses over their heads. After the very first, however, the
cultivation of intimate relations with the Filipino leaders
seems to have been considered unimportant or inadvisable.
General Merritt states that he never saw Aguinaldo. Social
intercourse between our officers and the Filipinos was
discouraged by General Otis. In fact after the surrender of
Manila General Whittier seems to have been the only one of our
superior officers who ever had a personal interview with
Aguinaldo.
"Certainly after the proclamation of January 4, [see above: A.
D. 1898-1899 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY)] war could only have been
avoided by a decisive action of Congress promising ultimate
independence to the Filipinos. That proclamation of January 4
raised the issue and provoked the counter proclamation of
January 5, which so stirred the people against us—a
proclamation in which Aguinaldo once and a thousand times and
with all the energy of his soul protested against American
sovereignty, and which closed with the words, 'upon their
heads be all the blood which may be shed.' …
"Aguinaldo's proclamation was followed by a series of
conferences of which General Otis reports 'It was one
continued plea for some concession that would satisfy tho
people.' On January 16th he cabled to Washington, 'Aspiration
Filipino people is independence with restrictions resulting
from conditions which its government agree with American when
latter agree to officially recognize the former.' Finally on
January 25th he sent word to the insurgent commissioners that
'To this dispatch no reply has been received.' From this time
General Otis states, the insurgents hurried forward
preparations for war. Contemporaneous with these events in the
Philippines the Treaty of Peace was pending in the United
States Senate where it had been assigned for a vote on
February 6th.
"With regard to the actual outbreak of' hostilities, there is
a sharp difference of opinion. The United States press
dispatches announcing the outbreak, and the contemporaneous
newspaper statements by the Filipinos … are of interest as
evidence that from the very first each side claimed the other
to be the aggressor.
{380}
As to which of these opposing claims is borne out by the
facts, the editors would say that after careful study of all
the accessible evidence they find that according to the most
authoritative statements the outbreak occurred as the result
of a trespass by four armed Filipinos on territory admitted by
the Filipino in command to be within the jurisdiction of the
United States. The number of Filipinos has been variously
estimated. The editors follow the report of General MacArthur
in command of the division in which the firing began, which
agrees with the report of Second-Lieutenant Wheedon of the
First Nebraska U. S. Volunteer Infantry, stationed at Santa
Mesa. The action of the Filipino trespassers seems to have
been an instance of bad discipline in the insurgent army.
Certainly it was not ordered on that date by the insurgent
leaders, although there are some indications that the leaders
had planned to attack in a few days. The claim that our forces
instigated the attack for the purpose of securing the votes
necessary to ratify the treaty is absolutely unsupported by
any evidence which has come to the attention of the editors."
Philippine Information Society,
Publications, First Series, VII., Introduction.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (January-November).
Attack on American forces by the Tagalos.
Continued hostilities.
Progress of American conquest.
"No definite date had been set for the attack [by the hostile
Tagalos], but a signal by means of rockets had been agreed
upon, and it was universally understood that it would come
upon the occurrence of the first act on the part of the
American forces which would afford a pretext; and in the lack
of such act, in the near future at all events. Persistent
attempts were made to provoke our soldiers to fire. The
insurgents were insolent to our guards and made persistent and
continuous efforts to push them back and advance the insurgent
lines farther into the city of Manila. … With great tact and
patience the commanding general had held his forces in check,
and he now made a final effort to preserve the peace by
appointing a commission to meet a similar body appointed by
Aguinaldo and to 'confer with regard to the situation of
affairs and to arrive at a mutual understanding of the intent,
purposes, aims, and desires of the Filipino people and of the
people of the United States.' Six sessions were held, the last
occurring on January 29, six days before the outbreak of
hostilities. No substantial results were obtained, the
Filipino commissioners being either unable or unwilling to
give any definite statements of the 'intent, purposes, and
aims of their people.' At the close of the last session they
were given full assurances that no hostile act would be
inaugurated by the United States troops. The critical moment
had now arrived. Aguinaldo secretly ordered the Filipinos who
were friendly to him to seek refuge outside the city. The
Nebraska regiment at that time was in camp on the east line at
Santa Mesa, and was guarding its front. For days before the
memorable 4th of February, 1899, the outposts in front of the
regiment had been openly menaced and assaulted by insurgent
soldiers; they were attempting to push our outposts back and
advance their line. They made light of our sentinels and
persistently ignored their orders. On the evening of the 4th
of February, an insurgent officer came to the front with a
detail of men and attempted to pass the guard on the San Juan
Bridge, our guard being stationed at the west end of the
bridge. The Nebraska sentinel drove them back without firing,
but a few minutes before 9 o'clock that evening a large body
of insurgent troops made an advance on the South Dakota
outposts, which fell back rather than fire. About the same
time the insurgents came in force to the east end of the San
Juan Bridge, in front of the Nebraska regiment. For several
nights prior thereto a lieutenant in the insurgent army had
been coming regularly to our outpost No. 2, of the Nebraska
regiment, and attempting to force the outpost back and
insisting on posting his guard within the Nebraska lines; and
at this time and in the darkness he again appeared with a
detail of about six men and approached Private Grayson, of
Company D, First Nebraska Volunteers, the sentinel on duty at
outpost No. 2. He, after halting them three times without
effect, fired, killing the lieutenant, whose men returned the
fire and then retreated. Immediately rockets were sent up by
the Filipinos, and they commenced firing all along the line, …
and continued to fire until about midnight; and about 4
o'clock on the morning of February 5 the insurgents again
opened fire all around the city and kept it up until the
Americans charged them and drove them with great slaughter out
of their trenches."
Philippine Commission, Preliminary Report
(Exhibit 1.—Report, January 31, 1900,
volume 1, pages 174-175).
"They [the insurgents] were promptly repulsed in a series of
active engagements which extended through the night of the
4th, and the 5th, 6th, and 10th days of February. Our lines
were extended and established at a considerable distance from
the city in every direction. On the 22d of February a
concerted rising of the Tagalogs in the city of Manila, of
whom there are about 200,000, was attempted, under
instructions to massacre all the Americans and Europeans in
the city. This attempt was promptly suppressed and the city
was placed under strict control. The troops composing the
Eighth Army Corps under General Otis's command at that time
were of regulars 171 officers and 5,201 enlisted men and of
volunteers 667 officers and 14,831 enlisted men, making an
aggregate of 838 officers and 20,032 enlisted men. All of the
volunteers and 1,650 of the regulars were, or were about to
become entitled to their discharge, and their right was
perfected by the exchange of ratifications of the treaty on
the 11th of April. …
"The months of the most intense heat, followed by the very
severe rainy season of that climate, were immediately
approaching, and for any effective occupation of the country
it was necessary to await both the close of the rainy season
and the supply of new troops to take the place of those about
to be discharged. Practically all the volunteers who were then
in the Philippines consented to forego the just expectation of
an immediate return to their homes, and to remain in the field
until their places could be supplied by new troops. They
voluntarily subjected themselves to the dangers and casualties
of numerous engagements, and to the very great hardships of
the climate. They exhibited fortitude and courage, and are
entitled to high commendation for their patriotic spirit and
soldierly conduct. …
{381}
"No attempt was … made to occupy the country, except in the
vicinity of Manila, and at such points as were important for
the protection of our lines. Such movements as passed beyond
this territory were designed primarily to break up threatening
concentrations of insurgent troops, and to prevent undue
annoyance to the positions which we occupied. On the 11th of
February the city of Iloilo, on the island of Panay, the
second port of the Philippines in importance, was occupied.
After the capture of Iloilo the navy took possession of the
city of Cebu, on the island of Cebu, and on the 26th of
February a battalion of the 23d Infantry was dispatched to
that port for the protection of the inhabitants and property.
On the 1st of March a military district comprising the islands
of Panay, Negros, and Cebu, and such other Visayan islands as
might be thereafter designated, to be known as the 'Visayan
Military District,' was established and placed under the
supervision of Brigadier General Marcus P. Miller, commanding
1st Separate Brigade, Eighth Army Corps, with headquarters at
Iloilo. The 3d Battalion of the 1st California Volunteer
Infantry was thereupon ordered to the island of Negros, under
the command of Colonel (now Brigadier General) James F. Smith,
and took possession of the city of Bacolod, on that island,
without resistance. On the 5th of May Brigadier General James
F. Smith assumed temporary command of the Visayan military
district, and on the 25th of May Brigadier General R. P.
Hughes, United States Volunteers, was assigned to the command
of the district. On the 19th of May the Spanish garrison at
Jolo, in the Sulu Archipelago, was replaced by American
troops. By the 31st of August the number of troops stationed
at Jolo and the Visayan Islands, including a small guard at
the Cavite Arsenal, amounted to 4,145. …
"All of the forces who were entitled to be discharged as above
mentioned have now [November. 29, 1899] been returned to this
country and mustered out. The new troops designed to take the
place of those returning to this country, and to constitute an
effective army for the occupation of the Philippines, have
been transported to Manila. … The troops now in the
Philippines comprise 905 officers and 30,578 men of the
regular force, and 594 officers and 15,388 men of the
volunteer force, making an aggregate of 1,499 officers and
45,966 men, and when the troops on the way have arrived the
total force constituting the Eighth Army Corps will be 2,051
officers and 63,483 men.
"By the 10th of October the process of changing armies and the
approach of the dry season had reached a point where an
advance toward the general occupation of the country was
justified. At that time the American lines extended from the
Bay of Manila to Laguna de Bay, and included considerable
parts of the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, and Morong to the
south and east of Manila, substantially all of the province of
Manila and the southern parts of Bulacan and Pampanga,
dividing the insurgent forces into two widely separated parts.
To the south and east of our lines in Cavite and Morong were
numerous bands occasionally concentrating for attack on our
lines, and as frequently dispersed and driven back toward the
mountains. On the 8th or October, the insurgents in this
region having again gathered and attacked our lines of
communication, General Schwan with a column of 1,726 men
commenced a movement from Bacoor, in the province of Cavite,
driving the enemy through Old Cavite, Noveleta, Santa Cruz,
San Francisco de Malabon, Saban, and Perez das Marinas,
punishing them severely, scattering them and destroying them
as organized forces, and returning on the 13th to Bacoor. On
the north of our lines stretched the great plain of central
Luzon extending north from Manila about 120 miles. This plain
comprises parts of the provinces of Manila, Pampanga, Bulacan,
Tarlac, Nueva, Ecija, and Pangasinan. It is, roughly speaking,
bounded on the south by the Bay of Manila: on the east and
west by high mountain ranges separating it from the seacoasts,
and on the north by mountains and the Gulf of Lingayen.
Through the northeast and central portion flows the Rio Grande
from the northern mountains southwesterly to the Bay of Manila,
and near the western edge runs the only railroad on the island
of Luzon, in a general southeasterly direction from Dagupan,
on the Bay of Lingayen, to Manila. In this territory Aguinaldo
exercised a military dictatorship, and with a so-called
cabinet imitated the forms of civil government, having his
headquarters at Tarlac, which he called his capital, and which
is situated near the center of the western boundary of the
plain.
"The operations commenced in October involved the movement of
three separate forces:
(1) A column proceeding up the Rio Grande and along the
northeastern borders of the plain and bending around to the
westward across the northern boundary toward the Gulf of
Lingayen, garrisoning the towns and occupying the mountain
passes which gave exit into the northeastern division of the
island.
(2) An expedition proceeding by transports to the Gulf of
Lingayen, there to land at the northwestern corner of the
plain and occupy the great coast road which from that point
runs between the mountains and the sea to the northern
extremity of the island, and to proceed eastward to a junction
with the first column.
(3) A third column proceeding directly up the railroad to the
capture of Tarlac, and thence still up the road to Dagupan,
driving the insurgent forces before it toward the line held by
the first two columns.
These movements were executed with energy, rapidity, and
success, notwithstanding the exceedingly unfavorable weather
and deluges of rain, which rendered the progress of troops and
transportation of subsistence most difficult. On the 12th of
October a strong column under General Lawton, with General
Young commanding the advance, commenced the northerly movement
up the Rio Grande from Arayat, driving the insurgents before
it to the northward and westward. On the 18th the advance
reached Cabiao. On the 19th San Isidro was captured, and a
garrison established; on the 27th Cabanatuan was occupied, and
a permanent station established there. On the 1st of November
Aliaga and Talavera were occupied. In the meantime
detachments, chiefly of Young's cavalry, were operating to the
west of the general line of advance, striking insurgent
parties wherever they were found and driving them toward the
line of the railroad. By the 13th of November the advance had
turned to the westward, and our troops had captured San Jose,
Lupao, Humingan, San Quintin, Tayug, and San Nicolas. By the
18th of November the advance had occupied Asingan and Rosales,
and was moving on Pozorrubio, a strongly intrenched post about 12
miles east of San Fabian. General Lawton's forces now held a
line of posts extending up the eastern side of the plain and
curving around and across the northern end to within a few
miles of the Gulf of Lingayen.
{382}
"On the 6th of November a force of 2,500, under command of
General Wheaton, sailed from Manila for the Gulf of Lingayen,
convoyed by ships of the Navy, and on the 7th the expedition
was successfully landed at San Fabian with effective
assistance from a naval convoy against spirited opposition. On
the 12th the 33d Volunteers, of Wheaton's command, under
Colonel Hare, proceeded southeastward to San Jacinto, attacked
and routed 1,200 intrenched insurgents, with the loss of the
gallant Major John A. Logan and 6 enlisted men killed, and one
officer and 11 men wounded. The enemy left 81 dead in the
trenches and suffered a total loss estimated at 300. In the
meantime, on the 5th of November, a column under General
McArthur advanced up the railroad from Angeles to Magalang,
clearing the country between Angeles and Arayat, encountering
and routing bodies of the enemy at different points, and
capturing Magalang. On the 11th it took Bamban, Capas, and
Concepcion, and on the 12th of November entered Tarlac, from
which the enemy fled on its approach. Meantime, parties,
mainly of the 36th Volunteers, under Colonel J. F. Bell,
cleared the country to the right of the line of advance as far
east as the points reached by General Lawton's flanking
parties. On the 17th of November McArthur's column had
occupied Gerona and Panique, to the north of Tarlac, On the
19th, Wheaton's troops, and on the 20th, McArthur's troops,
entered Dagupan.
"On the 24th of November General Otis was able to telegraph to
the Department as follows: 'Claim to government by insurgents
can be made no longer under any fiction. Its treasurer,
secretary of the interior, and president of congress in our
hands; its president and remaining cabinet officers in hiding,
evidently in different central Luzon provinces; its generals
and troops in small bands scattered through these provinces,
acting as banditti, or dispersed, playing the rôle of
"Amigos," with arms concealed.' Since that time our troops
have been actively pursuing the flying and scattered bands of
insurgents, further dispersing them, making many prisoners,
and releasing many Spanish prisoners who had been in the
insurgents' hands. On the 23d General Young's column had
reached Namacpacan, 30 miles north of San Fernando, in the
province of Union, and passed north into the mountains; and on
the 24th Vigan, the principal port of the northwest coast, was
occupied by a body of marines landed from the battle ship
Oregon. Wherever the permanent occupation of our troops has
extended in the Philippine Islands civil law has been
immediately put in force. The courts have been organized and
the most learned and competent native lawyers have been
appointed to preside over them. A system of education has been
introduced and numerous schools have been established."
Annual Report of the Secretary of War, 1899
(Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,
volume 2, pages 735-741).
General Young, whose movement is referred to above, reported
to General Otis from Pozorrubio, on the 17th of November:
"Aguinaldo is now a fugitive and an outlaw, seeking security
in escape to the mountains or by sea. My cavalry have ridden
down his forces wherever found, utterly routing them in every
instance, killing some, capturing and liberating many
prisoners, and destroying many arms, ammunition, and other war
impediments." On the 30th, Major March was sent by General
Young, as he expresses it, "on Aguinaldo's trail," and
encountered the forces of the Filipino General Pilar in the
Tila Pass. The following is Major March's report of the fight
which then occurred, and in which the Filipino commander fell:
"The trail winds up the Tila Mountains in a sharp zigzag. The
enemy had constructed a stone barricade across the trail at a
point where it commanded the turns of the zigzag for a
considerable distance. The barricade was loopholed for
infantry fire and afforded head cover for the insurgents. On
passing on beyond Lingey the advance was checked by a heavy
fire from this barricade, which killed and wounded several
men, without having its position revealed. I brought up the
remainder of the command at double time, losing two men
wounded during the run up. On arriving at the point, I located
the insurgents' position with my glasses—their fire being
entirely Mauser and smokeless powder—by the presence of the
insurgent officer who showed himself freely and directed the
fire. On pushing forward, the number of my men who were hit
increased so rapidly that it was evident that the position
could not be taken by a front attack, when the trail only
allowed the men to pass one at a time. On the left of the
barricade was a gorge several hundred feet deep. On its right,
as we faced it, was a precipitous mountain which rose 1,500 feet
above the trail. Across the gorge and to the left front of the
barricade was a hill, which, while it did not permit of flank
fire into the barricade, commanded the trail in its rear, and
this point I occupied with ten sharpshooters in command of
Sergeant-Major McDougall. He lost one man wounded in getting
to the top, and when there rendered most effective assistance.
I then ordered Lieutenant Tompkins to take his company (H) and
proceeding back on the trail to ascend the slope of the
mountain under cover of a slight ridge which struck the face
of the mountain about 150 feet from the summit. From there he
had a straight-up climb to the top, where the men pulled
themselves up by twigs and by hand. The ascent took two hours,
during which the enemy kept up an incessant and accurate fire,
which they varied by rolling down stones on our heads. When
Tompkins' men appeared upon the crest of the hills over their
heads, he had the command of the two other trenches which were
constructed in rear of the barricade, I have described, around
a sharp turn in the trail, and which were also held by the
insurgents. He opened fire upon them and I charged the first
barricade at the same time, and rushed the enemy over the
hill. We found eight dead bodies on the trail, and the bushes
which grew at the edge of the gorge were broken and
blood-stained where dead or wounded men fell through. Among
the dead bodies was that of Gregorio del Pilar, the general
commanding insurgent forces. I have in my possession his
shoulder straps; French field glasses, which gave the range of
objects; official and private papers, and a mass of means of
identification. He was also recognized personally by Mr.
McCutcheon and Mr. Keene, two newspaper correspondents who had
met him before.
{383}
The insurgents' report of their loss in this fight is 52,
given to me after I reached Cervantes. My loss was 2 killed
and 9 wounded. I reached the summit at 4.30 P. M. and camped
there for the night. … At Cervantes I learned that the force
at Tila Pass was a picked force from Aguinaldo's body guard,
and that it was wiped out of existence. Aguinaldo with his
wife and two other women and a handful of men were living in a
convent at Cervantes, perfectly secure in his belief that Tila
Pass was an impregnable position. It was the insurgents'
Thermopylæ."
Report of Lieutenant-General Commanding the Army, 1900,
part 4, page 331.
Mr. McCutcheon, one of the newspaper correspondents referred
to by Major March, gave to the "Chicago Record" a graphic
account of the fight in Tila Pass, and wrote feelingly of the
death to the young Filipino General Pilar:
"General Gregorio del Pilar," wrote Mr. McCutcheon, "was the
last man to fall. He was striving to escape up the trail and
had already received a wound in the shoulder. A native was
holding his horse for him and just as he was preparing to
mount a Krag-Jorgensen bullet caught him in the neck, and
passing through came out just below his mouth. The men of
Company E, rushing up the trail, caught the native, who was
endeavoring to secure the papers which the general had in his
pockets, and a moment later captured the horse. At that time
no one knew who the dead man was, but from his uniform and
insignia they judged that he was an officer of high rank. The
souvenir fiend was at once at work and the body was stripped
of everything of value from the diamond ring to the boots. …
Many letters were found, most of them from his sweetheart,
Dolores Jose, who lived in Dagupan. A handkerchief bearing her
name was also found in his pocket. One letter was found from
the president of Lingay and gave the exact number of soldiers
in March's command. Pilar's diary, which ran from November 19
on to the day of his death, was of remarkable interest, for it
detailed many things regarding the wild flight of himself and
Aguinaldo's party up the coast. The last words written in it
were pathetic and indicated something of the noble character
of the man. The passage, which was written only a few minutes
previously, while the fight was on and while death even then
was before him, said: 'I am holding a difficult position
against desperate odds, but I will gladly die for my beloved
country.'
"Pilar alive and in command, shooting down good Americans, was
one thing, but Pilar lying in that silent mountain trail, his
body half denuded of its clothes, and his young, handsome,
boyish face discolored with the blood which saturated his
blouse and stained the earth, was another thing. We could not
help but feel admiration for his gallant fight, and sorrow for
the sweetheart whom he left behind. The diary was dedicated to
the girl, and I have since learned that he was to have married
her in Dagupan about two weeks before. But the Americans came
too soon. Instead of wedding bells there sounded the bugle
calls of the foe and he was hurriedly ordered to accompany his
chief, Aguinaldo, on that hasty retreat to the mountains. The
marriage was postponed, and he carried out his orders by
leaving for the north. Pilar was one of the best types of the
Filipino soldier. He was only 23 years old, but he had been
through the whole campaign in his capacity as
brigadier-general. It was he who commanded the forces at
Quingua the day that Colonel Stotsenberg was killed, and it
may be remembered that the engagement that day was one of the
most bloody and desperate that has occurred on the island. He
was a handsome boy, and was known as one of the Filipinos who
were actuated by honestly patriotic motives, and who fought
because they believed they were fighting in the right and not
for personal gain or ambition."
Chicago Record's Stories of Filipino Warfare,
page 14.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (March-July).
The establishment of a provisional government
in the island of Negros.
Negros "was the first island to accept American sovereignty.
Its people unreservedly proclaimed allegiance to the United
States and adopted a constitution looking to the establishment
of a popular government. It was impossible to guarantee to the
people of Negros that the constitution so adopted should be
the ultimate form of government. Such a question, under the
treaty with Spain and in accordance with our own Constitution
and laws, came exclusively within the jurisdiction of the
Congress. The government actually set up by the inhabitants of
Negros eventually proved unsatisfactory to the natives
themselves. A new system was put into force by order of the
Major-General Commanding the Department [July 22, 1899], of
which the following are the most important elements:
"It was ordered that the government of the island of Negros
should consist of a military governor appointed by the United
States military governor of the Philippines, and a civil
governor and an advisory council elected by the people. The
military governor was authorized to appoint secretaries of the
treasury, interior, agriculture, public instruction, an
attorney-general, and an auditor. The seat of government was
fixed at Bacolod. The military governor exercises the supreme
executive power. He is to see that the laws are executed,
appoint to office, and fill all vacancies in office not
otherwise provided for, and may with the approval of the
military governor of the Philippines, remove any officer from
office. The civil governor advises the military governor on
all public civil questions and presides over the advisory
council. He, in general, performs the duties which are
performed by secretaries of state in our own system of
government. The advisory council consists of eight members
elected by the people within territorial limits which are
defined in the order of the commanding general. The times and
places of holding elections are to be fixed by the military
governor of the island of Negros. The qualifications of voters
are as follows:
(1) A voter must be a male citizen of the island of Negros.
(2) Of the age of 21 years.
(3) He shall be able to speak, read, and write the English,
Spanish, or Visayan language, or he must own real property
worth $500, or pay a rental on real property of the value of
$1,000.
(4) He must have resided in the island not less than one year
preceding, and in the district in which he offers to register
as a voter not less than three months immediately preceding
the time he offers to register.
(5) He must register at a time fixed by law before voting.
(6) Prior to such registration he shall have paid all taxes
due by him to the Government.
{384}
Provided, that no insane person shall bc allowed to register
or vote. The military governor has the right to veto all bills
or resolutions adopted by the advisory council, and his veto
is final if not disapproved by the military governor of the
Philippines. The advisory council discharges all the ordinary
duties of a legislature. The usual duties pertaining to said
offices are to be performed by the secretaries of the
treasury, interior, agriculture, public instruction, the
attorney-general, and the auditor. The judicial power is
vested in three judges, who are to be appointed by the
military governor of the island. Inferior courts are to be
established. Free public schools are to be established
throughout the populous districts of the island, in which the
English language shall be taught, and this subject will
receive the careful consideration of the advisory council. The
burden of government must be distributed equally and equitably
among the people. The military authorities will collect and
receive the customs revenue, and will control postal matters
and Philippine inter-island trade and commerce. The military
governor, subject to the approval of the military governor of
the Philippines, determines all questions not specifically
provided for and which do not come under the jurisdiction of
the advisory council."
Message of the President, December 5, 1899
(Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,
volume 2, page 47).
Also in:
Report of General Otis (Message and Documents,
volume 2, page 1131-1137).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (May-August).
Agreement of terms with the Sultan of Jolo concerning
the Sulu Archipelago.
On the 19th of May, a detachment of U. 8. troops took the
place of the Spanish garrison at Jolo, the military station in
the Sulu Archipelago. On the 3d of July, General Otis, Military
Governor of the Philippines, issued orders as follows to
General J. C. Bates, U. S. V.: "You will proceed as soon as
practicable to the United States military station of Jolo, on
the island of that name, and there place yourself in
communication with the Sultan of Jolo, who is believed to be
at Siassi, where he was sojourning when the last information
concerning him was received. You are hereby appointed and
constituted an agent on the part of the United States military
authorities in the Philippines to discuss, enter into
negotiations, and perfect, if possible, a written agreement of
character and scope as hereinafter explained, with the Sultan,
which upon approval at these headquarters and confirmation by
the supreme executive authority of the United States, will
prescribe and control the future relations, social and
political, between the United States Government and the
inhabitants of the archipelago. … In your discussions with the
Sultan and his datos the question of sovereignty will be
forced to the front, and they will undoubtedly request an
expression of opinion thereon, as they seem to be impressed
apparently with the belief that the recent Spanish authorities
with whom they were in relationship have transferred full
sovereignty of the islands to them. The question is one which
admits of easy solution, legally considered, since by the
terms of treaties or protocols between Spain and European
powers Spanish sovereignty over the archipelago is conceded.
Under the agreement between Spain and the Sultan and datos of
July, 1878, the latter acknowledged Spanish sovereignty in the
entire archipelago of Jolo and agreed to become loyal Spanish
subjects, receiving in consideration certain specific payments
in money. The sovereignty of Spain, thus established and
acknowledged by all parties in interest, was transferred to
the United States by the Paris treaty. The United States has
succeeded to all the rights which Spain held in the
archipelago, and its sovereignty over the same is an
established fact. But the inquiry arises as to the extent to
which that sovereignty can be applied under the agreement of
1878 with the Moros. Sovereignty, of course, implies full
power of political control, but it is not incompatible with
concessionary grants between sovereign and subject. The Moros
acknowledged through their accepted chiefs Spanish sovereignty
and their subjection thereto, and that nation in turn conferred
upon their chiefs certain powers of supervision over them and
their affairs. The kingly prerogatives of Spain, thus abridged
by solemn concession, have descended to the United States, and
conditions existing at the time of transfer should remain. The
Moros are entitled to enjoy the identical privileges which
they possessed at the time of transfer, and to continue to
enjoy them until abridged or modified by future mutual
agreement between them and the United States, to which they
owe loyalty, unless it becomes necessary to invoke the
exercise of the supreme powers of sovereignty to meet
emergencies. You will therefore acquaint yourself thoroughly
with the terms of the agreement of 1878, and take them as a
basis for your directed negotiations. …
"It is greatly desired by the United States for the sake of
the individual improvement and social advancement of the
Moros, and for the development of the trade and agriculture of
the islands in their interests, also for the welfare of both the
United States and Moros, that mutual friendly and well-defined
relations be established. If the Sultan can be made to give
credit to and fully understand the intentions of the United
States, the desired result can be accomplished. The United
States will accept the obligations of Spain under the
agreement of 1878 in the matter of money annuities, and in
proof of sincerity you will offer as a present to the Sultan
and datos $10,000, Mexican, with which you will be supplied
before leaving for Jolo—the same to be handed over to them,
respectively, in amounts agreeing with the ratio of payments
made to them by the Spanish Government for their declared
services. From the 1st of September next, and thereafter, the
United States will pay to them regularly the sums promised by
Spain in its agreement of 1878, and in any subsequent promises
of which proof can be furnished. The United States will
promise, in return for the concessions to be hereinafter
mentioned, not to interfere with, but to protect the Moros in
the free exercise of their religion and customs, social and
domestic, and will respect the rights and dignities of the
Sultan and his advisers."
{385}
Of the results of the mission of General Bates, General Otis
reported subsequently as follows:
"General Bates had a difficult task to perform and executed it
with tact and ability. While a number of the principal datos were
favorably inclined, the Sultan, not responding to invitations,
kept aloof and was represented by his secretary, until
finally, the general appearing at Maibung, the Moro capital, a
personal interview was secured. He being also Sultan of North
Borneo and receiving large annual payments from the North
Borneo Trading Company, expected like returns from the United
States, and seemed more anxious to obtain personal revenue
than benefits for his people. Securing the port of Siassi from
the Spaniards, establishing there his guards and police, he
had received customs revenues from the Sandaken trade which he
was loath to surrender. Negotiations continued well into
August, and finally, after long conferences, an agreement was
reached by which the United States secured much more liberal
terms than the Spaniards were ever able to obtain."
Report of General Otis, August 31, 1899
(Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,
volume 2, pages 1162-1164).
"By Article I the sovereignty of the United States over the
whole archipelago of Jolo and its dependencies is declared and
acknowledged. The United States flag will be used in the
archipelago and its dependencies, on land and sea. Piracy is
to be suppressed, and the Sultan agrees to co-operate heartily
with the United States authorities to that end and to make
every possible effort to arrest and bring to justice all
persons engaged in piracy. All trade in domestic products of
the archipelago of Jolo when carried on with any part of the
Philippine Islands and under the American flag shall be free,
unlimited, and undutiable. The United States will give full
protection to the Sultan in case any foreign nation should
attempt to impose upon him. The United States will not sell
the island of Jolo or any other island of the Jolo archipelago
to any foreign nation without the consent of the Sultan.
Salaries for the Sultan find his associates in the
administration of the islands have been agreed upon to the
amount of $760 monthly. Article X provides that any slave in
the archipelago of Jolo shall have the right to purchase
freedom by paying to the master the usual market value. The
agreement by General Bates was made subject to confirmation by
the President and to future modifications by the consent of
the parties in interest. I have confirmed said agreement,
subject to the action of the Congress, and with the
reservation, which I have directed shall be communicated to
the Sultan of Jolo, that this agreement is not to be deemed in
any way to authorize or give the consent of the United States
to the existence of slavery in the Sulu archipelago."
Message of the President, December 5, 1899
(Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,
volume 2, pages 47-48).
"The population of the Sulu Archipelago is reckoned at
120,000, mostly domiciled in the island of Jolo, and numbers
20,000 fighting men. Hostilities would be unfortunate for all
parties concerned, would be very expensive to the United
States in men and money, and destructive of any advancement of
the Moros for years to come. Spain's long struggle with these
people and their dislike for the former dominant race in the
Philippines, inherited, it would seem, by each rising
generation during three centuries, furnishes an instructive
lesson. Under the pending agreement General Bates, assisted by
the officers of the Navy, quietly placed garrisons of one
company each at Siassi and at Bongao, on the Tawai Tawai group
of islands, where they were well received by the friendly
natives. With the approval of the agreement, the only
difficulty to a satisfactory settlement of the Sulu affairs
will arise from discontent on the part of the Sultan
personally because of a supposed decrease in anticipated
revenues or the machinations of the insurgents of Mindanao,
who are endeavoring to create a feeling of distrust and
hostility among the natives against the United States troops.
"The Sultan's government is one of perfect despotism, in form
at least, as all political power is supposed to center in his
person; but this does not prevent frequent outbreaks on the
part of the datos, who frequently revolt, and are now, in two
or three instances, in declared enmity. All Moros, however,
profess the Mohammedan religion, introduced in the fourteenth
century, and the sacredness of the person of the Sultan is
therefore a tenet of faith. This fact would prevent any marked
success by a dato in attempting to secure supreme power. Spain
endeavored to supplant the Sultan with one of his most
enterprising chiefs and signally failed. Peonage or a species
of serfdom enters largely into the social and domestic
arrangements and a dato's following or clan submits itself
without protest to his arbitrary will. The Moro political
fabric bears resemblance to the state of feudal times—the
Sultan exercising supreme power by divine right, and his
datos, like the feudal lords, supporting or opposing him at
will, and by force of arms occasionally, but not to the extent
of dethronement, as that would be too great a sacrilege for a
Mohammedan people to seek to consummate. The United States
must accept these people as they are, and endeavor to
ameliorate their condition by degrees, and the best means to
insure success appears to be through the cultivation of
friendly sentiments and the introduction of trade and commerce
upon approved business methods. To undertake forcible radical
action for the amelioration of conditions or to so interfere
with their domestic relations as to arouse their suspicions
and distrust would be attended with unfortunate consequences."
Report of General Otis, August 31, 1899
(Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,
volume 2, page 1165).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899-1900.
Military operations against the Insurgents.
Death of General Lawton.
"The enlargement of the field of operations and government in
the Philippine Islands made it impracticable to conduct the
business under the charge of the army in those islands through
the machinery of a single department, and by order made April
7, 1900, the Philippine Islands were made a military division,
consisting of four departments: The Department of Northern Luzon,
the Department of Southern Luzon, the Department of the
Visayas, and the Department of Mindanao and Jolo. The
Department of Northern Luzon is subdivided into six, the
Department of Southern Luzon into four, the Department of the
Visayas into four, and the Department of Mindanao and Jolo
into four military districts. …
"At the date of the last report (November 29, 1899 [see
above]) the government established by the Philippine
insurgents in central Luzon and the organized armed forces by
which it was maintained had been destroyed, and the principal
civil and military leaders of the insurrection, accompanied by
small and scattered bands of troops, were the objects of
pursuit in the western and the northern parts of the island.
{386}
That pursuit was prosecuted with vigor and success, under
conditions of extraordinary difficulty and hardship, and
resulted in the further and practically complete
disintegration of the insurrectionary bands in those regions,
in the rescue of nearly all the American prisoners and the
greater part of the Spanish prisoners held by the insurgents,
in the capture of many of the leading insurgents, and in the
capture and destruction of large quantities of arms,
ammunition, and supplies. There still remained a large force
of insurgents in Cavite and the adjacent provinces south of
Manila, and a considerable force to the east of the Rio Grande
de Pampanga, chiefly in the province of Bulacan, while in the
extreme southeastern portions of Luzon, and in the various
Visayan islands, except the island of Negros, armed bodies of
Tagalogs had taken possession of the principal seacoast towns,
and were exercising military control over the peaceful
inhabitants. Between the insurgent troops in Bulacan and the
mountains to the north, and the insurgents in the south,
communication was maintained by road and trail, running along
and near the eastern bank of the Mariquina River, and through
the towns of Mariquina, San Mateo, and Montalban and the
province of Morong. This line of communication, passing
through rough and easily defended country, was strongly
fortified and held by numerous bodies of insurgents.
"On the 18th of December, 1899, a column, under the command of
Major General Henry W. Lawton, proceeded from Manila, and
between that date and the 29th of December captured all the
fortified posts of the insurgents, took possession of the line
of communication, which has ever since been maintained, and
destroyed, captured, or dispersed the insurgent force in that
part of the island. In the course of this movement was
sustained the irremediable loss of General Lawton, who was
shot and instantly killed while too fearlessly exposing his
person in supervising the passing of his troops over the river
Mariquina at San Mateo.
"On the 4th of January, 1900, General J. C. Bates, U. S. V.,
was assigned to the command of the First Division of the
Eighth Army Corps, and an active campaign under his direction
was commenced in Southern Luzon. The plan adopted was to
confront and hold the strong force of the enemy near Imus and
to the west of Bacoor by a body of troops under General
Wheaton, while a column, under General Schwan, should move
rapidly down the west shore of the Laguna de Bay to Biñang,
thence turn southwesterly and seize the Silang, Indang, and
Naic road, capture the enemy's supplies supposed to be at the
towns of Silang and Indang, and arrest the retreat of the
enemy, when he should be driven from northern Cavite by our
troops designated to attack him there, and thus prevent his
reassembling in the mountains of southern Cavite and northern
Batangas. This plan was successfully executed. General
Schwan's column moved over the lines indicated with great
rapidity, marching a distance of over 600 miles, striking and
defeating numerous bodies of insurgents and capturing many
intrenched positions, taking possession of and garrisoning
towns along the line, and scattering and demoralizing all the
organized forces of the enemy within that section of country.
From these operations and the simultaneous attacks by our
troops under General Wheaton in the north the rebel forces in
the Cavite region practically disappeared, the members either
being killed or captured or returning to their homes as
unarmed citizens, and a few scattered parties escaping through
General Schwan's line to the south. By the 8th of February the
organized forces of the insurgents in the region mentioned had
ceased to exist. In large portions of the country the
inhabitants were returning to their homes and resuming their
industries, and active trade with Manila was resumed. In the
course of these operations about 600 Spanish prisoners were
released from the insurgents, leaving about 600 more still in
their hands in the extreme southeastern provinces of Camarines
and Albay, nearly all of whom were afterwards liberated by our
troops. In the meantime an expedition was organized under the
command of Brigadier General William A. Kobbé, U. S. V., to
expel the Tagalogs who had taken possession of the principal
hemp ports of the islands situated in Albay, the extreme
southeastern province of Luzon, and in the islands of Leyte,
Samar, and Catanduanes. This expedition sailed from Manila on
the 18th of January and accomplished its object. All of the
principal hemp ports were relieved from control of the
insurgents, garrisoned by American troops, and opened to
commerce by order of the military governor of the islands on
the 30th of January and the 10th and 14th of February. The
expedition met with strong resistance at Legaspi by an
intrenched force under the Chinese general, Paua. He was
speedily overcome and went into the interior. After a few days
he reassembled his forces and threatened the garrisons which
had been left in Albay and Legaspi, whereupon he was attacked,
and defeated, and surrendered. Thirty pieces of artillery, a
large quantity of ammunition, a good many rifles, and a
considerable amount of money were captured by this expedition.
"On the 15th of February an expedition, under the supervision
of Major-General Bates and under the immediate command of
Brigadier General James M. Bell, U. S. V., sailed from Manila
to take possession of the North and South Camarines provinces
and Western Albay, in which the insurgent forces had been
swelled by the individuals and scattered bands escaping from
our operations in various sections of the north. The insurgent
force was defeated after a sharp engagement near the mouth of
the Bicol River, pursued, and scattered. Large amounts of
artillery and war material were captured. The normal
conditions of industry and trade relations with Manila were
resumed by the inhabitants. On the 20th of March the region
covered by the last-described operations was created a
district of southeastern Luzon, under the command of General
James M. Bell, who was instructed to proceed to the
establishment of the necessary customs and internal-revenue
service in the district. In the meantime similar expeditions
were successfully made through the mountains of the various
islands of the Visayan Group, striking and scattering and
severely punishing the bands of bandits and insurgents who
infested those islands. In the latter part of March General
Bates proceeded with the Fortieth infantry to establish
garrisons in Mindanao. The only resistance was of a trifling
character at Cagayan, the insurgent general in northeastern
Mindanao surrendering and turning over the ordnance in his
possession.
{387}
With [the execution of these movements] all formal and open
resistance to American authority in the Philippines
terminated, leaving only an exceedingly vexatious and annoying
guerilla warfare of a character closely approaching
brigandage, which will require time, patience, and good
judgment to finally suppress. As rapidly as we have occupied
territory, the policy of inviting inhabitants to return to
their peaceful vocations, and aiding them in the
reestablishment of their local governments, has been followed,
and the protection of the United States has been promised to
them. The giving of this protection has led to the
distribution of troops in the Philippine Islands to over 400
different posts, with the consequent labor of administration
and supply. The maintenance of these posts involves the
continued employment of a large force, but as the Tagalogs who
are in rebellion have deliberately adopted the policy of
murdering, so far as they are able, all of their countrymen
who are friendly to the United States, the maintenance of
garrisons is at present necessary to the protection of the
peaceful and unarmed Filipinos who have submitted to our
authority; and if we are to discharge our obligations in that
regard their reduction must necessarily be gradual."
United States, Secretary of War,
Annual Report, November 30, 1900, pages 5-10.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (January).
Report of the First Philippine Commission.
The First Commission to the Philippines returned to the United
States in the autumn of 1899, and then submitted to the President
a brief preliminary statement of its proceedings in the
Islands and the opinions its members had formed, concerning
the spirit and extent of the Tagalo revolt, the general
disposition of the people at large, their capacity for
independent self-government, etc. On the 31st of January
following the commissioners presented a report which deals
extensively with many subjects of investigation and
deliberation. In Part I., it sets forth the efforts made by
the commission "toward conciliation and the establishment of
peace," through interviews with various emissaries of
Aguinaldo, and others, and by means of a proclamation to the
people. In Part II., it gives an extended account of the races
and tribes of which the native population of the Islands is
composed. In Part III., it details the provision that has
heretofore been made for education, and states the conclusions
of the commission as to the capacity of the people and their
fitness for a popular government. In Part IV., a very full
account of the Spanish organization of government in the
Philippines, general, provincial and municipal, is given, and
the reforms that were desired by the Filipino people are
ascertained. From this the commission proceeds to consider the
question of a plan of government for the Islands under the
sovereignty of the United States, and concludes that the
Territorial system of the United States offers all that can be
desired. "What Jefferson and the nation did for Louisiana,"
says the report, "we are … free to-day to do for the
Philippines. The fact that Bonaparte had provided in the
treaty that Louisiana should in due time be admitted as a
State in the Union, and that in the meantime its inhabitants
should have protection in the free enjoyment of their liberty,
property, and religion, made no difference in the relation of
Louisiana to the Constitution of the United States so long as
Louisiana remained a Territory; and, if it had made a
difference, it should have constituted something of a claim to
the immediate enjoyment of some or all of the benefits of the
Constitution. Unmoved by that consideration, however, the
Jeffersonian policy established once for all the subjection of
national domain outside the States to the absolute and
unrestricted power of Congress. The commission recommends that
in dealing with the Philippines this vast power be exercised
along the lines laid down by Jefferson and Madison in
establishing a government for Louisiana, but with … deviations
in the direction of larger liberty to the Filipinos. … The
result would be substantially the transformation of their
second-class Territorial government of Louisiana into a
Territorial government of the first-class for the Philippine
Islands." To this recommendation of the Territorial system of
government the commission adds a strenuous plea for a closely
guarded civil service. "It is a safe and desirable rule," says
the report, "that no American should be appointed to any office
in the Philippines for which a reasonably qualified Filipino
can, by any possibility, be secured. Of course the merit or
business system must be adopted and lived up to; the patronage
or spoils system would prove absolutely fatal to good
government in this new Oriental territory." Further parts of
the report are devoted to the Philippine judicial system, as
it had been and as it should be; to "the condition and needs
of the United States in the Philippines from a naval and
maritime standpoint"; to the secular clergy and religious
orders; to registration laws; to the currency; to the Chinese
in the Philippines; and to public health. Among the exhibits
appended in volume 1 of the published Report are the
constitution of Aguinaldo's Philippine Republic (called the
Malolos constitution), and several other constitutional drafts
and proposals from Filipino sources, indicating the political
ideas that prevail.
Report of the Philippine Commission,
January 31, 1900, volume 1.
See, also (in this volume),
EDUCATION: A. D. 1898 (PHILIPPINE ISLANDS).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (March).
Institution of municipal governments.
By General Orders, on the 29th of March, 1900, the Military
Governor of the Islands promulgated a law providing for the
election and institution of municipal governments, the
provisions of which law had been framed by a board appointed
in the previous January, under the presidency of Don Cayetano
Arellano, chief justice of the Philippines. The first chapter
of the law reads as follows:
"ARTICLE 1.
The towns of the Philippine Islands shall be recognized as
municipal corporations with the same limits as heretofore
established, upon reorganizing under the provisions of this
order. All property vested in any town under its former
organization shall be vested in the same town upon becoming
incorporated hereunder.
"ARTICLE 2.
Towns so incorporated shall be designated as 'municipios,' and
shall be known respectively by the names heretofore adopted.
Under such names they may, without further authorization, sue
and be sued, contract and be contracted with, acquire and hold
real and personal property for the general interests of the
town, and exercise all the powers hereinafter conferred. The
city of Manila is exempt from the provisions of this order.
{388}
"ARTICLE 3.
The municipal government of each town is hereby vested in an
alcalde and a municipal council. The alcalde and councilors,
together with the municipal lieutenant, shall be chosen at
large by the qualified electors of the town, and their term of
office shall be for two years from and after the first Monday
in January next after their election and until their
successors are duly chosen and qualified: Provided, That the
alcalde and municipal lieutenant elected in 1900 shall hold
office until the first Monday in January, 1902, only; and that
the councilors elected in 1900 shall divide themselves, by
lot, into two classes; the scats of those of the first class
shall be vacated on the first Monday of January, 1901, and
those of the second class one year thereafter, so that
one-half of the municipal council shall be chosen annually.
"ARTICLE 4.
Incorporated towns shall be of four classes, according to the
number of inhabitants. Towns of the first class shall be those
which contain not less than 25,000 inhabitants and shall have
18 councilors; of the second class, those containing 18,000
and less than 25,000 inhabitants and shall have 14 councilors;
of the third class, those containing 10,000 and less than
18,000 inhabitants and shall have 10 councilors; of the fourth
class, those containing less than 10,000 inhabitants and shall
have 8 councilors. Towns of less than 2,000 inhabitants may
incorporate under the provisions of this order, or may, upon
petition to the provincial governor, signed by a majority of
the qualified electors thereof, be attached as a barrio to an
adjacent and incorporated town, if the council of the latter
consents.
The qualifications of voters are defined in the second chapter
as follows:
"ARTICLE 5.
The electors charged with the duty of choosing elective
municipal officers must be male persons, 23 years of age or
over, who have had a legal residence in the town in which they
exercise the suffrage for a period of six months immediately
preceding the election, and who are not citizens or subjects
of any foreign power, and who are comprised within one of the
following three classes:
1. Those who, prior to the 13th of August, 1898, held the
office of municipal captain, gobernadorcillo, lieutenant or
cabeza de barangay.
2. Those who annually pay 30 pesos or more of the established
taxes.
3. Those who speak, read, and write English or Spanish."
Succeeding articles in this chapter prescribe the oath to be
taken and subscribed by each elector before his ballot is
cast, recognizing and accepting "the supreme authority of the
United States of America"; appoint the times and places for
holding elections, and set forth the forms to be observed in
them. In the third chapter, the qualifications of officers are
thus defined:
"ARTICLE 13.
An alcalde, municipal lieutenant, or councilor must have the
following qualifications:
1. He must be a duly qualified elector of the municipality in
which he is a candidate, of 26 years of age or over, and have
had a legal residence therein for at least one year prior to
the date of election.
2. He must correctly speak, read, and write either the English
language or the local dialect.
"ARTICLE 14.
In no case can there be elected or appointed to municipal
office ecclesiastics, soldiers in active service, persons
receiving salary from municipal, provincial or government
funds; debtors to said funds, whatever the class of said
funds; contractors of public works and their bondsmen; clerks
and functionaries of the administration or government while in
said capacity; bankrupts until discharged, or insane or
feeble-minded persons.
"ARTICLE 15.
Each and every person elected or appointed to a municipal
office under the provisions of this order shall, before
entering upon the duties thereof, take and subscribe before
the alcalde or town secretary"—an oath analogous to that
required from the electors.
Further articles in this chapter and the next define the
duties of the alcalde, the municipal lieutenant, municipal
attorney, municipal secretary, municipal treasurer, and the
municipal councilors. The fifth chapter relates to taxation
and finances; the sixth and seventh contain provisions as
follows:
"ARTICLE 53.
The governor of the province shall be ex officio president of
all municipal councils within the province and shall have
general supervisory charge of the municipal affairs of the
several towns and cities therein organized under the
provisions of this order, and in his said supervisory capacity
may inspect or cause to be inspected, at such times as he may
determine, the administration of municipal affairs and each
and every department thereof, and may hear and determine all
appeals against the acts of municipal corporations or their
officers. He, or those whom he may designate in writing for
that duty, shall at all times have free access to all records,
books, papers, moneys, and property of the several towns and
cities of the province, and may call upon the officers thereof
for an accounting of the receipts and expenditures, or for a
general or special report of the official acts of the several
municipal councils or of any and every of them, or of any and
every of the officers thereof, at any time, and as often as he
may consider necessary to inform himself of the state of the
finances or of the administration of municipal affairs, and
such requests when made must be complied with without excuse,
pretext, or delay. He may suspend or remove municipal
officers, either individually or collectively, for cause, and
appoint substitutes therefor permanently, for the time being
or pending the next general election, or may call a special
election to fill the vacancy or vacancies caused by such
suspension or removal, reporting the cause thereof with a full
statement of his action in the premises to the governor of the
islands without delay. He shall forward all questions or
disputes that may arise over the boundaries or jurisdictional
limits of the city, towns, or municipalities to the governor
of the islands for final determination, together with full
report and recommendations relative to the same. He may, with
the approval of the governor of the islands, authorize the
cities and towns to form among themselves associations or
communities for determined ends, such as the construction of
public works, the creation and foundation of beneficent,
charitable, or educational institutions, for the better
encouragement of public interests or the use of communal
property.
{389}
"ARTICLE 54.
It shall be the duty of commanding officers of military
districts, immediately after the publication of this order, to
recommend to the office of the military governor in which towns
within their commands municipal governments shall be
established, and upon approval of recommendations, either
personally or through subordinate commanders designated by
them, to issue and cause to be posted proclamations calling
elections therein. Such proclamations shall fix the time and
place of election and shall designate three residents of the
town who shall be charged with the duty of administering
electors' oaths; of preparing, publishing, and correcting,
within specified dates, a list of electors having the
qualifications hereinbefore set forth, and of presiding at and
making a due return of the election thus appointed. The
proclamation shall specify the offices to be filled, and in
order to determine the number of councilors the commanders
charged with calling the election shall determine, from the
best available evidence, the class to which the town belongs,
as hereinbefore defined; the classification thus made shall
govern until the taking of an official census. The first
alcaldes appointed under the provisions of this order shall
take and subscribe the oath of office before the commanding
officer of the military district or some person in the several
towns designated by said commanding officer for the said
purpose; whereupon the alcalde so sworn shall administer the
said oath of office to all the other officers of the municipio
there elected and afterwards appointed. The election returns
shall be canvassed by the authority issuing the election
proclamation, and the officers elected shall assume their
duties on a date to be specified by him in orders.
"ARTICLE. 55.
Until the appointment of governors of provinces their duties
under this order will be performed by the commanding officers
of the military districts. They may, by designation, confer on
subordinate commanding officers of subdistricts or of other
prescribed territorial limits of their commands the
supervisory duties herein enumerated, and a subordinate
commander so designated shall perform all and every of the
duties herein prescribed for the superior commanding officer.
"ARTICLE. 56.
For the time being the provisions of this order requiring that
alcaldes be elected, in all cases shall be so far modified as
to permit the commanding officers of military districts, in
their discretion, either to appoint such officers or to have
them elected as hereinbefore prescribed. The term of office of
alcaldes appointed under this authority shall be the same as
if they had been elected; at the expiration of such term the
office shall be filled by election or appointment.
"ARTICLE 57.
The governments of towns organized under General Orders No.
43, Headquarters Department of the Pacific and Eighth Army
Corps, series 1899, will continue in the exercise of their
functions as therein defined and set forth until such time as
municipal governments therefor have been organized and are in
operation under this order."
United States, 56th Congress, 1st Session,
House Document Number 659.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (April).
Appointment of the Second Commission to the Philippines and
the President's instructions to it.
Steps to be taken towards the establishment of civil
government, and the principles to be observed.
On the 7th of April, 1900, the President of the United States
addressed the following communication to the Secretary of War,
appointing a Second Commission to the Philippines, "to
continue and perfect the work of organizing and establishing
civil government" in the Islands, and defining the principles
on which that work should proceed: "In the message transmitted
to the Congress on the 5th of December, 1899, I said, speaking of
the Philippine Islands: 'As long as the insurrection continues
the military arm must necessarily be supreme. But there is no
reason why steps should not be taken from time to time to
inaugurate governments essentially popular in their form as
fast as territory is held and controlled by our troops. To
this end I am considering the advisability of the return of
the commission, or such of the members thereof as can be
secured, to aid the existing authorities and facilitate this
work throughout the islands.'
"To give effect to the intention thus expressed I have
appointed the Honorable William H. Taft of Ohio, Professor
Dean C. Worcester of Michigan, the Honorable Luke I. Wright of
Tennessee, the Honorable Henry C. Ide of Vermont, and
Professor Bernard Moses of California, Commissioners to the
Philippine Islands to continue and perfect the work of
organizing and establishing civil government already commenced
by the military authorities, subject in all respects to any
laws which Congress may hereafter enact. The Commissioners
named will meet and act as a board, and the Honorable William
H. Taft is designated as President of the board. It is
probable that the transfer of authority from military
commanders to civil officers will be gradual and will occupy a
considerable period. Its successful accomplishment and the
maintenance of peace and order in the meantime will require
the most perfect co-operation between the civil and military
authorities in the island, and both should be directed during
the transition period by the same executive department. The
commission will therefore report to the Secretary of War, and
all their action will be subject to your approval and control.
"You will instruct the commission to proceed to the City of
Manila, where they will make their principal office, and to
communicate with the Military Governor of the Philippine
Islands, whom you will at the same time direct to render to
them every assistance within his power in the performance of
their duties. Without hampering them by too specific
instructions, they should in general be enjoined, after making
themselves familiar with the conditions and needs of the
country, to devote their attention in the first instance to
the establishment of municipal governments, in which the
natives of the islands, both in the cities and in the rural
communities, shall be afforded the opportunity to manage their
own local affairs to the fullest extent of which they are
capable, and subject to the least degree of supervision and
control which a careful study of their capacities and
observation of the workings of native control show to be
consistent with the maintenance of law, order, and loyalty.
The next subject in order of importance should be the
organization of government in the larger administrative
divisions corresponding to counties, departments, or
provinces, in which the common interests of many or several
municipalities falling within the same tribal lines, or the
same natural geographical limits, may best be subserved by a
common administration. Whenever the commission is of the
opinion that the condition of affairs in the islands is such
that the central administration may safely be transferred from
military to civil control, they will report that conclusion to
you, with their recommendations as to the form of central
government to be established for the purpose of taking over
the control.
{390}
"Beginning with the 1st day of September, 1900, the authority
to exercise, subject to my approval, through the Secretary of
War, that part of the power of government in the Philippine
Islands which is of a legislative nature is to be transferred
from the Military Governor of the Islands to this commission,
to be thereafter exercised by them in the place and stead of
the Military Governor, under such rules and regulations as you
shall prescribe, until the establishment of the civil central
government for the islands contemplated in the last foregoing
paragraph, or until Congress shall otherwise provide. Exercise
of this legislative authority will include the making of rules
and orders, having the effect of law, for the raising of
revenue by taxes, customs duties, and imposts; the
appropriation and expenditure of public funds of the islands;
the establishment of an educational system throughout the
islands; the establishment of a system to secure an efficient
civil service; the organization and establishment of courts;
the organization and establishment of municipal and
departmental governments, and all other matters of a civil
nature for which the Military Governor is now competent to
provide by rules or orders of a legislative character. The
commission will also have power during the same period to
appoint to office such officers under the judicial,
educational, and civil service systems and in the municipal
and departmental governments as shall be provided for. Until
the complete transfer of control the Military Governor will
remain the chief executive head of the Government of the
islands, and will exercise the executive authority now
possessed by him and not herein expressly assigned to the
commission, subject, however, to the rules and orders enacted
by the commission in the exercise of the legislative powers
conferred upon them. In the meantime the municipal and
departmental governments will continue to report to the
Military Governor, and be subject to his administrative
supervision and control, under your direction, but that
supervision and control will be confined within the narrowest
limits consistent with the requirement that the powers of
government in the municipalities and departments shall be
honestly and effectively exercised and that law and order and
individual freedom shall be maintained. All legislative rules
and orders, establishments of Government, and appointments to
office by the commission will take effect immediately, or at
such times as it shall designate, subject to your approval and
action upon the coming in of the commission's reports, which
are to be made from time to time as its action is taken.
Wherever civil Governments are constituted under the direction
of the commission, such military posts, garrisons, and forces
will be continued for the suppression of insurrection and
brigandage, and the maintenance of law and order, as the
military commander shall deem requisite, and the military
forces shall be at all times subject, under his orders to the
call of the civil authorities for the maintenance of law and
order and the enforcement of their authority.
"In the establishment of Municipal Governments the commission
will take as the basis of its work the Governments established
by the Military Governor under his order of Aug. 8, 1899, and
under the report of the board constituted by the Military
Governor by his order of January 29, 1900, to formulate and
report a plan of Municipal Government, of which his Honor
Cayetano Arellano, President of the Audencia, was Chairman,
and it will give to the conclusions of that board the weight
and consideration which the high character and distinguished
abilities of its members justify. In the constitution of
Departmental or Provincial Governments it will give especial
attention to the existing Government of the Island of Negros,
constituted, with the approval of the people of that island,
under the order of the Military Governor of July 22, 1899, and
after verifying, so far as may be practicable, the reports of
the successful working of that Government, they will be guided
by the experience thus acquired, so far as it may be
applicable to the conditions existing in other portions of the
Philippines. It will avail itself, to the fullest degree
practicable, of the conclusions reached by the previous
commissions to the Philippines. In the distribution of powers
among the Governments organized by the commission, the
presumption is always to be in favor of the smaller
sub-division, so that all the powers which can properly be
exercised by the Municipal Government shall be vested in that
Government, and all the powers of a more general character
which can be exercised by the Departmental Government shall be
vested in that Government, and so that in the governmental
system, which is the result of the process, the Central
Government of the islands, following the example of the
distribution of the powers between the States and the National
Government of the United States, shall have no direct
administration except of matters of purely general concern,
and shall have only such supervision and control over local
Governments as may be necessary to secure and enforce faithful
and efficient administration by local officers.
"The many different degrees of civilization and varieties of
custom and capacity among the people of the different islands
preclude very definite instruction as to the part which the
people shall take in the selection of their own officers; but
these general rules are to be observed: That in all cases the
municipal officers, who administer the local affairs of the
people, are to be selected by the people, and that wherever
officers of more extended jurisdiction are to be selected in
any way, natives of the islands are to be preferred, and if
they can be found competent and willing to perform the duties,
they are to receive the offices in preference to any others.
It will be necessary to fill some offices for the present with
Americans which after a time may well be filled by natives of
the islands. As soon as practicable a system for ascertaining
the merit and fitness of candidates for civil office should be
put in force. An indispensable qualification for all offices and
positions of trust and authority in the islands must be
absolute and unconditional loyalty to the United States, and
absolute and unhampered authority and power to remove and
punish any officer deviating from that standard must at all
times be retained in the hands of the central authority of the
islands.
{391}
In all the forms of government and administrative provisions
which they are authorized to prescribe, the commission should
bear in mind that the government which they are establishing
is designed not for our satisfaction, or for the expression of
our theoretical views, but for the happiness, peace, and
prosperity of the people of the Philippine Islands, and the
measures adopted should be made to conform to their customs,
their habits, and even their prejudices, to the fullest extent
consistent with the accomplishment of the indispensable
requisites of just and effective government.
"At the same time the commission should bear in mind, and the
people of the islands should be made plainly to understand,
that there are certain great principles of government which
have been made the basis of our governmental system which we
deem essential to the rule of law and the maintenance of
individual freedom, and of which they have, unfortunately,
been denied the experience possessed by us; that there are
also certain practical rules of government which we have found
to be essential to the preservation of these great principles
of liberty and law, and that these principles and these rules
of government must be established and maintained in their
islands for the sake of their liberty and happiness, however
much they may conflict with the customs or laws of procedure
with which they are familiar. It is evident that the most
enlightened thought of the Philippine Islands fully
appreciates the importance of these principles and rules, and
they will inevitably within a short time command universal
assent. Upon every division and branch of the government of
the Philippines, therefore, must be imposed these inviolable
rules: That no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or
property without due process of law; that private property
shall not be taken for public use without just compensation;
that in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the
right to a speedy and public trial, to be informed of the
nature and cause of the accusation, to be confronted with the
witnesses against him, to have compulsory process for
obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance
of counsel for his defense; that excessive bail shall not be
required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual
punishment inflicted; that no person shall be put twice in
jeopardy for the same offense, or be compelled in any criminal
case to be a witness against himself; that the right to be
secure against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be
violated; that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall
exist except as a punishment for crime; that no bill of
attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed; that no law
shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech or of the
press, or the rights of the people to peaceably assemble and
petition the Government for a redress of grievances; that no
law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof, and that the free
exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship
without discrimination or preference shall forever be allowed.
"It will be the duty of the commission to make a thorough
investigation into the titles to the large tracts of land held
or claimed by individuals or by religious orders; into the
justice of the claims and complaints made against such
landholders by the people of the island or any part of the
people, and to seek by wise and peaceable measures a just
settlement of the controversies and redress of wrongs which
have caused strife and bloodshed in the past. In the
performance of this duty the commission is enjoined to see
that no injustice is done; to have regard for substantial
rights and equity, disregarding technicalities so far as
substantial right permits, and to observe the following rules:
That the provision of the treaty of Paris pledging the United
States to the protection of all rights of property in the
islands, and, as well, the principle of our own Government,
which prohibits the taking of private property without due
process of law, shall not be violated; that the welfare of the
people of the islands, which should be a paramount
consideration, shall be attained consistently with this rule
of property right; that if it becomes necessary for the public
interest of the people of the islands to dispose of claims to
property which the commission finds to be not lawfully
acquired and held, disposition shall be made thereof by due
legal procedure, in which there shall be full opportunity for
fair and impartial hearing and judgment; that if the same
public interests require the extinguishment of property rights
lawfully acquired and held, due compensation shall be made out
of the public Treasury therefor; that no form of religion and
no minister of religion shall be forced upon any community or
upon any citizen of the islands; that, upon the other hand, no
minister of religion shall be interfered with or molested in
following his calling, and that the separation between State
and Church shall be real, entire, and absolute.
"It will be the duty of the commission to promote and extend,
and, as it finds occasion, to improve, the system of education
already inaugurated by the military authorities. In doing this
it should regard as of first importance the extension of a system
of primary education which shall be free to all, and which
shall tend to fit the people for the duties of citizenship and
for the ordinary avocations of a civilized community. This
instruction should be given in the first instance in every
part of the islands in the language of the people. In view of
the great number of languages spoken by the different tribes,
it is especially important to the prosperity of the islands
that a common medium of communication may be established, and
it is obviously desirable that this medium should be the
English language. Especial attention should be at once given
to affording full opportunity to all the people of the islands
to acquire the use of the English language. It may be well
that the main changes which should be made in the system of
taxation and in the body of the laws under which the people
are governed, except such changes as have already been made by
the military Government, should be relegated to the civil
Government which is to be established under the auspices of
the commission. It will, however, be the duty of the
commission to inquire diligently as to whether there are any
further changes which ought not to be delayed, and, if so, it
is authorized to make such changes, subject to your approval.
In doing so it is to bear in mind that taxes which tend to
penalize or to repress industry and enterprise are to be
avoided; that provisions for taxation should be simple, so
that they may be understood by the people; that they should
affect the fewest practicable subjects of taxation which will
serve for the general distribution of the burden.
{392}
"The main body of the laws which regulate the rights and
obligations of the people should be maintained with as little
interference as possible. Changes made should be mainly in
procedure, and in the criminal laws to secure speedy and
impartial trials, and at the same time effective
administration and respect for individual rights. In dealing
with the uncivilized tribes of the islands the commission
should adopt the same course followed by Congress in
permitting the tribes of our North American Indians to
maintain their tribal organization and government, and under
which many of those tribes are now living in peace and
contentment, surrounded by a civilization to which they are
unable or unwilling to conform. Such tribal governments
should, however, be subjected to wise and firm regulation;
and, without undue or petty interference, constant and active
effort should be exercised to prevent barbarous practices and
introduce civilized customs. Upon all officers and employés of
the United States, both civil and military, should be
impressed a sense of the duty to observe not merely the
material but the personal and social rights of the people of
the islands, and to treat them with the same courtesy and
respect for their personal dignity which the people of the
United States are accustomed to require from each other. The
articles of capitulation of the City of Manila on the 13th of
August, 1898, concluded with these words: 'This city, its
inhabitants, its churches and religious worship, its
educational establishments, and its private property of all
descriptions, are placed under the special safeguard of the
faith and honor of the American Army.' I believe that this
pledge has been faithfully kept. As high and sacred an
obligation rests upon the Government of the United States to
give protection for property and life, civil and religious
freedom, and wise, firm, and unselfish guidance in the paths
of peace and prosperity to all the people of the Philippine
Islands. I charge this commission to labor for the full
performance of this obligation, which concerns the honor and
conscience of their country, in the firm hope that through
their labors all the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands may
come to look back with gratitude to the day when God gave
victory to American arms at Manila and set their land under
the sovereignty and the protection of the people of the United
States.
WILLIAM McKINLEY."
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (April).
Speech of Senator Hoar against the subjugation and
retention of the Islands by the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (APRIL).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (May).
Filipinos killed, captured and surrendered from the breaking
out of hostilities with them to May, 1900.
Losses of American army.
In response to a resolution of the United States Senate, May
17, 1900, the following report, by cable, from Manila, was
made by General MacArthur:
"Filipinos killed, 10,780;
wounded, 2,104;
captured and surrendered, 10,425;
number prisoners in our possession, about 2,000.
No systematic record Filipino casualties these headquarters.
Foregoing, compiled from large number reports made immediately
after engagements, is as close an approximation as now
possible, owing to wide distribution of troops. More accurate
report would take weeks to prepare. Number reported killed
probably in excess of accurate figures; number reported
wounded probably much less, as Filipinos managed to remove
most wounded from field, and comparatively few fell into our
hands. Officers high rank and dangerous suspicious men have
been retained as prisoners; most other men discharged on field
as soon as disarmed. Propose to release all but very few
prisoners at early date."
56th Congress, 1st Session,
Senate Doc. 435.
For returns of casualties in the American army during the same
period,
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (JUNE).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (May-November).
The question in American politics.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 {July).
Appeal of citizens of Manila to the
Congress of the United States.
An appeal "to the Congress of the United States," dated at
Manila, July 15, 1900, and signed by 2,006 of the inhabitants
of the city, who were said by Senator Hoar and Senator Teller
to be "the leading people of that section of country—lawyers
and bankers and professional men generally" was presented to
the Senate on the 10th of January, 1901. It opens as follows:
"The undersigned, Filipinos and peaceful inhabitants of this
city, in their own name and in the name of the misnamed
'irreconcilables,' respectfully present themselves and submit
to the worthy consideration of the Congress of the United
States of America the following appeal: "The people of the
Philippine Islands, in view of their calamitous condition,
demand in the name of her sons, in the name of all races, in
the name of humanity, that an end be put to the misfortunes
which afflict them which, while they distress and agonize her,
compel her to struggle for the rights that are hers, and for
the maintenance whereof she must, if necessary, continue to
pour out her blood as she has so constantly and generously
done on battlefields, in the woods, on the mountains, in the
city, everywhere! The blood which has been shed and that is
still being shed, and which will continue to be shed until she
has secured her rights, is not shed because of the intrigues
of a few who, according to misinformed persons, desire to
exploit the people and enrich themselves at the cost of their
brother's blood. It has, gentlemen, sprung from the hearts of
the people, who alone are the real strength of nations, the
sovereign king of races, the producers of the arts, of
science, of commerce, of wealth, of agriculture, of
civilization, of progress, and of all the productions of human
labor and intelligence, in all of which the people of the
Philippine Islands had made great progress. The Filipinos were
not sunk in lethargy, as some untruthfully assert. They
suffered, but the hour to break their chains came to them in
August, 1896, and they proclaimed to the world their
emancipation."
{393}
The paper proceeds to review the circumstances of the revolt
against Spanish rule which broke out in 1896, and the later
circumstances of the conflict between Filipinos and Americans
at such length that it cannot be given in full. Its aim and
its spirit may be sufficiently shown by quotation of the
following passages from the closing parts of the appeal:
"Even supposing that America should force us to submit, and
after many years of war the country should submit, as the
lesser evil, to the proclamation of an ample autonomy, that
autonomy would not produce a sincere bond of friendship
between the two people, because, having sacrificed herself for
her independence, the country could not look with affection upon
those who would be the only obstacle to her happiness. She
would always retain her aspirations, so that autonomy would be
a short 'interregnum' which the country would necessarily take
advantage of to regain new strength to be used in the
attainment of her high political ideals, happen what may, and
perhaps in some hour of peril strike a fatal blow at a hated
oppressor. … In giving this warning we do not forget the good
Americans whom we sincerely respect; we are mindful of the
rupture of our good relations with the United States; we are
mindful of the blood which will again run on the soil of our
country. We see in that autonomy a new and sorrowful page in
the history of the Philippines, and therefore we can not but
look upon it with horror. Our people have had enough of
suffering. … They steadfastly believe that their independence
is their only salvation. Should they obtain it, they would be
forever grateful to whomsoever shall have helped them in their
undertaking; they would consider him as their redeemer, and
his name will be engraved with bright letters in the national
history, that all the generations to come may read it with
sublime veneration. America, consistent with her tradition, is
the only one which could play that great rôle in the present
and future of the Philippines. If she recognizes their
independence, they could offer her a part of the revenues of
the Philippine state, according to the treaty which shall be
stipulated; the protection in the country of the merchandise
of the United States, and a moral and material guarantee for
American capital all over the archipelago; finally, whatever
may bring greater prosperity to America and progress to the
country will, we doubt not, be taken into account in the
treaty which shall be celebrated.
"That the independence of the country will be attended with
anarchy is asserted only by those who, offending the truth and
forgetting their dignity, represent the Filipinos under
horrible colors, comparing them to beasts. Their assertions
are backed by isolated acts of pillage and robbery. What
revolution of the world was free from such deeds? At this
epoch passions are unrestrained; vengeance finds opportunity
to satisfy itself; private ambitions are often favored by the
occasion. Could such criminal deeds be avoided? Pythagoras
said: 'If you like to see monsters, travel through a country
during a revolution.' …
"In order to end our appeal we will say, with the learned
lawyer, Senor Mabini: 'To govern is to study the wants and
interpret the aspirations of the people, in order to remedy
the former and satisfy the latter.' If the natives who know
the wants, customs, and aspirations of the people are not fit
to govern them, would the Americans, who have had but little
to do with the Filipinos, be more capable to govern the
latter? We have, therefore, already proven—
1. That the revolution was the exclusive work of the public;
2. That in preparing it they were moved by a great ideal, the
ideal of independence;
3. That they are ready to sacrifice their whole existence in
order to realize their just aspirations;
4. That in spite of the serious difficulties through which
they are passing, they still expect from America that she will
consider them with impartiality and justice, and will
recognize what by right belongs to them, and thus give them an
opportunity to show their boundless gratitude;
5. That the annexation of the Philippines to America is not
feasible;
6. That the American sovereignty is not favored by the
Philippine people;
7. That an ample autonomy can not be imposed without violating
the Filipino will;
8. That the Filipinos are firm for self-government.
"From this it results that the only admissible solution for
the present difficulties is the recognition by America of the
independence of the Filipinos. In saying this we do not
consider either the nullity or the legality of the Paris
treaty on our country, but the well-known doctrine of the
immortal Washington, and of the sons of the United States of
America, worthy champions of oppressed people. Therefore we,
in the name of justice and with all the energies of our souls,
demand—
1. That the independence of the Filipinos be recognized;
2. That all the necessary information regarding the events
which are taking place, concerning the peaceful towns and
places which are supporting the arms of the revolution, be
obtained from Filipinos who, by their antecedents and by their
actual conduct, deserve the respect and confidence of the
Filipino people."
Congressional Record,
January 10, 1901, page 850.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (September).
Adoption of civil service rules.
See (in this volume)
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1900.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (September-November).
Civil government of the Islands by the President's Commission.
Legislative measures.
Report of the Commission.
"In April of this year the second Philippine commission, of
which Honorable William H. Taft, of Ohio, Professor Dean C.
Worcester, of Michigan, Honorable Luke I. Wright, of
Tennessee, Honorable Henry C. Ide, of Vermont, and Professor
Bernard Moses, of California, were members, sailed for Manila
with the powers of civil government prescribed in the
instructions of April 7, 1900 [see above]. After devoting
several months to familiarizing themselves with the conditions
in the islands, this commission on the 1st of September, 1900,
entered upon the discharge of the extensive legislative powers
and the specific powers of appointment conferred upon them in
the instructions, and they have since that time continued to
exercise all that part of the military power of the President
in the Philippines which is legislative in its character,
leaving the military governor still the chief executive of the
islands, the action of both being duly reported to this
Department for the President's consideration and approval. …
On consultation with the commission, and with the President's
approval, a note of amnesty was issued by the military
governor, dated June 21, 1900, and supplemented by a public
statement by the military governor, under date of July 2,
1900, based, in the main, upon the instructions to the
commission.
{394}
… In pursuance of them something over 5,000 persons, of all
grades of the civil and military service of the insurrection,
presented themselves and took the following oath: 'I hereby
renounce all allegiance to any and all so-called revolutionary
governments in the Philippine Islands and recognize and accept
the supreme authority of the United States of America therein;
and I do solemnly swear that I will bear true faith and
allegiance to that government; that I will at all times
conduct myself as a faithful and law-abiding citizen of said
islands, and will not, either directly or indirectly, hold
correspondence with or give intelligence to an enemy of the
United States, neither will I aid, abet, harbor, or protect
such enemy. That I impose upon myself this voluntary
obligation without any mental reservation or purpose of
evasion, so help me God.' This number included many of the
most prominent officials of the former Tagalog government. …
"The commission in its legislative action is following the
ordinary course of legislative procedure. Its sessions are
open, and its discussion and the proposed measures upon which
it is deliberating are public, while it takes testimony and
receives suggestions from citizens as if it were a legislative
committee. Its first legislative act was the appropriation, on
the 12th of September, of $2,000,000 (Mexican), to be used in
construction and repair of highways and bridges in the
Philippine Islands. The second act, on the same day, was an
appropriation of $5,000 (Mexican) for a survey of a railroad
to the mountains of Benguet, in the island of Luzon. The
proposed railroad, about 45 miles in length, extending from
the Manila and Dagupan road, near the Gulf of Lingayen, to the
interior, will open, at a distance of about 170 miles from
Manila, a high tableland exceedingly healthy, well wooded with
pine and oak, comparatively dry and cool, and where the
mercury is said to range at night in the hottest season of the
year between 50° and 60° F. The value of such a place for the
recuperation of troops and foreign residents will be very
great. The third act of the commission was an appropriation
for the payment of a superintendent of public instruction.
They have secured for that position the services of Frederick
W. Atkinson, recently principal of the high school of
Springfield, Massachusetts, who was selected by the commission
for that purpose before their arrival in Manila.
"Before the 1st of September a board of officers had been
engaged upon the revision of the tariff for the islands in the
light of such criticisms and suggestions as had been made
regarding the old tariff. The commission has considered the
report of this board, and after full public hearings of
business interests in the island has formulated a tariff law
which has been transmitted to the Department. … A
civil-service board has been constituted by the commission
[see, in this volume, CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1900). They
have secured from the United States Civil Service Commission
the experienced and capable services of Mr. Frank M. Kiggins,
and a civil-service law has been enacted by the commission
providing for the application of the merit system to
appointments in the island."
United States, Secretary of War, Annual Report,
November 30, 1900, pages 25-27.
A report by the Commission, dated November 30, was received at
Washington late in January, 1901. Of the legislative work on
which it entered September 1st, and which, at the time of
reporting, it had prosecuted during three months, the
Commission speaks as follows:
"It adopted the policy of passing no laws, except in cases of
emergency, without publishing them in the daily press after
they had passed a second reading, and giving to the public an
opportunity to come before the Commission and suggest
objections or amendments to the bills. The Commission has
likewise adopted as part of its regular procedure the
submission of all proposed bills to the Military Governor for
his consideration and comment before enactment. We think that
the holding of public sessions furnishes instructive lessons
to the people, as it certainly secures to the Commission a
means of avoiding mistakes. … The Commission has now passed
forty-seven laws of more or less importance. … A municipal
code has been prepared and forwarded to you for the
consideration of one or two critical matters, and has not yet
been adopted, pending your consideration of it. A tariff bill
… has been prepared. … A judicial and civil procedure bill is
nearly completed. The same thing is true of a bill for
provincial government organization. A new internal tax law
must then be considered. The wealth of this country has
largely been in agricultural lands, and they have been
entirely exempt. This enabled the large landowners to escape
any other taxation than the urbana, a tax which was imposed
upon the rental value of city buildings only, and the cedula
tax, which did not in any case exceed $37.50 (Mexican) a
person. We think that a land tax is to be preferred, but of
this there will be found more detailed discussion below. …
"The only legislation thus far undertaken by the Commission
which bears directly on the conduct of municipal affairs in
the city of Manila is a law regulating the sale of spirituous,
malt, vinous or fermented liquors. It is provided that none of
the so-called native 'wines' [said to be concocted by mixing
alcohol with oils and flavoring extracts] shall be sold except
by holders of native wine licenses, and that such holders
shall not be allowed to sell intoxicants of any other sort
whatever. … The selling of native wines to soldiers of the
United States under any circumstances is strictly prohibited,
because the soldiers are inclined to indulge in those
injurious beverages to excess, with disastrous results. … The
Filipino ordinarily uses them moderately, if at all.
Fortunately, he does not, to any considerable extent, frequent
the American saloon. With a view to preventing his being
attracted there, the playing of musical instruments or the
operation of any gambling device, phonograph, slot machine,
billiard or pool table or other form of amusement in saloons,
bars or drinking places is prohibited."
The report of the Commission urged strongly the establishing
of a purely civil government in the Islands, for reasons thus
stated: "The restricted powers of a military government are
painfully apparent in respect to mining claims and the
organization of railroad, banking and other corporations and
the granting of franchises generally. It is necessary that
there be some body or officer vested with legislative
authority to pass laws which shall afford opportunity to
capital to make investment here. This is the true and most
lasting method of pacification. Now the only corporations here
are of Spanish or English origin with but limited concessions,
and American capital finds itself completely obstructed.
{395}
Such difficulties would all be removed by the passage of the
Spooner bill now pending in both houses.
See below: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).
The far reaching effect upon the feeling of the people of
changing the military government to one purely civil, with the
Army as merely auxiliary to the administration of civil law,
cannot be too strongly emphasized. Military methods in
administering quasi-civil government, however successful in
securing efficiency and substantial justice, are necessarily
abrupt and in appearance arbitrary, even when they are those
of the Army of the Republic; and until a civil government is
established here it will be impossible for the people of the
Philippine Islands to realize the full measure of the
difference between a government under American sovereignty and
one under that of Spain."
Another subject of great importance dealt with in the November
report of the Commission was that concerning the employment of
native troops and police, on which it was said: "The question
as to whether native troops and a native constabulary are at
present practicable has received much thought and a careful
investigation by the Commission. … We have sought and obtained
the opinions of a large number of Regular and volunteer officers
of all rank, having their fields of operation in all parts of
the islands, and there appears to be a general consensus of
opinion among them that the time is ripe for these
organizations, and this is also our conclusion. Assuming that
Congress at its next session will provide for an increase of
the Regular Army, it by no means follows that a large part
thereof will, or should, be stationed here permanently.
Considerations of public policy and economy alike forbid such
a programme, nor in our judgment is it necessary.
"While the American soldier is unsurpassed in war, as it is
understood among civilized people, he does not make the best
policeman, especially among a people whose language and
customs are new and strange to him, and in our opinion should
not be put to that use when, as we believe, a better
substitute is at hand. We therefore earnestly urge the
organization of ten regiments of native troops of infantry and
cavalry, the proportion between the two arms of the service to
be fixed by competent military judges. These troops should in
the main be officered by Americans. Certainly this should be
the case as to their field officers and company commanders.
Lieutenants might be Filipinos, judicially selected, and
provision might be made for their promotion in the event of
faithful or distinguished service.
"We further recommend that a comprehensive scheme of police
organization be put in force as rapidly as possible; that it
be separate and distinct from the army, having for its head an
officer of rank and pay commensurate with the importance of
the position, with a sufficient number of assistants and
subordinates to exercise thorough direction and control. This
organization should embrace every township in the islands, and
should be so constituted that the police of several contiguous
townships could be quickly mobilized. The chief officers of
this organization should be Americans, but some of the
subordinate officers should be natives, with proper provision
for their advancement as a reward for loyal and efficient
services. The main duty of the police would, of course, be to
preserve the peace and maintain order in their respective
townships, but occasion would, no doubt, frequently arise when
it would be necessary to utilize the forces of several
townships against large bands of ladrones."
With regard to the organization of municipal government in the
townships (pueblos) of the Islands the report of the
Commission says, in part: "The 'pueblos' of these islands
sometimes include a hundred or more square miles. They are
divided into so-called 'barrios' or wards, which are often
very numerous and widely separated. In order that the
interests of the inhabitants of each ward may be represented
in the Council, on the one hand, and that the body may not
become so numerous as to be unwieldy, on the other, it is
provided that the Councillors shall be few in number (eighteen
to eight, according to the number of inhabitants), and shall
be elected at large; that where the wards are more numerous
than are the Councillors the wards shall be grouped into
districts, and that one Councillor shall be in charge of each
ward or district, with power to appoint a representative from
among the inhabitants of every ward thus assigned to him, so
that he may the more readily keep in touch with conditions in
that portion of the township which it is his duty to supervise
and represent. …
"In order to meet the situation presented by the fact that a
number of the pueblos have not as yet been organized since the
American occupation, while some two hundred and fifty others
are organized under a comparatively simple form of government
and fifty-five under a much more complicated form on which the
new law is based, the course of procedure which must be
followed in order to bring these various towns under the
provisions of the new law has been prescribed in detail, and
every effort has been made to provide against unnecessary
friction in carrying out the change.
"In view of the disturbed conditions which still prevail in
some parts of the archipelago it has been provided that the
military government should be given control of the appointment
and arming of the municipal police and that in all provinces
where civil provincial government has not been established by
the Commission the duties of the Provincial Governor,
Provincial Treasurer and Provincial 'Fiscal' (prosecuting
attorney) shall be performed by military officers assigned by
the Military Governor for these purposes. It has been further
provided that in these provinces the Military Governor shall
have power through such subordinates as he may designate for
the purpose to inspect and investigate at any time all the
official books and records of the several municipalities, and
to summarily suspend any municipal officer for inefficiency,
misconduct or disloyalty to the United States. If upon
investigation it shall prove that the suspended officer is
guilty, the Military Governor has power to remove him and to
appoint his successor, should he deem such a course necessary
in the interest of public safety. It is thought that where the
necessity still exists for active intervention on the part of
the Military Governor it will ordinarily be desirable to allow
the towns to retain their existing organization until such
time as conditions shall improve; but, should it prove
necessary or desirable in individual instances to put the new
law into operation in such provinces, it is felt that the
above provisions will give to the Military Governor ample
power to deal with any situation which can arise, and he has
expressed his satisfaction with them.
{396}
"There are at the present time a considerable number of
provinces which, in the judgment of the Commission, are ready
for a provincial civil government. It is believed that in the
majority of cases it will be possible to organize all the
municipalities of a province, creating at the same time a
civil provincial government. So soon as civil government is
established in any province, power to remove officials for
inefficiency, misconduct or disloyalty, and, should public
safety demand it, to fill the offices thus made vacant, is
vested in the civil authorities. The law does not apply to the
city of Manila or to the settlements of non-Christian tribes,
because it is believed that in both cases special conditions
require special legislation. The question as to the best
methods of dealing with the non-Christian tribes is one of no
little complexity. The number of these tribes is greatly in
excess of the number of civilized tribes, although the total
number of Mahometans and pagans is much less than the number
of Christianized natives. Still, the non-Christian tribes are
very far from forming an insignificant element of the
population. They differ from each other widely, both in their
present social, moral and intellectual state and in the
readiness with which they adapt themselves to the demands of
modern civilization."
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (October).
United States military forces in the Islands.
"At the date of my last annual report there were in the
Philippine Islands 971 officers and 31,344 enlisted men; and
there were en route for service in those islands 546 officers
and 16,553 enlisted men—the latter force being principally in
California. Since that time an additional force ordered to
China was diverted to the Philippine Islands, making a total
of 98,668 men sent to the archipelago. Of this number 15,000
volunteers, first sent to that country in 1898, together with
the sick and disabled, have been returned to the United
States, leaving at the present time in the islands, according
to last report, 2,367 officers and 69,161 enlisted men.
Fifteen hundred men have been left in China to act as a guard
for the American legation in that country and for other
purposes."
United States, Annual Report of Lieutenant-General
Commanding the Army, October 29, 1900.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (November).
The problem of the Spanish Friars.
Two contradictory representations of their work and influence.
Views and recommendations of the United States Commission.
Of the character, work and influence of the Spanish religious
orders in the Philippine Islands there are two diametrically
opposite accounts given by different writers. Both are
represented in two of the quotations below, and those are
followed by extracts from a report made by the United States
Commission, November 30, 1900, on the subject of the problem
they present to the new government of the Islands. The first
writer is condemnatory. He says:
"The better classes [of the Filipinos] have absorbed much of
Spanish civilization in their three-century-old
apprenticeship. They show extraordinary talent for music. The
church of the mother land of Spain is much in evidence among
them. It brought to them its blessings, but also incidentally
a terrible curse. The mendicant orders—the Franciscans, the
Dominicans, the Augustinians, no longer poor preachers,
thinking only of serving, blessing, loving men, but grown
rich, domineering, and, in many cases, sadly corrupt in
morals—ate up the land. They added field to field, house to
house, till there was but little space left for the people.
They charged enormous rents to those who to put bread in their
mouths must till their fields. Just such cause for revolt existed
as that which in France aroused the storm of the great
revolution; the people taxed without mercy, the clergy
untaxed, reaping the benefit. Had the Christ-like St. Francis
of Assisi been endowed with the gift of prophetic vision to
see this gross degeneracy of his followers, more than ever
would he have felt the soundness of his intuition which made
him set his face like flint against the acquisition of any
property by his order. His beloved fair Lady of Poverty would
have seemed to him more beautiful than ever. He would have
been horrified with the knowledge of the cruel rapacity of
monks bearing his name, who, nevertheless, grossly oppressed
the Philippine peasantry in rents and taxes,—the very poor
whom St. Francis founded his order to serve.
"Perhaps the most deep-seated cause of Filipino insurrection
against Spanish authority was this unchecked growth of
ignorant, cruel, and oppressive ecclesiasticism. It was this
which weighed most heavily upon the people. It made the mere
question of gaining a livelihood difficult, but especially did
it strangle intellectual and moral growth. It not only
oppressed the Filipinos, but it overawed and dominated the
Spanish authorities. It was the power of the mendicant orders
which drove out the just Condé de Caspe, and later the
well-disposed and clement Blanco, which stimulated and
supported the frightful atrocities of the cruel Polavieja
during the revolution of 1896. Archbishop Nozaleda, a Spanish
monk of the Dominican order, was a leader in urging wholesale
and often wholly unjustifiable arrests, which were succeeded
by the torture and execution of hundreds of persons. It is
difficult for a mind reared in the freedom and culture of
modern Europe, or still freer America, to realize the horrible
excesses and actual mediæval cruelties which were committed in
the prisons of Manila and elsewhere in the islands upon Filipino
insurgents, or those accused of being in league with them,
during the revolution of 1896. The actual story of these
things as it is unfolded, not only from Filipino sources, but
from the Spanish archives of Manila, is like a scene evoked
from the long-buried and forgotten past in the middle ages.
Indeed, the only intelligible interpretation of events which
cast shame on the name of Spanish authority and Spanish
Christianity is found by reflecting that affairs in the
Philippines, just previous to the battle of Manila, were
controlled by ideas and forces which existed generally in
Europe previous to the Reformation,—ideas which slowly
retreated before the dawn of the new learning and the
liberation of the individual conscience."
H. Welsh,
The Other Man's Country,
chapter 1 (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company).
{397}
In the other view there is an appeal to results which cannot
easily be divested of force. They are set forth in the
following:
"The ideals of civilization for the Spanish missionary priests
in the Philippines were substantially the same as those of
Bacon and Raleigh, of the founders of New England and the
founders of New York. In the mind of all, a civilized people
was one which lived under settled laws by steady labor, which
was more or less acquainted with the material progress made
amongst the races of Europe, and, as all would say, which was
Christian. The Spanish friars undertook the task of giving
such a civilization to the Malays of the Philippines, and no
other body of men of any race or any faith have accomplished
what they have done. A task of somewhat similar kind has been
attempted by others in our own day in the name of Christian
civilization but not the Catholic Church. Hawaii has been
under control of missionaries from New England for
seventy-five years more completely than the Philippines were
ever under that of the Spanish friars. The native kings
adopted the new creed and enforced its adoption on their
subjects by vigorous corporal punishments. The missionaries
were abundantly supplied with such resources of civilization
as money could buy, and they have grown wealthy on their
mission; but what has been the fate of the natives? They have
dwindled in numbers to a fourth of what they were when Messrs.
Bingham and Thurston entered their islands, their lands have
been taken by strangers, their government overthrown by brute
force, and the scanty remnant has dropped the religion imposed
on them. In the Philippines in a hundred and forty years a
million of Catholic natives has grown seven fold. In Hawaii
under missioners of the world's manufacture a hundred and
forty thousand of the same race has shrunk to thirty-eight
thousand. Have the promises of the Spanish friars or those of
the American ministers been the most truthfully kept? The
actual condition of the Catholic population formed by the work
of the religious orders should not be judged by the excesses
which have marked the present revolution. Many old Christian
nations have gone through similar experiences. It would be as
unreasonable to judge the Christianity of France by the Reign
of Terror as to condemn the Filipino population for the
atrocities sanctioned by Aguinaldo. The mass of the country
population has taken no part in these deeds of blood which are
the work of a small number of political adventurers and
aspirants for office by any means. Until lately revolutionary
disturbance was unknown in the Philippines. During three
centuries there was only one serious Indian rebellion, that of
Silan, in the province of Illocos, at the time of the English
invasion. The Spanish military force was always too small to
hold the islands had there been any real disaffection to the
Government. The whole force at Manila in the present war, as
given by General Otis, was only fifty-six hundred, and about
as many more represented the entire Spanish force among a
population of seven millions.
"The disposition of the Catholic Filipinos is essentially law
abiding. One of the friars lately driven from the islands by
the revolution assured the writer that in Panay, an island
with a population of half a million, a murder did not occur
more often than once or twice in a year. In our own country
last year the proportion was more than fifty times as great.
There is no forced labor as in the Dutch Indian colonies to
compel the native Filipinos to work, yet they support
themselves in content without any of the famines so common in
India under the boasted rule of civilized England. A sure
evidence of material prosperity is the growth of the
population, and of its religion a fair test is the proportion
of Catholic marriages, baptisms and religious interments to
the whole number. The proportion of marriages in 1806 to the
population among the natives administered by the friars was
one to every hundred and twenty, which is higher than England,
Germany, or any European country. The number of baptisms
exceeded the deaths by more than two and a half per cent, a
greater proportion than in our own land. Compare this with
Hawaii and one feels what a farce is the promise of increased
prosperity held out by the American Press as the result of the
expulsion of the Spanish friars. It is not easy to compare
accurately the intellectual development of the Catholic
Filipinos with American or European standards. The ideals of
civilization of the Catholic missioners were different from
those popular with English statesmen and their American
admirers. The friars did not believe that the accumulation of
wealth was the end of civilization, but the support of a large
population in fair comfort. There are no trusts and few
millionaires in the islands, but their population is six times
greater than that of California after fifty years of American
government. The test so often applied of reading and writing
among the population finds the Filipinos fairly up to the
standard of Europe at least. Of highly educated men the
proportion is not so large as in Europe, but it is not
inconsiderable, and neither in science nor in literature are
the descendants of the Malay pirates unrepresented in their
remote islands. The native languages have developed no
important literature of their own, but they have a fair supply
of translations from Spanish works in history, poetry, and
philosophy. In that they are superior to the Hindoo of British
India, though spoken by nearly a hundred millions. These are
facts that throw a strange light on the real meaning of
civilization as planted by the Spanish friars among a
barbarian race. Compare them with the fate of the Indian races
on our own territory and say what benefit the Filipinos may
expect from the advent of 'Anglo-Saxon' civilization."
Bryan J. Clinch
(American Catholic Quarterly Review,
volume 24, page 15).
These opposing views are suggestive of the seriousness of the
problem which the subject offers to the new authority in the
Philippines. The American Commission now studying such
problems in those islands has presented its first views
concerning the Spanish friars in a lengthy report, written by
Judge Taft, and transmitted to Washington as part of the
general report of the Commission, bearing date November 30,
1900. The passages quoted below contain what is most essential
in the interesting document:
"Ordinarily, the Government of the United States and its
servants have little or no concern with religious societies or
corporations and their members. With us, the Church is so
completely separated from the State that it is difficult to
imagine cases in which the policy of a Church in the selection
of its ministers and the assignment of them to duty can be
regarded as of political moment, or as a proper subject of
comment in the report of a public officer.
{398}
In the pacification of the Philippines by our Government,
however, it is impossible to ignore the very great part which
such a question plays. Excepting the Moros, who are Moslems,
and the wild tribes, who are pagans, the Philippine people
belong to the Roman Catholic Church. The total number of
Catholic souls shown by the Church registry in 1898 was
6,559,998. To care for these in that year there were in the
archipelago 746 regular parishes, 105 mission parishes and 116
missions, or 967 in all. Of the regular parishes all save 150
were administered by Spanish monks of the Dominican,
Augustinian, or Franciscan orders. Natives were not admitted
to these orders. There were two kinds of Augustinians in these
islands, the shod and the unshod. The latter are called
Recolletos, and are merely an offshoot from the original order
of St. Augustine.
"By the revolutions of 1896 and 1898 against Spain, all the
Dominicans, Augustinians, Recolletos, and Franciscans acting
as parish priests were driven from their parishes to take
refuge in Manila. Forty were killed and 403 were imprisoned,
and were not all released until by the advance of the American
troops it became impossible for the insurgents to retain them.
Of the 1,124 who were in the islands in 1896, only 472 remain.
The remainder were either killed or died, returned to Spain,
or went to China or South America. There were also in the
islands engaged in missions and missionary parishes, 42
Jesuits, 16 Capuchins, and six Benedictines, and while many of
these left their missions because of disturbed conditions they
do not seem to have been assaulted or imprisoned for any
length of time. In addition to the members of the monastic
orders, there were 150 native secular clergymen in charge of
small parishes who were not disturbed. There were also many
native priests in the larger parishes who assisted the friar
curates and they have remained, and they have been and are
acting as parish priests. The burning political question,
discussion of which strongly agitates the people of the
Philippines, is whether the members of the four great orders
of St. Dominic, St. Augustine, St. Francis, and the Recolletos
shall return to the parishes from which they were driven by
the revolution. Colloquially the term 'friars' includes the
members of these four orders. The Jesuits, Capuchins,
Benedictines, and the Paulists, of whom there are a few
teachers here, have done only mission work or teaching, and
have not aroused the hostility existing against the four large
orders to which we are now about to refer. …
"The truth is that the whole government of Spain in these
islands rested on the friars. To use the expression of the
Provincial of the Augustinians, the friars were 'the pedestal,
or foundation, of the sovereignty of Spain in these islands,'
which being removed, 'the whole structure would topple over.'
… Once settled in a parish, a priest usually continued there
until superannuation. He was, therefore, a constant political
factor for a generation. The same was true of the Archbishop
and the bishops. The civil and military officers of Spain in
the island were here for not longer than four years, and more
often for a less period. The friars, priests, and bishops,
therefore, constituted a solid, powerful, permanent, well
organized political force in the islands which dominated
policies. The stay of those officers who attempted to pursue a
course at variance with that deemed wise by the orders was
invariably shortened by monastic influence. Of the four great
orders, one, the Franciscans, is not permitted to own
property, except convents and schools. This is not true of the
other three. They own some valuable business property in
Manila, and have large amounts of money to lend. But the chief
property of these orders is in agricultural land. The total
amount owned by the three orders in the Philippines is
approximately 403,000 acres. Of this 121,000 acres is in the
Province of Cavité alone. The whole is distributed as follows:
Cavité, Province of Luzon, 121,747 acres; Laguna, Province of
Luzon, 62,172 acres; Manila, Province of Luzon, 50,145;
Bulacan, Province of Luzon, 39,341; Morong, Province of Luzon,
4,940; Bataan, Province of Luzon, 1,000; Cagayan, Province of
Luzon, 49,400; Island of Cebu, 16,413; Island of Mindoro,
58,455. Total, 403,713. …
"It cannot admit of contradiction that the autocratic power
which each friar curate exercised over the people and civil
officials of his parish gave them a most plausible ground for
belief that nothing of injustice, of cruelty, of oppression,
of narrowing restraint of liberty, was imposed on them for
which the friar was not entirely responsible. His sacerdotal
functions were not in their eyes the important ones, except as
they enabled him to clinch and make more complete his civil
and political control. The revolutions against Spain's
sovereignty began as movements against the friars. … Having in
view these circumstances, the statement of the bishops and friars
that the mass of the people in these islands, except only a
few of the leading men of each town and the native clergy, are
friendly to them cannot be accepted as accurate. All the evidence
derived from every source but the friars themselves shows
clearly that the feeling of hatred for the friars is well nigh
universal and permeates all classes. In the provinces of
Cavité, Laguna, and Bulacan, as well as in the country
districts of Manila, the political feeling against the friars
has in it also an element of agrarianism. For generations the
friars have been lords of these immense manors, upon which,
since 1880, they have paid no taxes, while every 'hombre'
living on them paid his cedula, worked out a road tax, and, if
he were in business of any kind, paid his industrial impost. …
"In the light of these considerations it is not wonderful that
the people should regard the return of the friars to their
parishes as a return to the conditions existing before the
revolution. The common people are utterly unable to appreciate
that under the sovereignty of the United States the position
of the friar as curate would be different from that under
Spain. This is not a religious question, though it concerns
the selection of religious ministers for religious
communities. The Philippine people love the Catholic Church. …
The depth of their feeling against the friars may be measured
by the fact that it exists against those who until two years
ago administered the sacraments of the Church upon which they
feel so great dependence and for which they have so profound a
respect. The feeling against the friars is solely political.
The people would gladly receive as ministers of the Roman
Catholic religion any save those who are to them the
embodiment of all in the Spanish rule that was hateful.
{399}
If the friars return to their parishes, though only under the
same police protection which the American Government is bound
to extend to any other Spanish subjects in these islands, the
people will regard it as the act of that Government. They have
so long been used to have every phase of their conduct regulated
by governmental order that the coming again of the friars will
be accepted as an executive order to them to receive the
friars as curates with their old, all-absorbing functions. It
is likely to have the same effect on them that the return of
General Weyler under an American Commission as Governor of
Cuba would have had on the people of that island.
"Those who are charged with the duty of pacifying these
islands may therefore properly have the liveliest concern in a
matter which, though on its surface only ecclesiastical, is,
in the most important phase of it, political, and fraught with
the most critical consequences to the peace and good order of
the country, in which it is their duty to set up civil
government. … It is suggested that the friars, if they
returned, would uphold American sovereignty and be efficient
instruments in securing peace and good order, whereas the
native priests who now fill the parishes are, many of them,
active insurgent agents or in strong sympathy with the cause.
It is probably true that a considerable number of the Filipino
priests are hostile to American sovereignty, largely because
they fear that the Catholic Church will deem it necessary, on
the restoration of complete peace, to bring back the friars or
to elevate the moral tone of the priesthood by introducing
priests from America or elsewhere. But it is certain that the
enmity among the people against the American Government caused
by the return of the friars would far outweigh the advantage
of efforts to secure and preserve the allegiance of the people
to American Sovereignty which might be made by priests who are
still subjects of a monarchy with which the American
Government has been lately at war, and who have not the
slightest sympathy with the political principles of civil
liberty which the American Government represents.
"We have set forth the facts upon this important issue because
we do not think they ought to be or can be ignored. We
earnestly hope that those who control the policy of the
Catholic Church in these islands with the same sagacity and
prevision which characterize all its important policies, will
see that it would be most unfortunate for the Philippine
Islands, for the Catholic Church and for the American
Government to attempt to send back the friars, and that some
other solution of the difficulties should be found. … The
friars have large property interests in these islands which
the United States Government is bound by treaty obligations
and by the law of its being to protect. It is natural and
proper that the friars should feel a desire to remain where so
much of their treasure is. … It would avoid some very
troublesome agrarian disturbances between the friars and their
quondam tenants if the Insular Government could buy these
large haciendas of the friars, and sell them out in small
holdings to the present tenants, who, forgiven for the rent
due during the two years of war, would recognize the title of
the Government without demur, and gladly accept an
opportunity, by payment of the price in small instalments, to
become absolute owners of that which they and their ancestors
have so long cultivated. With the many other calls upon the
insular treasury a large financial operation like this could
probably not be conducted to a successful issue without the
aid of the United States Government, either by a direct loan
or by a guaranty of bonds to be issued for the purpose. The
bonds or loans could be met gradually from the revenues of the
islands, while the proceeds of the land, which would sell
readily, could be used to constitute a school fund. This
object, if declared, would make the plan most popular, because
the desire for education by the Filipinos of all tribes is
very strong, and gives encouraging promise of the future
mental development of a now uneducated and ignorant people.
The provincials of the orders were understood in their
evidence to intimate a willingness on the part of the orders
to sell their agricultural holdings if a satisfactory price
should be paid. What such a price would be we are unable
without further investigation to state. If an agreement could
not be reached it is probable, though upon this we express no
definite opinion, that there would be ground in the
circumstances for a resort to condemnation proceedings."
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901.
Act of the United States Congress increasing army and
authorizing the enlistment of native troops.
Rejection of the proviso of Senator Hoar.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901 (February-March).
Congressional grant of military, civil and judicial
powers for the government of the Islands to persons whom the
President may appoint.
The so-called "Spooner Amendment."
During the first session of the 56th Congress the following
bill was introduced in the U. S. Senate by Mr. Spooner, of
Wisconsin, but received no action:
"Be it enacted, etc., That when all insurrection against the
sovereignty and authority of the United States in the
Philippine Islands, acquired from Spain by the treaty
concluded at Paris on the 10th day of December, 1898, shall
have been completely suppressed by the military and naval
forces of the United States, all military, civil, and judicial
powers necessary to govern the said islands shall, until
otherwise provided by Congress, be vested in such person and
persons, and shall be exercised in such manner as the
President of the United States shall direct for maintaining
and protecting the inhabitants of said islands in the free
enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion."
Half the following session of Congress passed before any
disposition to take the action proposed by Senator Spooner was
shown. Then the matter was brought to notice and pressed by
the following communication to the Secretary of War, from the
Commission in the Philippines:
"If you approve, ask transmission to proper Senators and
Representatives of following: Passage of Spooner bill at
present session greatly needed to secure best result from
improving conditions. Until its passage no purely central
civil government can be established, no public franchises of
any kind granted, and no substantial investment of private
capital in internal improvements possible." This was repeated
soon afterwards more urgently by cable in the message
following:
{400}
"Sale of public lands and allowance of mining claims
impossible until Spooner bill. Hundreds of American miners on
ground awaiting law to perfect claims. More coming. Good
element in pacification. Urgently recommend amendment Spooner
bill so that its operation be not postponed until complete
suppression of all insurrection, but only until in President's
judgment civil government may be safely established."
The request of the Philippine Commission, endorsed by the
Secretary of War, was communicated to Congress by the
President, who said in doing so: "I earnestly recommend
legislation under which the government of the islands may have
authority to assist in their peaceful industrial development."
Thereupon the subject was taken up in Congress, not as
formulated in Senator Spooner's bill of the previous session,
but in the form of an amendment to the Army Appropriation
Bill, then pending in the Senate. The amendment, as submitted
to discussion in the Senate on the 25th of February, 1901, was
in the following terms:
"All military, civil, and judicial powers necessary to govern
the Philippine Islands, acquired from Spain by the treaties
concluded at Paris on the 10th day of December, 1898, and at
Washington on the 7th day of November, 1900, shall, until
otherwise provided by Congress, be vested in such person and
persons and shall be exercised in such manner as the President
of the United States shall direct, for the establishment of
civil government and for maintaining and protecting the
inhabitants of said islands in the free enjoyment of their
liberty, property, and religion: Provided, That all franchises
granted under the authority hereof shall contain a reservation
of the right to alter, amend, or repeal the same. Until a
permanent government shall have been established in said
archipelago full reports shall be made to Congress, on or
before the first day of each regular session, of all
legislative acts and proceedings of the temporary government
instituted under the provisions hereof, and full reports of
the acts and doings of said government and as to the condition
of the archipelago and its people shall be made to the
President, including all information which may be useful to
the Congress in providing for a more permanent government."
Strenuous opposition was made, firstly to the hasty grafting
of so profoundly important a measure of legislation on an
appropriation bill, and secondly to the measure itself, as
being a delegation of powers to the President which did
violence to the Constitution and to all the precedents and
principles of the American government, and also as having
objects which would not only do flagrant wrong to the people
of the Philippine Islands, but bring dishonor on those of the
United States. The military authority already exercised by the
President in the Philippines sufficed fully, it was contended,
for every purpose of temporary or provisional government
there, except in its lack of ability to grant franchises and
to dispose of the public lands. Hence it was freely charged
that the controlling influences which pressed this measure on
the government came from capitalists and speculators who were
reaching after valuable franchises, mining rights and land
grants in the archipelago. Said Senator Daniel in the debate:
"So far as any legislation which looks forward to the opening
of the way to civil government may be involved to the
softening of the conditions which exist, to the amelioration
of the distresses which are upon the Philippine people, I
would give most cheerful acquiescence. But because we desire
to do these things in a good spirit, in a resolute and
patriotic spirit, let us not permit the provocation of
difficult conditions to lead us into enacting any kind of
provision of law that is not necessary to these ends. Let us
not undertake to give to the President of the United States
any power of disposing of the permanent assets of the
Philippine people; let us not put him in the attitude of being
a franchise giver or a franchise seller or a franchise lessor.
The franchises of those islands—their rivers, their ferries,
their streets, their roads, the thousand and one privileges
which are granted by public authority—are as important and as
valuable to that people and as permanently associated with
their happiness and their prosperity as are their fields or
their mines or their fisheries or anything else which belongs
to their country. … It is true there is the reservation of the
right to alter, amend, or repeal, but while that is legally
broad enough for any remedial legislation whatsoever to
follow, we know that practically it is of very small
consequence. If capital goes in and invests itself in
improvements which are in themselves of a permanent nature, if
railroads are constructed, telegraph lines run, telephones
established, ferries built, steamers and boats, gas
establishments, electrical establishments—if those things are
disposed of, the man who once gets in will never be gotten
out. In all such affairs possession is nine points of the law
before they get into court, where it is generally made the
tenth."
Senator Hoar called attention "to the fact that the report of
the Taft commission urges that power be given to sell the
public lands at once, as it is necessary for their
development, and a large amount of capital is there now
clamoring to be invested," and he remarked: "So I suppose that
one of the chief purposes of this is that the public lands in
the Philippine Islands may be sold before the people of the
islands have any chance whatever to have a voice in their
sale." He then quoted the following passages from the report
of the Taft commission:
"The commission has received a sufficient number of
applications for the purchase of public land to know that
large amounts of American capital are only awaiting the
opportunity to invest in the rich agricultural field which may
here be developed. In view of the decision that the military
government has no power to part with the public land belonging
to the United States, and that the power rests alone in
Congress, it becomes very essential, to assist the development
of these islands and their prosperity, that Congressional
authority be vested in the government of the islands to adopt
a proper public-land system, and to sell the land upon proper
terms. There should, of course, be restrictions preventing the
acquisition of too large quantities by any individual or
corporation, but those restrictions should only be imposed
after giving due weight to the circumstances that capital can
not be secured for the development of the islands unless the
investment may be sufficiently great to justify the
expenditure of large amounts for expensive machinery and
equipments.
{401}
Especially is this true in the cultivation of sugar land. …
Restricted powers of a military government referred to in
discussing the public lands are also painfully apparent in
respect to mining claims and the organization of railroad,
banking, and other corporations, and the granting of
franchises generally. It is necessary that there be some body
or officer vested with legislative authority to pass laws
which shall afford opportunity to capital to make investment
here. This is the true and most lasting method of
pacification." "In other words," said Senator Hoar, "the
leading, principal, bald proposal on which this amendment
rests is that before those 10,000,000 people are allowed any
share in their own government whatever their property is to be
sold by Americans to Americans in large quantities, as on the
whole the best means of pacification—that the best way to
pacify a man is to have one foreign authority to sell his
property and another to buy it." An amendment to the
amendment, offered by Senator Bacon, reserving to Congress the
right to annul any grant or concession made, or any law
enacted, by any governmental authority created under the
powers proposed to be conferred on the President; another
offered, by Senator Vest, providing that "no judgment, order,
nor act by any of said officials so appointed shall conflict
with the Constitution and laws of the United States," and
still others of somewhat kindred aims, were voted down; but
the influence of Senator Hoar prevailed with the Senate so far
as to induce its acceptance of the following important
modification of the so-called "Spooner Amendment":
"Provided, That no sale or lease or other disposition of the
public land, or the timber thereon, or the mining rights
therein, shall be made: And provided further, That no
franchise shall be granted which is not approved by the
President of the United States, and is not, in his judgment,
clearly necessary for the immediate government of the islands
and indispensable for the interests of the people thereof, and
which can not, without great public mischief, be postponed
until the establishment of a permanent civil government, and
all such franchises shall terminate one year after the
establishment of such civil government."
With this proviso added, the "Spooner amendment" was adopted
by the Senate on the 26th of February (yeas 45, nays 27, not
voting 16), and agreed to by the House on the 1st of March
(yeas 161, nays 136, not voting 56).
Congressional Record,
February 25-March 1, 1901.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901 (March).
Organization of provincial governments.
Establishment of a department of public education.
Proposed tariff.
Date fixed for cessation of military regime.
On the 3d of March, the President of the Philippine
Commission, Judge Taft, addressed a cable despatch to the U.
S. Secretary of War in which he reported: "Commission has last
three weeks organized five provincial governments—Pampanga,
Pangasinan, Tarlac, Bulacan, Bataan—last two are Tagalog
provinces. Attended each provincial capital in a body; met by
appointment Presidentes, Councillors, and principal men of
towns; explained provisions general provincial act and special
bill for particular province and invited discussion natives
present of both bills. Conventions thus held very
satisfactory; amendments suggested, considered, special bills
enacted, appointments followed. … In three large provinces
natives appointed provisional Governors. In Bataan, on
petition, eight out of nine towns, volunteer officer
appointed. In Tarlac feeling between loyal factions required
appointment American. … In compliance with urgent native
invitations leave March 11 for south to organize provinces
Tayabas, Romblon, Iloilo, Capiz, Zamboanga, such others are
ready. Returning shall organize Zambales, Union, Cagayan,
Ilocos Norte. Military Governor has recommended organization
Batangas, Cavité, Laguna, Nueva Ecija, but shall delay action
as to these until return from northern and southern trips."
On the 18th of March it was announced from Washington that a
number of recent Acts of the Philippine Commission had been
received at the War Department, among them one which
establishes a general department of public instruction, with a
central office at Manila, under the direction of a general
superintendent, to be appointed by the commission, at a salary
of $6,000 a year. "Schools are to be established in every
pueblo in the archipelago where practicable, and those already
established shall be reorganized where necessary. There are to
be ten school divisions in the archipelago, each with a
division superintendent, and there is to be a superior
advisory board, composed of the general superintendent and
four members to be appointed by the Philippine Commission, to
consider the general subject of education in the islands and
make regulations. The English language, as soon as
practicable, shall be made the basis of all public
instruction, and soldiers may be detailed as instructors until
replaced by trained teachers. Authority is given to the general
superintendent to obtain from the United States 1,000 trained
teachers, at salaries of not less than $75 nor more than $100
a month, the exact salary to be fixed according to the
efficiency of the teacher. The act provides that no teacher or
other person "shall teach or criticise the doctrines of any
church, religious sect or denomination or shall attempt to
influence the pupils for or against any church or religious
sect in any public school." Violation of this section is made
punishable by summary dismissal from the public service. It is
provided, however, that it may be lawful for the priest or
minister of the pueblo where the school is situated to teach
religion for half an hour three times a week in the school
building to pupils whose parents desire it. But if any priest,
minister or religious teacher use this opportunity "for the
purpose of arousing disloyalty to the United States or of
discouraging the attendance of pupils or interfering with the
discipline of schools," the division superintendent may forbid
such offending priest from entering the school building
thereafter. The act also provides for a normal school at
Manila for the education of natives in the science of
teaching. It appropriates $400,000 for school buildings,
$220,000 for text books and other supplies for the current
calendar year, $25,000 for the normal school, $15,000 for the
organization and maintenance of a trade school in Manila and
the same amount for a school of agriculture.
{402}
The new tariff for the Islands, which the Commission had been
long engaged in framing, was submitted, in March, to the
government at Washington for approval. "In his letter of
transmittal Judge Taft says that the proposed bill follows
largely the classification of the Cuban tariff, 'but has been
considerably expanded by the introduction of articles
requiring special treatment here by reason of different
surroundings and greater distance from the markets.' Judge
Taft says also that the disposition of the business interests
of the islands is to accept any tariff the commission
proposes, provided only that the duties are specific and not
ad valorem. The question of revenue was kept steadily in view
in the preparation of the schedules, but it was not the only
consideration. Raw materials of Philippine industries, tools,
implements and machinery of production, materials of
transportation, the producers and transmitters of power and
food products are taxed as lightly as possible. … Export
duties are levied on only six articles—hemp, indigo, rice,
sugar, cocoanuts, fresh or as copra, and tobacco. The free
list admits natural mineral waters, trees, shoots and plants,
gold, copper and silver ores, fresh fruits, garden produce,
eggs, milk, ice and fresh meat, except poultry and game. There
is also a list of articles conditionally free of duty. The
importation of explosives is prohibited, but that of firearms
is not."
It is announced from Washington that "Judge Taft and General
MacArthur have agreed upon July 1 as the date for the
establishment of civil government in the Philippines. The
military regime in the islands will therefore cease on June
30, when General Chaffee will relieve General MacArthur of the
command, and Governor Taft will be inaugurated the next day
with considerable ceremony."
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901 (March-April).
Capture of Aguinaldo.
His oath of allegiance to the United States.
His address to his countrymen, counselling peace.
A stratagem, executed with great daring by General Funston of
the American forces, accomplished the capture of the Filipino
leader, Aguinaldo, on the 23d of March. From intercepted
correspondence, it had been learned that Aguinaldo, then
occupying his headquarters at Palanan, Isabela Province, was
expecting to be joined by some riflemen, whom his brother had
been ordered to send to him from central Luzon. On this,
General Funston conceived the plan of equipping a number of
native troops who should pass themselves off as the expected
reinforcements, several American officers going with them
ostensibly as prisoners, the hope being that Aguinaldo might
thus be reached and taken by surprise. General MacArthur
approved the scheme, and it was carried out with success. The
party was made up of 78 Macabebe scouts, four Tagalogs who had
formerly been officers in the insurgent army, and General
Funston, Captain Newton, Lieutenants Hazzard and Mitchel, who
acted the part of prisoners. They were taken by gunboat from
Cavite to a point above Baler, whence they made their way on
foot, sending a message in advance that the expected
reinforcements were on the way and had captured some prisoners
en route. The following brief narrative of what occurred
subsequently is taken from a newspaper account of the
expedition:
"For six days the expedition marched over an exceedingly
difficult country, covering 90 miles. When the men reached a
point eight miles from Aguinaldo's camp they were almost
exhausted from lack of food and the fatigue of the march. They
stopped at this place and sent a message to Aguinaldo,
requesting him to send food to them. The ruse thus far had
worked with the greatest success, and on March 22d, when
Aguinaldo sent provisions, it was seen that he did not have
the slightest suspicion. With the food he sent word that the
Americans were not wanted in his camp, but instructing their
supposed captors to treat them kindly. On March 23d the march
was resumed, the Macabebe officers starting an hour ahead of
the main body of the expedition. The 'prisoners,' under guard,
followed them. When the party arrived at Aguinaldo's camp a
bodyguard of 50 riflemen was paraded, and the officers were
received at Aguinaldo's house, which was situated on the
Palanan River. After some conversation with him, in which they
gave the alleged details of their suppositious engagement with
an American force, they made excuses and quietly left the
house. They at once gave orders in an undertone for the
Macabebes to get in position and fire on the bodyguard. The
order was obeyed with the greatest rapidity, and three volleys
were delivered. The insurgents were panic-stricken by the
sudden turn in affairs, and they broke and ran in
consternation. Two of them, however, were killed and eighteen
wounded. Simultaneously with the delivery of the volleys the
American officers rushed into Aguinaldo's house. Major
Alhambra, one of Aguinaldo's staff, had been shot in the face.
He, however, was determined not to be captured and he jumped
from a window into the river and disappeared. Two captains and
four lieutenants made their escape in a similar manner.
Aguinaldo, Colonel Villa, his chief of staff, and Santiago
Barcelona, the insurgent treasurer, did not have time to make
an attempt to get away before General Funston and the others
were upon them, demanding their surrender. Seeing that the
situation was hopeless, they gave themselves up. Aguinaldo was
furious at having been caught, but later he became
philosophical and declared that the ruse by which he had been
captured was the only one which would have proved successful
if the Americans had tried for 20 years. One of the Macabebes
was wounded. The party stayed two days at the camp and then
marched overland to the coast, where the Vicksburg, whose
arrival was excellently timed, picked them up and brought them
back to Manila."
On the 2d of April, a despatch from General MacArthur to the
War Department announced that Aguinaldo, on the advice of
Chief Justice Arellano, had taken the following oath of
allegiance to the United States: "I hereby renounce all
allegiance to any and all so-called revolutionary governments
in the Philippine Islands, and recognize and accept the
supreme authority of the United States of America therein; I
do solemnly swear that I will bear true faith and allegiance
to that government; that I will at all times conduct myself as
a faithful and law abiding citizen of the said islands, and
will not, either directly or indirectly, hold correspondence
with or give intelligence to an enemy of the United States,
nor will I abet, harbor or protect such enemy; that I impose
upon myself these voluntary obligations without any mental
reservations or purpose of evasion, so help me God."
{403}
On the 19th of April, Aguinaldo issued the following address
to his countrymen: "I believe I am not in error in presuming
that the unhappy fate to which my adverse fortune has led me
is not a surprise to those who have been familiar with the
progress of the war. The lessons taught with a full meaning,
and which have recently come to my knowledge, suggest with
irresistible force that a complete termination of hostilities
and lasting peace are not only desirable, but absolutely
essential to the welfare of the Philippine Islands. The
Filipinos have never been dismayed at their weakness, nor have
they faltered in following the path pointed out by their
fortitude and courage. The time has come, however, in which
they find their advance along this path to be impeded by an
irresistible force, which, while it restrains them, yet
enlightens their minds and opens to them another course,
presenting them the cause of peace. This cause has been
joyfully embraced by the majority of my fellow countrymen who
already have united around the glorious sovereign banner of
the United States. In this banner they repose their trust and
believe that under its protection the Filipino people will
attain all those promised liberties which they are beginning
to enjoy. The country has declared unmistakably in favor of
peace. So be it. There has been enough blood, enough tears and
enough desolation. This wish cannot be ignored by the men
still in arms, if they are animated by a desire to serve our
noble people, which has thus clearly manifested its will. So
do I respect this will, now that it is known to me. After
mature deliberation, I resolutely proclaim to the world that I
cannot refuse to heed the voice of a people longing for peace,
nor the lamentations of thousands of families yearning to see
their dear ones enjoying the liberty and the promised
generosity of the great American Nation. By acknowledging and
accepting the sovereignty of the United States throughout the
Philippine Archipelago, as I now do, and without any
reservation whatsoever, I believe that I am serving thee, my
beloved country. May happiness be thine."
PHŒNICIANS, The:
Modified estimates of their influence upon early
European civilization.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: CRETE.
PILLAGER INDIAN OUTBREAK.
See (in this volume)
INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1898.
PLAGUE, The Bubonic.
For years the plague has "continued to breed in various inner
parts of Asia, and in 1894, coming from the Chinese province
of Yunnan, it invaded Canton, taking there 60,000 victims in a
few weeks. Thence it spread to Hong Kong, reached next year
the island of Haïnan and Macao, invaded Formosa in 1896, and
in the autumn of the same year appeared at Bombay. In the big
city of India it found all necessary conditions for breeding,
unchecked, for several months in succession: famine,
overcrowding, and the absence of all preventive measures; and
from Bombay it was carried by rail and road, to different
parts of India. … Happily enough, the plague is no longer the
mysterious, revengeful being which it used to be for our
ancestors. Its cause and modes of propagation are well known.
It is an infectious disease with a short period of incubation.
From four to six days after infection takes place, a sudden
loss of forces—often a full prostration, accompanied by a high
fever-sets in. A bubo appears, and soon grows to the size of
an egg. Death soon follows. If not—there is a chance of slow
and painful recovery; but that chance is very small, because
even under the best conditions of nursing, the mortality is
seldom less than four out of each five cases of illness. As to
the means of propagation of the plague, they are many. The
poison may infect a wound or a scratch; it may be ingested in
food; it may be simply inhaled. Dust from an infected house
was sufficient to infect healthy rats; and when healthy rats
were shut up in one cage with unhealthy ones, all caught the
disease and died. Already in 1881 Netten Redcliffe and Dr.
Pichon indicated that before the plague attacks men it
destroys mice and rats. This was fully confirmed in 1894 by
the Japanese and French bacteriologists Kitasato and Yersin,
at Hong Kong, and by Dr. Rennie, of the Chinese Customs, at
Canton. Masses of dead rats were seen in the streets of the
infested parts of Hong Kong, and the keeper of the west gates
of Canton collected and buried 24,000 of these animals. Dr.
Rennie also pointed out that among those inhabitants of Canton
who lived in boats on the river there were no cases of plague,
except a few imported from town, so that even rich Cantonese
took to living in boats; and he explained the immunity of the
boat-dwellers by the absence of infection through rats. The
worst is, however, that swine, and even goats and buffaloes,
snakes and jackals, are attacked by the plague. …
"As soon as the plague broke out at Hong Kong, the great
Japanese bacteriologist Kitasato and the French doctor Yersin,
who is well known for his work with Roux on the serum
treatment of diphtheria, were already on the spot. Yersin
obtained from the English authorities permission to erect a
small straw hut in the yard of the chief hospital, and there
he began his researches. Both Kitasato and Yersin had no
difficulty in ascertaining that the plague buboes teemed with
special bacteria, which had the shape of tiny microscopic
sticklets, thickened at their ends. To isolate these bacteria,
to cultivate them in artificial media, and to ascertain the
deadly effects of these cultures upon animals, was soon done
by such masters in bacteriology as Kitasato and Yersin. The
cause of the plague was thus discovered. It was evident that
infected rats and swine—especially swine with the Chinese, who
keep them in their houses—were spreading the disease, in
addition to men themselves. The same bacteria teemed in the
dead animals. As to men, the discharges from their buboes, and
even, in many cases, their expectorations, were full of plague
bacteria. Besides, Yersin soon noticed that in his
'laboratory,' where he was dissecting animals killed by the
plague, the flies died in numbers. He found that they were
infested with the same bacteria, and carried them about:
inoculations of bacteria obtained from the flies at once
provoked the plague in guinea-pigs. Ants, gnats, and other
insects may evidently spread infection in the same way, while
in and round the infested houses the soil is impregnated with
the same bacteria. As soon as the pest microbe became known,
experiments were begun, at the Paris Institut Pasteur, for
finding the means to combat it; and in July 1895 Yersin,
Calmette, and Borel could already announce that some very
promising results had been obtained."
P. Kropotkin,
Recent Science
(Nineteenth Century, July, 1897).
{404}
Of the first appearance of the plague in India, at Bombay, and
the early stages of its spread in that country, the Viceroy,
Lord Elgin, made the following report to the Secretary of
State for India, on the 27th of January, 1897: "The first
official intimation of the outbreak which reached us was in a
telegram from the Government of Bombay, dated the 29th
September 1896. The disease was then reported to be of a mild
type, and at first it showed no tendency to increase. …
Throughout the months of October and November the disease made
little or no progress, and the number of deaths reported a day
averaged nine. Early in December there was a marked increase,
and the number of deaths reported daily from the 2nd to the
23rd (inclusive) was about 32. From the 24th December onwards
there was another marked increase, and the number of deaths
reported from that date to the 14th January (inclusive)
averaged about 51. The next week shows a further increase, the
reported number of deaths averaging 74 a day. The total number
of deaths reported during October was 276; during November,
268; during December, 1,160; and from the 1st to the 25th
January, 1,444. The total number of deaths reported from the
beginning of the outbreak thus amounts to 3,148. We have
reason to fear that all deaths from the plague have not been
reported as such, and that the true mortality from the disease
is higher than is shown by the above figures. … For a
considerable time, except for a few imported cases in some
towns in Gujarat, the outbreak was confined to Bombay itself,
but on the 23rd of December we learnt from the Government of
Bombay that the plague had broken out in Karachi. … The total
number of deaths that have been reported in Karachi, from the
beginning of the outbreak up to the 24th January, is 608. It
will be observed that the disease has been very malignant in
Karachi, and that almost all the cases reported have been
fatal. As soon as the Surgeon General with the Government of
Bombay reported to that Government that he had seen cases of a
mild type of bubonic plague in the city, preventive measures
were adopted and a Committee of medical experts were appointed
to report on the disease and the situation. The Municipal
Corporation have from the outset required the infected
quarters to undergo a thorough and systematic cleaning and
disinfection; and they have also pushed on vigorously other
sanitary measures, such as the improvement of house
connections and the construction of surface drains in quarters
where the drainage was defective. A house-to-house visitation
by medical officers has also been instituted. The Corporation
have sanctioned liberal measures towards these ends, and the
executive officers have displayed great energy in carrying
them out. … We have informed the Government of Bombay that we
consider it necessary that the plan of removing all persons
from infected houses, and thoroughly cleansing and
disinfecting the buildings, should be carried out, and we have
asked His Excellency in Council, if he agrees, to report the
measures that are adopted to bring the plan into general
effect."
To the above suggestion that all persons be removed from
infected houses, the government of Bombay replied, on the 12th
of February: "His Excellency is advised that, to give full
effect to such a proposal, at the lowest computation, 30,000
persons belonging to different races, castes, and creeds would
need to be provided with temporary dwellings. There is no site
within the limits of the Bombay municipality which would
accommodate a tenth of this number. Great difficulty has
attended all attempts at the segregation of healthy inmates of
infected houses hitherto made, and very limited success bas
been achieved. From the beginning of the outbreak of this
disease it has been found that the native inhabitants of the
city are very reluctant to leave their houses or to allow any
member of their family afflicted with the disease to be taken
away. Indeed, their dread of the disease itself appears to be
hardly so powerful as their horror of being removed from their
houses. Ignorance and superstition prevent them from
discerning either that removal to a hospital is good for the
sick or removal [from] infected dwellings good for the
healthy, and they are far more easily moved by fear of the
municipal and police authorities than by any realisation of
the benefits that will accrue from a sensible course of
action. It is estimated that not less than 300,000 persons
have already fled from Bombay, moved so to do, not only by
fear of the plague, but quite as much, if not more, by an
unfounded and unreasonable fear of what might happen to them
at the hands of the police and municipal authorities were they
to remain."
Contending with such obstacles to the use of the most
effective measures for checking the spread of the disease, the
authorities at Bombay and elsewhere, who seem to have worked
with energy, saw little to encourage their efforts for some
time. In a second report to the Secretary of State for India,
made February 10, Lord Elgin was compelled to write: "We much
regret that we are unable to report that the plague shows any
signs of abating. In both Bombay and Karachi there has been an
increase in the daily number of seizures and deaths since the
beginning of the current month." But, a month later, on the
10th of March, the Viceroy reported that "the position of
affairs in Bombay is distinctly better. There has been a
decrease in the reported number of plague seizures and deaths,
and the total daily mortality from all causes shows a marked
diminution. During the week ending the 22nd February, the
average daily number of seizures and deaths was 115 and 117,
respectively; during the following week the daily average fell
to 107 and 99, whilst during the period March 2nd to March 8th
it has been 99 and 84. … Persons are now returning to the
quarters of Bombay, which are comparatively free from plague,
from the more infected outlying suburbs, and the Government of
Bombay have therefore found it necessary to watch persons
entering as well as those leaving Bombay. In the suburbs of
Kurla, Bandora, and Bhiwandi the plague continues to be
severe. Outside Bombay in the Presidency proper the number of
indigenous cases has increased, and the disease shows a
tendency to spread, especially in the Thana and Surat
districts. … Outside Karachi the plague shows no tendency to
spread in Sind, and Sukkur is the only other place from which
indigenous cases have been reported."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: C.-8386, 1897; and C.-8511, 1897).
{405}
From that time there appears to have been a nearly steady
subsidence of the disease until the following September, when
it showed renewed virulence at Poona, and began to be newly
spread, invading districts in the Punjab and elsewhere outside
of the Bombay Presidency. By the middle of November Poona was
substantially empty of inhabitants, except those stricken with
the disease and those who bravely cared for the sick and dying.
In December there was a fresh outbreak in Bombay, which soon
became more deadly than that of the previous winter and
spring. By the beginning of February, 1898, and through March,
the deaths from plague alone in Bombay had risen above a
thousand a week. Then another subsidence occurred, followed by
another recrudescence of the disease in August, and another
decline in October. But the variations in other districts were
not uniform with those in Bombay. At the end of 1898, the
total of mortality from plague in all the afflicted districts
of India, reckoning from the beginning, was believed to exceed
100,000, including 70,000 in the Bombay Presidency and Sind
(28,000 in the city of Bombay), and 2,000 in the Punjab. In
Calcutta there had been but 150 deaths. Although the measures
taken for checking the spread of the pestilence were far less
stringent than they would have been among people more capable
of understanding what they meant and what their importance
was, they alarmed the religious jealousies of both the Hindus
and the Mohammedans, and were resisted and resented with
dangerous fury at a number of times. At Poona, in June, 1897,
two British officials were murdered by young Brahmins, who had
been excited to the deed by native journals, the language of
which was so violent that the government found it necessary to
prosecute several for sedition. At Bombay, in March, 1898,
when the plague was at its worst, there were very serious
riots, in which a number of Europeans were killed, and troops
were called to the help of the police before the frenzied mob
could be overcome.
Again, in 1899, there was a revival of the disease in India,
especially at Bombay, during the winter, with a decline in
April and fresh virulence in September. At the end of the year
the estimate of total mortality from plague in India since the
beginning was 250,000.
Of the wider spreading of the pestilence during 1900 the
following summary of information is given in the annual report
of the United States Secretary of the Treasury, in connection
with details of quarantine measures: "The Surgeon-General
reports that plague has been more widely distributed during
the year than was ever known in history, and for the first
time obtained lodgment in the Western Hemisphere, at Santos,
Brazil, in October, 1899. By this it is not meant that the
disease has been actually more prevalent than before, but that
its points of contact have embraced nearly every civilized
country in the world, though its prompt recognition and
application of modern methods have either entirely prevented
its spread or have caused it to disappear after a short period
of infection. The scientific knowledge of the disease renders
it far less to be dreaded than before, but increase in rapid
communication between different parts of the world facilitates
its transportation. In illustration, the fact is cited that 20
vessels have been reported, arriving at as many principal
seaports in different parts of the world, on which plague was
discovered on arrival or had manifested itself during the
voyage. As heretofore, its chief ravages have been in India,
where preventive measures have been hindered by religious
fanaticism. In India during the year there were 66,294 deaths.
Notable outbreaks of the disease occurred in Kobe and in
Formosa, Japan, at Oporto, Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Honolulu,
Sydney, Mauritius, Hongkong, and Glasgow.
"In December, 1899, on account of the apparent spread of this
disease, 12 commissioned officers were detailed by order of
the President for duty in the offices of the United States
consuls at the principal ports in England and on the
Continent. In June, the disease fortunately not having become
as widespread as anticipated, they were recalled, with the
exception of five, who are still retained for the purpose of
furnishing information and for service at any needed point.
Two of those thus retained, when the plague was announced at
Glasgow, Scotland, on August 28, 1900, were immediately sent
to that point and began inspection of vessels for the United
States and also for Canada, by request of that Government,
thus enabling vessels to be entered at ports on this side
without undue restraint. In the laboratory of the Service,
scientific investigations as to the viability of the plague
bacillus and the methods and efficiency of disinfection have
been conducted, and the results, together with excerpts from
all available literature hearing upon the prevention of
plague, have been published in the Public Health Reports,
forming, for this year, a volume containing most complete
information upon this disease. About 700,000 doses of
Haffkine's prophylactic were also prepared in the laboratory
and sent to the United States quarantine officers at home and
abroad, together with large quantities of Yersin's serum,
purchased early in the year from the Pasteur Institute in
Paris. In these two preparations, the one (Haffkine) a
prophylactic and the other (Yersin) both prophylactic and a
cure, the Surgeon-General says that science has effective
methods of combating the spread of this disease."
United States, Secretary of the Treasury,
Annual Report, December 4, 1900.
The "antitoxin, or serum, first prepared by Professor Haffkine
as a plague inoculation, called Haffkine's prophylactic, is
now being used in Bombay and western India with remarkable
results. This prophylactic is prepared by first taking the
plague bacilli, or the young germs, from a person affected
with the plague and cultivating them. These microbes are
killed by artificial means and a high degree of heat. From
these dead germs and their poisonous excrements is produced a
fluid that is believed to have acquired the power, when
injected into the human system, to render the blood immune
from the attack of plague germs and to neutralize their
effect. The injection of such a poison has the effect of an
antitoxin and prevents the system from nourishing plague. A
dead plague germ being inoculated into a person, plague will
not follow. A person after having one attack of the disease is
rarely liable to a second. The person first inoculated is
subject to symptoms of the plague.
{406}
In vaccination for smallpox
a living germ is dealt with, whereas in plague inoculation
dead seed only are injected. … Inoculation is exceedingly
unpopular among the natives. The government has had great
labor in persuading the Hindoo mind of the efficacy of
Haffkine's prophylactic against plague and at the same time of
its utter harmlessness in every other respect. The Hindoo is
suspicious that the dead germs and their toxic excreta may be
of animal rather than vegetable substance, which would make
the injection of the fluid into their body a religious
offense."
United States Consular Reports,
January, 1900, page 101.
"In the present epidemic, plague-spots are scattered over the
whole face of the globe from Sydney to Santos and Hongkong,
and recently from San Francisco suspicious cases have been
reported. The annual pilgrimage of Moslems to worship at the
shrines of Mecca and Medina is now, as in the past, of all
human agencies, the most active in spreading the pest. … Since
Egypt is nearest, plague first appears there in the seaport
towns, particularly Alexandria. Sanitary conditions have
improved vastly, like economics, under British control; and,
last year, what in other times might have been a devastating
epidemic was limited to relatively a few scattered cases.
Recognizing the danger to themselves, the European powers have
been led to take steps, under the Venice Convention, for their
own protection. An international quarantine, under the control
of the Egyptian Sanitary, Maritime, and Quarantine Council, in
which the powers have one vote each and Egypt three, has
established stations at two points on the Red Sea."
American Review of Reviews,
May, 1900.
PLATT AMENDMENT, The.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).
PLURAL VOTING.
See (in this volume)
BELGIUM: A. D. 1894-1895.
PLYMOUTH COLONY:
Return of the manuscript of Bradford's History to
Massachusetts.
See (in this volume)
MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1897.
POET LAUREATE.
To the line of English Poets Laureate (see, in volume 3,
LAUREATE, ENGLISH POETS), there was added on the 1st of
January, 1896, the name of Alfred Austin, succeeding Tennyson,
who died October B, 1892.
POLAND, Russian:
Relaxation of oppressions.
See (in this volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1897.
POLAR EXPLORATION, Arctic and Antarctic:
A chronological record.
Until quite recent years, the antarctic region had had few
explorers. In 1598-9 Dirk Gerritz was carried south by a storm
and found land, probably the South Shetlands, at 64° South
latitude. Capt. Cook made two antarctic voyages, in the second
one reaching latitude 71° 10' South, at longitude 106° 54'
West, sailing entirely around the southern ocean in a high
latitude, and discovering many islands. In a Russian
expedition, 1819-21, Bellinghausen discovered Peter I. Island
and Alexander I. Land. Enderby Land was discovered by John
Biscoe in 1831-2. In 1840-3 the great English expedition under
Captain (afterward Sir) James Ross, in the Erebus and Terror,
discovered and named Victoria Land, and reached latitude 78°
11', February 23, 1842. The continent which Captain Charles
Wilkes claimed to have discovered in 1840 has not been found
by later explorers. In 1874 the Challenger was turned back by
the ice in latitude 66° 43' South.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1892-1893.
Whaling voyage of the Dundee vessels, the Balæna, Active,
Diana and Polar Star, equipped for geographical observation by
the Royal Geographical Society and others interested, carrying
William S. Bruce, C. W. Donald, and W. G. Burn Murdoch.
Accompanied by the Norwegian sealer Jasen, under Captain
Larsen. South Shetlands and Graham Land visited and valuable
observations made.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1893-1900.
Scientific exploration of Labrador by A. P. Low.
Operations still in progress.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1894-1895.
Commercial voyage of the Norwegian whaler Antarctic, under
Captain Kristensen, sent by Captain Svend Foyn, fitted out by
H. J. Bull, and carrying the scientist C. E. Borchgrevinck.
The valuable right whale was not found, but large beds of
guano were discovered in Victoria Land, where a landing was
made near Cape Adare.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Return of Peary relief expedition with Lieutenant Robert E.
Peary and his companions. In spite of great difficulties
Lieutenant Peary had again crossed the ice-sheet to
Independence Bay, determined the northern limits of Greenland,
charted 1,000 miles of the west coast, discovered eleven
islands and the famous Iron Mountain (three great meteorites),
and obtained much knowledge of the natives. The purely
scientific results of the expedition are of great value. The
relief expedition was organized by Mrs. Peary.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Cruise of Mr. Pearson and Lieutenant Feilden in Barents Sea.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Return of Martin Ekroll from Spitzbergen after a winter's
study of the ice conditions there. Convinced that his plan of
reaching the pole by a sledge journey had little chance of
success.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Survey of the lower Yenesei River and Obi Bay by Siberian
hydrographic expedition.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Commercial expedition of Captain Wiggins from England to
Golchika, at the mouth of the Yenesei.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Russian geological expedition to Nova Zembla.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Russian expedition under the geologist Bogdanovich to the Sea
of Okhotsk and Kamchatka.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895-1896.
Two scientific voyages of the Danish cruiser Ingolf
in the seas west and east of Greenland.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Summer expedition of naturalists and college students to the
northern coast of Labrador.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Attempt of Lieutenant Peary to remove the great meteorite
discovered by him at Cape York, Greenland. After dislodging it
he was compelled by the ice to leave it. Small parties from
Cornell University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and one under Mr. George Bartlett, left by Peary at different
points to make scientific observations and collections,
returned with him.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Hydrographical survey of the Danish waters of Greenland and
Iceland.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Hansen sent to Siberia to look for traces of Nansen.
{407}
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Return of Dr. Nansen from voyage begun in 1893. After skirting
the coast of Siberia almost to the Lena delta, the Fram was
enclosed by the ice and drifted with it north and northwest.
On March 14, 1895, in 84° 4' North latitude, 102° East
longitude, Nansen and Johansen left the Fram and pushed
northward with dogs and sledges across an ice floe till they
reached latitude 86° 13.6', at about 95° West longitude, on
April 8, within 261 statute miles of the pole. With great
difficulty they made their way to Franz Josef Land, where they
wintered, and in June met explorer Jackson. Returning on the
Jackson supply steamer Windward, they reached Vardö August 13.
The Fram drifted to latitude 85° 57' North, 66° East
longitude, then southwestward, reaching Tromsoë August 20,
1896. Nansen demonstrated the existence of a polar sea of
great depth, comparatively warm below the surface, apparently
with few islands; though he did not find the trans-polar
current he sought.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Spitzbergen crossed for the first time, by Sir W. Martin
Conway and party.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Many parties visit the northern coast of Norway and Nova
Zembla to view the total eclipse of the sun, August 8-9.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Expedition sent by Russian Hydrographic Department to find
site for a sealers' refuge in Nova Zembla. Bielusha Bay, on
the southwest coast, chosen.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Expedition sent by Canadian government to investigate Hudson
Bay and Strait as a route to Central Canada. Passage found to
be navigable for at least sixteen weeks each summer.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Seventh Peary expedition to Greenland. Accompanied by parties
for scientific research. Preliminary arrangements made with
the Eskimos for the expedition of 1898, and food-stations
established. Relics of Greeley's expedition found on Cape
Sabine, and the great meteorite at Cape York brought away at
last.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Second expedition of Sir Martin Conway for the exploration of
Spitzbergen.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
A summer resort established on west coast of Spitzbergen, with
regular steamer service for tourists during July and August.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Cruise of Mr. Arnold Pike and Sir Savile Crossley among the
islands east of Spitzbergen.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Cruise of Mr. Pearson and Lieutenant Feilden in the Laura in
the Kara Sea and along the east coast of Nova Zembla, for the
purpose of studying the natural history of the region.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Expedition of F. W. L. Popham with a fleet of steamers through
Yugor Straits to the Yenesei.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Hydrological and commercial expedition, comprising seven
steamers, under Rear-Admiral Makaroff, sent by the Russian
government to the north Siberian sea.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Balloon voyage of Salamon August Andrée and two companions,
Mr. Strindberg and Mr. Fraenkel, starting from Danes' Island,
north of Spitzbergen, in the hope of being carried to the
pole. Four buoys from the balloon have been found. The first,
found in Norway in June, 1899, and containing a note from
Andrée, was thrown out eight hours after his departure. The
"north pole buoy," to be dropped when the pole was passed, was
found empty on the north side of King Charles Island,
north-east of Spitzbergen, September 11, 1899. A third buoy,
also empty, was found on the west coast of Iceland July 17,
1900. Another, reported from Norway, August 31, 1900,
contained a note showing that the buoy was thrown out at 10 P.
M., July 11, 1897, at an altitude of 250 metres (820 feet),
moving North 45 East, with splendid weather. Many search
expeditions, some equipped at great expense, have returned
unsuccessful. In spite of many rumors nothing definite is
known of the fate of any of the party. One message from Andrée
was brought back by a carrier pigeon. It was dated July 13,
12.30 P. M., in latitude 82° 2', longitude 12° 5' East, and
stated that the balloon was moving eastward.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
New islands on the southern coast of Franz Josef Land
discovered by Captain Robertson of the Dundee whaler Balæna.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Return of Jackson-Harmsworth expedition from three years'
exploration of Franz Josef Land and the region north of it.
Franz Josef Land was resolved into a group of islands and
almost entire]y mapped. Small parties journeying northward
over the ice, establishing depots of supplies, the most
northern in latitude 81° 21', discovered and named Victoria
Sea, the most northern open sea in the world.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Anglo-Australasian antarctic conference in London.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897-1899.
Journey of Andrew J. Stone through the Canadian Rockies, down
Mackenzie River and along the arctic coast, in search of rare
mammals and information concerning the native tribes. Mr.
Stone often had only one companion. He traveled rapidly, in
one period of five months covering 3,000 miles of arctic coast
and mountains, between 70° and 72° North latitude and between
117½° and 140° West longitude.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897-1899.
Belgian antarctic expedition under Captain Adrien de Gerlache
to lands south of America. Sailed from Antwerp to explore and
chart coast line, expecting to leave party to winter at Cape
Adare and explore interior. Near Alexander I. Land the Belgica
caught in the ice pack and held for a year, drifting as far
south as latitude 71° 36', in longitude 87° 39' West. Finally
released by the cutting of a canal through the ice. This
dreary winter the first spent by men far enough south to lose
sight of the sun. The continent found to be mountainous,
glaciated, and without land animals except a few insects,
though sea fowl abounded. One flowering grass, and a few
mosses, rock lichens, and fresh-water algæ constitute the
flora. Some 500 miles of coast chartered.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Expedition of Dr. K. J. V. Steenstrup to Greenland to study
the glaciers of Disko island.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Completion by Dr. Thoroddsen of his systematic exploration of
Iceland, begun in 1881.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Spitzbergen circumnavigated and surveyed by Dr. A. G.
Nathorst. Coast mapped and important scientific observations
made.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Pendulum observations made in Spitzbergen by Professor J. H.
Gore, with instruments of the United States Coast and Geodetic
Survey, for the determination of the force of gravity in that
latitude.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Cruise of Prince Albert of Monaco, on coast of Spitzbergen,
for the purpose of making scientific observations.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Some claim to Spitzbergen made by Russia. Never before claimed
by any nation.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
German arctic expedition under Theodor Lerner to the islands
east of Spitzbergen, for scientific purposes and to obtain
news of Andrée if possible.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Andrée search expedition under J. Stadling sent to the Lena
delta, the mouth of the Yenesei and the islands of New Siberia
by the Swedish Anthropological and Geographical Society.
{408}
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Conference on antarctic exploration held in the rooms of
the Royal Society, London, February 24.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898-1899.
Reconnoitring expedition by Danish party under Lieutenant G.
C. Amdrup, to east coast of Greenland. Coast explored and
mapped from Angmagsalik, 65¾ North latitude, to 67° 22'.
Remains of a small extinct Eskimo settlement found.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898-1899.
Second attempt by Walter Wellman to reach the north pole.
Wintered in Franz Josef Land, establishing an outpost, called
Fort McKinley, in latitude 81° North. In February Mr. Wellman,
with three companions, started northward and seemed likely to
succeed in their undertaking, but a serious accident befalling
Mr. Wellman, and an icequake destroying many dogs and sledges,
a hurried return to headquarters was necessary. Here important
scientific observations were made. The 82d parallel was
reached by the explorer.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898-1899.
German expedition for deep-sea exploration in antarctic
waters, in charge of Professor Carl Chun, on the Valdivia.
Southern ocean found to be of great depth.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898-1900.
British antarctic expedition under Borchgrevinck to Victoria
Land; the funds provided by Sir George Newnes. Latitude 78°
50' South reached, and the present position of the southern
magnetic pole determined.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Carefully planned expedition of Lieutenant Peary, purposing to
advance toward the pole by west coast of Greenland,
establishing food stations and depending upon picked Eskimos
for co-operation with his small party. In the last dash for
the pole, supply sledges to be sent back as emptied, and the
returning explorer, with two companions only, to be met by a
relief party of Eskimos. The Windward was presented by Mr.
Harmsworth for this expedition. Lieutenant Peary was disabled
for several weeks in 1898-9 by severe frost-bites, causing the
loss of seven toes. The Greeley records were found at Fort
Conger and sent back by the annual supply vessel. Sextant and
record of the Nares expedition found and sent back; presented
by Lieutenant Peary to the Lords of the Admiralty of Great
Britain and placed in the museum of the Royal Naval College at
Greenwich. Vessel sent to Greenland each summer to carry
supplies and bring back letters, carrying also small parties
of explorers, scientists, university students and hunters, to
be left at various points and picked up by the vessel on its
return.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Expedition of Captain Sverdrup to northern Greenland
Lieutenant Peary's especial field.
Having planned a polar expedition similar to Peary's he sailed
up the west coast, but the Fram was frozen in near Cape
Sabine. Sverdrup therefore explored the western part of
Ellesmere Land, then sailed again in an attempt to round the
northern coast of Greenland.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
International conference held at Stockholm in June recommended
a program for hydrographical and biological work in the
northern parts of the Atlantic ocean, the North Sea, the
Baltic, and adjoining seas.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Scientific expedition of Edward Bay, a Dane, to Melville Bay,
Greenland.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Swedish expedition under Dr. A. G. Nathorst to search for
Andrée in eastern Greenland. Valuable observations made and
fjord-systems of King Oscar Fjord and Kaiser Franz Josef Fjord
mapped.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Explorations in Iceland by F. W. W. Howell and party.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Hydrographic surveys on the coasts of Iceland and the Färoe
Islands by MM. Holm and Hammer in the Danish guard-ship Diana.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Joint Russian and Swedish expedition to Spitzbergen, for the
measurement of a degree of the meridian. Owing to the
condition of the ice, the northern and southern surveying
parties unable to connect their work.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Explorations in Spitzbergen by the Prince of Monaco, with a
scientific staff.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Successful experimental voyage of the Russian Vice-Admiral
Makaroff in his ice-breaking steamer, the Yermak, north of
Spitzbergen.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Russian government expedition, to cost £5,400, to explore
northern shores of Siberia to mouths of the Obi and Yenesei.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899-1900.
Arctic expedition of the Duke of the Abruzzi. His ship, the
Stella Polare, was left at Crown Prince Rudolf Land during the
winter. The Duke became incapacitated by a fall and by the loss
of two joints from the fingers of his left hand, incurably
frost-bitten; but a small party under Captain Cagni pushed
northward till provisions were exhausted. Nansen's record was
beaten, the Italian party reaching latitude 86° 33', at about
56° East longitude. No land was found north or northwest of
Spitzbergen. Three men were lost from Cagni's party.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Exploration of Ellesmere Land, Greenland, by Dr. Robert Stein,
of the United States Geological Survey, Dr. Leopold Kann of
Cornell, and Samuel Warmbath of Harvard, who took passage in
the Peary supply ship Diana, trusting to chance for conveyance
home. Their totally inadequate outfit was generously augmented
by Peary's friends of the Diana. Dr. Kann returned in 1900,
leaving Dr. Stein.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Seward peninsula, the most westward extension of Alaska,
explored and surveyed by five government expeditions.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Exploration of the interior of northern Labrador by a party
from Harvard University. Soundings along the coast by schooner
Brave.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Second Danish expedition under Lieutenant Amdrup to east
Greenland, completing the work of 1898-9 by mapping the coast
between 67° 20' North and Cape Gladstone, about 70° North, and
making valuable scientific collections.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Swedish expedition, under Gustav Kolthoff, to eastern
Greenland, for study of the arctic fauna.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Swedish scientific expedition of Professor G. Kolthoff to
Spitzbergen and Greenland.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Exploration of Spitzbergen by a Russian expedition under
Knipovich.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Russian expedition to east coast of Nova Zembla by Lieutenant
Borissoff to complete survey of the islands.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Dr. Nansen's expedition under the leadership of Dr. J. Hjort,
for the physical and biological examination of the sea between
Norway, Iceland, Jan Mayen and Spitzbergen.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
German expedition, under Captain Bade, to explore East
Spitzbergen, King Charles' Land and Franz Josef Land, and to
look for traces of Andrée.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Attempt of a German, Captain Bauendahl, to reach the north
pole, leaving his vessel in the ice north of Spitzbergen and
traveling over the ice with provisions for two years, weighing
ten tons.
{409}
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Scientific expedition of Baron E. von Toll to the unexplored
Sannikoff Land, sighted in 1805 from the northern coast
islands of New Siberia. Preceded by a party which established
food depots at various places months before.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
Three exploring parties sent to Alaska by the United States
Geological Survey.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
Expedition sent by the Duke of the Abruzzi to Franz Josef Land
to search for the three men lost from his party in 1900.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
North polar expedition under Mr. Evelyn B. Baldwin of the
United States Weather Bureau; splendidly equipped by Mr.
William Ziegler of New York. Mr. Baldwin, who has had arctic
experience with Lieutenant Peary and Mr. Wellman, will
probably proceed by way of Franz Josef Land.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
Several expeditions to co-operate in exploration of the
antarctic region and to reach the south pole if possible. The
British expedition, long striven for by the Royal Geographical
Society and the Royal Society and made possible by L. W.
Longstaff's contribution of £25,000, to be under the command
of Captain Robert Scott and to explore the Victoria (90°-180°
East) and Ross (180°-90° West) quadrants,—in the main the
region south of the Pacific. The Weddell (90° West-0°,
Greenwich) and Enderby (0°-90 East) quadrants assigned to the
finely equipped German expedition, under Drygalski, which will
first explore south of the Indian Ocean. The Swedish expedition
under Dr. Nordenskïold to explore the lands south of America.
A private Scottish expedition under William S. Bruce to
explore the Weddell Sea region south of the Atlantic Ocean. An
Argentine expedition to visit the South Shetlands.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
Projected expedition of Captain J. E. Bernier of Quebec, on
Nansen's principle, with a specially built vessel, to sail
through Bering Strait, coast Siberia to longitude 170° or 165°
East, then enter the ice. Sledging parties to push toward the
pole, marking the route with hollow signal poles (of aluminum)
packed with records and provisions, and maintaining
communication with the ship by wireless telegraphy. This is
one of two plans which he lays before the Canadian government.
The other contemplates a movement, with dogs and reindeers,
from Franz Josef Land, coming back to Spitzbergen, taking 12
or 14 men, all scientists.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
Projected expedition of Herr Annschütz-Kämpfe, of Munich, to
the north pole, in a submarine boat capable of carrying five
men and remaining under water for fifteen hours at a time.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
As this goes to press (April, 1901), a national antarctic
expedition is being fitted out, jointly, by the Royal
Geographical Society and the Royal Society of Great Britain,
assisted by a subsidy of £45,000 from the British government.
A steamer named the "Discovery," built especially for the
expedition, at Dundee, was launched in March, and is being
equipped with remarkable completeness. Special arrangements,
says "The Times," will be made for magnetic work, while
meteorology, geology and biology will be well cared for. "The
staff of navigating officers and of scientific specialists has
been carefully selected, and under Commander Robert Scott. R.
N., who will be in command of the expedition, their work, we
may be sure, will be so well organized that nothing of
importance will be neglected. There will be five navigating
officers, three of them belonging to the Royal Navy and two
others to the Royal Naval Reserve, while the special
scientific staff, including the two medical officers, will be
of equal strength. … Captain Scott is at present investigating
the question of the utility of balloons."
POLISH PARTY, in Austria.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1895-1896, and after.
POONA, The Plague at.
See (in this volume)
PLAGUE.
POPE LEO XIII.
See (in this volume)
PAPACY.
POPULATION:
Of Europe and countries peopled from Europe.
See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY: EXPANSION.
POPULIST PARTY, The.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER);
and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
PORT ARTHUR: A. D. 1894.
Capture by Japanese.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895.
PORT ARTHUR: A. D. 1895.
Trans-Siberian Railway.
Russo-Chinese Treaty.
See (in this volume)
RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1891-1900.
PORT ARTHUR: A. D. 1898.
Lease to Russia.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (MARCH-JULY).
----------PORTO RICO: Start--------
Map of Porto Rico.
PORTO RICO:
Area and Population.
In the testimony given, January 13, 1900, before the United
States Senate Committee on Pacific Islands and Porto Rico,
General George W. Davis, Military Governor of Porto Rico, gave
the following information: "The island of Puerto Rico has an area
of about 3,600 square miles, according to the best information
that now exists, but that area has to be verified, and it is
doubted if the area is quite so large. It has a population of
about a million, perhaps—certainly one of the most densely
populated areas of 3,000 or 4,000 square miles on the face of
the earth, approximating the density of population of Belgium,
I think, and considerably greater than that of any of our
thickly settled agricultural regions in the United States. New
England has about 200 to the square mile while Puerto Rico has
nearly 300. The inhabitants are mostly of Spanish
origin—emigrants from Spain during the last 400 years and
their descendants. There is a large representation from the
Canary Islands and the Balearic group in the Mediterranean, a
large number of Corsicans and their descendants, and
consequently they are French subjects, a few Germans, a few
English, and very few Americans before the occupation; a few
Venezuelans, a few from Santo Domingo, and a few Cubans, but
the most of the population is Spanish. Included in that
million are about 300,000 negroes and mulattoes, approximately
a little more than that number.
{410}
About one-third of the entire population is of the negro or
mixed race, what would be called in the United States
'colored' people. Of pure-blood negroes there are about
70,000, the remainder mulattoes, and all speaking Spanish, and
largely the slaves liberated in 1874. The number of slaves
liberated at that time was considerably less than the number
of negroes in Puerto Rico, the number being only about 30,000,
for whom some $11,000,000 was paid the owners. That statement
gives a fair idea of the character of the population as
respects numbers and race." Several small adjacent islands are
regarded as belonging to Porto Rico and were included in the
cession to the United States. One of these, named Viequez,
about 15 miles long and 3 or 4 miles wide, is very fertile,
and has about 7,000 inhabitants. On another, called Culebra,
there are some 600 or 700 people. The remaining islands are
smaller and unimportant.
56th Congress, 1st Session,
Senate Document Number 147, pages 1-2.
PORTO RICO:
The government as it was under Spanish rule.
"The civil government of the island was the Governor-General,
and the Governor-General was the civil government. All power
was lodged in his hands and he was accountable only to Madrid.
He was at once the executive, the legislative, and the judicial
head. As Captain-General, he had chief command of the military
forces, and made such disposition of them as he chose; as
Governor-General, he conducted civil affairs, whether insular
or municipal, according to his own pleasure. … If, as
occasionally happened, he was a wise and good man, seeking the
welfare of the people rather than his own personal enrichment
or the advancement of his political friends, there was less
cause for complaint from the people, who were completely
ignored. As the position was one of great power and of large
opportunities for pecuniary profit, it not infrequently went
to those who were prepared to exploit it in their own
interests. …
"The system of autonomy, which was proclaimed November 25,
1897 [see, in this volume, CUBA: A. D. 1897 (NOVEMBER)], was
never fully installed. The war intervened, and the provincial
legislature, which was its most important feature, was
dissolved when Sampson's fleet appeared, and the
Governor-General conducted the government practically on the
old plan, except that the ministry, as provided by the
autonomistic law, was retained, as follows: Secretary of
government or of state, secretary of the treasury, secretary
of the fomento or interior, including public works, public
instruction, public lands, mines, etc., agriculture and
commerce, and secretary of justice and worship. The last three
secretaries were subordinate to the secretary of government,
through whom all orders from the Governor-General and all
communications to or from him must pass. The autonomist law
allowed the secretaries or ministers to be members of one or
the other of the two legislative chambers. The
Governor-General with his council constituted the executive
power. No act of his was valid unless approved by one of the
secretaries, and the secretaries could issue no order which he
had not countersigned. He had the power to convoke or dissolve
the chambers, to refer objectionable bills to Madrid for
approval or disapproval, and to appoint or remove the
secretaries. All matters of a diplomatic character were in his
hands exclusively, and, constituted by the Pope patronato
real, he was the head of the church in the island and
practical director of ecclesiastical affairs. The legislature
consisted of two chambers, the council and the house of
representatives. The council was composed of fourteen members,
eight of whom were elected, and six appointed by the Crown;
the house of representatives of one representative for each
25,000 inhabitants, elected by the people. The liberality of
this law is further indicated by the fact that it gave the
right of suffrage to all males of 25 years of age and over.
The two chambers were empowered to legislate on all insular
questions, such as the estimates, which must be adopted by the
Cortes at Madrid, public instruction, public works,
sanitation, charities, etc. It will be seen that the reforms
granted by this autonomistic decree were large in the letter,
taking powers which the Governor-General had exercised
unquestioned and giving them to the people, who had never been
allowed to participate in the government of their own country.
Whether it would have proved liberal in practical operation is
not so certain. The Government invariably discriminated
against Porto Ricans in favor of Spaniards, and it is also to
be remembered that Spanish laws as written and Spanish laws as
administered are not always identical."
H. K. Carroll (Special Commissioner),
Report on Porto Rico, 1899, pages. 15-16.
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898 (May).
American bombardment of forts at San Juan.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JUNE).
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898 (July-August).
American conquest of.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: PORTO RICO).
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898 (July-December).
Suspension of hostilities.
Cession to the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898-1899 (August-July).
Popular feeling in the Island on the American occupation.
Welcome to the Stars and Stripes.
Expectations and desires of the people.
Their character.
Extent of illiteracy.
The Peones.
"All classes of natives of the island welcomed the American
Army, American occupation, and American methods, and accepted
without hesitation the Stars and Stripes in place of the red
and yellow bars. They had not been disloyal to the old flag;
but it had come to represent to them, particularly during the
present century, in which a class feeling developed between
the insular and the peninsular Spaniard, partiality and
oppression. In the short war, some of the natives occupying
official positions made demonstrations of loyalty to the Crown
of Spain, as was perfectly natural, but they were among the
first to submit to American rule when the protocol promised
cession of the island to the United States. On the other hand,
as the commissioner is informed, a Porto Rican who had hoped
and prayed for American intervention for fifty years enrolled
himself as a Spanish citizen some months after the war was
concluded, and his hopes had been realized. Porto Ricans
generally complained that the former Government discriminated
in favor of the Spaniard, who, in the distribution of the
offices, was preferred to the native, and who, aided by the
powerful influence of the authorities, prospered in business
as banker, merchant, manufacturer, or agriculturist. They also
insist that the internal improvement of the island was
neglected; that agriculture bore more than its share of the
burden of taxation; that the assessments were very inequitable
and unequal; that education was not fostered, and that in
general the welfare of the people was not the first concern of
their rulers.
{411}
"They expect under American sovereignty that the wrongs of
centuries will be righted; that they will have an honest and
efficient government; the largest measure of liberty as
citizens of the great Republic under the Constitution; home
rule as provided by the Territorial system; free access to the
markets of the United States and no customs duties on goods
coming from our ports; a school system modeled after that of
the United States; the adoption of the English language in due
time and the general adaptation to the island of all those
institutions which have contributed to the prosperity,
progress, and happiness of the American people. The largest
and most representative gathering, since American occupation,
was held in San Juan, October 30, 1898, without distinction of
party or class with the object of consultation and formulation of
a programme for the future. In brief, the propositions of the
congress as submitted to the commissioner for presentation to
the President of the United States were these: Immediate
termination of military and inauguration of civil government;
establishment of the Territorial system, with laws common to
other Territories of the Union; a legislature in two branches;
suffrage for all male citizens of 21 years of age or over, the
right to be surrendered at the end of the first two years by
those who do not then know how to read and write; judicial
reform; introduction of the jury system; autonomy for
municipal governments; taxation on the basis of valuation;
free and reciprocal commerce with the ports of the United
States; aid for agriculture; obligatory and universal
education; trade schools; savings banks. This programme of
reforms seems to have very general support, although there is
a difference of opinion on certain points. Many Porto Ricans
urged the commissioner to represent them as desiring that the
military regime be made as short as possible, not because the
military governors were in any way objectionable or their rule
oppressive, but because the civil status of the island should
be fixed with no unnecessary delay. There was no other opinion
except among foreign subjects, many of whom thought that the
people were not yet ready for self-government, and that the
firm hand of military power would be needed for probably two
years. …
"If the desire to assume the burdens of local self-government
may be taken as indicating some degree of capacity for
self-government, the people of Porto Rico certainly have the
desire. They may be poor, but they are proud and sensitive,
and would be bitterly disappointed if they found that they had
been delivered from an oppressive yoke to be put under a
tutelage which proclaimed their inferiority. Apart from such
qualifications as general education and experience constitute,
the commissioner has no hesitation in affirming that the
people have good claims to be considered capable of
self-government. Education and experience, although too high
a value can hardly be set upon them, do not necessarily make
good citizens. … The unswerving loyalty of Porto Rico to the
Crown of Spain, as demonstrated by the truth of history, is no
small claim to the confidence and trust of the United States.
The people were obedient under circumstances which provoked
revolt after revolt in other Spanish colonies. The habit of
obedience is strong among them. Their respect for law is
another notable characteristic. They are not turbulent or
violent. Riots are almost unknown in the island; so is
organized resistance to law; brigandage flourished only for a
brief period after the war and its object was revenge rather
than rapine. They are not a criminal people. The more violent
crimes are by no means common. Burglary is almost unknown.
There are many cases of homicide, but the number in proportion
to population is not as large as in the United States.
Thievery is the most common crime, and petty cases make up a
large part of this list of offenses. The people as a whole are
a moral, law-abiding class, mild in disposition, easy to
govern, and possess the possibilities of developing a high
type of citizenship."
H. K. Carroll (Special Commissioner),
Report on Porto Rico, 1899, pages 55-57.
"On the 25th day of July, 1899, an election was held in
Adjuntas for municipal officers, and the registration was made
in conformity to General Orders, No. 112, c. s., Headquarters
Department of Puerto Rico. The order imposed the following
qualifications for electors: Men over 21 years old, able to
read and write, or who were taxpayers of record, who had been
actual residents of the island for at least two years, and of
the municipality for six months preceding the date of the
election. The number who proved these qualifications before
the board of registration was 906, out of a population,
according to the census of 1897, of 18,505; that is, less than
5 per cent could vote under the conditions stated. There was
much public interest in this election, and it is believed that
about all who were eligible were registered. This incident
indicated that in the whole island there may be approximately
45,000 who could vote under the conditions of the order above
referred to. The class who can not fulfill these conditions,
say 75 per cent of the males over 21 years of age, are usually
in a state of abject poverty and ignorance, and are assumed to
include one-fifth of the inhabitants. They are of the class
usually called peones. This word in Spanish America, under old
laws, defined a person who owed service to his creditor until
the debt was paid. While those laws are obsolete, the
condition of these poor people remains much as before. So
great is their poverty that they are always in debt to the
proprietors or merchants. They live in huts made of sticks and
poles covered with thatches of palm leaves. A family of a
dozen may be huddled together in one room, often with only a
dirt floor. They have little food worthy of the name and only
the most scanty clothing, while children of less than 7 or 8
years of age are often entirely naked. A few may own a machete
or a hoe, but more have no worldly possessions whatever. Their
food is fruit, and if they are wage-earners, a little rice and
codfish in addition. They are without ambition and see no
incentive to labor beyond the least that will provide the
barest sustenance. All over the island they can be seen to-day
sitting beside their ruined huts, thinking naught of
to-morrow, making no effort to repair and restore their cabins
nor to replant for future food.
{412}
"The remarks of Mr. James Anthony Froude in his work on 'The
English in the West Indies' apply with full force to these
people: 'Morals in the technical sense they have none, but
they can not be said to sin because they have no knowledge of
law, and therefore they can commit no breach of the law. They
are naked and not ashamed. They are married but not parsoned.
The women prefer the looser tie, that they may be able to lose
the man if he treats her unkindly. Yet they are not
licentious. … The system is strange, but it answers. … There
is evil, but there is not the demoralizing effect of evil.
They sin, but they sin only as animals, without shame, because
there is no sense of doing wrong. They eat the forbidden
fruit, but it brings with it no knowledge of the difference
between good and evil. … They are innocently happy in the
unconsciousness of the obligations of morality. They eat,
drink, sleep, and smoke, and do the least in the way of work
they can. They have no ideas of duty, and therefore are not
made uneasy by neglecting it.' Between the negro and the peon
there is no visible difference. It is hard to believe that the
pale, sallow, and often emaciated beings are the descendants
of the conquistadores who carried the flag of Spain to nearly
all of South America, and to one-third of North America."
General George W. Davis,
Report on the Civil Government of Puerto Rico,
September 30, 1899
(Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,
volume 2, pages 1293-1294).
"The educated class of Puerto Ricans are as well educated and
accomplished as the educated men of any country. They have had
the benefit of a liberal education, a few in the United
States, a good many in France, and a great many in Madrid and
Habana, where they have passed through the universities. The
lawyers and doctors are all graduates of either the university
in Habana or some university in Spain, with very few exceptions.
The merchants are largely Spanish, many of whom will probably
preserve their nationality under the provision of the Treaty
of Paris which gives them that right. A few may adopt American
citizenship, and ultimately possibly all will, but many of the
merchants who conduct the largest part of the business of
Puerto Rico will retain their Spanish citizenship. There are a
number of merchants who are natives, a few Germans, and a few
English. I do not remember any American merchant in business
there before the occupation. The schools in Puerto Rico
conducted under the Spanish system were few in number. The
amount allotted for education by the insular budget was
something like 300,000 pesos a year, as I now recall the
figures. The teachers were officers of the government, holding
life positions and receiving pensions when superannuated. They
belong to a civil-service class which is not dependent upon
any change of administration, only being removed for cause.
The lawyers, or judges, rather, of the island, occupy a
similar position."
General George W. Davis,
Testimony before Senate Committee.
(56th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Document. No. 147).
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898-1899 (October-October).
The military government instituted by the United States.
"The government of the island, its various civil institutions,
its codes and its courts, the systems of taxation, etc., have
been modified in very important particulars since the American
occupation began, October 18, 1898. It will be useful, perhaps,
to indicate the more important changes. Under General John R.
Brooke [in command of the Department, October 18 to December
5, 1898] orders were issued declaring
(1) That the political relations of Porto Rico with Spain were
at an end; that provincial and municipal laws were in force in
so far as not incompatible with the changed conditions, and
that they would be enforced substantially as they were before.
(2) Abolishing the use of all stamped paper and stamps of
every kind for documents, public and private.
(3) Exempting all conveyances and contracts from the payment
of royal dues.
(4) Discontinuing the diputacion provincial, and distributing
its duties among the secretaries or ministers.
(5) Directing that appeals should not be sent to the supreme
court in Madrid, but should be heard by the superior court at
San Juan.
(6) Abolishing the subdelegation of pharmacy which gave
degrees to pharmacists.
(7) Making the fisheries free to all.
Appropriations for the support of the church ceased with
American occupation, and the Government lottery was
discontinued.
"Under the military government of General Guy V. Henry
[December 6, 1898 to May 8, 1899], orders were issued:
(l) Appointing military commissions to try cases of arson and
murder which had accumulated in the civil courts.
(2) Closing public offices on Sunday, as far as possible.
(3) Suspending the municipal tax on fresh beef for use of the
Army.
(4) Making Christmas and New Year's holidays.
(5) Forbidding grants or concessions of public or corporate
rights or franchises without the approval of the commanding
general and the Secretary of War.
(6) Abolishing the municipal consumo tax on articles of food,
fuel, and drink, and providing for additional assessments on
the sale of liquors and tobacco.
(7) Separating the collection of customs duties from that of
direct taxes.
(8) Establishing a new system of land taxation, by which
agricultural lands should be taxed according to the several
classes instituted, from 1 peso down to 25 centavos per
cuerda, and levying 50 per cent additional on lands whose
owners reside abroad.
(9) Providing for the free vaccination of the people of the
island.
(10) Prohibiting the exhumation of bodies in the cemeteries,
recognizing the right of priests to control burials in
consecrated grounds, and requiring municipalities to keep
cemeteries in repair.
(11) Reducing notarial fees from $1.88 to $1, from $4.50 to
$1, from $11 to $1, and from $1 to 50 cents, according to
class of document, and canceling others.
(12) Reorganizing the cabinet, so as to make all the
secretaries directly responsible to the governor-general.
(13) Suspending the foreclosure of mortgages on agricultural
property and machinery for one year.
(14) Appointing February 22 a holiday.
(15) Prohibiting the sale of liquor to children under 14 years
of age.
(16) Modifying the civil marriage law.
(17) Declaring that eight hours shall constitute a day's work.
(18) Creating an insular police.
{413}
"Under the military government of General George W. Davis
[May 8, 1899, to May 1, 1900], orders were issued
(1) Modifying the order of
General Henry concerning hours of labor, so as to allow
agreements between employer and employee for longer or shorter
hours.
(2) Naming May 30 as a holiday.
(3) Allowing the writ of habeas corpus to be issued.
(4) Constituting a board of prison control and pardon.
(5) Continuing the observance as a holiday of June 24.
(6) Creating a provisional court on the basis of circuit and
district courts of the United States for the hearing of cases
not falling within the jurisdiction of local insular courts.
(7) Creating a superior board of health for the island.
(8) Reorganizing the bureau of public instruction and the
system of education.
(9) Relieving the judiciary from all control by the department
of justice, discontinuing the office of secretary of justice,
and appointing a solicitor-general.
(10) Abolishing the sale at auction of the privilege of
slaughter of cattle, and making it free.
(11) Reorganizing the judicial system of the island, with a
supreme court in San Juan and district courts in San Juan,
Ponce, Mayaguez, Arecibo, and Humacao, and with modifications
of civil and criminal procedure.
(12) Discontinuing the departments of state, treasury, and
interior, and creating bureaus of state and municipal affairs,
of internal revenue, and of agriculture, to be placed under
the direction of a civil secretary, responsible to the
governor-general, and continuing the bureaus of education and
public works, with an insular board of nine members to advise
the governor-general on matters of public interest referred to
them.
"The reductions in the budget of expenditures have been
extensive. That of 1898-99, adopted in June, 1898, amounted to
$4,781,920, native money. The appropriations for 'general
obligations,' which went to Madrid, $498,502, for the clergy,
$197,945; for the army, $1,252,378; for the navy, $222,668,
making a total of $2,171,493, ceased to be obligations,
leaving $2,610,428 for the fiscal year. A new budget was
adopted for the calendar year 1899, which still further
reduces expenditures, calling only for $1,462,276. This
budget, if carried out, would have involved a reduction from
the proposed budget of 1898-99 of $3,319,644; but a new budget
was formed, as already stated, for 1899-1900, which appears to
call for an increase over this very moderate sum. The revenues
were reduced by the abolition of stamped paper, personal
passports, export duties, royal dues on conveyances, the
lottery system, and other sources of income, amounting, all
told, to less probably than a million of pesos."
H. R. Carroll (Special Commissioner),
Report on Porto Rico, October 6, 1899, pages 53-55.
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1899 (August).
Destructive cyclone.
"On the morning of the 7th of August, 1899, the United States
Weather Bureau, through its branch establishment here,
announced the approach of a cyclonic disturbance, and the
danger signal was ordered to be hoisted at substations of the
Bureau at Ponce and Mayaguez. At the same time I directed that
the danger be reported to all commanding officers of posts
throughout the island. There had been no serious or
destructive storm in Puerto Rico since 1867, and the
inhabitants had ceased to feel great concern on account of
tropical tempests. Except at seaports, little heed was given
to the caution, and in some cases the telegraph operators
failed to receive or to promptly deliver the warning messages.
The vortex of the cyclone appears to have traversed the island
throughout its whole length, from about Humacao to Mayaguez,
and its path was a scene of very great devastation. … The gale
struck the island at Humacao about midnight of August 7, and
furiously blew all the rest of that night and well into the
next day, while at Mayaguez the violence was not great until 9
o'clock on the morning of the 8th. But as the latter town was
under the lee of high mountains, it suffered much less than it
would have done had it been higher or not thus protected. Most
of the habitations in the track of the center of the cyclone
were entirely smashed and the débris strewn all over the
country. The full reports of the loss of life bring the number
of deaths up to 2,700. The wind worked dreadful havoc with nearly
everything useful to man. Besides the mortality, which was
appalling, the material damage was almost beyond belief. But
the greatest loss of life resulted, not from the wind, but
from the terrible downfall of rain that immediately followed.
… Added to the horror of the situation there came with the
gale on the southern coast a tidal wave, which submerged large
areas with sea water and swept away what the wind and rain had
spared, in some places completing the destruction. Every river
bed or bottom of a land depression was a roaring torrent. The
wind uprooted myriads of trees, and the rain, entering and
permeating the soil, loosened it, and on steep declivities
resulted in avalanches of earth, mud, and water, covering wide
areas and piling up the debris in the ravines and gorges. … The
material loss to the coffee growers can as yet only be
estimated, but the most conservative figures received place
this year's crop at one-third of the normal. … Regard being
had to the fact that five years must elapse before the coffee
trees and their shade can be replanted and reach a normal
bearing condition, the total loss can not be safely placed
below 25,000,000 pesos for Puerto Rico on account of this
hurricane."
General George W. Davis,
Report (Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,
volume 2, pages 1343-1344).
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1899 (October).
Census of the Island taken under the direction of the
War Department of the United States.
"The population of Porto Rico shown by the schedules of the
present census taken with reference to the date of October 16,
1899, was 953,243. This was about nine-tenths of the
population of Maryland in 1890, the State whose population is
nearest to that of Porto Rico. … If the figures for … earlier
censuses may be accepted, it appears that the population of
Porto Rico has been growing through the last twelve years with
greater rapidity than before since 1860. Its present rate of
increase is about the same as that of Ohio, Tennessee, or the
Carolinas during the decade between 1880 and 1890. … It
appears that the average increase of population in the
interior has been more rapid than that on the coast. If the
figures for the coast cities of San Juan, Ponce, and Mayaguez
had been excluded, the difference would be yet more marked.
The depressed condition of sugar-cane growing in the West
Indies of recent years may have played an important part in
producing this difference, for the growing of sugar cane is
prevalent in the coast plains of Porto Rico.
{414}
"The area of Porto Rico, including the adjacent and dependent
islands of Vieques, Culebra, Mona, and Muertos, has been
measured in connection with this census and found to be 3,606
square miles. But owing to the imperfect surveys on which all
maps of Porto Rico are based there must be a considerable and
indeterminate margin of possible error in any such
measurement. The island is about three times the size of Long
Island, which was in 1890 perhaps the largest insular division
of the United States. It is also slightly greater than the
eastern shore of Maryland (3,461 square miles). … Porto Rico
has 264 persons to a square mile. This density of population
is about the same as in Massachusetts, twice that in New York
State, and thrice that in Ohio. It is more than seven times
that of Cuba and not much less than twice that of Habana
province. …
"The people of Porto Rico are, in the main, a rural community.
There are no large cities in the island, the two largest being
San Juan, which, regarding the entire municipal district as a
city, had a population of 32,048, and Ponce, which with its
port constituted practically one city, with a population of
27,952. These are the only two cities exceeding 25,000
inhabitants. The next city of magnitude is Mayaguez, on the
west coast, with a population of 15,187. The only other city
exceeding 8,000 inhabitants is Arecibo, with a population of
8,008. The total urban population of the island contained in
cities exceeding 8,000 inhabitants each is 83,195, or only 8.7
per cent of the population of the island. This is a much
smaller proportion than in Cuba, where the corresponding
figures are 32.3 per cent, or in the United States, where the
corresponding proportion in 1890 was 29.2 per cent. There are
in Porto Rico 57 cities, each having a population of 1,000 or
more. The total urban population of the island, under this
definition, numbers 203,792, or 21.4 per cent of the total
number of inhabitants of the island. Similar figures for Cuba
show 47.1 per cent of the population of that island."
Census of Porto Rico, Bulletin No.1.
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1899-1900.
The question of the tariff treatment of its new Territory
by the United States Government.
Writing in "The Forum," November, 1899, Mr. H. K. Carroll, who
had investigated the conditions in Porto Rico as a Special
Commissioner of the United States government, described the
obligation which, in his view, they imposed on the latter as
follows: "The only free market the Puertorican has for his
products is the island market. All the rest of the world is
closed to him. He cannot even buy in a free market; everything
he buys as well as everything he sells being subject to
duties. This is the penalty of independence; but Puerto Rico
is not, and does not want to be, independent. She wants such
commercial relations with us as Alaska, New Mexico, and
Arizona have, and desires a territorial form of government. I
am of the opinion that we cannot refuse these reasonable
requests without doing great injustice to Puerto Rico. It must
be remembered that we sought Puerto Rico; for Puerto Rico did
not seek us. We wrested her from the sovereignty of Spain,
without asking her if she desired to change her allegiance. We
were of the opinion that she was not justly treated by Spain;
that she was governed in the interests of the mother country
solely; that she was oppressed and overtaxed and denied a
proper measure of home rule; and that in consequence we were
serving the cause of humanity in breaking the chains that
bound her. This was what the Puertoricans thought also. They
welcomed our troops and our control. They were glad to turn
their backs on the history of the past, and begin under the
glorious Republic of the North a new and more prosperous
career. They are disappointed, perhaps unreasonably, that
their new life has not already begun; they are eagerly
expectant. They look to the President to recommend, and to
Congress to adopt, a system of government which will make the
island a Territory, equal in rank and rights and privileges to
existing Territories. They ought not to be disappointed
without the best and strongest of reasons. Three reasons are
mentioned in opposition to the granting of territorial
government to Puerto Rico. First, admission as a Territory
implies ultimate admission to statehood; and statehood for
islands separated as Hawaii and Puerto Rico are by from 1,200
to 2,500 miles from the United States is not to be thought of
for a moment. Second, territorial organization involves the
relinquishment of customs duties; and the cane and tobacco
growers of our West India possession would have free access to
the markets of the United States, and thus come into injurious
competition with our own farmers. Third, the people of Puerto
Rico are not competent for the measure of self-government
which the territorial system provides."
This most reasonable and just view of the duty of the American
people to their new fellow citizens received strong
endorsement from higher official authority in the subsequent
annual report of the Secretary of War, who said: "It is plain
that it is essential to the prosperity of the island that she
should receive substantially the same treatment at our hands
as she received from Spain while a Spanish colony, and that
the markets of the United States should be opened to her as
were the markets of Spain and Cuba before the transfer of
allegiance. Congress has the legal right to regulate the
customs duties between the United States and Porto Rico as it
pleases; but the highest considerations of justice and good
faith demand that we should not disappoint the confident
expectation of sharing in our prosperity with which the people
of Porto Rico so gladly transferred their allegiance to the
United States, and that we should treat the interests of this
people as our own; and I wish most strongly to urge that the
customs duties between Porto Rico and the United States be
removed."
Message and Documents:
Abridgment, 1899-1900, volume 2, page 757.
And, finally, the President of the United States, in his
Message to Congress, December 5, 1899, gave his high authority
to the declaration that this duty of his government to Porto
Rico was "plain": "It must be borne in mind," he said, "that
since the cession Porto Rico has been denied the principal
markets she had long enjoyed and our tariffs have been
continued against her products as when she was under Spanish
sovereignty. The markets of Spain are closed to her products
except upon terms to which the commerce of all nations is
subjected. The island of Cuba, which used to buy her cattle
and tobacco without customs duties, now imposes the same
duties upon these products as from any other country entering
her ports.
{415}
She has therefore lost her free intercourse with Spain and
Cuba, without any compensating benefits in this market. Her
coffee was little known and not in use by our people, and
therefore there was no demand here for this, one of her chief
products. The markets of the United States should be opened up
to her products. Our plain duty is to abolish all customs
tariffs between the United States and Porto Rico and give her
products free access to our markets."
Message and Documents: Abridgment,
volume 1, page 53.
Notwithstanding all which high official acknowledgments and
declarations of obligation and duty, on the part of the
Republic of the United States to the people of the island
which it had wrested from Spain, certain interests in the
former that objected to competition from the latter were able
to secure legislation which deferred the performance of the
"plain duty" required. An Act of Congress which the President
approved on the 12th of April, 1900, "temporarily to provide
revenues and a civil government for Porto Rico and for other
purposes," enacted as follows:
"SECTION 3.
That on and after the passage of this Act all merchandise
coming into the United States from Porto Rico and coming into
Porto Rico from the United States shall be entered at the
several ports of entry upon payment of fifteen per centum of
the duties which are required to be levied, collected, and
paid upon like articles of merchandise imported from foreign
countries; and in addition thereto upon articles of
merchandise of Porto Rican manufacture coming into the United
States and withdrawn for consumption or sale upon payment of a
tax equal to the internal-revenue tax imposed in the United
States upon the like articles of merchandise of domestic
manufacture; such tax to be paid by internal-revenue stamp or
stamps to be purchased and provided by the Commissioner of
Internal Revenue and to be procured from the collector of
internal revenue at or most convenient to the port of entry of
said merchandise in the United States, and to be affixed under
such regulations as the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, with
the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, shall
prescribe; and on all articles of merchandise of United States
manufacture coming into Porto Rico in addition to the duty
above provided upon payment of a tax equal in rate and amount
to the internal-revenue tax imposed in Porto Rico upon the
like articles of Porto Rican manufacture: Provided, That on
and after the date when this Act shall take effect, all
merchandise and articles, except coffee, not dutiable under
the tariff laws of the United States, and all merchandise and
articles entered in Porto Rico free of duty under' orders
heretofore made by the Secretary of War, shall be admitted
into the several ports thereof, when imported from the United
States, free of duty, all laws or parts of laws to the
contrary notwithstanding; and whenever the legislative
assembly of Porto Rico shall have enacted and put into
operation a system of local taxation to meet the necessities
of the government of Porto Rico, by this Act established, and
shall by resolution duly passed so notify the President, he
shall make proclamation thereof, and thereupon all tariff
duties on merchandise and articles going into Porto Rico from
the United States or coming into the United States from Porto
Rico shall cease, and from and after such date all such
merchandise and articles shall be entered at the several ports
of entry free of duty; and in no event shall any duties be
collected after the first day of March, nineteen hundred and
two, on merchandise and articles going into Porto Rico from
the United States or coming into the United States from Porto
Rico.
"SECTION 4.
That the duties and taxes collected in Porto Rico in pursuance
of this Act, less the cost of collecting the same, and the
gross amount of all collections of duties and taxes in the
United States upon articles of merchandise coming from Porto
Rico, shall not be covered into the general fund of the
Treasury, but shall be held as a separate fund, and shall be
placed at the disposal of the President to be used for the
government and benefit of Porto Rico until the government of
Porto Rico herein provided for shall have been organized, when
all moneys theretofore collected under the provisions hereof,
then unexpended, shall be transferred to the local treasury of
Porto Rico, and the Secretary of the Treasury shall designate
the several ports and sub-ports of entry in Porto Rico, and
shall make such rules and regulations and appoint such agents
as may be necessary to collect the duties and taxes authorized
to be levied, collected, and paid in Porto Rico by the
provisions of this Act, and he shall fix the compensation and
provide for the payment thereof of all such officers, agents,
and assistants as he may find it necessary to employ to carry
out the provisions hereof: Provided, however, That as soon as
a civil government for Porto Rico shall have been organized in
accordance with the provisions of this Act and notice thereof
shall have been given to the President he shall make
proclamation thereof, and thereafter all collections of duties
and taxes in Porto Rico under the provisions of this Act shall
be paid into the treasury of Porto Rico, to be expended as
required by law for the government and benefit thereof instead
of being paid into the Treasury of the United States."
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1900 (April).
Act to provide temporarily for the civil government
of the Island.
The fundamental provisions of the act of the Congress of the
United States to provide temporarily for the civil government
of Porto Rico, which the President approved April 12, 1900,
are the following:
"SECTION 6.
That the capital of Porto Rico shall be at the city of San
Juan and the seat of government shall be maintained there.
"SECTION 7.
That all inhabitants continuing to reside therein who were
Spanish subjects on the eleventh day of April, eighteen
hundred and ninety-nine, and then resided in Porto Rico, and
their children born subsequent thereto, shall be deemed and
held to be citizens of Porto Rico, and as such entitled to the
protection of the United States, except such as shall have
elected to preserve their allegiance to the Crown of Spain on
or before the eleventh day of April, nineteen hundred, in
accordance with the provisions of the treaty of peace between
the United States and Spain entered into on the eleventh day
of April, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine; and they, together
with such citizens of the United States as may reside in Porto
Rico, shall constitute a body politic under the name of The
People of Porto Rico, with governmental powers as hereinafter
conferred, and with power to sue and be sued as such.
{416}
"SECTION 8.
That the laws and ordinances of Porto Rico now in force shall
continue in full force and effect, except as altered, amended,
or modified hereinafter, or as altered or modified by military
orders and decrees in force when this Act shall take effect,
and so far as the same are not inconsistent or in conflict
with the statutory laws of the United States not locally
inapplicable, or the provisions hereof, until altered,
amended, or repealed by the legislative authority hereinafter
provided for Porto Rico or by Act of Congress of the United
States: Provided, That so much of the law which was in force
at the time of cession, April eleventh, eighteen hundred and
ninety-nine, forbidding the marriage of priests, ministers, or
followers of any faith because of vows they may have taken,
being paragraph four, article eighty-three, chapter three,
civil code, and which was continued by the order of the
secretary of justice of Porto Rico, dated March seventeenth,
eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, and promulgated by
Major-General Guy V. Henry, United States Volunteers, is
hereby repealed and annulled, and all persons lawfully married
in Porto Rico shall have all the rights and remedies conferred
by law upon parties to either civil or religious marriages:
And provided further, That paragraph one, article one hundred
and five, section four, divorce, civil code, and paragraph
two, section nineteen, of the order of the minister of justice
of Porto Rico, dated March seventeenth, eighteen hundred and
ninety-nine, and promulgated by Major-General Guy V. Henry,
United States Volunteers, be, and the same hereby are, so
amended as to read: 'Adultery on the part of either the
husband or the wife.' …
"SECTION 14.
That the statutory laws of the United States not locally
inapplicable, except as hereinbefore or hereinafter otherwise
provided, shall have the same force and effect in Porto Rico
as in the United States, except the internal-revenue laws,
which, in view of the provisions of section three, shall not
have force and effect in Porto Rico.
"SECTION 15.
That the legislative authority hereinafter provided shall have
power by due enactment to amend, alter, modify, or repeal any
law or ordinance, civil or criminal, continued in force by
this Act, as it may from time to time see fit.
"SECTION 16.
That all judicial process shall run in the name of 'United
States of America, ss: the President of the United States,'
and all criminal or penal prosecutions in the local courts
shall be conducted in the name and by the authority of 'The
People of Porto Rico'; and all officials authorized by this
Act shall before entering upon the duties of their respective
offices take an oath to support the Constitution of the United
States and the laws of Porto Rico.
"SECTION 17.
That the official title of the chief executive officer shall
be 'The Governor of Porto Rico.' He shall be appointed by the
President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate;
he shall hold his office for a term of four years and until
his successor is chosen and qualified unless sooner removed by
the President; he shall reside in Porto Rico during his
official incumbency, and shall maintain his office at the seat
of government; he may grant pardons and reprieves, and remit
fines and forfeitures for offenses against the laws of Porto
Rico, and respites for offenses against the laws of the United
States, until the decision of the President can be
ascertained; he shall commission all officers that he may be
authorized to appoint, and may veto any legislation enacted,
as hereinafter provided; he shall be the commander in chief of
the militia, and shall at all times faithfully execute the
laws, and he shall in that behalf have all the powers of
governors of the Territories of the United States that are not
locally inapplicable; and he shall annually, and at such other
times as he may be required, make official report of the
transactions of the government in Porto Rico, through the
Secretary of State, to the President of the United States:
Provided, That the President may, in his discretion, delegate
and assign to him such executive duties and functions as may
in pursuance with law be so delegated and assigned.
"SECTION 18.
That there shall be appointed by the President, by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate, for the period of four
years, unless sooner removed by the President, a secretary, an
attorney-general, a treasurer, an auditor, a commissioner of
the interior, and a commissioner of education, each of whom
shall reside in Porto Rico during his official incumbency and
have the powers and duties hereinafter provided for them,
respectively, and who, together with five other persons of
good repute, to be also appointed by the President for a like
term of four years, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate, shall constitute an executive council, at least five
of whom shall be native inhabitants of Porto Rico, and, in
addition to the legislative duties hereinafter imposed upon
them as a body, shall exercise such powers and perform such
duties as are hereinafter provided for them, respectively, and
who shall have power to employ all necessary deputies and
assistants for the proper discharge of their duties as such
officials and as such executive council. …
"SECTION 27.
That all local legislative powers hereby granted shall be
vested in a legislative assembly which shall consist of two
houses; one the executive council, as hereinbefore
constituted, and the other a house of delegates, to consist of
thirty-five members elected biennially by the qualified voters
as hereinafter provided; and the two houses thus constituted
shall be designated 'The legislative assembly of Porto Rico.'
"SECTION 28.
That for the purposes of such elections Porto Rico shall be
divided by the executive council into seven districts,
composed of contiguous territory and as nearly equal as may be
in population, and each district shall be entitled to five
members of the house of delegates.
SECTION 29.
That the first election for delegates shall be held on such
date and under such regulations as to ballots and voting as
the executive council may prescribe. … At such elections all
citizens of Porto Rico shall be allowed to vote who have been
bona fide residents for one year and who possess the other
qualifications of voters under the laws and military orders in
force on the first day of March, 1900, subject to such
modifications and additional qualifications and such
regulations and restrictions as to registration as may be
prescribed by the executive council. …
{417}
"SECTION 32.
That the legislative authority herein provided shall extend to
all matters of a legislative character not locally inapplicable,
including power to create, consolidate, and reorganize the
municipalities, so far as may be necessary, and to provide and
repeal laws and ordinances therefor; and also the power to
alter, amend, modify, and repeal any and all laws and
ordinances of every character now in force in Porto Rico, or
any municipality or district thereof, not inconsistent with
the provisions hereof: Provided, however, That all grants of
franchises, rights, and privileges or concessions of a public
or quasi-public nature shall be made by the executive council,
with the approval of the governor, and all franchises granted
in Porto Rico shall be reported to Congress, which hereby
reserves the power to annul or modify the same.
"SECTION 33.
That the judicial power shall be vested in the courts and
tribunals of Porto Rico as already established and now in
operation, including municipal courts. …
"SECTION 34.
That Porto Rico shall constitute a judicial district to be
called 'the district of Porto Rico.' The President, by and
with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint a
district judge, a district attorney, and a marshal for said
district, each for a term of four years, unless sooner removed
by the President. The district court for said district shall
be called the district court of the United States for Porto
Rico.
"SECTION 35.
That writs of error and appeals from the final decisions of
the supreme court of Porto Rico and the district court of the
United States shall be allowed and may be taken to the Supreme
Court of the United States in the same manner and under the
same regulations and in the same cases as from the supreme
courts of the Territories of the United States. …
"SECTION 39.
That the qualified voters of Porto Rico shall, on the first
Tuesday after the first Monday of November, anno Domini
nineteen hundred, and every two years thereafter, choose a
resident commissioner to the United States, who shall be
entitled to official recognition as such by all Departments,
upon presentation to the Department of State of a certificate
of election of the governor of Porto Rico, and who shall be
entitled to a salary, payable monthly by the United States, at
the rate of five thousand dollars per annum: Provided, That no
person shall be eligible to such election who is not a bona
fide citizen of Porto Rico, who is not thirty years of age,
and who does not read and write the English language.
"SECTION 40.
That a commission, to consist of three members, at least one
of whom shall be a native citizen of Porto Rico, shall be
appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent
of the Senate, to compile and revise the laws of Porto Rico; also
the various codes of procedure and systems of municipal
government now in force, and to frame and report such
legislation as may be necessary to make a simple, harmonious,
and economical government, establish justice and secure its
prompt and efficient administration, inaugurate a general
system of education and public instruction, provide buildings
and funds therefor, equalize and simplify taxation and all the
methods of raising revenue, and make all other provisions that
may be necessary to secure and extend the benefits of a
republican form of government to all the inhabitants of Porto
Rico."
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1900 (May).
Organization of civil government.
Appointment of Governor Allen.
Under the Act to establish civil government in Porto Rico,
Honorable. Charles H. Allen, formerly a representative in
Congress from Massachusetts, and lately Assistant-Secretary of
the Navy, was appointed to the governorship of the island. Mr.
J. H. Hollander, of Maryland, was appointed Treasurer, and Mr.
John R. Garrison, of the District of Columbia, Auditor.
Governor Allen was inducted into office with considerable
ceremony, at San Juan, on the 1st of May.
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1900 (August-October).
First steps in the creation of a public school system.
"The report of M. G. Brumbaugh, commissioner of education, on
education in Porto Rico, dated October 15, 1900, shows what
has been accomplished in the short time that elapsed after the
commissioner entered upon his duties on August 4, 1900. … The
people want schools … and the pupils will attend them. In
1899, 616 schools were opened in Porto Rico. In 1900 the
department will maintain at least 800 schools, an increase of
30 per cent, which will provide for nearly 9,000 additional
pupils.
"In 1899 there were 67 Americans in the teaching force of the
island. Since October 1, 1900, the number has increased to
100. The commissioner criticises one class of teachers who are
'seekers after novelty and new experiences, who imposed upon the
administration and the children, and who used the salary and
position of teacher solely to see a new country for a year and
then return. … The people of Porto Rico have patiently borne
with these adventurers, and quietly longed for their
departure.' This class of teachers is now gone and the newly
selected American teachers have some knowledge of Spanish and
are graduates of universities, colleges, and normal schools in
the States, and are for the most part young men and women of
ability and discretion. The salaries of American teachers were
fixed by law at $40 per month for nine months in cities of
less than 5,000 population. In cities of larger population the
salary was $50 per month for nine months and both are
inadequate, although at the time the salaries were fixed the
War Department provided free transportation from and to the
United States. This transportation may now be withdrawn at any
time, and the small inducement held out by the meager salary
offered to teachers is not calculated to invite the best class
of them to the island.
"The new normal and industrial school at Fajardo, which was to
have been established by the joint efforts of the local
municipality and the American Government, was only so far
advanced that the land had been purchased by the end of
September, 1900. The normal department was opened October 1,
in a rented building, while the industrial department cannot
be opened until suitable quarters are provided. The
commissioner recommends that the United States make this place
the site of an agricultural experiment station for which it is
pre-eminently fitted. On account of the industries of the
country—coffee, sugar, tobacco, and fruit—agriculture could be
well studied here, and free boarding, lodging, and tuition would
be given the students, who would be for the most part poor
boys and girls.
"As to the school accommodation, the commissioner states that
there are no public school buildings in Porto Rico. The
schools are conducted in rented houses or rooms which are
often unfit for the purpose, and the hygienic conditions are
bad. There is a wide field, or rather a demand, for
improvement in this direction, as well as in the school
equipment and material.
{418}
In 1899, $33,000 was expended for school-books, and in 1900,
$20,000 will be expended for books and supplies, which shall
be free. In the United States 'free books' means usually their
purchase by local boards and free use by the pupils. In Porto
Rico the books and supplies will be free to the pupils without
expense to the local boards. A pedagogical museum and library
has been established for the benefit of teachers and others.
About 300 volumes have been contributed to the library from
friends in the States, and the Department will make the number
up to 500 by purchase. A library of 5,000 volumes of standard
Spanish and American literature was found in a building in San
Juan, which has been installed in suitable rooms as a public
library.
"Many of the leading institutions of the United States have
responded cordially to the application of the Department of
Education on behalf of young Porto Ricans who wish to
prosecute their studies in colleges and universities. Some
have offered free tuition, some have added free lodging, while
others have offered even free living to all such students as
wish to avail themselves of their instruction. Many young
Porto Ricans have availed themselves of these generous offers.
"There are now 800 schools in Porto Rico, and 38,000 pupils
attending them, while there are 300,000 children of school age
for whom there are no accommodations. But the commissioner
expresses the hope that gradually the great illiteracy in
Porto Rico will be reduced, and the people prepared for the
duties of citizenship in a democracy by means of the schools
that shall be established. … The total expenditure for
education in Porto Rico from the 1st of May to the end of
September was $91,057.32."
United States, Secretary of the Interior,
Annual Report, November 28, 1900, page 116.
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1900 (November-December).
The first election under U. S. law.
Meeting of the Legislative Assembly.
The first election in the Island under the provisions of the
Act recited above occurred on the 6th of November
simultaneously with the elections in the United States. It
seems to have been almost entirely a one-sided vote. "About
two weeks before election day," says a despatch from San Juan,
November 7, "the Federal Party, which carried the island at
the election of less than a year ago by a majority of 6,500
votes, suddenly withdrew from the electoral contest. The
Federal leaders sent instruction to their followers not to
appear at the polls, but the Federal Election Judges were
instructed to appear and watch the proceedings until the
elections were concluded in order to gather evidence of any
unfairness in the registration and any irregularity in the
voting. The Federal Party intends to institute court
proceedings after the election in the hope of nullifying it,
claiming that gross irregularities in the registration and
voting will be shown, and alleging that the districting was
not done according to law." Only about 200 Federals voted, it
is stated, while some 60,000 votes were cast for the
candidates of the Republicans. Governor Allen cabled the
following announcement of the election to President McKinley:
"I am gratified and delighted. The outcome in Porto Rico is a
guarantee of the island's future. To bring people who had long
been under different rules and conditions to their first
general election, to have the election pass off as quietly and
orderly as in any State of the North conducted by the people
without let or hindrance, and without a soldier or armed force
of any sort, and to have nearly 60.000 men march to the polls
to deposit their first ballot for self-government in such a
manner, are good reasons for congratulation, not only to the
people of the island, but to the painstaking members of the
Administration, who had worked diligently and patiently to
this end. This overwhelming Republican victory also means
legislation for the good of the island in line with the
American Administration. It means stable government and the
protection of property interests, with which prospective
investors in Porto Rico are deeply concerned. It means
education, public works, and all the beneficent works which
follow legislation wisely and conscientiously undertaken. It
is an emphatic declaration of unqualified loyalty to the
United States."
The newly elected Legislative Assembly met and the House of
Delegates was organized December 3. A correspondent of the
"New York Tribune," writing a week later, said: "Already
nineteen bills have been introduced. To introduce nineteen
bills in six days after organizing, as well as forming the
regular committees, is not bad work when it is considered that
not one of the members had the slightest idea of parliamentary
procedure. During the session one of the members may be seen
making frequent trips to the Executive Mansion, where he
confers with Secretary Hunt in regard to some doubtful point.
It is said by some that in a short time the lower house will
be controlled entirely by the portfolio members of the
Council. It is known that the five Porto Rican members of the
Council, when considering the question of franchises, etc.,
often vote contrary to their own ideas in order that the
Council may continue harmonious. But it is not likely that the
heads of departments will be able to control the thirty-five
members of the House. The House, although regularly elected,
is not representative of the island; the Federals refraining
from voting kept over half the natives from the polls. The
Federal party, it is asserted, is made up of the richest and
best element of Porto Rico. The Republicans, though in power,
do not feel that they are able to run things alone, so the
majority is willing to be dictated to by the Council.
Nevertheless there is a certain element in the House which
will not be dictated to. So soon as any really important bill
comes up for debate it is predicted that the House will divide
against itself. And a little later, when the House passes some
pet bill and the Council rejects it, the House will probably
resign in a body. It is a natural trait of the people.'
After another fortnight had passed, the same correspondent
wrote very discouragingly of the disposition shown by a
majority of the members of the House of Delegates, and their
conduct of business, and stated: "The popular opinion among
the Americans, even among some of the higher officials, is
that if the House continues as it is Congress will abolish it
altogether, and govern the island through a Governor and
Cabinet. Such irregular procedure has been followed that it is
a question here whether any business has been legally done."
{419}
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1901 (January),
Close of the first session of the Legislative Assembly.
The first session of the first Legislative Assembly of the
island came to a close on the 31st of January, 1901, and the
following remarks on its work were made in a newspaper
despatch of that date from San Juan: "Over one hundred bills
have been introduced in the House of Delegates, and dozens
have been passed by both houses, and are awaiting the
Governor's approval. … Committees have a hard day's work if
they get together and agree to pass the bills on hand before
midnight to-night. Ever since the House of Delegates resumed
business after the new year, eight or nine members have been
continually absent. There are only thirty-five members
altogether, and the island is small, yet twenty-six has been
the average attendance. A full attendance for even one day is
not recorded. It was predicted that a number of the members
would resign; they did not. They simply remained away, like
truant schoolboys. A bill has been passed providing for the
education of certain young Porto Rican men and women in the
United States, about two hundred of them having petitioned the
House of Delegates to be sent north at the island's expense.
It is not known on what ground these petitions have been made.
The island expends about $400,000 yearly on education, and
excellent educational facilities are offered. But the people,
in a way, seem to discredit the value of the opportunities at
hand."
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1901 (April).
Distress of the workingmen of the Island.
Their appeal to the President of the United States.
The following petition, signed by 6,000 of the workingmen of
Porto Rico, was brought to the United States by a delegate
from the Federation of Labor in Porto Rico and presented to
President McKinley on the 15th of April:
"The undersigned, workers of Porto Rico, without distinction
of color, political or religious creed, have the honor to
bring to your attention the following facts: Misery, with all
its horrible consequences, is spreading in our homes with
wonderful rapidity. It has already reached such an extreme
that many workers are starving to death while others, that
have not the courage to see their mothers, wives, sisters and
children perish of hunger, commit suicide by drowning
themselves in the rivers or hanging themselves from branches
of trees. All this, honorable sir, is due to the scarcity of
work, which keeps us in enforced idleness, the mother of our
misery. Our beautiful estates are idle; our lands are not
being cultivated; our shops remain closed; and our Chambers do
absolutely nothing to prevent our misery on this once so rich
an island. The Government and municipality do not undertake
any public works to keep us out of idleness. The emigration of
workers, unknown in this island before, increases day by day,
in proportion as misery increases. Under these trying
conditions we are no longer a happy and contented people. We
therefore, beg of you, honorable sir, to interest yourself in
our cause, leading us, as the father of our country, in the
path that will bring us work, and with it the means of
subsistence. We want work; nothing but work. We want to earn
the means of subsistence by the sweat of our brows; and nobody
better than our Chief Magistrate can help us by lending ear to
our appeals. "
----------PORTO RICO: End--------
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1891-1900.
Delagoa Bay Arbitration.
See (in this volume)
DELAGOA BAY ARBITRATION.
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1898.
Alleged Treaty with Great Britain.
There is said to be knowledge in diplomatic circles of a
treaty between Great Britain and Portugal, concluded in 1898,
which has never been made public, but which is understood to
engage the former to assist the latter financially and to
protect the kingdom as against dangers both external and
internal. In return it is believed that England received the
right to embark and disembark troops, stores and ammunitions
at any point on Portuguese territory in Africa, to keep them
there, or to convey them across Portuguese territory to any
point she might see fit, irrespective as to whether she was at
war with any third Power. Circumstances have given some
support to this rumor, but it has no positive confirmation.
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1899.
Reciprocity Treaty with the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899-1901.
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA: A. D. 1895-1896.
War with Gungunhana.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1895-1896 (PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA).
POSTAGE, British Imperial Penny.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (DECEMBER).
POWERS, Concert of the.
See (in this volume)
CONCERT OF EUROPE.
POWERS, The four great.
See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY: EXPANSION.
PRATT, Consul:
Interviews with Aguinaldo at Singapore.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (APRIL-MAY: PHILIPPINES).
"PREDOMINANT MEMBER," Remarks of Lord Rosebery on the.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1894-1895.
PREHISTORIC DISCOVERIES.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH.
PREMPEH, Overthrow of King.
See (in this volume)
ASHANTI.
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES: Union in Scotland.
See (in this volume)
SCOTLAND: A. D. 1900.
PRESS, The:
Relaxation of restrictions in Poland.
See (in this volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1897.
PRESS, The:
Prosecutions in Germany.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (OCTOBER 9).
PRETORIA: A. D. 1894.
Demonstration of British residents.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1894.
PRETORIA: A. D. 1900.
Taken by the British forces.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1900 (MAY-JUNE).
PRIMARY ELECTION LAW.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1898.
PRINCE EDWARD'S ISLAND.
See (in this volume)
CANADA.
{420}
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY:
Celebration of 250th anniversary.
Assumption of new name.
See (in this volume)
EDUCATION (UNITED STATES): A. D. 1896.
PRINSLOO, Commandant: Surrender.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1900 (JUNE-DECEMBER).
PROCTOR, Senator Redfield:
Account of the condition of the Cuban Reconcentrados.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1897-1898 (DECEMBER-MARCH).
PROGRESSISTS,
PROGRESSIVES.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897;
JAPAN: A. D. 1890-1898, and after;
SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE COLONY): A. D. 1898,
and 1898 (MARCH-OCTOBER).
PROHIBITION PARTY, The.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER);
and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
PROHIBITION PLEBISCITE, Canadian.
See (in this volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1898 (SEPTEMBER).
PROTECTIVE TARIFFS.
See (in this volume)
TARIFF LEGISLATION.
PROTOCOL, for suspension of Spanish-American War.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).
PRUSSIA: Census, 1895.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1895 (JUNE-DECEMBER).
PRUSSIA: A. D. 1899-1901.
Canal projects.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (AUGUST); and 1901 (JANUARY).
PRUSSIA: A. D. 1901.
Bicentenary celebration.
The bicentenary of the coronation of the first King of Prussia
was celebrated with much ceremony and festivity on the 18th of
January, 1901.
PULLMAN.
A decision of the Supreme Court of Illinois, rendered early in
1899, deprives the Pullman Car Company of the legal right to
own and conduct the affairs of the town of Pullman, Illinois.
The effect is understood to be that the town will be
incorporated with Chicago.
PUNJAB, Formation of a new province from districts of the.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
PUPIN, Dr. Michael I.:
Improvement in long-distance telephony.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: ELECTRICAL.
Q.
QUEBEC, Province.
See (in this volume)
CANADA.
QUEENS COUNTY:
Incorporation in Greater New York.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1896-1897.
QUEENSLAND.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRALIA; and CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRALIA.
QUINCY, Josiah:
Progressive measures as Mayor of Boston.
See (in this volume)
BOSTON: A. D. 1895-1899.
R.
RACES, European, The expansion of.
See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY: EXPANSION.
RAILWAY, The Anatolian.
Extension to the Persian Gulf.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1899 (NOVEMBER).
RAILWAY, Cape to Cairo.
"A line now [1899] runs northward from Cape Town to Bulawayo,
in Rhodesia, a distance of 1,360 miles, and is being pushed
still farther northward. From Bulawayo to Lake Tanganyika is
about 1,000 miles; and this Mr. Rhodes hopes to reach by 1905.
Lake Tanganyika is 410 miles long; and it is likely that its
waters will be utilized for a time at least for transferring
northwardly the freights and passengers reaching its southern
end. Meantime the railroad from Cairo is being pushed
southwardly to meet the line which is coming from the Cape
northwardly. It has already been constructed to Atbara, where
American contractors have just finished the steel bridge in a
time which British bridge-builders considered impossible; and
the line is being pushed forward to Khartoum from that point.
Khartoum is 1,300 miles from Cairo; so that when work on the
section from Atbara to Khartoum is completed, as it will be
within a few months, the two gaps to be filled in will be from
Khartoum to the north end of Lake Tanganyika, a distance of
1,700 miles, and the 950 miles from the south end of Lake
Tanganyika to Bulawayo; i. e., 2,700 miles in all. Thus, of
the necessary land length, assuming that at least the 410
miles length of Lake Tanganyika will be at first utilized,
about one-half will be finished on the completion of the
section from Atbara to Khartoum, within the next few months.
The remaining 2,700 miles will, it is estimated, cost
$60,000,000; and Mr. Rhodes confidently predicts its
completion before the year 1910."
O. P. Austin,
Africa: Present and Future
(Forum, December, 1899).
See, also (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1899.
Of course, the plans and calculations of Mr. Cecil Rhodes have
been seriously interfered with by the South African War. He
may have anticipated the war, but not the length nor the
effects of it.
RAILWAY, Haifa to Damascus and Bagdad.
See (in this volume)
JEWS: A. D. 1899.
RAILWAY, The Intercontinental, or "Three Americas."
"One of the important results of the International American
Conference, held in Washington in 1889-90, was its
recommendation that an International Commission be created to
ascertain the feasibility, the cost, and the available
location for a railroad connecting the countries of South and
Central America with Mexico and the United States. This
recommendation was cordially indorsed by Secretary Blaine in
submitting the report to President Harrison, who transmitted
it to Congress, asking that an appropriation be made to
commence the surveys. In the same act which authorized the
establishment of the Bureau of the American Republics—the
Diplomatic and Consular Appropriation Act of July 14, 1890—the
Intercontinental Railway Commission was created.
{421}
In this act it was provided that three Commissioners on the
part of the United States should be appointed by the
President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, who were
to act with representatives of the other American Republics to
devise plans for carrying out the objects recommended by the
International American Conference. The Commission organized
December 4, 1890, and at once set about the equipping of the
surveying parties to make the necessary topographical
examination. The United States representatives on the
Commission were practical railroad men—A. J. Cassatt, Henry G.
Davis, and R. C. Kerens, and eleven other Republics were
represented on the Commission. The report just issued [March,
1899] is in four volumes, with four sets of maps and profiles,
exhibiting the surveys and examination of the country that
were made from Mexico through Central America to Colombia,
Ecuador, and Peru, in South America. In addition to the
personal observations in South America, the officers making
the reports also gathered from the best obtainable sources
geographical, railroad, and other information relating to
Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, and
Venezuela. The report gives the proposed distances as follows:
Central American division, from Ayutla, Guatemala, on the
Mexican border, to Rio Golfito, Colombia, 1,043 miles; from
Rio Golfito to Buenos Aires, Argentina, 5,446.76 miles;
through the United States from New York to Laredo, Texas,
2,094 miles; and from that point, through Mexico to Ayutla,
Guatemala, 1,644.3 miles; making a total of 10,228.06 miles,
including the lines already in operation in the different
countries. The extent of railway to be constructed is a little
over one-half the total, being 5,456.13 miles. An estimate is
given of the cost for grading, masonry, and bridges of that
portion of the line which must be constructed to complete the
connections, which amounts to $174,290,271.84."
Bureau of American Republics,
Bulletin, March, 1899.
As now surveyed, from New York City to Buenos Ayres, it will
be 10,221 miles long, and to finish and equip it will cost at
least $200,000,000. This length and cost will also be
increased when the line is extended through Patagonia to the
southern limits of South America. The complete surveys … prove
that a practicable route can be found and the road built
within a reasonable time. The route of this road can be traced
on the map, while the following table shows the distances, the
miles built, and the gaps to be filled:
Built. Proposed. Total.
United States. 2,094 … 2,094
Mexico 1,183 461 1,644
Total North America. 3,277 461 3,738
---------
Guatemala. 43 126 169
San Salvador. 64 166 230
Honduras. … 71 71
Nicaragua. 103 106 209
Costa Rica. … 360 360
Total Central America. 210 829 1,039
Colombia. … 1,354 1,354
Ecuador. … 658 658
Peru. 151 1,833 1,784
Bolivia. 195 392 587
Argentina. 936 125 1,061
Total South America. 1,282 4,769 5,444
Grand total. 4,769 5,452 10,221
"The demands of trade may compel early construction of this
railroad. It is doubtful if a remunerative commerce can be
built up between North and South America by ship. The
conformation of the eastern coast of South America compels a
long detour to the east, and brings a ship almost as near to
the ports of Europe as to the ports of the United States. The
exports of South America, being mainly agricultural, will find
a readier sale in Europe than in this country, and when they
are exchanged for the cheap manufactured goods of that
continent the conditions for trade are supplied. If, for these
reasons, this country can not build up a commerce with South
America by water, a quicker means of transit must be had, such
as the Pan-American Railway would provide. The obstacles to be
overcome are great. They surpass the difficulties in the way of
the Siberian or the 'Cape to Cairo' road, but the results will
be correspondingly greater.
"South America has greater undeveloped resources than any
other continent. Its agricultural possibilities are boundless.
It has the greatest rivers in the world; its soil can produce
any crop grown on the earth, and its mines of gold, silver,
and coal have been scarcely touched. A railroad which would
traverse the coffee lands of the Central American States, pass
through the mines of Peru, and penetrate the rich pampas of
Brazil and Argentina, must have great possibilities before it.
The products of the three great valleys of the Orinoco, the
Amazon, and the Paraguay rivers would find a market by means
of it, and the riches of the mines of the Incas be shown to
surpass those of California and South Africa."
Bureau of American Republics,
Bulletin, December, 1899.
RAILWAY, The Tehuantepec.
See (in this volume)
MEXICO: A. D. 1898-1900.
RAILWAY, The Three Americas.
See, above,
RAILWAY, INTERCONTINENTAL.
RAILWAY, Trans-Siberian.
See (in this volume)
RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1891-1900.
RAILWAY, The Uganda, or Mombasa-Victoria.
See (in this volume)
UGANDA RAILWAY.
RAILWAYS: in Africa.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1899.
RAILWAYS: American Inter-State.
Arbitration of industrial disputes.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JUNE).
RAILWAYS: Concessions in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1895;
1897 (MAY-JUNE);
1897 (NOVEMBER);
1898 (FEBRUARY-DECEMBER);
1898 (MARCH);
1898 (APRIL-AUGUST);
1898 (MAY);
1899 (MARCH-APRIL).
RAILWAYS:
Russian projects in Persia.
See (in this volume)
RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1900.
{422}
RAILWAYS:
State purchase in Switzerland.
See (in this volume)
SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1894-1898.
RAINES LAW, The.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1896-1897.
RAMAPO WATER CONTRACT, The.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1899-1900.
RANAVALOMANJAKA, Queen.
See (in this volume)
MADAGASCAR.
RAND, Gold fields of the.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1885-1890.
RECIPROCITY:
Treaties under the Dingley Tariff Act.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899-1901.
RECONCENTRADOS.
(See in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897;
and 1897-1898 (DECEMBER-MARCH).
RED CROSS SOCIETY, The:
Relief work in Armenia and Cuba.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1896 (JANUARY-MARCH);
and CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897.
REFERENDUM, The:
In Minnesota.
See (in this volume)
MINNESOTA: A. D. 1896.
REFERENDUM, The:
Introduction in South Dakota.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH DAKOTA: A. D. 1898.
REFERENDUM, The:
Its exercise in Switzerland.
See (in this volume)
SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1894-1898.
REID CONTRACT, The.
See (in this volume)
NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1897-1900; and 1899-1901.
REITFONTEIN, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
RELIGIOUS ORDERS, Bill to regulate, in France.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).
REPRESENTATIVES:
Reapportionment in the Congress of the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).
REPUBLICAN PARTY, The,
in the U. S. Presidential elections, 1896 and 1900.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER);
and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
RESERVOIRS, Nile.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1898-1901.
RHINE-ELBE CANAL PROJECT, The.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (AUGUST);
and 1901 (JANUARY).
RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1900.
Newport no longer a capital city.
At the election in November, 1900, a constitutional amendment
was adopted which makes Providence alone the capital city of
Rhode Island. Newport had been one of the capitals since the
colonies of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations were
united.
RHODES, Cecil John:
Founder of the British South Africa Company.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1884-1894.
RHODES, Cecil John:
Master spirit of the British South Africa Company.
His name given to its dominions.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY):
A. D. 1894-1895.
RHODES, Cecil John:
Participation in Uitlander revolutionary conspiracy at
Johannesburg, leading to Jameson Raid.
Resignation of Cape Colony premiership.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1895-1896.
RHODES, Cecil John:
Dealing with Matabele revolt.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (RHODESIA):
A. D. 1896 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).
RHODES, Cecil John:
Resignation from the Board of the British South Africa
Company.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA
(BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY): A. D. 1896 (JUNE).
RHODES, Cecil John:
Accused by the Cape Colony Assembly of complicity in the
Jameson Raid.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE COLONY): A. D. 1896 (JULY).
RHODES, Cecil John:
Testimony before British Parliamentary Committee on the
Jameson Raid.
The Committee's report.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY-JULY).
RHODES, Cecil John:
In Cape Colony politics.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE COLONY): A. D. 1898.
RHODES, Cecil John:
Projection of a Cape to Cairo Railway.
See (in this volume)
RAILWAY, CAPE TO CAIRO;
and AFRICA: A. D. 1899.
RHODES, Cecil John:
Beleaguered in Kimberley.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER).
RHODES, Cecil John:
Projection of a Cape to Cairo Telegraph.
See (in this volume)
TELEGRAPH, CAPE TO CAIRO.
RHODESIA: A. D. 1896 (March-September).
Revolt of the Matabeles.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (RHODESIA):
A. D. 1896 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).
RHODESIA: A. D. 1896 (July).
Parliamentary investigation of British South Africa Company.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY):
A. D. 1896 (JULY).
RHODESIA: A. D. 1897.
Report on compulsory native labor.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY):
A. D. 1897 (JANUARY).
RHODESIA: A. D. 1898.
Reorganized administration.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA
(RHODESIA AND THE BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY):
A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY).
RHODESIA: A. D. 1900.
Protectorate proclaimed over Barotsiland.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (RHODESIA): A. D. 1900 (SEPTEMBER).
RIO PRIETO, Engagement at the.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST; PORTO RICO).
RIZAL, Dr. José.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1896-1898.
ROBERTS, Field Marshal, Lord (Sir Frederick Sleigh):
In the South African War.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY), and after.
ROBINSON, Sir Hercules:
British High Commissioner in South Africa.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):
A. D. 1896 (JANUARY-APRIL).
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, The.
See PAPACY.
ROMAN CATHOLICS:
Protest of British Peers against the
Declaration required from the Sovereign.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
{423}
ROMAN CATHOLICS:
Victory in Belgium.
See (in this volume)
BELGIUM: A. D. 1894-1895.
ROMAN LAW:
Superseded in Germany.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY).
ROME:
The likeness of its early settlement shown by excavations
at Antemnæ.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: ITALY.
RÖNTGEN, Wilhelm Konrad:
Discovery of the X rays.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.
ROOSEVELT, Theodore:
Lieutenant-Colonel of the Regiment of Rough Riders.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-MAY).
ROOSEVELT, Theodore:
Elected Vice President of the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
ROSEBERY, Earl of:
Prime minister.
Remarks on the "predominant member."
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1894-1895.
ROSEBERY, Earl of:
Tribute to Mr. Gladstone.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (MAY).
ROSEBERY, Earl of:
Tribute to Queen Victoria.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).
ROUGH RIDERS, The.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (APRIL-MAY).
ROUGH RIDERS, The.
At Santiago.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).
ROUMANIA.
See (in this volume)
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES;
and TURKEY: A. D. 1899-1901.
ROYAL NIGER COMPANY, The.
See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1882-1899.
ROYAL NIGER COMPANY, The.
Transfer of territories to the British crown.
See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1899.
RUDINI, Marquis di:
Resignation of Ministry.
See (in this volume)
ITALY: A. D. 1898 (MARCH-JUNE).
RUMANIA.
See (in this volume)
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES;
and TURKEY: A. D. 1899-1901.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1895.
Agreement with Great Britain concerning the frontier of
Afghanistan and spheres of influence in the Pamir region.
See (in this volume)
AFGHANISTAN: A. D. 1895.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1895.
Alliance with France.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1895.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1895.
Treaty with China giving railway and other privileges and
rights in Manchuria.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1895.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1896 (May-June).
Coronation of the Tzar.
The Tzar Nicholas II., who succeeded his father, Alexander
III., on the death of the latter, November 1, 1894, was not
formally crowned until May 26, 1896. The splendid festivities
of the occasion lasted from May 18 until June, and were
attended by a brilliant assembly of princes and high officials
from all parts of the world. They were saddened by a frightful
calamity on the 31st of May, when an attempt was made to
distribute gifts of food and drink to a vast multitude of
nearly half a million people, on Khodynskoye plain. Adequate
measures for controlling the pressure of the crowd had not
been taken, and nearly 3,000 were suffocated or trampled to
death.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1897.
Relaxations of oppressive laws.
Several important relaxations of oppressive laws were
commanded by the Tzar in the course of the year. By one, sons
of the marriage of an orthodox Russian with one of another
creed were allowed to be brought up in the religion of the
father and daughters in that of the mother. By another, Jews
having an university education were allowed freedom of
residence in any part of the empire. By others, greater
freedom was given to the Polish press, formerly forbidden to
discuss political questions; local assemblies of Polish nobles
were organized; permission was given to restore Roman Catholic
churches in Poland, and certain special Polish taxes were
removed.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1897 (February).
Census of the Empire.
"For the first time in the history of the Hyperborean Empire,
a general, and if I may use the expression, scientific, census
has been taken of the various tongues and tribes, religions
and sects, cultured races and nomadic hordes who acknowledge
the sway of the Tsar. It was a Herculean labour, without
precedent in history and without a formula in statistics. … On
June 5, 1895, the reigning Tsar gave his sanction to a scheme
which was both conformable to the exigencies of modern
statistics and suitable to the various conditions peculiar to
Russia. … The general plan of operations was simple, and
calculated as far as possible to impose a large portion of the
task upon officials of the Administration, and obviate the
necessity of paying for it. Thus there was a Committee in
every Government or Province of the Empire, presided over by
the actual Governor; and there were sub-committees in every
district under the direction of the Marshal of the Nobility. …
The task undertaken by the Central Committee was in the
highest degree formidable: rooted prejudices had to be
overcome, inarticulate suspicions removed—the half-civilised
nomads have an insuperable dislike to answer questions of the
'Tshinovniks'—the confidence of the people gained, languages
mastered, routes studied, badges prepared for the officials,
millions upon millions of census papers printed and
distributed over the length and breadth of the Empire, &c. &c.
…
"In order that the work might be finished as early as possible
at the same time, the cantonal sections were split up into
divisions, which had to be more or less equal. In country
places the division was not usually allowed to exceed 400
households, or say, 2,600 souls; in cities 150 flats, or about
750 souls. The registrars, who were answerable for the census
in these districts, were chosen from all classes of society,
the only condition being that they must be persons of some
education, and calculated to inspire the population with
confidence—a very important consideration in Russia. Thus,
there were priests, officers, school-teachers, students,
merchants, landowners, and in some cases peasants. The
remuneration fixed for the work, which was sometimes attended
with danger and in almost every case with very disagreeable
experiences, was 12 roubles, or about £1 4s. 6d., in rural
districts, and 7 roubles in towns.
{424}
Labour is still cheap in Russia, but even there this modest
sum was found insufficient to tempt the competent persons, who
in out-of-the-way districts were few and far between. When
this had become painfully evident, it was too late to set the
clumsy machinery in motion through which alone it might have
been possible to obtain a higher rate of remuneration. As the
registrars were, in many places, not to be had, it seemed
likely that the census would prove a lamentable failure. Then
the Tsar appeared as a 'deus ex machinâ,' and instituted a
special medal for all those who should agree to undertake the
work gratis. Like most Continental peoples, Russians have a
hankering after 'ribbons to stick in their coats,' and the
moment the medal was promised for gratuitous services there
was no lack of willing workmen. Thousands of volunteers
presented themselves, and the authorities selected the most
competent. … On January 28 [Old Style, being, N. S. February
9, 1897], … at break of day an army of 150,000 individuals
left their homes to count the number of people inhabiting an
empire which occupies one-sixth of the globe. …
"The first Russian census … may be considered to have proved a
brilliant success. The results may be summed up very briefly
as follows: The population of the Russian Empire and the Grand
Duchy of Finland numbers 129,211,114 souls, of whom
94,188,750 inhabit the 50 Governments of European Russia
9,442,500 inhabit the 10 Governments of Poland
9,723,553 inhabit the 11 Governments of the Caucasus
5,731,732 inhabit the 9 Governments of Siberia
3,415,174 inhabit the 5 Governments of the Steppe regions
4,175,101 inhabit the Provinces of Transcaspia and of Turkestan.
6,413 inhabit Khiva and Boukhara
2,527,801 inhabit Finland
----------
129,211,114 Total
"Compared with the figures of former years, as given by the
partial official returns and in the tables of the statistician
Köppen, we find that the population has increased since the
year 1851 by 96.2 per cent; since 1858 by 73.2 per cent; since
1885 by 18.1 per cent. The average density of the population
is 8.8 persons to the square verst [the verst equalling
1166.66 yards], but it naturally varies a good deal in the
different districts and Provinces. Thus, in the 10 Governments
of Poland it amounts to 84.6 to the sq. verst. In the 50
Governments of European Russia it amounts to 22.2 to the sq.
verst. In the Governments of the Caucasus it amounts to 23.6
to the sq. verst. In Siberia it amounts to 0.5 to the sq.
verst. In the Steppe region it amounts to 1.6 to the sq.
verst.
"Even in the different Governments of European Russia the
density varies considerably. …
"There are 19 cities in Russia, with a population of more than
100,000 souls each, and 35 which have from 50,000 to 100,000.
In fifteen cities the number of females exceeds that of the
males, whereas in all the others it is smaller. … The natural
increase of the population is kept down to a relatively low
figure by an abnormally large death-rate, which is mainly due
to avoidable causes. Infectious diseases and insufficiency of
medical help are among the most obvious. … In no country in
the world are infectious diseases so frequently mortal as in
Russia. Children especially suffer, and diphtheria, measles,
scarlatina, smallpox, &c., literally decimate villages and
country towns. It has been stated by the statistician Ekk,
with the help of official figures, that about 1,900,000
persons, chiefly children, die every year who might, with a
little care, be preserved to the Empire. The difference which
this loss makes to the population in fifty years is enormous."
E. J. Dillon,
The First Russian Census
(Contemporary Review, December, 1897).
RUSSIA: A. D. 1897 (November).
Treaty with the United States and Japan, to suspend pelagic
sealing.
See (in this volume)
BERING SEA QUESTIONS.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1897 (December).
Adoption of the gold monetary standard.
See (in this volume)
MONETARY QUESTIONS: A. D. 1897 (DECEMBER).
RUSSIA: A. D. 1897-1898.
Contentions with Japan in Korea.
See (in this volume)
KOREA: A. D. 1895-1898.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1898 (March).
Increase of naval armament.
On the 10th of March an imperial ukase ordered an addition of
90,000,000 roubles to the expenditure on war ships already
provided for, the extra disbursement to be spread over seven
years.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1898 (March).
Lease of Port Arthur, Talienwan and the Liaotung Peninsula
from China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 MARCH-JULY).
RUSSIA: A. D. 1898 (May-December).
In the Chinese "Battle of Concessions."
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-DECEMBER).
RUSSIA: A. D. 1898-1899.
The Tzar's proposal to check the increase of armaments.
The resulting Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1898-1901.
The question of sugar bounties.
United States countervailing duties and Russian retaliation.
See (in this volume)
SUGAR BOUNTIES.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1898-1901.
The Russianizing of Finland.
Overthrow of the constitutional rights of the Finns.
See (in this volume)
FINLAND: A. D. 1898-1901.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1899.
Famine.
A fearful famine in eastern Russia, within and beyond the
valley of the Volga, was caused in 1899 by an almost
unprecedented failure of crops. With the famine came typhus
fever, and the tale of suffering and death was one of the most
heart-rending of the century.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1899 (February-June.)
Disorder among the students.
For some months, the universities and most of the higher
schools of Russia were in a state of disorder, and in conflict
with the police authorities. Many of the institutions were closed
and a great number of the students were under arrest. The
students complained of the statutes of the universities, and
of the general treatment to which they were subjected, and
were bitterly hostile to the police. The Tzar seems to have
given personal attention to their grievances, which he
appointed a commission to investigate. On the report of the
commission he issued an imperial order severely censuring the
administration of the universities, and also reproving the
police, while, at the same time, he addressed some serious
admonitions to the students.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1899 (March-April).
Agreement with Great Britain concerning railway interests in
China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899 (MARCH-APRIL).
{425}
RUSSIA: A. D. 1899 (May).
Steps toward the abolition of transportation to Siberia.
On the 18th of May, the Tzar issued the following order: "A
commission of the officers of the ministry of justice and
representatives of the respective departments under the
auspices of the minister of justice shall be formed. The
commission is to work out the following: To replace
transportation of criminals by punishment by courts; to
abolish or limit administrative transportation by peasant
boards; to reorganize penal servitude and the deportation
which follows; to better the condition of the convicts now in
Siberia; to improve prisons where criminals are confined
awaiting transportation and deportation; to establish
compulsory public labor and workhouses as penal measures; to
provide means for carrying out the measures necessary for the
reorganization of the transportation of criminals and of penal
establishments. The minister of justice is to ask direct, and
not through any department, for the imperial sanction of the
committee's recommendations." The British Commercial Agent in
Russia, reporting to the Foreign Office in June, 1900, stated
in allusion to the above order: "The State Council is reported
to have just decided, by a majority of votes, to introduce at
once the necessary changes, as the Central Prisons
Administration has declared that the gaol accommodation is
sufficient. The number of exiles to Siberia from 1823 to 1898
is given as 908,266, mostly to Eastern Siberia."
RUSSIA: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1899 (December).
Adhesion to the arrangement of an "open door" commercial
policy in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899-1900 (SEPTEMBER-FEBRUARY).
RUSSIA: A. D. 1899-1901.
Attitude towards impending revolt in Macedonia.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1899-1901; and BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1900.
Military and naval expenditure.
See (in this volume)
WAR BUDGETS.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1900.
Naval strength.
See (in this volume)
NAVIES OF THE SEA POWERS.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1900 (June-December).
Co-operation with the Powers in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1900 (August).
Proposal to withdraw troops from Peking.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-DECEMBER.)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1900-1901.
Student outbreaks.
Serious demonstrations of discontent.
Severe measures of repression.
Action of the Tzar.
A fresh outbreak of revolt among the students in the Russian
universities, more serious in its nature, apparently, than
that of 1899 (see above; A. D. 1899, FEBRUARY-JUNE), was
started at Kieff, in December, 1900, by a remonstrance on the
part of the students against the retention of a professor whom
they deemed incompetent. The rector of the university refused
to dismiss the objectionable professor; whereupon the
governor-general of the province intervened and forbade him to
lecture. The rector and the council of the university could
not resist the authority of the governor-general, but they are
said to have revenged themselves on the students by requiring
seven of the latter to choose between three days of
imprisonment and three years of expulsion from the university.
They chose the latter and were expelled. Then the students as
a body began to be troublesome, especially after the rector
had refused to meet them for a discussion of their grievances.
Finally the police and the military authorities were called
in; a large number of the students were arrested and brought
to trial before a special court which had been created for
dealing with the student troubles of the year before.
According to subsequent reports, more than two hundred of them
were condemned to be sent into the ranks of the army—which seems
to be a punishment newly devised for such cases, and not
likely to improve the loyal spirit of the army.
This hard treatment of the students at Kieff inflamed their
sympathetic fellows in all the universities of the empire, and
became the immediate cause of disorderly demonstrations, which
began, in January or early in February, to be made at St.
Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa, and elsewhere; but there cannot be
a doubt that the disturbances since occurring represent an
instigation deeper, more revolutionary, more serious, than the
resentment of students misused by their teachers. The students
persisted resolutely in attempts to hold meetings which were
prohibited as seditious; to make appeals to the people; to
circulate forbidden literature; while the authorities struck
them, at every movement they made, with a relentless hand. As
usual, the oppressive violence of government provoked
desperate crime. On the 27th of February, the Minister of
Public Instruction, Privy Councillor Bogoliepoff, was shot by
an expelled student, who approached him, in his official
apartments, under pretense of presenting a petition. He died
of the wound on the 15th of March. Meantime, the conduct of
students, at St. Petersburg and Moscow especially, became more
and more riotous and revolutionary in spirit. There were
signs, too, of an understanding between them and the
discontented workingmen of the cities, which caused anxiety. A
Vienna journal claims to have knowledge that, after the
troubles at Kieff, a widespread movement of alliance between
secret associations of students and workmen was set on foot,
and that it threatened to be the most formidable revolutionary
organization that the government had yet faced.
That the sympathy of literary circles in Russia is with the
students appears to be proved by the following manifesto,
which was published in Paris on the 22d of March, signed, it
is said, by forty-five Russian men of letters:
"We, the undersigned Russian men of letters, deprived of the
possibility of freely expressing our ideas on the needs of our
poor Fatherland, prevented by the censorship from speaking of
what happens before our eyes or indicating an outlet from the
terrible situation of our country, and conscious of our duty
towards the people, resort to our foreign brethren for the
purpose of informing the civilized world of the atrocities now
being committed among us. On March 17, in the Kazan Square at
St. Petersburg, the police fell on an inoffensive and unarmed
crowd of several thousand persons, men, women, and children,
and without any provocation showed unexampled brutality and
ferocity. Cossacks, surrounding the crowd and preventing it
from dispersing, charged without warning the compact mass,
which had mostly been drawn together by curiosity.
{426}
The police seized at random the people who fell into their
hands, striking them without mercy with their fists or swords.
Those of the public, even officers in uniform, who begged for
a cessation of the carnage, were maltreated or even arrested.
Such are the facts of which several of us have been
eye-witnesses. Similar atrocities have recently been committed
in other Russian towns. Full of terror and anguish at the
future in store for our country, thus given up to the whips of
Cossacks and the swords of the police, convinced that our
indignation is shared by those of our Russian brethren whose
signatures we have not had time to obtain, by all the
intellectual society of Russia, and by all those from whom
feelings of self-respect and humanity have not yet been
eradicated, convinced also that our foreign brethren will not
remain indifferent to what passes among us, we appeal to the
Press of the world to give the utmost publicity to the
attestation of the lamentable facts of which we have been
witnesses." A despatch from St. Petersburg on the 26th
reported that the Mutual Aid Association of Russian writers
attached to the St. Petersburg Literary Society, from which
this protest emanated, had been suppressed, as the consequence
of its publication.
A more significant expression, and one from which a more
definite idea of the nature and causes of the discontent among
the students may be obtained, is the following petition,
addressed to the Tzar by a number of Russian professors and
Senators in March. The St. Petersburg correspondent of the
"London Times," who sent a translation of the paper to that
journal on the 18th of March, remarked that "it is very
doubtful if it will have any real effect, and its contents may
very possibly be regarded by the red-tape officials into whose
hands it may fall, if not by the Emperor himself, as implying
a request for something like a Constitution. Apart from that
consideration a collective petition in Russia is illegal." The
translation of the document is as follows:
"Your Imperial Majesty,—We, the undersigned loyal subjects,
consider it our patriotic duty to address you, Sire, with the
present humble petition on the subject of the recent agitation
among the students. We desire to express in this paper the
thoughts that have long been a matter of painful reflection to
every Russian conscious of the life which he is living. This
perturbation among the students, which has been of periodical
recurrence for the last 40 years, has ruined the careers of
thousands of young men and women animated by the most ardent
aspirations for the good and happiness of their native
country. It would undoubtedly be most unjust to lay all the
blame for these disorders on the students themselves. The
causes of this state of things lie much deeper. They are
connected with many of the general conditions of the life of
our State and society; they are to a great extent rooted in
the want of organization of academical centres. This want of
organization was explained by the special commission appointed
by your Majesty's command two years ago. But the labours of that
body failed to have the practical result which was apparently
expected of it; public opinion was not permitted to take part
in its deliberations, either by means of the Press or in any
other way. The matter was treated according to the usual
official routine, and in the Ministry of Public Instruction
the magnanimous intentions of your Majesty were not only
rendered colourless, but deprived of all their real
significance. Instead of properly carrying out your Majesty's
indications in regard to closer communion between the students
and professors of the higher educational establishments, the
Ministry dismissed those among the latter whose moral
qualities and devotion to duty were calculated to exercise the
most beneficial influence over their scholars.
"Those among the students who took part in the disturbances,
and who should have been worked upon by moral persuasion, were
expelled from the Universities, and the force of inspectors,
otherwise the University police, was increased for the purpose
of controlling those who remained. The temporary law of June
29, 1899, against further disorders threatened the agitators
with the punishment of being drafted into the ranks of the
army. This measure, which has now been enforced, will, of
course, put down the movement at least for a time; but it is
impossible to ignore its moral effect. It only represses, but
does not thoroughly convince. By this means the more
hot-headed among the students, inspired by the most
respectable aspirations and feelings, will be weeded out of
the scholastic ranks, and their parents will be suddenly
deprived of all hope and consolation in their children perhaps
for years; while on the rest this measure can only have the
effect which is always produced by terror and fear for the
future. It oppresses them, extinguishes their best impulses,
and tends to bring the weaker ones beneath the influence of
those petty egotistical motives which are already so powerful
in our daily life. To bring up an entire generation in such
conditions is to create and support an oppressive state of
things in the life of the nation which must finally lead to
downfall and decay.
"The oppressiveness of this environment is felt not only by
the young, but also by their elders. Is it normal that in an
autocratic State the voice of loyal subjects should be unable
to reach their Sovereign? And yet at the present moment many
persons regard the signature of this loyal petition as almost
an act of the greatest civil courage. In order to loyally and
honestly bring their wants and traditional desires to the
notice of their Monarch (Lord), the subjects of your Majesty
are obliged to act in the dark for fear that the police will
seize hold on the petition and intercept it before it can
reach your Majesty's hands. Many who fully agree with all that
is here expressed will certainly be deterred from signing the
petition because of the unpleasant consequences to themselves
which they fear may follow. In such conditions life becomes
intolerable. A deadening apathy spreads over everyone, all
interest in public activity is lost, and in all spheres of the
Government and society there is a decided feeling of the want
of men. Put an end, Sire, by your magnanimous initiative to
this oppressive situation! Show confidence in your faithful
subjects, and, while discontinuing repression, accord us the
possibility of freely expressing the voice of public opinion,
which is now stifled. The agitation among the students will
cease of itself, and the young men will quietly turn to their
studies as soon as their youthful minds are no longer excited
by the disagreeable conditions which surround them, when they
see the prospect on finishing their education of being allowed
to take a free and useful part in the affairs of their native
land."
{427}
An attempt on the life of a Minister far more important and
more obnoxious than Mr. Bogoliepoff was made on the 22d of
March. This was M. Pobiedonostzeff, Procurator of the Holy
Synod, who has long been credited with being the master-spirit
of evil influence in Russian councils,—a Torquemada of the
nineteenth century, responsible for all the mediævalism in
Russian policy for the past twenty years. Three shots were
fired at the Procurator from the street, through the windows
of his study, and he was missed by them all. The would-be
assassin, named Lagofsky, was promptly seized, and it is
claimed to have been found that he was chosen by lot to
execute an avenging decree. On the other hand, it is reported
that he was moved to the deed by the excommunication of Count
Tolstoi, which the Russian Church had lately pronounced.
If reports are to be credited, the Tzar, at length, took the
direction of measures relating to the disturbances into his own
hands, and began by putting a stop to the forcing of condemned
students into the army. He then appointed to the Ministry of
Public Education General Vannovsky, who had investigated the
student disorders of 1899 for him, and who seems to have
recognized that the disaffection of the students was not without
grounds. It is rumored that unlimited powers for two years have
been given to the new Minister, so that he cannot be interfered
with by the powerful reactionaries who evidently stand between
the best intentions of the Tzar and their execution. The obvious
difficulty of the autocrat is to learn the truth of things and
to know what is being done by those who ostensibly obey his
commands. Apparently he is striving to be served faithfully and
intelligently in this case, and it is to be hoped that he may
have success. He addressed a rescript to General Vannovsky, in
which he said:
"The regular organization of popular education has always
formed one of the chief cares of the Russian rulers, who have
striven, surely but gradually, to perfect it in accordance
with the fundamental principles of Russian life and the
requirements of the times. The experiences of recent years,
however, have shown the existence of defects so material in
our scholastic system that I think that the time has come to
undertake an immediate and thorough revision and improvement.
Highly valuing your experience as a statesman and your
enlightenment, I have chosen you to co-operate with me in the
work of renovating and reorganizing Russian schools; and, in
appointing you to the now specially important office of
Minister of Public Instruction, I am firmly convinced that you
will unswervingly endeavour to attain the goal indicated by me,
and that you will bring into the work of educating the Russian
youth your cordial sympathy and sagacity ripened by
experience. May God bless our work, and may parents and
families, who above all are bound to care for their children,
help us in our work, and then the time will soon come when I
with all my people shall see in the young generation, with
pride and encouragement, the firm and sure hope of the
Fatherland and its strong protection for the future."
The Russian "Official Messenger," St. Petersburg, announced on
the 14th of April that "in consequence of the recent student
disturbances many of the high schools were closed before the
Easter holidays, and the young men were compelled either to
lose a year of their studies or even to leave the college
altogether. In view of the serious consequences which this
measure involved for the career of the students, a special
conference of the principals of the higher colleges was called
to deliberate, under the presidency of the Minister of Public
Instruction, upon the situation thus created. The conference
decided that the following measures were indispensably
necessary for the re-establishment of the regular course of
study at the institutions concerned:
1. Lectures to be renewed in the higher colleges in the course
of April and intermediate examinations under the direction of
the scholastic authorities to be held under the usual
regulations at the customary intervals.
2. The lectures and examinations to be continued during the
summer vacation, should they not have been completed during
the preceding term.
3. All those who without sufficient reason did not attend the
examinations or failed to pass them to be liable to all the
legal consequences thereof.
4. In particularly important cases autumn and supplementary
examinations to be permitted in the higher schools
exceptionally this year."
According to a later despatch from St. Petersburg to the
Associated Press, April 23d, the students of the university at
the capital were informed that day by the rector that "General
Vannoffsky, the Russian Minister of Public Instruction, had
refused to defer the examinations until autumn or make further
concessions to the students. Although the popular professor,
M. Petrozicky, pleaded against an action which would make it
difficult for a liberal minister to carry through his
benevolent intentions, the students decided by a vote of 684
to 649 against participating in the examinations. They
resolved, however, not to create obstruction and the minority
agreed to submit to the will of the majority. The
electro-technical, the civil engineering, the women's medical
and the women's academic institutions also will decide against
taking the examinations. The sincere friends of the students
regret the step in this respect, believing the students should
allow the recall of the absentees to come as an act of grace
from the Government and should not attempt to force
concessions."
RUSSIA: A. D. 1900-1901.
Operations in Manchuria.
Practical possession of the country.
Refusal of Chinese government to sign a demanded treaty.
See (in this volume)
MANCHURIA: A. D. 1900-1901.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1900-1901.
Strategic importance of Korea.
Ground of Japanese jealousy.
See (in this volume)
KOREA: A. D. 1900.
RUSSIA: A. D. 1901 (April).
Expulsion of Count Tolstoi.
His reply to the decree of excommunication.
A reply by Count Tolstoi to the decree of excommunication
pronounced against him by the Russian Church, some weeks
before, written at Moscow on the 13th of April, was published
in Paris on the 30th. As reported to the Associated Press, he
states in his reply that, in consequence of the decree, he has
received letters from ignorant people menacing him with death.
{428}
"He characterizes the decree as illegal or intentionally
equivocal, arbitrary, unjustified and full of falsehoods.
Moreover, he says, it constitutes an instigation to evil
sentiments and deeds. Count Tolstoi denounces the practices of
the church, and says he is convinced that the teaching of the
church, theoretically astute, is injurious, is a lie in
practice and is a compound of vulgar superstitions and
sorcery, under which entirely disappears the sense of
Christian doctrine."
By Press despatch from Vienna, April 23, it was reported that
a decree expelling Count Tolstoi from Russia had been signed
by the Tzar, and carried into execution.
RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1891-1900.
The Trans-Siberian Railway.
Resources of Siberia and the Amur country.
The following account was reported to the British Foreign
Office in June, 1900:
"For over 30 years the question of constructing this line had
been a theme of interminable discussions and reports. Finally,
the following unmistakeably emphatic note of its Imperial
founder, the Emperor Alexander III., appended to a report on
the general condition of Siberia, moved the whole project
definitely forward as a thing that was to be and at once: 'How
many of these reports of the Governors-General of Siberia have
I perused, and with sorrow and shame must own that the
Government has hitherto hardly done anything to satisfy the
demands of this rich but neglected region! It is time, indeed
time!' A further equally emphatic and still briefer note,
added to a report of the Minister of Ways with regard to the
projected Ussuri route, is to form the appropriate inscription
to the monument to be erected at Vladivostock, the terminus of
his great work, to his late Imperial Majesty: 'The
construction of this railway must be begun forthwith.' The
first stone was laid at Vladivostock on May 19, 1891, by the
then Grand Duke Nicholas, now the reigning Emperor. … A
Siberian railway committee was formed under the presidency of
the then Grand Duke Nicholas Alexandrovich, whose duties were
(1) to construct the main and necessary feeding lines;
(2) to take measures for the general commercial and industrial
development of Siberia; and
(3) to direct and control the colonisation movement.
"Taking the direction of the route, not as it was to have
been, but as it is or will be, we see that with Moscow as the
European centre point, and the Moscow-Samara-Cheliabinsk line
as its principal feeder, the main road runs from Cheliabinsk,
whence it really starts eastward, direct through mid-Siberia
to Lake Baikal, and thence, viâ Chita, to Stretensk on the
Shilka, a navigable tributary of the Amur. At present, the
projected course of the railway viâ the Amur has been
arrested, owing on the one hand to various technical
difficulties, and on the other to the facilities, political
and otherwise, conceded by China, and another direction, in
the nature of a short cut through Manchuria, has been entered
upon. The well-known agreement with China [see, in this
volume, CHINA: A. D. 1895] and the formation of the Chinese
Eastern Railway Company, rendering the original continuation
of the line from Stretensk less urgent, it has been resolved,
instead, to construct two direct lines to the Chinese
frontiers, from Kaidalovo on the main Siberian route on the
one side, and from the Ussuri or Habarovsk-Vladivostock line
on the other. These two lines, traversing Manchuria from
opposite directions, are to meet at Khulan-Chan (Khaorbin),
thence running southwards to Dalni and Port Arthur. Thus, we
see the three lines, the main Siberian road, which, except for
the brief stoppage at Lake Baikal, will run in a practically
straight and uninterrupted course from Cheliabinsk to
Vladivostock; the Ussuri line running northward through
Russian territory from Vladivostock to Habarovsk; and the
branch section from Khulan-Chan (Khaorbin), on the main line,
striking out southward through Eastern China to Dalni and Port
Arthur.
"As far as Russia is concerned, it may be said that her
portion of the work is practically ready, though much
re-laying and reconstruction may at any time be necessary. The
main line is open for regular traffic from Cheliabinsk to Lake
Baikal, and for provisional traffic to Stretensk. According to
the latest telegrams, regular traffic from Lake Baikal to
Stretensk is to be commenced on July 1/14, 1900. Thus, there
is now a direct run (excepting only the lake crossing of 60
versts (about 40 miles), from Moscow, viâ Samara, Cheliabinsk,
Omsk, and Irkutch, to Kaidalovo (252 versts—168 miles—this
side of Stretensk), whence the rail will turn off to Nagodan
on the Chinese frontier. This latter stretch, a distance of
325 versts (216 miles), will complete the work as regards
Russia. The Ussuri line, from Habarovsk to Vladivostock, has
been open for traffic since 1897. The Circum-Baikal connecting
line, round the southern bend of the lake, a distance of 292
versts (195 miles), remains to be laid, the lake being crossed
at present by steam ferries or ice-breakers. A new
ice-breaker, built in England, is now on its way in pieces to
Lake Baikal. It is the Manchurian sections, therefore, that at
present retard the consummation of the complete overland track
to Vladivostock. Nor, from recent accounts, does it seem
likely that the Chinese engaged in the work will bring it to a
conclusion much before 1902, if then. Even now, however, goods
can make their way through Siberia to Stretensk by rail, and
thence down the Shilka and the Amur to Habarovsk, or further
on, by the Ussuri line, to Vladivostock. As regards the
railroad from Port Arthur northward, the latest news brings it
to Telin, north of Mukden, trains with workmen running this
distance, some 500 versts. The Chinese Eastern Railway Company
promise to join Port Arthur to Vladivostock by October next,
it is said, but, even on the route already temporarily in
rough working order, dwellings, stations and permanent bridges
have yet to be built. Thus, there is now direct communication
between Moscow and Stretensk by rail, a distance of 6,471
versts (4,214 miles), and from Stretensk to Habarovsk and
Nikolaieff by the Shilka and Amur rivers, a further distance
to Habarovsk of about 2,000 versts (1,332 miles), and to
Nikolaieff, the mouth of the Amur, of over 3,000 versts (2,000
miles). The Amur is navigable from May to September, but for
shallow-draft vessels only.
"Various important European feeding lines have been
constructed, and others, partaking more of the character of
huge main thoroughfares are projected. Cheliabinsk, the
starting-point eastwards, is connected with Moscow by the
Zlatoust-Samara-Moscow Railway, which, touching the Volga at
Samara, crosses it at Sisran.
{429}
Two northern branches, the Tiumen-Perm, and
Kotlass-Viatka-Perm, meeting at Ekaterinburg, the capital of
the rich Ural mineral district, run into the main Siberian
line at Cheliabinsk. From this latter point, too, a new route
has long been projected direct to St. Petersburg, via Viatka
and Vologda. So that, while the future will connect
Cheliabinsk, and with it the main Siberian railway, in a
direct line with the Baltic, not as now via Moscow, the
present joins it on the one side with that city, the business
centre of Russia, and on the other to the new northern through
route, which, via Kotlass and Archangel, is this year to bring
the cereals of Siberia to London."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: Miscellaneous Series No. 533,
1900, pages 5-7).
"It may be a wild idea, but Russian engineers are actually
talking of a railroad from Stryetensk to Bering Strait, over a
comparatively easy route that does not enter the Arctic
Circle. This imaginary line, they hope, would connect with the
American line which is now being built to Dawson City, the
distance from which to Stryetensk is about three thousand
miles. If this road ever is completed they figure that New
York will be placed in railroad connection with London,
Calcutta and Cape Town."
A. H. Ford,
The Warfare of Railways in Asia
(Century, March, 1900).
"Siberia and the Amur lands are rich beyond belief. … This
vast territory, long looked upon as a barren waste, is
destined to be one of the world's richest and most productive
sections. In northern France, wheat ripens in 137 days; in
Siberia, in 107. Even heavy night frosts do not injure the
young seed. Under such conditions, the possibilities of
agriculture are practically unlimited. I may add that oats
require, in Siberia and in the Amur country, only 96 days, and
in the regions of the Yenisei only 107. The frost period lasts
only 97 days in the Irkutsk country. Transbaikalia lies
entirely within the agricultural regions; so, too, almost the
entire territory traversed by the Amur as far north as it
runs. Efforts are being made to obtain along the Amur at least
300,000 square kilometers (115,835 square miles) for the
higher forms of northern agriculture. Climatically, the best
of northern Asia's territory, for planting purposes, is the
Usuri country, which, in spite of its vast tracts of wood and
grazing lands, has 195,000 square kilometers (75,292 square
miles) of arable ground. The building of the Trans-Siberian
Railroad has already added to the Empire's wheat product.
"The mineral resources of western Siberia are vast. Between
Tomsk and Kooznesk lie 60,000 square kilometers (23,167 square
miles) of coal lands which have never been touched. The coal
is said to be excellent. In eastern Siberia, with its 280,000
square kilometers (108,112 square miles) of fruitful soil,
there are 400 places yielding gold. Rich mineral
deposits—graphite, lapis lazuli; iron mines, particularly rich
in quality (as high as 60 per cent); hard and soft coals, i.
e., black and brown coals—await hands willing to work for
them. To-day, thousands of colonists are hurrying to these
promising lands. Russia's output in gold and silver is already
very large, and is constantly increasing.
"The industries of Siberia are in their infancy; still, they
are growing and are bound to grow, so rich are the rewards
promised. Chemical, sugar, and paper mills have been put up in
several places and are paying well. Even Manchuria, a province so
vast that it might make an empire, is looking to Russia for
its future development. The wealth of this province, like that
of Siberia and all eastern Russia, is ripe for harvesting. The
traffic in Siberia and eastern Russia is increasing faster
than even the advocates of the great Trans-Siberian road
anticipated. The Ob, one of the world's big rivers, emptying
through the Gulf of Ob into the Arctic Ocean, has 102 steamers
and 200 tugs running already. On the Yenisei, 10 steamers
carry the mails regularly. The mouths of both these rivers
were visited last summer by English and Russian ships. This
proves the practicability of connecting eastern and western
Siberia with Europe by water."
United States Consular Reports,
November, 1899, page 411.
An official publication of the year 1900 from St. Petersburg,
furnished to American journals by the Russian embassy at
Washington, is the source of the following statements relative
to the rapid development of the vast Siberian country along
the line of the great railway:
"When viewed with reference to colonization Siberia divides
itself naturally into two zones, extending east and west, and
differing essentially from one another. The first of these
embraces the region traversed by the new Siberian railway, the
more populous southern portion of Siberia, in which the
conditions of climate and soil are favorable to the
development of agriculture and colonization. The other zone
occupies the extensive, deserted northern region, the land of
tundras, or polar marshes, with a constantly frozen subsoil
and a severe climate, a dreary tract of land totally unfit for
agriculture. Between these two zones stretches a broad belt of
forests of tall trees, partly primeval pine and fir, partly
leafy trees. The wealth of these broad agricultural and timber
areas is, moreover, augmented by mineral deposits of every
conceivable nature, as abundant and diversified as those of
America, and into this whole region immigration is pouring in
volume unequalled except in the history of American
colonization. Ever since the serfs were emancipated in 1861
they have formed the bulk of the emigrants from the thickly
populated agricultural districts of European Russia, but the
great tide of settlers in the new territory is only now
assuming tremendous proportions. During the twenty years'
period of 1860 to 1880 about 110,000 persons emigrated to
Siberia, while for the thirteen years from 1880 to 1892 there
were over 440,000, and for the succeeding years since the
great railway has been building the number of immigrants of
both sexes has been as follows:
1893, 65,000;
1894, 76,000;
1895, 109,000;
1896, 203,000;
1897, 87,000;
1898, 206,000;
1899, 225,000.
Total, 971,000.
According to the census of 1897, the population of Siberia had
risen to 8,188,368 inhabitants, of which the Russian peasantry
formed over 25 per cent."
RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1899 (May).
Steps toward the abolition of transportation.
See (in this volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1899 (MAY).
{430}
RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1900.
Russian railway building and railway projects in
Persia and Afghanistan.
By several writers who seem to have knowledge of what is doing
in those parts of the eastern world, it was reported in the
spring of 1900 that an active projection, planning, and
building (to some extent) of railroads in Persia and
Afghanistan was on foot among the Russians. From Tiflis, it
was said, their plans contemplated a line of rail to Teheran;
thence to be extended by one branch, southward, via Ispahan,
to the Persian Gulf, and by another branch westward to Herat,
in Afghanistan. From their Central Asian acquisitions they had
advanced their railway to within 70 miles of Herat, and were
said to be confidently expecting to push it on, through
Kandahar and through Baluchistan, to the Arabian Sea. If these
extensive plans could be carried out, and if Russian influence
in Persia, said to be growing fast, should become actually
controlling, the Muscovite Power would have made an enormous
gain, by planting itself on the shores of the Indian Ocean.
How far Russia can continue to press forward in this line of
policy without collision with Great Britain and with
Germany—which seems to have aims in the same direction,
through Asiatic Turkey—is an interesting question for the
future.
The following is from a despatch to the "London Times" from
its correspondent at Vienna, February 24, 1901:
"According to trustworthy information from Teheran, Russia is
particularly active just now in Persia and the Persian Gulf. …
The road from Resht to Teheran, which has been built by a
Russian company, is of no value for European trade in the
absence of an agreement with Russia respecting the transit
traffic through that country. European commerce is dependent
upon the long and expensive caravan routes via Trebizond,
Bushire, Baghdad, Mochamera,&c. These occupy from four to six
months."
RUSSO-CHINESE BANK, Concessions to the.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-DECEMBER).
S.
SAGASTA, Señor Praxedes Mateo:
Resignation from Spanish Ministry.
See (in this volume)
SPAIN: A. D. 1895-1896.
SAGASTA, Señor Praxedes Mateo:
Return to power.
See (in this volume)
SPAIN: A. D. 1897 (AUGUST-OCTOBER).
SAGASTA, Señor Praxedes Mateo:
Resignation.
See (in this volume)
SPAIN: A. D. 1899.
SAGHALIEN.
See (in this volume)
SAKHALIN.
SAHARA, The: French possessions.
See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1882-1899.
ST. KITTS: Industrial condition.
See (in this volume)
WEST INDIES, THE BRITISH: A. D. 1897.
ST. LOUIS: A. D. 1896.
Republican National Convention.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER).
ST. VINCENT, The British colony of.
See (in this volume)
WEST INDIES, THE BRITISH: A. D. 1897.
SAKHALIN.
"Of late years … its increasing importance as a place of exile
for Russian political and criminal offenders has invested
Sakhalin with a certain interest, derived, perhaps, more from
penal associations than physical resources, which latter may,
when fully developed, materially affect trade and commerce in
the far East. The island of Sakhalin is 584 miles in length,
its breadth varying from 18 to 94 miles. The southern
extremity is separated from the island of Yezo, twenty miles
distant, by the Straits of La Perouse, and its western coast
by the shallow Gulf of Tartary (at one point barely five miles
across) from the mainland of Siberia. Although Dutch explorers
are said to have landed here in 1643, the first reliable
survey of the island was probably obtained in the year 1787 by
La Perouse. Russian fur traders followed in the early part of
the present century, but it was only in 1853 that,
disturbances having occurred with the natives, a score or so
of Cossacks were stationed at Dui on the west coast. In 1867
negotiations were entered into by the Russian and Japanese
Governments for joint occupation of Sakhalin, but the
subsequent discovery of coal, and consequent influx of Russian
convicts, rendered this arrangement highly unsatisfactory.
Further negotiations, therefore, ensued, with the result that,
in 1875, the island was formally ceded to Russia, Japan
receiving, in exchange, the entire Kurile Archipelago.
"Sakhalin is by no means easy of access. Even during the open
season (from May to September) but very few vessels visit the
island, and, with the exception of the monthly arrival of
convict-ships from Europe, and a couple of small Russian trading
steamers, there is no fixed service with Vladivostok, which, with
the exception of Nikolaefsk, is the only Siberian port whence
Sakhalin may, in three days, be reached. During the winter months
the island is completely ice-bound and unapproachable by water.
Communication with the mainland is then maintained by means of
dog-sledges, and the mails for Europe are dispatched across
the frozen Gulf of Tartary—a journey, under favourable
circumstances, of about three months. …
"Sakhalin is, for administrative purposes, divided into three
districts, viz.: Korsakovsky-Post in the south, Tymovsk in the
north, and Alexandrovsky-Post on the western coast. The
latter, which is situated in the centre of the coal district,
is a picturesque, straggling town of about 7,000 inhabitants,
consisting almost entirely of officials and convicts. This is
the most important penal settlement on the island, contains
the largest prison, and is, moreover, the residence of the
Governor of Sakhalin, a subordinate of the Governor-General of
Eastern Siberia. Alexandrovsky is garrisoned by about 1,500
men, and contains large foundries and workshops for convict
labour, but most of the prisoners are employed in the adjacent
coal mines of Dui. … Korsakovsky-Post, on the south coast, is
the next largest settlement, containing about 5,000 convicts
who are chiefly employed in agricultural pursuits. Although it
may seem a paradox, the remaining prisons in the interior of
the island, Derbynskaya, Rykovskaya, and Onor are not prisons
at all, but huge wooden barracks, innocent of bolts and bars.
Here, also, the work done is solely agricultural."
Harry de Windt,
The Island of Sakhalin
(Fortnightly Review, May, 1897).
SALISBURY, Lord Robert Cecil, Marquis of:
Third Ministry.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1894-1895.
{431}
SALISBURY, Lord Robert Cecil, Marquis of:
Correspondence with the Government of the United States
on the Venezuela boundary question.
See (in this volume)
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1895 (JULY) and (NOVEMBER).
SALISBURY, Lord Robert Cecil, Marquis of:
Fourth Ministry.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER).
SALISBURY, Lord Robert Cecil, Marquis of:
Tribute to Queen Victoria.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).
SALISBURY PLAIN: Purchase by Government.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY).
SALVADOR.
See (in this volume)
CENTRAL AMERICA.
SALVATION ARMY, The:
Secession of the American Volunteers.
Late account of the Army's work.
Much feeling in the American branch of the Salvation Army, and
among those who valued its work, was caused in January, 1896,
by an order from the London headquarters of the Army recalling
Mr. Ballington Booth, who had been its American Commander for
nine years. Commander Booth and Mrs. Booth had been remarkably
successful in their organization and direction of the
Salvation Army work, and had won a high place in the esteem,
not only of their own followers, but of the American public at
large. A wide and strong movement of protest against their
removal from the field failed to change the London order,
which was said to be made in obedience to a necessary rule of
the Army against long service in any one post. Miss Eva Booth,
representing her father, General Booth, with Colonel Nicol, from
London, and Commandant Herbert Booth, from Canada, came to New
York as mediators, endeavoring to heal a threatened breach in
the ranks; but their mission failed. Commander Ballington
Booth resigned his office, and withdrew from the Salvation
Army service, declining to return to London. After a time, he
and Mrs. Booth became the heads of a new organization called
the "Volunteers of America," for religious work, not in
rivalry with that of the Salvation Army, but directed more
towards the awakening of the interest of the working people,
Mr. Ballington Booth was succeeded as Commander in America by
a son-in-law of General Booth, Commissioner Frederick St.
Clair Tucker. —For an account of the origin and growth of the
Salvation Army see, under that heading, in the Supplement
(volume 5) of the original edition of this work, or in volume
4 of the revised edition.
Of results accomplished in that part of the work of the
Salvation Army known as the "Darkest England Scheme," General
Booth wrote, early in 1900, an extended account in the "Sunday
Strand." He stated that the public had subscribed altogether
for his scheme about $1,300,000. "It is a debated point," he
wrote, "with the intelligent admirers of the scheme and the
careful observers of its progress whether the benefits
bestowed on the wretched classes for whom it was originated
have been greater within than without our borders. The
copyists of our plan have been legion, both at home and
abroad, in church and state. The representatives of the
different governments specially charged with the
responsibility for the outcast classes have been gradually
coming to appreciate the principles and methods involved in
the scheme, and to show willingness to cooperate in giving it
a chance. They have done this in two ways:
(1) In attempting similar tasks themselves;
(2) in using and subsidizing the army for doing the work for
them.
Many governments make grants to our various institutions in
varying amounts toward the cost of dealing with different
classes of the submerged."
The following is a summary of the agencies which have been set
at work by the general: "We have now 158 shelters and food
depots for homeless men and women, 121 slum posts, each with
its own slum sisters, 37 labor bureaus, (10 labor factories
for the unemployed, 11 land colonies, 91 rescue homes for
women, 11 labor homes for ex-criminals, several nursing
institutions, 2 maternity hospitals for deserted women, an
institution with branches in forty-five countries and colonies
for finding lost and missing persons, together with a host of
allied and minor agencies which I am not able here to
enumerate. The total number of institutions named above is now
545, under the care of more than 2,000 trained officers and
others wholly employed, all working in harmony with the
principles I have laid down for helping the poorest and most
unfortunate of their fellows, and all more or less experts at
their work.
"Nearly 20,000 destitute men and women are in some way or
other touched by the operations of the scheme every day. No
less than 15,000 wretched and otherwise homeless people are
housed under our roofs every night, having their needs met, at
least in part, with sympathy and prayer and the opportunity
for friendly counsel. More than 300 ex-criminals are to-day in
our houses of reformation, having before them another chance
for this life, and in many cases the first they have ever had
for preparing for the life to come. More than 5,000 women
taken from lives of darkness and shame are safely sheltered in
our homes each year, on the way—as we have abundantly proved
in the case of others, in respect of a large proportion of
them—to a future of virtue, goodness, and religion. Over 1,000
men are employed on the land colonies. Many of them are working
out their own deliverance, and at the same time helping to
solve one of the most difficult problems of modern times, and
proving that many of the helpless loafers of the great cities
can be made useful producers on the soil. Over the gates of
every one of these homes, elevators, labor factories, and
colonies there might be written: 'No man or woman need starve,
or beg, or pauperize, or steal, or commit suicide. If willing
to work, apply within. Here there is hope for all.'" General
Booth adds that he has always 2,000 women in the rescue homes
of the army.
SAMOAN ISLANDS, The:
Ending of the joint control of the Islands by Germany,
England and the United States.
Partition between Germany and the United States.
Retirement of England.
Said President Cleveland, in his annual Message to the
Congress of the United States, December 4, 1893: "Led by a
desire to compose differences and contribute to the
restoration of order in Samoa, which for some years previous
had been the scene of conflicting foreign pretensions and
native strife, the United States, departing from its policy
consecrated by a century of observance, entered [in 1889] …
into the, treaty of Berlin [see, in volume 4, SAMOA], thereby
becoming jointly bound with England and Germany to establish
and maintain Malietoa Laupepa as King of Samoa.
{432}
The treaty provided for a foreign court of justice; a
municipal council for the district of Apia, with a foreign
president thereof, authorized to advise the King; a tribunal
for the settlement of native and foreign land titles, and a
revenue system for the Kingdom. It entailed upon the three
powers that part of the cost of the new Government not met by
the revenue of the islands. Early in the life of this triple
protectorate the native dissensions it was designed to quell
revived. Rivals defied the authority of the new King, refusing
to pay taxes and demanding the election of a ruler by native
suffrage. Mataafa, an aspirant to the throne, and a large
number of his native adherents were in open rebellion on one
of the islands. Quite lately, at the request of the other
powers and in fulfillment of its treaty obligation, this
Government agreed to unite in a joint military movement of
such dimensions as would probably secure the surrender of the
insurgents without bloodshed. The war ship Philadelphia was
accordingly put under orders for Samoa, but before she arrived
the threatened conflict was precipitated by King Malietoa's
attack upon the insurgent camp. Mataafa was defeated and a
number of his men killed. The British and German naval vessels
present subsequently secured the surrender of Mataafa and his
adherents. The defeated chief and ten of his principal
supporters were deported to a German island of the Marshall
group, where they are held as prisoners under the joint
responsibility and cost of the three powers. This incident and
the events leading up to it signally illustrate the impolicy
of entangling alliances with foreign powers."
United States, Message and Documents
(Abridgment), 1893-1894.
In his next annual Message, December 3, 1894, the President
thus summarized the later situation in the islands: "The
suppression of the Mataafa insurrection by the powers and the
subsequent banishment of the leader and eleven other chiefs,
as recited in my last message, did not bring lasting peace to
the islands. Formidable uprisings continued, and finally a
rebellion broke out in the capital island, Upolu, headed in
Aana, the western district, by the younger Tamasese, and in
Atua, the eastern district, by other leaders. The insurgents
ravaged the country and fought the Government's troops up to
the very doors of Apia. The King again appealed to the powers
for help, and the combined British and German naval forces
reduced the Atuans to apparent subjection, not, however,
without considerable loss to the natives. A few days later
Tamasese and his adherents, fearing the ships and the marines,
professed submission. Reports received from our agents at Apia
do not justify the belief that the peace thus brought about
will be of long duration. It is their conviction that the
natives are at heart hostile to the present Government, that
such of them as profess loyalty to it do so from fear of the
powers, and that it would speedily go to pieces if the war
ships were withdrawn. … The present Government has utterly
failed to correct, if indeed it has not aggravated, the very
evils it was intended to prevent. It has not stimulated our
commerce with the islands. Our participation in its
establishment against the wishes of the natives was in plain
defiance of the conservative teachings and warnings of the
wise and patriotic men who laid the foundations of our free
institutions, and I invite an expression of the judgment of
Congress on the propriety of steps being taken by this
Government looking to the withdrawal from its engagements with
the other powers on some reasonable terms not prejudicial to
any of our existing rights."
United States, Message and Documents
(Abridgment, 1894-1895).
In the Message of 1895 the subject was again pressed on the
attention of Congress without result.
In August, 1898, Malietoa Laupepa died. By the Berlin Treaty
of 1889 "it was provided that in case any question should
arise in Samoa, respecting the rightful election of King, or
of any other Chief claiming authority over the islands, or
respecting the validity of the powers which the King or any
Chief might claim in the exercise of his office, such question
should not lead to war, but should be presented for decision
to the Chief Justice of Samoa, who should decide it in
writing, conformably to the provisions of the Act, and to the
laws and customs of Samoa not in conflict therewith, and that
the Signatory Governments would accept and abide by such
decision. After the death of Malietoa an exchange of views
took place between the Powers, and it was agreed that there
should be no interference with the right of the Samoans to
elect a King, and that the election should proceed strictly in
accordance with the provisions of the Final Act. Some time
elapsed before any action was taken, pending the completion of
certain ceremonial usages customary in Samoa on the death of a
High Chief. … As soon as the funeral ceremonies were at an end,
deliberation and discussion among the Chiefs ensued. There
were in the first instance several candidates for the
succession. Their number was eventually reduced to two:
1. Malietoa Tanu, the son of the late King.
2. The High Chief Mataafa.
This Chief had been in rebellion against Malietoa Laupepa, but
had suffered defeat, and with other Chiefs had been deported,
by agreement between the three Powers, to the Marshall
Islands. On the recommendation of the Consular officers at
Apia, the Powers, in July 1898, consented to his return. … On
the 19th September, Mataafa and the other exiled Chiefs landed
in Samoa. It does not appear that he took any overt steps to
claim the vacant throne, but a section of the natives
pronounced in his favour and announced on the 12th November to
the Consuls and to the Chief Justice that he had been duly
elected King. On the 13th November the opposing faction
declared that the real election of a King had not taken place,
and on the following day announced that their choice had
fallen upon Malietoa Tanu. Both parties appealed to Mr.
Chambers, the Chief Justice, who considered himself then in a
position to take cognisance of the matter, according to the
provisions of the Final Act, a question having arisen 'in
Samoa respecting the rightful election or appointment of
King.'"
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: Samoa, Number 1, 1899).
The decision of the Chief Justice was in favor of Malietoa
Tanu, and the adherents of Mataafa took up arms, defeating
those of the favored candidate and driving many of them to
take refuge on British and German ships of war. Subsequent
events were related by the President of the United States in
his Message to Congress, December 5, 1899, as follows: "In
this emergency a joint commission of representatives of the
United States, Germany, and Great Britain was sent to Samoa to
investigate the situation and provide a temporary remedy.
{433}
By its active efforts a peaceful solution was reached for the
time being, the kingship being abolished and a provisional
government established. Recommendations unanimously made by
the commission for a permanent adjustment of the Samoan
question were taken under consideration by the three powers
parties to the General Act. But the more they were examined
the more evident it became that a radical change was necessary
in the relations of the powers to Samoa. The inconveniences
and possible perils of the tripartite scheme of supervision
and control in the Samoan group by powers having little
interest in common in that quarter beyond commercial rivalry
had been once more emphasized by the recent events. The
suggested remedy of the Joint Commission, like the scheme it
aimed to replace, amounted to what has been styled a
'tridominium,' being the exercise of the functions of
sovereignty by an unanimous agreement of three powers. The
situation had become far more intricate and embarrassing from
every point of view than it was when my predecessor, in 1894,
summed up its perplexities and condemned the participation in
it of the United States. The arrangement under which Samoa was
administered had proved impracticable and unacceptable to all
the powers concerned. To withdraw from the agreement and
abandon the islands to Germany and Great Britain would not be
compatible with our interests in the archipelago. To
relinquish our rights in the harbor of Pago Pago, the best
anchorage in the Pacific, the occupancy of which had been
leased to the United States in 1878 by the first foreign
treaty ever concluded by Samoa, was not to be thought of
either as regards the needs of our Navy or the interests of
our growing commerce with the East. We could not have
considered any proposition for the abrogation of the
tripartite control which did not confirm us in all our rights
and safeguard all our national interests in the islands. Our
views commended themselves to the other powers. A satisfactory
arrangement was concluded between the Governments of Germany
and of England, by virtue of which England retired from Samoa
in view of compensations in other directions, and both powers
renounced in favor of the United States all their rights and
claims over and in respect to that portion of the group lying
to the east of the one hundred and seventy-first degree of
west longitude, embracing the islands of Tutuila, Ofoo,
Olosenga, and Manua."
United States, Message and Documents (Abridgment),
1899-1900, volume 1.
The compensations to England "in other directions" were given
by Germany, in the following provisions of a treaty signed at
London, November 14, 1899:
"ARTICLE II.
Germany renounces in favour of Great Britain all her rights
over the Tonga Islands, including Vavau, and over Savage
Island, including the right of establishing a naval station
and coaling station, and the right of extra-territoriality in
the said islands. … She recognizes as falling to Great Britain
those of the Solomon Islands, at present belonging to Germany,
which are situated to the east and southeast of the Island of
Bougainville, which latter shall continue to belong to
Germany, together with the Island of Buka, which forms part of
it. The western portion of the neutral zone in West Africa, as
defined in Article V of the present Convention, shall also
fall to the share of Great Britain. …
"ARTICLE IV.
The arrangement at present existing between Germany and Great
Britain and concerning the right of Germany to freely engage
labourers in the Solomon Islands belonging to Great Britain
shall be equally extended to those of the Solomon Islands
mentioned in Article II, which fall to the share of Great
Britain.
"ARTICLE V.
In the neutral zone the frontier between the German and
English territories shall be formed by the River Daka as far
as the point of its intersection with the 9th degree of north
latitude, thence the frontier shall continue to the north,
leaving Morozugu to Great Britain, and shall be fixed on the
spot by a Mixed Commission of the two Powers, in such manner
that Gambaga and all the territories of Mamprusi shall fall to
Great Britain, and that Yendi and all the territories of Chakosi
shall fall to Germany.
"ARTICLE VI.
Germany is prepared to take into consideration, as much and as
far as possible, the wishes which the Government of Great
Britain may express with regard to the development of the
reciprocal Tariffs in the territories of Togo and of the Gold
Coast.
"ARTICLE VII.
Germany renounces her rights of extra-territoriality in
Zanzibar, but it is at the same time understood that this
renunciation shall not effectively come into force till such
time as the rights of extra-territoriality enjoyed there by
other nations shall be abolished."
To the treaty was appended the following "Declaration":
"It is clearly understood that by Article II of the Convention
signed to-day, Germany consents that the whole group of the
Howe Islands, which forms part of the Solomon Islands, shall
fall to Great Britain. It is also understood that the
stipulations of the Declaration between the two Governments
signed at Berlin on the 10th April, 1886, respecting freedom
of commerce in the Western Pacific, apply to the islands
mentioned in the aforesaid Convention. It is similarly
understood that the arrangement at present in force as to the
engagement of labourers by Germans in the Solomon Islands
permits Germans to engage those labourers on the same
conditions as those which are or which shall be imposed on
British subjects nonresident in those islands."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publication,
(Papers by Command: Treaty Series, Number 7, 1900).
Article III of the general treaty between the United States,
Germany and Great Britain stipulated: "It is understood and
agreed that each of the three signatory Powers shall continue
to enjoy, in respect to their commerce and commercial vessels,
in all the islands of the Samoan group, privileges and
conditions equal to those enjoyed by the sovereign Power, in
all ports which may be open to the commerce of either of
them."
United States, 56th Congress, 1st Session,
Senate Document Number 157.
{434}
On the 17th of April, 1900, an "instrument of cession" was
signed by the marks of twenty-two chiefs, conveying to the
United States the islands of the Samoan group lying east of
the 171st degree of west longitude, and the American flag was
raised over the naval station at Pago-Pago. From Pago-Pago,
March 27, 1901, a Press despatch announced: "The natives under
the United States Government number 5,800, according to a
census just taken, while the natives in the other islands
under German rule number 32,000. The population has increased
very slightly in the last thirty years, and the main cause of
this failure to increase is the infant mortality, due to the
violation of the simplest health principles in the care and
diet of children. … Reports from the six islands under United
States control show that the natives are improving in general
conditions, and that they show a desire to keep their houses
neat and to educate their children. Not a single native has
been arrested for drunkenness since the Americans assumed
control of Tutuila island."
SAMPSON, Rear-Admiral William T.:
Commanding North Atlantic Station.
Blockade of Cuban ports.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-MAY: CUBA).
SAMPSON, Rear-Admiral William T.:
Operations at Santiago de Cuba.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JUNE).
SAMPSON, Rear-Admiral William T.:
Destruction of Spanish squadron.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY 3).
SAN DOMINGO.
See (in this volume)
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC.
SAN FRANCISCO: A. D. 1898.
New city charter.
A city charter of a quite new and experimental character was
adopted by popular vote in May, to go into effect at the
beginning of the year 1900. Its main features were described
at the time by the "New York Tribune," as follows:
"The formation of this charter is an advanced example of the
exercise of municipal home rule. The constitution of
California gives the cities of the state the uncommon
privilege of framing their own charters subject simply to the
veto power of the legislature. Exercising that right, the
people, acting through fifteen free-holders, elected for that
purpose, have drawn up the new charter. … If the legislature
approves, it will become the local constitution. The charter
provides for its own amendment by the people without appeal to
the legislature. So the present provisions of that instrument
may be only a form to be entirely remodeled by the city at its
own pleasure until it has no resemblance to the laws to which the
state authorities gave approval. That is an extreme delegation
of powers, such as we think has never before been made in an
American state. The mayor has large powers of appointment and
removal. He can suspend all elected officers except the
supervisors—the city legislators—who may remove those whom he
suspends, and he may remove at any time for cause all
appointive officers. The elective list is large, for, though
there are only eighteen supervisors, the number of places
filled by election each year is thirty. This is a great
departure from the charter-making practice recently prevalent,
which has tended to the election of only a few administrative
officers who are responsible for the selection of agents in
different departments. Attempt is made to centre
responsibility in the mayor, but the supervisors and the
people both can pass ordinances likely to interfere with that
responsibility. So the charter is as far as possible from
inaugurating the one-man power, which has been much advocated
as the cure for the ills which spring from a municipal
administration animated by no uniform purpose or
intelligence."
SAN JUAN HILL, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).
SAND RIVER CONVENTION, The.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1884-1894.
SANTIAGO DE CUBA: A. D. 1898(May-June).
Blockade of Spanish squadron in the Bay.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JUNE).
SANTIAGO DE CUBA: A. D. 1898 (June-July).
Attack and investment by American army.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).
SANTIAGO DE CUBA: A. D. 1898 (July 3).
Destruction of Spanish fleet.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY 3).
SANTIAGO DE CUBA: A. D. 1898 (July 4-17).
Surrender of the city and Spanish forces.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY 4-17).
SANTIAGO DE CUBA: A. D. 1898 (August).
Sickness in the American army.
Withdrawal of troops.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: CUBA).
SARGON OF AKKAD.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.
SAYINGS OF OUR LORD, Discovery of a fragment of the.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT: DISCOVERY OF A FRAGMENT.
SCHLEY, Admiral W. S.:
In operations at Santiago de Cuba.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JUNE).
SCHLEY, Admiral W. S.:
Destruction of Spanish squadron.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY 3).
SCHOOLS.
See EDUCATION.
SCHREINER, W. P.:
Resignation of the Premiership of Cape Colony.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE COLONY): A. D. 1900 (APRIL-JUNE).
SCHWAN, General:
Military operations in the Philippine Islands.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY-NOVEMBER).
{435}
----------SCIENCE, RECENT: Start--------
NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS.
ARCHÆOLOGICAL DISCOVERY.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH.
CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS:
Acetylene Gas.
Acetylene gas has been known since 1832, when it was
discovered by Edmund Davy; but it remained a mere laboratory
product until 1892, when two experimenters, in America and
France, stumbled accidentally on the production, in an
electric furnace, of calcium carbide, which water decomposes,
readily yielding the gas in question. The American discoverer
was Mr. Thomas Willson, a Canadian electrician, residing at
Spray, North Carolina; his French rival was Professor Henry
Moisson, of Paris. The priority of Mr. Willson in the
discovery, or in the announcement of it, is most generally
recognized, and he secured patents in the United States and
elsewhere. Electrical developments since 1892 have economized
the manufacture of calcium carbide, by electric heat acting on
a mixture of lime and coke, and it has become an important
commercial product, at Niagara Falls and other seats of
electric power, bringing acetylene gas into extensive use as
an illuminant. There have been dangers and difficulties in the
use, however, not easily overcome.
CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS:
Discovery of Argon and Helium.
"After Lord Rayleigh, in 1892, had proved that nitrogen
obtained from chemical combinations was about one-half per
cent lighter than that obtained from the atmosphere, a
determination that was again verified in 1894, Lord Rayleigh
and Professor Ramsay separated from atmospheric nitrogen an
elementary gas of great density which, by reason of its
chemical indifference, they called argon. They proved that
this gas formed about 0.8 or 0.9 per cent of the volume of
nitrogen, from which it could be separated either by
incandescent magnesium or by the continued action of the
electric spark. It was established beyond doubt that Cavendish
produced this gas a hundred years ago by the use of the
electric spark. Argon, either alone or accompanied by helium,
has also been found in natural waters as well as in minerals.
Its discovery in a meteorite of Augusta County, Virginia,
United States of America, may perhaps lead us to ascribe to it
an extra-terrestrial origin.
"The physical properties of argon are very distinct, and its
characteristic spectrum enables us to at once distinguish it
with certainty from any other substance, but from a chemical
point of view this gas is most extraordinarily inactive, and
we have not yet succeeded in making it form combinations as
the other elements do. This peculiarity, and also the
impossibility of finding a place in the periodic system for a
simple body having the molecular weight of argon (39.88), have
given rise to all sorts of hypotheses relative to the nature
of this gas. …
"Another most interesting discovery was that of helium, made
by Professor Ramsay. In 1891 Hillebrand showed that uranium
ore and ores of the same family when dissolved in acids or
fused with alkaline carbonates, or even merely heated in a
vacuum, may give off as much as 3 per cent of nitrogen.
Professor Ramsay obtained this gas from cleveite and by means
of spectroscopic examination demonstrated the presence of
argon; and in the course of his experiments—in March, 1895—he
observed beside the spectrum of argon another bright, yellow
line that did not belong to that spectrum, and which Crookes
recognized as identical with the line D that Lockyer had
already observed in 1868 in the spectrum of the solar
chromosphere, and which he had attributed to an element as yet
unknown upon the earth—helium. The same line had also been
distinguished in the spectra of other fixed stars,
particularly in the spectrum of Orion, so that it may be
admitted that helium exists in large quantities
extra-terrestrially. … On our planet it appears, on the
contrary, to be very rare, and may be ranked among the rarest
of elements. … "Helium is the lightest of all the gases except
hydrogen; Stoney deduces from this fact an explanation of the
existence of these two elements in but very small quantities
in a free state upon the face of the earth, while they are
distributed in enormous masses throughout the universe. The
comparatively small force of the earth's gravitation does not
form a sufficient counterpoise to the velocity of their
molecules, which therefore escape from the terrestrial
atmosphere unless restrained by chemical combination. They
then proceed to reunite around great centres of attraction,
such as the fixed stars, in whose atmospheres these elements
exist in large quantities."
C. Winkler,
The Discovery of new Elements within the last
twenty-five years
(Annual Report of Smithsonian Institution, 1897,
page 237, translated from Revue Scientifique,
4th series, volume 8).
CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS:
Liquefaction of Oxygen, Hydrogen and Air.
"The most remarkable recent work in refrigeration is that of
Professor James Dewar, of the Royal Institution in London. The
feat of liquefying oxygen by a succession of approaches to its
critical temperature has been thus described by him, in an
interview which appeared in 'McClure's Magazine,' November,
1893: 'The process of liquefying oxygen, briefly speaking, is
this: Into the outer chamber of that double compressor I
introduce, through a pipe, liquid nitrous oxide gas, under a
pressure of about 1,400 pounds to the square inch. I then
allow it to evaporate rapidly, and thus obtain a temperature
around the inner chamber of -90° C. Into this cooled inner
chamber I introduce liquid ethylene, which is a gas at
ordinary temperatures, under a pressure of 1,800 pounds to
the square inch. When the inner chamber is full of ethylene,
its rapid evaporation under exhaustion reduces the temperature
to -135° C. Running through this inner chamber is a tube
containing oxygen gas under a pressure of 750 pounds to the
square inch. The critical point of oxygen gas—that is, the
point above which no amount of pressure will reduce it to a
liquid—is—115° C., but this pressure, at the temperature of
-145° C., is amply sufficient to cause it to liquefy rapidly.'
{436}
"In May, 1898, Professor Dewar, by the use of liquid oxygen,
succeeded in liquefying hydrogen, producing a liquid having
but one-fourteenth the specific gravity of water; this exploit
brought him within 21° of the absolute zero of centigrade. He
afterward reduced the liquid to solid form, attaining a
temperature estimated at four to five degrees lower. Faraday
and other investigators of an earlier day surmised that
hydrogen, when solidified, would prove to be a metal; now that
the feat of solidification has been accomplished, hydrogen
astonishes the physicist by displaying itself as non-metallic.
…
"For some years the plan was to employ a series of chemical
compounds, each with a lower boiling-point than its
predecessor in the process, and all troublesome and hazardous
in manipulation. A better method has been developed by keeping
to simple air from first to last, as in the apparatus of Dr.
Linde, of Dr. Hampson, and of Mr. Charles E. Tripler.
"As the Tripler machine does its work on a bolder scale than
either of the others, let its operation be briefly outlined:
Air is first compressed to 65 pounds pressure to the square
inch; through a second pump this pressure is exalted to 400
pounds, and with a third pump the pressure is carried to 2,500
pounds. After each compression the air flows through jacketed
pipes, where it is cooled by a stream of water. At the third
condensation a valve, the secret of whose construction Mr.
Tripler keeps to himself, permits part of the compressed air
to flow into a pipe surrounding the tube through which the
remainder is flowing. This act of expansion severely chills
the imprisoned air, which at last discharges itself in liquid
form—much as water does from an ordinary city faucet."
G. Iles,
Flame, Electricity and the Camera,
chapter 6 (New York: Doubleday, Page & Co.).
CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS:
Smokeless Powders.
"In recent years smokeless powders have largely superseded all
others. These contain usually nitro-cellulose (gun cotton), or
nitro-glycerine, or both, made up into a plastic, coherent,
and homogeneous compound of a gluey nature, and fashioned into
horn-like sticks or rods by being forced under pressure,
through a die plate having small holes, through which the
plastic material is strained into strings like macaroni, or
else is molded into tablets, pellets, or grains of cubical
shape. Prominent among those who have contributed to this art
are the names of Turpin, Abel and Dewar, Nobel, Maxim, Munroe,
Du Pont, Bernadou and others. In the recent years of the
Nineteenth Century great activity has been manifest in this
field of invention. In the United States more than 600
different patents have been granted for explosives, the larger
portion of them being for nitro-compounds which partake in a
greater or less degree of the qualities of gun cotton or
nitro-glycerine."
E. W. Byrn,
Progress of Invention in the 19th Century,
page 419.
CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS:
X Rays.
The Discovery of Professor Rontgen.
"Fresh proofs await us of the supreme rank of both electricity
and photography as resources of art and science as we observe
the transcendent powers evoked by their union. From this union
no issue is more extraordinary, more weighty with meaning and
promise, than the X-ray pictures due to Professor Wilhelm
Konrad Rontgen. In these pictures he has but crowned labours
which began when Sir John Herschel noticed that a peculiar
blue light was diffused from a perfectly colourless solution
of quinine sulphate. Professor (now Sir) George Stokes
explained the phenomenon by showing that this blue light
consists of vibrations originally too rapid to be visible,
which are slowed down within the limits of perceptibility as
they pass through the liquid. …
"One path of approach to the achievement of Professor Röntgen
was opened by Sir John Herschel; another, as important, was
blazed and broadened by Professor (now Sir) William Crookes.
In 1874 and 1875 he was engaged upon the researches which gave
the world the radiometer, the tiny mill whose vanes rotate
with rays of light or heat. The action of this mill depends
upon its being placed in a glass bulb almost vacuous. When
such a bulb incloses rubies, bits of phenakite, or other
suitable objects, and electrical discharges are directed upon
them, they glow with the most brilliant luminescence known to
art. Excited by a cathode ray, that is, a ray from the
negative pole of an electrical machine, a Crookes bulb itself
shines with a vivid golden green ray which reminds the
onlooker of the fluorescence of earlier experiments. … "Year
by year the list of substances excitable to luminosity in a
Crookes bulb has been lengthened, and in 1894 it was the good
fortune of Professor Philipp Lenard to discover a wonderful
power of such a bulb. Emerging from it was a cathode ray which
passed nearly as freely through a thin plate of aluminium as
common sunshine does through a pane of glass. Hertz had, a few
years previously, discovered that metals in very thin sheets
were virtually transparent (or, to use Mr. Hyndman's term,
transradiable) to his electric waves. This property was found
by Professor Lenard to extend to the cathode ray and in a much
higher degree. … The ultra-violet ray of ordinary light has
the singular power of causing the gases which it may traverse
to become conductors of electricity, with the effect of
discharging an electrified metallic plate; this property is
shared by cathode rays. Associated with them are the rays of
still more extraordinary powers, discovered by Professor
Röntgen. In his own words let his achievement be recounted, as
published in 'McClure's Magazine,' April, 1896.
"'I have been for a long time interested in the problem of the
cathode rays from a vacuum tube as studied by Hertz and
Lenard. I had followed their and other researches with great
interest, and determined, us soon as I had the time, to make
some researches of my own. This time I found at the close of
last October. I had been at work for some days when I
discovered something new.' 'What was the date?' 'The 8th of
November.' 'And what was the discovery?' 'I was working with a
Crookes tube covered by a shield of black cardboard. A piece
of barium platino-cyanide paper lay on the bench there. I had
been passing a current through the tube, and I noticed a
peculiar black line across the paper.' 'What of that?' 'The
effect was one which could only be produced, in ordinary
parlance, by the passage of light. No light could come from
the tube, because the shield which covered it was impervious
to any light known, even that of the electric arc.' 'And what
did you think?' 'I did not think; I investigated. I assumed
that the effect must have come from the tube, since its
character indicated that it could come from nowhere else. I
tested it. In a few minutes there was no doubt about it. Rays
were coming from the tube which had a luminescent effect upon
the paper.
{437}
I tried it successfully at greater and greater distances, even
at two metres. It seemed at first a new kind of invisible
light. It was clearly something new, something unrecorded.'
'Is it light?' 'No.' 'Is it electricity?' 'Not in any known
form.' 'What is it?' 'I don't know.' And the discoverer of the
X rays thus stated as calmly his ignorance of their essence as
has everybody else who has written on the phenomena thus far.
"'Having discovered the existence of a new kind of rays, I of
course began to investigate what they would do.' He took up a
series of cabinet-sized photographs. 'It soon appeared from
tests that the rays had penetrative power to a degree hitherto
unknown. They penetrated paper, wood, and cloth with ease; and
the thickness of the substance made no perceptible difference,
within reasonable limits.' He showed photographs of a box of
laboratory weights of platinum, aluminium, and brass, they and
the brass hinges all having been photographed from a closed
box, without any indication of the box. Also a photograph of a
coil of fine wire, wound on a wooden spool, the wire having
been photographed and the wood omitted.
"'The rays,' he continued, 'passed through all the metals
tested, with a facility varying, roughly speaking, with the
density of the metal. These phenomena I have discussed
carefully in my report to the Würzburg Society, and you will
find all the technical results therein stated.' He showed a
photograph of a small sheet of zinc. This was composed of
smaller plates soldered laterally with solders of different
metallic proportions. The differing lines of shadow caused by
the difference in the solders were visible evidence that a new
means of detecting flaws and chemical variations in metals had
been found. A photograph of a compass showed the needle and
dial taken through the closed brass cover. The markings of the
dial were in red metallic paint, and thus interfered with the
rays, and were reproduced. 'Since the rays had this great
penetrative power, it seemed natural that they should
penetrate flesh, and so it proved in photographing the hand,
as I showed you.'" …
"Provided with a Röntgen bulb, the photographer passes from
the exterior to the interior of an object, almost as if he
were a sorcerer with power to transmute all things to glass.
Equipped with a simple X-ray apparatus, dislocations and
fractures are detected by the surgeon, diseases of bones are
studied, and shot, needles, and bits of glass or corroding
wire within the muscles of a patient are located with
exactitude. Thanks to the work of Mr. Mackenzie Davidson, the
like detection of renal calculi can be looked forward to with
a fair degree of certainty. The same means of exploration
offers equal aid to medicine: it demonstrates the
calcification of arteries, and aneurysms of the heart or of
the first part of the aorta; with improved methods it may be
possible to study fatty degenerations of the arteries and
larger blood-vessels. Dr. C. M. Mouillin, addressing the
Röntgen Society of London as its president, states that the
fluorescent screen has now reached such a degree of perfection
that the minutest movement of the heart and lungs, and the
least change in the action of the diaphragm, can be watched
and studied at leisure in the living subject. He considers it
probable that the examination of a patient's chest with this
screen may become as much a matter of common routine as with
the stethoscope to-day. …
"Manifestly, the unseen universe which enfolds us is steadily
being brought to the light of day. The investigations of Hertz
established that the light-waves which affect the eye are but
one octave in a gamut which sweeps indefinitely far both above
and below them. In his hands, as in those of Joseph Henry long
before, electric waves found their way through the walls and
floors of a house; in the Marconi telegraph these waves pass
through the earth or a fog, a mist or a rain-storm, with
little or no hindrance. What does all this mean? Nothing less
than that, given its accordant ray, any substance whatever is
permeable, and that, therefore, to communicate between any two
places in the universe is simply a question of providing the
right means."
G. Iles,
Flame, Electricity and the Camera,
chapter 24 (New York: Doubleday, Page & Co.).
In an article made public in the "New York Tribune" of January
6, 1901, Professor John Trowbridge, of Harvard University,
expressed his anticipations from the further improvement of
the use of the X rays, as follows: "At present all of the
great hospitals of the world examine injuries of the
extremities of the human body by means of these rays. In some
cases the thicker portions of the body can be studied by their
means. There is, however, much to be desired in the method,
for in general the rays exhibit only the shadows of the bones
of the extremities, or reveal at most the regions of greatest
density in the body. If the muscles and tendons or the veins
and arteries could be studied by means of these rays, an
immense aid to surgery would result. Some experiments I have
conducted with currents of great strength, lead me to believe
that much can be done in this direction, for I have in certain
cases obtained unmistakable traces of muscles and tendons, and
the direction in which to advance is becoming clearer. The use
of the X rays is not confined to the examination of the body.
Together with the ultra violet rays, the X rays are used to
cure cutaneous disorders. We are realizing that electricity is
an important factor in health and disease. The investigations
which have resulted from the discovery of these rays have
opened wide vistas in the molecular world."
ELECTRICAL SCIENCE:
Power.
Lighting.
Electro-chemical and Electro-metallurgical works.
The development at Niagara Falls.
"There were perhaps not more than twenty trolley cars in
actual service in 1887, and these were of doubtful success.
There were no regularly constituted electric railways worthy
of the name. The telephone and electric-lighting wires were
largely overhead, and frequently the construction was of the
most imperfect and temporary character. … Within the past
eight or ten years much has been done in the perfection of
thoroughly practical forms of meters and other instruments for
the measurement of electric forces and quantities. While such
work resembles in its delicacy that demanded by watch
mechanism, on the other hand the large station dynamos are
examples of the heaviest machine construction. … A few years
ago a dynamo was large if it demanded 100 or 200 horsepower to
drive it, while now such machines are diminutive when compared
with those of 2,000 horsepower commonly constructed.
{438}
Dynamos are in use at Niagara of 5,000 horsepower capacity. A
single one of these would supply more than 50,000 incandescent
lights such as are ordinarily used, or would give motion to
500 trolley cars. The period since 1887 has been marked by
great extension in electric lighting by both arc and
incandescent lamps. … One of the chief factors in this great
extension has been the application of alternating electric
currents, or currents of wave-like nature, reversing their
direction many times in each second. The direct or continuous
current had previously occupied the field alone. But the
alternating current possessed the advantage of readily
permitting the sending out over a long distance of a high
pressure current with but little loss and by means of
comparatively small and inexpensive lines. This current,
relatively dangerous, could then be exchanged for a safe
low-pressure current on the house mains for working the
lights. The device which makes the exchange is called a
transformer. It is in reality a modified induction coil—a
simple structure of copper wire, sheet-iron, and insulating
materials, with no moving parts to need attention or to get
out of order. The properties and use of the transformer in an
alternating-current system were comparatively unknown before
1887, but since that time it has played a part in electric
development the importance of which cannot easily [not?] be
overestimated. It has been, furthermore, brought to a high
degree of perfection by the persistent and painstaking effort
of numerous workers. In transforming a current of high
pressure to one of lower pressure, or the reverse, only a very
slight loss of power or energy is suffered. On a large scale,
this loss is barely 3 per cent of the energy of the
transformed current. The larger sizes of transformers now in
use have capacities equivalent to considerably over 1,000
horsepower. Some of these structures are employed at Niagara
and others at Buffalo. As in the case of the apparatus just
mentioned, the effort spent in the perfection of the huge
dynamo-electric generators used in lighting and power stations
has resulted in machines so perfect as to leave but little
chance of further increase of effectiveness. They waste only a
small percentage in converting mechanical power into
electrical energy, and run for years with but little attention
or need of repairs. Along with all this improvement has gone a
like betterment in the thousand and one details and minor
devices which go to make up an electric system. …
"Perhaps … no better example of the varied application of
electric energy exists than at Niagara. Certainly no grander
exemplification of the way in which electric forces may be
called into play, to replace other and unlike agencies, can be
cited. Here at Niagara we may forcibly realize the importance
of cheap and unfailing power developed from water in its fall.
We find the power of huge water wheels delivered to the
massive dynamos for giving out electric energy. This energy is
variously employed. The electric lighting of the city of
Niagara and surroundings and the electric railways naturally
depend upon the water power. Besides these, which may be
termed the ordinary applications of electricity, there are
clustered at Niagara a number of unique industrial
establishments, the importance of which will undoubtedly
increase rapidly. In the carborundum factory we find huge
furnaces heated by the passage of electric current, and
attaining temperatures far beyond those of the ordinary
combustion of fuel. These electric furnaces produce
carborundum, a new abrasive nearly as hard as the diamond,
which is a combination of carbon and silicon, unknown before
the electric furnace gave it birth. Sand and coke are the raw
substances for its production, and these are acted upon by the
excessively high heat necessary to form the new product,
already in extensive use for grinding hard materials. The
metal aluminum, which not many years ago cost $2 an ounce, is
now produced on a large scale at Niagara, and sold at a price
which makes it, bulk for bulk, cheaper than brass. Here,
again, electricity is the agent; but in this case its power of
electrolyzing or breaking up strong chemical unions is
employed. … Works for the production of metallic sodium and
other metals similarly depend upon the decompositions effected
by the electric current. Solutions of ordinary salt or brine
are electrolyzed on a large scale in extensive works
established for the purpose. … The very high temperature which
exists in an electric arc, or between the carbons of an arc lamp,
has in recent years found application in the manufacture of
another important compound, which was formerly but slightly
known as a chemical difficult to prepare. Carbide of calcium
is the compound referred to, and large works for its
production exist at Niagara. Here again, as in the carborundum
works, raw materials of the simplest and cheapest kind are
acted upon in what may be termed an electric-arc furnace.
Coke, or carbon, and lime are mixed and charged into a furnace
in which an enormous electric arc is kept going. … The
importance of carbide of calcium rests in the fact that, by
contact with water, it produces acetylene gas. The
illuminating power of this gas, when burned, is its remarkable
property.
"It will be seen that the metallurgical and chemical
developments at Niagara are the direct outgrowth of electrical
utilization of water power. With many water powers, however,
the outlet for the application of the electrical energy exists
many miles away from the place at which the water power is
found. Even at Niagara there is an example of the beginning of
long-distance transmission, by a high-pressure line extending to
Buffalo and delivering electric energy to an electric station
there. In this case 'step-up' transformers, as they are
called, are employed at the Niagara power plant to step up or
raise the electrical pressure or potential from that given by
the dynamos to that required for the transmission to Buffalo.
This transformation is from about 2,500 up to 10,000 volts. At
the Buffalo end the reverse process is carried on by 'step-down'
transformers, and the energy is delivered to the trolley lines
at about 500 volts. … The whole Niagara plant has grown into
existence within the past five years, and as a consequence of
the technical advances within the period of the past ten
years. There are, however, in active operation, besides the
Niagara power plant, several other water-power transmissions,
some of them far exceeding in distance that between Niagara
and Buffalo, and some in which the amount of power conveyed,
as well as the pressure of the current used upon the line, is
much greater than is yet to be found at Niagara. … No limit
can as yet be definitely set as to the distance which can be
covered in an electrical transmission. … It may be said that
at present the range of distances is between 30 and 100 miles.
…
{439}
"Electricity seems destined at no distant day to play an
important part in revolutionizing passenger traffic between
large centers of population. The facility with which electric
service may be superposed on ordinary steam roads will greatly
further this development. The work with the third-rail system,
undertaken by one of our prominent railway organizations, has
abundantly demonstrated the practicability of such
superposition. The future will witness the growing
substitution of either single motor cars or two or three
coupled cars for long, heavy trains drawn by locomotives, and
a more frequent service will result. There is an eventual
possibility of higher average speeds, since stops will not
consume much time, and the time required to recover the speed
after a stop will be much less than at present. … The heating
power of the electric current is now utilized in a variety of
ways. Electric welding machinery has been put into service
either for accomplishing results which were not possible to be
obtained before its development, or to improve the work and
lessen the cost."
Elihu Thomson,
Electrical Advance in Ten Years
(Forum, January, 1898).
ELECTRICAL SCIENCE:
Development of Power at Niagara Falls.
The following description of the engineering work by which
Niagara was harnessed to turbines and dynamos, for an enormous
development of electrical power, is taken from a paper read by
Mr. Thomas Commerford Martin, of New York, at a meeting of the
Royal Institution of Great Britain, June 19, 1896, and printed
in the Proceedings of the Institution, Volume 15; reprinted in
the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, 1896, page
223:
"Niagara is the point at which are discharged, through two
narrowing precipitous channels only 3,800 feet wide and 160
feet high, the contents of 6,000 cubic miles of water, with a
reservoir area of 90,000 square miles, draining 300,000 square
miles of territory. The ordinary overspill of this Atlantic
set on edge has been determined to be equal to about 75,000
cubic feet per second, and the quantity passing is estimated
as high as 100,000,000 tons of water per hour. The drifting of
a ship over the Horse Shoe Fall has proved it to have a
thickness at the center of the crescent of over 16 feet.
Between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario there is a total difference
of level of 300 feet, and the amount of power represented by
the water at the falls has been estimated on different bases
from 6,750,000 horsepower up to not less than 16,800,000
horsepower, the latter being a rough calculation of Sir
William Siemens, who, in 1877, was the first to suggest the
use of electricity as the modern and feasible agent of
converting into useful power some of this majestic but
squandered energy. …
"It was Mr. Thomas Evershed, an American civil engineer, who
unfolded the plan of diverting part of the stream at a
considerable distance above the falls, so that no natural
beauty would be interfered with, while an enormous amount of
power would be obtained with a very slight reduction in the
volume of the stream at the crest of the falls. Essentially
scientific and correct as the plan now shows itself to be, it
found prompt criticism and condemnation, but not less quickly
did it rally the able and influential support of Messrs. W. B.
Rankine, Francis Lynde Stetson, Edward A. Wickes, and Edward
D. Adams, who organized the corporate interests that, with an
expenditure of £1,000,000 in five years, have carried out the
present work. So many engineering problems arose early in the
enterprise that after the survey of the property in 1890 an
International Niagara Commission was established in London,
with power to investigate the best existing methods of power
development and transmission, and to select from among them,
as well as to award prizes of an aggregate of £4,400. This
body included men like Lord Kelvin, Mascart, Coleman Sellers,
Turrettini, and Dr. Unwin, and its work was of the utmost
value. Besides this the Niagara Company and the allied
Cataract Construction Company enjoyed the direct aid of other
experts, such as Prof. George Forbes, in a consultative
capacity; while it was a necessary consequence that the
manufacturers of the apparatus to be used threw upon their
work the highest inventive and constructive talent at their
command.
"The time-honored plan in water-power utilization has been to
string factories along a canal of considerable length, with
but a short tail race. At Niagara the plan now brought under
notice is that of a short canal with a very long tail race.
The use of electricity for distributing the power allows the
factories to be placed away from the canal, and in any
location that may appear specially desirable or advantageous.
The perfected and concentrated Evershed scheme comprises a
short surface canal 250 feet wide at its mouth, 1¼ miles above
the fans, far beyond the outlying Three Sisters Islands, with
an intake inclined obliquely to the Niagara River. This canal
extends inwardly 1,700 feet, and has an average depth of some
12 feet, thus holding water adequate to the development of
about 100,000 horsepower. The mouth of the canal is 600 feet
from the shore line proper, and considerable work was
necessary in its protection and excavation. The bed is now of
clay, and the side walls are of solid masonry 17 feet high, 8
feet at the base, and 3 feet at the top. The northeastern side
of the canal is occupied by a power house, and is pierced by
ten inlets guarded by sentinel gates, each being the separate
entrance to a wheel pit in the power house, where the water is
used and the power is secured. The water as quickly as used is
carried off by a tunnel to the Niagara River again. …
"The wheel pit, over which the power house is situated, is a
long, deep, cavernous slot at one side, under the floor, cut
in the rock, parallel with the canal outside. Here the water
gets a fall of about 140 feet before it smites the turbines.
The arrangement of the dynamos generating the current up in
the power house is such that each of them may be regarded as
the screw at the end of a long shaft, just as we might see it
if we stood an ocean steamer on its nose with its heel in the
air. At the lower end of the dynamo shaft is the turbine in
the wheel pit bottom, just as in the case of the steamer shaft
we find attached to it the big triple or quadruple expansion
marine steam engine. …
{440}
The wheel pit which contains the turbines is 178 feet in
depth, and connects by a lateral tunnel with the main tunnel
running at right angles. This main tunnel is no less than
7,000 feet in length, with an average hydraulic slope of 6
feet in 1,000. It has a maximum height of 21 feet, and a width
of 18 feet 10 inches, its net section being 386 square feet.
The water rushes through it and out of its mouth of stone and
iron at a velocity of 26½ feet per second, or nearly 20 miles
an hour. More than 1,000 men were employed continuously for
more than three years in the construction of this tunnel. …
"The American Company has also pre-empted the great
utilization of the Canadian share of Niagara's energy. The
plan for this work proposes the erection of two power houses
of a total ultimate capacity of 125,000 horsepower. … With
both the Canadian and American plants fully developed, no less
than 350,000 horsepower will be available."
"Within the last five years," said the "Electrical Review," in
a "historical number" issued at the beginning of 1901, "there
have been built in many parts of the world electrical
installations of great magnitude, transmitting the power of
cataracts for considerable distances. The longest of these, in
California, operates over a distance of 115 miles. Perhaps the
largest of them is that at Niagara, where 105,000 horse power
is developed, and much of it transmitted … to the city of
Buffalo"—20 miles.
The first transmission of power from Niagara Falls to Buffalo
was made at midnight, November 15-16, 1896, when 1,000
horsepower was sent over the wires to the power-house of the
Buffalo Railway Company. The important event was signalled to
the citizens by the firing of cannon, the ringing of bells and
sounding of steam whistles.
ELECTRICAL SCIENCE:
The rotary magnetic field.
Polyphased currents.
Nikola Tesla's inventions.
"At about the same time [1888], Galileo Ferraris, in Italy,
and Nikola Tesla, in the United States, brought out motors
operating by systems of alternating currents displaced from
one another in phase by definite amounts and producing what is
known as the rotating magnetic field. This invention seems
destined to be one of the most important that has been made in
the history of electricity. The result of the introduction of
polyphase systems has been the ability to transmit power
economically for considerable distances, and, as this directly
operated to make possible the utilization of water-power in
remote places and the distribution of power over large areas,
the immediate outcome of the polyphase system was power
transmission; and the outcome of power transmission almost
surely will be the gradual supersession of coal and the
harnessing of the waste forces of Nature to do useful work."
Electrical Review,
January 12, 1901.
The following description of Tesla's invention was given by N.
W. Perry in the "Engineering Magazine": "If the north and
south poles of a small horseshoe magnet be suspended over a
bar of soft iron free to revolve in a horizontal plane, or be
placed over an ordinary compass-needle, the latter will be
attracted at either end by the poles of the magnet and take up
a position parallel to a straight line drawn between the two
poles of the magnet. Now if the latter be revolved through any
angle the soft iron or needle will follow, being dragged
around by the magnet, and if the magnet be caused to revolve
regularly the iron will also revolve, being pulled around by
the full force of the magnet. It was not feasible, however, to
cause the magnet to revolve in this way, and Tesla's invention
consisted in obviating this trouble and, in fact, greatly
simplifying the problem. He conceived the idea that if he took
an iron ring and used two alternating currents, one of which had
its maximum value at the instant that the other had a zero
value—or, in other words, two currents whose periods were such
that one waned as the other increased—he could produce in that
iron ring by winding these circuits in alternate coils
surfaces that without any mechanical movement of the parts
would travel around that ring with a rapidity equal to the
number of changes of direction of the currents employed. He
thus had a ring, the north and south poles of which were
rapidly revolving just as would the poles of the horseshoe
magnet were it tied at its middle to a twisted string and
allowed to revolve. A piece of iron pivoted at its middle
placed concentric with this ring would therefore be dragged
around by the changing poles of the ring. He had thus
discovered what is somewhat awkwardly expressed by the
expression, 'the rotary magnetic field,' and also the use of
what have been termed 'polyphased currents'—the one referring
to the magnetism and the other to the combination of currents
by which this changing magnetism was produced. This discovery
is undoubtedly one of the most important that has ever been
made within the domain of alternating currents."
Engineering Magazine,
volume 7, page 780.
Another of Tesla's inventions or discoveries which excited
greater popular interest was that which produced what were
called "high frequency effects," first publicly shown in
connection with a lecture at Columbia College, in the spring
of 1890. "Mr. Tesla started with the idea of setting matter
into vibration at a rate approximating that of light (some two
and a half millions a second), with the expectation that
under such violent molecular agitation it would emit light. He
has not as yet succeeded in obtaining so high a rate, but a
much lower one produced some very surprising luminous effects.
… The dynamo method for getting very high frequencies was soon
abandoned as inadequate, and the oscillatory discharge of a
Leyden jar or plate condensers was substituted. … Perhaps the
most surprising of the new facts elicited from his
investigations is that the shock due to these very high
voltage and high frequency currents can be supported by a
person without any serious inconvenience. He passes a current
of two hundred thousand volts through his body with perfect
impunity."
F. J. Patten,
New Science Review,
volume 1, page 84.
ELECTRICAL SCIENCE:
Development of the Telephone System.
The annual report of the American Telephone and Telegraph
Company (by which the property and business of the American
Bell Telephone Company were taken over at the close of the
year 1899) for the year ending December 31, 1900, contains the
following brief review of the development and growth of the
telephone system, especially in the United States: "The year
just passed rounds out the quarter century, within which is
compassed the discovery and application of the art of
transmitting speech by telephone.
{441}
A brief review of the development and growth of this new
industry, which has become so important a factor in commercial
and social life, seems appropriate at this time. Twenty-five
years ago the wonderful invention of Professor Bell was made
known to the world. Twenty-three years ago the first telephone
exchange in the world was established in the United States, and
from that beginning has been built up the great system of
exchanges, and the network of connecting lines over which
conversation can be held between points over a thousand miles
apart. Twenty years ago there were 47,880 telephone
subscribers in the United States, and 29,714 miles of wire in
use for telephonic purposes. At the end of last year, there
were 800,880 exchange stations equipped with our instruments,
and 1,961,801 miles of wire were employed for exchange and
toll line service. The United States has, from the beginning,
held the leading place among nations in respect not only of
the extensive development of the business, but in the
employment of modern and improved appliances, tending to
greater efficiency of service.
"In connection with the record of development of telephone
service in this country, some comparison of the systems of
foreign countries is of interest. The latest reports that can
be obtained, part of which are for the year 1899, others to
the close of 1900, show the countries next in order to the
United States, as respects the development of telephone
service, to be the German Empire, having 229,391 stations;
Great Britain, 171,660; Sweden, 73,500; France, 59,927;
Switzerland, 38,864: Austria, 32,255; Russia, 31,376;
Norway, 29,446.
"As before stated, there were, at the close of last year, more
than 800,000 stations connected with the exchanges of our
licensee companies, which exceeds the aggregate number of
subscribers in all the countries of Continental Europe. In
addition to this, there were over 40,000 private line stations
equipped with our telephones. The number of exchange and toll
line connections in the United States now reaches almost two
thousand millions yearly."
More detailed and precise statistics of the telephone service
in the United States are given in the report as follows:
January 1, January 1,
1892. 1901.
Exchanges. 788 1,348
Branch offices. 509 1,427
Miles of wire on poles. 180,139 627,897
Miles of wire on buildings. 14,954 16,833
Miles of wire underground. 70,334 705,269
Miles of wire submarine. 1,029 4,203
Total miles of wire. 266,456 1,354,202
Total circuits. 186,462 508,262
Total employees. 8,376 32,837
Total stations. 216,017 800,880
The estimated number of exchange connections daily in the
United States, made up from actual count in most of the
exchanges, is 5,668,986. Or a total per year of about
1,825,000,000. The number of daily calls per station varies in
different exchanges from 1 to 15.9, the average throughout the
United States being 7.1. The average cost to the subscriber
varies according to the size of the exchange and character of
the service, from less than 1 to 9 cents per connection.
ELECTRICAL SCIENCE:
Dr. Pupin's revolutionary improvement
in long-distance Telephony.
The most important advance in telephonic science that has been
made since the invention of the Bell instrument was announced
at about the beginning of the new century, as the result of
studies pursued by Dr. Michael I. Pupin, of Columbia
University, New York. Mathematical and experimental
investigations which Dr. Pupin had been carrying on, for
several years, led him to a determination of the precise
intervals at which, if inductance coils are inserted in a long
conductor, an electric current in traversing it may be made to
travel far without much loss of force. He is said to have
taken a hint from seeing how waves of vibration in a cord are
strengthened by lightly "loading" it at certain exact points,
determined by the wave lengths. It is probably correct to
describe his invention as being a scientific ascertainment of
the points in a long telephonic circuit at which to load the
electric current in it, and the precise loading to be applied.
In a paper published in the "Western Electrician," describing
his investigations mathematically, Dr. Pupin wrote: "If an
increase in efficiency of wave transmission over a cord thus
loaded is to be obtained, it is evident that the load must be
properly subdivided and the fractional parts of the total load
must be placed at proper distances apart along the cord,
otherwise the detrimental effects due to reflections resulting
from the discontinuities thus introduced will more than
neutralize the beneficial effects derived from the increased
mass. … The insertion of inductance coils at periodically
recurring points along the wave conductor produces the same
effect upon electrical wave transmission as the distribution
of the small loads along the stretched cord … produces upon
mechanical wave transmission along the cord."
The result is said to be that conversation by telephone over a
distance of 3,000 miles is made not only practicable but easy,
and that it is believed to be as practicable through submarine
cables as through overland wires. If it does not make the
telephone a common instrument of communication from continent
to continent, it will, at least, improve oceanic telegraphy
beyond measure. According to newspaper report, Dr. Pupin's
invention has been sold to the Bell Telephone Company for a
very large sum.
ELECTRICAL SCIENCE:
Wireless Telegraphy.
"In 1864 Maxwell observed that electricity and light have the
same velocity, 186,400 miles a second, and he formulated the
theory that electricity propagates itself in waves which
differ from those of light only in being longer. This was
proved to be true by Hertz, in 1888, who showed that where
alternating currents of very high frequency were set up in an
open circuit, the energy might be conveyed entirely away from
the circuit into the surrounding space as electric waves. … He
demonstrated that electric waves move with the speed of light,
and that they can be reflected and refracted precisely as if
they formed a visible beam. At a certain intensity of strain
the air insulation broke down, and the air became a conductor.
This phenomenon of passing quite suddenly from a
non-conductive to a conductive state is … also to be noted
when air or other gases are exposed to the X ray.
{442}
"Now for the effect of electric waves such as Hertz produced,
when they impinge upon substances reduced to powder or
filings. Conductors, such as the metals, are of inestimable
service to the electrician; of equal value are non-conductors,
such as glass and gutta-percha, as they strictly
fence in an electric stream. A third and remarkable vista
opens to experiment when it deals with substances which, in
their normal state, are non-conductive, but which, agitated by
an electric wave, instantly become conductive in a high
degree. As long ago as 1866 Mr. S. A. Varley noticed that
black lead, reduced to a loose dust, effectually intercepted a
current from fifty Daniell cells, although the battery poles
were very near each other. When he increased the electric
tension fourfold to sixfold, the black-lead particles at once
compacted themselves so as to form a bridge of excellent
conductivity. On this principle he invented a
lightning-protector for electrical instruments, the incoming
flash causing a tiny heap of carbon dust to provide it with a
path through which it could safely pass to the earth.
Professor Temistocle Calzecchi Onesti of Fermo, in 1885, in an
independent series of researches, discovered that a mass of
powdered copper is a non-conductor until an electric wave
beats upon it; then, in an instant, the mass resolves itself
into a conductor almost as efficient as if it were a stout,
unbroken wire. Professor Edouard Branly of Paris, in 1891, on
this principle devised a coherer, which passed from resistance
to invitation when subjected to an electric impulse from afar.
He enhanced the value of his device by the vital discovery
that the conductivity bestowed upon filings by electric
discharges could be destroyed by simply shaking or tapping
them apart. …
"The coherer, as improved by Marconi, is a glass tube about 1½
inches long and about 1/12 of an inch in internal diameter.
The electrodes are inserted in this tube so as almost to
touch; between them is about 1/30 of an inch filled with a
pinch of the responsive mixture which forms the pivot of the
whole contrivance. This mixture is 90 per cent. nickel
filings, 10 per cent. hard silver filings, and a mere trace of
mercury; the tube is exhausted of air to within 1/10000 part.
… The coherer, when unexcited, forms a link which obstructs
the flow of a current eager to leap across. The instant that
an electric wave from the sending-station impinges upon the
coherer it becomes conductive; the current instantly glides
through it, and at the same time a current, by means of a
relay, is sent through [a] powerful voltaic battery, so as to
announce the signal through an ordinary telegraphic receiver.
"An electric impulse, almost too attenuated for computation,
is here able to effect such a change in a pinch of dust that
it becomes a free avenue instead of a barricade. Through that
avenue a powerful blow from a local store of energy makes
itself heard and felt. No device of the trigger class is
comparable with this in delicacy. An instant after a signal
has taken its way through the coherer a small hammer strikes
the tiny tube, jarring Hs particles asunder, so that they
resume their normal state of high resistance. We may well be
astonished at the sensitiveness of the metallic filings to an
electric wave originating many miles away, but let us remember
how clearly the eye can see a bright lamp at the same distance
as it sheds a sister beam. Thus far no substance has been
discovered with a mechanical responsiveness to so feeble a ray
of light; in the world of nature and art the coherer stands
alone. …
"An essential feature of this method of etheric telegraphy,
due to Marconi himself, is the suspension of a perpendicular
wire at each terminus, its length twenty feet for stations a
mile apart, forty feet for four miles, and so on, the
telegraphic distance increasing as the square of the length of
suspended wire. In the Kingstown regatta, July, 1898, Marconi
sent from a yacht under full steam a report to the shore
without the loss of a moment from start to finish. This feat
was repeated during the protracted contest between the
'Columbia' and the 'Shamrock' yachts in New York Bay, October,
1899. On March 28, 1899, Marconi signals put Wimereux, two
miles north of Boulogne, in communication with the South
Foreland Lighthouse, thirty-two miles off. In August, 1899,
during the manœuvres of the British navy, similar messages
were sent as far as eighty miles. …
"A weak point in the first Marconi apparatus was that anybody
within the working radius of the sending instrument could read
its message. To modify this objection secret codes were at
times employed, as in commerce and diplomacy. A complete
deliverance from this difficulty is promised in attuning a
transmitter and a receiver to the same note, so that one
receiver, and no other, shall respond to a particular
frequency of impulses. The experiments which indicate success
in this vital particular have been conducted by Professor
Lodge."
G. Iles,
Flame, Electricity and the Camera,
chapter 16 (New York: Doubleday, Page & Co.).
"Shall we not," said Professor John Trowbridge, in an article
published in the "New York Tribune," January 6, 1901, "in the
next hundred years dispense with the limitations of wires and
speak boldly through space, reaching some expectant human ear
hundreds of miles away with the same ease that we now converse
in a room? It is already possible to send messages by dots and
dashes sixty to seventy miles without the use of wires. In the
early days of the telephone this was the practical limit of
that instrument, and we are all familiar with the immense
extension which has taken place. Shall we not see a similar
extension in the field of wireless telegraphy? Some late
experiments which I have made lead me to be optimistic in
regard to a possible great extension of the methods of
wireless telegraphy.
"In the first place, I believe that these experiments prove
that wireless telegraphy is not necessarily or merely
accomplished through the air, but, on the contrary, that the
earth plays the controlling part, and that the message flows,
so to speak, through the earth or over its surface rather than
through the air. The most striking experiment was as follows:
The poles of a storage battery of twenty thousand cells were
connected with the ground at the Jefferson Laboratory, and I
was enabled to receive the message in a room three quarters of
a mile from the laboratory without the use of masts or wires
of any sort. The earth was the medium of communication, and it
seems possible, by arranging the sending and receiving apparatus
suitably in connection with the electrical capacity of the
earth, that we may dispense with lofty masts and overcome in
this way the curvature of the earth."
{443}
Extensive experiments in wireless telegraphy are being
conducted by the United States Weather Bureau, of which the
following is a recent report: "Recognizing the advantage that
would result to commerce and navigation by the establishment
of wireless electrical communication between vessels at sea
and exposed points on our lake and sea coasts, and also
between islands along said coasts and the mainland, the
Weather Bureau was directed to systematically investigate the
various methods of electrical communication without wires. The
progress made is eminently satisfactory. New appliances have
been devised for the transmission of signals, and receivers
have been constructed that probably are more delicate than any
heretofore made. Messages already have been successfully
transmitted and received over 50 miles of land, which
presented a rough and irregular surface, conditions most
unfavorable for the transmission of electro-magnetic waves. It
is believed that the efficiency indicated by such transmission
overland is sufficient to operate successfully over several
hundred miles of water. The apparatus used is capable of
further improvement. I hope the time is near at hand when the
great number of craft employed in the coastwise commerce of
the United States and over its great inland seas will be
placed in instantaneous communication with the numerous
stations of our Weather Bureau, which are located at all
important ports. The matter is one of such great importance to
our commerce that I have authorized extensive experimentation,
which, from the success so far attending our efforts, will be
vigorously prosecuted."
United States, Annual Report of the
Secretary of Agriculture,
November 24, 1900, page 12.
On the 12th of March, 1901, the chief of the Weather Bureau,
Professor Moore, gave to the Press the following statement as
to experiments in progress along the Virginia and North
Carolina coast: "The most efficient method of long distance
transmission has been found to be from wire cylinders. The new
coast stations are being equipped with cylinders of sixteen
wires each and 140 feet in length. From these cylinders it is
expected to cover a magnetic field of not less than five
hundred miles. The stations now in operation are at Hatteras
and at Roanoke Island, in Pamlico Sound, North Carolina.
Workmen are beginning the construction of a station at Cape
Henry, which will be the third station. When this is finished
the two remote stations will be 127 miles apart."
MECHANICS:
Steam turbines.
"The latest form of steam-engine recalls the first. The
steam-turbines of De Laval and of Parsons turn on the same
principle as the æolipile of Hero. That simple contrivance was
a metallic globe mounted on axes, and furnished through one of
its trunnions with steam from a boiler near by. As steam rushed
out from two nozzles diametrically opposite to each other, and
at tangents to the globe, there resulted from the relieved
pressure a swift rotation which might have done useful work. …
Before the steam-turbine could be invented, metallurgists and
mechanics had to become skilful enough to provide machinery
which may with safety rotate 10,000 times in a minute; Watt
had to invent the separate condenser; means had to be devised
for the thorough expansion of high-pressure steam; and the
crude device of Hero had to be supplanted by wheels suggested
by the water-turbine.
"The feature which gives the Parsons steam-turbine its
distinction is the ingenious method by which its steam is used
expansively. In a piston-engine the cylinder is filled to
one-twelfth or one-fifteenth of its capacity with
high-pressure steam, when communication with the boiler is cut
off; during the remainder of its stroke the piston is urged
solely by the steam's elasticity. In the Parsons turbine, by
arranging what is practically a series of wheels on the same
shaft, the steam passes from one wheel to the next, and at
each wheel parts with only a fraction of its pressure and
velocity. …
"The 'Turbinia,' a torpedo-boat of 44½ tons displacement, 100
feet in length, and 9 feet in beam, driven by this turbine,
has consumed but 14½ pounds of steam an hour per indicated
horse-power. The 'Viper,' a torpedo-boat destroyer of 325
tons, and provided with a turbine capable of developing as
much as 12,000 horse-power, ran at the rate of 37 knots in a
rough sea during her trial trip in November, 1899."
G. Iles,
Flame, Electricity and the Camera,
chapter 5
(New York: Doubleday, Page & Co.).
MEDICAL AND SURGICAL:
The determination of germ diseases.
"Since 1880 it has been proved that anthrax, Asiatic cholera,
cerebro-spinal meningitis, diphtheria, one form of dysentery,
erysipelas, glanders, gonorrhœa, influenza, certain epidemics
of meat poisoning, pyæmia and suppuration in general,
pneumonia, tetanus, relapsing fever, tuberculosis, bubonic
plague, and typhoid fever are due to minute vegetable
organisms known as bacteria; that malarial fevers, Texas
cattle fever, and certain forms of dysentery are due to forms
of microscopic animal organisms known as microzoa; and for
most of these diseases the mode of development and means of
introduction of the micro-organism into the body are fairly
well understood. To the information thus obtained we owe the
triumphs of antiseptic and aseptic surgery, a great increase
of precision in diagnosis, the use of specific anti-toxins as
remedies and as preventives, and some of the best practical
work in public hygiene."
Dr. John S. Billings,
Progress of Medicine in the Nineteenth Century
(New York Evening Post, January 12, 1901).
MEDICAL AND SURGICAL:
Antitoxine.
Treatment of diphtheria.
"In the early study of germs and their relation to disease it
was supposed that the symptoms of the disease depended
directly upon the germs themselves. This, however, has been
proven to be false with reference to most of the infectious
diseases studied. Thus, in diphtheria, the bacilli were found,
as a rule, only in the throat or upper air passages, while the
effects of the disease were far-reaching, involving the heart,
the nerves, and other distant parts of the body. This, and
other like observations, led to the careful study of the
products produced by the growth of bacteria. As the result of
the work of Roux in Paris, and Brieger in Berlin, the exact
nature of the toxic products of the diphtheria bacillus was
discovered. It was found that this bacillus produces in its
growth a poison which is known as the diphtheria 'toxine.'
This was isolated and injected into animals with the
reproduction of all the symptoms of diphtheria excepting the
membrane in the throat. …
{444}
"In his early work upon splenic fever and chicken-cholera
Pasteur, having established the causes of these diseases, set
himself the task of discovering means of preventing them.
After very many experiments he found that animals inoculated
with the germs of splenic fever, when these germs had been
cultivated at a relatively high temperature, were protected
against the disease itself, while these inoculations
themselves were harmless. … These methods of producing
immunity have been extensively used in Europe for the past
twenty years and have been of immense practical value.
"With the discovery that it was not the bacteria themselves
which produced most of the symptoms, but their poisonous
products or toxines, new experiments in immunity were made by
injecting these toxines into animals. It was found that if the
quantity of the diphtheria toxine introduced was at first so
small as not to kill the animal, the dose could gradually be
increased until finally such a tolerance was established that
the animal could resist enormous doses of it. Many theories
were advanced as to the manner in which this tolerance was
established. The conclusion was finally reached that it was
due to the gradual production in the blood of larger and
larger quantities of some substance which neutralized the
toxine, i. e., an 'antitoxine.' … Later experiments showed
that if some of the blood of an animal, which in this way had
been made insusceptible to diphtheria, was injected into
another animal, the latter likewise became to a certain degree
and for a certain time insusceptible; that is to say, became
'immunized. …
"The present plan of producing antitoxine is somewhat as
follows. Large animals, such as the horse or cow, are usually
employed for purposes of injection. In the beginning as large
a quantity of the toxine of diphtheria is injected as the
animal will bear without danger to life. … It is found that
the dose of the toxine can gradually be increased with each
injection until enormous quantities can be tolerated. When
this point is reached at which the injection of large amounts
of the toxine produces no reaction, the animal is said to
possess a high degree of immunity. At this time the
blood-serum contains a very large amount of the antitoxine. A
long time is required for the production of this condition,
the period being from three to twelve months, according to the
size of the animal, its susceptibility, and many other
conditions. … The antitoxine is obtained from the blood of the
animal, generally by bleeding from the jugular vein. … After
standing for a few hours this blood separates into a clot and
a clear portion above which is known as the serum. The
anti-toxine is contained in the blood-serum."
L. E. Holt,
The Antitoxine Treatment of Diphtheria
(Forum, March, 1895).
See, also (in this volume),
PLAGUE.
MEDICAL AND SURGICAL:
Discovery of the secret of malaria.
Detection of the mosquito as a carrier of disease.
"Twenty-five years ago the best-informed physicians
entertained erroneous ideas with reference to the nature of
malaria and the etiology of the malarial fevers. Observation
had taught them that there was something in the air in the
vicinity of marshes in tropical regions, and during the summer
and autumn in semi-tropical and temperate regions, which gave
rise to periodic fevers in those exposed in such localities,
and the usual inference was that this something was of gaseous
form—that it was a special kind of bad air generated in
swampy localities under favorable meteorological conditions.
It was recognized at the same time that there are other kinds
of bad air, such as the offensive emanations from sewers and
the products of respiration of man and animals, but the term
malaria was reserved especially for the kind of bad air which
was supposed to give rise to the so-called malarial fevers. In
the light of our present knowledge it is evident that this
term is a misnomer. There is no good reason for believing that
the air of swamps is any more deleterious to those who breathe
it than the air of the sea coast or that in the vicinity of
inland lakes and ponds. Moreover, the stagnant pools, which
are covered with a 'green scum' and from which bubbles of gas
are given off, have lost all terrors for the well-informed
man, except in so far as they serve as breeding places for
mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles. The green scum is made up
of harmless algæ such as Spirogyra, Zygnema Protococcus,
Euglena, etc.; and the gas which is given off from the mud at
the bottom of such stagnant pools is for the most part a
well-known and comparatively harmless compound of hydrogen and
carbon-methane or 'marsh-gas.'
"In short, we now know that the air in the vicinity of marshes
is not deleterious because of any special kind of bad air
present in such localities, but because it contains mosquitoes
infected with a parasite known to be the specific cause of the
so-called malarial fevers. This parasite was discovered in the
blood of patients suffering from intermittent fevers by
Laveran, a surgeon in the French army, whose investigations
were conducted in Algiers. This famous discovery was made
toward the end of the year 1880; but it was several years
later before the profession generally began to attach much
importance to the alleged discovery."
G. M. Sternberg,
Malaria
(Popular Science Monthly, February, 1901).
"It was the French doctor Laveran who, after a stay in a
deadly malarial region of Algeria, discovered the malaria
parasite in 1880. True, that pigment-cells, which we should
now describe as malaria-parasites, were observed in human
blood as early as 1835, among others by Virchow; but their
relation to the disease was not known. In 1881, Laveran
embodied his researches in a book, but its importance was
overlooked. Bacteria attracted then general attention, and
Laveran's parasite, not being a bacterium, was little thought
of. He stuck, nevertheless, to his discovery, and was soon
joined in his researches by Golgi (the Italian professor to
whom we owe the method that led to the discovery of the
neurons), as also by Marchiafava, Celli, Councilman,
Sternberg, and the Viennese doctor Mannaberg who published in
1893 a full compendium of these researches. Dr. Mannaberg
proved in this book that the real cause of malaria is
Laveran's parasite, and he told its most interesting
life-history so far as it was then known.
"The parasite of malaria is not a bacterium. It is one of the
protozoa—namely, as it appeared later on, a coccidium, which,
like all other members of that family, undergoes in its
development a series of transformations. … Laveran saw that
some parasites ('corps à flagelles') would send out thin and
long flagella which soon parted company with the mother body,
and, owing to a proper helicoidal movement, disappeared in the
plasm of the blood. This never happened, however, in the body of
man, but only when a drop of his infected blood was drawn and
placed on the glass plate under the microscope.
{445}
Laveran noticed, moreover, minute 'crescent-shaped bodies'
which adhered to the red corpuscles and looked very much like
cysts, protected by a harder envelope. From fifteen to twenty
minutes after these bodies had been placed under the
microscope, they also gave origin to a great number of
'flagella'; and this evolution, too, he remarked, seemed to be
accomplished only when the cysts were taken out of the human
body.
"It was only natural to conclude from these observations that
the further development of the flagella may take place in the
body of some other animal than man, and this consideration
brought Laveran, in a book which he published in 1884, to the
idea that, taking into consideration the quantities of
mosquitoes in malarial countries, they may be the agents of
transition of malaria. This remark passed, however,
unperceived. Many had the suspicion that gnats may play some
part in the inoculation of malaria: the Italian peasants
always thought so, and in the medical literature an American
doctor, Mr. King, had advocated the same idea. But the
complete life-history of the malaria parasite being not yet
known fifteen years ago, the necessity of the mosquito or of
some other living being serving as a host for the completion
of the reproduction-cycle was not understood."
P. Kropotkin,
Recent Science
(Nineteenth Century Review, December, 1900).
Dr. Patrick Manson, of London, is credited with the final
formulation of the mosquito-malarial theory; but the proofs by
which it has been established have come from a number of
investigators, who have patiently traced the singular
life-history of the parasite, throughout its passage from man
to the mosquito and from the mosquito back to man, as a
vehicle of disease. Among the latter, prominence is given to
Major Ronald Ross, who lectured on the subject in London in
September, 1900, and was reported in "The Times" as follows:
"They first carried on their life in man—the intermediary
host—and later in the mosquito, the definitive host. These
Hæmamœbidæ began as spores which entered a blood corpuscle,
grew and became amœbæ. The nuclear matter divided, the
corpuscle containing it burst, the spores scattered, and each
spore then attached itself to a fresh corpuscle. The access of
the typical fever began with this scattering of the spores,
and thus the periodicity of the fever was accounted for.
Besides this neutral proliferation there was proliferation by
gametes. The blood of a fever patient exhibited the first
forms of the gametocytes. The spore grew inside the blood
corpuscle, and in that species which caused malignant fever it
grew until it had almost eaten the whole of the host. It was
then technically called a crescent. If this crescent were
examined under the microscope a wonderful development might be
observed to take place in a few moments. The crescent swelled
and became first oval, then spherical, and in about 15 minutes
after the drawing of the blood the microgametes made their escape
and were to be seen wriggling about in the 'liquor sanguinis.'
Ultimately they entered the macrogametocytes and produced
zygotes, which was nothing but a perfect example of the sperm
and the ovum process. "The whole process could be watched
under the microscope. The mosquito, having bitten a person in
whose blood these gametocytes were present, would take perhaps
100 of them into its own system, where the zygotes acquired a
power of movement, edging towards the wall of the mosquito's
stomach. About 12 hours afterwards they would be found
adhering to the walls of the stomach, through which they
passed and to which they finally attached themselves on the
outside. This process was accomplished in about 36 hours. The
zygotes then grew until they had increased to about eight
times their original diameter and were almost visible to the
naked eye. As the zygote increased it divided into meres
containing nuclear matter, which went to the surface. The
process here seemed to be closely similar to spermato-genesis,
and Professor Ray Lankester declared that the process was the
first known example of audrocratic parthenogenesis. When the
final development was reached the cells burst and the blasts
escaped and were immediately carried into all parts of the
insect. They made their way to the salivary gland, with the
evident purpose of seeking the blood of a fresh human host;
and the injection of the secretion of the mosquito's salivary
gland caused the bump which marked the mosquito's bite. A very
large series of experiments had shown conclusively that
malarial infection was caused by the bite of the mosquito.
"The parasites which infested human blood were carried only by
one genus of mosquito—'Anopheles'; the genus 'Culex' was
harmless. The two genera could be readily distinguished. For
example, 'Anopheles' rested on walls with their tails stuck
out perpendicular to the wall; 'Culex' attached themselves
with tails hanging downwards. 'Culex' bred in the water in
pots and tubs; 'Anopheles' in pools. The larvæ of 'Culex,' if
disturbed, sank to the bottom; the larvæ of 'Anopheles'
skimmed along the surface. It was doubtful whether the eggs of
'Anopheles' would live for more than a few days after
desiccation. The eggs were laid in an equilateral triangular
pattern; they were soon hatched, and the larvæ then began to
feed on the green scum in the water. A still evening, just
before or after rain, was the time most favourable for the
hatching out from the pupæ. As to the adults, he believed that
they could live for a year; at any rate, they had been kept
alive in tubes for more than a month; and it was certain that
in England and Italy they hibernated. The female of
'Anopheles' alone was the biter, and though the favourite
feeding time was at night, in West Africa the insects had been
found to bite all day. While 'Culex' could be detected by its
humming, 'Anopheles' was silent, and it was possible to be
bitten without knowing of it at the moment. He had found that
a blood diet was always necessary to the maturing of the eggs.
He had kept many thousands of mosquitoes under observation and
had never known one to lay eggs except after a meal of blood.
Malarial infection was derived chiefly from the native
children, who swarmed everywhere, and whose blood was full of
the infecting parasites."
An expedition sent out to West Africa by the Liverpool School
of Tropical Medicine, to pursue investigations there, reported
in December, 1900, that its observations confirm the
conclusion "that the blood parasite which gives rise to
malarial fever in man is carried by the mosquito from the
native to the European—and more especially from the native
children.
{446}
The examination of the blood of hundreds of native children
revealed the interesting fact that between 50 and 80 per cent.
of those under five years, between 20 and 30 per cent. of ages
between five and ten years, and a small percentage over ten
years contained malarial parasites, often in very large
numbers. The breeding places of the 'Anopheles' were found to
be chiefly the dug-out native canoes in the regions of the
mangrove swamps, claypits and puddles in the forested
district, and at Lokoja puddles and ditches on and alongside
the roads and footpaths. It was particularly noticed
everywhere how carelessness in the construction of roads and
footpaths, and more especially in the laying out of the areas
surrounding the factories of the European traders, was
accountable for the production of a large number of breeding
places for mosquitoes, which could easily have been avoided.
In fact, it is certain that in West Africa such conditions are
far more dangerous and more common than the proximity of a
marsh or swamp, which is often noted as a cause of fever. …
The two methods upon which alone any reliance can be placed as
measures for prevention are—(l) segregation of Europeans from
natives of all sorts, at a distance of about half a mile; and
(2) complete and efficient surface drainage of the whole
district in the immediate neighbourhood of European quarters."
The detection of the mosquito as a carrier of one disease drew
suspicion on the pestilent insect of other kindred crimes, and
strong evidence of its agency in propagating yellow fever has
been gathered already. A board of medical officers, which went
from the United States to Cuba in the summer of 1900 to study
the matter, reported in October that their investigations
tended quite positively to that conclusion. The board was
composed of Dr. Walter Reed, surgeon, United States Army, and
Dr. James Carroll, Dr. A. Agramonte, and Dr. Jesse W. Lazear,
all acting assistant surgeons of the United States Army. Two
months later, so much confirmation had been obtained that
Major-General Wood, Military-Governor of Cuba (himself a
medical man) was reported, on the 29th of December, to have
issued a general order directed to his post commanders,
"reciting that the chief surgeon of the Department of Cuba has
reported that it is now well-established that malaria, yellow
fever and filarial infection are transmitted by the bites of
mosquitoes. Therefore the troops are enjoined to observe
carefully two precautions: First—they are to use mosquito bars
in all barracks, hospitals and field service whenever
practicable. Second—They are to destroy the 'wigglers,' or
young mosquitoes, by the use of petroleum on the water where
they breed. Permanent pools or puddles are to be filled up. To
the others is to be applied one ounce of kerosene to each
fifteen square feet of water twice a month, which will destroy
not only the young but the old mosquitoes. This does not
injure drinking water if drawn from below and not dipped out.
Protection is thus secured, according to the order, because
the mosquito does not fly far, but seeks shelter when the wind
blows, and thus each community breeds its own mosquitoes."
This was followed in April, 1901, by an order from the chief
surgeon at Havana, approved by Surgeon-General Sternberg, U.
S. A., which says: "The recent experiments made in Havana by
the Medical Department of the Army having proved that yellow
fever, like malarial fever, is conveyed chiefly, and probably
exclusively, by the bite of infected mosquitoes, important
changes in the measures used for the prevention and treatment
of this disease have become necessary. So far as yellow fever
is concerned, infection of a room or building simply means
that it contains infected mosquitoes, that is mosquitoes which
have fed on yellow fever patients. Disinfection, therefore,
means the employment of measures aimed at the destruction of
these mosquitoes. The most effective of these measures is
fumigation, either with sulphur, formaldehydes or insect
powder. The fumes of sulphur are the quickest and the most
effective insecticide, but are otherwise objectionable.
Formaldehyde gas is quite effective if the infected rooms are
kept closed and sealed for two or three hours. The smoke of
insect powder has also been proved useful; it readily
stupefies mosquitoes, which drop to the floor and can then be
easily destroyed. The washing of walls, floors, ceilings and
furniture with disinfectants is unnecessary."
MEDICAL AND SURGICAL:
Recent advances in surgery.
"In no department of surgery has greater progress been made
than in the treatment of diseases of the abdominal organs. …
At the present time no abdominal organ is sacred from the
surgeon's knife. Bowels riddled with bullet-holes are
stitched up successfully; large pieces of gangrenous or
cancerous intestine are cut out, the ends of the severed tube
being brought into continuity by means of ingenious
appliances; the stomach is opened for the removal of a foreign
body, for the excision of a cancer, or for the administration
of nourishment to a patient unable to swallow; stones are
extracted from the substance of the kidneys, and these organs
when hopelessly diseased are extirpated; the spleen, when
enlarged or otherwise diseased, is removed bodily; gall-stones
are cutout, and even tumours of the liver are excised. The
kidney, the spleen, and the liver, when they cause trouble by
unnatural mobility, are anchored by stitches to the abdominal
wall; and the stomach has been dealt with successfully in the
same way for the cure of indigestion. Besides all this, many
cases of obstruction of the bowels, which in days not very
long gone by would have been doomed to inevitable death, are
now cured by a touch of the surgeon's knife. The perforation
of the intestine, which is one of the most formidable
complications of typhoid fever, has in a few cases been
successfully closed by operation; and inflammation of the
peritoneum, caused by the growth of tuberculous masses upon
it, has been apparently cured by opening the abdominal cavity.
Among the most useful advances of this department of surgery
must be accounted the treatment of the condition known as
'appendicitis,' which has been to a large extent rescued from
the physician, with his policy of 'laissez faire,' and placed
under the more resolute and more efficient government of the
surgeon. A New York surgeon not long ago reported a series of
100 cases of operation for appendicitis, with only two deaths.
…
{447}
"That surgery could ever deal with the abdominal organs in the
manner just described would have seemed to our predecessors in
the earlier part of the Queen's reign the baseless fabric of a
vision. But the modern surgeon, clad in antisepsis, as the Lady
in 'Comus' was 'clothed round with chastity,' defies the
'rabble rout' of microbes and dares things which only a short
time ago were looked upon as beyond the wildest dreams of
scientific enthusiasm. It is scarcely twenty years since the
late Sir John Erichsen declared in a public address that
operative surgery had nearly reached its furthest possible
limits of development. He pointed out that there were certain
regions of the body into which the surgeon's knife could never
penetrate, naming the brain, the heart, and the lung as the
most obvious examples of such inviolable sanctuaries of life.
Within the last fifteen years the surgeon has brought each of
these organs, which constitute what Bichat called the 'tripod
of life,' within his sphere of conquest. … It must, however,
be admitted that the results of brain surgery, though
brilliant from the operative point of view, have so far been
somewhat disappointing as regards the ultimate cure of the
disease. In certain forms of epilepsy, in particular, which at
first seemed to be curable by removal of the 'cortical
discharging centre' in the brain which is the source of the
mischief, the tendency to fits has been found to return after
a time, and the last state of the patient has been worse than
the first. Still, the mere fact that the brain has been proved
to be capable of being dealt with surgically with perfect safety
is in itself a very distinct progress. …
"Other parts of the nervous system have been brought within
the range of surgical art. The vertebral column has been
successfully trephined, and fragments of bone pressing on the
cord have been taken away in cases of fractured spine; tumours
have also been removed from the spinal cord by Mr. Horsley and
others. There is a steadily increasing record of cures of
intractable neuralgia, especially of the face, by division or
removal of the affected nerve trunks. … The ends of cut nerves
have also been re-united, and solutions of their continuity
have been filled up with portions of nerve taken from animals.
… The heart naturally cannot be made so free with, even by the
most enterprising surgeon, as the brain or the lung. Yet
within the past twelve months a Norwegian practitioner has
reported a case which encourages a hope that even wounds of
the heart may not be beyond surgical treatment. … Tuberculous
and inflammatory diseases of bones and joints, formerly
intractable except by the 'ultima ratio' of the amputating
knife, are now cured without mutilation. Deformities are
corrected by division of tendons, the excision of portions of
bone, and the physiological exercise of muscles, without
complicated apparatus. The healing of large wounds is assisted
by the grafting of healthy skin on the raw surface; wide gaps in
bones and tendons are filled up with portions of similar
structures obtained from animals." …
Malcolm Morris,
The Progress of Medicine during the Queen's Reign
(Nineteenth Century, May, 1897).
See, also, X RAYS, below.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE:
International cataloguing.
On the 22d of March, 1894, the Secretaries of the Royal
Society of London addressed the following communication to
various institutions and societies: "The Royal Society of
London, as you are probably aware, has published nine quarto
volumes of 'The catalogue of scientific papers,' the first
volume of the decade 1874-1883 having been issued last year.
This catalogue is limited to periodical scientific literature,
i. e., to papers published in the transactions, etc., of
societies, and in journals; it takes no account whatever of
monographs and independent books, however important. The
titles, moreover, are arranged solely according to authors'
names; and though the Society has long had under consideration
the preparation of, and it is hoped may eventually issue, as a
key to the volumes already published, a list in which the
titles are arranged according to subject-matter, the catalogue
is still being prepared according to authors' names. Further,
though the Society has endeavored to include the titles of all
the scientific papers published in periodicals of acknowledged
standing, the catalogue is, even as regards periodical
literature, confessedly incomplete, owing to the omission of
the titles of papers published in periodicals of little
importance, or not easy of access.
"Owing to the great development of scientific literature, the
task of the Society in continuing the catalogue, even in its
present form, is rapidly increasing in difficulty. At the same
time it is clear that the progress of science would be greatly
helped by, indeed, almost demands, the compilation of a
catalogue which should aim at completeness, and should contain
the titles of scientific publications, whether appearing in
periodicals or independently. In such a catalogue the titles
should be arranged not only according to authors' names, but
also according to subject-matter, the text of each paper and
not the title only being consulted for the latter purpose. And
the value of the catalogue would be greatly enhanced by a
rapid periodical issue, and by publication in such a form that
the portion which pertains to any particular branch of science
might be obtained separately. It is needless to say that the
preparation and publication of such a complete catalogue is
far beyond the power and means of any single society.
"Led by the above considerations, the president and council of
the Royal Society have appointed a committee to inquire into
and report upon the feasibility of such a catalogue being
compiled through international co-operation."
Library Journal,
March, 1895.
The movement thus initiated received cordial support and led
to the convening of an International Conference in London, in
1896. The Conference was opened on Tuesday, July 14, at
Burlington House. "The 42 delegates, representing nearly all
the governments of civilized countries and most of the leading
scientific societies of the world, were welcomed by Sir John
Gorst, as provisional president. … It was decided that
English, German and French should be the official languages of
the conference. … The conference closed on Friday, July 17,
the need of an international catalogue having been fully
recognized, and a plan for its preparation mapped out. It was
decided 'That it is desirable to compile and publish by means
of some international organization a complete catalogue of
scientific literature, arranged according both to
subject-matter and to authors' names. That in preparing such a
catalogue regard shall, in the first instance, be had to the
requirements of scientific investigators, to the end that
these may, by means of the catalogue, find out most easily
what has been published concerning any particular subject of
inquiry.'
{448}
"The preparation of the catalogue is to be in charge of an
international council, to be appointed, and the final editing
and publication shall be conducted by a central international
bureau, under the direction of the international council. Any
country that is willing to do so shall be entrusted with the
task of collecting, provisionally classifying, and
transmitting to the central bureau, in accordance with rules
laid down by the international council, all the entries
belonging to the scientific literature of that country. 'In
indexing according to subject-matter regard shall be had, not
only to the title (of a paper or book), but also to the nature
of the contents.' The catalogue shall comprise all published
original contributions—periodical articles, pamphlets,
memoirs, etc.—to the mathematical, physical, or natural
sciences, … 'to the exclusion of what are sometimes called the
applied sciences—the limits of the several sciences to be
determined hereafter.' …
"The central bureau shall issue the catalogue in the form of
'slips' or 'cards,' the details of the cards to be hereafter
determined, and the issue to take place as promptly as
possible. … It was also decided that the central bureau shall
be located in London, and that the Royal Society appoint a
committee to study all undecided questions relating to the
catalogue and to report later. … No system of classification
was adopted and the subject was turned over for consideration
to the committee of organization, which should also suggest
'such details as will render the catalogue of the greatest
possible use to those unfamiliar with English.' January 1,
1900, is fixed as the date for the beginning of the
catalogue."
Library Journal,
August, 1896.
A second international conference, to consider further the
plans previously outlined, was held October 11-13, 1898, at
Burlington House, London. "The attendance was a representative
one, including delegates from Austria, Belgium, France,
Germany, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden,
Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States
(represented by Dr. Cyrus Adler), Cape Colony, India, Natal,
New Zealand, and Queensland. Russia, Spain and Italy were the
only large continental countries unrepresented. …
"Professor Forster having formally presented the report of the
Committee of the Royal Society, copies of which were forwarded
in April last to the several governments represented at the
conference, the discussion of the recommendations was opened,
and it was resolved: 'That the conference confirms the
principle that the catalog be published in the double form of
cards and books. That schedules of classification shall be
authorized for the several branches of science which it is
decided to include in the catalog. That geography be defined
as limited to mathematical and physical geography, and that
political and general geography be excluded. That anatomy be
entered on the list as a separate subject. That a separate
schedule be provided for each of the following branches of
science: Mathematics, Astronomy, Meteorology, Physics,
Crystallography, Chemistry, Mineralogy, Geology (including
Petrology), Geography, mathematical and physical,
Paleontology, Anatomy, Zoology, Botany, Physiology (including
Pharmacology and Experimental Pathology), Bacteriology,
Psychology, Anthropology. That each of the sciences for which
a separate schedule is provided shall be indicated by a
symbol.'" Resolutions were then adopted providing for the
regulations to be observed in the preparation of cards or
slips, and for the organization of the work through Regional
Bureaus.
"The following recommendations of the Royal Society providing
for international conventions in connection with the catalog
were adopted: 'Each region in which a Regional Bureau is
established, charged with the duty of preparing and
transmitting slips to the Central Bureau for the compilation
of the catalog, shall be called a constituent region. In 1905,
in 1910, and every tenth year afterwards, an international
convention shall be held in London (in July) to reconsider,
and, if necessary, revise the regulations for carrying out the
work of the catalog authorized by the international convention
of 1898. Such an international convention shall consist of
delegates appointed by the respective governments to represent
the constituent regions, but no region shall be represented by
more than three delegates. The rules of procedure of each
international convention shall be the same as those of the
international convention of 1898. The decisions of an
international convention shall remain in force until the next
convention meets.'
"The following recommendations of the Royal Society relating
to the constitution of an International Council, which shall
be the governing body of the catalog, were adopted: 'Each
Regional Bureau shall appoint one person to serve as a member
of a body to be called The International Council. The
International Council shall, within the regulations laid down
by the international convention, be the governing body of the
catalog. The International Council shall appoint its own
chairman and secretary. It shall meet in London once in three
years at least, and at such other times as the chairman, with
the concurrence of five other members, may specially appoint.
It shall, subject to the regulations laid down by the
convention, be the supreme authority for the consideration of
and decision concerning all matters belonging to the Central
Bureau. It shall make a report of its doings, and submit a
balance sheet, copies of which shall be distributed to the
several Regional Bureaus, and published in some recognized
periodical or periodicals in each of the constituent
regions.'"
Library Journal,
December, 1898.
The third international conference on a catalog of scientific
literature was held in London, June 12, 1900, under the
auspices of the Royal Society. "Unfortunately the United
States finds no place in the list [of delegates]. This was
owing to the failure to secure from Congress the necessary
appropriation enabling the United States to join in the
enterprise; and as the call to the conference required that
delegates be charged with full powers, it was impossible for
any representative of the United States to be in attendance. …
"The general results of the conference are reviewed by
Professor Henry E. Armstrong, in 'Nature,' as follows: 'There
can be little doubt that the ultimate execution of this
important enterprise is now assured. … Everyone was of opinion
that if a fair beginning can once be made, the importance of the
work is so great; it will be of such use to scientific workers
at large; that it will rapidly grow in favor and soon secure
that wide support which is not yet given to it simply because
its character and value are but imperfectly understood.
Therefore, all were anxious that a beginning should be made.
{449}
"'It has been estimated that if 300 sets or the equivalent are
sold the expenses of publication will be fully met. As the
purchase of more than half this number was guaranteed by
France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, and the United
Kingdom, the conference came to the conclusion that the number
likely to be taken by other countries would be such that the
subscriptions necessary to cover the cost of the catalog would
be obtained. The resolution arrived at after this opinion had
been formed, That the catalog include both an author's and a
subject index, according to the schemes of the Provisional
International Committee, must, in fact, be read as a
resolution to establish the catalog.
"'Of the countries represented at the various conferences,
excepting Belgium, not one has expressed any unwillingness
eventually to co-operate in the work. Unfortunately, neither
the United States nor Russia was officially represented on the
present occasion. The attempts that have been made to induce
the government in the United States to directly subsidise the
catalog have not been successful: but that the United States
will contribute its fair share, both of material and pecuniary
support, cannot be doubted. There as here private or corporate
enterprise must undertake much that is done under government
auspices in Europe. As to Russia, the organization of
scientific workers there has been so little developed that it
is very difficult to secure their attention, and probably our
Russian colleagues are as yet but very imperfectly aware of
what is proposed. … A Provisional International Committee has
been appointed, which will take the steps now necessary to
secure the adhesion and co-operation of countries not yet
pledged to support the scheme.
"'Originally it was proposed to issue a card as well as a book
catalog, but on account of the great additional expense this
would involve, and as the Americans in particular have not
expressed themselves in favor of a card issue, it is resolved
to publish the catalog, for the present, only in the form of
annual volumes.
"'From the outset great stress has been laid on the
preparation of subject indexes which go behind the titles of
papers and give fairly full information as to the nature of
their contents. Both at the first and the second International
Conference this view met with the fullest approval. Meanwhile,
the action of the German government has made it necessary to
somewhat modify the original plan. In Germany, a regional
bureau will be established, supported by a government
subvention, and it is intended that the whole German
scientific literature shall be cataloged in this office; no
assistance will be asked from authors or editors or corporate
bodies. In such an office it will for the present be
impossible to go behind titles; consequently, only the titles
of German papers will be quoted in the catalog. In the first
instance, some other countries may prefer to adopt this course
on the ground of economy. But in this country, at least, the
attempt will be made to deal fully with the literature, and
the co-operation of authors and editors will be specially
invited. …
"'The catalog is to be published annually in seventeen
distinct volumes. The collection of material is to commence
from January 1, 1901. As it will be impossible to print and
issue so many volumes at once, it is proposed to publish them
in sets of four or five at quarterly intervals.'"
Library Journal,
September, 1900.
The fourth Conference was held at London, December 12-13,
1900, when "all arrangements were completed for the definitive
commencement of the work on January 1. … The responsibility
for publication and for the initial expenditure is undertaken
by the Royal Society. … A comprehensive and elaborate system
of classification has been devised with the assent of all the
countries interested. This uniformity in a region where
diversity of a perplexing kind has hitherto ruled is in itself
a great boon to scientific workers everywhere. It may be
anticipated that the scheme will by degrees be adopted in all
collections of scientific works. As to the nothing aspects of
this important undertaking, larger more need be said at
present than that the scientific cataloguing of all scientific
work most appropriately celebrates the opening of the
twentieth century."
[Transcriber's note: In the previous sentence the words
"nothing" and "larger" appear interchanged.]
London Times,
December 14, 1900.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE:
In the Nineteenth Century.
See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY: DOMINANT LINES.
----------Scientific Literature: End--------
----------SCOTLAND: Start--------
SCOTLAND: A. D. 1900.
Union of the Free and United Presbyterian Churches.
"In the ecclesiastical world only one event of the first
importance has happened [in Scotland, in 1900], the
consummation of the union between the Free and United
Presbyterian Churches, which has been the subject of
negotiation for six years past. The May meetings of the
leading representative courts of the two denominations were
occupied almost exclusively with the final arrangements for
the formal act of union, which was fixed to take place on
October 31. An attempt by a number of lay office-bearers of
the Free Church to postpone the final step, on the ground that
the congregations had not been directly and fairly consulted,
failed of its object. On October 30 the General Assembly of
the Free Church and the Synod of the United Presbyterian
Church held their last meetings in Edinburgh as independent
bodies. On the following day they formally constituted
themselves the United Free Church of Scotland in the Waverley
Market, the largest public hall in Scotland, in presence of an
audience computed to number 6,000 persons. The union has, as
is the rule in Scotland, been accompanied by a 'disruption.'
The minority of the Free Church, which on October 30 resolved
to remain outside the United Free Church, is very small in
number and is financially weak, but it claims to be the true
Free Church of Scotland, it is asserting itself vigorously in
the Highlands and islands, where Free Church
'constitutionalism' has always been strongest, and it has
taken the first step in a process of litigation for the
purpose of discovering whether it or the United Free Church is
legally entitled to the property of the original Free Church
founded in 1843. But for this secession, the strength of which
is not accurately estimable, the new denomination would,
according to the latest official returns, have opposed about
1,680 congregations and about 530,000 members to the 1,450
congregations and 650,000 members of the Church of Scotland."
London Times,
December 27, 1900.
{450}
SEA POWER.
See (in this volume)
NAVIES OF THE SEA POWERS.
SEAL-KILLING DISPUTES.
See (in this volume)
BERING SEA QUESTIONS.
SEGAN FU,
SI-NGAN-FU,
The Chinese Imperial Court at.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER).
SEMINOLES,
United States Agreement with the.
See (in this volume)
INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1893-1899.
SENEGAL; A. D. 1895.
Under a French Governor-General.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (FRENCH WEST AFRICA).
SENOUSSI, The Sect of the.
See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1882-1899.
SERAPEION, Discovery of the.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT:
DISCOVERY OF THE SERAPEION.
SERVIA: A. D. 1894-1901.
Abolition of the constitution by royal proclamation.
Final exile and death of ex-King Milan.
See (in this volume)
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES (SERVIA).
SERVIA: A. D. 1901 (April).
Promulgation of a new constitution.
A new constitution for Servia was promulgated by King
Alexander, at Belgrade, on the 19th of April, 1901. Of the
character of the instrument, the King had previously given
intimations in an interview conceded to the editor of the
"Revue d'Orient," the account of which, translated for the
"London Times," is partly as follows: "Our three Constitutions
of 1869, 1888, and 1901 differ from each other in important
matters of principle. That of 1869 practically amounted to
absolutism, if I may thus qualify any Constitution. It is true
that the executive power retained but few prerogatives, but
that was deceptive, as the rights of the Legislature were
surrounded by exceptions and restrictions which made it easy
to paralyse and annihilate them at any moment. The
Constitution of 1888 had the contrary defects. It subordinated
the executive power to that of the Legislature, only leaving to
the former an altogether insufficient sphere of action. It had
another great fault. It was excessively doctrinaire and
theoretical, affecting to foresee everything and to regulate
everything, so that the legislative power was bound hand and
foot and could not legislate freely. The Constitution which
will be promulgated on April 19, the anniversary of the day
when the fortress of Belgrade was finally evacuated by the
Turks in 1867, is a charter similar to those which organize
the public powers in several countries of Europe, as, for
instance, in England and in France. It settles the form of
government, the powers of the King and of the State, the
rights of subjects, the working of the national
representation, &c. But it leaves to the Legislature the
settlement of all details. What more particularly
distinguishes the Constitution of 1901 from that of 1869 is
that it prevents the use and abuse of ordinances by the
Executive, which will be obliged to frame special laws in
every case—that is to say, laws accepted and approved of by
the King, the Senate, and the Chamber of Deputies. Thus
legality will henceforth be the regulating wheel in the
machinery of government. The Chamber of Deputies will be much
better organized, as the enlightened classes will be much more
numerously represented. The Constitution of 1901 will also
present great advantages over that of 1888. The Legislature
will control the acts of the Government as far as can possibly
be desired. At the same time the constitutional regime as
established in the new Constitution will give the King all the
power that he ought to retain in a country that is still new,
like Servia, without diminishing any of the inviolable
liberties of the nation.
"I attach very great importance to the new political
institution with which I am going to endow Servia—namely, an
Upper Chamber. Considering that it already exists, not only in
monarchical countries, but also in most Republics, as, for
instance, in France and the United States, I cannot admit that
it should be regarded as involving the slightest aristocratic
tendency or idea. I know my country well enough to be sure
that I shall find a sufficient number of high-class
politicians to recruit the Senate, and that enough will remain
for the Chamber of Deputies. I am likewise fully persuaded
that the legislative task of the Parliament will be much
better performed when the Chamber of Deputies is conscious
that above it there exists a Senate whose business it is to
revise and improve the laws which it has elaborated, of course
for the greater benefit of the nation. Then, again, the Senate
will form a moderating element which was much wanting in our
Legislature. What Servia is suffering from is not any lack of
legislation, but from the circumstances that the existing laws
were hastily framed or were the outcome of party rancour. If
we had formerly had a Senate composed of men of experience and
good patriots, they would never have consented to the conclusion
of so many onerous loans, to the application of so many
iniquitous measures, nor to the convocation of the special
tribunal, 'le tribunal extraordinaire,' of 1899.
"At first the Radical party was not favourable to the
institution of an Upper Chamber, but it now recognizes the
great advantages it will offer, and has rallied to my project.
The Progressist party has always been favourable to it. The
majority of the Liberal party has also adhered to it. I
therefore believe that this new institution will be of the
greatest service to the country. All that is required, and
with a little good will it can be easily done, is that the
members of the two Chambers should endeavour honestly,
sincerely, and loyally to work for the good of the State and
of the nation. If I have not thought right to raise the
qualification for the suffrage, as desired by some people, it
is because I did not wish to disfranchise any of those who
have enjoyed the right of voting during the last 35 years. I
do not wish to restrict any of the rights of the nation.
{451}
"The application of the new Constitution will be the great
task of my Government, in which I have every confidence. The
Prime Minister, Dr. Vuitch, has the sympathy and support not
only of his own party but of all who would like to see the
country governed in a liberal spirit. His presence at the head
of the Ministry is a pledge for the active and sincere
co-operation of all elements of order and progress. … As soon
as the new Constitution has been promulgated, the Government
will invite the co-operation of all those which admit its
necessity and fitness. A large Conservative party will thus be
formed which will have the requisite power and authority for
all purposes of government, for the application of the
Constitution, and for the elaboration of financial and
economic laws necessary for the progress of the country.
"As regards the question of the succession to the Throne, I
wanted to settle it finally, as the members of the reigning
dynasty are not numerous unless the remote collateral lines be
included, which is not possible. Moreover, everybody wished me
to take in this matter such decisions as I might think proper
in view of securing the continuation of the Servian Monarchy.
The first thing to be done was to safeguard the rights of the
direct line without seeking to bind ourselves by the Salic
Law, which there is really no reason to apply in our country.
I should add here that there are no anti-dynastic elements in
Servia, with the exception, perhaps, of a few hare-brained
individuals who really do not enter into account. My people
are profoundly attached to the reigning dynasty, and never
lose an opportunity of showing me their loyalty. It is the
same with all the political parties.
"Before promulgating the Constitution I decided to consult the
most influential members of the parties in office. They agreed
with me, and promised me to assist harmoniously in the work. I
have also consulted the leading members of the Liberal party,
and with two or three exceptions they have given me the same
assurances. Such being the case, I may say that the
Constitution of 1901 is not a production of my will or of my
good pleasure, but that it is the result of an understanding
between the Sovereign and the leaders of the three political
parties. I consequently reckon upon their sincere and active
co-operation, and I trust they will not fail me. I am firmly
convinced that the new Constitution will act as a fresh and
vigorous stimulus to my country, and that it will bring it
that calm and stability which it sorely needs. I sincerely
regard it as a source of prosperity and welfare for Servia."
SEVERALTY ACT, The Indian.
See (in this volume)
INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1899-1900.
SEYMOUR, Vice-Admiral Sir Edward:
Expedition to relieve Peking.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JUNE 10-26).
SEYYIDIEH, The province of.
See (in this volume)
BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE: A. D. 1895-1897.
SHAFTER, General:
Commanding the expedition against Santiago de Cuba.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).
SHAFTER, General:
Surrender of Spanish forces at Santiago and all eastern Cuba.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY 4-17).
SHAFTER, General:
Report of sickness in army.
Removal of troops to Montauk Point.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: CUBA).
SHANGHAI.
"Shanghai is the New York of China. It occupies a position on
the coast quite similar to that of New York on our own eastern
coast, and its percentage of importations into China is about
the same as that which New York enjoys in the United States.
The large share of the foreign trade of China which Shanghai
controls is due largely to its position at the mouth of the
great artery through which trade flows to and from China—the
Yangtze-Kiang. Transportation in bulk in China up to the
present time having been almost exclusively by water, and the
Yangtze being navigable by steamers and junks for more than
2,000 miles, thus reaching the most populous, productive, and
wealthy sections of the country, naturally a very large share
of the foreign commerce entering or leaving that country
passes through Shanghai, where foreign merchants, bankers,
trade representatives, trade facilities, and excellent docking
and steamship conveniences exist. The lines of no less than
eight great steamship companies center at Shanghai, where they
land freight and passengers from their fleets of vessels which
are counted by hundreds, while the smaller vessels, for river
and coastwise service, and the native junks are counted
literally by thousands. The Yangtze from Shanghai westward to
Hankow, a distance of 582 miles, is navigable for very large
steamships that are capable of coasting as well as river
service. Hankow, which with its suburbs has nearly a million
people, is the most important of the interior cities, being a
great distributing center for trade to all parts of central
and western China and thus the river trade between Shanghai
and Hankow is of itself enormous, while the coastwise trade
from Shanghai, both to the north and south, and that by the
Grand Canal to Tientsin, the most important city of northern
China, is also very large."
United States, Bureau of Statistics,
Monthly Summary, March, 1899, page 2191.
"When the English chose this position, in 1842, for their
mercantile settlement, it seemed difficult to believe that
they would ever succeed in making the place a rival of Canton
or of Amoy. It is true that Shanghai possessed important
commercial relations already, and the great geographical
advantage of commanding the entrance to the navigable river
which traverses the whole empire from west to east; but the
builders of the city there had to struggle with enormous
difficulties of soil and climate. They had to solidify and
drain the land, dig canals, dry up marshes, cleanse the air of
its miasms, besides incessantly dredging and clearing the
channel, to keep it open for their ships. The first European
merchants established at Shanghai were favored in fortune by
the national disasters of China. The Taiping war drove
fugitives in multitudes to the territory conceded to
foreigners, and when the town of Soutcheou was destroyed, in
1860, Shanghai succeeded it as the great city of the country."
É. Reclus,
Nouvelle géographie universelle,
volume 7, page 455.
SHANGHAI: A. D. 1898.
Rioting consequent on French desecration of a cemetery.
Extension of foreign settlements.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898-1899.
SHANTUNG, The "Boxer" outbreak in.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH).
SHIMONOSEKI, Text of the Treaty of.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895.
{452}
SHIPPING OF THE WORLD: In 1900.
Statement of number and net and gross tonnage of steam and
sailing vessels of over 100 tons of the several countries of
the world, as recorded in Lloyd's Register for 1900-1901
[dated July 1, 1900].
United States, Commissioner of Navigation,
Annual Report, 1900, page 125.
FLAG STEAM. SAIL. TOTAL.
------------------------- ------------------ -------------
Number. Net tons. Gross tons. Number. Net tons. Number. Tonnage.
British:
United Kingdom. 7,020 7,072,401 11,513,759 1,894 1,727,687 8,914 13,241,446
Colonies. 910 378,925 635,331 1,014 384,477 1,924 1,019,808
Total. 7,930 7,451,326 12,149,090 2,908 2,112,164 10,838 14,261,254
American
(United States):
Sea. 690 594,237 878,564 2,130 1,156,498 2,820 2,035,062
Lake. 242 436,979 576,402 73 138,807 315 715,209
Total. 932 1,031,216 1,454,966 2,203 1,295,305 3,135 2,750,271
Argentine. 95 36,938 57,239 106 30,407 201 87,646
Austro-Hungarian 214 240,808 387,471 56 28,613 270 416,084
Belgian. 115 111,624 162,493 2 420 117 162,913
Brazilian. 215 85,799 133,507 117 29,580 332 163,087
Chilean. 52 38,960 62,872 75 48,106 127 110,978
Chinese. 48 41,847 65,721 1 573 49 66,294
Colombian. 1 555 877 5 1,110 6 1,987
Danish. 369 240,599 412,273 433 106,738 802 519,011
Dutch. 289 307,574 467,209 117 63,068 406 530,277
French. 662 542,305 1,052,193 552 298,309 1,214 1,350,562
German. 1,209 1,344,605 2,159,919 501 490,114 1,710 2,650,033
Greek. 139 111,797 178,137 230 65,957 369 245,094
Haitian. 5 912 1,750 2 414 7 2,164
Italian. 312 343,020 540,349 864 443,306 1,176 983,655
Japanese. 484 303,303 488,187 582 86,370 1,006 574,557
Mexican. 25 6,562 11,460 13 3,081 38 14,541
Montenegrin. 1 1,064 1,857 14 3,513 15 5,370
Norwegian. 806 467,123 764,683 1,574 876,129 2,380 1,640,812
Peruvian. 3 3,204 4,869 33 9,607 36 14,476
Portuguese. 48 37,153 57,664 156 53,391 204 111,055
Roumanian. 17 9,686 17,361 3 659 20 18,020
Russian. 496 292,277 469,496 750 251,405 1,246 720,901
Sarawakian. 2 244 418 2 418
Siamese. 4 821 1,435 1 294 5 1,729
Spanish. 422 416,882 642,231 175 52,549 597 694,780
Swedish. 678 260,023 418,550 755 218,722 1,433 637,272
Turkish. 135 58,974 94,781 170 48,709 305 143,490
Uruguayan. 17 6,438 10,468 19 4,032 36 14,500
Venezuelan. 12 2,450 4,246 8 1,185 20 5,431
Zanzibarian. 3 1,871 2,808 3 2,808
Other countries:
Hawaii. 23 11,185 16,922 24 29,707 47 46,629
Cuba. 35 17,651 27,040 11 2,410 46 29,450
Philippine Islands 69 19,587 31,099 42 8,236 111 39,335
Various:
Arabia,
Salvador,
Ecuador,
Liberia,
Samos,
Nicaragua,
Bulgaria,
Costa Rica,
Egypt,
Persia,
Porto Rico,
etc. 31 10,130 17,717 22 9,127 53 26,844
Total. 15,898 13,800,513 22,309,358 12,524 6,674,370 28,422 29,043,728
SHIRE HIGHLANDS, The.
See (in this volume)
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE.
SHOA.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896.
SHUN-CH'ING, Anti-missionary insurrection at.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898-1899 (JUNE-JANUARY).
SIAH CHAI, or Vegetarians, The.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1895 (AUGUST).
SIAM: A. D. 1896-1899.
Declaration between Great Britain and France
with regard to Siam.
A declaration of agreement, in part as follows, between Great
Britain and France, was signed at London, January 15, 1896:
"I.
The Governments of Great Britain and France engage to one
another that neither of them will, without the consent of the
other, in any case, or under any pretext, advance their armed
forces into the region which is comprised in the basins of the
Petcha Bouri, Meiklong, Menam, and Bang Pa Kong (Petriou)
Rivers and their respective tributaries, together with the
extent of coast from Muong Bang Tapan to Muong Pase, the
basins of the rivers on which those two places are situated,
and the basins of the other rivers, the estuaries of which are
included in that coast; and including also the territory lying
to the north of the basin of the Menam, and situated between
the Anglo-Siamese frontier, the Mekong River, and the eastern
watershed of the Me Ing. They further engage not to acquire
within this region any special privilege or advantage which
shall not be enjoyed in common by, or equally open to, Great
Britain and France, and their nationals and dependents. These
stipulations, however, shall not be interpreted as derogating
from the special clauses which, in virtue of the Treaty
concluded on the 3rd October, 1893, between France and Siam,
apply to a zone of 25 kilometers on the right bank of the
Mekong and to the navigation of that river.
{453}
II.
Nothing in the foregoing clause shall hinder any action on
which the two Powers may agree, and which they shall think
necessary in order to uphold the independence of the Kingdom
of Siam. But they engage not to enter into any separate
Agreement permitting a third Power to take any action from
which they are bound by the present Declaration themselves to
abstain.
III.
From the mouth of the Nam Huok northwards as far as the
Chinese frontier the thalweg of the Mekong shall form the
limit of the possessions or spheres of influence of Great
Britain and France. It is agreed that the nationals and
dependents of each of the two countries shall not exercise any
jurisdiction or authority within the possessions or sphere of
influence of the other."
In a despatch to the British Ambassador at Paris, written on
the same day, Lord Salisbury explained the intent and purpose
of the agreement as follows: "It might be thought that because
we have engaged ourselves, and have received the engagement of
France, not under any circumstances to invade this territory,
that therefore we are throwing doubt upon the complete title
and rights of the Siamese to the remainder of their kingdom,
or, at all events, treating those rights with disregard. Any
such interpretation would entirely misrepresent the intention
with which this arrangement has been signed. We have selected
a particular area for the application of the stipulations of
this Treaty, not because the title of the King of Siam to
other portions of his dominions is less valid, but because it
is the area which affects our interests as a commercial
nation. The valley of the Menam is eminently fitted to receive
a high industrial development. Possibly in course of time it
may be the site of lines of communication which will be of
considerable importance to neighbouring portions of the
British Empire. There seems every prospect that capital will
flow into this region if reasonable security is offered for
its investment, and great advantage would result to the
commerce and industry of the world, and especially of Great
Britain, if capitalists could be induced to make such an
application of the force which they command. But the history
of the region in which Siam is situated has not in recent
years been favourable to the extension of industrial
enterprise, or to the growth of that confidence which is the
first condition of material improvement. A large territory to
the north has passed from the hands of the Burmese Government
to those of Great Britain. A large territory to the east has
passed from the hands of its former possessors to those of
France. The events of this recent history certainly have a
tendency to encourage doubts of the stability of the Siamese
dominion; and without in any degree sharing in those doubts,
or admitting the possibility, within any future with which we
have to deal, of the Siamese independence being compromised,
Her Majesty's Government could not but feel that there would
be an advantage in giving some security to the commercial
world that, in regard to the region where the most active
development is likely to take place, no further disturbances
of territorial ownership are to be apprehended."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: France, Number 2, 1896, pages 1-3).
Perhaps the above explanation can be better understood after
reading the following:
"In the early eighties France commenced the subjugation of
Tonquin. … It was not until 1893 that France openly attacked
Siam. The demand was subtly formulated—on behalf, not of the
Government of the French Republic, but of 'the Empire of
Annam.' But even so the French had been in Annam for perhaps a
quarter of a century, whereas Siam could show an undisturbed,
undisputed tenure of the Mekong River's 'rive gauche' for at
least ninety years. … The cession to France of territory
amounting to rather more than one-third of the entire kingdom
was insisted upon; and in March 1893 that Power sent the
ship-of-war Lutin to Bangkok, where she remained for months a
standing menace. A rigorous blockade of the Siamese seaboard
followed, resulting in a few short days in complete surrender
of the disputed territory to France and the payment of a heavy
war indemnity. … By the Anglo-French Convention of last year
[as given above] the King of Siam's position became, to say
the least, slightly anomalous. That agreement practically
amounted to the fair division, between France and England, of
the whole of Siam save that portion situate in the fertile
valley of the Meinam, whose autonomy they still guarantee to
preserve. … France holds, in addition to the long-coveted port
of Chantabûn, that part of the province of Luang Phrabang
which is situate upon the right bank of the Mekong. … The
Siamese king is 'nulli secundus' among Oriental monarchs as a
progressive ruler. And fate has been unkind to him indeed! He
has encouraged English customs and the English language by all
the means in his power—has taken the kindliest possible
interest in the introduction of electric light, electric
tramways, &c., into his capital—has endeavoured to model his
army and navy, his prison and other systems, upon the English
method—and has in person opened the first railway (that
connecting Bangkok with Pâknam) in Siam. It is, indeed, one of
the strangest and most interesting sights, as you stroll
through the streets of the capital, to witness the 'riksha and
gharry of comparative barbarism travelling in juxtaposition to
the electric tramcar and the bicycle! And for his broad and
enlightened views the King of Siam has been requited by the
wholesale and utterly unjustifiable plunder of his most
fertile lands."
Percy Cross Standing,
The Significance of the Siamese Visit
(Nineteenth Century, June, 1897).
Frequent collisions between French and Siamese in the
so-called "neutral zone" on the right bank of the Mekong
continued, until a new convention was agreed upon in May,
1890. This gave to France the province of Luang-Phrabang, in
return for which she agreed to withdraw entirely from the
neutral territory and from the port of Chantabûn.
SIAM: A. D. 1898.
Gift of relics of Buddha.
See (in this volume)
BUDDHA.
SIAM: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
SIAN FU,
SI-NGAN-FU,
The Chinese Imperial Court at.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER).
SIBERIA.
See (in this volume)
RUSSIA IN ASIA.
SIBERIAN ARCTIC EXPLORATION.
See (in this volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION, 1805, 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900.
{454}
SIERRA LEONE PROTECTORATE.
Extension of British authority over the Hinterland of the
Colony of Sierra Leone.
The hut tax.
Insurrection of natives.
"Immediately adjoining the Colony of Sierra Leone, lying to
the northward and eastward, is the Hinterland, the boundaries
of which were defined by the Agreement between Great Britain
and France which was concluded 21st January 1895. The extreme
depth from south to north is about 210 miles, lying between 7°
and 10° north latitude, and 180 miles from east to west, lying
between 10° 40' and 13° 20' of west longitude. The estimated area
is rather more than 30,000 square miles—about the size of
Ireland. … Unlike many regions on the west coast of Africa,
the country is, for the most part, well watered by rivers and
running streams. The population of the Hinterland has not been
ascertained. It has been variously estimated, before the
present troubles, at from about 750,000 up to about 2,000,000.
The trade and revenue of the Colony depend almost entirely on
the Hinterland. A very large proportion of the goods imported
into the Colony are carried into and consumed in the
Hinterland. These goods are paid for by means of the products
of the Hinterland, which are exported, and the profits derived
from the exchange enable the merchants to pay the Customs
duties, which constitute the bulk of the Colonial revenue. The
territories forming the Hinterland are, according to the
native organisation, ruled over by a large number of Chiefs
(or Kings, as they used to be, and still in native parlance
are, called). The portions of country under each Chief are
well ascertained, and recognised by the various Chiefs and
their subjects. …
"The relations between the English Government and the Chiefs
at the time of the conclusion of the Agreement between France
and England in 1895 was … that some of the Chiefs whose
territories lay most adjacent to the Colony of Sierra Leone
had contracted with the English Crown certain treaties of
cession, and treaties directed to definite objects of amity
and good offices. In addition there had sprung up by usage a
limited consensual and advisory jurisdiction, under which
Chiefs as well as persons not Chiefs would bring their
differences (mainly as to territorial boundaries) before the
Governor of Sierra Leone as a sort of arbitrator, and
implicitly follow his awards. This jurisdiction was exercised
over an area of no defined limits, so far as any rules were
concerned. As a fact, it was limited by conditions of distance
and facility of travel, so that whilst the usage was most
established in the countries nearest to Freetown, there was
none in the more distant regions, or if there was any it was
at most so rudimentary as to be jurally of no account. … I
have not been able to trace any instance in which, either
under treaty or any other form of consent, or without consent,
the English Government has imposed, or endeavoured to impose
any direct taxation upon the Chiefs or people of the
Hinterland prior to 1896.
"The agreement between France and Great Britain delimited the
respective spheres of interest of the two countries south and
west of the Middle or Upper Niger, and thus defined for
England in the Hinterland of Sierra Leone a territory within
which, so far as concerned any question between France and
England, England was at liberty to exercise whatever species
or extent of jurisdiction she might consider proper. It made,
of course, no alteration on the existing native organisation,
nor upon the existing relations between England and the native
Chiefs, who were not parties to the agreement in any sense. …
On 31st August 1896 a Proclamation was published setting forth
that Her Majesty had assumed a Protectorate over the
territories adjacent to the Colony of Sierra Leone in which
Her Majesty had acquired power and jurisdiction. For purposes
of administration the Hinterland was divided into five
districts, intended to be of about equal size, avoiding
severance as far as possible by the district boundary of the
territories of Paramount Chiefs. These districts have been
named as the Karene, Ronietta, Bandajuma, Pangmua, and
Koinadugu districts. In anticipation of the arrangements that
might become necessary for the government of the Protectorate,
an Order of the Queen in Council had been made on 24th August
1895, … whereby, … Her Majesty was pleased, by and with the
advice of her Privy Council, to order that it shall be lawful
for the Legislative Council, for the time being, of the Colony
of Sierra Leone, by Ordinance or Ordinances, to exercise and
provide for giving effect to all such jurisdiction as Her
Majesty may at any time, before or after the passing of the
Order in Council, have acquired in the said territories
adjacent to the Colony of Sierra Leone. … Following upon the
Order of the Queen in Council, an Ordinance, entitled 'An
Ordinance to Determine the mode of exercising Her Majesty's
Jurisdiction in the Territories adjacent to the Colony of
Sierra Leone,' was passed by the Legislative Council and
Governor of Sierra Leone for the Government of the
Protectorate, on 16th September 1896."
Great Britain,
Report and Correspondence on Insurrection in
the Sierra Leone Protectorate
(Parliamentary Publications:
Papers by Command, 1899, C. 9388, pages 10-17).
The Ordinance above mentioned, which was reenacted, with some
changes, in September, 1897, provided, among other things, for
the imposition of a house tax, or hut tax, upon the natives,
and this proved to be the main cause of a serious native
revolt in the Protectorate. "By way of asserting the Crown's
ownership of all lands, whether in use and occupation or
not—and also of attempting to make the people defray the cost
of governing them by methods they resent—the Protectorate
Ordinance imposes a 'house tax' of five shillings a year, and,
in the case of 'houses with four rooms or more,' of ten
shillings a year, on every 'householder'; the same to be paid
in 'sterling coin' on or after the 1st January in each year,
or, in default of payment on demand, to be distrained for with
so much addition as will defray the cost of removing the
property and disposing of it for 'the price current at the
nearest market.' The absurdity of thus importing the mechanism
of civilisation into 'house tax' levying among these ignorant
savages matches the injustice of the tax itself. The mud
hovels to be taxed are rarely worth more than the equivalent
of two or three shillings apiece, and shillings or other
'sterling coin' are rarely seen or handled by the natives,
such wages as they earn being generally paid in kind, and such
trade as they carry on being nearly always in the way of barter.
{455}
Few who are not chiefs or headmen own property worth as much
as five shillings, and property for which five shillings could
be obtained 'at the nearest market' might be worth the
equivalent of five pounds to them. There was no attempt to
raise the proposed house or hut tax before last January
[1898], and perhaps none of the natives have even yet any
understanding of the clauses of the Protectorate Ordinance
providing them with new-fangled 'courts of Justice,' and
taking from them all proprietary rights in their land. But as
soon as a proclamation was issued on 21st August, 1896,
notifying the contemplated changes, all who heard of them were
reasonably alarmed, and wherever the news spread seeds of fresh
discontent were sown. …
"There were burning of huts, buffeting of chiefs, and so
forth, in the south and east, as well as in the north, where,
owing to the alleged recalcitrancy of Bai Bureh and the zeal
of Captain Sharpe, the District Commissioner, the havoc was
greatest. Early in February several chiefs and headmen were
brought to Freetown from Port Lokko in manacles, to be tried,
or punished without trial, on a charge of 'refusing to comply
with the provisions of the Protectorate Ordinance, and
inciting their subjects to resist the law.' 'The most
affecting part of the matter,' says the newspaper report, 'is
that the natives all loudly affirm their unswerving loyalty to
the Government, and say that they do not refuse to pay the hut
tax because they do not wish to, but because they really
cannot pay.' Their apologies were not listened to. Instead, a
detachment of the West India Regiment was sent up to assist
Captain Sharpe in the little war on which he had already
embarked. A futile attempt to arrest Bai Bureh on 18th
February led to a general uprising, and the first battle was
fought on 3rd March, when the town of Karina was recovered
from the 'insurgents' who had occupied it, and over sixty of
them were killed. Another fight occurred at Port Lokko, on 5th
March, when the 'insurgents' lost about forty more. These
victories being insufficient, fresh troops were sent up in
batches, until the entire force of conquerors numbered 800 or
upwards. They found it easier to cow than to conquer the
people, and the unequal struggle went on for three months. At
the end of May operations had to be suspended during the rainy
season, and before they can be renewed it may be hoped that
peace will be patched up. Already, indeed, the 'rebellion'
appears to be practically crushed, and with it all the
civilisation and all the commerce that had been planted in the
Karina district. Hundreds of natives have been shot down, many
more hundreds have died of starvation. Nearly all the huts
that it was proposed to tax have been destroyed, either by the
owners themselves, or by the policemen and soldiers."
H. R. Fox Bourne,
Sierra Leone Troubles
(Fortnightly Review, August, 1898).
SILVER QUESTION, The: A. D. 1895 (January-February).
Attitude of Free Silver majority in the U. S. Senate
towards the Treasury gold reserve.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1895 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY);
and 1895-1896 (DECEMBER-FEBRUARY).
SILVER QUESTION, The: A. D. 1896.
In the American Presidential election.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER).
SILVER QUESTION, The: A. D. 1896-1898.
The Indianapolis Monetary Commission report and
Secretary Gage's plan in Congress.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896-1898.
SILVER QUESTION, The: A. D. 1897.
Negotiations by envoys from the United States for an
international bi-metallic agreement.
See (in this volume)
MONETARY QUESTIONS: A. D. 1897 (APRIL-OCTOBER).
SILVER QUESTION, The: A. D. 1900.
Practical settlement of the issue in the United States.
Attempted revival in the Presidential canvass.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1900 (MARCH-DECEMBER), and (MAY-NOVEMBER).
SILVER REPUBLICANS.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER); and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
SI-NGAN-FU,
SINGAN FU, The Chinese Imperial Court at.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER).
SIRDAR, Egyptian.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896; and 1897-1898.
SLAVERY: A. D. 1885.
Emancipation in Cuba.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1868-1885.
SLAVERY: A. D. 1895.
New anti-slavery law in Egypt.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1895.
SLAVERY: A. D. 1896.
Abolition in Madagascar.
See (in this volume)
MADAGASCAR: A. D. 1894-1896.
SLAVERY: SLAVERY: A. D. 1897.
Abolished in Zanzibar.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (ZANZIBAR).
SLAVERY: A. D. 1897.
Compulsory labor in Rhodesia.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY):
A. D. 1897 (JANUARY).
SLAVERY: A. D. 1897.
Subjugation of Fulah slave raiders in Nupé and Ilorin.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (NIGERIA).
SLAVERY: A. D. 1899.
Forced labor in Congo State.
See (in this volume)
CONGO FREE STATE: A. D. 1899.
SLESWICK:
Complaints of German treatment.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1899.
SMOKELESS POWDERS, Invention of.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY, Encyclical Letter of Pope Leo XIII. on.
See (in this volume)
PAPACY: A. D. 1901.
SOCIALIST PARTIES.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897, and after;
BELGIUM: A. D. 1894-1895;
FRANCE: A. D. 1896 (APRIL-MAY), and 1900 (JANUARY);
GERMANY: A. D. 1894-1895, and 1897 (JULY);
ITALY: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-MAY);
SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1894-1898;
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER),
and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
SOKOTO.
See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1882-1899.
SOLOMON ISLANDS, The:
Definite division between Great Britain and Germany.
See (in this volume)
SAMOAN ISLANDS.
SOMALIS, Rising of, in Jubaland.
See (in this volume)
BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE: A. D. 1900.
SOUDAN.
See (in this volume)
SUDAN.
"SOUND MONEY" DEMOCRATS.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER).
{456}
----------SOUTH AFRICA: Start--------
SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Colony: A. D. 1881-1888.
Organization of the "Afrikander Bund."
The "Afrikander Bund" or National Party was formed in Cape
Colony in 1881, but held its first Congress, or convention, in
1888, at which meeting the following platform, or formal
statement of objects, was adopted:
"1. The Afrikander National party acknowledge the guidance of
Providence in the affairs both of lands and peoples.
2. They include, under the guidance of Providence, the
formation of a pure nationality and the preparation of our
people for the establishment of a 'United South Africa.'
3. To this they consider belong:
(a) The establishment of a firm union between all the
different European nationalities in South Africa, and
(b) The promotion of South Africa's independence.
4. They consider that the union mentioned in Article 3 (a)
depends upon the clear and plain understanding of each other's
general interest in politics, agriculture, stock-breeding,
trade, and industry, and the acknowledgment of everyone's
special rights in the matter of religion, education, and
language; so that all national jealousy between the different
elements of the people may be removed, and room be made for an
unmistakable South African national sentiment.
5. To the advancement of the independence mentioned in
Article 3 (b) belong:
(a) That the sentiment of national self-respect and of
patriotism toward South Africa should above all be
developed and exhibited in schools, and in families, and in
the public press.
(b) That a system of voting should be applied which not
only acknowledges the right of numbers, but also that of
ownership and the development of intelligence, and that is
opposed, as far as possible, to bribery and compulsion at
the poll.
(c) That our agriculture, stock-breeding, commerce, and
industries should be supported in every lawful manner, such
as by a conclusive law as regards masters and servants, and
also by the appointment of a prudent and advantageous
system of Protection.
(d) That the South African Colonies and States, either each
for itself or in conjunction with one another, shall
regulate their own native affairs, employing thereto the
forces of the land by means of a satisfactory burgher law;
and
(e) That outside interference with the domestic concerns of
South Africa shall be opposed.
6. While they acknowledge the existing Governments holding
rule in South Africa, and intend faithfully to fulfil their
obligations in regard to the same, they consider that the duty
rests upon those Governments to advance the interests of South
Africa in the spirit of the foregoing articles; and whilst, on
the one side, they watch against any unnecessary or frivolous
interference with the domestic or other private matters of the
burgher, against any direct meddling with the spiritual
development of the nation, and against laws which might hinder
the free influence of the Gospel upon the national life, on
the other hand they should accomplish all the positive duties
of a good Government, among which must be reckoned:
(a) In all their actions to take account of the Christian
character of the people.
(b) The maintenance of freedom of religion for everyone, so
long as the public order and honor are not injured thereby.
(c) The acknowledgment and expression of religious, social,
and bodily needs of the people, in the observance of the
present weekly day of rest.
(d) The application of an equal and judicious system of
taxation.
(e) The bringing into practice of an impartial and, as far
as possible, economical administration of justice.
(f) The watching over the public honor, and against the
adulteration of the necessaries of life, and the defiling
of ground, water, or air, as well as against the spreading
of infectious diseases.
7. In order to secure the influence of these principles, they
stand forward as an independent party, and accept the
cooperation of other parties only if the same can be obtained
with the uninjured maintenance of these principles.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1884-1894.
The restored independence of the Boers and their
dissatisfaction with its terms.
Frustration of their desire for extended territory.
The London Convention of 1884.
After the British-Boer War of 1880-81
(see, in volume 4, SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1806-1881),
which had been caused by an arbitrary annexation of the
Transvaal State to the dominions of the British crown, the
sense of justice in Mr. Gladstone led him to restore to the
Transvaal Boers (by the Convention or Treaty of Pretoria,
1881) their right of internal self-government, with a
reservation of "the suzerainty of Her Majesty," supposably
relative to nothing but foreign affairs. The Boers were not
satisfied with that concession, and began at once to strive
for the complete independence they had previously possessed,
under a Convention agreed upon and signed at Sand River, 1852,
which guaranteed (quoting its precise terms) "in the fullest
manner, on the part of the British Government, to the emigrant
farmers (boers) beyond the Vaal River, the right to manage
their own affairs and to govern themselves, without any
interference on the part of Her Majesty the Queen's
Government." To regain that status of complete independence
became the first object of the Boers. They went far towards
success in this endeavor, as early as 1884, when the British
Colonial Secretary, Lord Derby, was induced to agree to a new
Convention with the South African Republic (as it was then
styled) which superseded the Convention of 1881. The terms of
the later instrument are given below. The second aim of the
Boers appears to have been the widening of their territory, by
advances, in the first instance, southward into Zululand and
westward into Bechuanaland. In the former movement they had
success; in the latter they were thwarted. English
missionaries complained of their treatment of the natives, and
stirred up the British government to take the Bechuana tribes
under its protection. Their eastern frontier they succeeded,
after long controversies with Great Britain, in stretching
beyond Swaziland, but they were not allowed to push it to the
sea. Northward, they would provably have gone far, had it not
been for the appearance, at this time, of Mr. Cecil Rhodes,
who came upon the scene of South African politics with
imperial ambitions, with great energies and capabilities, with
few apparent hesitations, and with a vast fortune acquired in the
Kimberley diamond mines. He organized the British South Africa
Company, under a royal charter, got some settlers into the
country north of the Limpopo and set up a government there, in
1890, just in time, it appears, to forestall the Boers
See, in volume 4,
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1885-1893.
{457}
Of the effect of the two conventions, of 1881 and 1884, on the
relations of the British government to the South African
Republic, the following is an English view, by a well-known
publicist: "In the Treaty of Pretoria, bearing date the 5th of
April, 1881, it is stated that Great Britain guarantees
'complete self-government, subject to the Suzerainty of Her
Majesty, to the inhabitants of the Transvaal.' … Article 15
declares that 'the Resident will report to the High
Commissioner, as representative of the Suzerain, as to the
working and observance of the provisions of this Convention.'
… On the 31st of March, 1881, Lord Kimberley, who was then
Secretary of State for the Colonies, used these words in the
House of Lords with reference to the terms of the Convention,
upon which the Treaty of Pretoria was afterwards based: 'I
believe the word Suzerainty expresses very correctly the
relation which we intend to exist between this country and the
Transvaal. Our intention is that the Transvaal shall have
independent power as regards its internal government; and we
shall only reserve certain powers to be exercised by the
Queen. … With respect to our control over the relations of the
Transvaal with foreign Powers, … it is quite clear there ought
to be, as regards foreign relations, only one Government in
South Africa; that there ought to be no communication with
foreign Powers upon any subject except through the
representatives of the Queen.'
"On the 25th of June, 1881, Mr. Gladstone, while defending in
the House of Commons an assertion he had made during the
Midlothian Campaign about the blood-guiltiness of the war with
the Transvaal, referred to our Suzerainty in the following
words; 'I apprehend that the term which has been adopted, the
Suzerainty of the Queen, is intended to signify that certain
portions of Sovereignty are reserved. … What are these
portions of Sovereignty? The portions of Sovereignty we desire
to reserve are, first, the relations between the Transvaal
community and foreign governments, the whole care of the
foreign relations of the Boers. The whole of these relations
will remain in the hands of the Queen.'
"From these quotations it is obvious that when we agreed to
restore the independence of the Transvaal, the British public
were led to believe, both by the then Premier and the then
Colonial Minister, that this restoration left the control of
all relations between the Transvaal and foreign Powers
absolutely and entirely in the hands of Her Majesty's
Government. … It is possible, or even probable, that at the
time the Treaty of Pretoria was concluded, Mr. Gladstone, or
at any rate several of his colleagues, imagined that our
Suzerainty would really be made effective. But, when once the
treaty had been signed and sealed, and the South African
Republic had been granted absolute internal independence, it
became evident that our Suzerainty could only be rendered
efficacious, as against the sullen resistance of the Boers, by
the exercise of force—that is, by the threat of war in the
event of Boer non-compliance with the demands of the Suzerain
Power. …
"For the first two years which succeeded our surrender the
Boers were too much occupied in the reorganisation of the
Republic to trouble themselves greatly about their relations
to the Suzerain Power. … Disputes were mainly connected with
the treatment of the native chiefs, residing either within, or
on the borders of, the territory of the Republic, who
asserted, with or without reason, that they were the objects
of Boer hostility on account of the support they had given to
the British authorities during the period of British rule.
"In May 1883 Mr. Gladstone stated in Parliament, in answer to
certain protests about the proceedings of the Boers, that the
British Government had decided to send a Commissioner to the
Transvaal to investigate the working of the Convention
concluded at Pretoria in 1881. This intention, however, was
not carried out owing to the opposition of the South African
Republic. In lieu of the despatch of a British Commissioner to
the Transvaal, it was suggested at Pretoria that a Boer
deputation should be sent to London. The suggestion, as usual,
was accepted; and thereupon the Africander Bond in the Cape
Colony forwarded a petition to the Queen, praying Her Majesty
to entertain favourably the proposals of the Boer delegates
for the modification of the Treaty of Pretoria. The
deputation, consisting of President Kruger and Messieurs Du
Toit and Smit, arrived in London in October, and submitted to
the late Lord Derby, who had succeeded Lord Kimberley as
Minister for the Colonies, a statement of the modifications
they were instructed to demand. The memorandum in question
distinctly declared that the alleged impracticability of the
Treaty of Pretoria related, amongst other matters, 'to the
extent of the Suzerain rights reserved to Her Majesty by
Articles 2 and 18 of the Treaty of Pretoria, and to the vague
and indefinite terms in which the powers reserved to Her
Majesty's Government by the Convention are indicated.'
"To this memorandum Lord Derby replied, on the 20th of
November, 1883, admitting that 'expediency of substituting a
new agreement for that of 1881 might be matter for discussion,
but asking for information, in what sense it is wished that in
such new agreement some connection with England should be
maintained, and, if it is the desire of the Transvaal people
that their State should hereafter stand in any special
relation to this country, what is the form of connection which
is proposed?' In reply to this request the Boer delegates
answered as follows in the somewhat evasive fashion: 'In the
new agreement any connection by which we are now bound to
England should not be broken; but that the relation of a
dependency "publici juris" in which our country now stands to
the British Crown be replaced by that of two contractive
Powers.'
"The above documents were submitted to the Governor of Cape
Colony, the then Sir Hercules Robinson. Characteristically
enough, Sir Hercules recommended the surrender of our
Suzerainty on the ground that 'The Transvaal burghers
obviously do not intend to observe any condition in it (the
Convention of 1881) distasteful to themselves, which Her
Majesty's Government are not prepared to insist on, if
necessary, by the employment of force. Her Majesty's
Government, I understand, do not feel justified in proceeding
to this extremity; and no provision, therefore, of the
Convention which is not agreeable to the Transvaal will be
carried out.'
{458}
"A few days later the delegates submitted a draft treaty, in
which the following clause stands first: 'It is agreed that
Her Britannic Majesty recognises and guarantees by this treaty
the full independence of the South African Republic, with the
right to manage its own affairs according to its own laws,
without any interference on the part of the British
Government; it being understood that this system of
non-interference is binding on both parties.' To the letter
enclosing this draft treaty Lord Derby replied that the
proposed treaty was 'neither in form nor in substance such as
Her Majesty's Government could adopt.' Meanwhile the
discussion between the British Government and the Boer
delegates seems to have turned mainly upon the extension of
the territories of the Transvaal and the relations between the
Republic and the native chiefs, subjects which had only an
indirect bearing on the question of Suzerainty. It was only on
the 25th of January, 1884, that the Colonial Office wrote to
the delegates stating that if a certain compromise with regard
to the frontier line were accepted, the British Government
would be prepared 'to proceed at once with the consideration
of the other proposals for the modification of the Treaty of
Pretoria.' The delegates replied on the next day virtually
accepting the proposed frontier compromise, and requested the
British Government to proceed at once with the substitution of
a new Convention. … The draft treaty was signed on the 27th of
February, 1884. …
"The Convention of London did not repeat the preamble of the
original Convention in which the words 'subject to the
Suzerainty of Her Majesty' are to be found. Nor is the word
Suzerainty mentioned in the Convention of 1884, which declares
that the articles contained therein, if endorsed by the
Volksraad, 'shall be substituted for those of the Convention
of 1881.' No formal withdrawal, however, of the Queen's
Suzerainty is to be found in the Convention of 1884. On the
contrary, it is distinctly affirmed in Article 4 of the
modified Convention that 'the South African Republic will
conclude no treaty or engagement with any State or nation,
other than the Orange Free State, until the same has been
approved by Her Majesty the Queen.'"
Edward Dicey,
British Suzerainty in the Transvaal
(Nineteenth Century, October, 1897).
In its preamble, the Convention of 1884 recites that—"Whereas
the Government of the Transvaal State, through its Delegates,
consisting of [Kruger, Du Toit and Smit], have represented
that the Convention signed at Pretoria on the 3rd day of
August, 1881, and ratified by the Volksraad of the said State
on the 25th of October, 1881, contains certain provisions
which are inconvenient, and imposes burdens and obligations
from which the said State is desirous to be relieved, and that
the south-western boundaries fixed by the said Convention
should be amended with a view to promote the peace and good
order of the said State, … now, therefore, Her Majesty has
been pleased to direct," &c.—substituting the articles of a
new Convention for those signed and ratified in 1881.
Article I. of the new Convention describes the lines of
boundary as amended. Article II. binds the two governments,
respectively, to guard said boundaries against all
trespassing. Article III. provides for the reception and
protection, at Pretoria, of a resident British officer, "to
discharge functions analogous to those of a consular officer."
Article IV. reads as follows: "The South African Republic will
conclude no Treaty or engagement with any State or nation
other than the Orange Free State, nor with any native tribe to
the eastward or westward of the Republic, until the same has been
approved by Her Majesty the Queen. Such approval shall be
considered to have been granted if Her Majesty's Government
shall not, within six months after receiving a copy of such
Treaty (which shall be delivered to them immediately upon its
completion), have notified that the conclusion of such Treaty
is in conflict with the interests of Great Britain, or of any
of Her Majesty's possessions in South Africa."
Articles V. and VI. relate to public debts. Article VII.
guarantees the non-molestation of persons in the South African
Republic who "remained loyal to Her Majesty during the late
hostilities." Article VIII. is a declaration against slavery
in the Republic. Article IX. is in language as follows: "There
will continue to be complete freedom of religion and
protection from molestation for all denominations, provided
the same be not inconsistent with morality and good order; and
no disability shall attach to any person in regard to rights
of property by reason of the religious opinions which he
holds." Article X. relates to graves of British soldiers; XI.
to former grants of land which the present arrangement of
boundary places outside of the Republic; XII. to the
independence of the Swazis; XIII. to non-discrimination in
import duties on both sides.
Articles XIV. and XV. read thus: Article XIV. "All persons,
other than natives, conforming themselves to the laws of the
South African Republic, (a) will have full liberty, with their
families, to enter, travel or reside in any part of the South
African Republic; (b) they will be entitled to hire or possess
houses, manufactories, warehouses, shops and premises; (c)
they may carry on their commerce either in person or by any
agents whom they may think fit to employ; (d) they will not be
subject, in respect of their persons or property, or in
respect of their commerce or industry, to any taxes, whether
general or local, other than those which are or may be imposed
upon citizens of the said Republic." Article XV. "All persons,
other than natives, who establish their domicile in the
Transvaal between the 12th day of April, 1877, and the 8th day
of August, 1881, and who within twelve months after such last
mentioned date have had their names registered by the British
resident, shall be exempt from all compulsory military service
whatever." Article XVI. provides for a future extradition
treaty; XVII. for the payment of debts in the same currency in
which they were contracted; XVIII. establishes the validity of
certain land grants; XIX. secures certain rights to the
natives; XX. nullifies the Convention if not ratified by the
Volksraad within six months from the date of its
signature—February 27, 1884.
{459}
With considerable reluctance, the Convention was ratified by
the Volksraad of the South African Republic in the following
terms: "The Volksraad having considered the new Convention
concluded between its deputation and the British Government at
London on 27th February 1884, as likewise the negotiations
between the contracting parties, which resulted in the said
Convention, approves of the standpoint taken by its deputation
that a settlement based upon the principle of the Sand River
Convention can alone fully satisfy the burghers of the
Republic. It also shares the objections set forth by the
deputation against the Convention of Pretoria, as likewise
their objections against the Convention of London on the
following points:
1st.
The settlement of the boundary, especially on the western
border of the Republic, in which the deputation eventually
acquiesced only under the express conditions with which the
Raad agree.
2nd.
The right of veto reserved to the British Crown upon treaties
to be concluded by the Republic with foreign powers; and
3rd.
The settlement of the debt.
Seeing, however, that in the said Convention of London
considerable advantages are secured to the Republic,
especially in the restoration of the country's independence,
Resolves, With acknowledgment of the generosity of Her
Britannic Majesty, to ratify, as it hereby does, the said
Convention of London."
Selected Official Documents of the South African
Republic and Great Britain
(Supplement to the Annals of the American Academy
of Political and Social Science, July, 1900).
Also in:
State Papers, British and Foreign, volume 75.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1885-1890.
The gold discoveries on the Rand and the influx
of Uitlanders (Outlanders or Foreigners).
"It was not until 1884 that England heard of the presence of
gold in South Africa. A man named Fred Stuben, who had spent
several years in the country, spread such marvellous reports
of the underground wealth of the Transvaal that only a short
time elapsed before hundreds of prospectors and miners left
England for South Africa. When the first prospectors
discovered auriferous veins of wonderful quality on a farm
called Sterkfontein, the gold boom had its birth. It required
the lapse of only a short time for the news to reach Europe,
America, and Australia, and immediately thereafter that vast
and widely scattered army of men and women which constantly
awaits the announcement of new discoveries of gold was set in
motion toward the Randt [the Witwatersrand or
Whitewatersridge]. … In December, 1885, the first stamp mill
was erected for the purpose of crushing the gneiss rock in
which the gold lay hidden. This enterprise marks the real
beginning of the gold fields of the Randt, which now yield one
third of the world's total product of the precious metal. The
advent of thousands of foreigners was a boon to the Boers, who
owned the large farms on which the auriferous veins were
located. Options on farms that were of little value a short
time before were sold at incredible figures, and the prices
paid for small claims would have purchased farms of thousands
of acres two years before. In July, 1886, the Government
opened nine farms to the miners, and all have since become the
best properties on the Randt. … On the Randt the California
scenes of '49 were being re-enacted. Tents and houses of sheet
iron were erected with picturesque lack of beauty and
uniformity, and during the latter part of 1886 the community
had reached such proportions that the Government marked off a
township and called it Johannesburg. The Government, which
owned the greater part of the land, held three sales of
building lots, or 'stands,' as they are called in the
Transvaal, and realized more than $300,000 from the sales. …
Millions were secured in England and Europe for the
development of the mines, and the individual miner sold his
claims to companies with unlimited capital. The incredibly
large dividends that were realized by some of the investors
led to too heavy investments in the Stock Exchange in 1889,
and a panic resulted. Investors lost thousands of pounds, and
for several months the future of the gold fields appeared to
be most gloomy. The opening of the railway to Johannesburg and
the re-establishment of stock values caused a renewal of
confidence, and the growth and development of the Randt was
imbued with renewed vigour. Owing to the Boers' lack of
training and consequent inability to share in the development
of the gold fields, the new industry remained almost entirely
in the hands of the newcomers, the Uitlanders [so called in
the language of the Boers], and two totally different
communities were created in the republic. The Uitlanders, who,
in 1890, numbered about 100,000, lived almost exclusively in
Johannesburg and the suburbs along the Randt. The Boers,
having disposed of their farms and lands on the Randt, were
obliged to occupy the other parts of the republic, where they
could follow their pastoral and agricultural pursuits. The
natural contempt which the Englishmen, who composed the
majority of the Uitlander population, always have for persons
and races not their intellectual or social equals, soon
created a gulf between the Boers and the newcomers."
H. C. Hillegas,
Oom Paul's People,
chapter 3
(with permission of D. Appleton & Co., copyright, 1899).
As the influx of newcomers increased and advanced, "the Boers
realized that the world and civilisation were once more upon
them. In spite of all the opposition that patriarchal
prejudice could muster, railways usurped the place of the slow
moving ox-waggon, and in the heart of their solitude a city
had arisen; while to the north and to the east between them
and the sea were drawn the thin red lines of British boundary.
… A primitive pastoral people, they found themselves isolated,
surrounded—'shut in a kraal for ever,' as Kruger is reported
to have said,—while the stranger was growing in wealth and
numbers within their gates. Expansion of territory, once the
dream of the Transvaal Boers, as their incursions into
Bechuanaland, into Zululand, and the attempted trek into
Rhodesia, all testify, was becoming daily less practicable.
One thing remained,—to accept their isolation and strengthen
it. Wealth, population, a position among the new States of the
world had been brought to them, almost in spite of themselves,
by the newcomer, the stranger, the Uitlander. What was to be
the attitude towards him politically? Materially he had made
the State—he developed its resources, paid nine-tenths of its
revenue. Would he be a strength or a weakness as a citizen—as
a member of the body politic? Let us consider this new element
in a new State—how was it constituted, what were its component
parts? Was it the right material for a new State to
assimilate?
{460}
Cosmopolitan to a degree—recruited from all the corners of the
earth—there was in it a strong South African element,
consisting of young colonists from the Cape Colony and
Natal—members of families well known in South Africa—and many
of them old schoolfellows or in some other way known to each
other. Then the British contingent, self-reliant, full of
enterprise and energy—Americans, for the most part skilled
engineers, miners and mechanics—French, Germans, and
Hollanders. A band of emigrants, of adventurers, and
constituted, as I think all emigrants are, of two great
classes—the one who, lacking neither ability nor courage, are
filled with an ambition, characteristic particularly of the
British race, to raise their status in the world, who find the
conditions of their native environment too arduous, the
competition too keen, to offer them much prospect, and who
seek a new and more rapidly developing country elsewhere; and
another, a smaller class who sometimes through misfortune,
sometimes through their own fault, or perhaps through both,
have failed elsewhere.
"Adventurers all, one must admit; but it is the adventurers of
the world who have founded States and Kingdoms. Such a class
as this has been assimilated by the United States and absorbed
into their huge fabric, of which to-day they form a huge and
substantial portion. What should the Transvaal Boers have done
with this new element so full of enterprise and vigour? This
had been for the last ten years the great question for them to
solve. … Enfranchisement, participation in the political life
of the State by the Uitlander,—this means, they said, a
transference of all political power from our hands to those of
men whom we do not trust. 'I have taken a man into my coach,'
said President Kruger, 'and as a passenger he is welcome; but
now he says, Give me the reins; and that I cannot do, for I
know not where he will drive me.' To the Boer it is all or
nothing; he knows no mean, no compromise. Yet in that very
mean lies the vital spirit of republicanism. What is the
position of the Boers in the Cape Colony? Are they without
their share, their influence, their Africander bond in the
political affairs of the country? And so it is throughout the
world today,—in the United States, in England, in France, in
the British Colonies, wherever the individual thrives and the
State is prosperous—the compromise of divided political power
among all classes, all factions, is the great guarantee of
their well being. … That the enfranchisement of the Uitlander
would mean a complete transference of political power into his
hands involves two assumptions: the first is that the
Uitlanders would form a united body in politics; the second is
that their representatives would dominate the Volksraad. The
most superficial acquaintance with the action of the
inhabitants of the Witwatersrand district on any public matter
will serve to refute the first of these. … The second of these
assumptions—though it is continually put forward—almost
answers itself. The number of representatives from the
Uitlander districts under any scheme of redistribution of
seats which the Boer could reasonably be expected to make
would fall considerably short of those returned from the Boer
constituencies. Such was the attitude of the Boers on this
vital question which led to the Reform Movement of 1895; and I
have stated what I believe to be the injustice of it as
regards the Uitlanders and the unwisdom of it in the true
interests of the Boers."
A. P. Hillier,
Raid and Reform,
pages 24-29 (London: Macmillan & Co.).
SOUTH AFRICA:
Portuguese Possessions: A. D. 1891.
Delagoa Bay Railway question.
See (in this volume)
DELAGOA BAY ARBITRATION.
SOUTH AFRICA:
The Transvaal: A. D. 1894.
Estimated population.
In October, 1894, the British agent at Pretoria, J. A. de Wet,
estimated the population of the Transvaal (on the basis of a
census taken in 1890) as follows:
"Transvaalers and Orange Free Staters, 70,861:
British subjects, 62,509:
other foreigners, 15,558;"
total, 148,928.
SOUTH AFRICA:
The Transvaal: A. D. 1894.
The "Commandeering" question.
Visit of the British High Commissioner to Pretoria.
Demonstration of British residents.
The first question which came to a sharp issue between the
government of the South African Republic and the British
subjects resident in the gold fields related to the claim
which the former made on the latter for military service in
the wars of the Republic with neighboring native tribes. The
demand for such service was made, in each case, by what was
called a "commando," the commando being defined in the
military law of the Boers as follows: "By commando is
understood a number of armed burghers and subjects of the
state called together to suppress rebellion amongst the
natives, or disturbances amongst the white population."
British residents protested against the requirement of this
service from them; and the British Government, in 1894, opened
negotiations with that of the Boer Republic to obtain their
exemption from it. It was acknowledged that there is "nothing
contrary to international comity in the application of such a
law as the commando law to a foreigner"; but, said the British
Colonial Secretary, in a despatch (June 8, 1894) giving
instructions to the British High Commissioner in South Africa,
"Her Majesty's Government consider that a special reason for
now claiming exemption for our people is afforded by the fact
that treaties have been concluded by the South African
Republic under which, as they understand, the subjects of no
less than seven Powers—Portugal, Holland, Belgium, Germany,
France, Italy, and Switzerland—are now exempt from this
liability; and they consider that they can hardly be expected
to acquiesce in a state of things under which Her Majesty's
subjects, whose interests in the South African Republic are
greater and more intimate than those of any other Power,
should remain in a position of such marked disadvantage. I
have therefore to instruct you to address, in moderate and
courteous terms, a friendly representation to the Government
of the South African Republic on the subject."
Negotiations on the subject were then opened, which led to a
visit to the Boer capital by the British High Commissioner,
Sir H. B. Loch, on invitation from President Kruger. His
arrival at Pretoria (June 25) gave occasion for a
demonstration on the part of British residents which showed
the state of feeling existing more plainly, no doubt, than it
had appeared before. The circumstances were reported a few
days later by the High Commissioner, as follows: "When I
entered the carriage with President Kruger, two men got on to
the box with a Union Jack, and the crowd, notwithstanding the
President's remonstrances, took the horses out and dragged the
carriage to the hotel, a distance of nearly a mile, singing all
the way 'God save the Queen,' and 'Rule Britannia.'
{461}
On arrival at the hotel, the address was presented, to which I
briefly replied, and then called for three cheers for the
President, which were heartily given. He was then dragged in
his carriage to the Government Office. I am satisfied that no
personal insult was intended, by this demonstration, to the
President, and any annoyance with which he viewed the
occurrence seemed to be caused from the fact of the
arrangements for keeping order having been so defective. The
political atmosphere, however, was charged with such an amount
of electricity that every moment an explosion was imminent.
The Legislative and Executive enactments which press heavily
on the great industry which contributes upwards of £1,000,000
annually out of a total revenue of little more than a million
and a quarter, without the population that produces this
wealth possessing any franchise rights, or voice in the
government of the country, has created a deep-seated feeling
of dissatisfaction, shared alike by the English, American,
German, and other foreign residents in the country. The
compulsory commandeering was the last straw that broke down
the patience they had hitherto exhibited. … The Transvaal
Government were, before my arrival, seriously alarmed at the
state of feeling at Johannesburg, but when they came to
consider the real meaning of the demonstration on my arrival
at Pretoria, which showed to them how general the
dissatisfaction was amongst all classes of British subjects,
who formed the majority of the whole population of the
Republic, they, for the first time, realised the imminent
danger of the situation, and told me of their dread of a
collision that at any moment might occur between the Boer
burghers, who were in considerable numbers in the town, and
the English and foreign residents."
To avoid any further excitement of feeling, the Commissioner
declined to visit Johannesburg, which he had intended to do.
During his stay at Pretoria, he submitted to President Kruger
the draft of a Convention stipulating that "the subjects of
Her Majesty the Queen whilst residing within the limits of the
South African Republic, and the citizens of the South African
Republic whilst residing within the dominions of Her Majesty
the Queen, shall enjoy the same rights and privileges as the
subjects of the most favoured nation with regard to military
service and all obligations of a like nature"; and he received
from President Kruger a counter proposition, for the
negotiation of a new agreement, to take the place of the
London Convention of 1884, embodying the desired provision
concerning military service, along with other amendments of
the old Convention. To this proposal, President Kruger added:
"In order, however, to meet the request of Her Majesty's
Government, the Government will, in the meantime,
provisionally, no more commandeer British subjects for
personal military service." Practically, this assurance
disposed of the commandeering grievance; but no Convention on
the subject was attained.
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publication.
(Papers by Command, C. 8159).
"A great mass meeting was held at Johannesburg (July 14) for
the purpose of demanding that the franchise should be extended
to all aliens, and insisting that the Constitution should be
amended and made more genuinely democratic. In consequence of
this meeting the Volksraad passed at one sitting two readings
of a bill restricting severely the right of public meeting. No
outdoor meetings or addresses were to be allowed, and an
assemblage of six persons would be considered a public
meeting. The police were given power by this bill to order
those present to disperse, and everyone attending was made
liable to imprisonment for two years, while the callers of any
meeting that the police might consider to be against the
public peace might be fined £500 or sentenced to two years
hard labour. … On the return of the 'commandeered' men from
the war [with the rebellious chief Malaboch] President Kruger
welcomed them, and said that no doubt the Volksraad would
bestow on them the rights of full citizenship. The effect of
the Franchise Act passed in June, however, was in general to
prevent any citizen from obtaining the franchise unless his
father was born in the State or had been naturalized. The
formation of committees by aliens for the support of political
candidates was rendered penal. … The Volksraad postponed for
one year the consideration of the Government proposal to grant
the franchise to the foreign residents who had recently served
in the various 'commandos' against the Kaffir rebels."
Annual Register, 1894, page 369.
SOUTH AFRICA:
British South Africa Company: A. D. 1894-1895.
Extended charter and enlarged powers of the Company.
Its master spirit, Mr. Cecil J. Rhodes.
Attitude towards the South African Republic.
The British South Africa Company, royally chartered in 1889
for the promotion of "trade, commerce, civilization and good
government" in "the region of South Africa lying immediately
to the north of British Bechuanaland, and to the north and
west of the South African Republic, and to the west of the
Portuguese dominions," was now in full possession, both
politically and commercially, not only of the great domain of
the Matabeles and the Mashonas, stretching to the Zambesi
River, but likewise of a vast territory beyond that stream.
Its charter had been extended in 1891, to cover the whole
sphere of British influence north of the Zambesi, except the
strip of country called Nyassaland, which borders the western
shore of Nyassa Lake. It had subjugated the Matabeles,
extinguished their kingdom, driven its native sovereign, Lo
Bengula, to exile and death.
See in volume 4,
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1885-1893.
By a new agreement with the British Government, signed on the
23d of May, 1894, it had received political authority over
this imperial domain, in addition to the powers and privileges
which its broad charter gave.
The administration of the government of the region was to be
conducted by the Company, under an Administrator and a Council
of four members composed of a Judge and three other members.
The Administrator to be appointed by the Company, with the
approval of the Colonial Secretary, and to be removed either
by the Secretary or by the Company, with the approval of the
Secretary. The Judge, appointed by the Company, with the
approval of the Colonial Secretary, and removable only by the
Secretary, was to be a member of the Council ex officio.
{462}
The members of the Council, other than the Judge, to be
appointed by the Company, with the approval of the Secretary,
and to be removable by the Company. … The Administrator
should, as representative of the Company, administer the
government, but must take the advice of his Council on all
questions of importance. In cases of emergency, when he found
it impracticable to assemble a quorum, the Administrator might
take action alone, but must report such action to the Council
at its next meeting. Moreover, he might overrule the Council,
but must, in that case, report the matter forthwith to the
Company, with the reasons for his action; and the Company
might rescind the decision of the Administrator, whether made
with, or without, or against, the advice of the Council. With
the concurrence of at least two members of the Council, and
with the approval of the British High Commissioner for South
Africa, the Administrator was empowered to frame and issue
regulations, which should have the force of law; but the
Colonial Secretary or the Company could veto any such
regulation at any time within twelve months of the date of
approval by the High Commissioner. This power of making
ordinances included the power to impose such taxes as might be
necessary, and the right to impose and to collect customs
duties. The armed forces of the Company were expressly
forbidden to act outside the defined limits of its territory
without the permission of Her Majesty's Government.
The master spirit of the Company which exercised these
imperial powers of government over so great a dominion in
Africa was Mr. Cecil J. Rhodes, Premier of Cape Colony,
organizer and chief of the De Beers Consolidated Mining Co. in
the diamond fields,—millionaire projector and manager of
everything stupendous in the enterprises of the African world.
He seemed, in fact, to be more than a master spirit in the
Company. Apparently he had created it as an instrument of his
ambitions, and it moved in his shadow throughout. Its
Administrator, Dr. Leander S. Jameson, was his closely
confidential friend. Presently it stamped his name on the
broad empire which bore already the stamp of his personality
and will, by proclaiming (May 1, 1895): "The territories now
or hereafter placed under the control of the British South
Africa Company shall be named collectively Rhodesia. The
provinces at the present time included in the territory of
Rhodesia are Mashonaland, Matabeleland, and Northern
Zambesia." Great ambitions—imperial ambitions—had thus come
to be powerfully embodied in a corporation which practically
served the will of one remarkably able man. They were
ambitions which had been in conflict from the beginning with
the interests as well as the ambitions of the Boers of the
South African Republic, and the conflict was not to be ended
by the triumph which the Rhodesians had won. Naturally the
Boer was jealous and distrustful of the energetic men who had
seized lands which he desired and hemmed his republic in.
Naturally, too, the bold adventurers of Rhodesia, arrogant in
their success and as little scrupulous as "empire-builders"
are apt to be, looked with contempt and impatience at the
plodding Boer, as an obstacle to their booming development in
Africa of a civilization "up to date." Between the two
incongruous neighbors rose the cry of the angry Uitlanders at
Johannesburg, threatening the one and appealing to the
sympathy of the other. The consequences soon appeared.
SOUTH AFRICA:
The Transvaal: A. D. 1895 (July).
Opening of Delagoa Bay Railway.-
The opening of the railway to Delagoa Bay was celebrated with
much ceremony at Pretoria on the 8th of July.
SOUTH AFRICA:
The Transvaal: A. D. 1895 (September-December).
Closing of Vaal River "drifts" (fords) as ports of entry.
Anger in Cape Colony.
A threatening situation.
In September, the government of the South African Republic
adopted a measure, for the benefit of its new railway,
connecting Delagoa Bay with Pretoria, and for the development
of foreign trade via Delagoa Bay rather than through Cape
Colony, which raised a storm of indignation at the Cape,
giving birth to a grievance there which became for a time more
threatening than the grievances of the Uitlanders of the Rand.
The measure in question was one that closed the "drifts" or
fords of the Vaal River, between Cape Colony and the
Transvaal, as ports of entry for the importation of over-sea
goods. As stated by the British High Commissioner, in a
despatch (October 7) to Mr. Chamberlain, the British Colonial
Secretary, the history of the case is as follows:
"In the year 1891 the Cape Government came to an agreement
with the Transvaal Government and the Netherlands Railway
Company to advance the latter £600,000 towards the
construction of the railway from the Vaal river to
Johannesburg, receiving in exchange for such advance
Netherlands Railway Company 4 per cent. bonds at £93,
guaranteed by the Transvaal Government. It was stipulated in
the agreement that the Cape Government might fix the traffic
rates on the Transvaal extension until the close of 1894, or
until the completion of the railway from Delagoa Bay to
Pretoria, if such completion should take place before that
date. The railway extension from the Vaal river so provided
for was opened in September, 1892, and the Cape Government
secured thereby, during the continuance of the agreement,
practically the monopoly of the Johannesburg traffic. The
agreement terminated on the 31st December, 1894, the Delagoa
Bay to Pretoria Railway having shortly before been completed
and commenced working. Up to the close of the agreement the
through-traffic rates from the coast to Johannesburg had been
fixed by the Cape at the average rate of about 2.4d. per ton
per mile. After the close of the agreement the Netherlands
Railway Company raised the rates on its 52 miles of railway,
from the Vaal river to Johannesburg, to an average of nearly
8d. per ton per mile. Upon this importers began to remove a
portion of their goods from the railway at the Vaal river, and
to send them on by road and bullock-waggon to their
destination in the Transvaal, instead of by the Netherlands
Railway to Johannesburg and elsewhere as before. This move has
recently been met by the Transvaal Government issuing a
Proclamation closing the drifts on the Vaal river alongside
the railway as ports of entry for over-sea goods, leaving them
open for other goods, the produce of South Africa. Importers of
over-sea goods have thus only the choice between making use of
the Netherlands line from the Vaal to Johannesburg at the
enhanced traffic rates imposed on that line, or of importing
via Delagoa Bay or Durban."
{463}
Vigorous remonstrances against this measure were made
instantly by the government of Cape Colony, not only on the
ground of its unfriendliness to the Colony, but also as being
an infraction of the 13th article of the London Convention of
1884 (see above: A. D. 1884-1894), and the British government
was appealed to for its interference. To this appeal the
British Colonial Secretary replied with much caution, on the
1st of November, in a communication cabled to the High
Commissioner, as follows: "Subject to the conditions stated
further on, I am prepared to authorize you to send to the
Government of the South African Republic a message to the
following effect.:—'I am advised by the Law Officers of the
Crown (who, it is hardly necessary to state, have examined the
question from a purely legal standpoint) that the recent
action of the South African Republic is a breach of Article
XIII. of the London Convention. I am further advised that the
Government of the South African Republic cannot now set itself
right by making general the prohibition of entry by the
drifts, so as to include Colonial goods, if and when they
reissue their Proclamation, which, I am surprised to observe,
they appear to have some intention of doing. Her Majesty's
Government accept the legal advice which they have received;
but independently of their Conventional rights they are of
opinion that the closing of the drifts, and especially the
extension of that measure to Colonial goods, is so unfriendly
an action as to call for the gravest remonstrance on their
part. While anxious for an amicable settlement of the
question, they must therefore protest against what they regard
as an attempt to force the hand of the Cape Government in
Conference by a proceeding which almost partakes of the nature
of an act of hostility.' You will communicate this message
confidentially to your Ministers in writing, pointing out that
when once it is sent Her Majesty's Government cannot allow the
matter to drop until they have obtained a compliance with
their demands, even if it should be necessary to undertake an
expedition for that purpose. Her Majesty's Government do not
intend that such au expedition should, like most previous
Colonial wars, be conducted at the entire cost of this
country; and you should explain to your Ministers that you are
therefore instructed to require from them a most explicit
undertaking in writing that, if it becomes necessary to send
an expedition, the Cape Parliament will bear half the gross
expense, and that the Local Government will furnish a fair
contingent of the fighting force, so far as its resources in
men may suffice, besides giving the full and free use of its
railways and rolling stock for military purposes. If your
Ministers cannot give you such assurances you will report
fully by telegraph, and defer action pending further
instructions from me; but if you obtain these assurances in
writing, explicitly and without qualification, you may send
the above message to the Government of the South African
Republic."
This was followed by a further cautionary message, November 3,
in these words: "Referring to my telegrams of the 1st
November, although willing to support your Ministers on the
conditions already stated, I should think it would be well, in
their own interests, and those of South African commerce
generally, if they will be as moderate as they can find it
consistent with their duty to be in their demands as to their
share of railway business. I have no doubt that you have
availed yourself of any chances you may have had of impressing
such a view on them and if you think it expedient you may tell
them, confidentially, that such is my view." On the 4th, Sir
Hercules Robinson replied: "My Ministers, including Schreiner
and Faure, the two Dutch Members, were unanimous in their
decision to accept your conditions. I am assured by Mr. Rhodes
that he can count on the support of the majority in the Cape
Parliament, and there are no facts before me which would lead
me to a different view; but I do not think that the question
will arise, as the Government of the South African Republic
will not hold out against the united action of the Cape and
Her Majesty's Government." On the same day he transmitted to
President Kruger the message contained (as above) in Secretary
Chamberlain's despatch of November 1. On the 21st of November
the reply of the Transvaal Government was given, as follows:
"This Government most deeply regrets that the Cape Colony has
by its own acts created a condition of things, in consequence
of which it afterwards found itself compelled to invoke the
intervention of the British Government, and it still more
deeply regrets that Her Majesty's Government, on the 'ex
parte' representations of the Cape Colony, felt itself
constrained to telegraph to this Government in the terms of
the communication of the 3rd instant. From the reply of this
Government, it will be evident to your Excellency that it
wishes to contribute in every possible way to preserve the
good understanding in South Africa, and it therefore considers
a passage such as occurs in your Excellency's telegram of the 3rd
instant, 'An attempt to force the hand of the Cape Government
at the Conference by a measure which almost resembles the
nature of a hostile act,' not justified as regards this
Republic. This Government adheres to its opinion and view that
it has an undoubted right to regulate the ports of entrance on
the borders of the Republic, and if Her Majesty's Government
calls this an unfriendly act, this Government can only say
that it was the consequence of an unfriendly act of the Cape
Colony. In order not to be the cause of disturbance in South
Africa, this Government is prepared to submit the regulating
of the ports of entrance on the borders to arbitration, it
being convinced of the justice of its assertion that the
regulating of the ports of entrance on its borders by it is no
infringement of Article 13 of the Convention of London."
Great Britain,
Papers by Command: 1897, C. 8474, pages 11-21.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1895 (November).
The state of discontent among the Uitlanders, and its causes.
The franchise question.
Growth of British Imperialistic designs.
The suspension of commandeering went a very little way towards
removing the grievances of the British residents in the
Transvaal. Underlying that and all other causes of discontent
was the evident determination of the Boer inhabitants of the
Republic to keep in their own hands the whole power of
government, both state and municipal, and to deal with the
increasing multitude of incomers from the outside world (whom
they called Uitlanders, or Outlanders) permanently as aliens,
excluded from citizenship by as many bars as a jealous
legislature could raise.
{464}
Until 1882, a foreigner, settling in the Transvaal, could
become a citizen and a voter after a residence of two years.
The required residence was then raised to five years, and in
1887 it was carried up to fifteen. By this time the immigrant
population was growing numerous, and its complaints of
disfranchisement and non representation in the Volksraad, or
Legislature, soon took on angry tones. In 1890 a nominal
concession was made to the discontented Uitlanders, by the
creation of a Second Volksraad (see, in this volume,
CONSTITUTION OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC—the bracketed
amendments or added articles following Article 29), to which
they could elect representatives. The suffrage in elections to
this new chamber was given after two years residence, on the
taking of an oath of allegiance to the Republic, and
qualification for sitting in it was acquired after a residence
of four years. But the Second Volksraad had no independent
power. It could act only on certain specified subjects,
taxation not included, and all that it did was subject to
overruling by the First Volksraad, while the enactments of the
latter were entirely valid without its consent. The Second
Volksraad, in fact, was no actual branch of the national
legislature, but a powerless appendage to it, where an
appearance of representation in the government could be given
to the Uitlander population without the reality.
Naturally, this aggravated rather than pacified the discontent
of the new comers. They were a rapidly increasing multitude,
congregated, for the most part, in one district, where it was
easy for them to feel and act in combination. By 1895 there
was said to be 100,000 of them in the 'Witwatersrand, and some
60,000 natives were working in their mines. They were being
heavily taxed, and they complained that they could get nothing
adequate in return for the taxation,—neither an efficient
police, nor decent sanitary regulations, nor a proper water
supply, nor a safe restraint upon the sale of liquors to their
native work people. At the same time it was charged that
corruption prevailed in the omnipotent First Volksraad, and
among public officials, and that, on the whole, the Republic
was in bad as well as in ignorant hands. This was not alone
the view of the complaining foreign residents, but was shared
more or less by unprejudiced visitors to the country,
including Mr. James Bryce, who travelled in the Transvaal in
1895, and who wrote of the grievances of the Uitlanders in
quite a sympathetic vein.
Until the gold-seekers came into it, the Republic had been
poor and its revenues small. Their coming gave it a full
treasury. They were the principal consumers of the imported
goods on which its tariff was laid. Their large use of
dynamite and other explosives in mining gave the government an
opportunity to make a highly profitable monopoly of the
manufacture, afterwards exchanged for an equally profitable
concession to a monopolistic company. Their mines were the
proper subject of a tax which yielded large returns. In fact,
the Republic was taking much to itself from the Uitlanders,—no
more, perhaps, than it had a fair right to take,—but,
according to what seems to be trustworthy testimony, it was
giving them far less in return for it than they had a just
right to demand, and it was offering them no prospect of
anything better in time to come.
It seems to be certain that responsibility for whatever was
hostile and unjust in the treatment of the foreign population
rested largely upon the President of the Republic, Mr. Paul
Kruger, who had been at the head of the government for many
years. He exercised an influence and authority that had
scarcely any limit. The Volksraad was obedient to his will,
and most of its legislation was understood to emanate from him
and from those whose council he took. There can be little
doubt that he practically shaped the whole policy of the Boer
Republic in its dealing with the Uitlanders, and that it
expressed the attitude of his mind toward foreigners in
general and Englishmen in particular. He distrusted even the
Dutch of Cape Colony, and sought Hollanders for the public
service when he needed qualifications which his own people did
not possess.
"While within the Transvaal there was growing discontent,
matters were so shaping themselves without as to still further
complicate the situation. The idea of a Confederation of
British South Africa and the extension of the British sphere
to the Zambesi, had long been the dream of imperialists, and
the ruling classes at the Cape had persistently urged this
upon the home government. … After the consolidation of the
diamond companies. Mr. Cecil Rhodes became the imperialist
leader in South Africa and marshaled behind him all the
corporate interests and combined influence of his many
associates. The Boer Republics stood in the way of the success
of imperialistic enterprise. Then too the 'scramble for
Africa,' which began with the efforts of the King of Belgium
to consolidate the native tribes of central Africa under
Belgian rule and which resulted in the carving out of the
Congo Free State, the assertion of German protection over
Damaraland and Namaqueland, and the joint effort of European
powers to check the British sphere, all lent zest to ambition
and brought the English popular mind into temper for concerted
action. Under such circumstances the 'little England' party
lost its standing and an imperial policy gained fullest
support. With such an atmosphere surrounding the Transvaal the
grievances of the 'aliens' within could not long be
disregarded without serious trouble."
F. A. Cleveland,
The South African Conflict
(The American Academy of Political and Social Science,
Number 265), pages 19-22.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1895-1896.
Revolutionary conspiracy of disaffected Uitlanders
at Johannesburg with Rhodesians.
The Jameson Raid and its results.
In the fall of 1895, certain of the disaffected Uitlanders at
Johannesburg, leaders of an organization called the Transvaal
National Union, abandoned attempts to obtain what they sought
from the President and the Volksraad by petition and
agitation, and either invited or accepted proposals of
assistance from the armed forces of the British South Africa
Company, with a view to some kind of a revolutionary
undertaking. The story of the plot has been told with great
frankness by one of the actors in it, Mr. Alfred P. Hillier,
who writes:
{465}
"Mr. Cecil Rhodes, … accustomed as he was to success, quick
movement and rapid developments, in his great career, had …
watched with impatient eyes the setting back of the clock
within the South African Republic. His chief lieutenant, Dr.
Jameson, who had shared with him the labour of reclaiming from
barbarism and developing Rhodesia, and whose ambition was no
less than his superior's, discussed with him the desirability
of some active outside pressure; and between them was evolved
what is known as the Jameson plan. Mr. Beit, the capitalist
most largely interested in the mines of the Rand, an old
financial colleague of Mr. Rhodes, both in the De Beers
amalgamation and in the establishment of the Chartered
Company, promised both his influence and his purse in support
of the plan. Overtures were then made to Mr. Lionel Phillips,
who was at the head of the Chamber of Mines, and Mr. Charles
Leonard, the Chairman of the National Union. … The plan at
this early stage was presented in a very attractive form. A
force under Dr. Jameson was to be quietly gathered on the
border. The Johannesburg agitation, reinforced with capitalist
support, was to be steadily pushed forward. Rifles and
ammunition were to be smuggled into Johannesburg. Both the
High Commissioner and the Colonial Office might be counted on,
it was said, to support a vigorous forward movement for
reform. Mr. Phillips and Mr. Leonard, sick and weary of the
hopelessness of unsupported constitutional action, and of the
continual set back in Boer politics, already casting round in
their minds for some new departure, accepted and from that
time forth co-operated with Mr. Rhodes and Dr. Jameson in the
development of the Jameson plan.
"In October, 1895, a meeting took place at Groote Schuur, Mr.
Rhodes' residence near Cape Town, at which were present, in
addition to Mr. Cecil Rhodes, Mr. Lionel Phillips, Mr.
Hammond, Mr. Charles Leonard, and Colonel Frank Rhodes. At
this meeting the plan was more fully discussed and matured;
and in November, 1895, when Dr. Jameson visited Johannesburg,
the details were finally settled. The letter of invitation was
written, signed and handed to Dr.Jameson, and the date of
combined action provisionally fixed for the end of December.
Dr. Jameson's force was to be about 1,000 strong, and the
start to be made when finally summoned by the signatories of
the letter. In the meantime the Johannesburg leaders were to
have sent in to them 4,500 rifles and 1,000,000 rounds of
ammunition, and were, if possible, to arrange for an attack on
the Pretoria Arsenal simultaneously with the move from
outside. With regard to the letter of invitation which was
subsequently used by Dr. Jameson as a justification for his
start, … Mr. Leonard, Colonel Rhodes, and Mr. Phillips have
all distinctly stated that this letter was never intended as
an authority to Dr. Jameson to enter the Transvaal, unless and
until he received a further summons from them. Such was in
brief the history of the Jameson plan as far as concerned
Johannesburg. And it is necessary here to refer to the
position with regard to it of the bulk of the men who
subsequently constituted the Reform Committee. They at this
time, with the exception of a few of their number, of which I
personally was one, were entirely ignorant of what was going
on. … The Johannesburg leaders, relying on the general
sentiment of the community, assumed the responsibility of
arranging a basis of operations. So that the plan when it was
gradually revealed to various men had either to be accepted by
them in its entirety or rejected. … Men demanded and received
assurance that the movement was to be a republican one, and in
no way to be an attempt on the independence of the country. A
sufficient number of rifles were also to be forthcoming, and
the High Commissioner was to be on the spot to expedite the
adjustment of matters immediately disturbances arose."
A. P. Hillier,
Raid and Reform,
pages 47-53.
The practical working of the conspiracy proved less easy than
the planning of it. Arms and ammunition were smuggled into
Johannesburg, but not in sufficient quantities. The time of
action had been fixed for the 28th of December. When it came
near there were found to be only 2,500 rifles at hand, instead
of the 10,000 that were wanted. A scheme for the surprising of
the Boer arsenal at Pretoria was pronounced at the last moment
impracticable. Still more disconcerting to many was a report
which came from Cape Town, that Jameson would require the
rising to be made under and in favor of the British flag. "The
movement within the Transvaal," says Mr. Hillier, "had from
its outset been one in favour, not of a British Colony, but of
a sound Republic. … Many Americans and South Africans had
accorded their support only on this understanding." Until a
clearer arrangement with the Rhodesians on this point could be
reached, the leaders in Johannesburg determined not to act.
Accordingly, on the 26th of December, two days before the
appointed date of insurrection, they telegraphed to Jameson,
in covert language which he understood, that it was
"absolutely necessary to postpone the flotation." On the
following day they issued a lengthy manifesto, setting forth
all their grievances, and deferring until the 6th of January a
general meeting of the National Union which had been called
for the 27th of December—the eve of the intended rising. The
manifesto concluded as follows:
"We have now only two questions to consider:
(a) What do we want?
(b) how shall we get it?
I have stated plainly what our grievances are, and I shall
answer with equal directness the question, 'What do we want?'
We want:
(1) the establishment of this Republic as a true republic:
(2) a Grondwet or Constitution which shall be framed by
competent persons selected by representatives of the whole
people and framed on lines laid down by them—a constitution
which shall be safeguarded against hasty alteration;
(3) an equitable franchise law, and fair representation;
(4) equality of the Dutch and English languages;
(5) responsibility of the Legislature to the heads of the
great departments;
(6) removal of religious disabilities;
(7) independence of the courts of justice, with adequate and
secured remuneration of the judges;
(8) liberal and comprehensive education;
(9) efficient civil service, with adequate provision for pay
and pension;
(10) free trade in South African products.
That is what we want. There now remains the question which is
to be put before you at the meeting of the 6th January. viz.,
How shall we get it?"
Great Britain: Papers by Command, 1896, C.—7933.
{466}
Acting, as appears, on his own responsibility, Dr. Jameson
refused to be stopped by the postponement at Johannesburg,
and, on the evening of December 29, he entered the Transvaal
territory, from Pitsani-Pitlogo, in Bechuanaland, with a force
of about 500 men. His movement created consternation in all the
circles of the conspiracy, and received no effectual support.
It was promptly disavowed and condemned by the British
authorities, and by the home officials of the British South
Africa Company. Cecil Rhodes could do nothing but tacitly
acknowledge his responsibility for what his lieutenant had
done (though the precipitation of the raid was evidently a
surprise and a trouble to him) by resigning the premiership of
Cape Colony. Meantime, the invaders had learned that the Boers
were not to be ridden over in the easy fashion they supposed.
Hasty levies had intercepted their march, had repulsed them at
Krugersdorp, with a heavy loss in killed and wounded,
surrounded them at Doornkop, and forced them to surrender on
New Year's day. A few days later, the Uitlanders at
Johannesburg, some of whom had made a confused and ineffectual
attempt to take arms, proclaiming a provisional government,
and around whose town the excited Boers had gathered in large
force, were persuaded by the British High Commissioner to
submit to the Transvaal authorities, and more than fifty of
the leaders were placed under arrest.
"With great difficulty, President Kruger overcame the desire
of his people that Jameson and his officers should be brought
to trial and punished in the country they had outraged by
their invasion, and they were handed over to the British
government for removal to England and trial by an English
court. The trial took place in July (20-28), before the Lord
Chief Justice (Lord Russell of Killowen), Baron Pollock, and
Justice Hawkins, with a special jury. The charge on which the
prisoners were tried was that of having fitted out a warlike
expedition against a friendly state, in violation of the
Foreign Enlistment Act. The charge of the Lord Chief Justice
gave the following questions to the jury: Were preparations
for a raid made by the defendants? Did they aid, abet,
counsel, or procure such preparation? Were they employed in
the actual expedition? Did the Queen exercise dominion and
sovereignty in Pitsani-Pitlogo? The jury returned affirmative
answers, which were held to constitute a verdict of "guilty,"
and sentence was pronounced,—fifteen months of imprisonment
for Dr. Jameson, and terms varying from five to ten months for
his four subordinate officers. During the trial and after
there were many demonstrations of popular sympathy with the
prisoners. Meantime, in April, the Transvaal authorities had
brought the imprisoned leaders of the Johannesburg "reform
committee" to trial at Pretoria on charges of treason and had
convicted them all. Four, namely, Colonel Rhodes (brother of
Cecil), Lionel Phillips, George Farrar, and John Hays Hammond
(an American), were sentenced to death; the remainder to a
payment of heavy fines. The death sentences were soon
commuted, first to imprisonment for fifteen years, and
subsequently to fines of $125,000 on each of four prisoners.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1896 (January).
Message of the German Emperor to President Kruger,
relative to the Jameson Raid.
The critical situation of affairs produced by the Jameson raid
was dangerously complicated at the beginning by the
publication of the following telegram, sent to President
Kruger, on the 3d of January, by the German Emperor: "I
express my sincere congratulations that, supported by your
people and without appealing for help to friendly powers, you
have succeeded by your own energetic action against the armed
bands which invaded your country as disturbers of the peace,
and have thus been enabled to restore peace, and safeguard the
independence of your country against attacks from without."
President Kruger replied: "I testify to Your Majesty my very
deep and heartfelt thanks for Your Majesty's sincere
congratulations. With God's help we hope to do everything
further that is possible for the holding of our dearly bought
independence and the stability of our beloved republic." This
kindled a white heat of indignation in England. It was
supposed to signify a disposition on the part of the German
Emperor to recognize the absolute independence which the South
African Republic claimed, and to threaten interference as
between Great Britain and the Boers. A powerful "flying
squadron" was instantly put in commission, and several ships
were ordered to Delagoa Bay. For some time the relations
between Great Britain and Germany were seriously strained; but
various influences gradually cooled the excited feeling in
England, though not a little distrust of German intentions has
remained.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1896 (January-April).
Urgency of the British Colonial Secretary for redress of
Uitlander grievances.
Invitation to President Kruger to visit England.
His requirement that Article IV. of the London Convention
shall be discussed.
Deadlock of the parties.
The complaints of the Uitlanders, effectually silenced for the
time being at Johannesburg by the vigorous action of the
Boers, were now taken up by the British Secretary of State for
the Colonies, Mr. Chamberlain, and pressed in strenuous
despatches to the High Commissioner in South Africa, Sir
Hercules Robinson. On the 4th of January, 1896, four days
after the surrender of Jameson and four days before the
insurgent Uitlanders at Johannesburg had laid down their arms,
a long despatch was cabled by Mr. Chamberlain to the High
Commissioner, instructing him to make "friendly
representations" to President Kruger on the subject of those
complaints. "I am aware," wrote the Colonial Secretary, "that
victory of Transvaal Government over Administrator of
Mashonaland may possibly find them not willing to make any
concessions. If this is the attitude they adopt, they will, in
my opinion, make a great mistake; for danger from which they
have just escaped was real, and one which, if the causes which
led up to it are not removed, may recur, although in a
different form. I have done everything in my power to undo and
to minimise the evil caused by late unwarrantable raid by
British subjects into the territory of the South African
Republic, and it is not likely that such action will be ever
repeated; but the state of things of which complaint has been
made cannot continue forever. If those who are now a majority
of inhabitants of the Transvaal, but are excluded from all
participation in its government, were, of their own
initiative, and without any interference from without, to
attempt to reverse that state of things, they would, without
doubt, attract much sympathy from all civilised communities
who themselves live under a free Government, and I cannot
regard the present state of things in the South African
Republic as free from danger to the stability of its
institutions.
{467}
The Government of the South African Republic cannot be
indifferent to these considerations, and President of South
African Republic himself has on more than one occasion,
expressed his willingness to inquire into and to deal with
just reasons for discontent; and the Volksraad have now the
opportunity to show magnanimity in the hour of their success
and to settle all differences by moderate concessions. They
must fully admit the entire loyalty of yourself and of Her
Majesty's Government to the terms of London Convention, as
shown by their recent intervention, and they must recognise
that their authority in crisis through which they have passed
could not have been so promptly and effectively asserted
without that intervention. If they will recognise this by
making concessions in accordance with our friendly advice, no
one will be able to suggest that they are acting under
pressure, and their voluntary moderation will produce best
effect among all who are interested in well-being of the
Transvaal and in future of South Africa."
On the 13th of January the Colonial Secretary pursued the
subject in another despatch to Sir Hercules Robinson, as
follows: "Now that Her Majesty's Government have fulfilled
their obligations to the South African Republic, and have
engaged to bring the leaders in the recent invasion to trial,
they are anxious that the negotiations which are being
conducted by you should result in a permanent settlement by
which the possibility of further internal troubles will be
prevented. The majority of the population is composed of
Uitlanders, and their complete exclusion from any share in the
government of the country is an admitted grievance which is
publicly recognised as such by the friends of the Republic as
well as by the opinion of civilised Europe. There will always
be a danger of internal disturbance so long as this grievance
exists, and I desire that you will earnestly impress on
President Kruger the wisdom of making concessions in the
interests alike of the South African Republic and of South
Africa as a whole. There is a possibility that the President
might be induced to rely on the support of some foreign Power
in resisting the grant of reforms or in making demands upon
Her Majesty's Government; and in view of this I think it well
to inform you that Great Britain will resist at all costs the
interference of any foreign Power in the affairs of the South
African Republic. The suggestion that such interference was
contemplated by Germany was met in this country by an
unprecedented and unanimous outburst of public feeling. In
order to be prepared for all eventualities, it has been
thought desirable by Her Majesty's Government to commission a
Flying Squadron of powerful men-of-war, with twelve
torpedo-ships; and many other vessels are held in reserve. Her
Majesty's Government have no reason, at the present moment, to
anticipate any conflict of interest with foreign Powers; but I
think it right for you to know that Great Britain will not
tolerate any change in her relations with the Republic, and
that, while loyally respecting its internal independence,
subject to the Conventions, she will maintain her position as
the Paramount Power in South Africa, and especially the
provisions of Article IV. of the Convention of 1884. It is my
sincere hope that President Kruger, who has hitherto shown so
much wisdom in dealing with the situation, will now take the
opportunity afforded to him of making of his own free will
such reasonable concessions to the Uitlanders as will remove
the last excuse for disloyalty, and will establish the free
institutions of the Republic on a firm and lasting basis."
To this Sir Hercules replied with a remonstrance, saying:
"Your telegram 13 January No.1 only reached me last night
after I had left Pretoria. I could, if you consider it
desirable, communicate purport to President of South African
Republic by letter, but I myself think such action would be
inopportune. … Nearly all leading Johannesburg men are now in
gaol, charged with treason against the State, and it is
rumoured that Government has written evidence of a
long-standing and wide-spread conspiracy to seize Government
of country on the plea of denial of political privileges, and
to incorporate the country with that of British South Africa
Company. The truth of these reports will be tested in the
trials to take place shortly in the High Court, and meanwhile
to urge claim for extended political privileges for the very
men so charged would be ineffectual and impolitic. President
of South African Republic has already promised municipal
government to Johannesburg, and has stated in a Proclamation
that all grievances advanced in a constitutional manner will
be carefully considered and brought before the Volksraad
without loss of time; but until result of trials is known
nothing, of course, will now be done." Mr. Chamberlain saw
force in the High Commissioner's objections, and assented to a
momentary suspension of pressure on the Transvaal President,
but not for long. "I recognise," he telegraphed on the 15th,
"that the actual moment is not opportune for a settlement of
the Uitlanders' grievances, and that the position of the
President of the South African Republic may be an embarrassing
one, but I do not consider that the arrest of a few score
individuals out of a population of 70,000 or more, or the
supposed existence of a plot among that small minority, is a
reason for denying to the overwhelming majority of innocent
persons reforms which are just in themselves and expedient in
the interests of the Republic. Whatever may be said about the
conduct of a few individuals, nothing can be plainer than that
the sober and industrious majority refused to countenance any
resort to violence, and proved their readiness to obey the law
and your authority. I hope, therefore, to hear at an early
date that you propose to resume the discussion with President
of South African Republic on lines laid down in my previous
telegrams. I do not see that the matter need wait until the
conclusion of the trial of the supposed plotters."
On the 28th of January the High Commissioner, under
instructions from London, addressed to President Kruger the
following invitation: "I am directed by Her Majesty's
Government to tender to your Honour a cordial invitation to
visit England, with a view to discussing with them all those
questions which relate to the security of the South African
Republic and the general welfare of South Africa. I am to add
that, although Her Majesty's Government cannot consent to
modify Article 4 of the London Convention [see above; A. D.
1884-1894], other matters are open to friendly discussion.
{468}
Her Majesty's Government hope that your Honour will come as
the guest of the British Government." While this invitation
was being considered, and before a reply to it had been made,
the British Colonial Secretary reopened his own discussion of
the questions at issue, February 4, in a despatch of great
length, reviewing the whole history of the relations of the
Uitlanders to the government of the South African Republic,
and of the recent occurrences which had been consequent upon
their discontent. It praised "the spirit of wisdom and
moderation" shown by President Kruger, who "kept within bounds
the natural exasperation of his burghers," and it gave
especial attention to a proclamation which President Kruger
had addressed to the inhabitants of Johannesburg, on the 10th
of January, in which he had said: "It is my intention to
submit a draft Law at the first ordinary session of the
Volksraad, whereby a Municipality with a Mayor at its head
will be appointed for Johannesburg, to whom the whole
municipal government of this town will be entrusted."
On this the Secretary made the following suggestions: "Basing
myself upon the expressed desire of President Kruger to grant
municipal government to Johannesburg, I suggest, for his
consideration, as one way of meeting the difficulty, that the
whole of the Rand district, from end to end, should be erected
into something more than a municipality as that word is
ordinarily understood; that, in fact, it should have a
modified local autonomy, with powers of legislation on purely
local questions, and subject to the veto of the President and
Executive Council; and that this power of legislation should
include the power of assessing and levying its own taxation,
subject to the payment to the Republican Government of an
annual tribute of an amount to be fixed at once and revised at
intervals, so as to meet the case of a diminution or increase
in the mining industry. As regards judicial matters in such a
scheme, the Rand, like the Eastern Provinces and the Kimberley
District of the Cape Colony, might have a superior court of
its own. It would, of course, be a feature of this scheme that
the autonomous body should have the control of its civil
police, its public education, its mine management, and all
other matters affecting its internal economy and well-being.
The central Government would be entitled to maintain all
reasonable safeguards against the fomenting of a revolutionary
movement, or the storage of arms for treasonable purposes
within the district. Those living in, and there enjoying a
share in the government of, the autonomous district, would
not, in my view, be entitled to a voice in the general
Legislature or the Central Executive, or the presidential
election. The burghers would thus be relieved of what is
evidently a haunting fear to many of them—although I believe
an unfounded one—that the first use which the enfranchised
newcomers would make of their privileges would be to upset the
republican form of government. Relieved of this apprehension,
I should suppose that there would not be many of them who
would refuse to deal with the grievances of the comparatively
few Uitlanders outside the Rand on those liberal principles
which characterized the earlier legislation of the Republic.
The President may rest assured that in making the above
suggestions I am only actuated by friendly feeling towards
himself and the South African Republic. They are not offered
in derogation of his authority, but as the sincere and
friendly contribution of Her Majesty's Government towards the
settlement of a question which continues to threaten the
tranquillity of the Republic and the welfare and progress of
the whole of South Africa. A proper settlement of the
questions at issue involves so many matters of detail which
could be more easily and satisfactorily settled by personal
conference, that I should be glad to have the opportunity of
discussing the subject with the President, if it suited his
convenience, and were agreeable to him, to come to this
country for the purpose. Should this be impracticable, I rely
upon you to make my views known to him and to carry on the
negotiations."
This despatch, as soon as it had been forwarded from the
Colonial Office, was published in the "London Gazette," so
that a telegraphed summary of its contents reached President
Kruger before it came to him officially,—which naturally added
something to the irritations existing at Pretoria. However,
the President, on the 8th of February, by telegram to the High
Commissioner, and more fully on the 25th by letter, responded
to the invitation to visit England. In his telegram he said:
"In order to give me the liberty to let the Honourable
Volksraad judge whether permission and power to act will be
given me to go out of the country, an understanding must, of
course, first be come to as to what points will he discussed
or not, so that I may lay those points before the Volksraad
for deliberation and resolution." In his letter he wrote:
"At the commencement, I wish to observe that the object of
this letter is to pave the way for a friendly discussion of
the matters herein mentioned, in order to arrive at a
satisfactory solution, and further that, although as yet I
desire no positive and direct assent to the desires expressed
herein, I would, nevertheless, to prevent a misunderstanding,
desire to have an assurance that they will be taken into the
most mature consideration with the earnest endeavour and the
sincere desire to comply with my wishes. The desire to receive
this assurance will be respected by your Excellency and Her
Majesty's Government as reasonable, when I say that,
considering especially my advanced age and the unavoidable
delay, owing to my absence, in the transaction of matters
affecting the highest State interests, I would, with
difficulty, be able to make the sacrifice in going only to
discuss matters without arriving at the desired result, and it
is evident that if the assurance referred to by me cannot be
given by Her Majesty's Government, in all probability the
Honourable Volksraad would not grant its consent and
commission. … Although, as already said, the Government could
tolerate no interference in its internal relations and the
official discussion of affairs with the object of requiring
changes therein will have to be avoided, on the other hand I
wish it to be understood that private hints given by statesmen
of experience in the true interest of the country and its
independence will always be warmly appreciated by me, from
whatever side they may come.
{469}
"Going over to a summing up of the points which, in my
opinion, should be brought under discussion, I wish to mention
in the first place:—
1. The superseding of the Convention of London with the eye,
amongst others, on the violation of the territory of the South
African Republic: because in several respects it has already
virtually ceased to exist; because in other respects it has no
more cause for existence; because it is injurious to the
dignity of an independent Republic; because the very name and
the continual arguments on the question of suzerainty, which
since the conclusion of this Convention no longer exists, are
used as a pretext, especially by a libellous press, for
wilfully inciting both white and coloured people against the
lawful authority of the Republic; for intentionally bringing
about misunderstanding and false relations between England and
the Republic, whereby in this manner the interests of both
countries and of their citizens and subjects are prejudiced
and the peaceful development of the Republic is opposed. In
the discussion of the withdrawal of the Convention as a whole,
Article IV. should naturally not be kept back. I have reason
to believe that the British Government has come to the
decision to make no alteration in this on account of false
representations made to it and lying reports spread by the
press and otherwise with a certain object, to the effect that
the Government of the Republic has called in, or sought, the
protection of other Powers. While I thankfully acknowledge and
will ever acknowledge the sympathy of other Powers or their
subjects, and the conduct of the last named has, in the light
of the trials recently passed through, on the whole offered a
favourable contrast to that of British subjects, there is
nevertheless nothing further from my thoughts than to strive
for the protection of a foreign power, which I will never even
seek. Neither I nor the people of the Republic will tolerate an
interference with the internal relations from any power
whatever, and I am prepared, if the course proposed by me be
adopted, to give the necessary assurances for this, in order
that Her British Majesty's Government need have no fear that
Her interests in South Africa should be injured.
2. Further should be discussed the superseding of the
Convention by a treaty of peace, commerce and friendship, by
which the existing privileges of England in the dominion of
commerce and intercourse and the interests of British subjects
in the Republic will be satisfactorily guaranteed on the
footing of the most-favoured nation, and herein I would be
prepared to go to the utmost of what can reasonably be asked.
3. Then the necessary guarantees will have to be given against
a repetition of the violation of territory out of the
territory of the Chartered Company or the Cape Colony, and of
disturbing military operations and unlawful military or police
or even private movements on the borders of the Republic.
4. Further should be discussed the compensation for direct and
indirect injury to be given or caused to be given by England
for and by reason of the incursion that recently took place.
The reasons for this are evident and need no argument. The
amount to be demanded it is impossible as yet to determine,
but, if required, it can still be given before my departure to
England.
5. I would, although in the following respects I would not
insist beforehand on an assurance such as that intended with
regard to the above-mentioned points, nevertheless wish to
request the earnest consideration of a final settlement of the
Swaziland question, in this sense, that that country shall
henceforth become a part of the Republic. …
6. Further, I would very much like to have discussed the
revocation of the charter of the Chartered Company, which, if
this does not take place, will continue to be a threatening
danger to the quiet and peace of the Republic and thereby also
to the whole South Africa. I am of opinion that all the above
desires are fair and just. … I will be pleased to receive the
views of Her Majesty's Government on the points herein brought
forward, in order that I may be enabled to bring the matter
for decision before the Honourable Volksraad."
Mr. Chamberlain's reply to this communication was, in part, as
follows: "Her Majesty's Government regret that President has
given no definite reply to invitation to visit England which
was sent to him on 28th January. This invitation was the
result of private information conveyed to Her Majesty's
Government that the President was desirous of arranging with
them a settlement of all differences, and of placing on a
permanent and friendly basis the relations between the United
Kingdom and the South African Republic. Before forwarding the
invitation, Her Majesty's Government knew that his Honour was
in full possession of their opinion, that no arrangement can
be satisfactory or complete which does not include a fair
settlement of those grievances of the Uitlander population
which have been recognized by the general public opinion of
South Africa, and which have been the cause of discontent and
agitation in the past, and are likely—unless remedied—to lead
to further disturbances in future, Her Majesty's Government
also took care to satisfy themselves that the President had
been made aware that they were not prepared to modify in any
way the provisions of Article IV. of the Convention of 1884,
and this was again made clear in the formal invitation to
visit England. Under these circumstances, it was with great
surprise that Her Majesty's Government learnt from the
Despatch of the President of 25th February that his Honour
objected to discuss the question of the reforms asked for by
the Uitlanders, and that he desired to propose withdrawal of
Article IV. of the Convention, and Her Majesty's Government
regret that they were not informed of his Honour's views on
the subject at an earlier date, as they would not have felt
justified in inviting the President to encounter the fatigue
of a journey to this country if they had not been led to
believe that he was in agreement with them as to the general
object of such a visit.
"In their view, Her Majesty's Government were able to offer a
complete guarantee in the future to the South African Republic
against any attack upon its independence, either from within
any part of Her Majesty's dominions or from the territory of a
foreign Power. In return, they assumed that the President
would make known to them the measures which he proposed to
take to remedy the acknowledged grievances of the Uitlanders,
and to consider any suggestions which Her Majesty's Government
might wish to offer as to the adequacy of these measures for
the removal of all cause of internal disturbances. … Such a
discussion as they contemplate would not involve any
acknowledgment on the part of the President of a right of
interference in the internal concerns of the Republic, but
would only at the most amount to a recognition of the friendly
interest of Her Majesty's Government in its security, and in
the general welfare of South Africa.
{470}
The President would be, of course, at liberty to accept or to
reject any advice that might be tendered to him by Her
Majesty's Government, but in the latter case the
responsibility for the result would naturally rest wholly with
him. Her Majesty's Government have already expressed a
willingness to give full consideration to any representations
which his Honour may wish to make on the other points named in
his letter, although some of them are matters wholly in
jurisdiction of Her Majesty's Government. But unless the
President is satisfied with the explanations I have now given,
Her Majesty's Government are reluctantly obliged to come to
the conclusion that no good purpose can be served by the
proposed visit."
In return to this despatch, President Kruger, on 17th of
March, expressed his "deep disappointment" at its contents, by
reason of which, he said, "it is not possible for me to
proceed to convene a special session of the Volksraad at once"
for the purpose of action upon the invitation of the British
Government. Thereupon (April 27), the Colonial Secretary
cabled to the High Commissioner in South Africa: "Her
Majesty's Government have no alternative but to withdraw the
invitation, which it appears from the President's message was
given under a misapprehension of the facts." Thus the two
parties were at a deadlock.
Great Britain, Papers by Command: 1896,
C. 7933, pages 19-91; and C. 8063, pages 11-17.
SOUTH AFRICA: Rhodesia: A. D. 1896 (March-September).
Matabele revolt.
Taking advantage of the confusion in affairs which followed
the Jameson raid, and its removal of part of the police force
from the country, the Matabele rose in revolt. The main
provocation of the rising appears to have been from severe
measures that were adopted for stamping out rinderpest in the
country. Many whites were killed in the regions of scattered
settlement, and Buluwayo and Gwelo, where considerable numbers
had taken refuge, were in much danger for a time. But prompt
and vigorous measures were taken by the colonial and imperial
authorities, as well as by the officers of the South Africa
Company. Troops were sent from Cape Colony, Natal, and
England, and Major-General Sir Frederick Carrington was
ordered from Gibraltar to take command. Cecil Rhodes hastened
to Salisbury on the first news of the outbreak and organized a
force of volunteers for the relief of the beleaguered towns. The
Transvaal government offered help. By June, when General
Carrington arrived, and Lord Grey had succeeded Dr. Jameson as
Administrator, the insurgent natives had been put on the
defensive and had nearly ceased their attacks. They were
driven into the Matoppo hills, where their position was
formidably strong. At length, in August, Mr. Rhodes opened
negotiations with some of the chiefs, and went, with three
companions, unarmed, into their stronghold. He there made an
agreement with them, which the British military authorities
and many of the Matabele warriors refused to be bound by. But
the revolt had been practically broken and soon came to an
end.
SOUTH AFRICA: British South Africa Company: A. D. 1896 (June).
Resignation of Mr. Rhodes.
On the 26th of June the resignations of Cecil J. Rhodes and
Mr. Beit from the Board of Directors of the British South
Africa Company, and of Mr. Rutherford Harris as its Secretary,
were accepted by the Board.
SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Colony: A. D. 1896 (July).
Investigation of the Jameson Raid.
Responsibility of Cecil J. Rhodes.
On the 17th of July a Select Committee of the Cape Colony
House of Assembly, appointed in the previous May "to inquire
into the circumstances, as affecting this colony, in connexion
with the preparations for and carrying out of the recent armed
inroad into the territory of the South African Republic," made
its report, rehearsing at length the facts ascertained, with
evidence in full, and submitting a number of "conclusions,"
among them the following: "Your Committee are of opinion that
no member of the then Colonial Government with the exception
of the then Prime Minister [Mr. Cecil J. Rhodes], had any
knowledge whatever or suspicion of the intention to send an
armed force across the border of the South African Republic. …
Your Committee is convinced that the stores and workshops of
the De Beers Consolidated Mines were for some time previous to
the inroad used for the storage and for the unlawful
exportation of arms destined for the South African Republic,
in connexion with this inroad, and also that 11 men were sent
from De Beers to Johannesburg, who were afterwards allowed to
resume their positions. The evidence is clear, and leaves no
room for doubt on this point. The local directors give an
emphatic denial to any guilty knowledge on their part, and
your Committee must acquit them of anything beyond negligence,
which, looking to the magnitude of the transactions and the
length of time over which they extended, must have been very
marked. It is not conceivable that such proceedings could have
been permitted without the knowledge and approval of the
Chairman and Life Governor, Mr. C. J. Rhodes. With regard to
the Chartered Company, your Committee find that the principal
officials in Cape Town either knew, or were in a position to
have known, the existence of this plot. Two at least of the
directors, Mr. Beit and the Right Honorable C. J. Rhodes,
were, together with the Administrator, Dr. Jameson, and Dr.
Harris, the South African Secretary of the Company, active as
promoters and moving spirits throughout, and they were from
time to time kept informed of the preparations. … The whole
movement was largely financed and engineered from outside, and
in both cases certain directors and officials of the Chartered
Company of British South Africa were active throughout. As
regards the Right Honorable C. J. Rhodes, your Committee can
come to no other conclusion than that he was thoroughly
acquainted with the preparations that led to the inroad. That
in his capacity as controller of the three great joint-stock
companies, the British South Africa Company, the De Beers
Consolidated Mines, and the Gold Fields of South Africa, he
directed and controlled the combination which rendered such a
proceeding as the Jameson raid possible. … It would appear
that Mr. Rhodes did not direct or approve of Dr. Jameson's
entering the territory of the South African Republic at the
precise time when he did do so, but your Committee cannot find
that that fact relieves Mr. Rhodes from responsibility for the
unfortunate occurrences which took place. Even if Dr. Jameson
be primarily responsible for the last fatal step, Mr. Rhodes
cannot escape the responsibility of a movement which had been
arranged, with his concurrence, to take place at the precise
time it did, if circumstances had been favourable at
Johannesburg."
Great Britain, Papers by Command: 1897,
C. 8380, pages 7-9.
{471}
SOUTH AFRICA: British South Africa Company: A. D. 1896 (July).
Parliamentary movement to investigate its administration.
In the British House of Commons, on the 30th of July, Mr.
Chamberlain, Secretary of State for the Colonies, made a
motion for the appointment of a select committee of fifteen to
conduct an inquiry into the administration of the British
South Africa Company, and the motion was adopted.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1896-1897 (May-April).
Continued controversies between the British Colonial
Secretary, Mr. Chamberlain, and the Government of the
South African Republic.
Complaints and counter complaints.
Aliens Immigration Law, etc.
For a time after the abandonment of the proposed visit of
President Kruger to England, the older questions at issue
between Great Britain and the Transvaal fell into the
background; but new ones were constantly rising. Each party
watched the other with suspicious and critical eyes, sharply
questioning things that would hardly have been noticed in
ordinary times. The Boer authorities, on their side, were
naturally disturbed and made inquisitive by every movement of
troops or arms in the surrounding British territory, both of
which movements were being somewhat increased by the revolt of
the Matabeles. They were impatient, too, for some action on
the part of the British government against the chief authors
of the recent invasion,—the officials of the British South
Africa Company,—and against the Company itself. On the 11th of
May, 1896, the State Secretary of the Transvaal government
telegraphed to the British High Commissioner as follows: "The
newspapers of the last few days state that Her Majesty's
Government still continue to take the part of the Directors of
British South Africa Company, especially Mr. Rhodes. This
Government will not believe the accuracy of these reports, but
it is of opinion that the Chartered Company as administering
the Government up to now is a source of danger to whole of
South Africa. The inroad into this Republic was made by
officers, troops, and arms of that Chartered Company, and even
the explicit prohibition of Her Majesty's Government was
unable to restrain them, notwithstanding the Chartered Company
had taken upon itself the international obligations of Great
Britain. The behaviour of the persons who knew of the scheme
of the inroad beforehand and supported it is, as we see,
defended by saying that they acted thus in the interests of
and for the extension of Imperialism in South Africa. This
Government does not believe that the end justifies the means,
and is convinced that Her Majesty's Government does not wish
to be served by misdeed."
When this had been communicated to the British Colonial
Secretary, Mr. Chamberlain, he replied (May 13) that the
President of the South African Republic "has been misinformed
if he supposes that Her Majesty's Government have taken the
part of any of British South Africa Company Directors,
including Mr. Rhodes, with regard to any connexion which they
may be hereafter proved to have had with the recent raid. … On
the contrary, while appreciating Mr. Rhodes's services in the
past, Her Majesty's Government have condemned the raid, and
the conduct of all the parties implicated by the telegrams
recently published. Her Majesty's Government have promised a
full Parliamentary inquiry, as soon as legal proceedings
against Dr. Jameson and his officers have been concluded, to
examine the Charter granted to British South Africa Company
and the operation of its provisions, and to consider whether
any improvements in it are desirable. Such an inquiry will go
into the whole subject, not only of recent events, but of the
whole administration. Her Majesty's Government cannot be
expected to announce any decision as to the future of the
Company until the Parliamentary Committee has made its
recommendations."
On the 15th President Kruger replied: "This Government is very
pleased at receiving the assurance that a searching inquiry is
being instituted against British South Africa Company and its
Directors, and will follow its course with interest." But the
following month found the authorities at Pretoria still
unsatisfied as to the intention of the British government to
bring Mr. Rhodes and the South Africa Company to account for
what they had done. On the 19th of June, the then Acting High
Commissioner (Sir Hercules Robinson having gone to England on
leave) transmitted to Mr. Chamberlain two telegrams just
received by him from the government of the South African
Republic. The first was as follows: "Acting under
instructions, I have the honour to acquaint your Excellency,
for the information of Her Majesty's Government, that, with a
view to the welfare and peace of South Africa, this Government
is convinced that the proofs in the possession and at the
disposal of Her Majesty's Government now completely justify
and compel the bringing to trial of Messrs. Cecil Rhodes,
Alfred Beit, and Doctor Rutherford Harris, as has already been
done with Doctor Jameson and his accomplices. In the interests
of all South Africa, this Government feels itself obliged to
press the taking of this step upon Her Majesty's Government. I
have also the honour to request your Excellency to communicate
this despatch by cable to Her Majesty's Government in London."
The second was in this language: "This Government regards with
great regret the delay in the matter of the inquiry with
respect to the complicity and responsibility of British South
Africa Company in connexion with the raid of Doctor Jameson
and his band within the territory of this Republic. This
Government considers it its right and duty to press for the
speedy holding of the inquiry, not merely because it is the
injured party but also because of its interest and share in
the well-being of South Africa, whose interests, as repeatedly
intimated, are also dear to Her Majesty the Queen. This
Government is also convinced that it is urgently necessary
that the entire control and administration, as well civil as
military, be taken out of hands of British South Africa
Company and transferred to Her Majesty's Government, and I am
instructed to press this point on behalf of this Government. I
have further the honour to request your Excellency to cable
this despatch to Her Majesty's Government in London."
{472}
To these communications Mr. Chamberlain made a somewhat
haughty response. "Inform the Government of the South African
Republic," he cabled on the 25th of June, "that Her Majesty's
Government have received their telegrams of the 19th June,
which were published in London almost simultaneously with
their receipt by me. Her Majesty's Government do not require
to be reminded of their duty in regard to the recent invasion
of the South African Republic, and they cannot admit the claim
of the Government of the Republic to dictate the time and
manner in which they shall fulfil their obligations. I am
unable to understand the reasons which have suddenly
influenced the Government of the South African Republic to
make representations which are inconsistent with their
previous statements. On 18th April and on 15th May the
Government of the Republic appeared to be satisfied with the
assurances given them by Her Majesty's Government, from which
there has never been any intention of departing. It would not
be in accordance with English ideas of justice to condemn the
British South Africa Company and deal with its powers as
proposed in the telegrams before an enquiry had been made, and
before the Company had been heard in its own defence. With
regard to the demand of the Government of the South African
Republic that the three gentlemen specifically named shall now
be placed on their trial, you will remind them that Her
Majesty's Government can only act in this matter upon the
advice of the Law Officers of the Crown, and in accordance
with the principles of English law."
But Mr. Secretary Chamberlain, on his side, was
equally—perhaps more than equally—watchful and critical of the
doings and omissions of the government of the South African
Republic. He kept an eye upon them that was especially alert
for the detection of infractions of the London Convention of
1884 (see above: A. D. 1884-1894), with its provisions very
strictly construed. He found treaties negotiated with foreign
powers in contravention of Article IV. of that Convention, and
laws passed which he deemed an infringement of its Article
XIV. He arraigned the government of the Republic upon each as
it came to his knowledge, and then, on the 6th of March, 1897,
went back over the record of his complaints and summed them
up, as follows: "It will be convenient if I recapitulate
briefly the occasions for such complaint, beginning with the
cases relating to Article IV. of the Convention. …
"1.—Netherlands Treaty.
On the 9th November 1895, an Extradition Treaty between the
South African Republic and the Netherlands was signed at the
Hague, and the ratifications were exchanged on the 19th June
last, without the Treaty being submitted for the approval of
Her Majesty. The case was therefore one of a clear infraction
of the Convention, inasmuch as the Treaty had not been
submitted to Her Majesty's Government on its completion, and
had been concluded by the exchange of ratifications without
obtaining the previous approval of the Queen. The Government
of the South African Republic, on their attention being called
to the infraction, did not deny that there had been a
departure from the general practice, but urged that they had
made no publication of the Treaty in anticipation of the
approval of Her Majesty. The Treaty had, however, been
published in the 'Netherlands Gazette' of the 3rd July, and I
observed that when the Treaty was published in the 'Staats
Courant' of the South African Republic after Her Majesty's
approval had been given, the official notice merely stated
that the Treaty was signed and ratified on certain dates, no
reference being made to that approval.
"2.-The Accession of the South African Republic to the
Geneva Convention.
After Dr. Jameson's raid, owing to a report made by the St.
John's Ambulance Association, Her Majesty's Government
determined to invite the South African Republic to accede to
the Geneva Convention, and the necessary instructions were
sent to Sir J. de Wet, who, however, omitted to carry them
out. The South African Republic, on the 30th September,
formally communicated to the Swiss Government, through their
Representative at the Hague, their act of accession to the
Geneva Convention. Her Majesty's Government, in the
circumstances, did not hesitate to convey the Queen's
approval, but the action of the Government of the Republic
none the less constituted a breach of the London Convention.
"3.—Portuguese Treaty.
An Extradition Treaty between the South African Republic and
Portugal was signed on the 3rd November 1893, but, contrary to
the usual practice, has not yet been submitted for the Queen's
approval, although two years have elapsed since Lord Ripon, in
his Despatch of the 25th February 1895, requested your
predecessor to call the attention of the President to the
omission to communicate this Convention to Her Majesty's
Government under the provisions of Article IV. of the London
Convention. … I now pass to the consideration of some of the
recent legislation of the Volksraad in its relation to Article
XIV. It will be found that it involves in more than one case
actual or possible breaches of the Convention. Article XIV.
runs as follows:—'All persons, other than natives, conforming
themselves to the laws of the South African Republic
(a) will have full liberty, with their families, to enter,
travel, or reside in any part of the South African
Republic;
(b) they will be entitled to hire or possess houses,
manufactories, warehouses, shops, and premises;
(c) they may carry on their commerce either in person or by
any agents whom they may think fit to employ;
(d) they will not be subject, in respect of their persons
or property, or in respect of their commerce or industry,
to any taxes, whether general or local, other than those
which are or may be imposed upon citizens of the said
Republic.'
"4.—The Aliens Immigration Law.
This law imposes upon aliens conditions of a new and
burthensome character in excess of the simple requirement that
they must conform themselves to the laws of the Republic. … 2.
The Aliens Expulsion Law. This law empowers the President,
with the advice and consent of the Executive Council, after
consulting the State Attorney, to expel, without an appeal to
the Court, any foreigner who, by word or writing, excites to
disobedience or transgression of the law, or takes any steps
dangerous to public peace and order. … Her Majesty's
Government … do not admit that the Government of the Republic
have a right to expel foreigners who are not shown to have
failed to conform to the laws of the Republic, and they
reserve the right to object to proceedings under the Act which
may amount to a breach of the Convention.
{473}
3. The Press Law. This law empowers the State President, on
the advice and with the consent of the Executive, to prohibit
entirely or for a time the circulation of printed or published
matter the contents of which are, in his judgment, contrary to
good morals or a danger to the peace and order in the
Republic. The suppression of the 'Critic' newspaper, the
property of a British subject, under this law, is a matter
which may raise a serious question as to whether the action of
the Government of the Republic has been consistent with the
Convention, but as Her Majesty's Government have not yet
received the explanation of the Government of the Republic in
that case, it is only necessary for me to make a passing
allusion to it in this Despatch.
"In several of the cases above cited, the strict letter of the
Convention could apparently have been observed without any
difficulty, while in others the objects which the Government
of the South African Republic had in view could have been
attained without any infringement of the Convention by a
previous understanding with Her Majesty's Government. Her
Majesty's Government therefore cannot conceal from themselves
that the Government of the South African Republic have in
these cases failed to give effect in practice to the
intention, so frequently expressed in public and official
utterances, of upholding the Convention on the part of the
Republic, and of maintaining that good understanding with Her
Majesty's Government which is so necessary in the interests of
South Africa."
Of the laws complained of by Mr. Chamberlain, that relating to
immigrant aliens had raised the most protest, because of its
requirement that all such aliens who were permitted to enter
and remain in the country must carry "travelling and
residential passes," to be shown on demand. The Transvaal
Government had met Mr. Chamberlain's first remonstrance on
this subject, in January, by saying: "It is an evident fact
that, especially during the last time, the immigration of
aliens of the lowest class and without any means of
subsistence has been increasing in a disquieting manner. These
persons are dangerous to the peace of the inhabitants and of
the State itself, and, in the opinion of this Government, no
country whatever can be obliged to admit such undesirable
persons. The regulation of unrestricted entry, as it at
present takes place, is thus, from the point of view of police
requirement, not only necessary but also entirely justified
and constitutes no infringement of Article 14 of the
Convention. This Government does not desire as yet to express
any opinion on the suggestion that under the circumstances
mentioned it should have approached Her Britannic Majesty's
Government with a view to arriving at an understanding. In
case, however, the Government of Her Britannic Majesty has
another practical measure to propose whereby its
above-mentioned subjects, whose presence here is not desired
for the reasons stated, can be prevented from seeking an
outlet on the soil of the South African Republic, and that
measure can be found to be applicable to the subjects of other
Powers as well (since the law makes no distinction in that
respect) it will be ready, with gratitude, to give its full
consideration to such measure."
Great Britain, Papers by Command: 1897, C. 8423.
SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Colony and Natal: A. D. 1897.
Conference of colonial premiers with
the British Colonial] Secretary.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (JUNE-JULY).
SOUTH AFRICA: British South Africa Company: A. D. 1897 (January).
Compulsory labor in Rhodesia.
In January, 1897, the Deputy Commissioner of the British
government in Rhodesia made a report to the High Commissioner
on several subjects pertaining to the native administration of
the British South Africa Company which he had been instructed to
investigate. One question to be answered was "whether there
exists a law or practice whereby compulsory labor is exacted
from natives, either by the government of the British South
Africa Company, or by private persons with consent of the
government, or by both?" From his lengthy report on this
subject the High Commissioner deduced the following summary of
conclusions, which he communicated to the colonial secretary:
"(1.) That compulsory labour did undoubtedly exist in
Matabeleland, if not in Mashonaland.
(2.) That labour was procured by the various Native
Commissioners for the various requirements of the Government,
mining companies, and private persons.
(3.) That the Native Commissioners, in the first instance,
endeavoured to obtain labour through the indunas, but, failing
in this, they procured it by force."
Great Britain,
Papers by Command: 1897, C.—8547.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1897 (January-March).
Conflict of the Judiciary with the Executive and the Volksraad.
The case of R. E. Brown.
In January, 1897, a decision was rendered by the High Court of
the Republic which brought it into conflict with President
Kruger and the Volksraad. This decision was given in
connection with a suit brought against the government of the
South African Republic by an American engineer, Mr. R. E.
Brown, and the claim of Mr. Brown had arisen out of
circumstances which were subsequently related by a speaker in
the United States Senate, as follows: Mr. R. E. Brown, a young
American mining engineer, living and operating in the Cœur
d'Alene district, in the State of Idaho, about eight years
ago, at the invitation of English capitalists, left this
country to go to the South African Republic for the purpose of
assisting in the development of the gold mines of that
country. It was about that time that Hammond, Clements, and
other American engineers went there, and it is not too much to
say that the genius and the energy of those young Americans
more than anything else made that country a great gold
producer and its mines the most valuable of any in the world.
At that time most of the mines were held by English companies
or Germans. The laws were very simple, but in some respects
appear to have been drawn in the interest of the wealthy
syndicates. Upon the discovery of new mines the President of
the Republic by proclamation opened them to mining locations,
fixing a day and hour at which they would be opened to such
location. Thereafter persons desiring to stake out mines had
to go to the office of the responsible clerk of the district
in which the mines were located to make application for
licenses to locate the mines, and thereafter they were
authorized, either in person or by deputy, to go on the ground
and make mining locations.
{474}
Under this system most of the valuable mines of the country
had been absorbed, as I said, by English and German
syndicates. The mode in which they operated to absorb the
mines was to place their men upon the newly opened ground and
at the earliest possible moment apply for licenses to locate
the mines, and then by means of couriers with swift horses, or
by signals from mountain to mountain where that was possible, to
convey information to their men and cause the mines to be
located before their rivals could get on the ground. Mr. Brown
had not been in the country very long before he learned of this
antiquated system, and he determined on the next opening of
mines to apply to their location some of the snap and go of
American methods.
"In June, 1895, President Kruger by proclamation opened the
mines on the Witfontein farm, district of Potchefstroom, the
responsible clerk for which resided at Doornkop, in that
district. Mr. Brown determined that he would acquire some of
these mines, at least, and as large a number of them as
possible. Witfontein was only 30 miles from Doornkop. The
mines were known to be very valuable, because they had been
prospected on each side and it was found that valuable
gold-bearing reefs ran through them from end to end.
Accordingly he purchased heliographic instruments and employed
expert heliographic operators, and without the knowledge of his
rivals established heliographic communication between Doornkop
and Witfontein. Then he placed his men upon the ground, and on
the 19th day of July, 1895, the earliest period at which he
was permitted to do so, he appeared at the office of the
responsible clerk and sought licenses to locate 1,200 mines
upon this ground. However, on the day before the opening of
the mines his rivals had found out about the heliographic
communication, but they were beaten in the race. In that
extremity they communicated with President Kruger by wire and
induced him on the night of the 18th to issue a second
proclamation, withdrawing the mines of Witfontein from the
privilege of mining locations, and when Mr. Brown appeared at
the office of the responsible clerk and tendered his money he
was met with the information of this action on the part of the
President of the South African Republic, and his application
was refused. But nothing daunted he caused his agents on the
ground to locate the mines the same as if the licenses had
been granted to him, and then he brought suit before the high
court of justice of the South African Republic against the
Republic, alleging the facts substantially as I have stated
them and praying that the authorities be compelled to issue to
him licenses for the mines located, or in lieu thereof that
compensation be made to him in the sum of £372,400, amounting
to about $1,850,000. While this suit was pending it was sought
to re-enforce the action of the President in withdrawing these
lands, and the Volksraad [passed a resolution approving the
withdrawal and declaring that no person should be entitled to
compensation on account of it]."
United States Congressional Record,
January 21, 1901, page 1370.
On Mr. Brown's suit, the High Court of the Republic decided
that the claimant's right to the land was good, and could not
be set aside by ex post facto measures of the Executive or the
Legislature. The President and the Volksraad refused to submit to
this decision, and passed a law to overrule it, on the ground
that, under the Grondwet (constitution), the Volksraad is the
highest power in the state. In a subsequent public statement
of the matter, Justice Kotze, the Chief Justice, explained the
issue that was thus raised between his court and the
President, and also related the circumstances of a compromise
by which it was settled temporarily, as follows:
"This so-called Law Number 1 of 1897 seeks to deprive the
judges of the testing right, authorizes the President to put a
certain question to the members of the bench that they would
not arrogate to themselves the so-called testing power, and
empowers him to instantly dismiss the judge or judges from
whom he receives no answer, or, in his opinion, an
unsatisfactory answer. The judges for the future are also
subjected to a humiliating form of oath. This measure, it
seems almost superfluous to observe, is no law. It alters the
constitution of the country without any previous reference to
the people, and for the reasons given in the Brown case it is
devoid of all legal validity. The five judges, on March 1,
1897, unanimously issued a declaration, stating that by this
so-called Law Number 1 of 1897 a vital violation of the
independence of the bench had taken place, and that the judges
were exposed in future to the suspicion of bribery. In fact,
the nature and tendency of this measure are so immoral that
one of the judges openly said that no honorable man can occupy
a seat on the bench while Law Number 1 of 1897 remains on the
statute book.
"The question above referred to was duly put by the President
to the judges, who had unanimously signed a letter to the
effect that they did not feel themselves at liberty to give
any answer, when the chief justice of the Cape Colony arrived
in Pretoria, and through his mediation a written understanding
was proposed by the judges on March 19, and accepted without
any qualification by the President on March 22, 1897. By the
terms of this compact the judges undertook not to test laws
and resolutions of the Volksraad on the distinct understanding
that the President would as soon as possible submit a draft
Grondwet to the Volksraad providing how alone the Grondwet can
be altered by special legislation in a manner analogous to the
provisions contained in the constitution of the Orange Free
State on the subject, and incorporating the guaranties for the
independence of the judiciary. By these means the judges
intended to protect both the constitution and the bench
against sudden surprises and attacks, such as, for instance,
the oft-quoted measure known as Law Number 1, of 1897. They
did this to avert a crisis, and, in order to help the
Government and Volksraad out of a difficulty of their own
creation, placed themselves under a temporary obligation upon
the faith of the President as speedily as possible complying
with his portion of the understanding."
United States, 56th Congress, 1st Session,
House Document Number 618.
The promised amendment of the Grondwet was not made, and the
issue concerning it was brought to a crisis in the next year.
See below: A. D. 1898 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (February):
Appointment of Sir Alfred Milner.
In February, Sir Alfred Milner was appointed High Commissioner
for South Africa and Governor of Cape Colony, to succeed Sir
Hercules Robinson, retired, and raised to the peerage as Lord
Rosmead.
{475}
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1897 (February).
The franchise.
The government of the Transvaal extended the full franchise to
862 Uitlanders who supported it at the time of the Jameson
raid.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1897 (February.)
Indemnity claimed by the South African Republic for
the Jameson Raid.
On the 16th of February, 1877, the State Secretary of the
South African Republic, Dr. W. J. Leyds, presented to the
British High Commissioner the following "specification of the
compensation to which the Government of the South African
Republic lays claim for and in connexion with the incursion
into the Territory of the South African Republic by Dr.
Jameson and the Troops of the Chartered Company at the end of
December 1895 and the beginning of January 1896.
1. Expenditure for military and commando
services In connexion with the incursion,
the sum of. £136,733 s.4 d.3
2. Compensation to the Netherlands South
African Railway Company for making use,
in accordance with the concession granted
to that Company, of the railway worked by
it during the commando on account of the
incursion of Dr. Jameson. £9,500 s.0 d.0
3. Disbursements to surviving relatives
of slain and wounded. £234 s.19 d.6
4. For annuities, pensions, and disbursements
to widows and children of slain burghers and
to relatives of unmarried slain burghers, as
also to wounded burghers, a total sum of. £28,243 s.0 d.0
5. Expenses of the telegraph department,
for more overtime, more telegrams on service
in South African communication, more
cablegrams, &c. £4,692 s.11 d.9
6. Hospital expenses for the care of the
wounded and sick men, &c. of Dr. Jameson. £225 s.0 d.0
7. For support of members of the families of
commandeered burghers during the commando. £177 s.8 d.8
8. Compensation to be paid to the and the
commandeered burghers for their services
troubles and cares brought upon them. £62,120 s.0 d.0
9. Account of expenses of the Orange
Free State. £36,011 s.19 d.1
Total £677,936 s.3 d.3
"Moral or intellectual compensation to which the Government of
the South African Republic lays claim for and in connexion
with the incursion into the Territory of the South African
Republic by Dr. Jameson and the Troops of the Chartered
Company at the end of December 1895 and the beginning of
January 1896. One million pounds sterling (£1,000,000)."
To this claim the British colonial secretary, Mr. Chamberlain,
replied on the 10th of April, saying, with reference to the
specification under the second head, "for moral or
intellectual damage," that "Her Majesty's Government … regret
that they do not feel justified in presenting it to the
British South Africa Company"; and adding: "Her Majesty's
Government fear that they may be compelled to take similar
exception to certain of the items composing the first head,
especially in view of the very short period which elapsed
between the crossing of the frontier by Dr. Jameson's force
and its surrender; but as it is apparent from the nature of
the figures that the Government of the South African Republic
have proceeded on very precise data in arriving at the various
sums to which they lay claim, Her Majesty's Government, before
offering any observations on this part of the claim, would ask
his Honour to be so good as to furnish them with full
particulars of the way in which the different items comprised
in the first head have been arrived at."
Great Britain,
Papers by Command: C.—8404, 1897; and C.—8721, 1898.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1897 (February-July).
British parliamentary investigation of the Jameson Raid.
A Committee of the British House of Commons, appointed "to
inquire into the origin and circumstances of the incursion
into the South African Republic by an armed force, and into
the administration of the British South Africa Company," began
its sittings on the 16th of February, 1897. Among the members
of the Committee were the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the
Attorney-General, Mr. Chamberlain, the Secretary of State for
the Colonies, Sir William Harcourt, Sir John Lubbock, Sir H.
Campbell-Bannerman, Mr. Labouchere, Mr. John Ellis, Mr.
Buxton, Mr. Blake, and others. Mr. Rhodes, who was first
examined by the Committee, read a statement of the
circumstances leading up to the raid, in which he said that,
as one largely interested in the Transvaal, he felt that the
unfriendly attitude of the Boer Government was the great
obstacle to common action among the various states in South
Africa, and that, therefore, he had assisted the movement in
Johannesburg with his purse and influence. "Further," he said,
"acting within my rights, in the autumn of 1895 I placed a
body of troops under Dr. Jameson, prepared to act in the
Transvaal in certain eventualities." Subsequently Mr. Rhodes
declared: "With reference to the Jameson raid, I may state
that Dr. Jameson went in without my authority." He concluded
his statement by declaring that in what he did he was greatly
influenced by his belief that the policy of the Boer
Government was to "introduce the influence of another foreign
Power into the already complicated system of South Africa."
Mr. Rhodes was kept under examination before the Committee for
four days, and then "almost the next thing heard of him was
that he had started for South Africa on his way back to
Rhodesia." Another witness examined was Sir Graham Bower,
Secretary to the High Commissioner at the Cape. "His evidence
was certainly most startling, and at the same time of great
importance. He stated that late in October, 1895, Mr. Rhodes
came into his office and said: 'I want you to give me your
word of honour that you will not say a word to anyone about
what I am going to tell you.' Sir Graham Bower—who, as he
said, had a great many Cape secrets in his possession—pledged
his word, and soon found he was in possession of a secret
which it was his official duty to disclose to the High
Commissioner and his private duty not to disclose. Mr. Rhodes
then said that he was negotiating about the Protectorate, that
there was going to be a rising in Johannesburg, and that he
wished to have a police force on the border. He added in
substance: 'If trouble comes I am not going to sit still. You
fellows are infernally slow.' It further transpired that on
the fateful Sunday (December 28) Mr. Rhodes had told him that
Jameson had gone in, but that he hoped that the message he had
sent would stop him."
{476}
When Dr. Jameson was examined he fully acknowledged his
conspiracy with the Johannesburg revolutionists, and stated
that he had given information of it to Mr. Rhodes, adding; "He
agreed, and we arranged that when the rising took place he
should go to Johannesburg or Pretoria with the High
Commissioner and Mr. Hofmeyr to mediate between the Transvaal
Government and the Uitlanders. With these matters settled, I
left Cape Town and joined my camp at Pitsani. I required no
orders or authority from Mr. Rhodes, and desired neither to
receive nor to send any messages from or to Cape Town."
In the course of the inquiry, Mr. Chamberlain, the Colonial
Secretary, desired to give testimony, and related that Dr.
Harris, the Secretary in South Africa to the British South
Africa Company, said to him, "I could tell you something in
confidence," or "I could give you some confidential
information"; but that he (Chamberlain) stopped him at once,
saying, "I do not want to hear any confidential information. I
am here in an official capacity, and I can only hear
information of which I can make official use"; and adding: "I
have Sir Hercules Robinson in South Africa. I have entire
confidence in him, and I am quite convinced he will keep me
informed of everything I ought to know." In concluding his
testimony, Mr. Chamberlain said: "I desire to say, in the most
explicit manner, that I did not then have, and that I never
had, any knowledge or—until, I think it was, the day before
the raid took place—the slightest suspicion of anything in the
nature of a hostile or armed invasion of the Transvaal." The
Committee having called upon Mr. Rhodes' solicitor, a Mr.
Hawksley, to produce telegrams which had passed between Mr.
Rhodes and himself, refused to do so.
"The proceedings which ensued were not to the credit of the
Committee, for instead of reporting the matter to the House at
once in a special report, they decided to refer to it in the
interim report on the raid. Mr. Labouchere and Mr. Blake alone
opposed this course, which was either a confession of
unwillingness to reach the bottom of the business, or the
suggestion that somebody was to be shielded. … Having devoted
two days to hearing counsel on behalf of Mr. Rhodes, Mr. Beit
and Dr. Harris, the Committee adjourned to consider its
report. The general feeling was that the proceedings had been
conducted with singular laxity or want of skill. Those
interested in keeping secret the true history of the raid were
entirely successful, and it was generally by the merest chance
that any fact of importance was elicited from the witnesses.
The representatives of the Opposition, Sir William Harcourt,
Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman and Mr. Buxton, were, after Mr.
Rhodes had been unaccountably permitted to quit England,
willing to allow the breakdown of the proceedings; and what
was even more surprising in so strict a parliamentarian as Sir
William Harcourt, a witness was allowed to treat the Committee
with defiance, and to pass unchecked. To a very great extent the
inquiry had been obviously factitious, but in whose interest
concealment was considered necessary remained undivulged. It
was surmised that reasons of State had been found which
outweighed party considerations, and that the leaders of the
Opposition had been privately convinced that the alleged
grounds were sufficient for the course adopted."
The report of the majority of the Committee, signed by all of
its members except Mr. Labouchere and Mr. Blake (the former of
whom submitted a minority report), was made public on the 13th
of July. The results of its inquiry were summed up under the
following heads:
I. "Great discontent had, for some time previous to the
incursion, existed in Johannesburg, arising from the
grievances of the Uitlanders.
II. Mr. Rhodes occupied a great position in South Africa; he
was Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, and, beyond all other
persons, should have been careful to abstain from such a
course of action as that which he adopted. As managing
director of the British South Africa Company, as director of
the De Beers Consolidated Mines and the Gold Fields of South
Africa, Mr. Rhodes controlled a great combination of
interests; he used his position and those interests to promote
and assist his policy. Whatever justification there might have
been for action on the part of the people of Johannesburg, there
was none for the conduct of a person in Mr. Rhodes' position
in subsidising, organising, and stimulating an armed
insurrection against the Government of the South African
Republic, and employing the forces and resources of the
Chartered Company to support such a revolution. He seriously
embarrassed both the Imperial and Colonial Governments, and
his proceedings resulted in the invasion of the territory of a
State which was in friendly relations with her Majesty, in
breach of the obligation to respect the right to
self-government of the South African Republic under the
conventions between her Majesty and that State. Although Dr.
Jameson 'went in' without Mr. Rhodes' authority, it was always
part of the plan that these forces should be used in the
Transvaal in support of an insurrection. Nothing could justify
such a use of such a force, and Mr. Rhodes' heavy
responsibility remains, although Dr. Jameson at the last
moment invaded the Transvaal without his direct sanction.
III. Such a policy once embarked upon inevitably involved Mr.
Rhodes in grave breaches of duty to those to whom he owed
allegiance. He deceived the High Commissioner representing the
Imperial Government, he concealed his views from his
colleagues in the Colonial Ministry and from the board of the
British South Africa Company, and led his subordinates to
believe that his plans were approved by his superiors.
IV. Your committee have heard the evidence of all the
directors of the British South Africa Company, with the
exception of Lord Grey. Of those who were examined, Mr. Beit
and Mr. Maguire alone had cognisance of Mr. Rhodes' plans. Mr.
Beit played a prominent part in the negotiations with the
Reform Union; he contributed large sums of money to the
revolutionary movement, and must share full responsibility for
the consequences.
V. There is not the slightest evidence that the late High
Commissioner in South Africa, Lord Rosmead, was made
acquainted with Mr. Rhodes' plans. The evidence, on the
contrary, shows that there was a conspiracy to keep all
information on the subject from him. The committee must,
however, express a strong opinion upon the conduct of Sir
Graham Bower, who was guilty of a grave dereliction of duty in
not communicating to the High Commissioner the information
which had come to his knowledge. Mr. Newton failed in his duty
in a like manner.
VI. Neither the Secretary of State for the Colonies nor any of
the officials of the Colonial Office received any information
which made them, or should have made them or any of them,
aware of the plot during its development.
{477}
VII. Finally, your committee desire to put on record an
absolute and unqualified condemnation of the raid and of the
plans which made it possible."
"The result caused for the time being grave injury to British
influence in South Africa. Public confidence was shaken, race
feeling embittered, and serious difficulties were created with
neighbouring States. The course of action subsequently taken by
the Government increased the suspicions which were aroused by
such an emasculated report. Two days after its publication
(July 15), Mr. Balfour was asked to set apart a day for the
formal discussion of so important a matter. To this request
Mr. Balfour, with the tacit concurrence of the front
Opposition bench, replied that he saw no useful purpose to be
served by such a debate."
Those who were known as the "Forward Radicals," or "Forwards,"
in the House, were not to be silenced in this manner, and
debate was forced upon a motion expressing regret at "the
inconclusive action and report of the select committee on
British South Africa," and summoning Mr. Hawksley to the bar
of the House, to produce "then and there," the telegrams which
he had refused to the committee. In the course of the
discussion which followed, Mr.Chamberlain expressed his
conviction that, "while the fault of Mr. Rhodes was about as
great a fault as a politician or statesman could commit, there
existed nothing which affected his personal character as a man
of honour." When Sir Elliott Lees, a supporter of the
government, rose to protest against such a doctrine, he was
met by cries which silenced his speech. The House then
divided, and the resolution was defeated by 304 to 77. "It was
an open secret that throughout the debate one member,
unconnected with either front bench, sat with the famous
telegrams in his pocket, and with them certain correspondence
relating thereto which he had been instructed to read in the
event of Mr. Rhodes' character being aspersed."
Annual Register, 1897.
"The position … stands thus. The Colonial Office conceals its
own documents. From none of its officials have we had any
detailed or frank statement as to their relations to South
African affairs during the critical period. The High
Commissioner himself has not been examined. Mr. Rhodes has
been allowed to go without any serious inquiry into this
branch of the case. The most important cables are refused by
Mr. Rhodes's order, and the Committee decline to exercise
their power to compel the production of them. The story, in
fact, so far as it concerns this question of the truth or
falsity of the allegation that Mr. Chamberlain was 'in it,' is
being smothered up, with an audacious disregard of the
principles which guide all ordinary tribunals. The last steps
in this proceeding have been taken with the direct assent of
the leader of the Opposition. Everybody, therefore, is
inquiring what reason can have induced Sir William Harcourt to
execute this startling change of front. There is only one
reason that can, with any probability, be assigned-that is,
that some member of the Government has made a 'Front Bench
communication' to the leader of the Opposition, indicating to
him explicitly that there are 'reasons of State' for stopping
the disclosures. There can be little doubt that this is what
has happened, and conjecture, not only in this country but
elsewhere, will naturally be keen to know what the nature of
this momentous disclosure was.
"If Mr. Chamberlain was as absolutely free from knowledge of
the Jameson plan as he has professed to be, it is hard to see
how full disclosure could do any damage to the Empire, or
could do anything but good to the Colonial Secretary himself.
Mr. Chamberlain, of course, professes in words his private
desire that everything should come out. He has not, however,
assisted in the attainment of that result. The consequence is
that a national and international question of very grave
importance has arisen. It is said in circles usually well
informed, that when the Raid occurred, it became necessary to
give assurances to foreign Governments, and in particular to
Germany, that the Queen's Government was in no way
compromised. These assurances, it is said, were given. It is
even said that they were given expressly in the name of the
Queen. Something of this kind may well have happened; but it
is hard to see how, if it did happen, and if the Colonial
Office was as innocent as it claims to be, the disclosure of
the facts can do anything but confirm the Queen's word. That
documents exist which are supposed to be compromising, and
which the very authors of them allege to be compromising, is a
fact past hiding. It casts, unless it is cleared up, a damning
doubt. Therefore it would appear to be the duty of all honest
men, and, above all, of the Parliament of Great Britain, to
see that an immediate end is put to a policy which may be
aptly described as 'thimble-rigging,' and that the truth,
whether it suits Mr. Rhodes or Mr. Chamberlain, or neither of
them, must be told at fist."
Contemporary Review,
July, 1897.
SOUTH AFRICA: Orange Free State and Transvaal: A. D. 1897 (April).
Treaty of alliance.
In April, the two republics entered into a treaty for mutual
support and defense against attacks on the independence of
either, each opening its political franchises to the citizens
of the other on the taking of an oath of allegiance.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1897 (April).
Military expenditure by British and Boer Governments.
The budget of the British Chancellor of the Exchequer,
submitted to the House of Commons in April, contained an item
of '£200,000 for increased military expenditure in South
Africa. This was promptly attacked by the opposition, who
accused the government of pursuing a war policy in its
dealings with the Transvaal. Sir William Harcourt declared
that Mr. Chamberlain had, "in every utterance of his during
the last few months, been endeavouring to exasperate sentiment
in South Africa, and to produce what, thank God! he had failed
in producing—a racial war." Mr. Chamberlain retorted that Sir
William Harcourt's attitude was unpatriotic and injurious to
the cause of peace. He denied aggressiveness in the policy of
the government, asserting that the South African Republic had
been spending millions on armaments imported from abroad, in
view of which the strengthening of the British garrison at the
Cape by an additional regiment and three batteries was no
unreasonable measure. Mr. Balfour, also, begged the House and
the country to believe that the troops were sent only as a
measure of precaution, to maintain admitted rights.
{478}
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1897 (May-October).
The British assertion of suzerainty and declination of
proposal to arbitrate disagreements.
On the 7th of May, 1897, the Acting State Secretary of the
South African Republic addressed to the British Agent at
Pretoria a communication of great length, reviewing the
positions taken by Mr. Chamberlain in his several arraignments
of the government of the Republic for alleged violation of the
London Convention of 1884, and proposing an arbitration of the
questions involved. "The complaint," he wrote, "which Her
British Majesty's Government has advanced in an unmistakably
pronounced manner over an actual or possible breach of the
Convention has deeply grieved this Government, as it thinks
that it has fulfilled its obligations. It sees in the
fulfilment of the mutual obligations under the Convention one
of the best guarantees for the maintenance of a mutual good
understanding and for the promotion of reciprocal confidence.
To this good understanding and that confidence, however,
severe shocks have been given by events which cannot be
lightly forgotten. And if it were not that this Government
wishes to guard itself against adopting a recriminating tone,
it might put the question whether, for example, the incursion
of Dr. Jameson, whether considered as a breach of the
Convention or a grievance, is not of immeasurably greater
importance than the various matters adduced by Her British
Majesty's Government would be, even if the contention that
they constitute breaches of the Convention could be accepted.
There should, in the view of this Government, be a strong
mutual endeavour to restore the shocked confidence and to calm
the excited spirit which this Government with sincere regret
sees reigning throughout almost the whole of South Africa.
This Government is anxious to co-operate for this end, for the
desire of the Republic, with the maintenance of its
independence and rights, is for peace, and where for the
reasons given it has been unable to entertain the proposal of
Her British Majesty's Government in the matter of the Aliens
Law,—and it appears very difficult to arrive at a solution of
the question by means of correspondence,—it wishes to come to
a permanent good understanding along a peaceful course, not
only with respect to its undisturbed right to make an alien
law, but also with regard to all points touching the
Convention which are referred to in the two Despatches under
reply by Her British Majesty's Government. While it respects
the opinion of Her British Majesty's Government, it takes the
liberty, with full confidence in the correctness of its own
views, to propose to Her British Majesty's Government the
principle of arbitration with which the honourable the First
Volksraad agrees, in the hope that it will be taken in the
conciliatory spirit in which it is made. …
"Although this Government is firmly convinced that a just and
impartial decision might be obtained even better in South
Africa than anywhere else, it wishes, in view of the
conflicting elements, interests, and aspirations, which are
now apparent in South Africa, and in order to avoid even the
appearance that it would be able or desire to exercise
influence in order to obtain a decision favourable to it, to
propose that the President of the Swiss Bondstate, who may be
reckoned upon as standing altogether outside the question, and
to feel sympathy or antipathy neither for the one party nor
for the other, be requested to point out a competent jurist,
as has already oftener been done in respect of international
disputes. The Government would have no objection that the
arbitrator be subject to a limitation of time, and gives the
assurance now already that it will willingly subject itself to
any decision if such should, contrary to its expectation, be
given against it. The Government repeats the well-meant wish
that this proposal may find favour with Her British Majesty's
Government, and inasmuch as the allegations of breaches of the
Convention find entrance now even in South Africa, and bring
and keep the feelings more and more in a state of suspense,
this Government will be pleased if it can learn the decision
of Her Majesty's Government as soon as possible."
Mr. Chamberlain's reply to this proposal was not written until
the 16th of the following October, when he, in turn, reviewed,
point by point, the matters dealt with, in the despatch of Mr.
Van Boeschoten. With reference to the Jameson raid he said: "Her
Majesty's Government note with satisfaction that the
Government of the South African Republic see in the fulfilment
of the mutual obligations under the London Convention one of
the best guarantees for the maintenance of a mutual
understanding and for the promotion of reciprocal confidence.
Her Majesty's Government have uniformly fulfilled these
obligations on their part, and they must strongly protest
against what appears to be an implication in the Note under
consideration that the incursion of Dr. Jameson can be
considered as either a breach of the Convention by Her
Majesty's Government or a grievance against them. That
incursion was the act of private individuals unauthorised by
Her Majesty's Government, and was repudiated by them
immediately it became known. The immense importance to the
Government of the South African Republic of that repudiation,
and of the proclamation issued by the High Commissioner under
instructions from Her Majesty's Government, is recognised
throughout South Africa. Her Majesty's Government maintain
strongly that since the Convention of 1881 there has never
been any breach or even any allegation of a breach on their
part of that or the subsequent Convention, and, as the subject
has been raised by the implied accusation contained in the
Note under consideration, Her Majesty's Government feel
constrained to contrast their loyal action in the case of the
Jameson raid with the cases in which they have had cause to
complain that the Government of the South African Republic
failed to interfere with, if they did not countenance,
invasions of the adjacent territories by its burghers in
violation of the Convention, and they feel bound to remind the
Government of the Republic that in one of these cases Her
Majesty's Government were compelled to maintain their rights
by an armed expedition at the cost of about one million
sterling, for which no compensation has ever been received by
them."
Concerning the proposal of arbitration, the reply of the
British colonial secretary was as follows: "In making this
proposal the Government of the South African Republic appears
to have overlooked the distinction between the Conventions of
1881 and 1884 and an ordinary treaty between two independent
Powers, questions arising upon which may properly be the
subject of arbitration.
{479}
By the Pretoria Convention of 1881 Her Majesty, as Sovereign
of the Transvaal Territory, accorded to the inhabitants of
that territory complete self-government subject to the
suzerainty of Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, upon
certain terms and conditions and subject to certain
reservations and limitations set forth in 33 articles, and by
the London Convention of 1884 Her Majesty, while maintaining
the preamble of the earlier instrument, directed and declared
that certain other articles embodied therein should be
substituted for the articles embodied in the Convention of
1881. The articles of the Convention of 1881 were accepted by
the Volksraad of the Transvaal State, and those of the
Convention of 1884 by the Volksraad of the South African
Republic. Under these Conventions, therefore, Her Majesty
holds towards the South African Republic the relation of a
suzerain who has accorded to the people of that Republic
self-government upon certain conditions, and it would be
incompatible with that position to submit to arbitration the
construction of the conditions on which she accorded
self-government to the Republic. One of the main objects which
Her Majesty's Government had in view was the prevention of the
interference of any foreign Power between Her Majesty and the
South African Republic, a matter which they then held, and
which Her Majesty's present Government hold, to be essential
to British interests, and this object would be defeated by the
course now proposed. The clear intention of Her Majesty's
Government at the time of the London Convention, that
questions in relation to it should not be submitted to
arbitration, is shown by the fact that when the delegates of
the South African Republic, in the negotiations which preceded
that Convention, submitted to Her Majesty's Government in the
first instance (in a letter of the 26th of November, 1883,
which will be found on page 9 of the Parliamentary Paper C.
3947 of 1884) the draft of a treaty or convention containing
an arbitration clause, they were informed by the Earl of Derby
that it was neither in form nor in substance such as Her
Majesty's Government could adopt."
Great Britain, Papers by Command.
C.—8721, 1898.
SOUTH AFRICA: Natal: A. D. 1897 (December).
Annexation of Zululand.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (ZULULAND).
SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Colony: A. D. 1898.
The position of political parties.
The Progressives and the Afrikander Bund.
"The present position of parties at the Cape is as unfortunate
and as unwarranted as any that the severest critic of
Parliamentary institutions could have conjured up. … The Cape
has always had the curse of race prejudice to contend with.
Time might have done much to soften, if not to expunge it, if
home-made stupidities had not always been forthcoming to goad
to fresh rancour. The facts are too well known to need
repetition. It is true not only of the Transvaalers that 'the
trek has eaten into their souls,' and up to the time of
emancipation and since, every conceivable mistake has been
committed by those in authority. Thus, when the breach was, to
all appearances, partly healed, the fatal winter of 1895 put
back the hands of the clock to the old point of departure. As
Englishmen, our sympathies are naturally with the party that
is prevalently English, and against the party that is
prevalently Dutch; but to find a real line of political
difference between them other than national sentiment requires
fine drawing. … According to our lines of cleavage both
Bondsmen [Afrikander Bund] and Progressives are Conservatives
of a decided type. Practically they are agreed in advocating
protective duties on sea-borne trade, although in degree they
differ, for whilst the Bond would have imposts as they are,
the Progressives wish to reduce the duties on food stuffs to
meet the grievance of the urban constituencies, and might be
induced to accord preferential treatment to British goods. On
the native question neither party adopts what would in England
be considered an 'advanced' programme, for education is not
made a cardinal point, and they would equally like, if
possible, to extend the application of the Glen Grey Act,
which, by levying a tax on the young Kaffirs who have not a
labour certificate, forces them to do some service to the
community before exercising their right of 'putting the
spoon,' as the phrase is, 'into the family pot.' Neither party
wishes to interfere with the rights of property or the
absolute tenure of land under the Roman-Dutch law. A tax on
the output of diamonds at Kimberley has been advocated by some
members of the Bond as a financial expedient, but it is
understood to have been put forward rather as a threat against
Mr. Rhodes personally than as a measure of practical politics.
Questions of franchise are tacitly left as they are, for no
responsible politicians wish to go back upon the enactment
which restricted the Kaffir vote to safe and inconsiderable
limits. The redistribution of seats was the subject of a Bill
upon which the last House was dissolved, after the rebuff that
the Ministry received upon a crucial division, but it has been
dealt with rather for practical than theoretical reasons. Two
schemes of redistribution have been formulated, and each has
been proposed and opposed with arguments directed to show the
party advantage to be derived. For political reform, in the
abstract, with or without an extension of the suffrage, there
is no sort of enthusiasm in any quarter. Railway
administration furnishes, no doubt, an occasional battle-field
for the two sides of the House. Roughly, the Progressives
favour the northern extension, and are willing to make
concessions in rates and charges to help on the new trade with
Rhodesia; whilst the Bond declare themselves against special
treatment of the new interests, and would spend all the money
that could be devoted to railway construction in the farming
districts of the colony itself. Mr. Rhodes, however, has
warned the Cape that any hostile action will be counteracted
by a diversion of traffic to the East, and it is unlikely that
any line of policy will be pursued that is likely to injure
the carrying trade of the southern ports. Between the
followers of Mr. Rhodes and the followers of Mr. Hofmeyr there
is no wide divergence of principle on public affairs of the
near future, so far as they have been or are to be the subject
of legislation; where the difference comes in is in the
attitude they severally assume towards the two republics and
the territories of the north, but when talk has to yield to
action it is improbable that there will be much in their
disagreement."
N. L. W. Lawson,
Cape Politics and Colonial Policy
(Fortnightly Review, November 1898).
{480}
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1898 (January-February).
Re-election of President Kruger.
Renewed conflict of the Executive with the Judiciary.
Dismissal of Chief-Justice Kotze.
The Presidential election in the South African Republic was
held in January and February, the polls being open from the 3d
of the former month until the 4th of the latter. President
Kruger was re-elected for a fourth term of five years, by
nearly 13,000 votes against less than 6,000 divided between
Mr. Schalk Burger and General Joubert, who were opposing
candidates. Soon afterwards, the conflict of 1897 between the
Judiciary and the Executive (see above: A. D. 1897,
JANUARY-MARCH), was reopened by a communication in which
Chief-Justice Kotze, of the High Court, called the attention
of the President to the fact that nothing had been done in
fulfilment of the agreement that the independence of the Court
and the stability of the Grondwet should both be protected by
law against arbitrary interference, and giving notice that he
considered the compromise then arranged to be ended. Thereupon
(February 16) President Kruger removed the judge from his
office and placed the State Attorney in his seat. Justice
Kotze denied the legality of the removal, and adjourned his
court sine die. In a speech at Johannesburg, some weeks
afterwards, he denounced the action of President Kruger with
great severity, saying: "I charge the President, as head of
the State, with having violated both the constitution and the
ordinary laws of the land; with having interfered with the
independence of the High Court; and invaded and imperilled the
rights and liberties of everyone in the country. The
guarantees provided by the constitution for the protection of
real and personal rights have disappeared, and these are now
dependent on the 'arbitrium' of President Kruger."
SOUTH AFRICA: Rhodesia and the British South Africa Company:
A. D. 1898 (February).
Reorganization.
In February, the British government announced the adoption of
plans for a reorganization of the British South Africa Company
and of the administration of its territories. The Company,
already deprived of military powers, was to give up, in great
part, but not wholly, its political functions. It was still to
appoint an Administrator for Rhodesia south of the Zambesi,
and to name the majority of members in a council assisting
him, so long as it remained responsible for the expenses of
administration; but, by the side of the Administrator was to
be placed a Resident Commissioner, appointed by the Crown, and
over both was the authority of the High Commissioner for South
Africa, to whom the Resident Commissioner made reports. At
home the status of the Board of Directors was to be
considerably altered. The life directorships were to be
abolished, and the whole Board of Directors in future to be
elected by the shareholders,—any official or director removed
by the Secretary of State not being eligible without his
consent. The Board of Directors was to communicate all
minutes, etc., to the Secretary of State, and he to have the
power of veto or suspension. Finally, the Secretary of State
was to have full powers to inspect and examine all documents;
Colonial Office officials named by him were, in effect, to
exercise powers like those of the old Indian Board of Control.
SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Colony: A. D. 1898 (March-October).
Election in favor of the Afrikander Bund.
Change in the government.
Elections to the Upper House of the Cape Parliament, in March,
gave the party called the Progressives, headed by Mr. Rhodes, a
small majority over the Afrikander Bund—more commonly called
the Bond. The Parliament opened in May, and the Progressive
Ministry, under Sir Gordon Sprigg, was defeated in the Lower
House in the following month, on a bill to create new
electoral divisions. The Ministry dissolved Parliament and
appealed to the constituencies, with the result of a defeat on
that appeal. The Bond party won in the elections by a majority
of two, which barely enabled it to carry a resolution of want
of confidence in the government when Parliament was
reassembled, in October. The Ministry of Sir Gordon Sprigg
resigned, and a new one was formed with Mr. Schreiner at its
head.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1898-1899.
Continued dispute with the British Government
concerning Suzerainty.
During 1898 and half of 1899, a new dispute, raised by Mr.
Chamberlain's emphatic assertion of the suzerainty of Great
Britain over the South African Republic, went on between the
British Colonial Office and the government at Pretoria.
Essentially, the question at issue seemed to lie between a
word and a fact and the difference between the disputants was
the difference between the meanings they had severally drawn
from the omission of the word "suzerainty" from the London
Convention of 1884. On one side could be quoted the report
which the Transvaal deputation to London, in 1884, had made to
their Volksraad, when they brought the treaty back, and
recommended that it be approved. The treaty, they reported,
"is entirely bilateral [meaning that there were two sides in
the making of it] whereby your representatives were not placed
in the humiliating position of merely having to accept from a
Suzerain Government a one-sided document as rule and
regulation, but whereby they were recognized as a free
contracting party. It makes, then, also an end of the British
suzerainty, and, with the official recognition of her name,
also restores her full self-government to the South African
Republic, excepting one single limitation regarding the
conclusion of treaties with foreign powers (Article 4). With
the suzerainty the various provisions and limitations of the
Pretoria Convention which Her Majesty's Government as suzerain
had retained have also, of course, lapsed."
On the other side, Mr. Chamberlain could quote with effect
from a speech which Lord Derby, then the British Colonial
Secretary, who negotiated the Convention of 1884 with the Boer
envoys, made on the 17th of March, that year, in the House of
Lords. As reported in Hansard, Lord Derby had then dealt with
the very question of suzerainty, as involved in the new
convention, and had set forth his own understanding of the
effect of the latter in the following words: "Then the noble
Earl (Earl Cadogan) said that the object of the Convention had
been to abolish the suzerainty of the British Crown. The word
'suzerainty' is a very vague word, and I do not think it is
capable of any precise legal definition.
{481}
Whatever we may understand by it, I think it is not very easy
to define. But I apprehend, whether you call it a
protectorate, or a suzerainty, or the recognition of England
as a paramount Power, the fact is that a certain controlling
power is retained when the State which exercises this
suzerainty has a right to veto any negotiations into which the
dependent State may enter with foreign Powers. Whatever
suzerainty meant in the Convention of Pretoria, the condition
of things which it implied still remains; although the word is
not actually employed, we have kept the substance. We have
abstained from using the word because it was not capable of
legal definition, and because it seemed to be a word which was
likely to lead to misconception and misunderstanding."
Great Britain,
Papers by Command: C. 9507, 1899, pages 24 and 34.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1899 (March).
Petition of British subjects to the Queen.
A fresh excitement of discontent in the Rand, due especially
to the shooting of an Englishman by a Boer policeman, whom the
Boer authorities seemed disposed to punish lightly or not at
all, led to the preparation of a petition to the British
Queen, from her subjects in the South African Republic,
purporting to be signed in the first instance by 21,684, and
finally by 23,000. The genuineness of many of the signatures
was disputed by the Boers, but strenuously affirmed by those
who conducted the circulation of the petition. It set forth
the grievances of the memorialists at length, and prayed Her
Majesty to cause them to be investigated, and to direct her
representative in South Africa to take measures for securing
from the South African Republic a recognition of their rights.
The petition was forwarded to the Colonial Office on the 28th
of March.
Great Britain, Papers by Command: 1899, C. 9345.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1899 (May-June).
The Bloemfontein Conference between President Kruger and
the British High Commissioner, Sir Alfred Milner.
There seems to be no mode in which the questions at issue
between the British and the Boers, and the attitude of the two
parties, respectively, in their contention with each other,
can be represented more accurately than by quoting essential
parts of the official report of a formal conference between
President Kruger and the British High Commissioner in South
Africa, Sir Alfred Milner, which was held at Bloemfontein, the
capital of the Orange Free State, during five days, May
31-June 5, 1899. The meeting was arranged by President Steyn,
of the Orange Free State, with a view to bringing about an
adjustment of differences by a free and full discussion of
them, face to face. In the official report of the
conversations that occurred, from which we shall quote, the
remarks of President Kruger are given as being made by the
"President," and those of the High Commissioner as by "His
Excellency." The latter, invited by the President to speak
first, said:
"There are a considerable number of open questions between Her
Majesty's Government and the Government of the South African
Republic on which there is at present no sign of agreement. On
the contrary, disagreements seem to increase as time goes on.
… In my personal opinion the cause of many of the points of
difference, and the most serious ones, arises out of the
policy pursued by the Government of the South African Republic
towards the Uitlander population of that Republic among whom
many thousands are British subjects. This policy, the bitter
feeling it engenders between the Government and a section of
Uitlanders, and the effect of the resulting tension in South
Africa, and the feeling of sympathy in Great Britain, and even
throughout the British Empire generally, with the Uitlander
population, creates an irritated state of public opinion on
both sides, which renders it much more difficult for the two
Governments to settle their differences amicably. It is my
strong conviction that if the Government of the South African
Republic could now, before things get worse, of its own motion
change its policy towards the Uitlanders, and take measures
calculated to content the reasonable people among them, who,
after all, are a great majority, such a course would not only
strengthen the independence of the Republic but it would make
such a better state of feeling all round that it would become
far easier to settle outstanding questions between the two
Governments. … The President, in coming here, has made a
reservation as to the independence of the Republic. I cannot
see that it is in any way impairing the independence of the
Republic for Her Majesty's Government to support the cause of
the Uitlanders as far as it is reasonable. A vast number of
them are British subjects. If we had an equal number of
British subjects and equally large interests in any part of
the world, even in a country which was not under any
conventional obligations to Her Majesty's Government we should
be bound to make representations to the Government in the
interests of Her Majesty's subjects, and to point out that the
intense discontent of those subjects stood in the way of the
cordial relations which we desire to exist between us. I know
that the citizens of the South African Republic are intensely
jealous of British interference in their internal affairs.
What I want to impress upon the President is that if the
Government of the South African Republic of its own accord,
from its own sense of policy and justice, would afford a more
liberal treatment to the Uitlander population, this would not
increase British interference, but enormously diminish it. If
the Uitlanders were in a position to help themselves they
would not always be appealing to us under the Convention. …
"President.—I shall be brief. I have come with my commission,
in the trust that Your Excellency is a man capable of
conviction, to go into all points of difference. … I should
like His Excellency to go point by point in this discussion,
so that we can discuss each point that he thinks requires
attention, not with a view to at once coming to a decision,
but to hear each side, and we can go back on any point if
necessary, and see if we can arrive at an understanding. I
would like to give concessions as far as is possible and
practicable, but I want to speak openly, so that His
Excellency may be able to understand. I should like to say
that the memorials placed before Her Majesty's Government came
from those who do not speak the truth. I mean to convey that
we do give concessions wherever we think it practicable to do
so, and after we have discussed it in a friendly way Your
Excellency will be able to judge whether I or the memorialists
are right. I have said that if there are any mistakes on our
side, we are willing to discuss them. Even in any matter
concerning internal affairs I would be willing to listen to
his advice if he said it could be removed in this way or that
way. But when I show him that by the point we may be
discussing our independence may be touched, I trust he will be
open to conviction on that subject. …
{482}
"His Excellency.—I think the point which it would be best to
take first, if the President agrees, … would be the Franchise.
… There are a number of questions more or less resting upon
that. … I should like to know a little more about the
President's views. I want to know more because if I were to
begin and say I want this, that, and the other, I know I
should be told this was dictation. I do not want to formulate
a scheme of my own, but I can, if necessary.
"President.—As long as I understand that it is meant in a
friendly manner, and you mean to give hints, I won't take it
that they are commands. It has already been arranged that you
give me friendly hints and advice, and I will not take it as
dictation, even though it should be on points on which I
should consider you have no right to interfere. … I would like
you to bear one point in view, namely, that all kinds of
nations and languages, of nearly all powers, have rushed in at
the point where the gold is to be found. In other countries …
there are millions of old burghers, and the few that come in
cannot out-vote the old burghers, but with us, those who
rushed in to the gold fields are in large numbers and of all
kinds, and the number of old burghers is still insignificant;
therefore we are compelled to make the franchise so that they
cannot all rush into it at once, and as soon as we can assure
ourselves by a gradual increase of our burghers that we can
safely do it, our plan was to reduce the time for anyone there
to take up the franchise, and that is also my plan. … As His
Excellency doubtless knows, I have proposed to the Volksraad
that the time should be reduced by five years, and gradually
as more trusted burghers join our numbers, we can, perhaps, go
further. There are a number who really do not want the
franchise, but they use it as pretext to egg on people with
Her Majesty. … You must remember, also, on this subject, that
the burghers in our Republic are our soldiers, who must
protect the land, and that we have told these men to come and
fight when we have had difficulties with the Kaffirs. They
wanted the vote, but they would not come and fight. Those who
were willing to help obtained the franchise, but it appears
that many do not want to have it.
"His Excellency.—They did not want to take the obligations
without the rights of citizenship, and in that I sympathize
with them. If they should obtain that right, then naturally
they would have to take those burdens upon them.
"President.—Those who want the franchise should bear the
burdens.
"His Excellency.—Yes. Immediately they get the franchise they
take upon themselves the obligations connected therewith."
[From this the talk wandered to the subject of commandeering,
until the High Commissioner brought it back to the franchise
question.]
"His Excellency.—If I made a proposal to admit strangers under
such conditions as to swamp the old burghers it would be
unreasonable. But the newcomers have, at present, no influence
on the legislation of the Republic, which makes an enormous
difference. They haven't got a single representative. The
First Volksraad consists of 28 members, and not one member
represents the feelings of the large Uitlander population.
"President.—Men from any country could after two years vote
for the Second Volksraad, and after two years more sit in the
Second Raad. There are Englishmen who have obtained the full
franchise in that way, and are eligible for the Volksraad. And
now I have proposed to shorten the last ten years of the
period required for the full franchise and make it five years.
"His Excellency.—There are a great many objections of the
gravest kind to the process by which men may now obtain
burgher rights. First of all, before he can begin the process
of gradually securing burgher rights—which will be completed
in 14 years at present, and in 9 years according to the
President—he has to forswear his own allegiance. Take the case
of a British subject, which interests me most. He takes the
oath, and ceases to be a British subject by the mere fact of
taking that oath; he loses all the rights of a British
subject, and he would still have to wait for 12 years, and
under the new plan 7 years, before he can become a full
citizen of the Republic. British subjects are discouraged by
such a law from attempting to get the franchise. Even if they
wanted to become citizens, they would not give up their
British citizenship on the chance of becoming in 12 years
citizens of the Republic.
"President.—The people are the cause of that themselves. In
1870 anyone being in the land for one year had the full
franchise.
"His Excellency.—That was very liberal.
"President.—In 1881, after the war of independence, some of
our officials and even members of our Raad then said that they
were still British subjects, although they had taken the oath
of allegiance, and I had to pay back, out of the £250,000,
what I had commandeered from them. That was the reason the
oath had to be altered. …
"His Excellency.—In 1882, after all this had happened, there
was a franchise law in the Transvaal, which demanded five
years' residence, but it did not require the oath that is now
taken. It required a simple declaration of allegiance to the
State, though all this that the President refers to happened
before. Why was not it necessary to introduce this alteration
then?
"President.—The people who, before the annexation, had taken
that oath, but had not forsworn their nationality, 1887, sent
a lying memorial, as they are sending lying memorials now, to
say that everybody was satisfied, as they now say that
everybody is dissatisfied.
"His Excellency.—I think I must just explain a little more
clearly my views on the point we are now discussing. … I think
it is unreasonable to ask a man to forswear one citizenship
unless in the very act of giving up one he gets another, and I
think it is also unnecessary to ask him to do more than take
an oath of fealty to the new State, of willingness to obey its
laws and to defend its independence, when it is known and
certain that the taking of that oath deprives him of his
existing citizenship. I think the oath should be a simple oath
of allegiance, and that it should not be required of a man
until the moment he can get full rights in a new State. Now
that was the position under the law of 1882, and all these
reasons which the President has been giving are based on what
happened before that.
{483}
Why were they not considered and acted upon when the law of
1882 was made? … As for the period required to qualify for the
full franchise, I do not see why the length of time should be
longer in the South African Republic than in any other South
African State. They are all new countries. In the new country
which is springing up in the north, and which is getting a new
Constitution this year, the period is one year. The people who
have conquered that country for the white race may find that
the newcomers are more numerous than they are. But I do not
expect that anything like that will be done in the South
African Republic; something far short of that would be
reasonable. What I do think and desire, and that is the object
of my suggestion, is this: that the numerous foreign population
engaged in commerce and industry—to which the country, after
all, owes its present great position in wealth and influence—
should have a real share in the government of the Republic,
not to over-rule the old burghers—not at all—but to share the
work of Government with them, to give them the benefit of
their knowledge and experience, which is in many cases greater
than that of the old burghers, so that through their gradual
co-operation a time may come when, instead of being divided
into two separate communities they will all be burghers of the
same State. It is not enough that a few people should be let
in. It is obvious, however, that you could not let in the
whole crowd, without character or anything—I do not ask
it—but you want such a substantial measure that in elections
of members of the Volksraad the desires of the new industrial
population should have reasonable consideration. They have not
got it now, and when the questions that interest them come
before the Volksraad it is too evident that they are discussed
from an outside point of view. The industrial population are
regarded as strangers. … I do not want to swamp the old
population, but it is perfectly possible to give the new
population an immediate voice in the legislation, and yet to
leave the old burghers in such a position that they cannot
possibly be swamped.
"President.—I hope you will be open to conviction on that
point. I would like to convince you on the subject, and to
show you that it would be virtually to give up the
independence of my burghers. In the Republic the majority of
the enfranchised burghers consider they are the masters. Our
enfranchised burghers are probably about 30,000, and the
newcomers may be from 60,000 to 70,000, and if we give them
the franchise to-morrow we may as well give up the Republic. I
hope you will clearly see that I shall not get it through with
my people. We can still consult about the form of oath, but we
cannot make the time too short, because we would never get it
through with the people—they have had bitter experience. I
hope His Excellency will think about what I have said, and
weigh it well.
"His Excellency.—I see your point, and want to meet it.
"President.—I will think over what has been said, and will try
and meet every difficulty.
At the opening of the Conference on the second day the
President spoke of reports of an increase of British forces in
South Africa, which the High Commissioner assured him were
untrue. The latter in turn referred to accounts that had
appeared of an extensive purchase of arms in the Transvaal;
and was assured by the President that the armament of the
burghers was only for their proper preparation to deal with
the surrounding natives. The President then produced a
memorial purporting to be signed by 21,000 Uitlanders,
contradictory of the representations contained in the memorial
sent to the Queen in March (see above). After discussion upon
this, the conversation returned to the question of the
franchise.
"His Excellency.—What makes this whole discussion so difficult
is the intense prejudice on the side of the present burghers,
and their intense suspicion of us. They think Her Majesty's
Government wants to get their country back in one way or
another. Her Majesty's Government does not; but what it does
desire is that it should have such a state of rest in the
country as will remove causes of friction and difficulty
between the Republic and Her Majesty's possessions in South
Africa, and the whole of the British Empire, and my
suggestions here are directed to that end. I do not want to
say it over and over again, I say it once for all. …
"President.—I should like to make a slight explanation to His
Excellency. His Excellency yesterday mentioned that in some
States those going in from outside speedily got burgher
rights, but he must not forget, as I said before, they are
glad of the people who come in. But, here we have all nations
and all kinds, and if they were to get burgher rights quickly
then that would be the end of our independence, and then they
could send us away where they liked. I would like His
Excellency to bear that in mind.
"His Excellency.—I do not see how the old burghers can have it
both ways. They cannot have a very large population streaming
in to develop the resources of the country, and giving it a
much higher position in the world than it would otherwise
have, and at the same time exclude these people from
participation in the Government of the country.
"President.—Your Excellency must bear this in mind. There is
no Gold Law in the world that is so liberal as that of the
Republic."
The President then recurred to the right which the Uitlanders
might obtain, of voting for the Second Volksraad after two
years, and becoming eligible to seats in it after four years,
and said that it was in the Second Volksraad that their own
interests were dealt with—not in the First. The High
Commissioner asked if the Second Raad could act without
consent of the First. The President acknowledged that the
latter could alter any law which "appears to be against the
general welfare," but contended that it had no wish to go into
gold field matters, though it has the power, and that it had
interfered with action of the Second Rand in but three or four
instances. The High Commissioner remarked that Uitlanders who
abandoned their own nationality to wait years for full
citizenship in the Republic might have the latter prospect
taken away from them at any moment by a single resolution of
the First Raad. The President replied: "They haven't done it
yet. The legislatures of all the world have the same power."
To which the High Commissioner made answer: "This power
existing, the new comers cannot be expected—I should not
recommend one of them—to give up his present citizenship for
the mere chance of becoming a citizen of the new country."
{484}
"His Excellency.—If the President thinks we are asking too
much … I must report to Her Majesty's Government that the
President rejects our friendly suggestions.
"The President.—I would be misleading you if I should tell you
that I can give all the strangers the franchise in a very
short time. I would consider that our independence was
sacrificed thereby: but I say this, let His Excellency keep
impartially in view my points of difficulty, and let him make
his proposals and submit them to us, so that we can consider
them and judge about them. … I have already said that perhaps
means may be found to alter the form of oath. … I would now
like His Excellency to propose a scheme.
"His Excellency.— … What I suggest is this: That every
foreigner who can prove satisfactorily that he has been
resident in the country for five years, and that he desires to
make it his permanent place of residence, that he is prepared
to take the oath to obey the laws, to undertake all the
obligations of citizenship, and to defend the independence of
the country, should be allowed to become a citizen on taking
that oath. This should be confined to persons possessing a
certain amount of property, or a certain amount of yearly
wages, and who have good characters. In order to make that
proposal of any real use for the new citizens who mostly live
in one district in the Republic, and a district which only
returns one member in 28 to the First Raad, and one in 28 to
the Second Raad, I propose that there should be a certain
number of new constituencies created, the number of which is a
detail upon the discussion of which I will not now enter. But
what is vital from my point of view is that the number of
these districts should not be so small as to leave the
representatives of the new population in a contemptible
minority.
"President.—With us the majority of the enfranchised burghers
constitutes the ruling voice, and must be listened to in the
Volksraad. If the 60,000 came in immediately, they would swamp
the 30,000. … I mean this: that if they are all enfranchised then
they would at once form the majority of the whole population,
and the majority of enfranchised burghers, according to our
law, must be listened to by the Volksraad; since in a Republic
we cannot leave the sovereign voice out of account.
"His Excellency.—This is pure theory, that the Volksraad have
to do what the majority of the people desire. The Volksraad
does what it considers right in its own eyes; it is elected by
the people, and does what it thinks right, and the President has
made it quite clear during the last year or two that anything
the Volksraad does is law."
At an afternoon meeting on the same day, there was a long
discussion of the dynamite grievance of the Uitlanders, and
the President wished to bring up other points; but the High
Commissioner objected:
"His Excellency.—I think the discussion will be of
interminable length if we are to proceed in this way, and if
we cannot approach one another on the point on which I have
made my suggestions, and which lies outside all the pending
questions between the two Governments, these other
controversies may as well be allowed to go on in the usual
course. If the President to-morrow will give me an answer on
the first subject I raised, and then wishes to bring forward
his grievances, I will consider them to-morrow. I do not want
to go on with a long list of my own until I understand what is
the basis on which I stand in regard to what I consider the
most important question of all.
"President.—I think it would be as well if we returned in a
little while to discuss our points, but I would like to give
His Excellency some things to think over. The first point I
would like to mention is my wish that Swaziland should now be
handed over to me as a portion of my land. … Secondly, the
demand made with regard to the damages for the Jameson Raid,
Mr. Chamberlain said he was against paying the million, but he
is not against paying the expenses incurred. Thirdly, that
differences such as those now existing between us, should be
settled by arbitration, and then no war or quarrel could arise
between us. … These are some of the questions I wish His
Excellency to think about."
At the opening of the Conference on the third day, the
President sought to commit the High Commissioner to an
"understanding," that "if we came," he said, "to some
agreement on the franchise Her Majesty's Government then would
engage not in any way to concern itself with internal affairs in
the Republic any longer, and that in future questions that
then may arise, whether out of the Convention or otherwise,
Her Majesty would agree to have such questions referred to
arbitration." The High Commissioner declined to deal with the
subject of the franchise as a matter of "bargain." It was a
subject of grievances and discontent, dangerous to the
Republic and dangerous to the relations between the Republic
and Great Britain, which ought to be dealt with on its merits
alone. Nevertheless, after some controversy, he said:
"His Excellency.— … As far as the Jameson Indemnity is
concerned I know that a despatch is on the way to me at this
present moment, which forwards a statement from the British
South Africa Company examining the details of the claim which
has been sent in, and asking that the question of the amount
payable in respect of the Raid may be submitted to
arbitration. I have received a telegram that that despatch is
coming. The position is this—the British Government have
admitted in principle that the Company must pay what is fairly
due on account of that raid; but the question of the amount is
still under discussion, and I hope that this proposal will lead
to a settlement. As to the question of arbitration, which I
think is the matter that interests the President most, I am in
so far entirely with him that I want if possible to have in
future as few questions to discuss with the Government of the
South African Republic, as I now have with the Government of
the Orange Free State. I feel that the President will need, if
he accepts my scheme of franchise, or any other similar
proposal, to have some assurance that there shall not be
perpetual controversies between him and England, and that if
there are controversies, some regular way of dealing with them
should be devised.
{485}
The President once proposed that some question, or a number of
questions, should be submitted to the President of the Swiss
Republic. The British Government refused that on the general
principle—from which I am sure they will not depart—that they
will not have any foreign Government, or any foreign
interference at all, between them and the South African
Republic. But if some other method can be devised of
submitting to an impartial tribunal questions that may in
future arise between us, and perhaps even some questions which
exist at present—but in any case to provide for the future—if
such a plan can be devised and suggested to me, I will lay it
before Her Majesty's Government and do what I can personally
to assist in a satisfactory solution of the matter. The
President must understand that I cannot pledge Her Majesty's
Government in any way on this subject. The question has taken
me by surprise; I didn't come here contemplating a discussion
on it, but I must say if it could be satisfactorily arranged
while excluding the interference of the foreigner, it would
seem to me to open a way out of many difficulties. But all the
same, I adhere firmly to my proposal that we should first try
and settle on the scheme which the President would accept as
regards the matter which I put forward."
At the close of the morning interview, both parties expressed
hopelessness of agreement. On meeting again in the afternoon,
the President submitted in writing the following proposals
concerning the franchise: "As the purpose I had in view at
this Conference principally consists in the removal of
existing grounds of disagreement and further to provide for
the friendly regulation of the way of settling future disputes
by means of arbitration, the following proposals with regard to
the franchise must be considered as conditional and dependent
on the satisfactory settlement of the first mentioned points,
and on the request that my request to incorporate Swaziland in
the South African Republic shall be submitted by the High
Commissioner to Her Majesty's Government. Subject to the
foregoing I undertake to submit without delay to the approval
of the Volksraad and the people the following proposals about
the franchise:
"I. Every person who fixes his residence in the South African
Republic has to get himself registered on the Field-cornets'
books within fourteen days after his arrival according to the
existing law; will be able after complying with the conditions
mentioned under 'A.,' and after the lapse of two years to get
himself naturalised; and will five years after naturalisation,
on complying with the conditions mentioned under 'B.,' obtain
the full franchise.
"A.—
1. Six months' notice of intention to apply for naturalisation;
2. Two years' continued registration;
3. Residence in the South African Republic during that period;
4. No dishonouring sentence;
5. Proof of obedience to the laws; no act against Government
or independence;
6. Proof of full State citizenship and franchise or title
thereto in former country;
7. Possession of unmortgaged fixed property to the value of
£150 approximately, or occupation of house to the rental of
£50 per annum, or yearly income of at least £200. Nothing,
however, shall prevent the Government from granting
naturalisation to persons who have not satisfied this
condition;
8. Taking of an oath similar to that of the Orange
Free State.
"B.—
1. Continuous registration five years after naturalisation;
2. Continuous residence during that period;
3. No dishonouring sentence;
4. Proof of obedience to the laws, &c.;
5. Proof that applicant still complies with the condition A(7).
"II. Furthermore, the full franchise shall be obtained in the
following manner:—
(a.)
Those who have fixed their residence in the South African
Republic before the taking effect of Act 4, 1890, and who get
themselves naturalised within six months after the taking
effect of this Act on complying with the conditions under 1A,
shall obtain the full franchise two years after such
naturalisation on proof of compliance with the conditions
mentioned under 1B (altering the five into two years). Those
who do not get themselves naturalised within six months under
Article 1,
(b.)
Those who have been resident in the South African Republic for
two years or more can get themselves immediately naturalised
on compliance with the conditions under 1A., and shall five
years after naturalisation obtain the full franchise on
compliance with the conditions under 1B.
(c.)
Those who have been already naturalised shall five years after
naturalisation obtain the full franchise on compliance with
the conditions under 1B."
At the meeting next day, the High Commissioner presented to
the President a written memorandum in reply to the proposals
of the latter. He admitted that "the scheme proposed is a
considerable advance upon the existing provisions as to
franchise," but said that he could not recommend its
acceptance as adequate to the needs of the case. "Under this
plan," he continued, "no man who is not already naturalised,
even if he has been in the country 13 or 14 years, will get a
vote for the First Volksraad in less than 2½ years from the
passing of the new law. There will be no considerable number
of people obtaining that vote in less than five years, that is
if they come in and naturalise. But I fear the majority of
them will not come in, because the scheme retains that
unfortunate provision, first introduced in 1890, by which,
owing to the two stages—first, naturalisation with a partial
franchise, and then, after five years, full franchise—a man
has to abandon his old citizenship before he becomes a
full-fledged citizen of his new country. My plan avoided this.
My doctrine is that, however long a period of residence you
fix before a man becomes a citizen of your State, you should
admit him, once for all, to full rights on taking the oath of
allegiance. And this is especially important in the South
African Republic, because, owing to the facility and frequency
with which laws—even fundamental laws—are altered, the man who
takes the oath and thereby loses his old country will never
feel quite sure that something may not happen in the interval,
when he is only half a citizen, to prevent his becoming a whole
one. The vote for the First Volksraad is the essential point.
According to the present constitution of the Transvaal, the
First Volksraad and the President really are the State. But
under this scheme it will be a considerable time before any
number of Uitlanders worth mentioning can vote for the First
Volksraad, and even then they will only command one or two
seats. My point was to give them at once a few
representatives. They might be a minority, even a small
minority.
{486}
I have said over and over again I do not want to swamp the old
burghers. But as long as the representatives of the new comers
are entirely excluded from the supreme legislative council,
they will, as a body, remain an inferior caste. The
co-operation and gradual blending of the two sections of the
population will not take place. The old separation and
hostility will continue. I see no prospect here of that
concord to which I had looked both to bring about a more
progressive system of government, and to remove causes of
friction between the Government of the South African Republic
and Great Britain. For these reasons I regret to say the
scheme seems to me so inadequate that I think it would be
wasting the time of the Conference to discuss its details."
The President rejoined in another memorandum, which added one
more to his former proposals, namely this: "I am ready to
propose and to recommend to the First Volksraad to increase
the number of members of the First Volksraad, whereby the Gold
Fields will be represented by five, instead of as now by two,
members."
The response to this by the High Commissioner was a review, at
length, of all that had been proposed, leading to the
conclusion which he expressed as follows:
"If I am asked whether I think they will satisfy the Uitlander
community, and are calculated to relieve the British
Government from further solicitude on the score of its
Uitlander subjects, I cannot answer in the affirmative. Still
less can I encourage the idea that the British Government can
be asked to give something in exchange for such legislation
as the President proposes. My own proposal was put forward in
no bargaining spirit. I asked myself, in advancing it, what is
the smallest measure of reform that will really be of any use,
that is to say, which will allay the present unrest and enable
the Uitlanders to exercise within a reasonable time an
appreciable influence on the Government of the country. It was
in that spirit that I suggested the outline of a scheme,
intentionally not working it out in detail (for I was ready to
listen as to details), but indicating a certain minimum from
which I am not prepared to depart. … When I came here I came
in the hope that I might be able to report to Her Majesty's
Government that measures were about to be adopted which would
lead to such an improvement in the situation as to relieve Her
Majesty's Government from pressing for the redress of
particular grievances on the ground that the most serious
causes of complaint would now gradually be removed from
within. I do not feel that what His Honour has seen his way to
propose in the matter of franchise or what he indicates as the
extreme length to which he might, at some future time, be
willing to go in the extension of local government is
sufficient to justify me in reporting in that sense."
The Conference was ended by a last memorandum from the
President, in which he said: "As it is my earnest wish that
this Conference should not be fruitless, I wish to make the
following proposal to His Excellency, viz.:—As according to
his own admission my proposal about franchise is an important
step in the right direction, I shall be prepared to lay my
proposal before the Volksraad and to recommend it, even though
His Excellency does not fully agree with it. From his side I
shall then expect that His Excellency will lay before and
recommend to Her Majesty's Government my request about
arbitration on future matters of difference under the
Convention. His Excellency will, however, readily understand
that if Her Majesty's Government should not meet me so far, so
as to grant my acknowledged fair request for arbitration, it
could be with difficulty expected that the people of the South
African Republic would approve of my comprehensive proposal
with regard to franchise."
Great Britain,
Papers by Command: 1899, C. 9404.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1899 (May-August).
Advice to President Kruger from Cape Afrikanders, and
from Holland and Germany.
Several private letters written at the time of these
occurrences by Sir J. E. De Villiers, a leading Afrikander,
Chief Justice of Cape Colony, and one of the Commissioners who
negotiated the Convention of 1881, addressed to persons who
might have influence with President Kruger, were made public a
year later. In the first of these letters, written to
President Steyn of the Orange Free State, on the 21st of May,
1899, Justice De Villiers used strong expressions, as follows:
"On my recent visit to Pretoria I did not visit the President
as I considered it hopeless to think of making any impression
on him, but I saw Reitz, Smuts, and Schalk Burger, who, I
thought, would be amenable to argument, but I fear that either
my advice had no effect on them, or else their opinion had no
weight with the President. I urged upon them to advise the
President to open the Volksraad with promises of a liberal
franchise and drastic reforms. It would have been so much
better if these had come voluntarily from the Government
instead of being gradually forced from them. In the former
case they would rally the greater number of the malcontents
around them, in the latter case no gratitude will be felt to
the Republic for any concessions made by it. Besides, there
can be no doubt that as the alien population increases, as it
undoubtedly will, their demands will increase with their
discontent, and ultimately a great deal more will have to be
conceded than will now satisfy them. The franchise proposal
made by the President seems to be simply ridiculous. I am
quite certain that if in 1881 it had been known to my fellow
Commissioners that the President would adopt his retrogressive
policy, neither President Brand nor I would ever have induced
them to consent to sign the Convention. They would have
advised the Secretary of State to let matters revert to the
condition in which they were before peace was concluded; in
other words, to recommence the war. … If I had any influence
with the President I would advise him no longer to sit on the
boiler to prevent it from bursting. Some safety-valves are
required for the activities of the new population. In their
irritation they abuse the Government, often unjustly, in the
press, and send petitions to the Queen; but that was only to
be expected. Let the Transvaal Legislature give them a liberal
franchise and allow them local self-government for their
towns, and some portion of the discontent will be allayed. The
enemies of the Transvaal will not be satisfied; on the
contrary, the worst service that can be done to them is the
redress of the grievance, but it is the friends of the country
who should be considered."
{487}
On the 31st of July, the Justice wrote still more urgently and
impatiently to a Mr. Fischer, who was in close relations with
the Transvaal President: "I do not think that President Kruger
and his friends realize the gravity of the situation. Even now
the State Secretary is doing things which would be almost
farcical if the times were not so serious. Some time ago I
begged of him to drop the censorship of telegrams because it
serves no useful purpose and only delays the publication of
lies by a few days. His answer was that the Government should
not disseminate lies by its own wires. He might as well have
said Government should not disseminate lies by its own
post-office. To crown all, I see that he has now gone so far
as to stop a private telegram (which had been paid for)
because it contained a lie. I really do not know where he is
going to stop or whether he intends to guarantee that all
telegrams allowed to pass contain the truth and nothing but
the truth. Could you not induce him to stop such childish
nonsense? The Transvaal will soon not have a single friend
left among the cultivated classes. Then there is the Franchise
Bill, which is so obscure that the State Attorney had to issue an
explanatory memorandum to remove the obscurities. But surely a
law should be clear enough to speak for itself, and no
Government or Court of Law will be bound by the State
Attorney's explanations. I do not know what those explanations
are, but the very fact that they are required condemns the
Bill. That Bill certainly does not seem quite to carry out the
promises made to you, Mr. Hofmeyr, and Mr. Herholdt. The time
really has come when the friends of the Transvaal must induce
President Kruger to become perfectly frank and take the
newcomers into his confidence. It may be a bitter pill to have
to swallow in yielding to further demands, but it is quite
clear to the world that he would not have done as much as he
has done if pressure had not been applied. What one fears is
that he will do things in such a way as to take away all grace
from his concessions. Try to induce him to meet Mr.
Chamberlain in a friendly manner and at once remove all the
causes of unrest which have disturbed this unhappy country for
so many years. As one who signed the Convention in 1881, I can
assure you that my fellow Commissioners would not have signed
it if they had not been led to believe that President Kruger's
policy towards the Uitlanders would have been very different
from what it has been."
Three confidential despatches sent to President Kruger, in the
same period, by the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the
Netherlands government were laid before the States General at
The Hague, October 25, 1900, and made public through Reuter's
press agency, as follows:
"In the first despatch, which is dated May 13, 1899, the
Minister states that news received from different capitals
leads him to believe in the imminence of the danger of a
violent solution of the problem in South Africa. As a faithful
friend he counsels Mr. Kruger in the true interests of the
Republic to show himself as conciliatory and moderate as
possible, and adds that he learns from a trustworthy source
that the German Government fully shares that opinion. Mr.
Kruger replied that he had always been conciliatory and did
not desire war, but that he could not sacrifice the
independence of the Republic. He was willing enough to grant
the suffrage, but he could not tolerate Englishmen remaining
subjects of the Queen while receiving at the same time the
right to vote in the Republic. In the second despatch, dated
August 4, 1899, the Netherlands Minister for Foreign Affairs
advised President Kruger, in the interests of the country, not
to refuse peremptorily the British proposal for an
international commission. Mr. Kruger replied that the
commission would not be international, but an Anglo-Transvaal
commission. He intended to ask for further information from
Great Britain as to the scope and composition of the
commission, and did not mean to give a decided refusal.
Finally, the Netherlands Minister, in a telegram dated August
15, 1899, stated that the German Government entirely shared
his opinion as to the inadvisability of declining the English
proposal, adding that the German Government, like himself, was
convinced that any request to one of the Great Powers at such
a critical moment would be barren of result and highly
dangerous to the Republic. To this Mr. Kruger replied that the
British proposal would result in very direct interference by
the English in the internal affairs of the Republic. He added
that he had no intention of appealing to a Great Power."
Speaking in the German Reichsrath, on the 10th of December,
1900, the Imperial Chancellor, Count von Bülow, referred to
the above publications by the Dutch government, and confirmed
them, saying that it was in accordance with the views of the
German Government that the Dutch Foreign Minister "strongly
advised Mr. Kruger to maintain a moderate attitude. In June,
1899, Mr. Kruger was advised by Germany through the Dutch
Government to invite mediation, but Dr. Leyds informed the
Dutch Minister in Paris that Mr. Kruger did not consider 'that
the moment had yet come for applying for the mediation of
America.' Some time afterwards Mr. Kruger made the attempt to
obtain arbitration, but 'feeling had become too heated,' and
in August Mr. Kruger complained to the Dutch Government that
arbitration could not be arranged. The answer to this
complaint is given in the Dutch Yellow-book under the date of
August 15, 1899, and points out that the German Government
would at that date have regarded any appeal to a Great Power
as hopeless and as very dangerous for the Republics. The
German Government also shared the Dutch view that Mr. Kruger
ought not to reject the English proposal then before him."
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1899 (July-September)
Amendment of the Franchise Law.
After much discussion and many changes, an amended Franchise
Law was adopted by the First Volksraad of the Republic and
published on the 26th of July. It conceded to foreigners who
had already been resident in the Republic for seven years a
possibility of obtaining full burgher rights simultaneously
with the taking of the oath of allegiance, but subjected the
proceeding to conditions which would make it, in Uitlander
opinion, of service to very few. The judgment of Sir Alfred
Milner, the High Commissioner, as expressed to Secretary
Chamberlain, was to the effect that "the bill, as it stands,
leaves it practically in the hands of the Government of the
South African Republic to enfranchise or not enfranchise the
Uitlanders as it chooses. If worked in a liberal spirit, its
clumsy and unreasonable provisions may be got over.
{488}
But if it is to be enforced rigidly, there will be practically
unlimited opportunities of excluding persons whom the
Government may consider undesirable, nor does the tone of the
debate in the Raad leave much doubt as to the spirit in which
some at least of the authors of the Bill would like to see it
worked." His criticism applied especially to the certificate
required from every applicant. "The certificate," he said,
"which every applicant must obtain from three different
officials, as to (a) continuous registration and domicile, (b)
obedience to the laws, (c) committing no crime against the
independence of the country, is one which these officials,
even if well disposed, would be able in hardly any case to
give. None of them can have any such knowledge of the
Uitlander population as would enable them to give this
comprehensive certificate; it is acknowledged that some of the
Johannesburg lists have been lost; and the Field-cornet has, I
believe, held his present office for less than four years."
Moreover, a requirement of "continuous" registration "may
mean," said the High Commissioner, "(and I cannot understand
what else it could mean) registration for seven years in one
ward and district; so that a person having resided and been
registered in one district and subsequently removed to another
would forfeit the benefit of his first period of residence. Even
if this were not so, he would doubtless have to get a double
set of certificates."
Simultaneously with the publication of the new Franchise Law
it was announced that the Executive Council had decided to
give the Witwatersrand Gold Fields a representation of five
members (out of 31) in the First Volksraad, as well as
representation by the same number in the Second Volksraad. To
the British Agent at Pretoria, Mr. Conyngham Greene, this
seemed to be "so wholly inadequate as not to be worthy of
serious consideration."
In view of the complexities and uncertainties involved in the
new Franchise Law, the High Commissioner addressed the
following communication to the government of the South African
Republic, August 1:
"Her Majesty's Government authorize me to invite President
South African Republic to appoint delegates to discuss with
delegates to be appointed by me on behalf of Her Majesty's
Government, whether Uitlander population will be given
immediate and substantial representation by franchise law
recently passed by Volksraad, together with other measures
connected with it, such as increase of seats, and, if not,
what additions or alterations may be necessary to secure that
result. In this discussion it should be understood that the
delegates of Her Majesty's Government would be free to make
any suggestions calculated to improve measures in question and
secure their attaining the end desired."
The reply to this proposal was given by the Boer government to
the British Agent at Pretoria in two notes, the first, dated
August 19, as follows: "With reference to your proposal for a
joint enquiry contained in your despatches of the 2nd and 3rd
August, Government of South African Republic have the honour
to suggest the following alternative proposal for
consideration of Her Majesty's Government, which this
Government trusts may lead to a final settlement.
(1.) The Government are willing to recommend to the Volksraad
and the people a 5 years' retrospective franchise, as proposed
by His Excellency the High Commissioner on the 1st June, 1899.
(2.) The Government are further willing to recommend to the
Volksraad that 8 new seats in the First Volksraad, and, if
necessary, also in the Second Volksraad, be given to the
population of the Witwatersrand, thus with the 2 sitting
members for the Goldfields giving to the population thereof 10
representatives in a Raad of 36, and in future the
representation of the Goldfields of this Republic shall not
fall below the proportion of one-fourth of the total.
(3.) The new Burghers shall equally with the old Burghers be
entitled to vote at the election for State President and
Commandant-General.
(4.) This Government will always be prepared to take into
consideration such friendly suggestions regarding the details
of the Franchise Law as Her Majesty's Government, through the
British Agent, may wish to convey to it.
(5.) In putting forward the above proposals Government of
South African Republic assumes:
(a) That Her Majesty's Government will agree that the
present intervention shall not form a precedent for future
similar action and that in the future no interference in
the internal affairs of the Republic will take place.
(b) That Her Majesty's Government will not further insist
on the assertion of the suzerainty, the controversy on the
subject being allowed tacitly to drop.
(c) That arbitration (from which foreign element other than
Orange Free State is to be excluded) will be conceded as
soon as the franchise scheme has become law.
(6.) Immediately on Her Majesty's Government accepting this
proposal for a settlement, the Government will ask the
Volksraad to adjourn for the purpose of consulting the people
about it, and the whole scheme might become law say within a
few weeks.
(7.) In the meantime the form and scope of the proposed
Tribunal are also to be discussed and provisionally agreed
upon, while the franchise scheme is being referred to the
people, so that no time may be lost in putting an end to the
present state of affairs. The Government trust that Her
Majesty's Government will clearly understand that in the
opinion of this Government the existing Franchise Law of this
Republic is both fair and liberal to the new population, and
that the consideration that induces them to go further, as
they do in the above proposals, is their strong desire to get
the controversies between the two Governments settled, and
further to put an end to present strained relations between
the two Governments and the incalculable harm and loss it has
already occasioned in South Africa, and to prevent a racial
war from the effects of which South Africa may not recover for
many generations, perhaps never at all, and therefore this
Government, having regard to all these circumstances would
highly appreciate it if Her Majesty's Government, seeing the
necessity of preventing the present crisis from developing
still further and the urgency of an early termination of the
present state of affairs, would expedite the acceptance or
refusal of the settlement here offered.
(Signed) F. W. REITZ."
The second note, which followed on the 21st of August, was
in these terms:
{489}
"In continuation of my despatch of the 19th instant and with
reference to the communication to you of the State Attorney
this morning, I wish to forward to you the following in
explanation thereof, with the request that the same may be
telegraphed to His Excellency the High Commissioner for South
Africa, as forming part of the proposals of this Government
embodied in the above-named despatch.
(1.) The proposals of this Government regarding question of
franchise and representation contained in that despatch must
be regarded as expressly conditional on Her Majesty's
Government consenting to the points set forth in paragraph 5
of the despatch, viz.:
(a) In future not to interfere in internal affairs of the
South African Republic.
(b) Not to insist further on its assertion of existence of
suzerainty.
(c) To agree to arbitration.
(2.) Referring to paragraph 6 of the despatch, this Government
trusts that it is clear to Her Majesty's Government that this
Government has not consulted the Volksraad as to this question
and will only do so when an affirmative reply to its proposals
has been received from Her Majesty's Government.
(Signed) F. W. REITZ."
The above notes were repeated by cable, in full, to the
Colonial Secretary, at London, and, on the 28th of August, he
returned by the same medium his reply, as follows:
"Her Majesty's Government have considered the proposals which
the South African Republic Government in their notes to the
British Agent of 19th and 21st August have put forward as an
alternative to those contained in my telegram of 31st July.
Her Majesty's Government assume that the adoption in principle
of the franchise proposals made by you at Bloemfontein will
not be hampered by any conditions which would impair their
effect, and that by proposed increase of seats for the
Goldfields and by other provisions the South African Republic
Government intend to grant immediate and substantial
representation of the Uitlanders. That being so, Her Majesty's
Government are unable to appreciate the objections entertained
by the Government of the South African Republic to a Joint
Commission of Inquiry into the complicated details and
technical questions upon which the practical effect of the
proposals depends. Her Majesty's Government, however, will be
ready to agree that the British Agent, assisted by such other
persons as you may appoint, shall make the investigation
necessary to satisfy them that the result desired will be
achieved and, failing this, to enable them to make those
suggestions which the Government of the South African Republic
state that they will be prepared to take into consideration.
Her Majesty's Government assume that every facility will be
given to the British Agent by the Government of the South
African Republic, and they would point out that the inquiry
will be both easier and shorter if the Government of the South
African Republic will omit in any future Law the complicated
conditions of registration, qualification and behaviour which
accompanied previous proposals, and would have entirely
nullified their beneficial effect. Her Majesty's Government
hope that the Government of the South African Republic will
wait to receive their suggestions founded on the report of the
British Agent's investigation before submitting a new
Franchise Law to the Volksraad and the Burghers. With regard
to the conditions of the Government of the South African
Republic: First, as regards intervention; Her Majesty's
Government hope that the fulfilment of the promises made and
the just treatment of the Uitlanders in future will render
unnecessary any further intervention on their behalf, but Her
Majesty's Government cannot of course debar themselves from
their rights under the Conventions nor divest themselves of
the ordinary obligations of a civilized Power to protect its
subjects in a foreign country from injustice. Secondly, with
regard to suzerainty Her Majesty's Government would refer the
Government of the South African Republic to the second
paragraph of my despatch of 13th July. Thirdly, Her Majesty's
Government agree to a discussion of the form and scope of a
Tribunal of Arbitration from which foreigners and foreign
influence are excluded. Such a discussion, which will be of
the highest importance to the future relations of the two
countries, should be carried on between the President and
yourself, and for this purpose it appears to be necessary that
a further Conference, which Her Majesty's Government suggest
should be held at Cape Town, should be at once arranged. Her
Majesty's Government also desire to remind the Government of
the South African Republic that there are other matters of
difference between the two Governments which will not be
settled by the grant of political representation to the
Uitlanders, and which are not proper subjects for reference to
arbitration. It is necessary that these should be settled
concurrently with the questions now under discussion, and they
will form, with the question of arbitration, proper subjects
for consideration at the proposed Conference."
On the 2d of September the Boer government replied to this at
length, stating that it considered the proposal made in its
note of August 19 to have lapsed; again objecting to a joint
inquiry relative to the practical working of the Franchise
Law, but adding: "If they [the Government] can be of
assistance to Her Majesty's Government with any information or
explanation they are always ready to furnish this; though it
appears to it that the findings of a unilateral Commission,
especially when arrived at before the working of the law has
been duly tested, would be premature and thus probably of
little value."
Meantime, on the 31st of August, Sir Alfred Milner had
telegraphed to Mr. Chamberlain: "I am receiving
representations from many quarters to urge Her Majesty's
Government to terminate the state of suspense. Hitherto I have
hesitated to address you on the subject, lest Her Majesty's
Government should think me impatient. But I feel bound to let
you know that I am satisfied, from inquiries made in various
reliable quarters that the distress is now really serious. The
most severe suffering is at Johannesburg. Business there is at
a standstill; many traders have become insolvent; and others
are only kept on their legs by the leniency of their
creditors. Even the mines, which have been less affected
hitherto, are now suffering owing to the withdrawal of
workmen, both European and native. The crisis also affects the
trading centres in the Colony. In spite of this, the purport
of all the representations made to me is to urge prompt and
decided action; not to deprecate further interference on the
part of Her Majesty's Government. British South Africa is
prepared for extreme measures, and is ready to suffer much in
order to see the vindication of British authority. It is
prolongation of the negotiations, endless and indecisive of
result, that is dreaded."
{490}
On the 8th of September, the High Commissioner was instructed
by Mr. Chamberlain to communicate the following to the
government of the Transvaal:
"Her Majesty's Government are still prepared to accept the
offer made in paragraphs 1, 2, and 3 of the note of the 19th
August taken by themselves, provided that the inquiry which
Her Majesty's Government have proposed, whether joint—as Her
Majesty's Government originally suggested—or unilateral, shows
that the new scheme of representation will not be encumbered
by conditions which will nullify the intention to give
substantial and immediate representation to the Uitlanders. In
this connection Her Majesty's Government assume that, as
stated to the British Agent, the new members of the Raad will
be permitted to use their own language. The acceptance of
these terms by the Government of the South African Republic
would at once remove the tension between the two Governments,
and would in all probability render unnecessary any further
intervention on the part of Her Majesty's Government to secure
the redress of grievances which the Uitlanders would
themselves be able to bring to the notice of the Executive and
the Raad."
In a lengthy response to this by State Secretary Reitz,
September 16, the following are the essential paragraphs:
"However earnestly this Government also desires to find an
immediate and satisfactory course by which existing tension
should be brought to an end, it feels itself quite unable, as
desired, to recommend or propose to South African Republic
Volksraad and people the part of its proposal contained in
paragraphs 1, 2, and 3 of its note 19th August, omitting the
conditions on the acceptance of which alone the offer was
based, but declares itself always still prepared to abide by
its acceptance of the invitation [of] Her Majesty's Government
to get a Joint Commission composed as intimated in its note of
2nd September. It considers that if conditions are contained
in the existing franchise law which has been passed, and in
the scheme of representation, which might tend to frustrate
object contemplated, that it will attract the attention of the
Commission, and thus be brought to the knowledge of this
Government. This Government has noticed with surprise the
assertion that it had intimated to British Agent that the new
members to be chosen for South African Republic Volksraad
should be allowed to use their own language. If it is thereby
intended that this Government would have agreed that any other
than the language of the country would have been used in the
deliberations of the Volksraad, it wishes to deny same in the
strongest manner."
Practically the discussion was ended by a despatch from the
British Colonial Secretary, September 22d, in which he said;
"Her Majesty's Government have on more than one occasion
repeated their assurances that they have no desire to
interfere in any way with independence of South African
Republic, provided that the conditions on which it was granted
are honourably observed in the spirit and in the letter, and
they have offered as part of a general settlement to give a
complete guarantee against any attack upon that independence,
either from within any part of the British dominions or from
the territory of a foreign State. They have not asserted any
rights of interference in the internal affairs of the Republic
other than those which are derived from the Conventions
between the two countries or which belong to every
neighbouring Government (and especially to one which has a
largely predominant interest in the adjacent territories) for
the protection of its subjects and of its adjoining
possessions." Referring to his despatch of September 8, the
Secretary concluded: "The refusal of the Government of the
South African Republic to entertain the offer thus made,
coming as it does at the end of nearly four months of
protracted negotiations, themselves the climax of an agitation
extending over a period of more than five years, makes it
useless to further pursue a discussion on the lines hitherto
followed, and Her Majesty's Government are now compelled to
consider the situation afresh, and to formulate their own
proposals for a final settlement of the issues which have been
created in South Africa by the policy constantly followed for
many years by the Government of the South African Republic.
They will communicate to you the result of their deliberations
in a later despatch."
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
1899, C. 9518, 9521, 9530.
SOUTH AFRICA: Orange Free State: A. D. 1899 (September-October).
The Free State makes common cause with
the South African Republic.
On the 27th of September, President Steyn communicated to the
British High Commissioner a resolution adopted that day by the
Orange Free State Volksraad, instructing the government to
continue efforts for peaceful settlement of differences
between the South African Republic and Great Britain, but
concluding with the declaration that "if a war is now begun or
occasioned by Her Majesty's Government against South African
Republic, this would morally be a war against the whole of
white population of South Africa and would in its results be
calamitous and criminal, and further, that Orange Free State
will honestly and faithfully observe its obligations towards
South African Republic arising out of the political alliance
between the two Republics whatever may happen."
On the 11th of October, the High Commissioner communicated to
President Steyn the ultimatum that he received from the South
African Republic, and asked: "In view of Resolution of
Volksraad of Orange Free State communicated to me in Your
Honour's telegram of 27th September I have the honour to
request that I may be informed at Your Honour's earliest
possible convenience whether this action on the part of the
South African Republic has Your Honour's concurrence and
support." The reply of the Orange Free State President was as
follows:
"The high handed and unjustifiable policy and conduct of Her
Majesty's Government in interfering in and dictating in the
purely internal affairs of South African Republic,
constituting a flagrant breach of the Convention of London,
1884, accompanied at first by preparations, and latterly
followed by active commencement of hostilities against that
Republic, which no friendly and well-intentioned efforts on
our part could induce Her Majesty's Government to abandon,
constitute such an undoubted and unjust attack on the
independence of the South African Republic that no other
course is left to this State than honourably to abide by its
Conventional Agreements entered into with that Republic. On
behalf of this Government, therefore, I beg to notify that,
compelled thereto by the action of Her Majesty's Government,
they intend to carry out the instructions of the Volksraad as
set forth in the last part of the Resolution referred to by
Your Excellency."
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
1899, C.—9530, pages 38 and 67.
{491}
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal and Orange Free State:
A. D. 1899 (September-October).
Preparations for war.
Troops massed on both sides of the frontiers.
Remonstrances of Orange Free State.
The Boer Ultimatum.
Before the controversy between Boer and Briton had reached the
stage represented above, both sides were facing the prospect
of war, both were bringing forces to the frontier, and each
was declaring that the other had been first to take that
threatening step. Which of them did first begin movements that
bore a look of menace seems difficult to learn from official
reports. On the 19th of September, the British High
Commissioner gave notice to the President of the Orange Free
State that "it has been deemed advisable by the Imperial
military authorities to send detachments of the troops
ordinarily stationed at Cape Town to assist in securing the
line of communication between the Colony and the British
territories lying to the north of it"; and "as this force, or
a portion of it, may be stationed near the borders of the
Orange Free State," he wished the burghers of that State to
understand that the movement was in no way directed against
them. Eight days later, President Steyn, of the Orange Free
State, addressed a long despatch to the High Commissioner,
remonstrating against the whole procedure of the British
government in its dealing with the South African Republic, and
alluding to the "enormous and ever increasing military
preparations of the British government." On the 2d of October
he announced to the Commissioner that he had "deemed it
advisable, in order to allay the intense excitement and unrest
amongst our burghers, arising from the totally undefended state
of our border, in the presence of a continued increase and
movement of troops on two sides of this State, to call up our
burghers, to satisfy them that due precaution had been taken."
The High Commissioner replied on the 3d: "Your Honour must be
perfectly well aware that all the movements of British troops
which have taken place in this country since the beginning of
present troubles, which have been necessitated by the natural
alarm of the inhabitants in exposed districts, are not
comparable in magnitude with the massing of armed forces by
government of South African Republic on the borders of Natal."
Some days previous to this, on the 29th of September,
Secretary Chamberlain had cabled from London to Sir Alfred
Milner: "Inform President of Orange Free State that what he
describes as the enormous and ever-increasing military
preparations of Great Britain have been forced upon Her
Majesty's Government by the policy of the South African
Republic, which has transformed the Transvaal into a permanent
armed camp, threatening the peace of the whole of South Africa
and the position of Great Britain as the paramount State."
On the 9th of October the High Commissioner received another
telegram from the President of the Orange Free State, of which
he cabled the substance to London as follows: "He demurs to
statement that military preparations of Her Majesty's
Government have been necessitated by conversion of South
African Republic into an armed camp. Her Majesty's Government
must be entirely misinformed and it would be regrettable if,
through such misunderstanding, present state of extreme
tension were allowed to continue. Though Her Majesty's
Government may regard precautions taken by South African
Republic after Jameson Raid as excessive, Government of South
African Republic cannot be blamed for adopting them, in view
of large Uitlander population constantly being stirred up,
through hostile press, to treason and rebellion by persons and
organizations financially or politically interested in
overthrowing the Government. Arming of Burghers not intended
for any purpose of aggression against Her Majesty's dominions.
People of South African Republic have, since shortly after
Jameson Raid, been practically as fully armed as now, yet have
never committed any act of aggression. It was not till Her
Majesty's Government, with evident intention of enforcing
their views on South African Republic in purely internal
matters, had greatly augmented their forces and moved them
nearer to borders that a single Burgher was called up for the
purpose, as be firmly believed, of defending country and
independence. If this natural assumption erroneous, not too
late to rectify misunderstanding by mutual agreement to
withdraw forces on both sides and undertaking by Her Majesty's
Government to stop further increase of troops."
But, in reality, it was already too late; for, on the same day
on which the above message was telegraphed from Bloemfontein,
the government of the South African Republic had presented to
the British Agent at Pretoria a note which ended the
possibility of peace. After reviewing the issue between the
two governments, the note concluded with a peremptory
ultimatum, as follows: "Her Majesty's unlawful intervention in
the internal affairs of this Republic in conflict with the
Convention of London, 1884, caused by the extraordinary
strengthening of troops in the neighbourhood of the borders of
this Republic, has thus caused an intolerable condition of
things to arise whereto this Government feels itself obliged,
in the interest not only of this Republic but also [?] of all
South Africa, to make an end as soon as possible, and feels
itself called upon and obliged to press earnestly and with
emphasis for an immediate termination of this state of things
and to request Her Majesty's Government to give it the
assurance
(a) That all points of mutual difference shall be regulated by
the friendly course of arbitration or by whatever amicable way
may be agreed upon by this Government with Her Majesty's
Government.
(b) That the troops on the borders of this Republic shall be
instantly withdrawn.
(c) That all reinforcements of troops which have arrived in
South Africa since the 1st June, 1899, shall be removed from
South Africa within a reasonable time, to be agreed upon with
this Government, and with a mutual assurance and guarantee on
the part of this Government that no attack upon or hostilities
against any portion of the possessions of the British Government
shall be made by the Republic during further negotiations
within a period of time to be subsequently agreed upon between
the Governments, and this Government will, on compliance
therewith, be prepared to withdraw the armed Burghers of this
Republic from the borders.
{492}
(d) That Her Majesty's troops which are now on the high seas
shall not be landed in any port of South Africa. This
Government must press for an immediate and affirmative answer
to these four questions, and earnestly requests Her Majesty's
Government to return such an answer before or upon Wednesday
the 11th October, 1899, not later than 5 o'clock p. m., and it
desires further to add that in the event of unexpectedly no
satisfactory answer being received by it within that interval
[it] will with great regret be compelled to regard the action
of Her Majesty's Government as a formal declaration of war,
and will not hold itself responsible for the consequences
thereof, and that in the event of any further movements of
troops taking place within the above-mentioned time in the
nearer directions of our borders this Government will be
compelled to regard that also as a formal declaration of war."
To this ultimatum the British government gave its reply, in a
despatch from Mr. Chamberlain to Sir Alfred Milner, October
10, as follows: "Her Majesty's Government have received with
great regret the peremptory demands of the Government of the
South African Republic conveyed in your telegram of 9th
October, Number 3. You will inform the Government of the South
African Republic, in reply, that the conditions demanded by
the Government of the South African Republic are such as Her
Majesty's Government deem it impossible to discuss."
Great Britain,
Papers by Command: 1899, C.—9530.
Efforts which were being made at the time in Holland to assist
the Boer Republic in pacific negotiations with Great Britain
were suddenly frustrated by this action. A year later (in
November, 1900) it was stated in the States General at The
Hague that "in the autumn of 1899 the Netherlands Government
offered in London its good offices for the resumption of
negotiations with the Transvaal, but these efforts had no
result in consequence of the sudden ultimatum of the Transvaal
and the commencement of hostilities by the armies of the
Republics, actions which surprised the Netherlands Government.
When once the war had broken out any effort in the direction of
intervention would have been useless, as was shown by the
peremptory refusal given by Great Britain to the offer of the
United States."
An Englishman who was in the country at the time gives the
following account of the Boer preparation for war: "In the
towns the feeling was strongly against war; in the country
districts war was popular, as the farmers had not the
slightest doubt they would be able to carry out their threat
of 'driving the English into the sea.' … Skilled artillerymen
were finding their way into the country towards the end of
August last [1899]. The Boers themselves did not put much
faith in their artillery, but they were reassured by the
officers who told them that they would yet learn to respect
its usefulness and efficiency—a prophecy which to our cost has
been more than fulfilled. … General Joubert was always ready
and willing, at any time, to inspect and test new guns or
military necessaries, and no expense was spared to make the
Transvaal burgher army a first-class fighting-machine. …
Surprise has been expressed at the inaccurate statements made
by colonials as to the fighting strength of the Boers. They
had not allowed for the enormous increase of population. From
an absolutely reliable source the writer ascertained in
September last that they could put in the field between 50 and
60 thousand men, made up as follows: Transvaal burghers,
22,000; resident foreigners, etc., 10,000; Free Staters,
16,000; colonists who would cross the border and join, 6,000;
total, 54,000. … As soon as war seemed likely, no time was
lost in perfecting the military arrangements. Before Great
Britain had thought of mobilizing a soldier, the Boer
emissaries were again scouring the colonies of Natal and the
Cape, sounding the farmers as to what part they were prepared
to take in the coming conflict. … While people at home were
wondering what the next move would be, the Boers were ready to
answer the question. Towards the middle of September all
preparations were completed, the Government had laid in large
quantities of supplies (mainly of flour, Boer meal, and tinned
foods), which they anticipated would tide them over twelve to
eighteen months, and by that time, if they had not beaten the
British, they relied on foreign intervention. They had also
received large sums of money from Europe, and some additional
supplies of arms and ammunition. Ammunition was distributed in
large quantities throughout the country, each burgher
receiving a sealed packet in addition to his ordinary supply.
The last batch of the Mauser rides was distributed, and the
mobilization scheme finally arranged, by which, on a given
word being telegraphed to the different centres, the first
Republican army corps would be mobilized within twenty-four
hours. This actually took place. … The British Government
could hardly fail to be aware of the fact that the Transvaal
was in earnest this time. A visit to the country districts
towards the end of August, about the time when the Boer
Executive themselves sounded the country through their private
agencies, would have revealed the fact that the people were
not only perfectly willing to go to war, but that they
absolutely wished for it. As one Boer put it to the writer:
'We look on fighting the English as a picnic. In some of the
Kaffir wars we had a little trouble, but in the Vryheids
Oorlog (the Boer War of 1881) we simply potted the Rooineks as
they streamed across the veld in their red jackets, without
the slightest danger to ourselves.' They had the utmost
contempt for Tommy Atkins and his leaders, many of them
bragging that the only thing that deterred them from
advocating war instanter was the thought that they would have
to kill so many of the soldiers, with whom individually they
said there was no quarrel. With such a state of things, which
should have been perfectly clear to the Intelligence
Department (and through it to the War Office) in
London—because no resident with eyes to see could be deceived
in the matter—we allowed the present war to find us
unprepared!"
J. Scoble and H. H. Abercrombie,
The Rise and Fall of Krugerism,
chapter 16 (New York: F. A. Stokes Co.).
The Boer Republics and the Surroundings.
{493}
SOUTH AFRICA: The Field of War: A. D. 1899 (October-November).
The Boer advance.
Invasion of Cape Colony and Natal.
The invaders joined by Dutch farmers of the colony.
The British unprepared.
Investment of Kimberley and Mafeking.
In a despatch dated January 16, 1900, Sir Alfred Milner gave
particulars of the first advance of the Boer forces from the
Orange Free State into Cape Colony, and of the extent to which
they were joined by Dutch farmers in districts south of Orange
River. He wrote: "The portion of the Colony with which I
propose to deal is that which lies south of the Orange River.
The districts north of that river have been so completely cut
off, and our accounts of what has been, and is, going on there
are so scanty and imperfect, that the history of their
defection cannot yet be written. I shall content myself with
quoting an extract from a report upon the state of affairs in
that region by a gentleman lately resident in Vryburg, which
undoubtedly fairly expresses the truth so far as he has been
in a position to observe it:—'All the farmers in the Vryburg,
Kuruman, and Taungs districts,' he says, 'have joined the
Boers, and I do not believe that you will find ten loyal
British subjects among the Dutch community in the whole of
Bechuanaland.' … The districts invaded by the enemy south of
the Orange River are:—Colesberg, Albert, Aliwal North,
Wodehouse, and Barkly East. It was on the 12th October that
the enemy committed the first act of war and of invasion near
Vryburg, on the western border, but it was not till more than
a month later, namely, the 14th November, that they occupied
Colesberg. Apparently they were waiting for reinforcements,
for when they actually did cross the frontier they were 1,100
strong. Whatever the cause of their delay, it was not due to
any discouragement from the people of Colesberg. The small
British garrison then in the country being engaged elsewhere,
and the district being entirely unguarded save by a few
policemen, people from there continually visited the river to
communicate with the enemy. The Chief Constable reports that
when he left the town 300 Colesberg farmers had already joined
the enemy, and that 400 more were expected from the adjoining
district of Philipstown. … On the 16th November General
Grobler, the Boer Commandant, addressed the following telegram
to Bloemfontein:—'Colesberg was occupied by me without
opposition. … I was very well pleased with the conduct of the
Afrikanders. We were everywhere welcomed.' … Eastwards along
the border the tide of insurrection ran strong. In the closing
days of October a Boer force assembled at Bethulie Bridge, which
was guarded only by a handful of police. As the days passed
and the alarm grew, the Cape police force was withdrawn from
Burghersdorp, which lies south of Bethulie, down the line to
Stormberg, while, in their turn, the Imperial forces abandoned
the important position of Stormberg, and retired on
Queenstown, thus leaving the district clear for the invaders.
That they did not immediately advance was certainly not owing
to any fear of resistance at Burghersdorp, the inhabitants of
which fraternised with the commando stationed on the river,
continually passing to and fro. Finally, on the 14th November,
the date of the occupation of Colesberg, the advance was made,
and on the following morning a body of 500 Boers occupied the
town. … According to the despatch of the Boer Commandant,
dated 16th November, Burghersdorp was occupied 'amidst cheers
from the Afrikanders,' and 'the Colonial burghers are very
glad to meet us.' Commandeering at once began throughout the
district of Albert, and a Burghersdorp resident estimated that
about 1,000 farmers were prepared to join at the date of his
leaving the place. …
"Within a space of less than three weeks from the occupation
of Colesberg, no less than five great districts—those of
Colesberg, Albert, Aliwal North, Barkly East, and
Wodehouse—had gone over without hesitation, and, so to speak,
bodily, to the enemy. Throughout that region the Landdrosts of
the Orange Free State had established their authority, and
everywhere, in the expressive words of a Magistrate, British
loyalists were 'being hunted out of town after town like
sheep.' In the invaded districts, as will be seen from the
above, the method of occupation has always been more or less
the same. The procedure is as follows:-A commando enters, the
Orange Free State flag is hoisted, a meeting is held in the
Court-house or market-place, and a Proclamation is read,
annexing the district. The Commandant then makes a speech, in
which he explains that the people must now obey the Free State
laws generally, though they are at present under martial law.
A local Landdrost is appointed, and loyal subjects are given a
few days or hours in which to quit, or be compelled to serve
against their country. … The number of rebels who have
actually taken up arms and joined the enemy during their
progress throughout the five annexed districts can for the
present only be matter of conjecture. I shall, however, be on
the safe side in reckoning that during November it was a
number not less than the total of the invading commandos, that
is, 2,000, while it is probable that of the invading commandos
themselves a certain proportion were colonists who had crossed
the border before the invasion took place. And the number,
whatever it was, which joined the enemy before and during
November has been increased since. A well-informed refugee
from the Albert district has estimated the total number of
Colonial Boers who have joined the enemy in the invaded
districts south of the Orange River at 3,000 to 4,000. In the
districts north of that river, to which I referred at the
beginning of this despatch, the number can hardly be less.
Adding to these the men who became burghers of the Transvaal
immediately before, or just after, the outbreak of war, with
the view of taking up arms in the struggle, I am forced to the
conclusion that, in round figures, not less than 10,000 of
those now fighting against us in South Africa, and probably
somewhat more, either are, or till quite recently were,
subjects of the Queen."-
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
Cd. 264, 1900, pages 1-5.
The above relates to movements from the Orange Free State into
Cape Colony, where the most of reinforcement from Afrikander
inhabitants of British soil was to be got. From the Transvaal,
the movement of Boer forces across the frontiers, both
eastward and westward, was equally prompt. Early on the
morning of the 12th they were in Natal, advancing in three
strong columns, under General Joubert, upon Newcastle,
threatening the advance posts of the British at Dundee and
Glencoe (some 40 miles northeast of Ladysmith), where valuable
coal mines claimed defence. At the same time, another Boer
army, under General Cronje, had passed the western border and
was moving upon Mafeking, where Colonel (afterwards General)
Baden-Powell, with an irregular force of about 1,200 men, was
preparing for a siege.
{494}
The inhabitants of the town, including refugees, numbered
about 2,000 whites and 7,000 blacks. A few days later Boer
forces were skirmishing with the defenders of the diamond
mines at Kimberley, where Colonel Kekewich commanded about
1,000 men, and where Cecil Rhodes was among the beleaguered
citizens. The population of Kimberley was 33,000, more than
half blacks. It is plain that the British were wholly
unprepared for so vigorous an opening of hostilities on the
part of the Boers. A military writer in the "London Times,"
discussing the "Lessons of the War," at the end of a year
after its beginning, made the following statements and
comment:—"There was no difficulty in obtaining the fullest
information as to the resources of the Transvaal and the Free
State, and we have been officially informed that 'the armed
strength of the Boers, the number of their guns, with their
character and calibre,' as laid down in the report of the
Director of Intelligence, 'corresponds exactly with our
recently-ascertained knowledge of what the enemy has put into
the field.' Whether or not these reports ever travel from
Queen Anne's gate to Pall-mall seems uncertain, since the
Commander-in-Chief publicly stated that 'We have found that
the enemy … are much more powerful and numerous than we
expected.' The report of the Intelligence Department seems,
therefore, to have been as valueless for practical purposes as
were those transmitted to Paris by Colonel Stoffel prior to
the outbreak of the Franco-German war, and Lord Wolseley was
apparently as little aware of the fighting resources of the
Boers as was Marshal Lebœuf of those of the Germans. When,
early in September, 1899, it became a pressing necessity to
reinforce the troops in South Africa, it was painfully
realized that not a single unit at home was ready to take the
field. One weak battalion and three field batteries, hastily
compounded by wholesale drafting from others, represented the
available contribution from a standing army at home whose
nominal effectives considerably exceeded 100,000. The
reinforcements, totally inadequate to meet the crisis, were
made up by drawing upon India and the colonial garrisons."
London Times, November 22, 1900.
Another writer in "The Times," reviewing, at nearly the same
time, the previous year of the war, gave this account of its
opening circumstances:—"If the organization of the British
Army had permitted the despatch at short notice of 30,000
troops from Great Britain, the whole course of the war would
have been different. It was a prevailing illusion that Mr.
Kruger would yield to diplomatic pressure not backed by
available force, and political expediency, over-riding
military considerations, led to a compromise. It was tardily
decided to bring the forces in South Africa up to a total of
about 22,000 by drawing on India and the colonial garrisons;
mobilization was deferred till October 7. Thus the first
reinforcements arrived barely in time to prevent Natal from
being over-run by the Boers, and the expeditionary force did
not begin to reach Durban [the port of Natal] till after
Ladysmith had been closely invested. … There were advisers of
the Cabinet who held that the military strength of the Boers
was a bubble easily pricked. Thus it was widely believed that
a severe repulse in Northern Natal would suffice to break up
the Boer forces, and, knowing only that a body of 4,000
British troops was assembled at Dundee and another somewhat
larger at Ladysmith, we hastily assumed that these places were
naturally well suited and had been specially prepared for
defence. When, on the 26th, the concentration at Ladysmith was
accomplished, after a painful and a hazardous march, it was
imagined that our forces occupied an intrenched camp, which,
if necessary, could be held with ease. Later it became clear
that Ladysmith was exceedingly ill-adapted for defence, that
it was practically unfortified when invested, and finally
that, if the attacking force had been composed of trained
troops, it must have fallen, in spite of every effort on the
part of the garrison. The occupation of Dundee, it was
discovered, was maintained against the military judgment of
Sir G. White. …
"When at length the army corps and the cavalry division began,
early in November, to arrive in South Africa, we believed that
the bulk of this large force, which was apparently ready to
take the field, would invade the Orange Free State and strike
for Bloemfontein, clearing Cape Colony and inevitably drawing
Boer forces away from the investments of Kimberley and of
Ladysmith. This was another illusion. At least one-half of the
expeditionary force was despatched to Durban and the rest was
frittered away between three separate lines of advance. There
were thus four separate groupings of British troops, spread
over an immense front, and incapable of affording each other
mutual support. Moreover, the Commander-in-Chief being
involved in a difficult campaign in Natal, there was no
responsible head in Cape Colony, where partial chaos soon
supervened. … Faulty as was the strategy which substituted
scattered efforts with insufficient force for a primary
object, that of the Boers was happily even more ill-conceived.
In place of attempting to occupy our troops in Natal and throwing
their main strength into Cape Colony, where a Dutch rising on
a large scale would inevitably have occurred, they also
preferred to fritter away their strength, devoting their main
efforts against Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking, and
contenting themselves with the occupation of Colesberg and
Stormberg in small force, which, however, was quickly swelled
by local rebels."
London Times,
November 5, 1900.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Field of War: A. D. 1899 (October-December).
The early battles.
British reverses.
Siege of Ladysmith.
The serious fighting of the war began in Natal, as early as
the 20th of October, when three columns of the Boer forces
closed in on the British advance post at Glencoe. The first of
the Boer columns to arrive opened a precipitate attack, and in
the hard battle which ensued (at Talana Hill) the British
could claim the final advantage, though at very heavy cost.
Their commander, General Sir W. Penn Symons, received a mortal
wound and died three days afterwards, kindly cared for and
buried by the enemy, his successor in the command, General
Yule, having found it necessary to retreat from Glencoe and
Dundee to Ladysmith. The Boers were already striking at the
railroad between Glencoe and Ladysmith, and sharp fighting had
taken place on the 21st at Elandslaagte, a station on the line
only seventeen miles from the latter town.
{495}
The Boers, in that encounter, had been driven from the
neighboring hills, but the British had again suffered greatly,
and began to realize the quality of the foe with which they had
to deal. A graphic account of the battle at Elandslaagte was
written by the famous newspaper correspondent, G. W. Steevens,
who died shortly afterwards at Ladysmith. Two days after
Elandslaagte there was another engagement at Reitfontein,
still nearer to Ladysmith, fought for the purpose of keeping
the Boers from intercepting the retreat of General Yule. The
British forces defending Natal were now concentrated at
Ladysmith, which they had chosen for their main position, and
in which they had been collecting large quantities of military
stores. General Sir George White was there in general command.
The Boers, with General Joubert in chief command, were rapidly
closing in upon the town, and, on the 29th, they had a Creusot
(French) six-inch gun on a neighboring hill, within range,
ready to drop shells into its streets. That night General
White made an attempt to break their lines which ended in sore
disaster. One column, which marched far out, to a hill called
Nicholson's Nek, for a flanking attack on the enemy, lost most
of its ammunition and its battery, by a stampede of mules, and
then was caught in so helpless a position that it had to lay down
its arms. "The cursed white flag," wrote Mr. Steevens. "was up
again over a British force in South Africa. The best part of a
thousand British soldiers, with all their arms and equipment
and four mountain guns, were captured by the enemy. The Boers
had their revenge for Dundee and Elandslaagte in war; now they
took it full measure in kindness. As Atkins had tended their
wounded and succoured their prisoners there, so they tended
and succoured him here. One commandant wished to send the
wounded to Pretoria; the others, more prudent as well as more
humane, decided to send them back into Ladysmith. They gave
the whole men the water out of their own bottles; they gave
the wounded the blankets off their own saddles and slept
themselves on the naked veldt. They were short of transport,
and they were mostly armed with Martinis; yet they gave
captured mules for the hospital panniers and captured
Lee-Metfords for splints." It is consoling to come on a bit of
incident like this in the generally horrid story of war.
A few days later the communications of Ladysmith southward
were cut off, and the forces commanded by General White, about
10,000 in number, were hemmed in by superior numbers of the
Boers. British reinforcements were now beginning to arrive in
South Africa, and great numbers were at sea, not only imperial
troops, coming from England, India, Ceylon and elsewhere, but
colonial troops, offered by Canada, New Zealand and the
Australian colonies, and accepted by the imperial government.
The first operations of the British campaign were planned with
three objects, more or less distinct, namely, to rescue
General White's army, at Ladysmith, to relieve Kimberley, and
to expel the Boers from northern Cape Colony. They were
conducted on three lines, from the Natal port of Durban,
towards Ladysmith, under General Clery at the beginning; from
Cape Town towards Kimberley, under General Lord Methuen; from
Port Elizabeth and East London to Queenstown and the Cape
districts occupied by the Boers, under General Gatacre.
In the early battles of General Methuen's campaign, fought at
Belmont, November 23d, at Enslin, or Graspan, on the 25th, and
at Modder River, only 25 miles from Kimberley, on the 28th, he
carried his point, and kept up his advance, but at a heavy
sacrifice of men. The battle with Cronje's forces at Modder
River was a desperate struggle of ten hours duration, in which
the British lost nearly 500 men and gained little. The Boers
withdrew to an equally strong position, behind fortified lines
which extended, some six miles in length, on hills between two
points which bore the names of Spytfontein and Majesfontein.
There General Methuen attacked them again, December 11, and
met with a terrible repulse. His Highland Brigade, advancing
in the darkness, before daybreak, was in the midst of the
enemy's intrenchments before it knew them to be near, and was
horribly cut to pieces, losing 53 officers, including its
commander, General Wauchope, and 650 men. The British fell
back to Modder River, leaving not less than 1,000 men behind.
Just one day before this catastrophe, on the 10th, another of
like nature, but little less serious, was sustained by General
Gatacre's column, moving from Queenstown. He, too, attempted a
night march and an early morning attack on the Boers in a
fortified position at Stormberg, was misled by guides,
miscalculated the distance, neglected to send scouts ahead,
and so took his men to the very muzzles of waiting guns. From
the storm which then opened on them there were more than 500
who did not escape. Besides the dead and wounded, many went as
prisoners to Pretoria. Before the week of these defeats
reached its end, another, far worse, had been added in the
Natal campaign. General Sir Redvers Buller, appointed to the
chief command in South Africa, had arrived at Cape Town on the
last day of October, and, after some general study of the
field at large, had taken personal direction of the operations
in Natal, for the relief of Ladysmith. His movements were
undoubtedly hurried by urgent appeals from General White. On
the 15th of December he felt prepared to attempt the passage
of the Tugela River, near Colenso, and did so with his full
force, at two drifts, or fords, some two miles apart. Like
Methuen and Gatacre, he seems to have been strangely
misinformed as to the location and strength of the
intrenchments of the Boers. The latter had succeeded again and
again in concealing lines of deadly rifle-pits and batteries
until their assailants fairly stumbled against them, within
fatally close range. This happened at Colenso, as at Stormberg
and Majesfontein and the ill-managed attempt to begin an
advance upon Ladysmith cost 165 men and officers killed, 670
wounded, 337 prisoners and missing, besides 11 guns.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Field of War: A. D. 1900.
Fighting qualities of the Boers.
"Take a community of Dutchmen of the type of those who
defended themselves for fifty years against all the power of
Spain at a time when Spain was the greatest power in the
world. Intermix with them a strain of those inflexible French
Huguenots who gave up home and fortune and left their country
forever at the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
The product must obviously be one of the most rugged, virile,
unconquerable races ever seen upon earth.
{496}
Take this formidable people and train them for seven
generations in constant warfare against savage men and
ferocious beasts, in circumstances under which no weakling
could survive, place them so that they acquire exceptional
skill with weapons and in horsemanship, give them a country
which is eminently suited to the tactics of the huntsman, the
marksman, and the rider. Then, finally, put a finer temper
upon their military qualities by a dour fatalistic Old
Testament religion and an ardent and consuming patriotism.
Combine all these qualities and all these impulses in one
individual, and you have the modern Boer—the most formidable
antagonist who ever crossed the path of Imperial Britain."
A. C. Doyle,
The Great Boer War,
chapter 1.
Count Adalbert von Sternberg, a German officer who served with
the Boers, and who has since related his experiences in a
book, writes to the same effect. "The Boers," he remarks,
"were mounted, whilst the English were on foot, a matter of
considerable importance in these hot countries. Given the same
or even slightly superior forces, no Continental army would
have played its part better than the English, and I even doubt
whether, in regard to practical equipment and technical smartness
and efficiency the Continent would have done as well. The fact
is the Boer is an enemy of quite exceptional a character, such
as never has been met before, or is likely to be met again.
Mounted sharpshooters, armed with the very best of weapons,
acclimatized, fanatical, and accustomed to habits of war, are
terrible opponents, and cannot be dealt with off hand as if
they were hordes of savages. One must not forget that the
Boers have the keenest eyes imaginable, and that they
understand better than anyone else how to get the fullest
advantage of cover. All these are advantages which go far
towards compensating defective leading and the weakening of
moral due to being always on the defensive. … The Boers would
have had much greater successes if they had not abandoned all
idea of taking the offensive. They could not be brought to
that, for that they lacked courage, and to that lack of
courage they owe their destruction."
SOUTH AFRICA: The Field of War: A. D. 1900 (January-February).
Continued British disasters on the Tugela.
Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener in the field.
Invasion of Orange Free State.
Capture of General Cronje and army.
Relief of Kimberley and Ladysmith.
The dark and heavy clouds of disaster which overhung the
British in South Africa at the close of the year shadowed
England with anxiety and gloom. For the first time, the
seriousness of the task of war in which the country had become
engaged was understood, and energies corresponding to it were
roused. Field-Marshal Lord Roberts, of Indian and Afghan
renown, was sent out to take supreme command, with the equally
famous Lord Kitchener, subjugator of the Egyptian Sudan, for
his chief of staff. Immense reinforcements of troops were
provided for with haste. On the 1st of January it was
estimated that 30,000 fresh troops were afloat or on the point
of embarkation, and that Lord Roberts would have 200,000 men
at command when all then assigned to South Africa should have
reached Natal and the Cape. Lord Roberts landed at the Cape on
the 10th of January, and was occupied for a month in
organizing and preparing for new movements in the field.
Meantime, General Buller had made a second attempt to turn the
strongly fortified position of his opponent on the Tugela,
between his own army and the beleaguered force at Ladysmith,
and had failed more discouragingly than before. Crossing the
Tugela, some miles west of Colenso, on the 17th, he pressed a
hard-fought, uphill advance, from one to another of the rocky
hills (called kopjes) of the region, for several days. On the
23d his troops stormed the fortifications of the Boers on
Spion Kop, a spur of the Drakenberg mountains, and carried
them with heavy loss, only to find that they were commanded
from other heights and could not be held. Again he drew back
to the southern bank of the Tugela, on the 29th; but only for
a few days. On the 5th of February his army was once more
pushed beyond the river, and entrenched in a position among
the hills, which it held until the 9th, and was then, for the
third time, withdrawn. This third movement is supposed to
have been a feint, intended to detain the Boer forces in his
front, either from some assault feared at Ladysmith or from
interference with the campaign which Lord Roberts was about to
open. The besieged at Ladysmith were holding out with grim
resolution, but they were known to be in sore straits.
Occasional messages by the heliograph told of much sickness
and fast approaching starvation in the town. Fever was killing
more than the shells from the bombarding guns; and the chances
of relief seemed to have almost disappeared.
But a sudden change in the whole military situation was about
to be made. Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener had organized
arrangements of transportation and supplies for handling the
immense force now at their command, and were ready to execute
their plans. The former arrived at Modder River on the 9th of
February; two days later his columns were set in motion, and
the Boer forces, under General Cronje, were too greatly
outnumbered to withstand the avalanche which fell upon them.
General French led a cavalry expedition to Kimberley, reaching
the town on the 15th and raising the siege. The next day
General Cronje was in retreat towards Bloemfontein, the Free
State capital, harassed by British cavalry, and with the main
army of Lord Roberts straining every nerve to strike him
before he reached it. On the 18th he was brought to bay, at a
point on the Madder River, near Paardeberg, where he defended
himself for nine days, in a situation that was impregnable to
assault, but terribly exposed to artillery fire from
surrounding heights. He was expecting help from the forces in
Natal and elsewhere, and several attempts were made by his
associates to reach him; but the British were too strong to be
driven from their prey. After suffering to such a degree that
his men would endure no more, the brave and stubborn Boer
surrendered on the 27th, his army, reduced to about 4,000,
laying down their arms. Some 500 had been taken in the
previous fighting, and considerable numbers in the last days
of the siege, are said to have deserted and found means to
slip through the enemy's lines. The prisoners were sent, for
convenience of custody, to the island of St. Helena, the
general being accompanied by his whole family, and treated
with much respect.
{497}
While these operations were being carried to success by Lord
Roberts, General Buller was again attacking the formidable
fortifications of the enemy in his front. From the 14th of
February until the 23d he sacrificed great numbers of men in
assaults which failed to break a passage through the kopjes
defended by Boer guns. But Lord Roberts's invasion of the Free
State had, by this time, caused large withdrawals of Boers
from the line of the Tugela, and they were preparing to raise
the siege of Ladysmith. Consequently, when the British attack
was renewed, on the 27th, it achieved success, at last. The
Boers were driven from their main position and abandoned their
whole line. Ladysmith was reached by a swift advance of
cavalry the next day, and the half-starved garrison and
citizens were soon receiving supplies.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Field of War: A. D. 1900 (March).
Overtures of peace from Presidents Kruger and Steyn.
The reply of Lord Salisbury.
Death of General Joubert.
On the 5th of March, the Presidents of the South African
Republic and the Orange Free State addressed the following
telegram, jointly, to Lord Salisbury: "The blood and tears of
the thousands who have suffered by this war, and the prospect
of all the moral and economic ruin with which South Africa is
now threatened, make it necessary for both belligerents to ask
themselves dispassionately, and as in the sight of the Triune
God, for what they are fighting, and whether the aim of each
justifies all this devouring misery and devastation. With this
object, and in view of the assertions of various members of
the British Parliament to the effect that this war was begun
and is being carried on with the set purpose of undermining
Her Majesty's authority in South Africa, and of setting up an
Administration over all South Africa independent of Her
Majesty's Government, we consider it our duty solemnly to
declare that this war was undertaken solely as a defensive
measure for securing the threatened independence of the South
African Republic, and is only continued in order to secure the
incontestable independence of both Republics as sovereign
international States, and to ensure that those of Her
Majesty's subjects who have taken part with us in this war
shall suffer no harm whatever in person or property. On these
conditions, but on these conditions alone, are we now, as in
the past, desirous of seeing peace reëstablished in South
Africa, and of putting an end to the evil now reigning over
South Africa; while, if Her Majesty's Government is determined
to destroy the independence of the Republics, there is nothing
left to us and our people but to persevere to the end in the
course already begun, in spite of the overwhelming
pre-eminence of the British Empire, confident that the God who
lighted the unextinguishable fire of the love of freedom in
the hearts of our fathers will not forsake us, but will
accomplish His work in us and in our descendants. We hesitated
to make this declaration earlier to Your Excellency, as we
feared that as long as the advantage was always on our side,
and as long as our forces held defensive positions far in Her
Majesty's Colonies, such a declaration might hurt the feelings
of honour of the British people; but now that the prestige of the
British Empire may be considered to be assured by the capture
of one of our forces by Her Majesty's troops, and that we are
thereby forced to evacuate other positions which our forces
had occupied, that difficulty is over, and we no longer
hesitate clearly to inform your Government and people in the
sight of the whole civilised world why we are fighting, and on
what conditions we are ready to restore peace."
On the 11th Lord Salisbury replied as follows: "I have the
honour to acknowledge Your Honours' telegram, dated the 5th of
March, from Bloemfontein, of which the purport is principally
to demand that Her Majesty's Government shall recognise the
'incontestable independence' of the South African Republic and
Orange Free State 'as sovereign international States,' and to
offer, on those terms, to bring the war to a conclusion. In
the beginning of October last peace existed between Her
Majesty and the two Republics under the Conventions which then
were in existence. A discussion had been proceeding for some
months between Her Majesty's Government and the South African
Republic, of which the object was to obtain redress for
certain very serious grievances under which British residents
in the South African Republic were suffering. In the course of
those negotiations, the South African Republic had, to the
knowledge of Her Majesty's Government, made considerable
armaments, and the latter had, consequently, taken steps to
provide corresponding reinforcements to the British garrisons
of Cape Town and Natal. No infringement of the rights
guaranteed by the Conventions had, up to that point, taken
place on the British side. Suddenly, at two days' notice, the
South African Republic, after issuing an insulting ultimatum,
declared war upon Her Majesty; and the Orange Free State, with
whom there had not even been any discussion, took a similar
step. Her Majesty's dominions were immediately invaded by the
two Republics, siege was laid to three towns within the
British frontier, a large portion of the two Colonies was
overrun, with great destruction to property and life, and the
Republics claimed to treat the inhabitants of extensive
portions of Her Majesty's dominions as if those dominions had
been annexed to one or other of them. In anticipation of these
operations the South African Republic had been accumulating
for many years past military stores on an enormous scale,
which by their character could only have been intended for use
against Great Britain. Your Honours make some observations of a
negative character upon the object with which these
preparations were made. I do not think it necessary to discuss
the questions you have raised. But the result of these
preparations, carried on with great secrecy, has been that the
British Empire has been compelled to confront an invasion
which has entailed upon the Empire a costly war and the loss
of thousands of precious lives. This great calamity has been
the penalty which Great Britain has suffered for having in
recent years acquiesced in the existence of the two Republics.
In view of the use to which the two Republics have put the
position which was given to them, and the calamities which
their unprovoked attack has inflicted upon Her Majesty's
dominions, Her Majesty's Government can only answer Your
Honours' telegram by saying that they are not prepared to
assent to the independence either of the South African
Republic or of the Orange Free State."
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
Africa, Number 2, 1900.
{498}
On the 27th of March, the Boer cause experienced a great loss,
in the sudden death, from peritonitis, of General Joubert, the
Commandant-General and Vice President of the South African
Republic.
SOUTH AFRICA: Orange Free State: A. D. 1900 (March).
Proclamation to the burghers by the British commander.
Soon after entering the Orange Free State, Lord Roberts issued
a proclamation addressed to the burghers, assuring them that
the British government did not believe them to be responsible
for the aggressive act of war committed by the government of
the Orange Free State, and bore them no ill-will. "I,
therefore," his proclamation continued, "warn all Burghers to
desist from any further hostility towards Her Majesty's
Government and the troops under my command, and I undertake
that any of them, who may so desist and who are found staying
in their homes and quietly pursuing their ordinary
occupations, will not be made to suffer in their persons or
property on account of their having taken up arms in obedience
to the order of their Government. Those, however, who oppose
the forces under my command, or furnish the enemy with
supplies or information, will be dealt with according to the
customs of war. Requisitions for food, forage, fuel, or
shelter, made on the authority of the officers in command of
Her Majesty's troops, must be at once complied with; but
everything will be paid for on the spot, prices being
regulated by the local market rates. If the inhabitants of any
district refuse to comply with the demands made on them, the
supplies will be taken by force, a full receipt being given.
Should any inhabitant of the country consider that he or any
member of his household has been unjustly treated by any
officer, soldier or civilian attached to the British Army, he
should submit his complaint, either personally or in writing,
to my Headquarters or to the Headquarters of the nearest
General Officer. Should the complaint on enquiry be
substantiated, redress will be given. Orders have been issued
by me, prohibiting soldiers from entering private houses, or
molesting the civil population on any pretext whatever, and
every precaution has been taken against injury to property on
the part of any person belonging to, or connected with, the
Army."
After the occupation of Bloemfontein, Lord Roberts issued a
second proclamation, announcing that he had received authority
from his government to offer the following terms to those "who
have been engaged in the present war": "All Burghers who have
not taken a prominent part in the policy which has led to the
war between Her Majesty and the Orange Free State, or
commanded any forces of the Republic, or commandeered or used
violence to any British subjects, and who are willing to lay
down their arms at once, and to bind themselves by an oath to
abstain from further participation in the war, will be given
passes to allow them to return to their homes and will not be
made prisoners of war, nor will their property be taken from
them."
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
Cd. 261, 1900, pages 62-63.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal and the Free State:
A. D. 1900 (March).
Boer Peace Commissioners to Europe and America.
In March, three commissioners, Messrs. Fischer, Wolmeraans and
Wessels were sent to Europe and America by the two Boer
governments to solicit intervention in their behalf. They
visited several European countries and proceeded thence to the
United States, in May. There were many demonstrations of
popular sympathy in their reception, on both sides of the
ocean, but they failed to obtain official recognition.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Field of War: A. D. 1900 (March-May).
The British in Bloemfontein and Kroonstad.
The relief of Mafeking.
From the scene of the surrender of General Cronje Lord Roberts
moved quickly on the Free State capital. His advance was
resisted by considerable forces of the Boers, but he was able
to turn most of their positions, and fought only one severe
battle, at Driefontein, on the 10th of March. On the 12th his
cavalry was in possession of Bloemfontein, and the
Field-Marshal entered the city on the following day, receiving
from the municipal officers a formal surrender of the keys of the
public buildings, and being welcomed by some part of the
population with demonstrations of joy. President Steyn and
most of the members of the government of the Republic had
retired to Kroonstad and established the seat of authority
there. The lighting and the forced marches of a single month,
since he began his advance, had now exhausted the mobility of
Lord Roberts's army, worn out the means of transportation
which Lord Kitchener had hastily organized for it,—while his
troops were being stricken with fever,—and he was compelled to
suspend his campaign for some weeks. The situation at that
time was probably described with accuracy by a military
contributor to "Blackwood's Magazine" for June, 1900, who
wrote: "Lord Roberts found himself at Bloemfontein with the
wreck of an army and a single narrow-gauge line of railway
between himself and his base, upwards of 700 miles distant. It
was very soon known in Boer headquarters at Kroonstad that he
could not move beyond Bloemfontein for some weeks. The
triumphal march of Generals Gatacre and Clements through the
recently captured territory, accepting submissions, hoisting
union-jacks and picking up rifles of antique date, afforded
much amusement to the Boers, who saw their opportunity and
streamed down in large numbers on the small British posts
which were scattered east and south of the railway."
There was a good deal of raiding and fighting on a minor
scale, with a number of mortifying mishaps to the British
arms; but little of importance occurred in the military field
until near the end of April, when Lord Roberts had reinforced
and mobilized his army sufficiently to move forward again,
towards Pretoria. On the 12th of May he entered Kroonstad, and
the Free State government was again in flight. He paused at
Kroonstad for some days, and while he paused there came news
of the relief of Mafeking, which caused a wilder joy in
England than any other event of the war. There had been
painful anxiety on account of the besieged in that remote
town, in the far corner of Bechuanaland, on the border of the
Transvaal,—so far from help, and so stoutly defended for seven
weary months by a very small force. From a point near
Kimberley, a flying column of mounted men, mostly colonial
troops, commanded by Colonel Mahon, had been started northward
on the 4th of May, taking a route east of the railway, to avoid,
as much as possible, the Boers.
{499}
On the 15th they were 20 miles west of Mafeking, and there
they were joined by another detachment, under Colonel Plumer,
which had been operating in the northern region for some weeks
without being able to break up the siege. The two advanced on
the works of the besiegers, drove them out by hard fighting,
and entered the town on the 18th of May. Meantime, another
column, under General Hunter, had been securing and opening
the railway, to bring up the sorely needed supplies for the
famished and worn-out garrison and people of the town. The
defense of Mafeking was one of the finest performances of the
war, and gave distinction to Colonel Baden-Powell.
SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Colony: A. D. 1900 (April-June).
The question of the treatment of Cape Colonists who had taken
part with the Boers in the war.
Resignation of Premier Schreiner.
On the 28th of April, the Ministers of Cape Colony addressed
to the Governor, Sir Alfred Milner, a Minute upon the subject
of the treatment of those inhabitants of the Colony who had
joined or given aid to the Boers in the war, and who had thus
made themselves liable to the pains and penalties of high
treason. "Ministers submit," they said, "that the ends of
justice would be served by the selection of a certain limited
number of the principal offenders, whose trials would mark the
magnitude of their offence, and whose punishment, if found
guilty, would act as a deterrent. For the remainder, Ministers
believe that the interests both of sound policy and of public
morality would be served if Her Gracious Majesty were moved to
issue, as an act of grace, a Proclamation of amnesty under
which, upon giving proper security for their good behaviour,
all persons chargeable with high treason, except those held
for trial, might be enlarged and allowed to return to their
avocations. Ministers urge such a course not only on the
ground of that natural desire for clemency towards her erring
subjects which they feel sure would spring from Her Gracious
Majesty, but from a deep sense of the importance of such a
step upon the future well-being of this country."
The substance of the Minute was transmitted by cable to Mr.
Chamberlain, and he replied to it on the 5th of May, objecting
to the proposed proclamation of a broad amnesty, saying:
"Clemency to rebels is a policy which has the hearty sympathy
of Her Majesty's Government, but justice to loyalists is an
obligation of duty and honour. The question is how can these
two policies be harmonized. It is clear that in the interest
of future peace it is necessary to show that rebellion cannot
be indulged in with impunity, and above all that if
unsuccessful it is not a profitable business for the rebel.
Otherwise the State would be offering a premium to rebellion.
The present moment, therefore, while the war is still
proceeding, and while efforts may still be made to tempt
British subjects into rebellious courses, is in any case not
appropriate for announcing that such action may be indulged in
with absolute impunity. And if, as has been suggested, a great
many of the Queen's rebellious subjects are the mere tools of
those who have deceived them, it is important that these
should be made aware individually that whatever their leaders
may tell them rebellion is a punishable offence." This
attitude of the Imperial Government on the subject of amnesty
occasioned differences in the Ministry of Cape Colony which
led to the resignation of the Premier, Mr. W. P. Schreiner, on
the 13th of June, and the appointment of a new Ministry, under
Sir Gordon Sprigg.
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
July, 1900, Cape Colony, Cd. 264.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Field of War: A. D. 1900 (May).
The British army stricken with fever.
The losses of the British army in battle during this campaign
of Lord Roberts had not been severe; but it had encountered a
worse enemy than the Boers, and was being terribly thinned and
shattered by the ravages of enteric or typhoid fever. The
sanitary condition of the army in May, and the lack of due
provision for dealing with the dreadful epidemic, have been
graphically described by the writer already quoted, in
"Blackwood's Magazine." Referring to the outset of the
campaign, in February, he wrote:
"The movement of men and cattle depends on flesh and muscle—it
cannot go on for ever; the strain of incessant marching on
insufficient food and forage will find out the weak spot even
in the most willing. General French started on his memorable
ride with 4,800 horses, of which 990 dropped by the way,
though the loss in the ranks, exclusive of Paardeberg, was
only fifty men,—the brunt of the battle for life lay with the
horses. But not for long. The men with worn-out boots,
tattered clothes, hurrying through scorching days and frosty
nights, with half a biscuit and water tainted with dead Boers,
to satisfy an appetite and thirst compelled by hard work at an
altitude of 4,000 feet, who marched in as soldiers, proud of the
victory they had won, staggered and fell out, victims to the
curse that creeps in, unnoticed, wherever camps are
crowded—enteric. … Of all things on which we prided ourselves
was the care and the money we had lavished to provide comforts
for our sick soldiers. The foremost surgeons of the day had
volunteered; military hospitals had been arranged on the
latest plan; private benevolence had provided as many more;
ladies of every rank in life had gone out to nurse: the
soldiers, at all events, would be looked after. Letters from
the front had come from patients to say how well they had been
treated. Mr. Treves at the Reform Club made a speech eulogizing
the perfection of the hospitals in Natal, and Sir W. MacCormac
spoke of the medical arrangements as admirable—our minds
rested content. All this was so long ago as the 10th March,
but what happened in March, for all we knew, was happening in
May. Then Mr. Burdett-Coutts told us that hundreds of men were
lying in the worst stages of typhoid, with only a blanket to
cover them, a thin water-proof sheet (not even that for many)
between them and the ground; no milk and hardly any medicines;
without beds, stretchers, or mattresses; without pillows, without
linen of any kind, without a single nurse amongst them, with a
few private soldiers as orderlies, and only three doctors to
attend on 350 patients; their faces covered with flies in
black clusters, the men too weak to brush them off, trying in
vain to dislodge them by painful twitching of the
features—there was no one to do it for them. And this a mile
from Bloemfontein, where the army had been for six weeks. It
is true that a terrible epidemic had followed it from
Paardeberg, to break out when it halted. Lord Roberts tells us
that before he left on May 3rd the sick gradually increased to
2,000, reaching on June 4th the appalling number, in
Bloemfontein, of over 5,000 suffering from typhoid alone.
{500}
Such were the bare facts as stated on either side—a sudden and
devastating epidemic with totally inadequate hospital
arrangements to meet it. … Yet typhoid has always been the
scourge of armies in the field,—in South Africa the
water-supply, invariably surface drainage fouled by dead
animals, is proverbial—that at least was known. The medical
authorities on the spot were repeatedly warned by local
medical men that from February onwards ten men would be down
with typhoid for one with wounds. Ladysmith is in evidence of
the persistent presence of typhoid—every one who has visited
South Africa bears witness to the same—it can hardly be urged
that an outbreak was unreasonable to expect; yet when it did
occur it seems to have been taken by the medical
administration at the base as an unwarrantable intrusion."
The War Operations in South Africa
(Blackwood's Magazine, August, 1900).
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1900 (May).
Speech of President Kruger to the Volksraads.
The following translation of a speech addressed to both
Volksraads by President Kruger, in May, 1900, was published in
England some months later: "It is known to you," said the
President, "how, before the war started, pressure was brought
to bear to obtain the franchise. It is known to you that the
Government conceded, after the Rand had consented, although
this body saw the difficulty in the matter, till even the
burghers made petitions to the effect that we had parted with
all our rights. The Government had in view the prevention of
shedding blood. The Raad then consented to a seven years'
franchise, and also to grant immediately the franchise to
people resident here longer than seven years. There were then
nearly 30,000 who would obtain the franchise immediately, and
so much was conceded that when these had obtained the
franchise they would have been able to out-vote the old
burghers. We consented to this solely to prevent the shedding
of blood. Yet they were not satisfied and they wanted the
franchise after five years' residence. Our burghers were
against this, and there were also members of the Raad who
would not agree to this, yet, nevertheless, the Government
made a proposition about it, because they had discovered that
it was not about the franchise, but that it was a pretence
full of Pharisaic hypocrisy, because documents had been found
that in 1896 it was decided that the two independent Republics
should not be allowed to exist any more. I cannot express
myself otherwise than to call it a devilish fraud. Peace was
spoken of while a resolution had already been passed to
annihilate us. Even if we had conceded more, yea, even if we
had said that the franchise could be obtained after one year,
then that would not have been accepted. It was proved by
documents that, as this nation could not be allowed to be a
free nation, as was pointed out in the address, the
Government, to prevent the further shedding of blood, made a
proposition to Chamberlain and Salisbury about this matter,
and what was the reply? You have, doubtless, read the paper,
and, although I cannot verbally repeat the contents of the
said document, it amounts to this. That they were annoyed ever
to have acknowledged us as an independent nation, and that,
notwithstanding all conventions made, they would never
acknowledge this nation as self-supporting. Honourable
gentlemen, I had to express that which was in my mind. Psalm
83 speaks of the assault of the evil one on the Kingdom of
Christ. That must not exist. The self-same words of Salisbury
also appear, because he says 'this nation must not exist,' and
God says, 'this nation shall exist.' Who will be victorious?
Certainly the Lord. You see therein the deceit which they then
already practised, even they, for though our nation did not
wish to part with any rights, the Executive Council conceded
so far that we nearly lost the country. The intention was not
to obtain these rights. They wanted our country not to be
independent any longer. Every other proposition was
unsatisfactory to them.
"Let us look this matter in the face and see the cunning
deceit enveloped therein. They wrote to the Orange Free State
that they had nothing against them, but that they had some
grievance against this Republic. Their intention was to tear
the two Republics asunder, and it has been proved by
documentary evidence that neither of them would be allowed to
remain. You see the deception which lies therein. The
documents prove that this was already decided in 1896, from
the time of Jameson's invasion, and yet they maintain that if
the Orange Free State had laid down their weapons that that
country would remain in existence. The Orange Free State
decided not to lay down their arms, and we started together.
We were 40,000 men, but everywhere we had to watch the
Kaffirs, and even the commander of Mafeking informed us that
certain Kaffir chiefs would assist him. We know that these
numbered 30,000 able-bodied men. The number of Kaffirs nearly
equalled the number of our forces. Besides them, more than
200,000 English troops arrived, and against these we have to
fight. Now, gentlemen, look on God's government. Is it not
wonderful that 40,000 men having to fight these thousands,
besides the coloured people, still live? Acknowledge therein
the hand of God. The matter I wish to impress is this. It is
remarkable that when we meet the enemy we stand in the
proportion of 10 to 100. Yet the Lord hath spared us thus far.
I do not wish to prophesy, but I wish to point out that our
guidance is in the word of God. It is extraordinary, but this
war is a sign of the times. What it amounts to is this. That
the power of the Beast is an obstinate power to persecute the
Church and will continue this until the Lord says, 'Thus far
and no further: and why? Because the Church must be tried and
purified as there is so much iniquity among us. That is why
the war is extraordinary and is a sign of the times. Every one
will be convinced that the word of God can be plainly traced
in this matter. They say that the people 'shall not exist,'
but God says, 'it shall exist and be purified.' In my mind it
lies clear and discernable that the day of grace is not far
off. The Lord will prove to be ruler, and nothing shall take
place without His will. When He allows chastisement to come
upon us we must bend ourselves and humble ourselves, confess
our sins and turn again to the Lord. When the whole nation has
been humbled, and it is seen that we can do nothing ourselves,
the Lord will help us and we shall have peace immediately.
{501}
This humility has not grasped our hearts sufficiently at
present, and we must perform our earnest duty as Peter says in
1 Peter, chapter v., v. 7 and 8:—'Casting all your care upon
Him; for He careth for you'; but in the eighth verse it
states:—'Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the
Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may
devour.' That is the point on which we must be careful. If we
fall into disbelief then we lower ourselves.
"I ask you, brothers, what is their behaviour? In an open
letter Kaffirs are called up by them as at Derdepoort, and
women and children are murdered. The English assert that no
Kaffirs were utilized against us but only coloured people, but
it is a fact that Montsioa with his Kaffirs are in Mafeking,
and are employed to fight against us. Now, gentlemen, you must
not come to the conclusion that everyone who fights against us
belongs to the Beast (vide Revelations, chapter 13). There are
certainly hundreds of God's children with them who, however,
through fear are the Beast's, and are forced to act with them,
but God knows all hearts. We did not seek to spill the blood
which lies strewn upon the earth, as we conceded nearly all
our rights; but when they wanted to murder us, we could not
give way any more. How did it fare with Ahab? The mighty foe
came on to the walls of the city, and they lost heart. Then
the prophet of God came and said, Fear nothing. Then God
arose, and in that God we must put our trust, because He is
the same God. Let us not, therefore, live as if no God
existed; He reigns. In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was God, and the Word became flesh and lived amongst us.
Look at history, it must be an example to us. He is still the
same God who led out Israel and hardened the heart of Pharaoh
to the end, until finally all the first-born of the Egyptians
died, whereupon Pharaoh allowed the Israelites to go. He is
still the same God who calmed the winds and storms on the sea,
and His arm is not shortened. Some ask, 'Does not this only
have reference to the Church in the two Republics?' No. See
the three youths in the burning oven. Did these rejoice alone?
No; but God's people of the whole earth. Was it solitary for
Daniel in the lions' den? No, but all Christians on the whole
earth rejoiced. So the Lord often chooses a small body to whom
He shows His miracles as an example for the whole Christian
world. Look upon the blood which has been spilt upon this
earth. Who is the cause of it? We have wanted peace and our
freedom since 1836, and the Lord has given it us, and will the
Lord ever give anything and then withdraw? No. But let us
humble ourselves before the Lord. There is no doubt about it
that eventually the Lord will lead us to victory. The day of
grace is not far from His people. Do not let us doubt but
remain true to God's word and fight in His name. When the cup
of humiliation is brought to our lips and we earnestly humble
ourselves before the Lord, then the day of grace has arrived.
Let each one then acknowledge that it is the hand of God which
makes us free and nothing else, then we shall not boast. Yet He
uses man as His instrument.
"I have laid my address before you, and I hope that the Raad
will not sit over it longer than to-morrow morning. There are
several members of the Raad who are burghers or military
officers in the field, so there will be no time to treat
ordinary subjects. I trust that you will only treat such
subjects as I lay before you. I have appointed an acting
Commandant General since I have lost my right-hand man,
although I do not infer that I have not more such men. The
late most noble Commandant General, Messrs. Kock and
Wolmarans, members of the executive council, are lost to me.
The State Secretary is a newly appointed one, and I am the
only one remaining of the old members of the executive
council, yet I have experienced much assistance and support
from the present members, and God will also support us. The
Lord is still our Commander-in-Chief; He gives orders and He
knows when to say, 'Thus far and no further.' It is surprising
how other Powers are unanimously with us and how the whole of
Europe prays for us, and will the Lord lend a deaf ear to
these prayers? Oh, no! Trust in the Lord and let us stand by
Him, and He will perform miracles. Even if I have to go to St.
Helena, the Lord will bring His people back and make them free,
and the same judgment will fall on the present Babylon, the
cause of all the spilt blood. We fight for the freedom which
God granted to us. I say again, should any brothers from this
Raad and private persons fall by the sword, they fought in the
name of the Lord and believed, and they, so says the word of
the Lord, are sacrificed on the altar for the glorification of
His name and of the glorious Church, which, at this time, is to
be revealed. The Church must be tried and purified, and that
is why I cannot see that this extraordinary war will be
allowed to destroy us. This war will be continued until the
Lord says, 'Thus far and no further,' remain at that, abide by
that, and fight with me. I give myself in the hands of the
Lord, whatever He has destined for me, I shall kiss His rod
with which He chastizes me because I am also guilty. Let
everyone humble himself before the Lord, I have said."
SOUTH AFRICA: Orange Free State: A. D. 1900 (May).
Annexation by proclamation of Lord Roberts to the
Dominions of the Queen.
"In view of Lord Robert's opinion that early annexation would
tend towards the pacification of the country, by removing a
feeling of uncertainty as to the return of President Steyn's
government," the following commission by the Queen to Lord
Roberts was issued on the 21st of May:
"Victoria R. I., by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith,
Empress of India: To Our Right Trusty and Well-beloved
Councillor Frederick Sleigh, Baron Roberts of Kandahar, Field
Marshal of Our Forces, Knight of Our Most Illustrious Order of
Saint Patrick, Knight Grand Cross of Our Most Honourable Order
of the Bath, Knight Grand Commander of Our Most Exalted Order
of the Star of India, Knight Grand Commander of Our Most
Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, upon whom We have
conferred the Decoration of the Victoria Cross. Greeting:
Whereas the territories in South Africa heretofore known as
the Orange Free State have been conquered by Our forces, And
whereas it is expedient that such territories should be
annexed to and should henceforth form part of Our Dominions:
Now know you that We, reposing especial trust and confidence
in you the said Frederick Sleigh, Baron Roberts of Kandahar,
do hereby authorize and empower you in Our name to annex the
said territories and to declare that the said territories
shall henceforth form part of Our Dominions.
{502}
And We do hereby constitute and appoint you to be thereupon
Administrator of the said territories provisionally and until
Our pleasure is more fully known. And We do authorize and
empower you as such Administrator to take all such measures,
and to make and enforce such laws as you may deem necessary
for the peace, order, and good government of the said
territories. And we do strictly charge and command all Our
officers, civil and military, and all other Our faithful
subjects, that in their several places, and according to their
respective opportunities, they do aid and assist you in the
execution of this Our Commission, and for so doing this shall
be your Warrant. Given at Our Court at St. James's, this 21st
day of May, One thousand nine hundred, in the Sixty-third Year
of Our Reign." The commission was executed by a public reading
of the proclamation of Lord Roberts at Bloemfontein on the
24th of May.
Great Britain, Papers by Command: 1900,
Cd. 261, pages 136, 144.
A counter-proclamation, referring to that of the British
commander, was issued by President Steyn, from Reitz, on the
11th of June, declaring: "Whereas an unjust war was forced on
the people of the Orange Free State and of the South African
Republic by Great Britain in the month of October 1899, and
whereas these two small Republics have maintained the unequal
struggle with the powerful British Empire for more than eight
months and still maintain it; … Whereas the forces of the
Orange Free State are still in the field and the Orange Free
State has not been conquered and whereas the aforesaid
proclamation is thus in contradiction with International Law;
Whereas the independence of the Orange Free State has been
acknowledged by nearly all the civilised Powers; Whereas it is
notorious that the British authorities have lately recognised
that the Orange Free State is governed in an exemplary manner,
and that it is both a violation of the laws of civilization
and a denial of the fundamental rights of such people to rob
it on what a pretence soever, of its freedom, and whereas I
consider it desirable to make known to all whom it may concern
that the aforesaid Proclamation is not recognised by the
Government and the people of the Orange Free State; So,
therefore, I, M. T. Steyn, State President of the Orange Free
State, in consultation with the Executive Council, and in the
name of the independent people of the Orange Free State, do
hereby proclaim that the aforesaid annexation is not
recognised and is hereby declared to be null and of no avail.
The people of the Orange Free State is and remains a free and
independent people, and refuses to submit to British rule."
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
Cd. 261, 1900, page 155.
SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Colony: A. D. 1900 (May).
Opposition of Cape Colony Afrikanders to the annexation
of the Republics.
A "People's Congress" of the Afrikanders, or Bondmen, of Cape
Colony, was held at Graaff-Reinet, on the 30th of May, to
protest against the annexation of the Boer Republics. The
following resolution was adopted by acclamation: "Whereas,
were the Republics to be annexed the majority of Cape
Colonists would feel themselves bound morally to work
unceasingly by every right and lawful means for the
restoration of independence to the Republics, and to make that
end their first political object; And whereas from our
knowledge of the history and character of the Republics we are
convinced they would never become the willing subjects of the
Empire, but would seize any and every opportunity which might
offer itself to recover their independence, possibly by force
of arms, once they were to be deprived of it; And whereas
instead of the annexation of the Republics tending to promote
the welfare of their people, as has been claimed, it would, if
successfully maintained for any long period, tend to degrade
those people and their offsprings, seeing that the servitude
of a self-governing State is as demoralising to its people as
the more direct form of personal slavery; And whereas, as the
annexation of the Republics by Great Britain would be as great
a wrong morally as the theft by a rich man of a poor man's
hard-earned savings; On that general ground alone it is not
believable that permanent good could result from such a
policy. Therefore be it resolved now that we, on behalf of the
majority of Cape Colonists, do hereby declare our solemn and
profound conviction that the annexation of the two South
African Republics would be disastrous to the peace and welfare
of South Africa and of the Empire as a whole." Also the
following: "Be it resolved that it is the opinion of the
people in Congress here assembled that a settlement of the
South African question on the following basis would prove a
blessing to South Africa and the Empire, namely, that the two
Republics should have their unqualified independence; that the
Colonies should have the right to enter into treaties of
obligatory arbitration with the Republics for the settlement
of all disputes affecting the internal affairs of the South
African Continent, and that this colony, and any other colony
so deserving it, should have a voice in the selection of its
Governors. Be it further resolved that a settlement on the
above basis would make the majority of the people who have
made South Africa their home the warm friends and staunch
allies of the British Empire, and that in no other way known
to us can that end now be attained."
In transmitting a report of this meeting to Secretary
Chamberlain, the High Commissioner, Sir Alfred Milner, wrote:
"I do not myself take a very gloomy view of the prospect of
racial relations in the Colony, much less in South Africa
generally. If it is true, as the conciliators are never tired
of threatening us, that race hatred will be eternal, why
should they make such furious efforts to keep it up at the
present moment? The very vehemence of their declarations that
the Africanders will never forgive, nor forget, nor acquiesce,
seems to me to indicate a considerable and well-justified
anxiety on their part lest these terrible things should after
all happen."
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
July, 1900, South Africa, Cd. 261, pages 182-188.
{503}
SOUTH AFRICA: The Field of War: A. D. 1900 (May-June).
The British invasion of the Transvaal.
Occupation of Johannesburg and Pretoria.
Expulsion of the Boers from Natal.
Discussion of terms of surrender.
On the 22d of May, Lord Roberts resumed his forward movement
from Kroonstad, with a strong column of cavalry, under General
French, in advance on the west, and another, of mounted
infantry, under General Ian Hamilton, on the east. The Boers,
under General Botha, had prepared defensive works on the
Rhenoster River, but were too much endangered by the flanking
column of General Hamilton to make a stand there, and fell
back. Again at the Vaal River, their fortifications were
untenable, as against an invasion of such numbers, with so
large a mounted force. With little resistance the British army
crossed the Vaal on the 26th and 27th and entered the
territory of the South African Republic. On the 30th it was
before Johannesburg, and the town was surrendered on the
following day. Thence the invading force moved upon Pretoria,
meeting some opposition, but evidently none that was hopefully
made, and the capital was surrendered unconditionally to Lord
Roberts on the 5th of June. President Kruger and the officials
of his government had left the town, with their archives and
their treasure, and movable offices had been prepared for them
in railway cars, which were transferred for the time being to
Machadodorp, at some distance eastward. Most of the armed
burghers had escaped from the town, and they had been able to
remove about 900 of their British prisoners; but a large
number of the latter were set free. General Botha gathered up
his broken and discouraged forces and intrenched them in a
strong position on the Lorenzo Marquez railway, only 15 miles
eastward from Pretoria. Lord Roberts moved against him on the
11th and compelled him to retreat, after hard fighting for
five hours. This ended important operations in that part of
the field.
In Natal, General Buller, since early in May, had been pushing
his army northward, in a movement co-operative with that of
Lord Roberts. He had turned the flank of the Boer forces in
the positions they had fortified against his advance, regained
Glencoe and Dundee, and moved on to Newcastle. Then, with more
serious fighting, he forced Botha's Pass through the
mountains, compelled the Boers to evacuate their strongholds
on Laing's Nek and Majuba Hill, and was substantially in
possession of Natal.
On the 30th of May, General Buller sent word to General Chris
Botha that Lord Roberts had crossed the Vaal, and suggested
surrender, further resistance appearing useless. This led to a
meeting of the opposed commanders, at which Botha asked what
terms Lord Roberts would offer. Buller immediately referred
the question to Lord Roberts, saying: "Can you let me know
your terms of peace for individual and separate commandos? … I
think they are inclined to give in, and that I have in front
of me about half the Transvaal forces now in the field. If you
think it worth while please let me know if I may mention any
terms of peace to them. I think, even if assisted from the
Orange Free State, it will cost me about 500 men killed and
wounded to get out of Natal." The reply of Lord Roberts, dated
June 3, 1900, was as follows: "Your telegram of yesterday. My
terms with the Transvaal Government are unconditional
surrender. With regard to troops, those who deliver up their
arms and riding animals are allowed to go to their homes on
signing pledge that they will not fight again during present
war. The exceptions to this rule are those who have commanded
portions of the Republican forces, or who have taken an active
part in the policy which brought about the war, or who have
been guilty of or been parties to wanton destruction of
property, or guilty of acts contrary to the usages of
civilized warfare. Principal officers should remain with you
on parole until you receive instructions regarding their
disposal." General Botha declined the terms.
Nine days later (June 12) Lord Roberts opened correspondence
on the same subject with General Louis Botha, Acting
Commandant-General of the Boer forces, endeavoring to persuade
him, "in the cause of humanity, to refrain from further
resistance." The Commandant-General wrote in return: "For the
purpose of arriving at a decision, it is not only absolutely
necessary for me to call a General Council of War of my
Officers and to consult them, but above all it is necessary
for me to consider the subject with my Government. I trust
that for the sake of humanity your Excellency will give me the
opportunity for such consideration and consultation. As some
of my Officers are near the Natal Border, and I am also a long
way separate from my Government, this will require some time.
I ask your Excellency kindly, therefore, for an armistice for
six days, beginning from to-morrow morning at sunrise, during
which time no forward movement will be made on either side
within the territory of the South African Republic."
Lord Roberts replied: "I am anxious to meet your wishes and to
enable your Honour to communicate with the Government of the
South African Republic, but as the movement of my troops in
that Republic are intimately connected with operations in
progress in other parts of South Africa, it is impossible for
me to accede to your Honour's request that there should be an
armistice for 6 days, during which time no forward movement
will be made on either side within the territory of the South
African Republic. I am willing, however, to refrain from
making further movements in the district to the east of the
Elands River Railway Station, our present most advanced post
in that direction, and also in the district north of the
Volksrust and Johannesburg Railway, for a period of five (5)
days, commencing at dawn on the 15th June, on the condition
that no movement westward or southward is made by the Army of
the South African Republic during that same period. This will,
I trust, give your Honour the opportunity you desire of
consulting your Officers and conferring with your Government,
and I sincerely hope that the result will be of such a
satisfactory nature as to prevent further unnecessary loss of
life."
The proposal was declined by General Botha, in the following
note (June 15): "In answer to your letter, dated 14th June,
just received by me, wherein your Excellency consents to an
armistice for five days, but with the reservation of the right
to your Excellency to move your Army in all directions within
the South African Republic, except cast of Elands River
Station and north of the Volksrust-Johannesburg Railway line,
I must, to my great regret, inform your Excellency that this
reservation makes it impossible for me to accept this
armistice, which I have so much desired."
{504}
SOUTH AFRICA: The Field of War: A. D. 1900 (June-December).
Continued resistance of the Boers in guerilla warfare.
An outline of the events of seven months.
A British view of the later situation.
"After the occupation of Pretoria, exhaustion of the mounted
forces and of the transport again supervened and Lord Roberts
was preoccupied with the double task of bringing up large
numbers of horses and masses of stores by a railway exposed to
attack along a distance of 290 miles, and at the same time of
dealing, as best he could, with scattered bodies of the enemy,
nowhere formidable in a military sense, but capable of much
mischief. The period beginning with the occupation of
Bloemfontein, during which the Boers developed and maintained
warfare of guerilla type, imposed highly responsible duties
upon British officers in charge of scattered posts and
convoys. In some cases those duties were not adequately
discharged, and for a time the defences of the important line
of communications appeared to be somewhat imperfectly
organized and supervised. There were signs of the tendency to
relax precautions after a conspicuous success, which has been
shown by British armies on other occasions. It was clear that
the main centre of Boer activity was in the Bethlehem
district, and at the end of June Lord Roberts despatched a
strong column south under Lieutenant-General Hunter to
co-operate with Major-Generals MacDonald, Clements, and Paget
from the west. Bethlehem was captured on July 7, and by the
end of the month Commandant Prinsloo, caught in the Brandwater
Basin between the forces of Lieutenant-Generals Hunter and
Rundle, surrendered with more than 4,000 men and a large
number of horses and wagons. … Meanwhile, Lord Roberts, who
had driven back the Boers along the Lorenzo Marques line, in
two actions near Eerste Fabrieken, on June 11 and 12, began an
advance eastward on July 23, and on August 7 Sir R. Buller
moved northwards from Paarde Kop. On August 25 the
Commander-in-Chief met Sir R. Buller and Generals French and
Pole-Carew at Belfast, and after the fighting of the 27th the
resistance of the Boers in this district practically
collapsed. Starting from Machadodorp on September 1, Sir R.
Buller moved slowly towards Spitzkop, driving the enemy before
him through a difficult mountainous region, and General French
pressed on to Barberton, which was occupied on the 13th
without opposition. On the 24th the Guards reached Komati
Poort. The rugged hill country east of Belfast offered great
opportunities for the tactics in which the Boers appeared to
excel; but the 'natural fortress surrounded by a glacis of
about 1,500 yards absolutely without cover' near Bergendal
Farm was not defended with the tenacity shown on previous
occasions, and the subsequent British advance led to a
wholesale destruction of artillery material and to the
surrender of some 3,000 men to the Portuguese. This, the third
great disaster which has befallen the Boers, left them without
any centre of resistance or any considerable gathering of
fighting men.
"Before the outbreak of war we estimated their available
strength at about 45,000, to which must be added some 10,000
colonial rebels and perhaps 5,000 mercenaries. It is doubtful
whether the force actually in the field at any one time
reached 45,000, and the total loss in killed, wounded and
prisoners, cannot be much less than 30,000. … Exhaustion of
supplies and of ammunition must soon begin to tell heavily
upon the Boers; but it cannot be said that they have at
present given evidence of personal demoralization.
Comparatively small bodies, lightly equipped, still hold the
field and show much activity over a wide area. It is
impossible to provide British garrisons for every town and
village, and wherever the roving bands of the enemy appear
there is a recrudescence of local hostility, even in districts
which have been apparently tranquil for months. Large mobile
columns are employed in pursuit, but the Boers carefully avoid
general engagements and attack only when there appears to be a
chance of surprising and overpowering small detachments. …
Mounted forces, marching as light as possible and capably
commanded, are the principal requirements of the situation. It
is necessary to give the roving commandos no rest and to make
every effort to capture their leaders. The work is not easy,
and it requires great energy and sound military judgment; but
it will be successfully accomplished, and the scale of the
operations will steadily dwindle into measures of police.
Meanwhile a gradual withdrawal of troops from South Africa is
taking place, and progress is doubtless being made with the
new organization under Lieutenant-General Baden-Powell, which
will be specially fitted for the work that now lies before us.
…
"The total casualties of the war up to the 31st ult. are
estimated at about 46,000, and 'the reduction of the military
forces' due to a campaign of more than a year is returned at
12,769, of which total 11,739 are accounted for by death,
including 6,482 victims to disease. It is impossible to rank
the Boer war among the great campaigns of the British Army;
but the peculiar difficulties must never be forgotten. The
closest parallel is probably that of the American Civil war,
in which an armed people long resisted far superior forces and
carried invasion into the territory of the stronger Power. The
military potentiality of the Southern States was at first as
little realized in Washington as was that of the Boers in
London, and disasters therefore resulted. In both cases the
issue was certain as soon as adequate force in strong hands
was available. The Southern leaders, like the Boers, hoped and
strove for foreign intervention in vain; but the former were
far less prepared for war than the latter. On the other hand
the Boers, though ably led in a limited sense, have produced
no commanders with a genius for war comparable to that of Lee
and of Jackson, nor have they shown the discipline and the
cohesion which characterized the Southern armies when at their
best. Desultory and irregular warfare may still be prolonged
for a time; great activity and ample vigilance will still be
required."
London Times,
November 5, 1900.
At the end of the year the "Times" summed up the later
features of the situation as follows: "The spirit of the Boers
remained unbroken, and small mobile commandos, scattered over
the vast area of the countries which we had undertaken to
occupy, perfectly familiar with the ground, and in close touch
with the civil population, have succeeded up to the present
time in making the task of the British Generals one of extreme
difficulty. The Boer resistance has centered chiefly in three
men, Commandants Louis Botha in the northeast, Delarey to the
west of Pretoria, and De Wet in the Orange Free State. The
first, who since the death of General Joubert, was in chief
command in Natal, and afterwards in the Eastern Transvaal, has
not been conspicuously active since September, but the other two
have achieved a great deal with their very limited resources,
and have earned enduring fame as guerrilla
chieftains.
{505}
De Wet, especially, after having been 'routed' and
'surrounded' times without number, has succeeded in giving
occupation to several British Generals and their forces up to
the present time, has kept the eastern part of the Orange
Colony in a continual ferment, and till now has defied the
energetic efforts of General Charles Knox to capture him.
Delarey, after remaining fairly quiescent for several weeks,
suddenly advanced through the Magaliesburg in the middle of
the present month with a force variously estimated at 1,500 or
3,000 men, surrounded and captured a position held by four
companies of the Northumberlands, and compelled the retreat of
General Clements and the evacuation of his camp. It is true
that these things are but the episodes of the later stages of
a war in which there will be no more great battles, but they
are exhausting, costly, and sometimes humiliating."
London Times,
December 31, 1900.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Field of War: A. D. 1900 (August-December).
Farm-burning by the British troops.
Under proclamations issued by Lord Roberts in August and
September, aimed at the suppression of irregular warfare, a
punitive policy was adopted, which included the burning of
farmhouses where guerrilla bands were sheltered, or whose
inmates acted with such bands, and which soon came to be
denounced as one of shameful barbarity. Such different
representations have been made, as to the manner in which the
orders of Lord Roberts were carried out, and as to the measure
of devastation and suffering produced, that it seems to be
impossible to judge whether the British farm-burning in the
Transvaal and Orange Free State has or has not gone beyond the
usual brutalities that belong to the very nature of war. Mr.
Kruger, in speeches made after he went to Europe, represented
it as monstrous beyond example. "The war waged against us," he
said, on landing at Marseilles, "is a war of barbarians. I
have witnessed wars of barbarians and never have I seen
committed barbarities so monstrous as those committed daily
among us. Our farms, which we had had so much difficulty to
construct, are burned. The women whose husbands are at the war
are hunted down and brutally separated from their children,
who are deprived of bread and necessaries." The Afrikanders of
Cape Colony held similar language. Men of conscience and heart
in England were troubled by such accusations. Mr. Trevelyan, M.
P., wrote to "The Times," on the 24th of November: "What so
many of us feel, in the first place, is that we are not in a
position to form a fair judgment from sheer lack of the most
elementary reliable information of what has been done and is
still doing. An officer returned from the war about two months
told me the other day that he supposed only about 40 farms had
been burnt. I read in the 'Westminster Gazette' from an
equally honourable gentleman that it would not be an
exaggeration to say that one-third of the farms in the Orange
River Colony were in ashes. Clearly it is impossible for the
nation to make out the truth when such contradictory
statements are universally current. … One thing we do know for
certain—that on September 2 Lord Roberts, regarding the war as
having degenerated into guerrilla fighting, proclaimed that
all farms would be burnt within a radius of ten miles of any
point upon the railway raided by the Boers. It is now November
24. We know that many people innocent of any dealing with De
Wet have lost all they possess owing to his misguided energy.
Has it diminished sensibly the Boer forces in the field? If
not, what is its utility? … If the resistance of the Boers is
being lessened by these destructions, let us at least have the
poor consolation of knowing it. Again, we want to know what
really happens to the women and children whom our soldiers
conduct, I believe, generally to the nearest town after their
homes have been burned. People whose property has been totally
destroyed in a country where war has stopped all industry
obviously cannot keep themselves."
When Parliament met in December the subject was brought up
there, by Mr. Trevelyan and others, and debated at length,
without much clearer light on it being found. The government
could give no definite information as to what was being done,
but stoutly upheld the course which the military leaders had
taken. Mr. Balfour said: "The ordinary laws of war as
practised by civilized countries depend essentially upon
drawing a sharp distinction between combatant and
non-combatant. The combatant has his particular privileges,
the non-combatant has his particular privileges. What has been
universally found intolerable is that a man should oscillate,
according to his convenience, from one category to the
other—be a peaceful agriculturist when it suits him and an
effective combatant when circumstances seem to be favourable.
That practice is so intolerable that I believe all nations
have laid down the severest rules for repressing it. I have in
my hands the instructions to the army of the United States in
the field, dated 1898. I should like to read to the House two
extracts from this document. Rule 52 says:— 'If a people of a
country, or any portion of same already occupied by the army,
rises against it, they are violators of the laws of war, and
are not entitled to their protection.' The 82nd rule is to the
effect that men, or squads of men, who take part in raids of
any kind without permission, and without being part or portion
of an organized hostile army, are not public enemies, and
therefore if captured are not entitled to be treated as
prisoners of war, but shall be treated as highway robbers or
pirates."
Mr. Chamberlain said: "Lord Roberts's proclamation was to the
effect that, in the first instance, general officers were
authorized to burn down farmhouses as a punishment in cases in
which they were used as fortified places or places for the
concealment of arms, or in which the white flag had been
improperly used, or where they had been the scenes of gross
treachery and of acts contrary to the laws of war. As a matter
of right and morality, the Government are prepared to sustain
Lord Roberts absolutely. … Lord Roberts was placed in the most
difficult position in which a general could possibly be
placed. He had his base 1,500 miles away at least from his
front, through a most difficult country, and he was served
only by a single line of railway, and any catastrophe to the
railway might have meant a catastrophe to the whole army. It
is all very well to talk of humanity, but you must take first
account of our own people.
{506}
Now, Sir, it was of the first importance, it was the clear
duty of Lord Roberts, to take any steps in his power to
prevent the cutting of the line and the danger which would
thereby accrue to his force, and he accordingly issued a
proclamation that in the case of the destruction of the line
persons in the vicinity would be held responsible, and that
farmhouses in the vicinity might be destroyed. We understood
his proclamation to mean that he would require evidence of
some complicity on the part of the persons whose farmhouses
were destroyed. … We inquired the other day, when the matter
assumed greater importance, whether the construction we
placed upon the proclamation was true, and we have a reply
from Lord Kitchener, who has now taken the place of Lord
Roberts, that we are perfectly right in that assumption. …
According to the proclamation of Lord Roberts, whose humanity
is proverbial, and who therefore could not under any
circumstances be accused of unnecessary cruelty, cattle are
always to be paid for by the troops, or a receipt given,
which is as good as payment, except in those cases in which
the owner of the cattle has been guilty of acts of war or of
outrages which are punishable by all civilized nations who
are at war. Therefore the taking of cattle does not mean
necessarily that the owner of the cattle is placed in the
impossibility of continuing his occupation. If he has not got
the cattle he has got the money for them except in the cases
in which destruction has taken place as a punitive measure.
In all other cases the instructions are precise, and I
believe from all the information we have obtained from the
reports of the generals in the field they have been strictly
carried out. Never in the history of war has war been carried
out with so much humanity on the part of the officers and of
the soldiers concerned as in the present war. The honourable
member also spoke of the deportation of women. That sounds
like something serious, but I believe it will be found that
it is only for their own protection. If we are unable in this
vast country to occupy and garrison every bit of it, when our
troops are removed, if women and children are left alone they
remain there in some danger—in danger from those marauding
bands of which I have spoken and also from the vast native
population. And, Sir, this native population is answerable, I
believe, for every case of proved outrage either upon women
or children. I believe, and the last reports we have received
confirm that belief, that in no case has a British soldier
been justly accused of such an outrage."
The following proclamation, issued by Lord Roberts, November
18, seems to indicate that there had been practices in
farm-burning, before that time, which he could not approve:
"As there appears to be some misunderstanding with reference
to burning of farms and breaking of dams, Commander-in-Chief
wishes following to be lines on which General Officers
Commanding are to act:—No farm is to be burnt except for act
of treachery, or when troops have been fired on from premises,
or as punishment for breaking of telegraph or railway line, or
when they have been used as bases of operations for raids, and
then only with direct consent of General Officer Commanding,
which is to be given in writing, the mere fact of a burgher
being absent on commando is on no account to be used as reason
for burning the house. All cattle, wagons, and foodstuffs are
to be removed from all farms; if that is found to be
impossible, they are to be destroyed, whether owner be present
or not."
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
Cd. 426, 1900, page 23.
SOUTH AFRICA: Rhodesia: A. D. 1900 (September).
Protectorate over Barotsiland.
The "Cape Times" of September 19, 1900, stated that a
"Government Gazette Extraordinary" had been issued containing
an Order in Council proclaiming a protectorate over
Barotsiland—North-Western Rhodesia. "The limits of the country
included in the protectorate are the parts of Africa bounded
by the River Zambesi, the German South-West African
Protectorate, the Portuguese possessions, the Congo Free
State, and the Kafukwe or Loengi River. The Order provides
that the British South Africa Company may nominate officials
to govern the territory, and that these are to be confirmed by
the High Commissioner. The High Commissioner may, amongst
other things, from time to time by proclamation provide for
the administration of justice, the raising of revenue by the
imposition of taxes (which may include a tax in respect of the
occupation of native huts), and Customs duties or otherwise,
and generally for the peace, order, and good government of all
persons within the limits of the order, including the
prohibition and punishment of acts tending to disturb the
public peace. The expenses of the administration of this
country, if not entirely borne by the revenues of the country,
will be borne by the British South Africa Company, and if the
revenue more than meet the expenses, the excess will be paid
to the Chartered Company."
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1900 (September).
Leave of absence to President Kruger.
His departure for Europe.
Proclamation of Lord Roberts.
The following proclamation by the Executive Council of the
Boer government was issued from Nelspruit on the 10th of
September, 1900: "Whereas the advanced age of His Honour the
State President makes it impossible for His Honour further to
accompany the Commandos; and whereas the Executive Council is
convinced that the highly-valued services of His Honour can
still be usefully applied in the interest of Land and People,
the Executive Council hereby determines to grant His Honour
leave of absence to Europe for the period of six months, in
order still to advance our cause there, and Mr. S. W. Burger,
Vice-President, takes his place according to law.
[Signed] S. W. BURGER, Vice President.
F. W. REITZ, State Secretary."
Lord Roberts seems to have regarded the acceptance of this
"leave of absence" by President Kruger as equivalent to a
resignation of his office; for he published, on the 14th of
September, a proclamation in the following words:
"The late President, Mr. Kruger, and Mr. Reitz, with the
archives of the South African Republic, have crossed the
Portuguese frontier, and arrived at Lourenço Marques with a
view to sailing for Europe at an early date. Mr. Kruger has
formally resigned the position he held as President of the
South African Republic, thus severing his official connection
with the Transvaal. Mr. Kruger's action shows how hopeless in
his opinion is the war which has now been carried on for
nearly a year, and his desertion of the Boer cause should make
it clear to his fellow burghers that it is useless for them to
continue the struggle any longer.
{507}
"It is probably unknown to the inhabitants of the Transvaal
and Orange River Colony that nearly 15,000 of their
fellow-subjects are now prisoners of war, not one of whom will
be released until those now in arms against us surrender
unconditionally. The burghers must by this time be cognisant
of the fact that no intervention on their behalf can come from
any of the Great Powers, and, further, that the British Empire
is determined to complete the work which has already cost her
so many valuable lives, and to carry to its conclusion the war
declared against her by the late Governments of the South
African Republic and Orange Free State, a war to which there
can be but one ending. If any further doubts remain in the
minds of the burghers as to Her Britannic Majesty's
intentions, they should be dispelled by the permanent manner
in which the country is gradually being occupied by Her
Majesty's Forces, and by the issue of the Proclamations signed
by me on the 24th May and 1st September 1900, annexing the
Orange Free State and the South African Republic respectively,
in the name of Her Majesty.
"I take this opportunity of pointing out that, except in the
small area occupied by the Boer army under the personal
command of Commandant-General Botha, the war is degenerating,
and has degenerated, into operations carried on in an
irregular and irresponsible manner by small, and in very many
cases, insignificant bodies of men. I should be failing in my
duty to Her Majesty's Government and to Her Majesty's Army in
South Africa if I neglected to use every means in my power to
bring such irregular warfare to an early conclusion. The means
which I am compelled to adopt are those which the customs of
war prescribe as being applicable to such cases. They are
ruinous to the country, and entail endless suffering on the
burghers and their families, and the longer this guerrilla
warfare continues the more vigorously must they be enforced."
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
1900, Cd. 420, page 78, and Cd. 426, page 17.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1900 (October).
Proclamation of annexation to the British Dominions.
In terms similar to those used in proclaiming the annexation
of the Orange Free State (see above: MAY) the annexation of
the Transvaal to the Dominions of Her British Majesty was
proclaimed with great ceremony at Pretoria on the 25th of
October.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Field of War: A. D. 1900 (November).
Return of Lord Roberts to England, leaving Lord Kitchener
in command.
Having been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Army,
in the place of Lord Wolseley, Field-Marshal Lord Roberts, on
the 29th of November, delivered the command in South Africa to
Lord Kitchener, and returned to England. At the same time,
Lord Kitchener was raised to the rank of Lieutenant-General.
SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Colony and the Transvaal:
A. D. 1900 (December).
Afrikander Congress.
Lord Kitchener to the burghers of Pretoria.
From 6,000 to 8,000 persons were reported to be in attendance
at an "Afrikander Congress," held at Worcester, in Cape
Colony, December 6, which adopted the following resolutions:
"1. We men and women of South Africa assembled and represented
here, having heard the report of the people's deputation to
England, and having taken into earnest consideration the
deplorable condition into which the people of South Africa
have been plunged, and the grave danger threatening our
civilization, record our solemn conviction that the highest
interests of South Africa demand, first, the termination of
the war now raging with untold misery and horror, such as the
burning of houses, the devastation of the country, the
extermination of the white nationality, and the treatment to
which women and children are subjected, which will leave a
lasting heritage of bitterness and hatred, while seriously
endangering further relations between civilization and
barbarism in South Africa; secondly, the retention by the
Republics of their independence, whereby alone the peace of
South Africa can be maintained.
2. The congress desires full recognition of the right of the
people of this colony under its Constitution to settle and
manage their own affairs and to express grave disapproval of
the policy pursued and the attitude adopted in this matter by
the Governor and High Commissioner, his Excellency Sir Alfred
Milner.
3. The congress solemnly pledges itself to labour in a
constitutional way unceasingly for the above resolutions, and
resolves to send a deputation to his Excellency Sir Alfred
Milner, asking him to bring the resolutions officially to the
notice of her Majesty's Government."
On the 21st of December Lord Kitchener addressed a meeting, at
Pretoria, of burghers who had surrendered to the British and
who desired to bring about peace. In his remarks he was
reported to have said: "The Boers had fought a good fight, but
they were overpowered. There would be no dishonour in the
leaders recognizing this fact. The proclamations that had been
issued were of little use, as means were adopted to prevent
them from reaching the burghers. He trusted that the committee
would endeavour to acquaint the Boers in the field with the
true position. He desired to give them every chance to
surrender voluntarily, and to finish the war by the most
humane means possible. If the conciliatory methods now being
adopted failed he had other means which he would be obliged to
exercise. He would give the committee notice if the time
arrived to consider conciliation as a failure. The principal
difficulties were that burghers desirous of surrendering were
afraid they would not be allowed to remain in their own
districts or that they would be punished for violating their
oath of neutrality. General Kitchener declared that he had
issued instructions that burghers who surrendered would, with
their families and stock, be protected in their own districts.
Those who had broken the oath of neutrality under compulsion
would be accorded the same treatment. Deserted women and
children would be kept in laagers, where their friends could
freely join them. It was essential to clear the country. While
food remained the commandos were enabled to continue in the
field. General Kitchener added that it must be understood that
the British would not be responsible for stock unless it was
brought in and kept within protected limits. In conclusion
General Kitchener said that he had come to speak to the
burghers personally in order that they might be able to tell
their friends what they had heard from his own lips."
{508}
SOUTH AFRICA: The Field of War: A. D. 1900 (December).
Numbers of British troops employed in the war from the
beginning, and their losses.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (DECEMBER).
SOUTH AFRICA: British Colonies: A. D. 1901 (January).
New heads of the Colonial Governments.
The following appointments were announced by the British
Colonial Office on the 4th of January, 1901: Sir Alfred Milner
to be Governor of the Transvaal and British High Commissioner.
The Honourable Sir Walter Francis Hely-Hutchinson (Governor of
Natal and Zululand since 1893) to be Governor of Cape Colony.
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry C. McCallum (Governor of
Newfoundland since 1898, and aide-de-camp to the Queen since
1900) to be Governor of Natal. Major Hamilton John Goold-Adams
(Resident Commissioner of the Bechuanaland Protectorate) to be
Lieutenant-Governor of the Orange River Colony.
SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Colony: A. D. 1901 (January).
Boer invasion.
Declaration of martial law.
On New Year's Day, 1901, the Cape Town correspondent of the
"London Times" was compelled to write: "The immediate aspect
of affairs in Cape Colony at the opening of the new year is
scarcely less gloomy than at the beginning of 1900. The number
of Boers invading the country to-day may be less than it was a
year ago, but they have penetrated further south, and their
presence near such centres of hostile Dutch feeling as Graaf
Reinet constitutes an element of danger which was not present
last January. The proclamation issued this morning by the High
Commissioner calling for volunteers to defend the lines of
communication proves that the military authorities are at last
alive to the critical nature of the situation, but the measure
comes very late in the day."
On the 17th of January a cable message from Cape Town
announced: "An extraordinary gazette issued this afternoon
contains a proclamation placing the whole of the Cape Colony
under martial law, with the exception of the Cape Town,
Wynberg, Simonstown, Port Elizabeth and East London districts
and the territories of the Transkei, Tembuland, Griqualand and
East Pondoland. The gazette also states that the
peace-preservation act will be enforced in the Cape Colony,
Wynberg and Simonstown districts. Under this act all the civil
population will be called upon to deliver up their arms."
SOUTH AFRICA: Orange Free State: A. D. 1901 (January).
Peace movement.
Condition of country described.
Defiant proclamation of Steyn and De Wet.
Early in January, a "Central Peace Committee," formed at
Kroonstad, addressed an open letter to their fellow citizens,
appealing for submission and peace, saying: "The country is
literally one vast wilderness. The farmers are obliged to go
to the towns for protection, and huge refugee camps have been
formed by the British for them and their families. These
people have lost everything, and ruin and starvation stare
them in the face. All this misery is caused by a small and
obstinate minority, who will not bow to the inevitable and who
make the majority suffer. Any encouragement to the men still
on commando to continue the hopeless struggle can only injure
us and cause us further misery. We have done our best and
fought to get Africa under one flag, and we have lost. Let
there be no mistake about this. England has spent millions and
sacrificed thousands of lives, and no reasonable being can
believe for one moment that she will now give up the fruits of
victory. It is, therefore, a duty for us, her beaten foe, to
accept the terms offered by our conqueror. … We appeal to you
and ask you to appoint another congress, and nominate men of
influence out of your midst to visit Mr. Steyn and General De
Wet, and try to persuade them to accept the terms offered by
England. These two men are the only obstacles to peace. We ask
you to believe us when we say that Mr. Kruger and the late
Transvaal Government have been willing twice already to accept
British terms, but Mr. Steyn refused to have anything to do
with surrender. He continued the war and encouraged the
burghers in the hope that we should get European assistance.
To-day he is cut off from all communication with the outside
world. You know and we know how unfounded that hope is and it
is your duty to assist us to make him understand this. We
appeal to you to help us to make an end to this unhappy state
of affairs, which is plunging everybody into poverty and
despair."
As if in response to this cry for peace, Steyn and De Wet
issued the following proclamation a few days later: "Be it
known to all that the war which was forced on the Republics by
the British Government still rages in the Orange Free State
and in the South African Republic; and that the customs of
civilized warfare and also the Conventions of Geneva and The
Hague have not been observed by the enemy, who has not
scrupled, contrary to the Geneva Convention, to capture
doctors and ambulances and to deport them, in order to prevent
our wounded from getting medical assistance. He has seized
ambulances and material appertaining thereto, and has not
hesitated, contrary to the recognized primitive rules of
warfare, and contrary to his solemn agreement at The Hague, to
arrest neutrals and deport them, and to send out marauding
bands to plunder, burn, and damage the burghers' private
property. He has armed Kaffirs and natives and made use of
them against us in war. He has been continually busy capturing
women and children, old and sickly men. Many women's deaths
have been occasioned because the so-called Christian enemy had
no consideration for women on a sick bed or for those whose
state of health should have protected them against rough
treatment. Honourable women and tender children have not only
been treated roughly, but also in an insulting manner by the
soldiers, by order of their officers. Moreover, old mothers
and women have been raped, even wives and children. The
property of prisoners of war, and even of killed burghers, has
not been respected. In many instances the mother and father
have been taken from the house, which was thus left
unprotected, and all have been left to their fate, an easy
prey to the savage. The world has been untruthfully informed
by the enemy that he was obliged to carry out this destruction
because the burghers blew up the line and cut the wires, or
misused the white flag. Nearly all the houses in the two
Republics have been destroyed, whether in the neighbourhood of
the railway line or not; while with regard to the misuse of
the white flag, that is simply a continuance of the
everlasting calumny against which the Afrikander has had to
strive since God brought him into contact with Englishmen.
Robbing his opponent of his goods has not satisfied him; he
will not be satisfied till he has robbed him of his good name
also.
{509}
"Then he wishes to inform the world that the Republics are
conquered and the war ended, and that only here and there
small plundering bands are to be found who continue the strife
in an irresponsible manner. It is an untruth. The Republics
are not yet conquered. The war is not finished. The burgher
forces of the two Republics are still led by responsible
leaders, as from the commencement of the war, under the
supervision of the Governments of both Republics. The fact
that Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener choose to term the
burgher forces marauding bands does not make them such.
Similarly, saying that the war is over does not put an end to
it while fighting still continues. When was this war over?
After the battle of Spion Kop or after Paardeberg? After the
occupation of Bloemfontein or Pretoria? Or perhaps after the
battles of Dewetsdorp or Commando Nek, in both of which
irregulars were captured and the enemy totally vanquished. The
burghers would be less than men if they allowed the enemy to
go unpunished after ill-treating their wives and destroying
their homes from sheer lust of destruction. Therefore a
portion of our burghers have again been sent into Cape Colony,
not only to wage war, but to be in a position to make
reprisals as they have already done in the case of the
ambulances. Therefore we again warn the officers of her
Majesty's troops that unless they cease the destruction of
property in the Republics, we shall wreak vengeance by
destroying the property of her Majesty's subjects who are
unkindly disposed to us; but at the same time, to avoid being
misunderstood, we hereby openly declare that the women and
children will always remain unmolested, despite anything done
to ours by her Majesty's troops. We ask for nothing from our
brothers in Cape Colony, but we call upon them, as well as
upon the civilized world, to assist on behalf of civilization
and Christianity in putting an end to the barbarous manner of
the enemy's warfare. Our prayer will always be that the God of
our fathers will not desert us in this unrighteous strife.
"On the field, January 14. STEYN. DE WET."
SOUTH AFRICA: The Field of War: A. D. 1901 (February).
Report of British military forces in South Africa from the
beginning of the war, with the number of killed and wounded
and the deaths from wounds and disease.
A Parliamentary paper issued on the 26th of February, 1901,
contained the following table, showing the strength of the
garrison in South Africa on the 1st of August, 1899, before
the beginning of the war, with the subsequent reinforcements
and casualties, and the total strength of forces on the 1st of
February, 1901:
|NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS AND MEN.
OFFICERS|CAVALRY|ARTILLERY|INFANTRY|OTHERS|TOTAL|TOTAL
AND OFFICERS
MOUNTED AND MEN
INFANTRY
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I. Garrison on
Aug. 1, 1899 318 1,127 1,035 6,428 1,032 9,622 9,940
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
II.
Reinforcements,
Aug. 1, 1899,
to Oct. 11, 1899
(outbreak of war)
(1.) From Home. 280 … 743 5,620 … 6,363 6,643
(2.) From India
(some of these did
not reach South
Africa until after
the outbreak of
hostilities) 259 1,564 653 3,427 … 5,644 5,903
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
539 1,564 1,396 9,047 … 12,007 12,546
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
III. Further
reinforcements
from Oct. 11,
1899, to end
of July, 1900
Regulars
(1.) From Home
and Colonies. 5,748 11,003 14,145 110,292 14,347 149,787 155,535
(2.) From India. 132 713 376 670 … 1,759 1,891
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5,880 11,716 14,521 110,962 14,347 151,546 157,426
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Colonials
(1.) From Colonies
other than
South African. 550 287 692 9,788 267 11,034 11,584
(2.) Raised in
South Africa. 1,387 … … … … 28,932 30,319
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1,937 … … … … 39,966 41,903
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Imperial yeomanry. 536 … … … … 10,195 10,731
Volunteers from
United Kingdom. 342 … 358 9,995 434 10,787 11,129
Militia. 831 … 617 19,753 256 20,626 21,457
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total all arms
sent to, and
raised in,
South Africa
up to Aug. 1, 1900,
including garrison
on Aug. 1, 1899. 10,383 … … … … 254,749 265,132
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IV. Further
reinforcements
from Aug. 1, 1900,
to Jan. 31, 1901
(1.) Regulars 820 3,213 652 10,439 975 15,279 16,099
(2.) Militia 7 … … 1,141 … 1,141 1,148
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11,210 … … … … 271,169 282,379
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
{510}
NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS AND MEN.
Officers Cavalry. Artillery. Infantry Others. Total. Total
and Officers
Mounted and Men
Infantry
V. Numbers
(1.) Killed to
Jan. 31, 1901 334. 3,346 3,680
(2.) Wounded to
Jan 31, 1901. 1,242. 14,914 16,156
(3.) Died of disease
or wounds or accidentally
killed in South Africa
to Jan. 31, 1001. 301. 9,008 9,309
(4.) Disbanded and
discharged in South Africa. 299. 5,231 5,530
(5.) In hospital in South
Africa on Dec. 28, 1900
(latest returns). 415. 13,716 14,131
VI. Numbers left
South Africa
(1.) For England
not invalids. 1,214 11,109 12,323
(2.) For England
sick, wounded, and
died on passage 1,703 39,095 40,198
(3.) Returned to India
direct from South Africa. 20 70 90
(4.) Returned to Colonies
direct from South Africa
(a) Regulars, including two
battalions to Ceylon. 98 2,041 2,139
(b) Colonials. 177 3,384 3,561
VII. Present strength of
Forces in South Africa,
Feb. 1, 1901
(1.) Regulars. 4,305 12,600 12,000 99,700 12,885 137,185 141,490
(2.) Colonials. 1,339 27,000 28,339*
(3.) Imperial yeomanry 495 7,500 7,995
4.) Volunteers. 200 7,500 7,700
5.) Militia. 725 18,700 19,425
TOTAL 7,064 197,885 204,949*
* Exclusive of recently raised Colonials whose numbers have not yet been reported.
On the 9th of February the following announcement was issued
officially from the British War Office:
"In view of recent Boer activity in various directions his
Majesty's Government have decided, in addition to the large
forces recently equipped locally in South Africa, to reinforce
Lord Kitchener by 30,000 mounted troops beyond those already
landed in Cape Colony. The recruiting for Imperial Yeomanry
has proceeded so rapidly that it is anticipated not less than
10,000 will be shortly available. The South African Mounted
Constabulary, including those enlisted in the colonies, may be
relied upon to the extent of 8,000. The new colonial
contingents to replace those withdrawn will probably reach
5,000. The remainder of the force will be made up by cavalry
and mounted infantry from the home establishment. The
enlistment of Volunteer companies to replace those who have
served a year in South Africa is also being proceeded with.
Arrangements have been made for the prompt equipment and
transportation of the force."
In reply to a question in Parliament the 18th of February,
1901, Mr. Brodrick, the Secretary of State for War, stated
that the total number of cases of typhoid or enteric fever in
the British army, from the beginning of the war to the end of
December, 1900, had been 19,101; deaths 4,233; invalided and
sent home, 10,075.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Field of War: A. D. 1901 (February).
The declared policy of the British Government.
Speaking in the House of Commons on the 18th of February,
1901, the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Chamberlain, declared the
government policy of dealing with the Boers, with strong
emphasis, in the following words:
"From the moment when the invasion took place, and the first
shot was fired by the Boers, from that moment we declared our
policy, that not one shred of the independence which the Boers
had abused should ever again be conceded to them. That was the
policy stated by the Prime Minister in his answer to the
representations which were made to him by the Presidents of
the two Republics. That was the policy, is the policy, and
will be the policy of His Majesty's Government to the end. Let
there be no mistake about that. It is no use arguing with us
on the subject of independence. That, as far as we are
concerned, is a closed question. Raise it, if you like to
raise it, not in speeches, but by amendments. We are quite
ready. We challenged you at the last election. You have never
ceased to complain of the challenge. We challenge you in the
House of Commons. If you believe the annexation we have
announced ought to be repudiated; if you think, with the
honorable and learned gentleman who has just spoken, that we
ought to restore the independence of these two Republics, in
any form, it is for you to say so in a definite amendment. It
is for you to put the issue before the House of Commons and
the country and we are perfectly prepared to meet you.
Assuming that we are all agreed that annexation cannot be
undone, then the policy of the Government is to establish
equality and protection and justice for the native population
and to grant the fuller liberties involved in our definition
of self-government as soon as that can safely be conceded. …
The Boers know perfectly well, they have been told again and
again, directly and indirectly, and it has been repeatedly
stated in this House that at the earliest possible moment they
will be granted self-government."
{511}
The Liberal leader interrupted the speaker to intimate that he
understood a Crown colony government to be in contemplation,
and that his objection was to that. On which Mr. Chamberlain
proceeded to say: "Either the right honourable gentleman does
not know what Crown colony government is or else he is
quibbling about words. Will he be satisfied if I call it a
civil government, with Ministers and a Governor appointed by
his Majesty and a council to advise him? That is civil
government, and it has this about it—that the Imperial
Government has control in the last resort. That is what we
mean. … We are quite ready to establish the civil government
of which I have spoken, we are ready to maintain equality, we
are ready to secure justice to all the inhabitants of the
Transvaal and the Orange River Colony, but we are not prepared
to put into their hands the whole control of the
administration and civil government until we know it will be
safe to do so. It is said that our views have not been
communicated to the Boers and that a proclamation which I
promised I would endeavour to have circulated has not yet been
so distributed. I wish to say that, so far as the leaders are
concerned, I am convinced they know perfectly well what terms
we are willing to offer. There is no excuse on their part. It
is possible that many of their followers, being ignorant
people—when they come to us we find they have been deceived as
to what is going on—do not know the terms we are willing to
offer. We have by various means endeavoured to get to the rank
and file a knowledge of the terms which are being offered, and
we know what the result has been. The emissaries have been
sent—emissaries not sent by us, permitted by us to go, who
volunteered themselves in what they believed to be the
interests of their countrymen, to make these representations—
these emissaries have been apparently, as far as our
information goes, brutally ill-used, tortured before
execution, shot as spies after having been flogged. "
SOUTH AFRICA: The Field of War: A. D. 1901 (February).
Attitude of the English Liberal party towards the war.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
SOUTH AFRICA: The Field of War: A. D. 1901 (February-March).
Unsuccessful peace parley between Lord Kitchener and
Commandant Botha.
By the intermediation of the wife of the Boer Commandant Louis
Botha, an interview between that officer and Lord Kitchener
was brought about, on the last day of February, for discussion
"as to means of bringing the war to an end." The questions raised
in the conversation were reported by Lord Kitchener to Mr.
Brodrick, the British Secretary for War, in a telegram from
Pretoria, March 1, as follows: "I have had a long interview
with Botha, who showed very good feeling and seemed anxious to
bring about peace. He asked for information on a number of
subjects which he said that he should submit to his Government
and people, and if they agreed he should visit Orange River
Colony and get them to agree. They should all then hand in
their arms and finish the war. He told me that they could go
on for some time, and that he was not sure of being able to
bring about peace without independence. He tried very hard for
some kind of independence, but I declined to discuss such a
point, and said that a modified form of independence would be
most dangerous and likely to lead to war in the future.
Subject was then dropped, and—
"Firstly.—The nature of future government of Colonies asked
about. He wanted more details than were given by Colonial
Secretary, and I said that, subject to correction from home, I
understood that when hostilities ceased military guard would be
replaced by Crown Colony administration, consisting of
nominated Executive, with elected assembly to advise
administration, to be followed after a period by
representative government. He would have liked representative
government at once, but seemed satisfied with above.
"Secondly.—Whether a Boer would be able to have a rifle to
protect him from native? I said I thought he would be by a
licence and on registration.
"Thirdly.—He asked whether Dutch language would be allowed? I
said that English and Dutch would, I thought, have equal
rights. He expressed hope that officials dealing with farmers
would know Dutch.
"Fourthly.—The Kaffir question. This turned at once on
franchise of Kaffirs, and a solution seemed to be that
franchise should not be given to Kaffirs until after
representative government was granted to Colonies. Orange Free
State laws for Kaffirs were considered good.
"Fifthly.—That Dutch Church property should remain untouched.
"Sixthly.—Public trusts and orphan funds to be left intact. He
asked whether British Government, in taking over the assets of
Republics, would also take over legal debts. This he made
rather a strong point of, and he intended it to include debts
legally contracted since the war began. He referred to notes
issued amounting to less than a million.
"Seventhly.—He asked if any war tax would be imposed on
farmers? I said I thought not.
"Eighthly.—When would prisoners of war return?
"Ninthly.—He referred to pecuniary assistance to repair burnt
farms, and enable fanners to start afresh. I said I thought
some assistance would be given.
"Tenthly.—Amnesty to all at end of war. We spoke of Colonials
who joined Republics, and he seemed not adverse to their being
disfranchised.
"I arranged with him that I should write and let him know the
view of the Government on these points. All I said during the
interview was qualified by being subject to confirmation from
home. He was anxious to get an answer soon."
Two days later, General Kitchener drafted and submitted to
High Commissioner Sir A. Milner the reply which he wished to
be authorized to make to the questions of Commandant Botha.
This was transmitted, in turn, by the High Commissioner to
Colonial Secretary Chamberlain, with approval of all the
suggestions of Lord Kitchener, except on the subject of
amnesty to the rebel "Afrikanders" of Cape Colony and Natal,
who had joined the ranks of the Boers. Lord Kitchener wished
to say that "on the cessation of hostilities and the complete
surrender of arms, ammunition, cannon, and other munitions of
war now in the hands of the burghers in the field or in
Government depots or elsewhere, His Majesty's Government is
prepared at once to grant an amnesty in the Transvaal and
Orange River Colony for all bona fide acts of war committed
during the recent hostilities; as well as to move the
Governments of Cape Colony and Natal to take similar action
but qualified by the disfranchisement of any British subjects
implicated in the recent war."
{512}
Sir Alfred Milner proposed to amend the latter clause as
follows: "British subjects of Cape Colony or Natal, though
they will not be compelled to return to those Colonies, will,
if they do so, be liable to be dealt with under the laws of
those Colonies specifically passed to meet the circumstances
arising out of the present war and which greatly mitigate the
ordinary penalties of rebellion." "While willing," he said,
"to concede much in order to strengthen Botha in inducing his
people to submit, the amnesty of rebels is not, in my opinion,
a point which His Majesty's Government can afford to concede.
I think it would have a deplorable effect in Cape Colony and
Natal to obtain peace by such a concession." Mr. Chamberlain
agreed with the High Commissioner, writing in reply: "His
Majesty's Government feel that they cannot promise to ask for
complete amnesty to Cape and Natal rebels who are in totally
different position to burghers without injustice to those who
have remained loyal under great provocation, and they are
prepared substantially to adopt your words, but you must
consider whether your last line is strictly applicable to
Natal." Mr. Chamberlain made numerous other criticisms of Lord
Kitchener's suggested letter, and amended it in many
particulars, the most important of which related to the form
of government under which the late republics would be placed.
Lord Kitchener would have said: "Military law will cease and
be at once replaced by civil administration, which will at
first consist of a Governor and a nominated Executive with or
without an advisory elected Assembly, but it is the desire of
His Majesty's Government, as soon as circumstances permit, to
establish representative Government in the Transvaal and
Orange River Colony." His political superior instructed him to
change the statement as follows: "For 'military law will
cease' say 'military administration will cease.' It is
possible that there may be disturbed districts for some time
after terms have been accepted, and Governor of Colonies
cannot abandon right of proclaiming martial law where
necessary. In the same sentence omit the words 'at the same
time' and 'at once' and substitute at the beginning the words
'at the earliest practicable date.' For 'consist of a
Governor' down to 'Assembly' read 'consist of a Governor and
an Executive Council composed of the principal officials with
a Legislative Council consisting of a certain number of
official members to whom a nominated unofficial element will
from the first be added.' In place of the words 'to establish
representative government' substitute 'to introduce a
representative element, and ultimately to concede to the new
Colonies the privilege of self-government.' It is desirable at
this stage to be quite precise in order to avoid any charge of
breach of faith afterwards."
Out of the instructions he received, Lord Kitchener finally
framed the following letter to Commandant Botha, sent to him
on the 7th of March: "With reference to our conversation at
Middelburg on 28th February, I have the honour to inform you
that in the event of a general and complete cessation of
hostilities and the surrender of all rifles, ammunition,
cannon, and other munitions of war in the hands of the
burghers or in Government depots or elsewhere, His Majesty's
Government is prepared to adopt the following measures:
"His Majesty's Government will at once grant an amnesty in the
Transvaal and Orange River Colonies for all bona fide acts of
war committed during the recent hostilities. British subjects
belonging to Natal and Cape Colony, while they will not be
compelled to return to those Colonies, will, if they do so, be
liable to be dealt with by the law of those Colonies specially
passed to meet the circumstances arising out of the present
war. As you are doubtless aware, the special law in the Cape
Colony has greatly mitigated the ordinary penalties for high
treason in the present cases.
"All prisoners of war now in St. Helena, Ceylon, or elsewhere
will, on the completion of the surrender, be brought back to
their country as quickly as arrangements can be made for their
transport.
"At the earliest practicable date military administration will
cease and will be replaced by civil administration in the form
of Crown Colony Government. There will therefore be, in the
first instance, in each of the new Colonies a Governor and an
Executive Council, consisting of a certain number of official
members, to whom a nominated unofficial element will be added.
But it is the desire of His Majesty's Government, as soon as
circumstances permit, to introduce a representative element
and ultimately to concede to the new Colonies the privilege of
self-government. Moreover, on the cessation of hostilities a High
Court will be established in each of the new Colonies to
administer the law of the land, and this Court will be
independent of the Executive.
"Church property, public trusts, and orphans funds will be
respected.
"Both the English and Dutch languages will be used and taught
in public schools where parents of the children desire it, and
allowed in Courts of Law.
"As regards the debts of the late Republican Governments, His
Majesty's Government cannot undertake any liability. It is,
however, prepared, as an act of grace, to set aside a sum not
exceeding £1,000,000 to repay inhabitants of the Transvaal and
Orange River Colonies for goods requisitioned from them by the
late Republican Governments, or, subsequent to annexation, by
Commandants in the field being in a position to enforce such
requisitions. But such claims will have to be established to
the satisfaction of a Judge or Judicial Commission appointed
by the Government to investigate and assess them, and if
exceeding in the aggregate £1,000,000, they will be liable to
reduction pro rata.
"I also beg to inform your Honour that the new Government will
take into immediate consideration the possibility of assisting
by loan the occupants of farms who will take the oath of
allegiance to repair any injury sustained by destruction of
buildings or loss of stock during the war, and that no special
war tax will be imposed on farmers to defray the expense of
the war.
"When burghers require the protection of fire-arms such will
be allowed to them by licence and on due registration,
provided they take the oath of allegiance. Licences also will
be issued for sporting rifles, guns, &c., but military
firearms will only be allowed for means of protection.
{513}
"As regards the extension of the franchise to Kaffirs in the
Transvaal and Orange River Colony, it is not the intention of
His Majesty's Government to give such franchise before
representative government is granted to these Colonies, and if
then given it will be so limited as to secure the just
predominance of the white races. The legal position of
coloured persons will, however, be similar to that which they
hold in Cape Colony.
"In conclusion, I must inform your Honour that if the terms
now offered are not accepted after a reasonable delay for
consideration they must be regarded as cancelled."
On the 16th of March the following reply came from the Boer
Commandant: "I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your
Excellency's letter stating what steps your Excellency's
Government is prepared to take in the event of a general and
total cessation of hostilities. I have advised my Government
of your Excellency's said letter; but, after the mutual
exchange of views at our interview at Middelburg on 28th
February last, it will certainly not surprise your Excellency
to know that I do not feel disposed to recommend that the
terms of the said letter shall have the earnest consideration
of my Government. I may add also that my Government and my
chief officers here entirely agree to my views." This ended
the negotiations.
A discussion of the negotiations in Parliament occurred on the
28th of March, when Mr. Bryce (Liberal) said "they were agreed
that the Government took an onward step when they allowed the
peace negotiations to be entered into, and it was important to
observe that, not only Lord Kitchener, but Sir Alfred Milner
was persuaded that General Botha meant business. It was
possible there were causes at work with which the House were
not acquainted which caused the negotiations to be broken off.
General Botha wrote to Lord Kitchener:—'You will not be
surprised to hear that my answer is in the negative.' One of
two things must have happened—either Lord Kitchener heard from
General Botha something that the House had not heard of, or
else General Botha was so much struck by the difference
between the terms which Lord Kitchener had discussed and the
terms contained in the letter that he conceived a distrust of
us altogether and believed that the Government would not
accept what Lord Kitchener had offered. He thought the
Government were right in asking that the oath of allegiance
should be taken, that they were entitled to insist upon the
provision that all hostilities must cease, and that they could
not pledge themselves as to the precise time when they would
bring back the prisoners. But there were three points on which
there were substantial differences between the terms Lord
Kitchener appeared to have offered and the terms in the final
letter. The first is the question of amnesty for the Cape
rebels. Lord Kitchener and General Botha appeared to have come
to an agreement on that subject. General Botha did not object
to the disfranchisement of the Cape rebels, and Lord Kitchener
did not appear to have conveyed any suggestion whatever of
anything except disfranchisement. He could conceive nothing
more likely to turn back the pacific desires of the Boers than
the fact that they found that, instead of the Cape rebels
having nothing but disfranchisement to fear, they were to be
held subject to the Cape laws as to treason. He was not
arguing whether that was right or wrong. The question was what
the Boers would think, and he put it to the House that it was
the most natural thing that they should be struck by the
contrast between the terms which Lord Kitchener appeared to
offer and the terms which were offered when the final letter
came, and that that was just the point upon which brave men,
feeling for their comrades, would be inclined to stand out.
They would be told that they would displease the loyalists at
the Cape if they did not exact all the penalties for treason.
He hoped they would never in that House consider it any part
of their business to satisfy the vindictive feeling of the
colonists at the Cape."
As to the difference between the terms of future government
for the inhabitants of the late republics proposed by Lord
Kitchener and those laid down by the Colonial Secretary, Mr.
Bryce said: "He should like to have known what the proposals
were that General Botha made with regard to a modified
independence, for he thought it was quite possible that it
might turn out in the long run that some kind of what was
called modified independence, protection, would be a great
deal easier for this country to work than a system of Crown
colony government. He thought the contrast between the
elective assembly which Lord Kitchener offered and the purely
arbitrary and despotic system which the final letter conveyed
must at once have struck the Boers as indicating the
difference between the views which the military man on the
spot entertained and the proposal which they might expect from
the Government. Of course there were objections to the
immediate grant of self-government. So also there were
objections to any course, and that course should be chosen
which was open to the fewest objections. But the proposal of
Crown colony government was, of all courses, the worst that
could be suggested. It had been suggested that members of the
Liberal party had asked for full-grown representative and
responsible government, but they never had suggested that.
What they had objected to was Crown colony government. They
admitted that when the war ended there must be an intermediate
period of administration, military or civil, but there was all
the difference in the world between an admittedly provisional
administration understood to be provisional and the creation
of the whole apparatus of Crown colony government. The Boer
population had an aversion to Crown colony administration,
associated in their minds with the days of Sir Owen Lanyon,
and an arbitrary form of government it was known to be. Of
course it was arbitrary; honourable members who questioned
that could not know what Crown colony administration was. The
existence of a nominated council did not prevent it being
arbitrary inasmuch as the members were obliged to vote as they
were directed by the Governor. He could not help thinking that
Lord Kitchener might, if he were asked to do so, throw some
light on a remarkable expression in the letter from General
Botha in which he said, after the mutual interchange of views
at their meeting, Lord Kitchener would not be surprised to
learn that he was not disposed to recommend the terms
proposed."
{514}
The radical Mr. Labouchere was sharper in his criticism: "He
held that it was nonsense to call the terms offered to the
Boers liberal and lenient; they were neither. We had burnt
their farms and desolated their country, and then we offered
them a small gift of money to put them back on their farms
while we took away their independence and their flag. He
honoured the men who resisted, no matter at what cost, when
the question was the independence of their native land. How
right General Botha was in distrusting the alterations made by
the Secretary for the Colonies in the matter of the gift was
shown by the right honourable gentleman himself, when he said
that, whereas the gift was to be limited to a certain sum, the
loyalists were to be paid first. In that case what would
remain to the burghers of the two colonies? The position of
the Boers in the Empire under the terms of the Colonial
Secretary would be little better than that of Kaffirs. As far
as ultimate self-government was concerned, they were to put
their faith in the Colonial Secretary. If he might offer them
a word of advice it would be—Put no faith in the Colonial
Secretary; get it in black and white. We had lost a great
opportunity of ending the war and settling South Africa. Peace
won by the sword would create a dependency in which racial
feuds would go on and the minority would be maintained over
the majority by a huge British garrison. The Dutch majority
was certain to increase every decade. The Transvaal farmers
lived in a poor, rude manner which English people would not
accept. …
"He did not particularly admire the Boers. To his mind they
had too much of the conservative element in them; but, judging
between the Afrikanders and the English who went to South
Africa, whilst fully recognizing that among the latter there
were many respectable men, he thought, taking them
collectively, the Boers were the better men. If we wanted to
maintain our rule in South Africa the Boers were the safest
men with whom to be on good terms. What were the Boers ready
to do? As he read the correspondence, they were ready to enter
the area of the British Empire, but only upon terms. Surely
our problem was to find terms honourable to us and to them,
which would lead to South Africa becoming one of those great
commonwealths connected with the Empire such as existed in
Australia and Canada. He suggested that, in the first place,
we should offer a full and absolute amnesty. He urged that the
Orange State and the Transvaal should as soon as possible be
made self-governing colonies. The Orange State was regarded by
every Englishman who had written about it as a model State. As
to the Transvaal, he admitted there was a difficulty, but he
would suggest that the main area of the country should be
separated from the Rand. The Rand might be administered by a
governor, a military governor if they liked, while in the rest
of the country the Dutch would have a majority. If this course
were adopted, instead of our giving some sort of pecuniary aid
to the Transvaalers, they might be paid a reasonable rent for
the Rand district, of which they would be deprived. … They on
that side of the House would be perfectly ready to agree to
the establishment of a provisional government, military or
civil—he should himself prefer Lord Kitchener to Sir Alfred
Milner—to carry on the country while they were arranging for
the colony to be self-governing. They were accustomed to be
told that Sir Alfred Milner was a sort of divine pro-consul.
He believed Sir Alfred Milner to be a most honourable man, and
very intelligent in many walks of life; but the truth was that
he began life as an Oxford don and then became an official in
the Treasury, facts which militated against his success in
practical politics. He believed that a man like Lord Dufferin
would do more for the cause of peace in South Africa than all
our soldiers."
SOUTH AFRICA: The Field of War: A. D. 1901 (February-April).
The High Commissioner, Sir Alfred Milner, on the situation
and prospects.
Leave of absence obtained by Sir Alfred.
A British Blue Book, made public in London on the 18th of
April, contains an interesting despatch from Sir Alfred
Milner, frankly reviewing the general situation in South
Africa, as it appeared to him on the 6th of February, when he
wrote, from Cape Town, and giving his forecast of future
prospects. The following are the more important passages of
the communication:
"A long time has elapsed since I have attempted to send to you
any general review of South African affairs. The reason is
twofold. In the first place, I am occupied every day that
passes from morning till night by business, all of which is
urgent, and the amount and variety of which you are doubtless
able to judge from the communications on a great variety of
subjects, which are constantly passing between us. In the next
place, I have always hoped that some definite point would be
reached at which it might be possible to sum up that chapter
of our history which contained the war, and to forecast the
work of administrative reconstruction which must succeed it.
But I am reluctantly forced to the conclusion that there will
be no such dividing line. I have not the slightest doubt of
the ultimate result, but I foresee that the work will be
slower, more difficult, more harassing, and more expensive
than was at one time anticipated. At any rate, it is idle to
wait much longer in the hope of being able to describe a clear
and clean-cut situation. Despite the many other calls upon my
time, and despite the confused character of the present
position, I think it better to attempt to describe, however
roughly and inadequately, the state of things as it exists
to-day.
"It is no use denying that the last half-year has been one of
retrogression. Seven months ago this Colony was perfectly
quiet, at least as far as the Orange River. The southern half
of the Orange River Colony was rapidly settling down, and even
a considerable portion of the Transvaal, notably the
south-western districts, seemed to have definitely accepted
British authority, and to rejoice at the opportunity of a
return to orderly government, and the pursuits of peace.
To-day the scene is completely altered. It would be
superfluous to dwell on the increased losses to the country
caused by the prolongation of the struggle, and by the form
which it has recently assumed. The fact that the enemy are now
broken up into a great number of small forces, raiding in
every direction, and that our troops are similarly broken up
in pursuit of them, makes the area of actual fighting, and
consequently of destruction, much wider than it would be in
the case of a conflict between equal numbers operating in
large masses.
{515}
Moreover, the fight is now mainly over supplies. The Boers
live entirely on the country through which they pass, not only
taking all the food they can lay hands upon on the farms,
grain, forage, horses, cattle, &c., but looting the small
village stores for clothes, boots, coffee, sugar, &c., of all
which they are in great need. Our forces, on their side, are
compelled to denude the country of everything moveable, in
order to frustrate these tactics of the enemy. No doubt a
considerable amount of the stock taken by us is not wholly
lost, but simply removed to the refugee camps, which are now
being established at many points along the railway lines. But
even under these circumstances, the loss is great, through
animals dying on the route, or failing to find sufficient
grass to live upon when collected in large numbers at the
camps. Indeed, the loss of crops and stock is a far more
serious matter than the destruction of farm buildings, of
which so much has been heard. I say this not at all as an
advocate of such destruction. I am glad to think that the
measure is now seldom if ever resorted to. At the same time,
the destruction of even a considerable number of farms, having
regard to the very rough and inexpensive character of the
majority of these structures in the Orange River Colony and
Transvaal, is a comparatively small item in the total damage
caused by the war to the agricultural community.
"To the losses incidental to the actual course of the
campaign, there has recently been added destruction of a
wholly wanton and malicious character. I refer to the injury
done to the head-gear, stamps, and other apparatus of some of
the outlying mines by Boer raiders, whose sole object was
injury. For this destruction there is, of course, no possible
excuse. … Fortunately the damage done to the mines has not
been large, relatively to the vast total amount of the fixed
capital sunk in them. The mining area is excessively difficult
to guard against purely predatory attacks having no military
purpose, because it is, so to speak, 'all length and no
breadth'—one long thin line, stretching across the country
from east to west for many miles. Still, garrisoned as
Johannesburg now is, it is only possible successfully to
attack a few points in it. Of the raids hitherto made, and
they have been fairly numerous, only one has resulted in any
serious damage. In that instance the injury done to the single
mine attacked amounted to £200,000, and it is estimated that
the mine is put out of working for two years. This mine is
only one out of a hundred, and is not by any means one of the
most important. These facts may afford some indication of the
ruin which might have been inflicted, not only on the
Transvaal and all South Africa, but on many European
interests, if that general destruction of mine works which was
contemplated just before our occupation of Johannesburg had
been carried out. However serious in some respects may have
been the military consequences of our rapid advance to
Johannesburg, South Africa owes more than is commonly
recognized to that brilliant dash forward, by which the vast
mining apparatus, the foundation of all her wealth, was saved
from the ruin threatening it.
"The events of the last six or seven months will involve a
greater amount of repair and a longer period of recuperation,
especially for agriculture, than anybody could have
anticipated when the war commenced. Yet, for all that, having
regard to the fact that both the Rand and Kimberley are
virtually undamaged, and that the main engines of prosperity,
when once set going again, will not take very long to get into
working order, the economic consequences of the war, though
grave, do not appear by any means appalling. The country
population will need a good deal of help, first to preserve it
from starvation, and then, probably, to supply it with a
certain amount of capital to make a fresh start. And the great
industry of the country will need some little time before it
is able to render any assistance. But, in a young country with
great recuperative powers, it will not take many years before
the economic ravages of the war are effaced.
"What is more serious to my mind than the mere material
destruction of the last six months is the moral effect of the
recrudescence of the war. I am thinking especially of the
Orange River Colony, and of that portion of the Transvaal
which fell so easily into our hands after the relief of
Mafeking, that is to say, the country lying between
Johannesburg and Pretoria, and the border of Bechuanaland.
Throughout this large area the feeling in the middle of last
year was undoubtedly pacific. The inhabitants were sick of the
war. They were greatly astonished, after all that had been
dinned into them, by the fair and generous treatment they
received on our first occupation, and it would have taken very
little to make them acquiesce readily in the new regime. At that
time too, the feeling in the Colony was better than I have
ever known it. The rebellious element had blown off steam in
an abortive insurrection, and was glad to settle down again.
If it had been possible for us to screen those portions of the
conquered territory, which were fast returning to peaceful
pursuits, from the incursions of the enemy still in the field,
a great deal of what is now most deplorable in the condition of
South Africa would never have been experienced. The vast
extent of the country, the necessity of concentrating our
forces for the long advance, first to Pretoria and then to
Komati Poort, resulted in the country already occupied being
left open to raids, constantly growing in audacity, and fed by
small successes, on the part of a few bold and skilful
guerrilla leaders who had nailed their colours to the mast.
The reappearance of these disturbers of the peace, first in
the south-east of the Orange River Colony, then in the
south-west of the Transvaal, and finally in every portion of
the conquered territory, placed those of the inhabitants who
wanted to settle down in a position of great difficulty.
Instead of being made prisoners of war, they had been allowed
to remain on their farms on taking the oath of neutrality, and
many of them were really anxious to keep it. But they had not the
strength of mind, nor, from want of education, a sufficient
appreciation of the sacredness of the obligation which they
had undertaken, to resist the pressure of their old companions
in arms when these reappeared among them appearing to their
patriotism and to their fears. …
{516}
"As the guerrilla warfare swept back over the whole of the
western Transvaal, and practically the whole of the Orange
River Colony, its effect upon the Cape Colony also became very
marked. There was a time, about the middle of last year, when
the bulk of the Dutch population in the Cape Colony, even
those who had been most bitter against us at the outset,
seemed disposed to accept the 'fait accompli,' and were
prepared to acquiesce in the union of all South Africa under
the British flag. Some of them even began to see certain
advantages in such a consummation. The irreconcilable line
taken in the Cape Parliament, during its recent Session from
July to October, was a desperate effort to counteract this
tendency. But I doubt whether it would have succeeded to the
moderate extent to which it has, had it not been for the
recrudescence of the war on the borders of the Colony, and the
embittered character which it assumed. Every act of harshness,
however necessary, on the part of our troops, was exaggerated
and made the most of, though what principally inflamed the
minds of the people were alleged instances of needless cruelty
which never occurred. Never in my life have I read of, much
less experienced, such a carnival of mendacity as that which
accompanied the pro-Boer agitation in this Colony at the end
of last year. And these libels still continue to make
themselves felt. …
"The present position of affairs, alike in the new territories
and in a large portion of the Cape Colony, if by no means the
most critical, is possibly the most puzzling that we have had
to confront since the beginning of the war. Naturally enough
the public are impatient, and those who are responsible for
the government of the country are bombarded with most
conflicting advice. On the one hand, there is the outcry for
greater severity and for a stricter administration of Martial
Law. On the other hand, there is the expression of the fear
that strict measures would only exasperate the people.
Personally, I am of the opinion, which I have always held,
that reasonable strictness is the proper attitude in the
presence of a grave national danger, and that exceptional
regulations for a time of invasion, the necessity of which
every man of sense can understand, if clearly explained and
firmly adhered to, are not only not incompatible with, but
actually conducive to, the avoidance of injustice and cruelty.
I am satisfied by experience that the majority of those Dutch
inhabitants of the Colony who sympathize with the Republics,
however little they may be able to resist giving active
expression to that sympathy, when the enemy actually appear
amongst them, do not desire to see their own districts
invaded, or to find themselves personally placed in the
awkward dilemma of choosing between high treason and an
unfriendly attitude to the men of their own race from beyond
the border. There are extremists who would like to see the
whole of the Cape Colony overrun. But the bulk of the farmers,
especially the substantial ones, are not of this mind. …
"The inherent vice, if I may say so, of almost all public
discussion of our South African difficulties is the tendency
to concentrate attention too exclusively upon the Boers. Say
what we will, the controversy always seems to relapse into the
old ruts—it is the British Government on the one hand, and the
Boers on the other. The question how a particular policy will
affect, not merely our enemies, but our now equally numerous
friends, seems seldom to be adequately considered. And yet it
would seem that justice and policy alike should lead us to be
as eager to consider the feelings and interests, and to retain
the loyalty, of those who are fighting on our side, as to
disarm the present enmity and win the future confidence of
those who are fighting against us. And this principle would
seem an the easier to adhere to because there is really
nothing which the great body of the South African loyalists
desire which it is not for the honour and advantage of the
Mother Country to insist upon. Of vindictiveness, or desire to
oppress the Afrikanders, there is, except in hasty utterances,
inevitable in the heat of the conflict, which have no
permanent significance, or in tirades which are wholly devoid
of influence, no sign whatever. The attitude of almost all
leading and representative men, and the general trend of
public feeling among the loyalists, even in the intensity of
the struggle, is dead against anything like racial
exclusiveness or domination. If this were not so, it would be
impossible for a section of pure bred Afrikanders, small no
doubt in numbers but weighty in character and position, to
take the strong line which they do in opposition to the views
of the majority of their own people, based as these are, and
as they know them to be, upon a misconception of our policy
and intentions. These men are among the most devoted adherents
to the Imperial cause, and would regard with more disfavour
and alarm than anyone the failure of the British nation to
carry out its avowed policy in the most complete manner. They
are absolutely convinced that the unquestioned establishment
of the British supremacy, and the creation of one political
system from Cape Town to the Zambesi, is, after all that has
happened, the only salvation for men of their own race, as
well as for others. Of the terms already offered, a great
majority, I believe, of the South Africans at present in arms
on our side entirely approve. There is, no doubt, an extreme
section who would advocate a sterner attitude on our part, but
they are not numerous, and their feelings are not lasting. The
terms offered by Lord Kitchener, which are, in substance,
identical with repeated declarations of policy on the part of
His Majesty's Government, are generally regarded as a generous
and statesmanlike offer, as one which, if firmly adhered to,
will ultimately be accepted, but as an offer which we cannot
afford to enlarge. On the other hand, there is a very general
desire that no effort should be spared to make the generous
character of our intentions widely known, and to encourage any
disposition on the part of the enemy to parley, with the object
of making them better acquainted with the terms on which we
are prepared to accept their submission.
"If I might sum up the predominant, indeed, the almost
unanimous feeling of those South Africans who sympathise with
the Imperial Government, I should describe it as follows:—They
are sick to death of the war, which has brought ruin to many of
them, and imposed considerable sacrifices on almost all. But
they would rather see the war continue for an indefinite time
than run the risk of any compromise which would leave even the
remotest chance of the recurrence of so terrible a scourge in
the future. They are prepared to fight and suffer on, in order
to make South Africa, indisputably and for ever, one country
under one flag, with one system of government, and that system
the British, which they believe to ensure the highest possible
degree of justice and freedom to men of all races.
{517}
But, with that object accomplished, they are willing, and,
indeed, ready, to bury racial animosities. They have fought
against the principle of race oligarchy in one form, and they
do not wish to re-establish it in another. For the attainment
of that object, they would rely for the present on the
vigorous prosecution of the war in which they are prepared
themselves to take the most active part, coupled with every
inducement to the enemy to come in on the terms already
offered, and for the future, as soon as public security is
assured and the circumstances permit, on the extension to the
newly acquired territories of a system of Colonial
self-government. For my own part, I have no doubt that this
attitude is a wise one, and that it only requires persistence
in it, in spite of the discouraging circumstances of the
moment, to lead us to ultimate success."
Great Britain, Papers by Command, Cd. 547.
The same Blue Book made known the fact that, on the 3d of
April, Sir Alfred Milner applied for and obtained leave of
absence for three months from his duties in South Africa.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Field of War: A. D. 1901 (April).
The situation.
Early in April it was announced that the seat of government of
the South African Republic had been transferred from
Pietersburg to Leydsdorp in the Zoutpansberg by the
Vice-President, General Schalk-Burger, which seems to indicate
the beginning of another stage of the South African war. The
Boers are said to have been for some time past collecting
great quantities of cattle and sheep in the fastnesses of the
Zoutpansberg, where also they have ample supplies of
ammunition, and intend making it a point of ultimate
resistance as well as a base of present operations.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Field of War: A. D. 1901 (April).
The cost of the war to Great Britain as stated
by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
In his speech (April 18), on introducing the budget for 1901,
in the House of Commons, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir
Michael Hicks-Beach, made the following statements of the cost
of the war to Great Britain: "I would remind the Committee
that so far we have borrowed towards the cost of the war
£67,000,000—£13,000,000 Treasury bills, £10,000,000 Exchequer
Bonds maturing rather less than three years hence, £14,000,000
Exchequer Bonds maturing about five years hence, and
£30,000,000 War Loan maturing in 1910. Now, Sir, in what mode
may we fairly borrow such a large sum as we now require? This
can no longer be considered a small war. In cost it is a great
war. Let me just make a statement to the Committee as to what,
so far, the estimated cost of this war has been. In 1899-1900 the
Estimates were £23,217,000. Last year they were £68,620,000,
and this year's Estimates amount to £60,230,000, including in
each case the interest on the sums borrowed. That amounts to
over £152,000,000. I must ask the Committee to remember that
in those figures I include the cost of both the South African
and Chinese wars. Then I have to add a million and a quarter
for this year's borrowing, making in all over £153,000,000.
That is double the cost of the Crimean War, and when I look
back at the Peninsular War I find the two most expensive years
were 1813 and 1814. The forces engaged, of course, were very
much smaller than those engaged now; but in those two years
the total cost of our Army and Navy amounted to £144,581,000.
This amount is less than the charges of the South African and
Chinese wars. Therefore, I think I am justified in saying that
in cost this has been a great war. I think, then, it is clear
we can no longer, in borrowing towards the cost of it, rely
upon temporary borrowing. We have already £67,000,000 of
unfunded debt borrowed for this purpose and maturing within
the next ten years. We have also some £36,000,000 of 2¾ and 2½
per cent., redeemable in 1905. Therefore, whatever may be the
prosperity of the country, whatever may be the condition of
our finances, it is perfectly obvious to my mind that the
stanchest advocate of the redemption of the debt will have
ample scope for his energies in the years that are now before
us. For this reason I propose to ask the Committee to extend
the powers of borrowing which they gave me in previous Acts,
to Consols."
----------SOUTH AFRICA: End--------
SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC, The.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL);
also,
CONSTITUTION (GRONDWET) OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRALIA; and CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRALIA.
SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1892-1899.
The Dispensary Law.
In 1892 the Legislature of South Carolina passed an Act,
commonly called the Dispensary Law, which caused turbulent
agitations in the State, and excited much interest in the
country at large. It was based upon the principle of what is
known as the Gothenburg system of regulation for the sale of
intoxicating liquors, making the traffic a State monopoly,
carried on by officials, under rigorous restrictions, with
profit to the public treasury, and none else. It provided for
the creation of a State Board of Control, under the direction
of which a Commissioner, appointed by the Governor, should
purchase all intoxicating liquors allowed to be sold in the
State, and should furnish the same to such agents (called
"dispensers") in the several counties as might be appointed by
county boards to sell them, in accordance with the regulations
prescribed. It required all liquors purchased by the
Commissioner to be tested by an official chemist and declared
to be pure and unadulterated. It allowed nobody but the
official "dispensers" to deal in any manner with any kinds of
intoxicating liquors after the 1st of July, 1893. It forbade
the selling of such drinks by the authorized salesmen to
minors and drunkards, and it required all who bought to sign
and date a printed or written request, stating their residence
and age.
The law was fiercely resisted in many parts of the State by
mobs, and powerfully assailed in the courts; but Governor
(afterwards Senator) Tillman, who then occupied the executive
chair, gave it resolute enforcement and support. The attack in
the courts had momentary success in 1894, the Supreme Court of
the State rendering a decision adverse to the
constitutionality of the law; but, meantime, the Legislature,
in 1893, had made changes in the Act, and its new enactment
was held to be untouched by the judgment of the court.
{518}
Before a new case could be brought to issue, the retirement of
one of the justices of the Supreme Court brought about a
change of opinion in that tribunal, and the law in its new
form was sustained. Disorderly resistance to the enforcement
of the law was long kept up; but in the end such resistance
seems to have been mostly overcome.
In January, 1897, however, one provision of the Act, which
forbade all importation of liquors into the State by private
persons, even for their own use, was declared by the Supreme
Court of the United States to be an interference with
inter-state commerce, and therefore unconstitutional. This
breaks down the Dispensary Law, so far as concerns citizens
who are able to import liquors for themselves. Otherwise the
law seems to be now stoutly entrenched, and other States are
being sufficiently satisfied with its success in South
Carolina to adopt it. The following testimony as to its
success is from the pen of a North Carolinian, who became
instrumental in carrying the system into his own State.
"The familiar features of the dispensary were its closing
promptly at sundown; no drinking on the premises; the sale of
liquor to those only who were of age, who were not in the
habit of drinking to excess, who were sober at the time of the
sale, and who signed an application for what they bought on a
public book; and the fact that the dispenser was a salaried
officer, and thus free from pecuniary interest in stimulating
sales. To this was added in South Carolina a force of
constables whose special business it was to arrest those who
sold liquor contrary to law.
"The fact that the dispensary law was a substitute for
Prohibition made the law odious at first to those who had
fought most ardently for the Prohibition cause. And the
political faction over which Mr. Tillman had triumphed,
containing a good proportion of the best blood and brains of
the State, opposed the dispensary on personal grounds. The spy
system, as it was called, and the resistance to the
constables, sometimes resulting in bloodshed, set many of the
more peaceable and conservative citizens against the law.
Added to this, the constitutionality of the law as a whole and
of important provisions separately was strenuously contested
in the United States Courts, with varying success until the
Supreme Court settled the matter forever in favor of the law.
These difficulties are mentioned to show what the system has
had to face in South Carolina, and for the purpose of
remarking that the system has triumphed over all opposition.
The amended Constitution of the State decrees against the
re-establishment of the saloon. The Dispensary candidate for
Governor in the last election defeated the Prohibition
candidate. And the testimony of sober, conservative citizens
of every rank and profession is now practically unanimous to
the effect that drunkenness and the crimes resulting therefrom
have decreased beyond expectation."
A. J. McKelway,
The Dispensary in North Carolina
(Outlook, April 8, 1899).
SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1896.
New constitution.
Introduction of a qualified suffrage.
Practical disfranchisement pf the greater part of the negroes.
On the 1st of January, 1896, a new constitution, promulgated
by a constitutional convention the previous month, without
submission to popular vote, came into effect. It was framed
especially to accomplish a practical disfranchisement of the
larger part of the negro population, which it did by the
operation of an educational qualification with peculiar
conditions attached. Until the first of January, 1898, it
permitted the enrollment of voters who could read, or who
could explain to the satisfaction of the registering officer a
section of the constitution read to them; and all citizens
registered before that date were to be qualified voters
thereafter. But subsequent to the date specified, none could
be registered except those able to read and write any required
part of the constitution, or else to prove themselves owners
of property and taxpayers on not less than $300. Registration
to be conducted by county boards appointed by the governor.
See, also (in this volume)
MISSISSIPPI.
Speaking in the United States Senate in justification of this
measure, Senator Tillman, of South Carolina, said: "We took
the government away. We stuffed ballot boxes. We shot them. We
are not ashamed of it. The Senator from Wisconsin would have
done the same thing. I see it in his eye right now. He would
have done it. With that system—force, tissue ballots, etc.—we
got tired ourselves. So we called a constitutional convention,
and we eliminated, as I said, all of the colored people whom
we could under the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. … I
want to call your attention to the remarkable change that has
come over the spirit of the dream of the Republicans; to
remind you gentlemen from the North that your slogans of the
past—brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God—have gone
glimmering down the ages. The brotherhood of man exists no
longer, because you shoot negroes in Illinois, when they come
in competition with your labor, as we shoot them in South
Carolina when they come in competition with us in the matter
of elections. You do not love them any better than we do. You
used to pretend that you did, but you no longer pretend it
except to get their votes. … You deal with the Filipinos just
as we deal with the negroes, only you treat them a heap
worse."
Congressional Record,
56th Congress, 1st Session, pages 2347, 2349.
SOUTH DAKOTA: A. D. 1898.
Constitutional amendment introducing the
Initiative and the Referendum.
A constitutional amendment, adopted by popular vote at the
November election, introduces the principle of the Swiss
Initiative and Referendum, providing that the Legislature must
render obedience to petitions signed by 5 per cent. of the
voters of the State, which call for the enactment and
submission to popular vote of any stipulated law, or which
require the submission to a popular vote of any Act which the
Legislature may have passed.
SOUTH DAKOTA: A. D. 1899.
Adoption of the Dispensary System.
A constitutional amendment, providing for a dispensary system
of regulation for the liquor traffic was adopted in 1899 by a
majority of 1,613 votes.
See, (in this volume),
SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1892-1899.
The newly adopted clause reads as follows: "The manufacture
and sale of intoxicating liquors shall be under exclusive
State control, and shall be conducted by duly authorized
agents of the State, who shall be paid by salary and not by
commission."
{519}
SOUTHWEST AFRICA, German:
Trade, etc.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (JUNE).
SPAIN: A. D. 1868-1885.
Affairs in Cuba.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1868-1885.
SPAIN: A. D. 1895-1896.
Conflict between army and Press.
Change of Ministry.
Renewed insurrection in Cuba.
A violent conflict between the military authorities and the
newspaper Press arose in consequence of an attack made by
officers of the army on a Republican editor who had sharply
criticised certain details of army administration. They not
only assaulted him in person, but broke up his presses and
type. This military mob outrage was resented and denounced by
the whole Press, of every party; whereupon the military
authorities began prosecutions in the military courts, and
making arrests of publishers and editors, with a contempt for
law which seemed to be ominous of some revolutionary intent.
The Liberal Ministry, under Señor Sagasta, not able,
apparently, to control these proceedings, resigned office, and
a Conservative Cabinet was formed by Señor Canovas del
Castillo. The new Ministry had many difficulties to face, the
fresh outbreak of revolt in Cuba being the most serious.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1895.
But student rioting at Barcelona, caused by the dismissal of
11 professor whose writings were condemned at Rome, became
grave enough to require the sending of the redoubtable General
Weyler to the scene; and popular excitements in Madrid,
growing out of exposures of corruption in the municipal
council, drove two of the colleagues of Canovas from their
posts. In January, 1896, Weyler was sent to Cuba, to pursue in
that unhappy island a policy which produced conditions that
horrified the world.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897, and 1897-1898 (DECEMBER-MARCH).
Elections held in April, 1896, gave the government of Canovas
an overwhelming majority in the Cortes.
SPAIN: A. D. 1896-1897,
Administration of General Weyler in Cuba.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897.
SPAIN: A. D. 1896-1898.
Insurrection in the Philippines.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1896-1898.
SPAIN: A. D. 1897 (August-October).
Assassination of the Prime Minister, Canovas del Castillo.
Return of Sagasta to power.
Condition of the country.
On the 8th of August, the Spanish Prime Minister, Señor
Canovas del Castillo, was shot by an Italian anarchist, a
Neapolitan, named Angiolillo, while sojourning for a few days,
with his wife, at the baths of Santa Aguada. He lived but two
hours after receiving his wounds. General Azcarraga, Minister
of War, was called by the Queen to take temporary charge of
the government; but before the end of September he and his
cabinet were forced to resign, and the Liberals, under the
lead of Señor Sagasta, returned to power. "Canovas was the
strong man of Spain. He was not the educator of the people, or
the worker of the popular inclination. His vigorous
understanding was their muscular master. The police were on
his side; a useful portion of the press, hired judiciously for
the purpose; the army; and the brains to set them all in
motion; and, so equipped, Antonio Canovas del Castillo
confronted the Spanish people and said, 'Come on.' It was a
resolute and daring attitude, and kept the crowd triumphantly
at bay for thirty years. But of late a change had taken place.
A good deal of the old fire had burned out. Fifteen years of
colonial revolt, again, impress even the thickest-headed
Spanish peasant into conceiving that the trouble has no
business to last so long, and that his rulers, if hard and
exigent towards himself, are weak, extravagant, and
undexterous elsewhere. And this suspicion ripens into
certainty when he sees his sons torn from his side and packed
over sea, and when his taxes swell and swell, and the price of
bread goes up and up, and still no alteration for the better.
This cumulative truth is what the Spanish plebs have learned
at last, within a year ago, and if Canovas had had the
foresight of the true statesman, instead of the blind egoism
of the autocrat, he would have thrown up his losing cards
while there was time and said, 'The Cuban War is a mistake.
Forgive me.' But his unflagging obstinacy held him to his
desperate and aimless course. Although his complicity with his
emissary, Weyler, in sending and publishing one lying telegram
after another, was manifest as day, he smiled and rubbed his
hands, and vowed the war was all but over; and behind that
smile he half despised and half defied the victims he invited
to believe him. He made no claim to be a patriot. He knew he
was unpopular. He knew that for every cottage whence a son had
been torn away to that disastrous strife in Cuba the Conservative
Government of the nation may count upon one bitter foe—the
Republicans or the Duke of Madrid upon one sure ally. What
would have happened in Spain, had he lived longer, is quite
beyond the average power to say. The prospect was too horrible
for words. However, he died, and his ministry, after feebly
mimicking the stubborn temper of their chief, succumbed also,
leaving to the Liberal Party a legacy which may be likened to
a bomb with time-fuse well alight and sputtering into the
explosive. In plainer words what faces Señor Sagasta is the
following: Spain is a beggar. Her credit is gone. Her army,
always of late years behindhand in discipline, instruction,
commissariat, and the thousand and one minutiæ other nations
are solicitous to attend to, is decimated by disease,
dispirited, and utterly incompetent to engage in war with any
civilised power. Her navy is rotten. Her people are
discontented and divided into various creeds. Some are for the
existing regime, some for Don Carlos, and some for the
Republic."
L. Williams,
Can Sagasta save Spain?
(Fortnightly Review, December, 1897).
SPAIN: A. D. 1897 (November).
Autonomous Constitution granted to Cuba and Porto Rico.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1897 (NOVEMBER);
and 1897-1898 (NOVEMBER-FEBRUARY).
SPAIN: A. D. 1898.
War with the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-MARCH), to 1899 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
SPAIN: A. D. 1898 (February-March).
Destruction of the United States
battle-ship Maine in Havana harbor.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).
SPAIN: A. D. 1898 (March-April).
Discussion of Cuban affairs with the Government of the
United States.
Message of the President to Congress,
asking for authority to intervene in Cuba.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (MARCH-APRIL).
{520}
SPAIN: A. D. 1898 (April).
Demand of the United States Government that the authority and
Government of Spain be withdrawn from Cuba, and its result
in a state of war.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL).
SPAIN: A. D. 1898 (July-December).
Suspension of hostilities and negotiations of Treaty of
Peace with the United States.
Relinquishment of sovereignty over Cuba, and cession of Porto
Rico, Guam and the Philippine Islands to the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).
SPAIN: A. D. 1898 (August 21).
Letter from Spanish soldiers, on their departure from
Santiago de Cuba, to the soldiers of the American army.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (AUGUST 21).
SPAIN: A. D. 1899.
Abolition of the Ministry of the Colonies.
Resignation of the Sagasta Cabinet.
Ratification of the Treaty of Peace.
The new conditions in Spanish government resulting from the
loss of Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines were promptly
acknowledged, in January, by the abolition of the Ministry of
Colonies, for which no sufficient duties remained. On the 20th
of February the Cortes was summoned, and on the same day the
"state of siege," declared during the war, which had
practically suspended constitutional rights, was removed by
proclamation. The Treaty of Peace with the United States was
laid before the Cortes; but the military party, led by General
Weyler, opposed the approval of the Treaty, evidently for the
purpose of embarrassing and weakening the government. They
were so far successful that Señor Sagasta and his cabinet were
forced to resign, on the 28th of February, and a Conservative
Ministry, under Señor Silvela, was formed. But the Cortes,
which declined to support the government in accepting the
Treaty of Peace, was dismissed a few days later by the
Queen-Regent, who signed the Treaty on her own responsibility,
March 11. The Silvela Ministry proved inharmonious, made so
especially by the Minister of War, General Polavieja, and in
September it was reconstructed, with Polavieja dropped out.
SPAIN: A. D. 1899 (January).
Relinquishment of sovereignty in Cuba.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1898-1899 (DECEMBER-OCTOBER).
SPAIN: A. D. 1899 (February).
Sale of the Caroline, Pelew and Marianne Islands to Germany.
See (in this volume)
CAROLINE AND MARIANNE ISLANDS.
SPAIN: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
SPAIN: A. D. 1900 (October-November).
Weyler appointed Captain-General of Madrid.
Resignation of the Silvela Ministry.
The army in control.
The army won control of the government in October, when
General Linares, Minister of War, without consulting his
colleagues of the cabinet—if report be true—appointed General
Weyler to be Captain-General of Madrid. Several members of the
cabinet resigned in protest, and the Premier, Señor Silvela,
found it necessary to place the resignation of the Ministry as
a whole in the hands of the Queen-Regent (October 21). A new
cabinet was formed, with General Azcarraga for its chief,
General Linares retaining the portfolio of the War Office, and
Weyler holding the military command in Madrid. The military
party appears to be fully in power, and a token of the spirit
it has carried into the government was given within ten days
after the formation of the new Ministry, by the promulgation
of a decree suspending the guarantees of the constitution and
establishing martial law throughout the kingdom. Some
movements of Carlist agitation and insurrection furnished a
pretext for this measure, but they appear to have had no
serious character.
It is probable that the military reaction at Madrid will
stimulate a revival of the old independent aspirations of the
Catalonians, which have been showing of late many signs of new
life. The desire for separation from Spain has never died out in
Catalonia, and a resolute new effort to accomplish it may
easily appear among the incidents of the near future.
SPAIN: A. D. 1900 (November).
Spanish-American Congress.
At the instance of the "Sociedad Union Ibero-Americana," an
unofficial organization which has been in existence for more
than 15 years, a congress was held in Madrid in November,
1900, with the object of strengthening the relations between
Spain and those American peoples who are of Spanish origin.
The proposal of the "Union Ibero-Americana" met with the
approval of the Spanish Government, and on April 16 a Royal
decree was issued appointing Señor Silvela, the Prime
Minister, to be president of a congress to be held in Madrid.
The Government of Spain then issued invitations to the
Spanish-American Republics, asking them to send
representatives, which invitations were accepted by the
governments of Mexico, the Argentine Republic, Chile, Uruguay,
Peru, and other States. The list of subjects for discussion
included proposals of treaties of commerce, international
arbitration, the harmonizing of the civil, penal, and
administrative legal codes of the various countries
represented, emigration, the international validity of
professional diplomas, the establishment of Ibero-American
banks, and others. The most important result of the Congress
was the voting of a plan of compulsory arbitration by the
South American republics. The motion was introduced by Peru,
which has the most to gain by arbitration. Chile's was the
sole dissenting voice. "This," remarks "The Nation," of New
York, "recalls the fact that Chile consented to take part in
the Pan-American Congress at the City of Mexico, only on
condition that any arbitration there provided for should not
concern her own disputed boundaries."
SPAIN: A. D. 1901.
Anti-clerical agitation, directed
especially against the Jesuits.
Marriage of the Princess of the Asturias.
A case arising in Madrid in February produced excitements of
feeling against the Jesuits which spread to all parts of the
country, and were the cause of serious political
demonstrations and rioting in many cities. A wealthy young
lady, Señorita Ubao, had been persuaded by her confessor, a
priest of the Jesuit order, to enter a convent, against the
wish of her family. The family applied to the High Court for a
mandate to secure her release. The prominence of the parties
drew universal attention to the case, and it was discussed
with passion throughout Spain, stirring up, as appears to be
evident, a latent anti-clerical feeling which only waited to
be moved.
{521}
It seems, moreover, to have served as an occasion for
demonstrations of the republicanism that continues to be
strong in Spain. Students of the universities were active
promoters of the excitement, and set examples of disorder
which were followed by rougher mobs. In Madrid, Zaragoza,
Valencia, Valladolid, Santandar, Granada, Malaga, Barcelona,
and other towns the excitement ran high, and was not quieted
by a decision of the High Court on the 19th of February,
restoring Señorita Ubao to her friends. At Barcelona, on the
last day of March, a meeting of 9,000 citizens, held in the
bull-ring, is reported to have passed resolutions in favor of
the separation of Church and State, advocating the prohibition
of religious orders, and expressing a desire that their
property should be taken possession of by the State. The
meeting voted messages congratulating France and Portugal on
their Anti-Clerical attitude. The meeting was followed by a
riotous attack on the Jesuit convent, and by a conflict of the
mob with the civil guard, in which blood was shed. From
various parts of the country, demands for the expulsion of the
religious orders were reported, in April, to be reaching the
government.
A royal wedding which occurred in the early days of this
anti-clerical agitation added something to the disturbance of
the public mind. Dona Maria de las Mercedes, eldest of the
children of the late King Alphonso XII. and his second wife,
was married on the 14th of February to Prince Charles, of the
Neapolitan Bourbon family, son of the Count of Caserta. The
Princess was Queen of Spain, in her infancy, for a few months
after her father's death, until the posthumous birth of her
brother, in 1886, and presumptively she may again inherit the
crown. In itself, the marriage does not seem to have been
unpopular; but, for some reason, the Count of Caserta was
odious to the public of Madrid, and became the object of
unpleasant attentions from the mob, while the bride and
bridegroom, and other members of the family of the latter,
were treated with respect.
SPANISH-AMERICAN CONGRESS, The.
See (in this volume)
SPAIN: A. D. 1900 (NOVEMBER).
SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-MARCH), to 1899 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
SPANISH SOLDIERS: Letter to American soldiers.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (AUGUST 21).
SPION KOP, The storming of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
SPITZBERGEN: Claimed by Russia.
See (in this volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION, 1898.
SPITZBERGEN: Recent Exploration of.
See (in this volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION, 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1900-.
SPOILS SYSTEM, The:
As maintained in the service of the
United States House of Representatives.
See (in this volume)
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1901.
SPOONER AMENDMENT, The.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).
STAMBOULOFF, M. Stephen, assassination of.
See (in this volume)
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: BULGARIA.
STANDARD OIL COMPANY.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: UNITED STATES.
STATEN ISLAND: Incorporation in Greater New York.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1896-1897.
STATISTICS: Of the British-Boer war.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (DECEMBER);
and SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR:
A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY), and (APRIL).
STATISTICS: Of Christian Missions.
See (in this volume)
MISSIONS, CHRISTIAN.
STATISTICS: Of finances and exports of the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1900 (JUNE), and (DECEMBER).
STATISTICS: Of the navies of the Sea Powers.
See (in this volume)
NAVIES OF THE SEA POWERS.
STATISTICS: Of the shipping of the world.
See (in this volume)
SHIPPING OF THE WORLD.
STATISTICS: Of the Spanish-American war.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898-1899, STATISTICS;
and 1900 (JUNE);
also, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (MAY), and (OCTOBER).
STATISTICS: Of war-making expenditure by the leading Powers.
See (in this volume)
WAR BUDGETS.
STEAM TURBINES, The invention of.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: MECHANICS.
STEEL: The Age of.
See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY: THE AGE OF STEEL.
STEEL PRODUCTION, Combinations in.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: UNITED STATES.
STEVENSON, Adlai E.:
Bi-metallic mission to Europe.
See (in this volume)
MONETARY QUESTIONS: A. D. 1897 (APRIL-OCTOBER).
STOCKHOLM, Exposition at.
A Scandinavian industrial exposition, which proved exceedingly
attractive, was held with much success at Stockholm, the
Swedish capital, in the summer and autumn of 1897.
STONEHENGE:
Fall of two stones.
"The last night of the nineteenth century was marked, as a
correspondent pointed out in our issue of yesterday, by a
serious injury to what remains of the majestic monument of
Stonehenge. One of the great uprights of the outer circle of
stones, as well as the cross-piece mortised to it on the top,
fell to the ground, thus destroying still further the most
striking effect of this gigantic temple or sepulchre. The fall
was probably caused by the torrents of rain and the violent winds
that closed the troubled record of the year 1900. One of the
uprights was brought to the ground, where it lies like so many
other of the stones that formed this vast megalithic structure,
and the capstone has been broken in pieces. The continuous
exterior circle of which these formed a part was originally
about one hundred feet in diameter, and though the masses were
less imposing individually than those of the great tritithons
around the centre, the effect of the mighty round of uprights,
sixteen feet high, with huge capstones resting on them, must
have been wonderful in its noble simplicity …
{522}
"The solicitude of the present age has placed Stonehenge, like
other great national monuments, under the permissive
protection of the law, but the law itself cannot prevent the
ravages of weather and the gradual subsidence of the
foundations on which these masses stand. Little, we fear, can
be done to keep the remaining uprights standing. They will
fall when their time comes and will lie where they fall like
those that have already succumbed to their fate. It is better,
perhaps, for the dignity of this venerable monument that it is in
no serious danger of that restoration which is at work on so
many later structures, more splendid as triumphs of art, but
less stubborn in their strength."
London Times,
January 4, 1901.
STORMBERG, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
STRATHCONA'S HORSE.
See (in this volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1899-1900.
STRIKES.
See (in this volume)
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES.
SUDAN, The Egyptian: A. D. 1885-1898.
Abandonment to the Dervishes.
Death of the Mahdi.
Reign of the Khalifa.
Anglo-Egyptian re-conquest.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896; 1897-1898; and 1899-1900.
SUDAN, The Egyptian: A. D. 1899.
Anglo-Egyptian condominium established.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY).
SUDAN, The French: A. D. 1895.
Under a Governor-General of French West Africa.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (FRENCH WEST AFRICA).
SUDAN, The French: A. D. 1897.
Definition of Tongoland boundary.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (DAHOMEY AND TONGOLAND).
SUDAN, The French: A. D. 1898-1899.
Agreement with Great Britain as to the limits.
See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1882-1899.
SUDANESE TROOPS: Mutiny in Uganda.
See (in this volume)
UGANDA: A. D. 1897-1898.
SUFFRAGE:
Qualifications in the several States of the American Union.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY);
also, DELAWARE; LOUISIANA;
MARYLAND; MISSISSIPPI; NORTH CAROLINA; and SOUTH CAROLINA.
SUFFRAGE, Woman.
See (in this volume)
WOMAN SUFFRAGE.
SUGAR BOUNTIES.
An extremely complicated and irrational state of things,
connected with the production and consumption of sugar
throughout the world, has been experienced for many years, as
a consequence of the system of bounties on exportation, by
which a number of European countries have stimulated the
production of beet-sugar, in competition with the sugar
produced from cane. The system was carried to its extreme
development in 1896-1897, in consequence of action taken in
Germany.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1896 (MAY).
The legislation in other countries which followed the German
measure of 1896 was set forth briefly in a memorial from the
Belgian beet-root sugar makers, in February, 1897, to the
Belgian Chamber of Representatives, a translation of which was
transmitted at the time to the State Department at Washington
by the United States Consul at Ghent. Said that memorial:
"The fiscal system applied to sugar factories in force
[previously] in the various countries mentioned [was] chiefly
established by the following laws: Germany, law of May 31,
1891; Austria, law of May 20, 1888; France, law of July 29,
1884; Russia, law of July 13, 1891; Belgium, law of April 16,
1887; Holland, law of April 15, 1891, and preceding
legislation. Since the dates above mentioned, the basis
established in these various countries had undergone only
secondary modifications, rather local than international, and,
generally, of a nature to diminish the fiscal favors instead
of increasing them. From the point of view of competition
among the countries of Europe, a sort of peaceful stability
was thus acquired, resulting in a corresponding equilibrium in
the interior relations of each country between the rural and
industrial systems, as well as between the cultivator and
owner. This situation, slowly established, has, during the
last year, suffered the most serious disturbances. Important
modifications have been adopted by all our competitors, Russia
excepted; the latter, enjoying a special system, suffices
almost entirely for itself without having much to export, it
is, therefore, not necessary to give it special consideration.
"The modifications to which we allude are the following: In
Germany, the law of May 27, 1896, increased the export
bounties in the following proportions: (1) For raw sugar, from
30 cents to 60 cents per 220 pounds; (2) for white sugar, from
41 cents to 72 cents; (3) for refined sugar, from 48 cents to
89 cents. This is not meant to interfere with other measures,
notably the imposition of supplementary taxes, and the
provision by which a factory, under the penalty of having its
proportion of export bounties reduced, is, so to speak,
obliged to increase its output or at least to maintain it at
the same level, even under the most unfavorable circumstances.
Immediately afterwards, Austria, by the law of July 7, 1896,
took corresponding protective and defensive measures,
especially increasing from about $2,000,000 to $3,600,000 the
amount of public funds destined for export bounties. In
France, the Chamber of Deputies has just voted export bounties
even more important than those of other countries, amounting
to—(1) raw sugar, 68 cents per 220 pounds; (2) white sugar,
77 cents; (3) refined sugar, 87 cents. All these export
bounties are independent of the interior advantages accorded
in Germany and Austria, in various forms less tangible,
although not less real, and in France in the form of bonuses
upon the manufacture, which, in the official French
statistics, appear for sums varying from $1.16 to $l.54½ per
220 pounds, and which may be normally fixed at $1.35 per 220
pounds. Holland, in turn, has just revised its system, giving
from the beginning to its producers a bounty of $1.06½ per 220
pounds on raw sugars. It is an economic war to the finish
between rival nations, each desiring the ruin of the others,
which these measures unchain on the sugar interests of Europe."
United States Consular Reports,
June, 1897, page 304.
{523}
The effect of bounty-payments is to enable the sugars-makers
of the country which pays them to sell sugar to foreign buyers
at a lower price than to buyers at home. Consumers in such a
country as England, where no sugar is produced, and where no
duties on imported sugar are levied, reap an enormous gain
from them, at the expense of the sugar consumers of the
bounty-paying countries. At the same time, the cane-sugar
growing colonies of England, especially those in the West
Indies, suffer from the competition which is made unnatural by
this method of governmental support. England, therefore, has
conflicting interests in the matter. The mass of her home
population, who are great consumers of "sweets," delight in
the continental bounties, which give them cheap sugar; while
her West India colonists, and the English sugar refiners, are
groaning under the hard competition they maintain.
In the bounty-paying countries the same conflict of interest
exists between beet-growers and sugar consumers, and
governmental attitudes on the question of adhering to the
bounties seem to depend on the relative strength, or political
weight, of the two bodies. Repeated attempts have been made to
come to an international agreement for their abolition or
modification. A general conference on the subject was held
without result in London, 1887; and another was undertaken in
June, 1898, at Brussels, on the invitation of the Belgian
government. The latter made manifest a strong desire to be rid
of the bounty-paying system, on the part of Germany,
Austria-Hungary, Belgium and the Netherlands. France was
willing to withdraw her direct bounties on the exportation of
sugar, but insisted on maintaining an internal system of taxes
which was said to have the real effect of a bounty. Russia,
likewise, would adhere to a domestic system of regulations
which had that effect. Great Britain declined to engage
herself to impose a duty on what was called "bounty-fed"
sugar, for the purpose of neutralizing the bounty, and so
placing that commodity on a footing of equality with its
rivals in her markets. Hence no agreement of common action
could be reached, and the Conference adjourned without result.
Continental consumers of sugar continue to pay a high price
for the prosperity of their beet-growers and sugar-makers; but
Englishmen, who have reveled in cheap "jams" at foreign
expense, are probably to lose that privilege, since the
exigencies of their Boer war expenditure have forced the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, at last, to introduce a duty of
4s. 2d. per cwt. on refined sugar in his budget for 1901. But
in his speech on introducing the budget, in the House of
Commons (April 18, 1901), the Chancellor expressed hopefulness
that the foreign sugar bounty might save England from a rise
in price for sugar, notwithstanding the tax. His remarks were
as follows:
"What is likely to be the effect on the price of sugar of the
imposition of a duty? In my opinion that is a very doubtful
question, because the price of sugar is not governed solely by
the ordinary conditions, but it is governed largely by the
bounty system. The great bulk of our imports of sugar come
from bounty-giving countries; and what is that system? Why,
Sir, it amounts to this, that the country giving the bounty
encourages the production of sugar within its borders, and at
the same time does its best to restrict the consumption of
sugar by its own people by every possible means, so that the
result is that there is an enormous surplus of sugar produced
which must find a foreign market, and which under present
circumstances can only find a market here. Therefore, it is
quite conceivable, unless, of course, a bounty-giving country
either reduced the area of their sugar production or lowered
their own excise duties on sugar for the benefit of their own
population—both of which would mean the abolition of the
bounty system—it is quite conceivable that the result of the
imposition of a tax on sugar here might be that, though at
first the price might go up and the consumption of sugar might
be consequently decreased, there would be such an influx into
this country of bounty-paid sugar that could not go anywhere
else that the price might be brought down. I merely put the
hypothesis to the Committee, because I think it is one that
ought to be considered by anyone who looks into this
question."
London Times, April 19, 1901.
"The geographical poles of the sugar trade are now Great
Britain and the United States, and the two great areas of
production are the beet-sugar countries of the continent of
Europe and the cane-growing countries of the American and the
Asiatic tropics. These two areas of production have been in
active rivalry for the past thirty years, and out of this
rivalry have come some striking results. The first is, that
beet sugar controls the world's sugar market; for of the
8,000,000 tons that constitute the commercial supply of sugar,
about 5,000,000 are produced from the beet, and the price of
this portion of the supply practically determines the price of
the 3,000,000 tons of cane sugar also. Still more significant
results are the removal of Great Britain from her once
dominant position in tropical sugar production and the
elimination of France and Spain from the struggle for
leadership in the same line of enterprise, as economic
conditions have centered the cane-sugar trade and industry in
America. To-day the continental beet-sugar countries supply
the United Kingdom with seventy-five per cent. of its annual
sugar imports (2,500,000 tons), leaving only one-quarter to
come from the tropics. The United States, on the other hand,
has become the chief market for tropical sugar. …
"India and the United States exclude bounty fed beet sugar;
and the reciprocity treaties with the United States, by
favoring tropical sugar with a minimum duty, put a narrower
limit to beet-sugar development, now prospering under a
protective tariff and state bounties. The general effect of
these positive aids to trade, as well as of the negative
restraints, has been to encourage tropical enterprise in which
sugar plays a leading role. …
"As things stand now, Germany continues to control the world's
sugar situation—not because of any superiority over the
tropics in machinery, nor because of the advantages of fiscal
bounties over tropical resources of the soil, but because all
the natural advantages under the prevailing slipshod methods
of tropical cane cultivation are more than counterbalanced by
the scientific methods of European agriculture applied to beet
farming. When the tropics apply to the cultivation of canes
(which covers half of the cost of producing sugar) the same
degree of scientific attention that has been given to the
methods of manufacturing the canes into sugar, then—and not
until then—need the beet-sugar interests of Europe look to
their laurels, under the present conditions of the trade."
J. F. Crowell, The Sugar Situation in the Tropics
(Political Science Quarterly. December, 1899).
{524}
In the United States, the Dingley Tariff law of 1897 required
the Secretary of the Treasury to levy a special countervailing
duty on all bounty-fed sugar equal to the benefit derived by
the manufacturers of it from the bounty systems under which it
was produced. German and French sugars have had to bear such
countervailing duty, and it was exacted on Russian sugar for a
time after the passage of the Dingley Act; but the Russian
government succeeded in bringing about a suspension of it,
pending negotiations for a commercial treaty, which came to
nothing. It was the Russian contention, that the system
operating in that country for the benefit of the sugar
producers, by means of internal taxes which are not collected
on exported sugar, and by paternal regulations which control
prices in the domestic market, is not a bounty system, within
the meaning of the American law. (The full text of the Russian
law on the subject may be found translated in the
"Congressional Record," February 26, 1901, page 3335.) By
these arguments and by protracted negotiations the Russians
succeeded in keeping the door of the American market open to
their sugar, with no extra levy of duties, until February,
1901, when the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States
arrived at the decision that he is required by the law to levy
and collect a countervailing duty or tax of 32 cents on each
pood (about 36 pounds) of Russian sugar imported into the
United States. The order to that effect, issued on the 12th of
February, gave great satisfaction to the American sugar-trust,
and more than equal dissatisfaction to other important
interests in the country, which are threatened by the danger
of retaliatory tariffs on the Russian side. The situation
produced is thus described in a Washington letter to the
"Tribune" of New York: "The iron and steel manufacturers have
been clamoring for the continued suspension of the
countervailing duty on Russian sugars. They have begun, they
say, to build up a market in Russia for American steel
products, and that market will be lost to them if Russia in
retaliation imposes maximum instead of minimum duties on steel
and iron manufactures. The steel industry all over the world
is threatened with a glut in production, and the American
manufacturers especially are keenly looking about for every
possible opportunity to dispose of an increasing surplus. They
deplore, therefore, the reimposition of the sugar duty, and
will help to fight for a reversal of Secretary Gage's action
by the Board of General Appraisers or by the courts. The
Secretary contends that the Russian scheme of encouraging the
sugar interest should be submitted for judgment to some legal
tribunal, and that in such an evident case of doubt it is his
duty to favor the Government to the extent of reimposing the
disputed duty. The case will go to the Board of General
Appraisers in New York, and then to the Federal courts, and a
final decision is, perhaps, two years off. Meanwhile the
German, French and other Continental governments have been
somewhat appeased, and the Sugar Trust has won a substantial
victory at the expense of the iron and steel consolidation.
Russia is disposed to resort to retaliatory decrees, and the
whole horizon is more or less clouded with threats of
commercial warfare."
The immediate consequence of the order of the United States
Treasury Department was a retaliatory order by M. De Witte,
the Russian Minister of Finance, issued four days later
(February 16), directing the collection of an additional
tariff of 30 per cent net upon American hardware, iron, steel,
boilers, pipes, forgings, castings, tools, gas and water
meters, dynamos, sewing machines, when such articles are of
American manufacture. This includes motors and machinery of
all kinds.
SUGAR TRUST, The.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: UNITED STATES;
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (MARCH-JULY);
and SUGAR BOUNTIES.
SULU ARCHIPELAGO:
Acknowledgment of the sovereignty of the United States.
The Sultan's Government.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (MAY-AUGUST).
SUMER.
See (in volume 1)
BABYLONIA, PRIMITIVE;
(in volume 4)
SEMITES;
and (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA.
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1895.
Decision against the constitutionality of the Income Tax.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895 (APRIL-MAY).
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1900-1901.
Hearing of cases involving questions concerning the status of
the new possessions of the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900-1901.
SURGERY, Recent advances in.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: MEDICAL AND SURGICAL,
and CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS (X RAYS).
SUSA, Recent exploration of the ruins of.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: PERSIA.
SUWAROFF ISLAND:
Proposed annexation to New Zealand.
See (in this volume)
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1900 (OCTOBER).
SUZERAINTY:
The question between Great Britain and
the South African Republic.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1884-189-1;
1897 (MAY-OCTOBER); and 1898-1899.
SWAT VALLEY:
British India and the tribes of the.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1895 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER);
1897-1898; and 1901 (FEBRUARY).
SWAZILAND:
Administration assumed by the Transvaal Government.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (THE TRANSVAAL).
{525}
SWEDEN AND NORWAY:
Norwegian discontent with the union.
"The question of representation in foreign countries has now
convulsed Scandinavia for some years. A race of democratic
tendencies usually thinks more of its Consular than of its
Diplomatic Service, and Norway, in demanding immediate
permission to appoint her own Consuls, announces that she is
willing to leave for future consideration the subject of
separate Ambassadors for the two countries. Professor Harald
Hjärne crystallizes the reply of Sweden in the words: 'By
granting such a request we run the risk of our foreign policy,
and with it also our satisfactory relations with foreign
Powers, in fact, the whole external safety of our country,
becoming a mere ball for the Norwegian parties during their
contests for power.' However, the King, who is ever ready to
grant privileges to his Norwegian subjects, even when acting
against his better judgment, declared himself willing to
accede to the petition as to the Consuls, and to allow the
sister country to have the direct voice in the regulation of
foreign affairs which she has so long demanded, but only on
condition that she would contribute to the defence of the two
Kingdoms in proportion to her population. … Many leading
Norwegians declare that those who shout so loudly for a
revision of the Constitution are, after all, in the minority.
They argue that claims on Sweden are, for the most part,
merely advanced as a party cry, and that if a general appeal
were made to the country, the majority would pronounce,
without hesitation, in favor of a continuation of the Union to
the State which has given Norway, for the first time in her
history, a period of nearly a century of peace and
uninterrupted prosperity. …
"The Left support their plea for separate Consuls by pointing
out that the mercantile navy of Norway is far larger than that
of Sweden; they claim for it, in fact, that it is the third
largest in the world. A reply to this is that a large
proportion of this navy consists of old wooden sailing-boats,
unfit for any purpose but that of carrying timber, that Norway
has increased her mercantile navy at the expense of her
warships, and that in time of war she would have to depend
exclusively on the splendid modern battleships of Sweden for
the defence both of her harbours and her shipping, since she
is not now herself the owner of one single modern ironclad. It
may be mentioned, in connection with this matter, that the
exports and imports of Sweden are nearly treble those of
Norway, the timber trade of the former country alone being the
largest in Europe, and that it is in consequence of Sweden
leaving so much of her carrying trade in the hands of the
sister country, thereby contributing no little to her
prosperity, that she has been encouraged and enabled to
increase her merchant navy to such an extent. Sweden has
throughout the century made enormous sacrifices for her navy,
and especially has this been the case since King Oscar came to
the throne. She is, therefore, so far as can be foreseen, in a
position to defend both her own ports and her merchant
vessels. She does not, however, profess to be equal to the
task of protecting the long coast-line of Norway and that vast
fleet of merchant vessels, of which the land last named is
justly proud, without any aid whatever from the sister
country, and statistics prove that, however willing in an
emergency Norway might be, she would be unable to offer for
this purpose help that would be of any practical use. …
"In March, 1895, during the Consular crisis, King Oscar went
over to Christiania and did his utmost to effect a compromise.
Demands were made on him by the Extreme Left, to which he
could not consent, and he referred the Storthing to the Act of
Union proving that should he agree to the claim, he would
himself be guilty of a violation of the Constitution. Some
painful scenes ensued, and the King left Norway almost at
once. On his arrival in Stockholm he received an ovation such
as few Swedish monarchs can ever have had before. Every
distinguished man in the country seemed to have assembled at
the railway-station to greet him; each public body was
represented by its leading member, the whole of the Swedish
Parliament was present, and the fervour and enthusiasm with
which he was saluted is beyond description. The Press, without
a single exception, took the King's side, praising His
Majesty's action in most lavish terms; this produced more
effect than anything in Norway, where the Left had counted on
the support of the Radical Press in Sweden, not realising
that, when once there was a question of attacks on the Union
and the Constitution, all parties were equally prepared to
rally round the King. …
"In view of the strained relations between Sweden and Norway,
it may be said that Russia's encroachment on the liberties of
Finland is extremely ill-timed if, as is probable, she
contemplates offering her protection to Norway as she did to
the neighbouring country at the beginning of the century.
Even if no such extreme step on the part of Russia be in view,
should those among Norway's two million inhabitants who demand
separation, have their way, the country would be able to offer
the Imperial Government a splendid bribe as the price of its
non-intervention, for to the north of the territory of
Norrland lies the Varanger Fjord, an inlet including several
fine harbours, which is practically free from ice throughout
the year. This bay, so much coveted by the greater power, is
only separated from the Czar's dominions by a narrow strip of
Norwegian soil, which has already been crossed by a railway
constructed by Russia with the permission of Norway. The value
of this fjord to the Empire in time of war would be
incalculable, and to have this magnificent gift at its
disposal is a perpetual temptation to Norway to win the
suffrages of the only European Power she has reason to fear
should she ever hoist the flag of revolt she has so long held
half-unfurled in her hand."
Constance Sutcliffe,
Scandinavia and her King
(Fortnightly Review, October, 1897).
In 1899, an Act directing the removal of the emblem of union
from the flag of Norway was passed by the Norwegian Storthing
for the third time over the veto of the King, and became law,
under the provisions of the Constitution.
SWEDEN AND NORWAY: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1894-1898.
The Initiative and the Referendum in practice.
Three times during the year 1894, with a conservative result
in each instance, important questions of legislation were
submitted to the vote of the Swiss people. In one instance
they were asked to demand that a portion of the federal
customs dues should be assigned to the cantons for cantonal
use, the avowed aim of the proposition being to weaken the
Confederation. They rejected the scheme by a vote of 347,491
against 145,270.
{526}
A still heavier majority was given against Socialist proposals
for a constitutional article guaranteeing the right of every
Swiss citizen to remunerated work. This was supported by only
75,880 votes, against 308,289. For another Socialist proposal,
of gratuitous medical attendance, the necessary petition (with
50,000 signatures) in order to bring it to a popular vote, could
not be obtained. A third, for extending factory regulations to
all shops in which manual work is done, and for establishing
obligatory trade syndicates, to fix salaries, prices, number
of apprentices, was lost by a vote of 135,713 against 158,492.
Again, in 1895, the result of appeals made to the Referendum
seemed to show that the disposition of the people was more
conservative than that of the government. An Army Reform Bill,
which enlarged the federal control of military administration,
was rejected by 270,000 votes, against 195,000. Two or three
other proposals of less moment were voted down by considerable
majorities, and it appeared unmistakably that changes dependent
on the popular will were not to be easily made.
In 1896 a proposal from the Federal Council to make the head
of the War Office commander-in-chief of the army in time of
peace was voted down, on a referendum, by 310,992 against
77,169. During that year there was much agitation of a project
for the establishment of a State Bank, which the Chambers had
sanctioned; but, on being submitted to the people, early in
1897, it was defeated by a majority of about 60,000.
Another measure, supported by the Federal Council and adopted
in the Chambers, for the purchase of the five principal
railways of the republic, was submitted to the decision of the
Referendum in February, 1898, and carried by 384,272 votes
against 176,002. Accordingly, the five railways known as the
Swiss Central, the Union, the Northeastern, the St. Gothard,
and the Jura Simplon, about 1,650 miles in total length,
became the property of the state. The general plan of the
government was to purchase the railways at twenty-five times
the average net annual earnings for the past ten years,
providing this was not less than the actual cost. The
companies to have the privilege of deducting surplus capital,
but to turn over the roads in first-class condition.
SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1897.
Constitutional amendments.
Consul Germain wrote from Zurich, July, 1897:
"Constitutional amendments were voted on and adopted by the
Swiss people on Sunday last, July 11. The first amendment
relates to forestry and gives the Federal Government control
over and power to enact uniform laws to regulate Swiss
forests. The second amendment puts the manufacture, sale, and
importation of food products under federal control. These two
amendments will relieve the cantons from vexatious
legislation, heretofore differing in each of the twenty
cantons and four half cantons, and give the whole of
Switzerland uniform laws on forestry and the manufacture,
sale, and importation of food products."
United States Consular Reports,
October, 1897, page 296.
SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1900.
Rejection of new electoral proposals.
On the 4th of November the Swiss nation gave its decision
regarding two important proposals which under the name of the
"double initiative" had been causing great excitement among
the population of the Confederation. One of these proposals
had for its object the election of members of the National
Council on the system of proportional representation, the
other the election of the Federal Council by the people. Both
proposals were rejected, the first by 242,004 popular votes to
163,548, and by 11½ cantonal votes to 10½, and the second by
264,087 popular votes to 134,167 and by 14 cantonal votes to
8.
SYRIA:
Exploration of ruined cities of the Roman province.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: SYRIA.
SZECHUAN.
See (in this volume)
CHUNG-KING.
T.
TA TAO HUI, The.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH).
TACNA, The question concerning.
See (in this volume)
CHILE: A. D. 1894-1900.
TAGALOS,
TAGALOGS, The.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: THE NATIVE INHABITANTS.
TAGALOS:
Revolt against the sovereignty of the United States
in the Philippines.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (AUGUST-DECEMBER), and after.
TAKU FORTS, Allied capture of the.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JUNE 10-26).
TALANA HILL, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
TALIENWAN: A. D. 1895.
Russo-Chinese Treaty.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1895.
TALIENWAN: A. D. 1898.
Lease to Russia.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (MARCH-JULY).
TALIENWAN: A. D. 1899.
Declared a free port.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899 (AUGUST).
TAMMANY HALL.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1894-1895;
and 1897 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).
TARIFF, Chinese.
See (in this volume)
LIKIN.
TARIFF LEGISLATION:
Australia: A. D. 1894-1895.
Defeat of Protection in New South Wales.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRALIA (NEW SOUTH WALES): A. D. 1894-1895.
TARIFF LEGISLATION:
Australia: A. D. 1901.
Promised protective policy for the new Commonwealth.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1901 (MAY).
TARIFF LEGISLATION:
Canada: A. D. 1897.
Revision of tariff, with discriminating duties in favor of
Great Britain, and provisions for reciprocity.
See (in this volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1896-1897.
TARIFF LEGISLATION:
Europe and America: A. D. 1896-1901.
The question of sugar bounties and countervailing duties.
See (in this volume)
SUGAR BOUNTIES; and GERMANY: A. D. 1896 (MAY).
{527}
TARIFF LEGISLATION:
Germany: A. D. 1891-1899.
Recent commercial treaties.
Preparations for forthcoming treaties.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1891-1899.
TARIFF LEGISLATION: Germany: A. D. 1895-1898.
Demands of the German Agrarian Protectionists.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1895-1898.
TARIFF LEGISLATION: Germany: A. D. 1901.
Promised increase of protective duties.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).
TARIFF LEGISLATION: Japan: A. D. 1897.
New tariff law.
See (in this volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1897.
TARIFF LEGISLATION: Philippines: A. D. 1901.
New tariff for the Islands.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901 (MARCH).
TARIFF LEGISLATION: Porto Rico. A. D. 1900
Tariff between Porto Rico and the United States.
See (in this volume)
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1899-1900.
TARIFF LEGISLATION: United States: A. D. 1897.
The Dingley Tariff.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (MARCH-JULY);
and 1899-1901.
TARIFF LEGISLATION: United States: A. D. 1899-1901.
Reciprocity treaties.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 1899-1901.
TARIFF LEGISLATION: United States: A. D. 1900.
Relations of the tariff to steel and tin plate industries.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: UNITED STATES.
TASMANIA.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRALIA; and CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRALIA.
TEHUANTEPEC RAILWAY, The.
See (in this volume)
MEXICO: A. D. 1898-1900.
TELEGRAPH, Cape to Cairo.
For the projected line of telegraph from the southern to the
northern extremity of Africa, Mr. Cecil Rhodes has undertaken
to find most of the needed money. He began construction from
the northern terminus of the Cape telegraphic service. In 1899
it was reported: "He has pushed the line northward through
Rhodesia to Umtali, in Mashonaland, which is 1,800 miles from
the Cape, and is pushing it on through Nyassaland to the
southern end of Lake Tanganyika, another 700 miles farther
north. The total distance to be covered is 6,600 miles. At the
same time the Egyptian government, under British auspices, was
pushing its telegraph system southward from Wady Halfa. Its
advance was intermittent, the erection of the telegraph poles
being necessarily dependent upon the pushing back of the
outposts of the Dervishes. Last autumn, however, the
destruction of the power of the Khalifa at Omdurman enabled
the Anglo-Egyptian authorities to reopen the long-closed
telegraph office at Khartoum. Khartoum being 1,300 miles from
Cairo, this reduces the distance to be spanned by the
telegraph wire to 3,500 miles; or, if we reckon Abercorn, on
Lake Tanganyika, as its northern terminus, only 2,800 miles.
It is being rapidly eaten into at both ends, more rapidly in
the south than in the north. Still nearly one-half of the
continent, and that the most difficult part, remains to be
crossed."
W. T. Stead
(in McClure's Magazine, August, 1899).
Soon after this was written, the South African War stopped the
progress of the work.
TELEGRAPHS, Submarine.
"The submarine telegraphs of the world number 1,500. Their
aggregate length is 170,000 miles; their total cost is
estimated at $250,000,000, and the number of messages annually
transmitted over them 6,000,000: All the grand divisions of
the earth are now connected by their wires, and from country
to country and island to island the thoughts and words of
mankind are instantaneously transmitted. … Adding to the
submarine lines the land-telegraph systems by which they are
connected and through which they bring interior points of the
various continents into instantaneous communication, the total
length of telegraph lines of the world is 835,000 miles, the
length of their single wires or conductors 3,500,000 miles,
and the total number of messages annually sent over them
365,000,000, or an average of 1,000,000 messages each day. In
the short half century since the practicability of submarine
telegraphy was demonstrated, the electric wires have invaded
every ocean except the Pacific. Nearly a score of wires have
been laid across the Atlantic, of which no less than thirteen
now successfully operate between the United States and Europe,
while three others span the comparatively short distance
between South America and the African and south European coast
lines. Throughout the Indian Ocean, lines connect the far East
with Europe and America by way of the Red Sea, the
Mediterranean, the western coast of Europe, and the great
trans-Atlantic lines. The Mediterranean is crossed and
recrossed in its entire length and breadth by numerous cable
lines, and the Mediterranean of America,' the Gulf of Mexico
and the Caribbean Sea, is traversed in all directions by lines
which bring its islands and colonies into speaking relations
with each other and with South America, Central America, the
United States, and thence with Europe, Africa, Asia—the whole
world. Along the eastern coast of Asia, cable lines loop from
port to port and island to island, receiving messages overland
from eastern Europe by way of the Russia-Siberian land lines
and forwarding them to Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand,
the Straits Settlements, Hongkong, and the Philippines, and
receiving others in return. South America is skirted with
cable lines along its entire border save the extreme south,
where they are brought into inter-communication by land lines.
Along the entire coast of Africa, cables loop from place to place
and from colony to colony, stretching along the entire
circumference and penetrating the interior by land lines at
various points. Every body of water lying between the
inhabited portions of the earth, with the single exception of
the Pacific Ocean, has been crossed and recrossed by submarine
telegraph lines. Even that vast expanse of water has been
invaded along its margin, submarine wires stretching along its
western border from Siberia to Australia, while its eastern
borders are skirted with lines which stretch along the western
coasts of the two Americas. Several adventurous pioneers in
Pacific telegraphy have ventured to considerable distances and
depths in that great ocean, one cable line running from
Australia to New Zealand, a distance of over 1,000 miles, and
another extending from Australia to the French colony of New
Caledonia, 800 miles seaward."
United States Bureau of Statistics,
Monthly Summary, January, 1899.
TELEGRAPHY, Wireless.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: ELECTRICAL.
TELEPHONE SYSTEM, Recent development of.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: ELECTRICAL.
{528}
TELEPHONY, Dr. Pupin's improvement in long-distance.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: ELECTRICAL.
TEMPERANCE.
See (in this volume)
references under LIQUOR SELLING.
TEMPLE LIBRARY, of ancient Nippur, The.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.
TENNESSEE: A. D. 1897.
Centennial Exposition.
The centennial anniversary of the admission of Tennessee to
the American Union was celebrated by the holding of a very
successful exposition at Nashville, opening May 1, 1897.
TERESA URREA.
See (in this volume)
MEXICO: A. D. 1896-1899.
TESLA, Nikola: Electrical inventions and discoveries.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: ELECTRICAL.
THREE AMERICAS RAILWAY, The.
See (in this volume)
RAILWAY, INTERCONTINENTAL.
THUTMOSIS I., The tomb of.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT: NEW DISCOVERIES.
TIENTSIN.
"Tientsin is the most important city of northern China, being
located at the head of the Gulf of Pechili and but 80 miles
from the capital, Pekin, with which it is connected by water
and by a railway line. Another completed railway line runs
northeastwardly to Shanhai-kwan, and an elaborate railway
system is projected southward from this point through the
populous provinces of Shantung and Kiangsu to connect Tientsin
with Shanghai. In addition to these, the Grand Canal, the most
important of the great artificial waterways of China, has for
centuries connected Tientsin with the Yangtze-Kiang and
Shanghai. Its population is in round numbers 1,000,000."
United States, Bureau of Statistics, Monthly Summary,
March, 1899, page 2194.
"Tientsin is situated at the junction of the Huei River
(sometimes called the Grand Canal) with the Peiho River, in
latitude 39° 3' 55" north and longitude 117° 3' 55" east. It
is distant from Pekin by road about 80 miles. Formerly, it was
a military station only, but towards the end of the
seventeenth century became a city of great importance. To-day,
it is the home of 1,000,000 people, with an annual import and
export trade aggregating 65,000,000 taels * ($42,250,000).
[* Consul Ragsdale values the haikwan tael at 65 cents;
the estimate of the United States Director of the Mint,
July 1, 1898, is 68.8 cents.]
… The growth of Tientsin within the past few years is most
astonishing. The mud holes and swamps of a few years ago have
been filled in; one, two, three, and even four story brick
buildings erected; streets macadamized, trees planted, gas
works constructed, and now pipes (from New York) for a very
elaborate and perfect water system are being laid—all due to
foreign enterprise. On the other hand, the Chinese authorities
have been seized with the spirit of progress, and to them is
due the building and furnishing of the Imperial Military
College, the Imperial University, arsenals for the manufacture
of guns and ammunition, a mint for the coinage of silver, and,
last but not least, 320 miles of a splendid railway. …
"The Imperial University was established in 1895 by its
president, Mr. C. D. Tenney (former United States vice-consul
at Tientsin), at the request of His Excellency Sheng Hsuan,
with the advice and approval of the Emperor. His Excellency Wu
Ting-fang, present Chinese minister at Washington, and Mr.
Ts-ai Shao-chin, member of Viceroy Wang's staff, were the
first directors. The university is divided into three
departments, viz, collegiate, preparatory, and railway. The
preparatory course covers four years, after which the students
enter the collegiate department, where they remain another
four years. At the end of the first year in the collegiate
department, the students are drafted into special
classes—civil, mining, and mechanical engineering, and law.
Each special branch is in charge of foreign professors,
assisted by Chinese professors. The railway department was
organized for the purpose of providing men for subordinate
positions in the railway service—draftsmen, engineers, station
masters, etc. The students are admitted to the various
departments by competitive examinations. The government of the
university is solely in the hands of the president and
directors, the former being responsible for the educational
work of the institution. Thirty students in each class are
supported by the Government and are bound to Government
service after their graduation. The present number of students
is 250, and the annual expenses are 60,000 taels ($39,000),
entirely borne by the Government. The president and four of
the five professors are citizens of the United States.
"The Imperial Military College was established by His
Excellency Li Hung-Chang, the viceroy of Chihli, in the year
1884. At the beginning, it was simply intended to give
employment to the German officers under contract with the
Government, but the necessity of training men in the arts of
war led the viceroy to memorialize the Throne in behalf of a
permanent military college. A suitable building was erected,
at a cost of 50,000 taels ($32,500), and the annual expense of
maintenance is about the same amount. The students are drafted
from the different military camps, and they are supported by
the generals under whom they were serving. After a two years'
course, they return to their respective commands as
instructors. The school is under the directorship of Taotai
Yint Chang, a Manchu, who received his military education in
Germany, and held a commission of lieutenancy in the Austrian
army. All the principal instructors are Germans, most of them
being noncommissioned officers."
United States Consular Reports,
December, 1898, pages 550-552.
TIENTSIN: A. D. 1897.
Extension of British settlement.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1897 (MAY-JUNE).
TIENTSIN: A. D. 1900.
Capture by allied forces.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JULY).
TIGRIS, Valley of the:
Recent archæological exploration.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA.
TIN PLATE INDUSTRY, in the United States.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: UNITED STATES.
{529}
TOCHI VALLEY, British-Indian war with the tribes.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1897-1898.
Inclusion in a new British Indian province.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
TOGOLAND: A. D. 1899.
State of German colony.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (JUNE).
TOGOLAND: A. D. 1900.
Demarcation of the Hinterland.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1900.
TOLEDO, OHIO: A. D. 1899-1901.
The election of Mayor Jones.
Importance was given to the municipal election of April, 1899,
in Toledo, Ohio, by the character of the chosen Mayor, Samuel
M. Jones. He had first made himself known as a manufacturer in
the city, by his dealings with his employees. The Golden Rule
was posted in his shops, as the law by which he expected his
own conduct and that of the men who served him to be governed,
and it was found that he consistently obeyed the rule. In
1897, the Republican party, needing a candidate for Mayor, put
him forward and elected him. In office, he served the people
so well and the politicians and the monopoly interests so
little to their satisfaction, that his party, obedient to the
latter, cast him aside and nominated to the Mayor's office a
more "practical" man. Mr. Jones, thereupon, was induced to
present himself as an independent candidate, on a platform
denounced as "socialistic," and was elected by more than
double the total vote cast against him, for the regular
candidates of the Republican and Democratic parties. In the
following November, Mr. Jones was put forward as an
independent candidate for Governor of Ohio, and was not
elected, but received something over 106,000 votes.
On the 1st of April, 1901, Mr. Jones was reelected Mayor of
Toledo for a third term, again as an Independent, and as a
champion of municipal ownership for all public utilities.
TONGA ISLANDS, The:
Renunciation of German rights to Great Britain.
See (in this volume)
SAMOAN ISLANDS.
TORAL, General:
The Spanish defense of Santiago de Cuba.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).
Surrender of Spanish forces in eastern Cuba.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY 4-17).
TOSKI, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896.
TOWER BRIDGE.
See (in this volume)
LONDON: A. D. 1894.
TRANS-MISSISSIPPI EXPOSITION.
See (in this volume)
OMAHA: A. D. 1898.
TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1895;
and RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1891-1900.
TRANSUBSTANTIATION, English royal declaration against.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
TRANSVAAL, The.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL).
TRANSVAAL NATIONAL UNION, The.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1895-1896.
TRIADS, Rebellion of the.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JULY).
TRIBUNAL OF ARBITRATION, The Permanent.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
TRIPLE ALLIANCE, The.
The treaty of the Triple Alliance, or Dreibund, of Germany,
Austria-Hungary and Italy, formed in 1882 and renewed in 1887,
for common defense against France and Russia, expires in 1903.
See, in volume 5,
TRIPLE ALLIANCE.
Rumors of an intention on the part of Italy to withdraw from
the Alliance arose in the spring of 1901, and received some
color from a marked exchange of friendly courtesies between
Italy and France in April, when an Italian squadron was
entertained at Toulon, on the occasion of a visit from the
President of the French Republic to that city. But there seems
to be little reason to believe that any such action has been
determined by the Italian government.
TROCHAS.
A Spanish term applied to military entrenchments or fortified
lines.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897; and 1897-1898 (DECEMBER-MARCH).
TROY: Later researches on the site.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: TROY.
TRUST, The Sugar, and the Dingley Tariff.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1897 (MARCH-JULY); and SUGAR BOUNTIES.
----------TRUSTS: Start--------
TRUSTS:
Industrial combinations in the United States.
An "Industrial Commission," was created by Act of Congress in
June, 1898.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE).
It submitted a preliminary report on the 1st of March, 1900,
on the subject of "Trusts and Industrial Combinations," from
which the following historical information is taken:
"The form of organization that has given them [industrial
combinations] their name 'trusts' was the one started by the
Standard Oil Trust in 1882, afterwords followed by the Whisky
combination—the Distillers and Cattle Feeders' Trust—and by
the Sugar Trust—the American Sugar Refineries Company. The
plan of that organization was as follows: The stockholders of
the different corporations entering the combination assigned
their stock in trust to a board of trustees without the power
of revocation. That board of trustees then held the voting
power of the stocks of the different companies, and was thus
enabled, through the election of directors, to control them
absolutely. In place of the stock thus received the trustees
issued trust certificates upon which the former holders of the
stock drew their dividends, these being paid upon the
certificates regardless of what disposition was made of the
plants of the different corporations. Owing largely to hostile
legislation and to the bitter feeling against the trusts above
named, these trusts, after some adverse decisions of the
courts, went out of existence, reorganizing as single
corporations in most cases, and none at the present time
remain.
{530}
A somewhat similar form of organization, however—the voting
trust—is found at times. In this form of trust the holders of
at least a majority of stock of a single corporation put their
stock into the hands of trustees for the purpose of voting it,
retaining for themselves all the privileges of drawing
dividends and making transfers. Such a voting trust has been
formed, it is claimed, in the case of the Pure Oil Company—an
organization of the independent oil interests—for the sake of
protecting a majority of the stock against purchase by the
Standard Oil Company. … As a form of corporate combination for
the sake of securing monopolistic control, the voting trust
does not seem to be now in vogue.
"The form of organization that seems most common at the
present time is that of the single large corporation, which
owns outright the different plants. A combination of this kind
is formed by the purchase of all of the plants of the
different corporations or individuals who enter into it, the
corporations then dissolving as separate corporations. Often
payments for the plants are made largely in stock of the new
corporation, so that many of the former owners maintain their
interest in the business. The affairs are then managed
entirely by the stockholders of the one corporation through
their board of directors, elected in the ordinary way. It is
usual for these larger corporations to choose a very liberal
form of charter.
"A third form of organization, which is in many particulars
quite like the original trust form, is that which has been
taken by the Federal Steel Company, by the Distilling Company
of America, and others. In this form the central company,
instead of purchasing the plants of the different corporations
which it is proposed to unite, simply buys a majority of the
stock, or possibly the entire stock of each one of the
corporations. The separate corporations keep in separate
corporate existence, but a majority of the stock being held by
the one larger corporation, its officers, of course, elect the
boards of directors of all of the separate corporations, and
in this way hold ultimately complete control. It is usually
true that the separate corporations manage their own affairs
practically independently, although they are furnished
information regarding the workings of the other establishments
in the combination through the central officers, and are
doubtless largely directed in their policy in this way.
"In the case of the Standard Oil Company, when the original
trust was dissolved, there were issued to the holders of trust
certificates proportional amounts of stocks of each of the
constituent companies, and since the trustees themselves had
held a majority of the certificates, they retained as
individuals a majority of the stock in each one of the
companies that had formerly been in the trust. The separate
corporations were named as separate corporations, but the
majority of the stock of all being held in the same hands, the
directors of the different companies were largely the same men,
and their affairs were managed in unison in substantially the
same way as had been the case before. The new Standard Oil
Company of New Jersey has recently been formed with the
intention of transferring the stocks of the different
corporations into the stock of the new company, so that when
the transfer has been finally made, one single corporation,
the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, will own outright the
property now owned by the separate companies which are
commonly known and mentioned together under the name of the
Standard Oil Company. This combination at present has no
formal unity. It has a practical unity as great as it will
have probably after the complete change into the New Jersey
company is effected.
"As most of the larger corporations have, within the last few
years, been organized in New Jersey, it will be worth while to
note the special advantages given by the corporation laws of
that State. The advantages that seem to be brought out most
clearly are:
First, taxation. The organization tax is considerably lower
than that of most of the States, while the annual tax is fixed
upon the amount of capital paid in, so that it is an
absolutely certain quantity and can be determined by anyone,
thus leaving no opportunity for corruption on the part of
either the corporation itself or of State officials. The rate
of the tax is moderate, and decreases as the amount of capital
increases.
Second. Perhaps a greater advantage is to be found in the
liberal form of the New Jersey charter. The amount of capital
is unlimited, the period of organization is unlimited, the
amount of indebtedness is not limited, the powers that are
granted to corporations are also practically unlimited, with
the exception that an ordinary business corporation is
forbidden to engage in banking. The Federal Steel Company
would have found it impossible to organize for the purpose of
engaging in the various enterprises which it has undertaken
had it incorporated in the State of Illinois or of
Pennsylvania. The same thing holds also with reference to the
American Steel and Wire Company.
Third. There is less liability on the part of the stockholders
than in several other States.
Fourth. The directors have also less liability. In case of
issuance of stock for property the judgment of the directors
is conclusive as to the value of the property taken, unless
there is evidence of fraud. Stock issued thus for property is
considered fully paid up, and the stockholders can not be held
further liable in case the property proves to have been taken at
less than its cash value. The directors are not personally
liable for the debts of the corporation if they fail to file
reports or to conform with certain other requirements. …
"During the past few years the total capitalization of the new
industrial combinations has reached an enormous sum, well into
the billions, and in many cases at least the nominal
capitalization of the corporations far exceeds the cash value
of their property. … Regarding most of the combinations
concerning which testimony has been taken the facts appear
quite clear. None of the witnesses believe that the Standard
Oil Company is on the whole over-capitalized, as compared with
the present value of the plants. Its opponents believe that
its profits are enormous on the capitalization. The witnesses
representing the Standard Oil Company itself, while admitting
very large profits and presenting no very definite facts
regarding the capitalization, still give the same impression
from their testimony. The American Sugar Refining Company
seems to be, beyond question, capitalized at a sum twice as
large at least as the cost of reconstruction of the plants
themselves. The capitalization was shown to be several times
the original capitalization of its constituent members. …
{531}
"Perhaps the clearest testimony on this subject of
capitalization came from the witnesses connected with some of
the iron and steel companies. The witnesses regarding the
tin-plate combination were in substantial agreement in stating
that the owners of most of the plants gave an option on their
plants at what they considered was the fair cash value,
although, owing to the good times and to the fact that, in
many cases, the industries were quite prosperous, the prices
were high. They were then given, by the promoter, the option
of taking this valuation of their property in cash, or of
taking instead the same amount in preferred stock with a like
amount of common stock added as bonus. … One of the witnesses,
at least, conceded that the total amount of stock thus paid
for the plants, since the cash option was taken in prosperous
times and included not merely the value of the plant but also
the good will of the running business, probably amounted in
some instances to three or four or even five times the cash
cost of the plants at that time. … Exactly the same system
seems to have been followed in the capitalization of the
National Biscuit Company, the National Steel Company, and the
American Steel Hoop Company. In all these cases there was a
clear understanding that the common stock represented simply
bonus or anticipated profits. …
"In the case of the American Tin Plate Company there was also
added ten millions of common stock, which was issued to the
promoter for his services and for the cost of organization. It
is presumed, of course, that not a little of this ten millions
had to be paid out in commissions etc. to those who aided in
securing the required amount of capital, including cash
furnished for working capital. The amount of extra common
stock issued for purposes of promotion in the American Steel
Hoop Company and in the National Steel Company was $5,000,000
in each case."
United States Industrial Commission,
Preliminary Report (56th Congress, 1st Session,
House Document Number 476, part 1). pages 10-15.
TRUSTS: Standard Oil Company.
As the rise of the Standard Oil Company seems to have marked
the beginning of the movement towards combination in
productive industries, on the great scale of recent times, the
following passages from testimony concerning the history of
the Company and of the oil business is especially interesting.
The first is from the examination of Mr. John D. Rockefeller:
"Q. 'What was the first combination in which you were
interested of different establishments in the oil industry?
A. The first combination of different establishments in the
oil industry in which I was interested was the union of
William Rockefeller & Co., Rockefeller & Andrews, Rockefeller
& Co., S. V. Harkness, and H. M. Flagler, about the year 1867.
"Q. What were the causes leading to its formation?
A. The cause leading to its formation was the desire to unite
our skill and capital in order to carry on a business of some
magnitude and importance in place of the small business that
each separately had theretofore carried on. As time elapsed
and the possibilities of the business became apparent, we
found further capital to be necessary, obtained the required
persons and capital, and organized the Standard Oil Company
with a capital of $1,000,000. Later we found more capital
could be utilized and found persons with capital to interest
themselves with us, and increased our capital to $3,500,000.
As the business grew, and markets were obtained at home and
abroad, more persons and capital were added to the business,
and new corporate agencies were obtained or organized, the
object being always the same, to extend our business by
furnishing the best and cheapest products.
"Q. Did the Standard Oil Company or other affiliated interests
at any time before 1887 receive from the railroads rebates on
freight shipped, or other special advantages?
A. The Standard Oil Company of Ohio; of which I was president,
did receive rebates from the railroads prior to 1880, but
received no special advantages for which it did not give full
compensation. The reason for rebates was that such was the
railroads' method of business. A public rate was made and
collected by the railway companies, but, so far as my
knowledge extends, was never really retained in full, a
portion of it was repaid to the shippers as a rebate. … The
Standard Oil Company of Ohio, being situated at Cleveland, had
the advantage of different carrying lines, as well as of water
transportation in the summer, and taking advantage of those
facilities made the best bargains possible for its freights.
All other companies did the same, their success depending
largely upon whether they had the choice of more than one
route. The Standard sought also to offer advantages to the
railways for the purpose of lessening rates of freight. It
offered freights in large quantity, car-loads and train loads.
It furnished loading facilities and discharging facilities. It
exempted railways from liability for fire. For these services
it obtained contracts for special allowances on freights.
These never exceeded, to the best of my present recollections,
10 per cent. But in almost every instance it was discovered
subsequently that our competitors had been obtaining as good,
and, in some instances, better rates of freight than
ourselves. …
"Q. About what percentage of the profits of the Standard Oil
Company came from special advantages given by the railroads
when these were greatest?
A. No percentage of the profits of the Standard Oil Company
came from advantages given by railroads at any time. Whatever
advantage it received in its constant efforts to reduce rates
of freight was deducted from the price of oil. The advantages
to the Standard from low freight rates consisted solely in the
increased volume of its business arising from the low price of
its products. …
"Q. To what advantages, or favors, or methods of management do
you ascribe chiefly the success of the Standard Oil Company?
A. I ascribe the success of the Standard to its consistent
policy to make the volume of its business large through the
merits and cheapness of its products. It has spared no expense
in finding, securing, and utilizing the best and cheapest
methods of manufacture. It has sought for the best
superintendents and workmen and paid the best wages. It has
not hesitated to sacrifice old machinery and old plants for
new and better ones.
{532}
It has placed its manufactories at the points where they could
supply markets at the least expense. It has not only sought
markets for its principal products, but for all possible
by-products, sparing no expense in introducing them to the
public. It has not hesitated to invest millions of dollars in
methods for cheapening the gathering and distribution of oils
by pipe lines, special cars, tank steamers, and tank wagons.
It has erected tank stations at every important railroad
station to cheapen the storage and delivery of its products.
It has spared no expense in forcing its products into the
markets of the world among people civilized and uncivilized.
It has had faith in American oil, and has brought together
millions of money for the purpose of making it what it is, and
holding its markets against the competition of Russia and all
the many countries which are producers of oil and competitors
against American oil."
United States Industrial Commission,
Preliminary Report (56th Congress, 1st Session,
House Document Number 476, part 2). page 794.
Against the testimony of Mr. Rockefeller that the Standard Oil
Company obtained no exclusive advantages from railway
companies, other witnesses contended that such advantages were
given to it. On this point, the Commission say in their report:
"It was charged by most of the leading opponents of the
Standard Oil Company that the chief reason for the rapid
growth of the Standard, and its apparent great success in
underselling rivals and winning markets, was the special
advantages that it had received from the railroads. It was
claimed that the company not merely received discriminating
rates on its own shipments, but that it was frequently paid
rebates on the shipments of its competitors. It was conceded
by representatives of the Standard Oil Company that before the
passage of the interstate-commerce act special freight rates
and rebates were frequently received. It was asserted,
however, that this was the usual custom on the part of all
railroads with all large shippers, and that competitors of the
Standard had received similar favors. …
"Much greater differences of opinion exist with reference to
the condition of affairs since the passage of the
interstate-commerce act. It has been charged as a matter of
general belief on the part of almost all of the opponents of
the Standard Oil Company that these discriminations in various
forms have been continually received even up to date. On the
other hand, these charges have been denied in toto and most
emphatically by every representative of the Standard Oil
Company with reference to all cases excepting one, which they
claim was a mistake, the amount of freight due being promptly
paid on discovery of the error. … Certain opponents of the
company claimed that the Standard Oil Company received
commissions for shipping freight over railroads, which
commissions amounted to rebates. This charge is emphatically
denied by the Standard Oil Company and no positive proof on
the subject has been offered."
United States Industrial Commission,
Preliminary Report (56th Congress, 1st Session,
House Document Number 476, part 1). pages 25.
Of testimony on the subject of pipe-line consolidations in the
oil business, the report says:
"Mr. Boyle [publisher of the 'Oil City Derrick'] gives a
somewhat detailed history of the development of pipe-line
transportation in the oil business. The first successful pipe
lines were established in 1864 from Pithole to the Miller
farm. Others were soon constructed in the same district. These
were usually short, scarcely over 5 miles in length, and at
first did not even connect directly with the wells themselves,
although this practice was soon established. Numerous lines
soon grew up in different parts of the oil region, but the
first more extended systems date from 1869, when the Mutual
Pipe Line was laid more or less throughout Clarion County.
Vandergrift and Forman later established a system through
Butler County which became the nucleus of what is now known as
the United Pipe Line System. The original pipe lines were only
transporters of oil, but the nature of their work soon led them
to purchase oil, although at first it was not in the name of
the company itself. …
"Mr. Emery [of Bradford] also makes a brief statement of the
early history of pipe lines. He states that the first attempt
to combine separate pipe lines into a more complex system was
made by William H. Abbott and Henry Harley, beginning about
1866. By 1869 they had a capital of nearly $2,000,000, and 500
miles of pipe centering in the Miller farm. The concern was
then known as the Pennsylvania Transportation Company.
"Several witnesses describe the process by which the Standard
Oil Company gradually secured control of the various pipe
lines throughout the oil regions. The opponents of the trust
attribute the success of the Standard Oil Company in this
movement to the railway discriminations upon oil received from
pipe lines controlled by that company. It appears that for a
considerable period a rebate of 22 cents per barrel was
allowed on oil from pipe lines maintaining the agreed rates of
pipage. … Other opponents of the combination ascribe its
success in driving out competing pipe lines largely to the
practice of paying premiums upon oil in the territory of such
competing lines.
"Mr. Boyle gives the fullest statement of the growth of the
pipe-line consolidation during the seventies and attributes it
to the natural advantages arising from large capital and from
skill in organizing. He testifies that during the early part
of that decade very numerous pipe lines had been established.
These were at first constructed on a small scale by separate
oil producers, but, having entered the business, many
producers were inclined to extend their lines and form a
system. There thus arose an excessive number of competing
lines, and the solvency and integrity of some of them became a
matter of doubt. This excessive competition was the cause of
driving the pipe lines into a more complete organization. As
early as 1873 or 1874 a pooling arrangement was made by some
of the pipe lines, and rebates were paid by railways on oil
received from such lines. The United Pipe Line Company was
established in 1877, with a capital at first of $3,000,000,
and acquired by purchase a large number of lines. The new
company included many producers and stockholders of the
smaller companies, but it is estimated that the persons
controlling the Standard Oil Company had somewhat more than a
one-half interest in the United Pipe Lines. The National
Transit Company is the present owner of the United Pipe Lines
System, and the Standard Oil Company controls the National
Transit Company. …
{533}
"It was pointed out by several witnesses that the almost
complete control of the pipe-line system by the Standard Oil
Company gives it great power in fixing the prices of crude
oil, since producers can dispose of their product only through
the pipe lines, especially in view of the further fact, which
is alleged, that railway rates on crude oil are by agreement
kept at least as high as, if not higher than, the pipe-line
charges. The pipe-line system also gives the combination great
advantage over other refiners, who must pay the rates of
pipage fixed by the Standard, which are claimed to be
excessively high, or the high rates of freight."
United States Industrial Commission,
Preliminary Report (56th Congress, 1st Session,
House Document Number 476, part 1), pages 100.
TRUSTS:
Sugar Trust.
The following is from the testimony of Mr. Henry O. Havemeyer:
"Q. The history and organization of the Sugar Refining Company
has been gone over so many times in testimony before that it
is not worth while to dwell on it at length, but in order that
we may have the record somewhat complete, will you give a
brief sketch of its development, going back to the conditions
of the old sugar trust? [1887]
A. There were about twenty-five different firms or
corporations in the sugar business. I think the evidence
before some one of the Congressional committees was that for a
period of 5 or 6 years before the formation of the trust, 18
of those failed or went out of business.
"Q. Eighteen out of 25?
A. Not out of 25; 18 out of about 40. It occurred to some one
to consolidate the others, and 18 out of 21, I believe, went
into the trust, leaving 3 or 4 outside, who represented, I
think, 30 per cent. Then Spreckles built a refinery in
Philadelphia, and, 2 or 3 years after the formation of the
trust, the trust or its successor bought the Philadelphia
refineries.
"Q. Will you explain in a word or two the difference between
the trust and its successor and the reason for its going into
this other form?
A. The trust was attacked, and the courts decided it was
illegal, and a company was organized in New Jersey which
bought outright and paid for the different companies, which
were the constituent companies of the trust. They then
represented, I think, over 90 per cent of the output; then
other refineries began to be constructed, until now I think
they would represent 50 per cent of the consumption. …
"Q. The condition before the formation of the trust was about
this: When these 18 different companies failed, business was
in such a condition, as a whole, that it was considered
unprofitable?
A. Very unprofitable—ruinous.
"Q. Now, can you tell what special advantages—if you can give
this in some detail I shall be glad—come from this
organization, and in what way you make your savings?
A. The greatest advantage is in working the refinery full and
uninterruptedly. Of course, if you have a capacity of
140,000,000 and can only melt 100,000,000 somebody has got to
cut down materially. The moment you cut down you increase the
cost; by buying up all the refineries … and concentrating the
meltings in four refineries and working them full, you work at
a minimum cost. That enables us to pay a dividend on the
common stock.
"Q. SO the chief advantage in the combination was in
concentrating the production and destroying the poor
refineries?
A. Precisely."
United States Industrial Commission,
Preliminary Report (56th Congress, 1st Session,
House Document Number 476, part 2). pages 109.
See, also (in this volume),
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (MARCH-JULY).
TRUSTS:
The earlier combinations in steel production.
Mr. Reis, president of the National Steel Company, states that
that company was organized in February, 1899, under the laws
of New Jersey, with a capital of $59,000,000, $27,000,000 of 7
per cent cumulative preferred stock and $32,000,000 of common
stock. The company includes six steel plants, located at New
Castle, Youngstown, Sharon, Mingo Junction, Bellaire, and
Columbus. These plants are engaged in producing steel billets
and slabs, which are the raw materials for making tin plates
and various other products. The plants include 15 blast
furnaces. The company also owns iron mines in northern
Michigan at Iron Mountain and Ishpeming. These are expected to
produce from 1,250,000 to 1,400,000 tons of ore annually, the
total amount required for the use of the steel plants in the
combination being about 3,000,000 tons. The National Steel
Company also owns nine lake boats for transporting ore,
capable of carrying about 1,000,000 tons annually. … Mr. Reis
testifies that the National Steel Company is not a 'trust' in
the ordinary sense, since it makes no attempt to secure
control of a large proportion of the output of steel. Its
economies are sought in the combination of steel plants with
sources of raw materials. The National Steel Company produces
only about 18 per cent of the Bessemer steel made in this
country. The other chief concerns engaged in steel production
are the Carnegie Steel Company; Federal Steel Company; the
Maryland; Jones & Laughlin Steel Company; Wheeling Steel and
Iron Company, and the Lorain Steel Company. …
"Mr. Reis states that the tariff, so far as it is placed upon
steel billets, bars, and sheets, is no longer necessary for
the protection of the industry. No steel is imported, and
during the past 8 or 10 years the tariff has cut no figure.
But if the tariff should be removed from tin plate or from
certain other branches of the iron and steel industry there
would be an indirect effect upon the making of steel. …
"Mr. Gary states that the Federal Steel Company owns all the
capital of the Minnesota Iron Company, the Illinois Steel
Company, the Lorain Steel Company, and the Elgin, Joliet and
Eastern Railroad Company. The Minnesota Iron Company is the
owner of 150,000 acres of iron ore property on the Vermilion
and Mesaba ranges. It owns the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad
Company, connecting its mines with Lake Superior at Two
Harbors and Duluth. It owns large ore docks and also 22 steel
lake vessels capable of carrying 2,000,000 tons per annum. The
product of the Minnesota Iron Company will probably be
3,500,000 tons in 1900. The Lorain Steel Company manufactures
chiefly steel rails for street railways, and to some extent
steel billets. It produces about 500,000 tons of pig iron per
year. The Illinois Steel Company has plants at North Chicago,
West Chicago, South Chicago, Milwaukee, and Joliet. It
produces about 1,500,000 tons of pig iron per year, and also
manufactures steel rails, billets, plates, etc. It owns the
Chicago, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway, which connects its
plants in the neighborhood of Chicago. It also owns large
tracts of coal property in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and
makes there about 1,500,000 tons of coke per year. This
company also owns iron mines in Wisconsin and Michigan. …
{534}
"Mr. Stetson, a lawyer, who drafted the charter and conducted
the legal arrangements in the organization of the Federal
Steel Company, testified that it was organized in September,
1898, with an authorized capital of $100,000,000 6 per cent
noncumulative preferred stock and $100,000,000 common stock.
Of this, $98,000,000 in all was originally issued. … Mr. Gary
states that the Federal Steel Company is not a trust in any
sense. It has not sought to restrict competition and has not
brought together companies which were competing with one
another, as is the case with most so-called trusts. The
company has bought the stocks of companies doing different
lines of business, just as an individual might do. …
"The American Steel and Wire Company operates iron mines in
the Lake Superior region. It controls, perhaps, one-sixth or
one-seventh of the output of that region. It owns and operates
coal mines and burns coke. It operates 8 or 9 blast furnaces, 17
open-hearth furnaces, from 22 to 25 rod rolling mills, and
from 20 to 30 wire mills. Its finished product is plain wire,
barbed wire, wire fencing, rope, etc., wire nails, and all
kindred articles. … Mr. Gates, chairman of the American Steel
and Wire Company of New Jersey, testified concerning the
formation of that company. It was organized on January 12,
1899. A gradual process of consolidating wire plants had been
going on previously. As early as 1890 companies in which Mr.
Gates was interested practically controlled the manufacture of
barbed wire in this country. In December, 1897, and January,
1898, J. P. Morgan & Co. investigated the value of the various
wire plants throughout the country with a view to further
consolidation. The American Steel and Wire Company of
Illinois, formed in March, 1898, seems to have resulted from
this effort. … The combination into the American Steel and
Wire Company was not rendered necessary by excessive
competition and consequent losses among the wire companies.
The Consolidated Steel and Wire Company, for example, made
between 27 and 28 per cent during the last three years of its
existence. It was believed, however, that more profit would be
made through better management under consolidation.
United States Industrial Commission,
Preliminary Report (56th Congress, 1st Session,
House Document Number 476, part 1), pages 190.
TRUSTS:
Tin Plate Industry.
"The American Tin Plate Company was incorporated under the
laws of New Jersey on January 6, 1899. Its authorized capital
is $20,000,000 of 7 per cent cumulative preferred stock and
$30,000,000 of common stock. Of this, $18,000,000 of preferred
and $28,000,000 of common stock has been issued. … It is made
clear by the evidence of all the witnesses that the tin-plate
industry in the United States has been built up practically
since the McKinley tariff of 1890, which raised the duty on
tin plates from 1 to 2.2 cents per pound. Without the
protection, all the witnesses agree, the industry could not
have been profitably established. Having once been
established, it was able to submit to the reduction of the
duty to 1.2 cents by the Wilson tariff of 1894, and is now
sufficiently protected by the duty of 1.5 cents under the
Dingley tariff of 1897."
United States Industrial Commission,
Preliminary Report (56th Congress, 1st Session,
House Document Number 476, part 1), pages 174 and 187.
TRUSTS:
The climax of consolidation in steel industries.
Formation of the United States Steel Corporation.
In February, 1901, the climax was reached in movements of
industrial combination, so far as concerns the production and
greater uses of iron and steel, by the formation of one
gigantic corporation, to embrace not only the companies named
above, but to purchase the enormous interests of the Carnegie
Company outright, and to take in several organizations of more
than considerable magnitude besides. The combination was
effected by the firm of J. P. Morgan & Co., New York, as
"syndicate managers," and an official statement of its
essential terms was published in a circular from that firm, on
the 2d of March, addressed to the stockholders of the Federal
Steel Company, National Steel Company, National Tube Company,
American Steel and Wire Company of New Jersey, American Tin
Plate Company, American Steel Hoop Company, American Sheet
Steel Company, to whom the following announcement was made:
"The United States Steel Corporation has been organized under
the laws of the State of New Jersey, with power, among other
things, to acquire the outstanding preferred stocks and common
stocks of the companies above named, and the outstanding bonds
and stock of the Carnegie Company. A syndicate, comprising
leading financial interests throughout the United States and
Europe, of which the undersigned are managers, has been formed
by subscribers to the amount of $200,000,000, (including among
such subscribers the undersigned and many large stockholders
of the several companies,) to carry out the arrangement
hereinafter stated, and to provide the sum in cash and the
financial support required for that purpose. Such syndicate,
through the undersigned, has made a contract with the United
States Steel Corporation, under which the latter is to issue
and deliver its preferred stock and its common stock and its
five per cent. gold bonds, in consideration for stocks of the
above named companies and bonds and stock of the Carnegie
Company and the sum of $25,000,000 in cash.
"The syndicate has already arranged for the acquisition of
substantially all the bonds and stock of the Carnegie Company,
including Mr. Carnegie's holdings. The bonds of the United
States Steel Corporation are to be used only to acquire bonds
and 60 per cent. of the stock of the Carnegie Company. The
undersigned, in behalf of the syndicate, and on the terms and
conditions hereinafter stated, offer, in exchange for the
preferred stocks and common stocks of the companies above
named, respectively, certificates for preferred stock and
common stock of the United States Steel Corporation, upon the
basis stated."
Details relating to the terms and the procedure of exchange
are then given, and several statements of public interest are
made, among them these: "The authorized issue of capital stock
of the United States Steel Corporation presently provided for
in said contract is $850,000,000, of which one-half is to be
seven per cent. cumulative preferred stock and one-half is to
be common stock. The company will also issue its five per
cent. gold bonds to an aggregate amount not exceeding
$304,000,000. In case less than all of the bonds and stock of
the Carnegie Company or less than all of the stocks of the
other companies above referred to shall be acquired, the
amounts of bonds and stocks to be issued will be reduced as
provided in said contract. The forms of the new bonds and of
the indenture securing the same, and of the certificates for
the new preferred and common shares, and the entire plan of
organization and management of the United States Steel
Corporation, shall be determined by J. P. Morgan & Co.
{535}
Every depositor shall accept in full payment and exchange for
his deposited stock the shares of the capital stock of the
United States Steel Corporation, to be delivered at the rates
above specified, in respect of the stock by him so deposited;
and no depositor or holder of any receipt issued hereunder
shall have any interest in the disposition of any other of the
shares of stock, or of the bonds of the United States Steel
Corporation, by it to be issued and delivered to or for
account of the syndicate or of any proceeds thereof. All
shares of the United States Steel Corporation deliverable to
or for account of the syndicate, which shall not be required
for the acquisition of the stock of the Carnegie Company or
for delivery to depositors under the terms of this circular,
are to be retained by and belong to the syndicate. … It is
proper to state that J. P. Morgan & Co. are to receive no
compensation for their services as syndicate managers beyond a
share in any sum which ultimately may be realized by the
syndicate."
Subsequently the American Bridge Company and the Lake Superior
Consolidated Iron Mines were taken into the consolidation,
and, on the 1st of April, 1901, the United States Steel
Corporation filed with the Secretary of State at Trenton, New
Jersey, amended articles of incorporation increasing its
authorized capital stock to $1,100,000,000. The stock is
equally divided into 7 per cent. cumulative preferred stock
and common stock. The total is greater by $250,000,000 than
the amount stated in the circular issued by J. P. Morgan &
Co., on March 2, as "presently provided for," and with the 5
per cent. gold bonds, not exceeding $304,000,000, brings the
security issues of the great steel combination up to
$1,404,000,000.
TRUSTS:
Industrial combinations in European countries.
"Trusts of the magnitude and influence of those now so
numerous in the United States are as yet rare in the Old
World. … It is in Germany, … of all European countries, that
trusts have spread most extensively and have been most
successful. … The German technical journals for 1897 enumerate
about 180 trusts, of which, it is true, only a few would
correspond to American ideas, but all of which demonstrate a
capacity for wider combination and fuller development. … As
regards great industrial combinations, the most striking
advance has been made in the German coal industry; the most
prominent organization in this department being the
Rheinisch-Westfälische Kohlensyndikat, which is distinguished
by the characteristics of a genuine trust, exercising within
its sphere of activity almost unlimited power. Like the
American Standard Oil Company, it directly controls the sales,
leaving the matter of production entirely to the separate
companies. Under the innocent title of 'eines Vereins zum
Ankauf und Verkauf von Kohlen' (a society for the buying and
selling of coal), this trust has, for the past five years,
completely controlled the West German coal industry, and
dictated prices. …
"In Austria and Hungary trusts have not yet extended so
rapidly. Nevertheless, on various occasions several of them
have given rise to such unfavorable comment that the sentiment
in favor of a legislative restriction of the movement is
to-day much more pronounced in the Austrian than in the German
Parliament. …
"As far as England is concerned, it must be admitted that,
notwithstanding her great industrial activity and a
competitive warfare not less pronounced than that of other
states, the Trust system has as yet found but tardy acceptance
in that country. This is doubtless due in some degree to the
thorough application of the principle of Free Trade; for it is
well known that the largest trusts are powerless unless their
interests are secured by a protective tariff excluding from
the home market the products of foreign countries.
Furthermore, we should remember that in England the principle
of individual freedom is regarded as inviolable. There, it
still obtains more widely than in most other countries; and
the majority of British merchants consider the principle
involved in the formation of trusts as a serious menace to the
freedom of the individual. …
"France is a country in which the Trust system has long
flourished and assumed extensive proportions. In the iron
trade, great trust companies—local in their character, it is
true—have existed for the last twenty years; and the most
powerful of these, like those of Germany, limit their activity
to the establishment of sales-depots. The chemical industry of
France, like that of Germany, is now controlled almost
exclusively by combinations. … Several international trusts,
such as the Zinc Trust, also have their headquarters at Paris.
Belgium, like France, is interested in most of the
international trusts; and there, as in France, the Trust
system has been successful largely in those enterprises which,
in other industrial countries, have hitherto maintained a
stubborn resistance to the inroads of the Trust. …
"In respect to the economic value of trusts in Europe, it may
be said that the influence exerted by them, both for good and
for evil, is, in its essential features, similar to that
exerted by the trusts of America."
W. Berdrow,
Trusts in Europe
(Forum, May. 1899).
TRUSTS:
Industrial combinations in England.
"England no longer enjoys that immunity from monopoly which
was the boast of its own economists and the object-lesson of
American free-traders. While the position of trusts has not
greatly changed in the United States during the past ten
years, except to develop on the same lines, a commercial
revolution is taking place in England. The country is becoming
honey-combed with combinations and trusts; and, what is more
and perhaps worse, there is no agitation against the system.
No effort is made to check trusts or control them. … There are
a large number of informal combines in England which give some
advantages of monopoly without unity of control or financial
association. Thus, the railroad corporations have long ceased
to compete as regards rates. It is perfectly well understood,
and has been admitted over and over again by railroad men
before Parliamentary committees, that the railroad companies
combine. They agree in their rates, but compete in facilities,
speed, etc. If it were not that the railroad companies are
strictly regulated by the Board of Trade, this system of
concerted action would be a very serious factor. As it is, the
railroads represent the most powerful interest in Parliament. …
Similarly, the leading shipping companies have fixed rates for
freight, to stop under-cutting, competing only in speed and
facilities. … There are various understandings and agreements
in the coal-trade. …
{536}
"Until a few years ago, England was not ripe for trusts. The
early efforts failed either through the overcapitalization of
the concerns, opposition from outsiders, or defective
management. … The monopoly that has been most prejudicial to
public interests—the National Telephone Company—is now being
undermined. … The agitation against this monopoly on the part
of municipalities became so strong that in 1898 the House of
Commons appointed a committee to investigate the question. The
result was that last year an act was passed giving
municipalities the right to establish telephones, and
authorizing the post-office to spend $10,000,000 in creating a
competitive system in London. …
"During the last three years, there has been a prolific crop
of amalgamations—half-way houses to trusts. … There is one
kind of amalgamation taking place that deserves special note.
Great mining, iron, engineering, and shipbuilding firms have
come together. Instead of having between the raw material and
the completed ship or engineering work the intermediary
profits of the iron-ore miner, the coal-miner, the
iron-master, the steel-maker, the iron-founder, the forger,
the marine-engine builder, and so forth,—all these middlemen
are got rid of, and the whole business placed, as it were,
under one roof. …
"Consumers in England have not so much to fear from combines
regulated by the Companies' Act, and held in check by free
trade, as consumers in the United States."
R. Donald,
Trusts in England
(Review of Reviews, November, 1900).
TRUSTS:
The question in American politics.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER);
and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
----------TRUSTS: End--------
TSUNG-LI-AMEN, The Chinese.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899 (MARCH).
TUBUAI ISLANDS.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRAL ISLANDS.
TUGELA RIVER, Military operations on the.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER); and 1900 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
TUNIS: A. D. 1881-1898.
During the French Protectorate.
In 1881, under pretexts which were much condemned at the time,
the government of France compelled the Bey of Tunis to sign a
treaty by which he submitted himself and country to the
Protectorate of France.
See, in volume 2,
FRANCE: A. D. 1875-1889.
This action gave bitter offense to the Italians, who had been
intending to lay their own hands on Tunis, and it is to be
counted among the causes of the entrance of Italy into the
Dreibund or Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary
in 1882. But time had so far worn away the grievance that the
Tunisian protectorate was practically recognized by the
Italian government in a treaty with France, signed in
September, 1896. In 1898, the general results produced in
Tunis by seventeen years of French control were described in
an elaborate report to the British government by its
representative in the Protectorate, or Regency, Sir H.
Johnston. The following is quoted from that report:
"The protectorate of Tunis is nominally an Arab Kingdom, ruled
by a prince of Turkish descent under the guidance and control
of a French Minister Resident-General and a staff of French
officials. The present Bey of Tunis, Sidi Ali Pasha-Bey, is, I
believe, the most aged ruler living, having been born in the
year 1817. He was Heir Apparent at the time of the French
treaty of protection, concluded with his elder brother, Sidi
Sadok Bey. Sidi Ali at his accession to the throne in 1882
accepted the inevitable with a good grace, and has from the
very first lent himself unreservedly to the French efforts for
the regeneration of his country. Two of his ministers are
Arabs (the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Pen), the
remainder of the Council are French officials. M. René Millet,
the Resident-General of France, is at the same time Minister
for the Foreign Affairs of the Tunisian Government and
President of the Council. … The personal staff of the
Resident-General consists of about nine members. In addition,
the French Government is more or less directly represented
throughout the Regency by officials corresponding almost
exactly to our vice-consuls, collectors and
assistant-collectors in our African Protectorates, with this
difference, that the collectors are called 'contrôleurs.' …
"The whole of Tunisia is now under civil administration,
except the Saham district to the south of Gabes, which still
remains under military control. … In the districts which I
visited, the natives, talking to me freely, said that they
would sooner be under the rule of any Frenchman than under
that of their own kaids. The French are face to face here with
the same problem that we find so difficult in other oriental
countries—that of creating amongst the natives a body of
public officials who will keep their hands from picking and
stealing, and their tongues from evil speaking, lying and
slandering. No tyrant is so cruel to an Arab as an Arab; no
one is harder on Muhammadans than their co-religionists.
Justice is administered to Europeans, and to the protected
subjects of European powers, by French tribunals, which
equally deal with cases arising between Europeans and
Tunisians. … Justice is administered to natives, in cases
where natives alone are concerned, by Arab courts depending
directly on the Tunisian Government, but with a Frenchman at
the head of each principal department. At all the centres of
population there are Arab courts of justice. The Court of
Appeal for the French courts in Tunis is the Supreme Court of
Algiers; the appeal from the Arab courts is to the Bey. …
Public works are entirely under French control, though
Tunisians are employed in minor posts. …
"Public education is under French and Arab direction. The
schools and colleges more or less directly supported by the
Government in the city of Tunis are the following:—
The Lycée Carnot,
the College Sadiki,
the secondary school for girls,
the Alawi College,
two lay schools for boys,
a school for Jewish children of the Israelite Alliance,
a Jewish agricultural school,
two schools for Jewish girls,
three schools for boys under the direction of friars, and a
primary school for little girls.
{537}
There is a Muhammadan university at the Great Mosque in Tunis,
and there are 113 primary Muhammadan schools in the same town.
In the interior there are about 98 primary schools for boys
and girls, supported by the Government, and mainly under
French direction. There are also about 500 Muhammadan schools
in the interior, either private or assisted by Government
funds. In addition to Government-supported schools, a large
number of private establishments have sprung up at Tunis and
at Sfax, wherein surprisingly good teaching is given, even in
such subjects as music. … The progress of education is having
very marked results on the indigenous population of the coming
generation—good results in the dissipation of Muhammadan
fanaticism and prejudice, results less pleasing, however, when
the recipient of this education is turned out a creature with
no particular religion, with no principles, and a contempt for
manly labour. …
"In 1880 life and property were thoroughly insecure. The
property of Europeans, perhaps, was safe, provided they were
the subjects of a Power able to coerce the Government of
Tunis, and their lives were not in any great danger in the
principal towns; but it would have been impossible for any
European to have travelled about many parts of the Regency
without a considerable escort; impossible, indeed, to
penetrate some parts of the Regency at all unless at the head
of an army. … It was as difficult, and dangerous, and
expensive to travel about the Regency 18 years ago as it is
now to visit the far interior of Morocco. I spent eight months
in Tunisia at that time, but never succeeded in visiting
Kairwan, the Holy City. … Now, I can go from Tunis to Kairwan
in a few hours by railway, see all the sights unhindered,
enter the mosques without offence, dine and sleep at an
excellent hotel, and be back again at my work in Tunis the
next day. I may further add that I have just traversed much of
the Tunisian Sahara and a good deal of the Jerid country with
no other escort than my servant, and a native cavalryman to
act as guide. I should have been equally safe had I been
alone. The whole Regency of Tunis is now as safe for tourists
as France."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command, 1898, C. 8649-18, pages 10-15, and 2-3).
TUNNELS, New York Rapid Transit and East River.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-SEPTEMBER).
TURBINES, Steam, The invention of.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: MECHANICS.
----------TURKEY: Start--------
TURKEY: A. D. 1895.
Revolt and massacres in Armenia.
Atrocities on both sides.
A horrible condition of things in Armenia was beginning to
cause excitement throughout the world. On one hand, the
Armenians were in revolt against the foul Turkish government,
and avenging themselves savagely upon their oppressors
whenever they found the opportunity; on the other hand the
Turks were making the revolt an excuse for the atrocities that
are habitual to them in every such case. A special
correspondent sent in January by Reuter's news agency to
investigate the situation reported his conviction "that both
Turk and Armenian are in the wrong, and that, as very often
happens, it is the innocent who have suffered for the
wrong-doings of the guilty. When it is asserted on behalf of
the Turks that they are engaged in suppressing a revolutionary
movement in Armenia, the statement is fully justified by the
facts of the case. There does exist in Armenia an extremely
vigorous revolutionary movement, and it is equally beyond
question that the methods of some of the leaders of this
movement are no less shocking than the barbarity of the Turk
in suppressing it. At every step," he added, "I became more
and more convinced that the inhuman ferocity displayed in this
terrible struggle for the mastery has not been in the least
exaggerated in the reports of the massacres already published
in England. At Bitlis I heard the story of a Turkish soldier
who boasted, as one who had achieved a glorious feat, that he
had taken part in the disembowelling of thirty pregnant
women. 'Two lives in one,' was the rallying cry of the armed
men who perpetrated this butchery. Another soldier, who had
taken part in a massacre in a church, described, gloating upon
every ghastly detail, how he had slipped and slid along the
blood-washed floor while the inhuman work proceeded.
Unfortunately, something very like a counterpart of these
atrocities is presented by the methods of some of the leaders
of the Armenian revolutionary movement. I believe there is no
doubt of the fact that certain of these Armenian conspirators
arranged to murder the Reverend Dr. Edward Riggs and two other
American missionaries at Marsovan, and fasten the blame upon
the Turks, in order that, as they imagined, the United States
might inflict summary punishment upon the Turkish Government,
thereby rendering Armenian independence possible. The
missionaries only escaped through a timely warning which they
received from an Armenian friend. Dr. Riggs has devoted his
life to the education of the Armenian youth in the missionary
schools, but the conspirators, in their blind fanaticism, gave
this fact little heed."
There could be no denial however, that the treatment of
Armenia and the Armenians by their Turkish political masters
was horribly bad. In May, the governments of Great Britain,
France and Russia united in proposing certain reforms for
Armenia, over which there were evasive and dilatory
negotiations carried on by the Porte for several months.
Meantime, the Armenians became more aggressive and
threatening, and a secret society called the "Hintchak," which
had been in existence among them since 1887, assumed great
activity. Connected with the Hintchak there was said to be an
organization of spies and "executioners," the latter of whom
carried out decrees of assassination, arson, and
bomb-explosion which the society had pronounced. Finally, on
the 17th of October, an imperial irade (edict, or decree) was
issued, approving and adopting the project of reform which the
British, French and Russian ambassadors had submitted to the
Porte.
{538}
But the appearance of the sultan's ineffectual irade was
speedily followed by fresh reports of frightful massacres of
Armenians, at Trebizond, Erzeroum, Bitlis, Zeitoun, and
elsewhere, with outraging of women and destruction of
property, which increased rather than diminished as time went
on. There was no sign that anything had been done towards
carrying out the promised reforms; though the sultan wrote
personally to Lord Salisbury to remonstrate against an
expression of skepticism concerning them, which the latter had
let fall in a speech, and to say to the British Premier: "I will
execute the reforms. … This is my earnest determination, as to
which I give my word of honour." But nothing came of it all,
and the Powers which had received the Sultan's promises could
agree on no steps further, except to demand and obtain
permission to bring, each, an additional gunboat into the
Bosphorus.
Annual Register, 1895,
pages 284-294 and 190-193.
In response to a resolution of the Senate of the United States
asking for information relative to the treatment of the
Armenian subjects of the Turkish government, the Secretary of
State, Mr. Olney, on the 19th of December, 1895, communicated
the following, among other statements of fact: Of the
massacres at Sassoun, which occurred in August, 1894, "the
Department of State has little trustworthy information. …
Since that time appalling outbreaks against the Armenians have
occurred in many other parts of Asia Minor, where these
unfortunate people form but a small minority of the
population. At first they were scarcely more than local riots,
as at Tokat, in the vilayet of Sivas, in March last, where one
Armenian was killed outright and more than 30 wounded by the
Turkish soldiery. In June last an attempted rising of
Armenians in the province of Aleppo in the mountains of
Kozar-Dagh and Zeitoun was thwarted without bloodshed by the
arrest of the alleged conspirators. … In July a band of armed
Armenians crossing into the vilayet of Erzerum from Russia was
dispersed, several being killed or captured. By August the
Moslem feeling against Armenians had become so far aroused
that rumors of intended massacres came from several
independent quarters, Harpoot, Marsovan, and Bitlis among
them, which led to urgent demands by the United States
minister for adequate measures looking to the due protection
of American citizens in those places.
"On the 30th of September grave disturbances began at
Constantinople itself. Several hundred Armenians, who had
gathered for the purpose of going in a body to the Sultan's
palace and demanding redress for the grievances of their
countrymen, were dispersed by the police after a severe
conflict in which a number of Turks and Armenians were killed
and wounded. Mob violence followed, the Armenians resident in
various quarters of the capital being assailed by an excited
Turkish rabble, and over 50 were slain. The rioting continued
the next day, October 1, in Constantinople and its suburbs.
Some 800 or 1,000 Armenians were captured or arrested, many of
them being armed with new revolvers of a uniform pattern. By
the third day order was restored, and the Armenians who had
sought refuge in their churches returned to their homes. The
effect of this outbreak at the national capital was most
disastrous in the provinces. The danger of a general massacre
of Christians in the vilayets of Adana and Aleppo seemed so
imminent, that renewed orders for the effective protection of
American citizens in those quarters were demanded and
obtained. Fears for their safety at Hadjin, Mersine, and
Marash were especially felt, and the cruiser Marblehead was
promptly ordered to Iskanderoun (Alexandretta), the nearest
seaport.
"On October 8 a Turkish uprising occurred at Trebizond, due,
it is reported, to an attempt to assassinate the late Vali of
Van as he was about to leave for Constantinople, the Turks
claiming that the act was done by an Armenian and that they
were in danger of a general Armenian attack. On the 9th the
disturbance was renewed, many Armenians being killed and their
homes and shops looted by the mob. The authorities attempted
to quell the riot, but having only some 400 soldiers and
policemen at command, were powerless, and murder and pillage
ran their course as long as an Armenian was in sight. The
official Turkish reports give the number of Armenians slain as
182, of Turks 11, but the general estimate places the total
number at some 500. Reinforcements of troops soon arrived, and
quiet was restored. No injury to American citizens or property
occurred.
"From this time the reports of conflicts between Turks and
Armenians, with great loss of life, become frequent and
confused. At Akhissar, some 60 miles from Smyrna, 50 Armenians
were killed October 9. Koordish raids terrorized many parts of
the Armenian provinces. At Bitlis over 500 were reported
killed, the Turkish accounts alleging that the Armenians
attacked the Moslem mosques during the hour of prayer. At
Diarbekir 5,000 are said to have lost their lives, of which
2,300 were Mussulmans—but the Turkish authorities pronounce
this estimate exaggerated. From Malatia comes the report of a
'great massacre' early in November, when every adult male
Christian is said to have perished. Another sanguinary
outbreak, with great slaughter, is reported from Sivas on
November 12; some 800 Armenians and 10 Koords are said to have
been killed. At Hadjin and Ourfa loss of life is reported, the
American missionaries at those places being protected by
Turkish guards under orders from the Porte.
"The Kaimakam of Hadjin is credibly said to have announced
that he would destroy the town and sow barley on its site.
There being an American school at that place, directed by
American teachers, the United States minister thereupon
notified the Porte that if one of those American ladies
received injury from the riotous conduct of the populace, he
would demand, in the name of the United States, 'the head of
that Kaimakam.' That officer has since been removed. Later
reports allege massacres at Marsovan and Amasia. The consular
agent at Aleppo telegraphs that a severe conflict had occurred
at Aintab, and that great fear prevailed at Aleppo. The
burning of the American buildings at Harpoot took place during
a bloody riot, and many persons are said to have perished in
the province of that name. At Kurun 400 deaths are reported.
Particulars of the recent outbreak at Marash, on November 19,
in which American missionary property was destroyed, have not
yet been received.
{539}
"These scattered notices, for the most part received by
telegraph, are given, not as official averment of the facts
stated, but as showing the alarming degree to which racial
prejudices and fanatical passions have been roused throughout
Asia Minor. As above said, the Department of State has and can
have official knowledge regarding but few of these reported
massacres, and though up to the early part of December the
United States minister estimated the number of the killed as
exceeding 30,000, it is more than likely that the figures are
greatly exaggerated. At latest advices mob violence and
slaughter appear to have been checked, or at least to have
partially subsided. The Turkish Government has been emphatic
in assurances of its purpose and ability to restore order in
the affected localities; new governors have been appointed in
many of the provinces, troops have been sent to the scene of
recent or apprehended disorders, and forces have been massed
to subdue the Armenians who had gained the ascendant in
Zeitoun."
Of the American missionary establishments in Turkey, and of
the extent to which they suffered harm during the outbreaks,
the same report gave the following account:
"The number of citizens of the United States resident in the
Turkish Empire is not accurately known. According to latest
advices there are 172 American missionaries, dependents of
various mission boards in the United States, scattered over
Asia Minor. There are also numbers of our citizens engaged in
business or practicing professions in different parts of the
Empire. Besides these, more or less persons, originally
subjects of Turkey and since naturalized in the United States,
have returned to the country of their birth and are
temporarily residing there. The whole number of persons
comprising these several classes can not be accurately
estimated, but, the families of such citizens being
considered, can hardly be less than five or six hundred, and
may possibly exceed that total.
"Outside of the capital and a few commercial seaport towns,
the bulk of this large American element is found in the
interior of Asia Minor and Syria, remote from the few consular
establishments maintained by this Government in that quarter,
inaccessible except by difficult journeys, and isolated from
each other by the broken character of the mountain country and
the absence of roads. Under these circumstances and in the
midst of the alarming agitation which for more than a year
past has existed in Asia Minor, it has been no slight task for
the representative of the United States to follow the
interests of those whose defense necessarily falls to his
care, to demand and obtain the measures indispensable to their
safety, and to act instantly upon every appeal for help in
view of real or apprehended peril. It is, however, gratifying
to bear testimony to the energy and promptness of the minister
in dealing with every grievance brought to his notice, and his
foresight in anticipating complaints and securing timely
protection in advance of actual need. The efforts of the
minister have had the moral support of the presence of naval
vessels of the United States on the Syrian and Adanan coasts
from time to time as occasion required. …
"While the physical safety of all citizens of the United
States appears up to the present date to have been secured,
their property has, on at least two recent occasions, been
destroyed in the course of local outbursts at Harpoot and
Marash. The details of the Harpoot destruction have so far
been only meagerly reported, although it took place about the
middle of November. It is stated that the buildings at that
place were set on fire separately by Kurds and citizens, in
the presence of the Turkish soldiery, during an Armenian riot.
Besides the chapel, girls' theological school and seminary
building, the ladies' house, boarding house, and residences of
three American missionaries were burned, the aggregate loss on
the buildings, personal property, stock, fixtures, and
apparatus being estimated in the neighborhood of $100,000. The
United States minister has notified the Porte that the Turkish
Government will be held responsible for the immediate and full
satisfaction of all injuries on that score. The American
Missionary School of Science at Marash was burned during a
sanguinary outbreak on November 19. The value of the property
destroyed has not been ascertained, but after prompt
investigation the minister will make like demand for adequate
indemnity."
United States, 54th Congress, 1st Session,
Senate Document, Number 33.
"On November 9 one of tho Foreign Consuls arrived at
Constantinople from Erzeroum on leave, and he reported the
scene on his journey as heartrending. 'The whole country
between Trebizond and Erzeroum was devastated. He counted 100
dead bodies lying by the road near one town. Nearly all the
villages were burnt, and in many cases the male population
entirely wiped out.' At last, on December 13, 1895, Lord
Salisbury received the following telegraphic despatch from Sir
Philip Currie: 'It may be roughly stated that the recent
disturbances have devastated, as far as the Armenians are
concerned, the whole of the provinces to which the scheme of
reforms was intended to apply; that over an extent of
territory considerably larger than Great Britain all the large
towns, with the exception of Van, Sassun, and Moush, have been
the scene of massacres of the Armenian population, while the
Armenian villages have been almost entirely destroyed. A
modest estimate puts the loss of life at 30,000. The survivors
are in a state of absolute destitution, and in many places
they are being forced to turn Mussulmans. The charge against
the Armenians of having been the first to offer provocation
cannot be sustained. Non-Armenian Christians were spared, and
the comparatively few Turks who fell were killed in
self-defence. The participation of the soldiers in the
massacres is in many places established beyond doubt.'
"Of the appalling horror of this account I wish it were
needless to speak. … [It] would be none the less horrible if
the whole of the people massacred and outraged, ruined, and
starved, and driven to the snowy mountains in the middle of
winter, had been all the rudest villagers of the most rustic
village communities. But when we know that many thousands of
the victims have been people educated at Christian schools and
colleges, and who had acquired there, in addition to the
ineradicable virtues of their native and ancient faith, much
also of the refinements and activities of civilised life, we
may reach some true conception of the agonies which have been
inflicted on such a people in the face of Europe and of the
world by the cruelty and brutality of the Turks.
{540}
It is, indeed, right that our first indignation should be
directed against the infamous Government of Turkey. … Let us
remember that this is not a Government with which we have had
nothing to do, or for which we have had no responsibility, but
a Government which the European Powers, and we especially,
have been protecting and nursing for half a century. … Then we
may indeed begin to think, with remorse and shame, of our
handiwork, and of its results. In this particular case,
indeed, the immediate blame lies almost alone with Russia. By
a complete departure from all her previous great traditions
she deliberately refused to join the other Powers of Europe
for the purpose of compelling the Sultan to act with decent
humanity to those of whom she had been the declared defender.
She had the physical power and the geographical opportunity
which others had not; and there can be no doubt whatever that
a joint occupation of the waters of Constantinople by the
fleets of the European Powers would have secured the very
moderate demands that Europe made upon the Porte."
The Duke of Argyle,
Our Responsibilities for Turkey,
pages 116-122.
TURKEY: A. D. 1896.
Conflict in Crete between Christians and Mussulmans,
and its preceding causes.
In 1868, the Cretans, for the second time, were thrust under
the Turkish yoke. "By way of solace the Powers exerted
themselves feebly in inducing the Porte to concede the
so-called 'Organic Statute'
See (in volume 3)
GREECE: A. D. 1862-1881.
Organic Regulation.
… As the Charter remained a dead letter, the Cretans seized
the next favourable opportunity to rise in 1877. Their case
was brought before the Congress of Berlin; but the only relief
the Powers could extend to them was a fresh promise on the
part of the Porte, recorded in the XXIII Article of the
Treaty, to observe scrupulously that Organic Statute, which
had been proved to be unworkable. Meanwhile, the Cretans had
remained under arms during the whole of 1878, the island being
again almost completely devastated by the half-naked and
famishing troops which had survived the Russo-Turkish War.
Ultimately, through the mediation of England, the Porte was
induced, in November of that year, to concede the Pact of
Halepa, so named after the village near Canea where it was
negotiated, and signed under the supervision of the British
Consul, Mr. T. B. Sandwith—this fact being expressly recorded
in the preamble of the document. The arrangement was accepted
by the Cretans as a compromise, in spite of its many and
manifest drawbacks. Nevertheless, it brought about, at the
outset, certain beneficial results. Political parties were
formed in which the Mohammedan Cretans blended, irrespective
of religious differences, with their Christian countrymen; and
the unprecedented phenomenon of a Christian Vali completing
his four years' tenure of governorship was witnessed in the
person of Photiades Pasha.
"But this tendency to conciliation of the conflicting elements
in the island was by no means to the liking of the Porte. The
presence of a Mussulman military governor was therefore
discovered to be necessary; and as his grade was usually
superior to that of the Vali, and the Mussulman sub-governor
was the official whose recommendations were of weight with the
Porte, nothing was easier than to create insuperable
difficulties for the Christian Vali. Thus successive Valis
were compelled—often by private wire from Constantinople—to
tender their resignation; while, at the same time, the Porte
took care not to fulfil the financial engagements prescribed
by the Pact. By these means an acute crisis was brought about
under the Governorship of Sartinski Pasha, a Pole, in 1889,
when a preconcerted plan of deception and treachery was
carried out by the Porte with consummate skill.
"The Cretans, as it is but natural, are guided in critical
contingencies by the advice they seek at Athens. The Porte
therefore promised to the Greek Government, as soon as things
began to assume a threatening aspect in Crete, to satisfy the
demands of the islanders, provided they were prevailed upon to
abstain from occupying certain important positions. In spite
of the transparent perfidy of the proposal, M. Tricoupis, the
then Greek Premier, fell into the snare. While the Cretans
were held back, troops were poured into the island, and the
strategical points having been seized, the Greek Government
and the Cretans were defied. An Imperial firman, issued in
November of that year, abrogated the Pact of Halepa and the
British Government, under whose auspices it was concluded, was
now powerless to exact respect for what was virtually an
international arrangement. There was no longer any question of
a Christian Vali with a fixed tenure of office, or of an
Assembly of Cretan representatives. Shakir Pasha, the
commander of the Turkish troops, was invested with absolute
civil and military authority; Mussulman Albanians occupied the
Christian villages as gendarmes, and Crete continued to submit
to this kind of martial law up to 1894. When, however, Mahmoud
Djelaleddin Pasha, the then Mussulman Vali, surpassed even his
predecessors in arbitrariness, and actually dictated to the
tribunals decisions in favour of Mohammedan litigants, the
Cretans began to lose patience and another outbreak appeared
imminent. It was only then that the Great Powers moved in the
matter and prevailed upon the Porte to revert partly to the
pre-existing order of things, by appointing Alexander
Karatheodory Pasha, a Christian and a Greek, as Governor.
Beyond this, however, the Pact of Halepa was not observed.
True to its traditional tactics, the Porte took with one hand
what it had given with the other. The Mussulman Deputy
Governor and the military commander frustrated every effort of
the Vali, the very funds necessary for the maintenance of the
gendarmerie being denied him. Karatheodory was consequently
forced to resign. Complete anarchy now reigned in the island."
Ypsiloritis,
The Situation in Crete
(Contemporary Review, September, 1896).
"Occasional skirmishes between the Christian inhabitants and
the soldiers kept the excitement simmering and ushered in the
sanguinary scenes that finally followed. Turkhan Pasha, taking
time by the forelock, armed the Cretan Moslems for the combat
with the approval of the commander of the troops, and the
city of Canea prepared for a blood bath. The Mohammedan Lent
(Ramazan) was drawing to a close, and the three days of
rejoicing which invariably follow (Bairam) were supposed to be
fixed for the attack on the Christians. These anticipations
were duly realised, and on the 24th May, 1896, at 1 o'clock P.
M., the Turks fired the first shots, blowing out the brains of
several Christians to make that Moslem holiday.
{541}
Forearmed, however, is forewarned, and the Christians defended
themselves to the best of their ability on that day and the
25th and 26th, during which every house in Canea was
barricaded, and neighbours living on opposite sides of the
absurdly narrow streets fired at each other from behind stone
heaps piled up in the windows of their bedrooms. The streets
were deserted, all traffic suspended, and it was not until the
27th that the thirty Christian corpses (including two women
and four children) and the twenty lifeless Turks were removed
for burial.
"These events provoked a new administrative change of scene:
Turkhan Pasha was recalled, and Abdullah Pasha, at the head of
four battalions from Salonica, came to take his place. These
troops laid waste the villages and fields of the provinces of
Apokorona, Cydonia, and Kissamo, burning houses, huts, and
churches on the way. The best soldiers in the world, however,
run terrible risks in the interior of Crete, and Abdullah was
repulsed with the loss of two hundred men at the town of
Vamos. The foreign consuls at Canea, having verified these
facts, strongly blamed his conduct in a joint verbal note, and
the Porte shortly afterwards recalled him, and appointed
Berovitch Pasha [Prince of Samos] in his place. This was the
beginning of the end. The Christians of the island meanwhile
met, and through their delegates formulated certain demands,
which the foreign consuls referred to their ambassadors at
Constantinople, and the famous 'Modifications of the
Convention of Halepa' were framed in consequence. The sultan,
too, yielding to tardy pressure, graciously conceded the
nomination of a Christian governor-general in the person of
Berovitch, the summoning of the National Assembly, and other
demands. … The questions of the tribunals and the gendarmerie
[for the enforcement of peace and order in the island] were to
be arranged by international commissions; but weeks and months
passed away before they were even appointed. … At last the
commissions arrived and began their work in December [1896]."
E. J. Dillon,
Crete and the Cretans
(Fortnightly Review, May, 1897).
TURKEY: A. D. 1896 (January-March
Turkish opposition to English and American measures
for relief to Armenian sufferers.
Work of Miss Clara Barton and the Red Cross Society.
For some time the distribution of supplies from England and
America to the sufferers in Armenia was forbidden by the
Turkish government, for reasons stated by the Turkish minister
at Washington as follows: "The collections are made on the
strength of speeches delivered in public meetings by
irreconcilable enemies of the Turkish race and religion, and
on the basis of false accusations that Turkey repudiates.
Besides, the Sublime Porte is mindful of the true interests of
its subjects, and, distinguishing between the real state of
things and the calumnies and wild exaggerations of interested
or fanatical parties, will under its own legitimate control
alleviate the wants of all Turkish subjects, irrespective of
creed or race." The Red Cross Society, of which the American
branch had prepared to send its President, Miss Clara Barton,
with a small corps of assistants, to the scene of the
suffering, was especially excluded, by the order of the Porte.
Miss Barton and her staff sailed, however, from New York, in
January, and Mr. Terrell, the American minister at
Constantinople, succeeded in obtaining permission for them to
do their humane work as private individuals, not in the name
of the obnoxious society, and without displaying its insignia:
The single-mindedness, the prudence, the patient energy with
which Miss Barton pursued the one object of giving relief to
the suffering, overcame all opposition and all obstructions,
so that, in April, she was able to report:
"The way is all made clear for sending supplies. The suitable
agents all along the route are now known, and have been
arranged with for service, so that heavy supplies can be sent
at any and all times as they are needed. I feel my breath come
lighter as I think of these poor scourged and fever-stricken
towns without even one doctor, when our sixteen strong,
skilled men, with twenty-five camels' burden of supplies,
shall carry some light of hope and help into their night of
hopeless woe. I am happy to be able to say for the comfort of
contributors, that I hold the written word of the Porte,
officially given through the minister of foreign affairs from
the grand vizier, that not the slightest interference with any
distribution within the province will be had. This official
document was addressed and delivered to Sir Philip Currie, the
British ambassador, and by him passed to me. The decision is
general and final, without question or reservation, and
settles all doubt."
In September Miss Barton returned home for rest, and to bear
her testimony to America of the immensity of the need still
existing in the Armenian provinces and calling for help. Her
departure from Constantinople was reported by the newspapers
to have been the occasion of a remarkable demonstration, by
cheers, flags and salutes, from ship and shore, of the
estimate put upon the work she had done.
TURKEY: A. D. 1896 (August).
Attack of Armenian revolutionists on the
Ottoman Bank at Constantinople.
Turkish massacre of Armenians in the city.
In the spring of 1896, the Armenian revolutionists, encouraged
by the outbreak in Crete, made fresh appeals for attention to
the sufferings of their country, with threats of some
desperate action if no heed was given. In August, the
desperate act was undertaken, at Constantinople, by 30 or 40
madly devoted men. This reckless little band of misguided
patriots made a sudden attack on the Ottoman Bank, a British
institution which controls finance in the Turkish empire,
gained possession of the building, made prisoners and hostages
of two of its directors and some 80 of its clerks, and were
fully prepared with dynamite to destroy everything within its
walls, including themselves, if certain reforms which they set
forth were not instantly decreed. Their theory was, that "the
Ambassadors would force the Sultan to grant the reasonable
reforms which they demanded for the Armenians, rather than
permit the destruction of the Bank and its staff. It was a
scheme borrowed from the theatre, absurd in itself, and made
ridiculous by the way in which they failed to carry it out.
They went in bravely, and nothing hindered their destroying
the Bank, but they allowed themselves to be talked out of it
by Mr. Maximoff, the Russian dragoman, and would have been the
laughing stock of the world if its attention had not been
absorbed by the massacre which followed.
{542}
"The real heroism of that day was displayed in another quarter
of the city, by another small party of Russian Armenians, men
and women, who took possession of two stone houses and fought
the Turkish troops to the death, the survivors killing
themselves when they could fight no longer. There was no
serious fighting anywhere else, although dynamite bombs were
thrown from the windows of houses and khans upon the troops in
a number of places, showing that some preparation had been
made for a more extended outbreak. There is nothing to be said
in justification of this attempt of the revolutionists. They had
provocation enough to justify anything in reason, but there
was nothing reasonable in this plan, nothing in it to attract
the sympathy of the Powers or to conciliate public opinion;
and if the statements are true which have been made by
Armenians as to certain unexecuted parts of the plan, it was
diabolical. This only can be said on behalf of these
revolutionary committees. They are the natural outcome of the
treatment of the Armenians by the Turkish Government during
the last twenty years. When oppression passes a certain limit
and men become desperate, such revolutionary organisation
always appears. They are the fruit and not the cause of the
existing state of things in Turkey, and if we can judge by the
experience of other countries, the worse things become here,
the more violent will be the action of these committees,
whether Europe enjoys it or not.
"Revolutionists are the same all the world over, but the
Turkish Government is unique, and it is not the attack on the
Bank which interests us but the action of the Government which
followed it. As we have said, the authorities had full
information of what was to be attempted and did nothing to
prevent it, but they made every preparation for carrying out
their own plan. Bands of ruffians were gathered in Stamboul,
Galata, and Pera, made up of Kurds, Lazes, and the lower class
of Turks, armed with clubs, knives or firearms; and care was
taken that no one should kill or plunder in the quarter to
which he belonged, lest he should be recognised and complaint
made afterwards by the Embassies, with a demand for
punishment. A large number of carts were in readiness to carry
off the dead. The troops and police were in great force to
prevent any resistance, and to assist the mob if necessary. It
was a beautiful day, the streets were crowded, and few had any
idea of what had happened at the Bank, when suddenly, without
any warning, the work of slaughter and plunder began,
everywhere at once. European ladies on the way to the
Bosphorus steamers suddenly found themselves surrounded by
assassins, and saw men beaten to death at their feet. Foreign
merchants saw their own employés cut to pieces at their doors.
The streets in some places literally ran with blood. Every man
who was recognised as an Armenian was killed without mercy. In
general, the soldiers took no part in the slaughter and
behaved well, and this somewhat reassured those in the streets
who were not Armenians; but in a few moments the shops were
closed and a wild panic spread through the city. The one idea
of everyone was to get home; and as the foreigners and better
classes live out of the city in summer they had to go to the
Galata bridge to take the steamers, which ran as usual all
through the three days of massacre. This took them through the
streets where the slaughter was going on, and consequently we
have the testimony of hundreds of eye-witnesses as to what
took place. The work of death and plunder continued unchecked
for two days. On Friday there were isolated outbreaks, and
occasional assassinations occurred up to Tuesday.
"The number killed will never be known. The Ambassadors put it
at 5,000 or 6,000; the official report to the palace at 8,750,
besides those thrown into the sea. Thousands of houses, shops
and offices were plundered, including a number belonging to
Greeks and foreigners. Everything was done in the most
systematic way, and there was not a moment of anarchy, not a
moment when the army and police had not perfect control of the
city during all these days. … The majority of those massacred
belonged to the working class—especially the hamals
(porters)—but a large number of gentlemen, merchants and other
wealthy men, were killed, together with about fifty women and
children. The savage brutality of the Moslem mob was something
beyond all imagination, and in many cases the police joined in
beating men to death and hacking others to death with knives,
in the very face of Europeans. … In may cases European
officials appealed to the officers in command of the troops,
who were looking on at the slaughter of helpless, unarmed men,
to interfere and put a stop to it. The reply was 'We have
orders.' It was an officer who killed the clerk of the British
Post-office on the steps. And some of the most cold-blooded
and horrible murders took place in front of the guard house,
at the Galata end of the bridge, in the presence of officers
of the Sultan's household of the highest rank. They also had
their orders.
"Happily for the honour of the Turkish people, there is
another side to the story. It was the Government and not the
people that conducted this massacre. And although the vile
instruments employed were told that they were acting in the
name of the Prophet, and freely used his name, and are
boasting to-day of what they did for Islam, the Sheik-ul-Islam
forbad the Softas taking any part in the slaughter, and many a
pious Turk did what he could to protect his neighbours. … It
is not the people, not even the mob, who are responsible for
this great crime. It was deliberately committed by the
Government. The Ambassadors of the six Powers have declared
this to be an unquestionable fact in the Joint Note addressed
to the Porte.
"Since the massacre this same Government has been carrying on
a warfare against the Armenians which is hardly less inhuman
than beating out their brains with clubs. There were from
150,000 to 200,000 Armenians in Constantinople. They were
merchants, shopkeepers, confidential clerks, employés in banks
and offices of every kind—the chief business men of the city.
They were the bakers of the city, they had charge of the khans
and bazaars and the wealth of the city; they were the porters,
house-servants, and navvies. … Now the Government has
undertaken to ruin this whole population. They are hunted
about the city and over the hills, like wild beasts. …
Thousands have been sent off at once to the Black Sea ports,
to find their way as best they can without money or food to
their desolated villages in the interior. … Thousands have
fled to foreign countries."
The Constantinople Massacre
(Contemporary Review, October, 1896).
{543}
TURKEY:A. D. 1897 (January-February).
Fresh conflicts in Crete.
Attitude of Christians and Mussulmans towards each other.
Reports of the British Consul-General and others.
Early in January, 1897, while proceedings for the organization
of the new gendarmerie were under way, and while the
discussion of candidates for the National Assembly, to be
elected in March, was rife, fresh hostilities between
Christians and Mussulmans broke out, and there seems to be
good evidence in the following report, by Sir Alfred Biliotti,
the British Consul-General at Canea, that responsibility for
the state of things in Crete should be charged upon one party
hardly more than upon the other. The despatch of the
Consul-General to Lord Salisbury, written January 9, 1897, is
partly as follows:
"In the afternoon of the 3rd instant a great panic occurred in
the town owing to a wounded Christian having been conveyed to
the hospital, where he died of his wounds in the night, and to
a rumour that two Mussulmans had been killed or wounded at the
same time on the road between Canea and Suda Bay. All the
shops were shut up as usual, but there was no general 'sauve
qui peut,' Christians especially having congregated in the
square near the hospital in the hope of finding out further
information. Happening to be in the town, I took a carriage
and drove towards Suda. When at about a mile distant from
Canea I came upon a number of Mussulmans, who told me that
four Christians going to Apokorona had, without any
provocation whatever, discharged their revolvers on three
Mussulmans, two of whom had been severely wounded. I saw one
of them in his cottage hard by the road with a bullet wound in
the abdomen; the other had been conveyed on horseback to the
village of Tsikalaria (southeast of Suda Bay), 2 miles from
where he had been wounded, of which he was a native. The four
Christians fled across the fields, leaving on the road a horse
and an overcoat, and took to the mountains.
"Between half and a quarter of an-hour after this incident
another Christian, a native, like the Turk, of Tsikalaria, was
passing on the road when he was fired upon by Mussulmans in
retaliation for the wounding of their two co-religionists. Not
having been hit, the Christian jumped from his mule and ran
for his life along the Suda road, being pursued by armed
Turks. He was overtaken by three of them about half-a-mile
farther down, and was shot at and mortally wounded at 20 paces
in front of Commander Shortland, of Her Majesty's ship 'Nile,'
who was coming on foot from Suda Bay to Canea. The wounded
Christian was taken charge of by the Albanian corporal
stationed in a Christian monastery close by, and was
subsequently put in a carriage by the Russian Consul, who was
returning from Suda Bay at that moment, and sent to the town
hospital, where he died. While I was making inquiries on the
road a brisk fusillade was heard towards Tsikalaria, and as I
was about to return to Halepa a young Turk was seen at a
distance running towards us with a letter in his hand. It was
a message sent by the Albanian corporal stationed at
Tsikalaria asking for assistance. This messenger had hardly
arrived when a gendarme was seen coming down in great haste.
He said that the fight between Christians and Mussulmans
having become general, and there being only another gendarme
with the corporal, armed assistance was immediately required.
I took both these messengers and conveyed them to the gate of
the town, from whence I drove to Halepa to acquaint the Vali
with what was taking place. It was getting dark when I met on
the road his Excellency accompanied by the Italian Consul
going on foot to Canea, having found no available carriage,
and I drove back with them. The position was rather
perplexing. There was no available gendarmerie, and no
soldiers could be sent out, as they would have been fired upon
by the Christians. …
"Early on the day following, that is, on the 4th instant, the
Governor-General visited the village of Tsikalaria and the
villages westward of it in order to ascertain the truth with
regard to the numerous reports which were in circulation since
the preceding evening. It would seem that on hearing of his
son having been killed on the Canea-Suda road, the father of
the wounded Mussulman opened fire on the Christians. Other
Christians maintain that this wounded Mussulman, after having
shot at the Christian on the road, hastened to Tsikalaria, and
together with his father, began firing on the Christians. In a
very short time all the Christians rushed towards the heights,
and the Mussulmans towards the plain. During this evolution a
Christian was killed, it is said, by the father of the wounded
Mussulman, who had been arrested and is in prison. The same
night the women and children took refuge in the villages on
the mountains, while a contingent of 150 armed Christians came
down from Campos and Keramia in order to assist the male
population of Tsikalaria to defend their property. On the
other hand, armed Mussulmans flocked from all parts of the
plain to defend their co-religionists. The Mussulmans at
Perivolia, where they are of nearly equal numerical force,
tried to surround the Christians in order to keep them as
hostages for the safety of their co-religionists in other
villages where the Christians are more numerous. In so doing
they shot down a Christian, on whom they also inflicted
numerous knife stabs, finally cutting his throat. This was
followed by an emigration to, and armed assistance from, the
mountain villages as at Tsikalaria. "In the village of
Varipetro the Mayor, assisted by the corporal of gendarmerie,
a Mussulman Albanian, was doing his utmost to prevent a
conflict between its Christian and Mussulman inhabitants, when
a Christian from Lakkos, whose brother had been murdered two
years ago by a native Mussulman, stealing behind the corporal,
shot him dead. The Christians of Varipetro, with whom the
corporal was popular, having tried to arrest his murderer, the
Lakkiotes, who had come there in order to defend their
co-religionists, turned their arms against them, and prevented
them from carrying out their intention. In consequence of this
murder all the Christians of Varipetro emigrated to the
mountains, and all the Mussulmans to the town of Canea. Nearly
1,000 Christians from the plains of Cydonia and Kissamo came
to defend the inhabitants of Galata and Darazzo, and for a
time blockaded the Turks in the village of Kirtomado, Aghia, &c.
{544}
But the inhabitants of Galata, who are all Christians, have so
much confidence in the Mussulman Albanian Lieutenant called
Islam, who is stationed in their village, that they begged
their co-religionists to withdraw, which they did. …
"As is always the case, each party claims to have been
attacked by the other party, and the truth is not likely to be
ever discovered. Be this as it may, both Christians and
Mussulmans remain under the unshaken conviction that they are
wronged by the other party; this increases the animosity of
one sect against the other, and each member of the two races
will act on this conviction. This is the inevitable
consequence of the absolute want of confidence between the two
elements, and there is not the least hope that this feeling
will disappear, nor even slightly decrease, so long as they
are left to themselves. In the present instance it may be that
the Mussulmans, or some of them, may have considered
themselves bound to retaliate for recent murders committed on
their co-religionists by Christians. … The Christians are
convinced, and all their proceedings are marked by that
conviction, that all the incidents which trouble the public
peace are devices of the native Mussulmans to prevent the
execution of the promised reforms. I do not deny that the
attitude of the authorities at Constantinople may have such an
effect on the low class of Cretan Mussulmans; but it is far
from being so with the educated class who are as, if not more,
anxious than the Christians that the intended reforms should
be carried out without delay. In fact, they know that they
have nothing to hope from Constantinople, and that the only
protection of the minority to which they belong lies in the
promised reforms. On the other hand, I have observed with the
greatest pleasure that the Christians laid down their arms at
the first recommendation of the Consuls to do so, which proves
a sincere desire on their part to live in peace. When the
Christians were taking up arms in former times they used to
remain for weeks, even for months, on the mountains in spite
of the entreaties of the Consuls. Therefore, the Christians
and the Mussulmans are respectively well disposed, but there
is such an insuperable distrust on both sides, that they can
never come to a mutual understanding. Whether the incidents
which cause disturbances or disorders on the island are the
work of the Turks or of the Christians or of both is quite
immaterial to me. The important fact to be taken into
consideration is that an exchange of a few shots between one
or two Christians and as many Mussulmans is sufficient to
cause several districts, four in the present instance (Canea,
Apokorona, Sphakia, and Kissamo), to take up arms, and also
that there can be no doubt that such scenes will be repeated
on every recurrence of such incidents."
To the same effect, Captain Custance, of the British ship
Barfleur, reported on the 15th to Admiral Hopkins: "The
general situation, as I understand it, is, that the Cretan
Christian leaders, urged on by certain interested people at
Athens, have been preparing for some time to make an attempt
to drive the Turkish authorities out of the island in the
spring, if a favourable opportunity offers. The Mussulmans
would not be sorry to see the last of the Turkish Government
if they could only be sure that their lives and property would
be safe under the new regime, which, owing to the bitter
hatred existing between the Christians and Mussulmans, cannot
be expected. The two parties are face to face, armed to the
teeth, with long-standing feuds and wrongs, and with no force
between them capable of maintaining order."
On the 27th of January the Consul-General reported by telegram
to Lord Salisbury: "An outburst of terror, such as has not yet
occurred in Candia, has been caused by the commencement of a
fresh immigration of Mussulmans into the town, and by the
murder, within a week, of two men of that faith, and a few
minor outrages." The next day he reported: "Telegraphic news
from Candia, dated to-day, reports murder of a Mussulman, and
wounding of two others, and murder of seven Christians; murder
of further Mussulmans is rumoured. The Mussulman Military
Commissioner, and the Austrian Military Attache, now in
Candia, report that they met about 1,000 armed Mussulmans
moving inland, and numbers of Mussulman families moving
towards the town." Again, on the 2d of February: "Murder of
four Mussulmans last night, following on wounding of Christian
by Mussulman on the 31st January near Canea. Panic ensued in
Canea and Suda Bay this morning. Shops all closed. Shots fired
in town and Halepa, which resulted in death of two Mussulmans.
Four mixed villages, one large Christian village, and several
farms in environs are in flames." On the 4th, Colonel
Chermside, of the gendarmerie commission, sent the following
statement to Lord Salisbury: "The most that we have been able
to attempt to-night is to get a cordon to separate Christian
and Moslem quarters. Patrolling was tried, but the fire from
the Christians was too heavy to maintain it. Several Turkish
soldiers have been killed and wounded."
Great Britain,
Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command:
Turkey, Number 10, 1897, pages 15-45).
TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (February-March).
Greek interference in Crete.
Greek forces in the island.
Demands for annexation of Crete to Greece.
Action of the Powers in the "Concert of Europe."
Pacific blockade of Crete.
Early in February, the difficulties of the attempt which the
leading European powers, acting in what was known as "the
Concert of Europe," were making to settle affairs in Crete by
reforming its Turkish government, were complicated by
interference from Greece. The Greeks, in ardent sympathy with
their Cretan kinsmen, were eager to take up the cause of the
Christian inhabitants of the island, and their government was
driven into independent action to that end, hoping that
Christian sentiment in Europe would constrain the Powers to
give it a free hand. A Greek squadron was sent to Crete, to
bring away fugitives—women and children especially—and to
prevent the landing of Turkish reinforcements. This was
quickly followed by an expedition of 2,000 men, Colonel Vassos
in command. An instant stimulation of the insurrection
occurred, and declarations demanding the annexation of Crete
to the kingdom of Greece began to appear; while the Greek
government represented in a note to the Powers that no
possible solution of the Cretan problem could be found without
concession to that demand. The Greek troops, considerably
increased in number, were landed on the island, joining the
insurgent Cretans, and beginning operations against the Turks.
{545}
On the 13th of February the admirals commanding the foreign
naval forces at Canea joined in sending a warning to the Greek
commodore, requiring him to "desist from all hostile acts and
to conform with international law." On the 15th a mixed force
of British, French, Russian, Italian and Austrian marines was
landed for the protection of the town. On the same day, from
Colombari, Colonel Vassos, the Greek commander, issued a
proclamation, saying: "In the name of His Majesty, George I.,
King of the Greeks, I occupy the Island of Crete, and proclaim
this to its inhabitants without distinction of sex or
nationality. I promise in the name of His Majesty that I will
protect the honour, life and property, and will respect the
religious convictions, of its inhabitants, bringing them peace
and equality rights." On the 17th, the Turkish forces at Canea
were attacked by the Greeks and insurgents, and the attack was
renewed on the 21st; whereupon, after warnings from the
foreign admirals in the harbor, the Russian, German, Austrian
and British ships opened fire on the attacking troops. In the
meantime, considerable bodies of Mohammedans were being
besieged by superior forces at other points in the island,
with great danger of massacre if overcome.
On the 2d of March, the representatives of Great Britain,
Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy and Russia, at
Constantinople, arrived at an agreement of action, and jointly
addressed notes to the governments of Turkey and Greece. To the
Porte they wrote: "The Great Powers, animated by the desire to
assure the maintenance of peace and to see the integrity of
the Ottoman Empire respected, have sought for the means of
ending the disorders that have led to their armed intervention
in Crete, as well as of putting an end to the presence of the
Greek forces in the island. They have recognized that in
consequence of the delay in applying them, the reforms
contemplated in the Arrangement of August 25, 1896, no longer
correspond to the requirements of the present situation, and
they have agreed upon the following points:
1. Crete can in no case be annexed to Greece in the present
circumstances.
2. The island will be endowed by the Powers with an autonomous
administration ('régime').
In notifying these decisions to the Sublime Porte by order of
their Governments, the Representatives of the Great Powers at
Constantinople think it their duty to communicate the
resolution which has been taken by their Governments to
address to Greece a summons to withdraw her troops and naval
forces from Crete."
To the Greek government the same announcement was made, that
"Crete can in no case, in the present circumstances, be
annexed to Greece," and the communication was more explicit in
the further statements, as follows:
"In view of the delays caused by Turkey in the application of
the reforms agreed upon in concert with the Powers, and which
now make it impossible to adapt those reforms to a changed
condition of affairs, the Powers are resolved, while
maintaining the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, to endow
Crete with an absolutely effective autonomous administration
(régime), intended to secure to it a separate government,
under the high suzerainty of the Sultan. The Cabinets are
convinced that these views can only be realized by the
withdrawal of the Greek ships and troops now in the waters and
on the territory of the island which is occupied by the
Powers. We accordingly confidently expect this decision from
the wisdom of His Majesty's Government, which cannot wish to
persist in a course opposed to the decision of the Powers, who
are determined to carry out an early pacification, which is as
necessary for Crete as it is for the maintenance of general
peace. I will not, however, conceal from your Excellency that
I am instructed to warn you that, in case of a refusal of the
Royal Government, the Great Powers have arrived at the
irrevocable decision not to shrink from any measure of
compulsion if, on the expiration of six days, the recall of
the Greek ships and troops from Crete has not been effected."
The Turkish government replied on the 6th: "The Sublime Porte
has had the honour to receive the note which the Ambassadors
of the Great Powers were good enough to address to it on the
2nd of March relative to Crete. The Imperial Government takes
note with satisfaction of the assurances which the Great
Powers are good enough to give it as to their desire to
respect the integrity of the Empire and of the decision which
they have taken to obtain the withdrawal of the Greek ships of
war and troops from Crete. Relying upon their friendly
sentiments, and upon their firm resolve not to impair the
Sultan's rights of sovereignty, the Sublime Porte, which is
itself desirous of assuring the maintenance of peace, accepts
the principle of an autonomy to be accorded to Crete, while
reserving to itself liberty to discuss with the Ambassadors
the form and the details of the administration ('régime') with
which the island is to be endowed."
Two days later, the Greek government replied at greater
length, imploring the Great Powers "not to insist upon the
system of autonomy decided on, but to give back to Crete what
it already possessed at the time of the liberation of the
other provinces which form the Hellenic kingdom, and to
restore it to Greece, to which it already belonged in the time
of the Presidency of Capodistria," and appealing against the
demand for the withdrawal of the Greek military forces from
the island. "Since, in our opinion," wrote M. Skouses, the
Greek minister, "the new autonomous administration ('régime')
condition could not fulfil the noble object of the Powers, it
is clear what would be the condition of the unfortunate island
from now until the establishment of that administration, if
the Great Powers decided to persist in their resolve.
"In this connection, and in the name of humanity, as also in
the interest of the pacification of the island—a pacification
which is the sole object of the solicitude of the Great
Powers—we do not hesitate to appeal to them in regard to the
other measure, relative to the withdrawal of our military
forces. … The presence in the island of the Greek army is …
demanded by the dictates of humanity, and is necessary in the
interest of the definitive restoration of order. It is, above
all, our duty not to leave the Cretan people at the mercy of
Mussulman fanaticism, and of the Turkish army, which has
always intentionally, and by connivance, been a party to the
acts of aggression of the populace against the Christians.
{546}
"Above all, if our troops in the island, who are worthy of the
full confidence of the Great Powers, were intrusted with the
mandate of pacifying the country, their wishes and intentions
would at once be completely satisfied. It would then be
possible, after order had been restored, to obtain a free
expression of the wishes of the Cretan people, with a view to
decide their lot. Not only are the horrors which during
several decades have occurred periodically in Crete, not
committed without profoundly agitating the Hellenic people,
but they also interrupt the social activity, and seriously
disturb the economy and finances of the State. Even if it were
possible for us to forget for a moment that we are
co-religionists of the Cretan people, that we are of the same
race, and allied by blood, we cannot conceal from the Great
Powers that the Hellenic State is unable to resist such shocks
any longer. We therefore appeal to the generous sentiments
which animate the Great Powers, and beg them to allow the
Cretan people to declare how it desires to be governed."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: Turkey, Numbers 4 and 5, 1897).
The position taken by the Greek government in this reply was
firmly maintained. Its troops were not withdrawn from Crete,
and the Powers of "the Concert," thus practically defied, had
difficulty in agreeing upon the next steps they would take.
France, England, and Italy would not consent to strong
measures of coercion proposed by Russia, Germany and Austria,
and the decision reached finally was to establish what is
known as a "pacific blockade" of the Cretan coast, to begin on
the 21st of March. This was announced on the 18th by the
admirals commanding on that coast, who gave notice: "The
blockade will be general for all vessels flying the Greek
flag. Vessels of the Six Powers or of neutral Powers will be
allowed to enter the ports in the occupation of the Powers and
land their merchandise there, but only if it is not intended
for the Greek troops or for the interior of the island. The
ships of the international fleets may visit these vessels."
The Greek government was notified to recall its men-of-war
still in Cretan waters, with the warning that "they will be
retained there by force if they have not left by 8 A. M. on
the 21st March."
On the day previous to this announcement of blockade the same
admirals had published a proclamation as follows:
"The undersigned, Commanders-in-chief of the naval forces of
Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Great Britain, Italy, and
Russia, in Cretan waters, acting under instructions from their
respective Governments, solemnly proclaim and announce to the
people of the island that the Great Powers have arrived at the
irrevocable decision to secure the complete autonomy of Crete,
under the suzerainty of the Sultan. It is well understood that
the Cretans are to be free from all control on the part of the
Sublime Porte as regards their internal affairs. The principal
aim of the Powers being to provide a remedy for the evils
which have afflicted the country, and to prevent their
recurrence, they are drawing up in concert a scheme of
measures intended to regulate the working of the autonomous
régime, to restore peace, to assure to everyone, without
distinction of race or religion, liberty and security of
property, and to facilitate, by the resumption of agricultural
work and trade, the progressive development of the resources
of the country. Such is the aim of the Powers. They wish this
to be understood by all. A new era is commencing for Crete;
let all lay down their arms. The Powers desire peace and
order. They will, if it be required, have the necessary
authority to make their decisions respected. They count on the
co-operation of all the inhabitants of the island, Christian
and Mussulman, to assist them in accomplishing a work which
promises to secure concord and prosperity to the Cretans."
To the promise of an autonomous government for Crete the
insurgent Christians appear to have given no heed; but a great
number of the Mohammedan inhabitants of the island united in
sending telegrams to the British minister at Constantinople,
which were all of the tenor of the following: "Your Excellency
knows that the Christians of Crete, forming the numerical
majority of the population, but incapable of properly
administering the former privileges they enjoyed, have now
again been emboldened to massacre, destroy, and ruin, in the
same way that in the past they have always made ill-use of
their liberties in the country by the treacherous destruction
and ruin of their Moslem fellow-countrymen. Therefore, if the
people are left irresponsible for the government of the
country, which is the very breath of human life, it will
facilitate the completion of their bloodthirsty designs, and
hasten the ruin of the Mussulmans. We are quite sure that this
state of things will not recommend itself to the sympathy of
the Great Powers, the propagators of civilization.
"We therefore beg, in the name of the Mussulman population,
that the internal affairs of the Christian inhabitants of
Crete who have not yet reached even the first step on the path
of civilization, and are led away by the seditious designs of
Greece, may not be removed from the direction of the Sublime
Porte; if this be impossible, we beg that the internal affairs
of the island may be placed under the continual control of the
Great Powers in conjunction with the Porte; and we finally beg
that the necessary measures may be taken for the protection of
the life, honour, and property, as well as the rights of the
20,000 Mussulman inhabitants now living in Turkey, whose
interest in property is greater in value than that of the
Christians, and who are occupied with commerce and other
pursuits, besides those who live In the island, who, if
necessary, are prepared to undergo a census, and who exceed
100,000."
The situation of the Moslem population of the island was
represented a little later by Colonel Chermside, in a despatch
to Lord Salisbury, as follows:
"Over 49,000 Moslems are assembled in Candia and within cordon
area, comprising 25 square miles, viz., about two-thirds of
Moslem population of Crete. Of these, 29,000 are refugees from
central and eastern districts of island. Doles of flour are
issued to 39,000 persons; issue up to date 18 lb. per head; no
other food issued. The mass of the people have no buying power
and no work, but since arrival of British troops, armed
individuals are rare in streets; distress is supported with
great fortitude, in spite of insufficient food and ravages of
small-pox. Population hopes for future foreign protection
against Christian compatriots. "
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
Turkey, Number 10, 1897, pages 153-178.
{547}
TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (March-September).
War with Greece.
Success of the Turkish arms.
Peace sought by the Greek Government.
Notwithstanding the opposition of the Great Powers, the Greeks
were rashly bent upon war with the Turks, and, when balked in
Crete, began hostile demonstrations along the Turkish frontier
in their own peninsula. The events that followed have been
thus described by an eye-witness, who wrote immediately
afterwards: "When I arrived in Athens," says this writer,
"early last March [1897], although the Cretan insurrection was
being openly supported by Greek arms, war had not been
declared against Turkey. It was what I think was once
described in Parliament as 'a condition of war,' but not war.
… King George and his advisers rashly decided to attempt to
hasten matters in their own fashion. Agitation was begun
without and within the Turkish frontier, and the Ethuike
Hetairia manufactured alarms and disturbances in Macedonia and
Epirus. Attempts were made in other directions, but though
money and emissaries were sent, nothing came of it. Meanwhile
the mobilisation of the Greek army was begun, and later on
reserves were called out. Knowing a good deal about the
relative condition of preparedness for war of both Turkey and
Greece, I spoke without reserve on the subject to the King
and, later on, to the Princes. I told them nearly every
military intelligence department in Europe knew that Turkey
had been getting her troops ready for a year past to deal with
insurrection or invasion along the Macedonian frontier. Within
the Salonica military district she had nearly 100,000 men under
arms, all well trained and passably equipped. Besides infantry
she had nearly 10,000 cavalry, and within a month could place
a further force of 70,000 infantry in the field. Against these
the Greeks could not bring more than 60,000 regulars. There no
doubt might be mustered twice that number of men, but they
would be untrained irregulars and volunteers who would take a
month at least before they could be of much use, and Turkey
would have her bands of irregulars out also to offset their
value. It was notorious besides that the Greek army was
indifferently organised, that it had no transport, no
commissariat department, no medical department, and was
without anything like a sufficiency of trained officers. …
"Prepared or not, the Greeks clamoured for war, never doubting
latterly but that they would win. They protested that the
Hellenes were aroused and would fight and die, if need be, to
the last man. Greece would not waive an iota of her demands.
We were told that the Greeks scattered throughout the Turkish
Empire would spring to arms and paralyze the enemy's hands.
There were to be fearful outbreaks in Macedonia, Epirus, and
Albania, and tumults and burnings in all the chief cities
under Turkish rule where Greeks dwelt—Smyrna, Constantinople,
Salonica, and so on. I was informed that insurrectionary bands
were being got ready to invade Macedonia and Epirus, and I was
introduced to several of the leaders of these new expeditions.
… I saw many of these Greek filibusters at Kalabaka and other
places. By order from Athens the local commandants supplied
them with stores, transport, and trenching tools, and sent
guides to direct them, so that they should slip across into
Macedonia at the most suitable points for conducting their
operations. …
"The Greeks had a fairly long innings carrying on the war
within Turkish territory, whilst disingenuously disclaiming
responsibility for the acts of their own levies. Finally, in
April, the Sultan declared war and set his forces in motion.
Prior to that date the Greeks had moved up the whole of their
available strength close to the Thessalian frontier. The army
numbered nearer fifty than sixty thousand, of all ranks. …
Before war was declared the Crown Prince Constantine arrived
in Larissa, and took over the command of the Greek army in
Thessaly. … He had no military experience; and, as events
disclosed, was neither of a martial disposition nor of a firm
temperament. He showed subsequently that he felt keenly his
false position, and he tried to excuse the awful failures made
in the conduct of the campaign of panic and flight. …
"Independence Day having passed without a general invasion of
Macedonia by the Greeks, it is likely that the Turks had
thought the danger over, when suddenly firing began in a night
along the frontier from Nezeros to Ravenni. For a day or two the
Greeks carried all before them, capturing many block-houses
and taking a number of prisoners. They succeeded in
penetrating Turkish territory in some places for two or three
miles. … The Turks were in immediate danger of being
outflanked in one part of the field of operations, and
separated from their main force at Elassona. It was midday,
the 19th of April, when at a critical moment for the safety of
a portion of Edhem's forces an order arrived from the Crown
Prince to cease firing and retire the whole Greek army back
upon their own side of the frontier. … After an interval of
three hours, during which there was little or no firing, a
message arrived from headquarters that a blunder had been made
and the army was to readvance and engage the enemy. It was a
lost opportunity, for the Turks followed up the Greeks and
reoccupied the lines from which they had been driven. … The
cost of the blunder was a serious one to the Greeks, for in a
futile attempt, on the following day, to retake Gresovala,
General Mavromichali lost 2,000 men. …
"On the 21st of April, without any of the pictorial display or
reputed hand-to-hand fighting, some 40,000 Turks, not less,
accompanied by three cavalry regiments and half a score of
batteries, quietly streamed down the zigzag paved way in the
steep Melouna pass into Thessaly. They occupied the village of
Legaria and positions among the lowest foot hills at the
outlet of the pass. The Greeks were not able to embarrass them
as they deployed, although an attempt was made to find the
range with artillery. … For two days there was a fierce
artillery duel, interspersed occasionally with sharp rifle
fire as the infantry became engaged on the right and left of
the line. … All had ended in favour of the Greeks when the sun
set on the 22nd April, and the battle of Mati was over. … It
was the same night that the Crown Prince ordered the army to
retreat upon Larissa, twenty-five miles distant by road. About
8 P. M. the men were roused from their first sleep and
commanded to fall in. They did so very orderly and quietly,
thinking it was intended to deliver a surprise attack upon the
Turks.
{548}
The whole army was on the march, and had got five or six miles
from the battle-field, or close to Turnavos, when the
unaccountable mad panic seized them. Some say it originated
one way, some another. … The army broke into pieces and became
a furious rabble, which fled by road and fields south as hard
as most could run. Arms and ammunition and baggage were cast
aside wholesale. The Greek officers, as a rule, behaved worse
than the men, for they led the fleeing mob, and many of them
never stopped until they reached Pharsala or Vola. … The
whilom Greek army was a mob convinced that the Turkish cavalry
was upon their heels, though it never was near them. It gave
them the strength of despair, and so they covered afoot fifty
to sixty miles within twenty-four hours. The inhabitants of
Larissa and all the surrounding country, terrified at the
sudden calamity, were left by the military and civic
authorities, without hint or warning, to shift for themselves.
… The women and children of Larissa had to carry what they
wished to save upon their own backs. Thousands of these
helpless creatures, together with sick and wounded soldiers,
were left around the railway station, whilst officers rode off
upon the early or later special trains, to fly, as some of
them did, as far as Athens. The troops had gone hours before I
left Larissa, and even then there were no signs of the enemy
to be seen."
Bennet Burleigh,
The Greek War, as I saw it
(Fortnightly Review, July, 1897).
"Not until several hours after the departure of the last
Greek, did a few Turkish cavalrymen cautiously enter the town
[Larissa], some distance ahead of the Turkish army. … It was
the design of the Greeks to save Volo, a wealthy town, and the
haven of refuge of many of the peasants. Accordingly, a line
was formed from two miles beyond Pharsala to the pass which
was the doorway to Volo. About three miles from this pass was
the village of Velestino; and on the hills back of it were the
headquarters of Colonel Smollenske, commander of this, the
right wing of the Greek army. The Greek fleet, with decks
cleared for action, was in the Bay of Volo; having gone there
after the defeat of Mati, hoping that, in case the army
failed, its heavy guns would protect the town. After four
days, the Turks, having digested their victory with cigarettes
and coffee, were ready to renew fighting. Meanwhile, the Greeks
had put themselves in a sort of order. Evidently, the first
intention of the Turks was to force their way through
Smollenske's line and on to Volo. Accordingly, they attempted
to storm Smollenske's rifle-pits; but they were driven back
for the first time, and with the greatest loss that any such
movement had yet encountered in the campaign. … The Turks,
after a slight resistance, withdrew from the villages in front
of Velestino, which they had taken, and were soon moving over
to the left. Their plan of cutting the Greek line in two was
executed with energy. On the morning of May 7, Edhem Pasha
sent his fearless infantry, under heavy fire, up the hollows
between the mountain-ridges which ran at right angles to the
Turkish line across the plain. They intrepidly scaled the
ridges, and forced the Greeks from the position. Smollenske's
force was flanked and separated from the Crown Prince's force:
and he retreated in an orderly manner to Almyro. The Crown
Prince's force had been flanked on its left; at the same time
it was being flanked on its right by the force that had
flanked Smollenske. The Crown Prince, therefore, withdrew to
the heights of Domoko.
"So apparent was now the hopelessness of the Greek cause that
even the new ministry, which had been buoyed up into almost an
aggressive spirit by the 'victory' of Velestino, begged for
the intervention of the Powers. It was granted in the form of
a demand on the Sultan for an armistice. As there are six
Powers, each having a formal foreign office, this took some
time. The Sultan, as usual, was more deliberate than the six
tormentors, whom he in return tormented. Being truly Greek,
the Greek Cabinet seemed to believe that articles of peace
would be signed the moment the necessity of peace appealed to
the ministerial mind. … Two days after Pharsala, the Turkish
army appeared on the plain some ten miles from Domoko. There
it rested quietly for more than a week, leisurely celebrating
the important feast of Bairam. This confirmed the belief of
the Greek generals that the war was at an end. The morning of
May 17 found the Crown Prince's force more than ever convinced
of an armistice, and quite unprepared for an attack. At nine
o'clock the whole Turkish army began to advance upon the
astounded Greeks—most astounded of them all were the Crown
Prince and General Macris—in such a manner as to leave no
doubt as to its intention.
"The battle of Domoko which followed was the most sanguinary
of the campaign. … For three hours, that is, until
sundown,—the attack having begun at four o'clock,—the Greeks
steadily returned the hot fire of the Turks, who soon ceased
to advance, and doggedly hung on to the ground that they had
gained. … During this attack in front the Turks were making a
more important movement, strategically, on the right. … With
amazing intrepidity, during the hot action on the centre, the
Turks had fought their way over the mountains at the Greeks'
far right. Some reserves were sent around at sunset—but too
late. The Turkish left wing was already even with the town of
Domoko. Military experts maintain that the Crown Prince, by
readjusting his forces over night, could have given the
phlegmatic enemy a surprise in the morning, and held him in
check for several days. The retreat over the pass to Lamia
began at ten o'clock in the evening; and the next morning the
battalions covering the retreat were under heavy fire. The
Greeks' next stand was to be at Thermopylæ. Should the Turks
advance spiritedly, Smollenske's army would be cut off from
that of the Crown Prince, and forced to surrender. But the
Sultan, being somewhat appeased by more blood-letting, now
bowed before a letter from him whom the Greeks called 'a vile
enemy,'—the Czar,—who, for this act, saw his influence at
Constantinople supplanted by that of Germany, though the fear
of Russia was undiminished. At last the armistice came,—none
too soon for the demoralized army of Greece. The war had
lasted just thirty-one days."
F. Palmer,
How the Greeks were defeated
(Forum, November, 1897).
{549}
The preliminary treaty of peace, signed September 18, required
Greece to pay to Turkey a war indemnity of nearly eighteen
millions of dollars, arrangements for securing the payment of
which were to be controlled by an international commission
composed of one representative of each of the mediating
Powers. The same Powers were likewise to settle with Turkey a
rectification of the Greek frontier. Greece, in fact, was
helplessly in their hands.
TURKEY: A. D. 1897-1899.
Prolonged anarchy in Crete.
The inharmonious "Concert of Europe."
Final departure of Turkish troops and
officials from the island.
Organization of government under Prince George of Greece.
"The autonomous regime promised to this unfortunate island—the
Cuba of Europe—is still [at the end of 1897] apparently far
from realization. In the meantime a most distressing
condition; amounting to practical anarchy, prevails everywhere
except at some ports where the international gendarmerie
maintain a fair semblance of order. So completely have the
houses and property of the Mahometan population been destroyed
by the insurgents that the coming of winter has brought no
prospect to the former but one of desolation and famine.
Considerable pillaging of Christian houses by Mahometan
refugees was also reported from Candia, Kydonia, and other
points. In Candia the Turkish gendarmerie—recruited from the
worst class of Bashi-Bazouks—have proved worse than useless
for keeping order; they connive with the marauders and share
in the pillage. The British occupation is said to be only
nominal. …
"A strange satire upon the concert of Europe and the pretenses
of Western civilization was the circular letter addressed by
the Sultan to the powers, about mid-October, urging upon them
'in firm language' the necessity of promptness in restoring
tranquillity to the disordered island, and warning them of the
dangers of procrastination in this matter. … To accomplish the
pacification of Crete, the Sultan, in the letter referred to,
suggested that the entire population, Christian and Mahometan,
should be disarmed; that the disarmament should be carried out
by Ottoman troops; that the international troops should
co-operate in the work if the powers so desired; that the
entire force should be commanded by a European general in the
Turkish service; that an Ottoman garrison should be
permanently maintained; that the governor should be a
Christian and an Ottoman subject; and that a corps of
gendarmerie should be formed. … Toward the end of October it
was announced that the powers had finally chosen for the post
of governor-general of Crete Colonel Charles Schaeffer, a
native of the grand duchy of Luxemburg, and a man of extended
experience in the Turkish and Egyptian services, … related to
several of the principal houses of the aristocracy at St.
Petersburg, as well as to some of the most influential
personages in the entourage of the Sultan. … The Porte,
however, protested, with the support of Germany, against the
appointment of Colonel Schaeffer, who appears to have been
suspected of English sympathies. Russia, too, it was said,
objected, insisting that the appointee must be of the Orthodox
Greek faith. Thus, on the question of selecting a
governor-general for Crete, the concert of the powers broke
down as it did at other points during the long crisis. At the
end of November the name of Prince Francis Joseph of
Battenberg was prominently mentioned as a prospective
candidate of favor. The Cretan assembly proposed, unless a
suitable governor were speedily chosen by the powers, to offer
the post to a candidate of its own selection."
Current History, 1897,
pages 865-866.
Months went on, while the Powers still discussed the Cretan
situation and no agreement was reached. In January, 1898, the
Turkish government appointed Edhem Pasha governor of Candia;
but, in the face of the admirals of the blockading squadrons,
who exercised an undefined authority, he seems to have had
practically little power. Presently, a new attempt was made to
select a Christian Governor-general. France and Russia
proposed Prince George of Greece, but Austria and Turkey
opposed. In April, Austria and Germany withdrew from the
blockade and from the "Concert," leaving Great Britain,
Russia, France and Italy to deal with Cretan affairs alone.
The admirals of these Powers, acting under instructions, then
divided the Cretan coast among themselves, each directing the
administration of such government as could be conducted in his
own part. The British admiral had Candia, the capital town,
and there trouble arose which brought the whole Cretan
business to a crisis. He attempted to take possession of the
customs house (September 6), and landed for that purpose a
small force of 60 men. They were attacked by a Turkish mob,
with which they fought desperately for four hours, losing 12
killed and some 40 wounded, before they could make their
retreat to the shore and regain their ship. At the same time a
general massacre of Christians in the town was begun and some
800 perished before it was stopped. Edhem Pasha, with about
4,000 Turkish troops at his command, was said to have waited
long for the mob to do its work before he interfered.
This outbreak brought the four Powers to a decisive agreement.
They joined in imperatively demanding the withdrawal of
Turkish troops and officials from the island, and enforced the
demand. Guarantees for the safety of the Mohammedan population in
life and property were given; it was conceded that the
Sultan's suzerainty over Crete should be maintained, and he
was allowed to hold one military post in the island for a sign
of the fact. On those terms the Turkish evacuation of Crete
was carried out in November, and Prince George of Greece was
appointed, not Governor-general, but High Commissioner of the
four Powers, to organize an autonomous government in the
island and administer it for a period of three years. The
appointment was accepted, and Prince George was received with
rejoicing in Crete on the 21st of December. The blockade had
been raised on the 5th, and on the 26th the admirals departed.
During the following two years (1899-1900) there seems to have
been a generally good condition of order restored and
preserved. A constitution was framed by a national assembly,
which conferred the executive authority on Prince George, as
High Commissioner, with responsible councillors, and created a
Chamber of Deputies, elected for the most part by the people,
but containing ten members appointed by the High Commissioner.
Equal rights for all religious beliefs was made a principle of
the constitution.
TURKEY: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
{550}
TURKEY: A. D. 1899 (October).
Concessions to the Armenians.
In October an irade was published by the Sultan which withdrew
restrictions on the movements of Armenians in the provinces,
except in the case of suspects; granted pardon or commutation
of sentence to a number of Armenian prisoners; ordered payment
of sums due to Armenian government officials who had been
killed or expelled at the time of the massacres; directed
assistance to be given in the repairing and rebuilding of
churches, schools, and monasteries which had been injured or
destroyed, and also gave direction for the building of an
orphanage near Constantinople.
TURKEY: A. D. 1899 (November).
Railway to the Persian Gulf.
A German Bank Syndicate obtained from the Sultan, in November,
1899, a concession for the extension of the Anatolian Railway
from Konieh in Asia Minor, to Basra, or Bassorah, on the
Persian Gulf. The line, which will pass through Bagdad, and
along the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, is to be
completed within eight years from the date of the grant. "The
concession is regarded as a startling proof of German
influence in Constantinople, and a defeat both for Russian and
British diplomacy. It is certainly a defeat for the former,
and will greatly increase suspicion at St. Petersburg as to
the ultimate ends of Germany in Turkey; but we suspect that
Indian statesmen will perceive considerable compensations in
the arrangement. Not to mention that all railways which
approach India develop Indian trade, the railway may secure us
a strong ally in Asia. It is not of much use for Russia to be
running a line from the Caspian to Bushire if when she gets
there she finds Britain and Germany allied in the Persian
Gulf, and able by a railway through Gedrosia to Sind to throw
themselves right across her path."
Spectator (London),
December 2, 1899.
"The opposition of the French company owning the
Smyrna-Kassaba road, which extends east as far as Afion
Karahissar, was removed by granting this company 40 per cent
of the shares in the extension, and the local objection was
obviated by a provision in the concession giving the Turkish
Government the right to purchase the line at any time. Few
railroad lines can be of greater prospective importance than
this 2,000 miles of railroad uniting the Persian Gulf with
Europe, forming a rapid transit to and from the East, opening
up large tracts of agricultural country, and paving the way
for German commercial supremacy in Asia Minor and Mesopotamia.
It is not difficult to see how Germany, with preferential
rates for goods on German lines, will be able to control the
chief markets of Asia Minor and invade the East. … Germans
purchased the Constantinople-Ismid Railroad from an English
company and extended it to Angora. They also checkmated the
French and English by extending their line from Eski-Sher to
Konieh, thus preventing extension of both the Smyrna-Afion
Karahissar and the Smyrna-Aidin-Dinair roads. The two great
distributing points—Constantinople and Smyrna—are thus
controlled by Germans, and German goods may enter the interior
of Asia Minor and the great valley of the Tigris and Euphrates
on German-controlled roads at a decided advantage. Germans
have obtained the right to build docks and warehouses at Haida
Pasha, the terminus of the Anatolian railroads; and with
through rates for German goods on German lines, German freight
cars may be sent across the Bosphorus and travel to Mesopotamia
and the confines of India and Persia without change."
United States Consular Reports,
April, 1900, page 497.
Professor Hilprecht has remarked, in the "Sunday School Times"
that "a new era for Babylonian archeology will begin when the
railroad from Koniah to Baghdad and Bassorah has been
constructed. It will then take about a week from London to the
ruins of Babylon, where, doubtless, a railway station (Hillah)
will be established. At present the traveler needs at the best
six weeks to cover this route. This railroad," says the
Professor, "has now become a certainty."
TURKEY: A. D. 1899-1901.
Impending outbreak in Macedonia.
The state of things in Macedonia, where the people have long
been on the brink of revolt against Turkish rule, excited to
it from Bulgaria and encouraged from Greece, but warned
otherwise by Russia and Austria, is thus described by the
"Economist," in an article quoted in "Littell's Living Age,"
March, 1899: "It is improbable, for reasons stated below, that
Macedonia will rise in insurrection this year [1899], but,
nevertheless, there is great danger in that quarter, which is
evidently disturbing both Vienna and St. Petersburg, and
exciting apprehensions in Constantinople. The Austrian and
Russian Foreign Offices are both issuing intimations that if a
revolt occurs Turkey will be allowed to put it down by Turkish
methods, and the Sultan is raising more troops, sending
Asiatic levies to Macedonia, and despatching some of his
ablest officers to control the hill districts. Severe warnings
have also been sent both to Belgrade and Sofia, and the Greeks
are warned that if their active party moves the Government of
Athens will not again be saved by Europe from the worst
consequences. All these symptoms imply that there is grave
fear, among those who watch Macedonia, that the patience of
her sorely oppressed people has given way, and that they have
resolved to risk everything rather than remain longer under
the rule of Pashas from whom no man's life and no woman's
honor is safe for twelve hours together. It is known,
moreover, that the course of events in Crete and the
appearance of the Tsar's Rescript have greatly stirred the
population. The former is held by them to show that if a
Christian population in Turkey will risk massacre, Europe will
not allow them to be exterminated, while the latter has made
submission more difficult by putting an end to hope for the
next five years. …
"Turkish subjects must be driven to despair before they will
rise against the Turks, and if they can even hope to be left
alone, the Macedonians will wait, rather than encounter so
dreadful a risk. They have, it is true, the example of the
Cretans to encourage them, but their country is not an island,
and they have the fate both of the Armenians and the
Thessalians to warn them that on the mainland the Turks cannot
be resisted by half-drilled forces.
"It seems almost a truism to say that Europe is foolish to
allow such a source of danger as Macedonia presents to
continue without a cure; but there is something to be said on
the other side. The Powers sincerely desire peace, and the
Macedonian magazine cannot be flooded without a war, if it be
only a war between Russia and the Sultan.
{551}
Nobody knows to what such a war would lead, or in what
condition Eastern Europe might emerge from it. Moreover,
however much the Macedonians may excite the sympathies of
philanthropists, they have done a good deal to alienate those
of politicians. They decline to be either Austrian or Russian.
They asked for years to be aided by Greece, and when Greece
declared war on Turkey they refused to rise behind Edhem
Pasha, whom they could have cut away from his supports. They
now ask aid from Bulgaria, but they are most unwilling to
submit to Sofia, and so make of Bulgaria a fairly strong
State. They wish, they say, to make of Macedonia a
Principality, but if it were so made the Slavo-Macedonians
would begin fighting the Græco-Macedonians, until both had
been nearly ruined. They must join one party or the other if
they wish to be free, and stick to the one they join, and
fight for it with a coherence which they have never yet
displayed."
On the 7th of January, 1901, a correspondent of the "London
Times" wrote on the same subject from Vienna, as follows:
"The situation in Macedonia, as described in trustworthy
accounts coming from different directions, testifies to the
increasing danger of trouble. Things have gone so far that an
outbreak may occur this year. In diplomatic circles it is
considered impossible that in any case it can be delayed for
longer than a twelvemonth. In Constantinople, Athens, and all
the capitals of the Balkan States the eventuality of a
Macedonian rising has been expected for several years past,
and in more than one instance preparations have been made
accordingly. To what extent the Macedonia committees have
received official patronage in Bulgaria is now of secondary
interest. The mischief has been done, and the agitation in
Macedonia is at present beyond the control of the Bulgarian
authorities, even if they wished to keep it in check, which is
not certain. All that can be said with confidence is that last
summer Austria and Russia made a vigorous and successful effort
to put an end to the almost open encouragement extended to the
Macedonian committees at Sofia, which was within an ace of
involving the Principality in a war with Rumania. The
Austro-Russian 'entente' [an understanding or agreement
between Russia and Austria, in 1897, to act together in
keeping peace in the Balkan peninsula] has, in fact, done
excellent service wherever diplomatic pressure can be brought
to bear. But, unfortunately, that does not include Macedonia.
If the revolutionary element in that province of the Ottoman
Empire sets at defiance the imposing Turkish forces
concentrated on the spot, it is not likely that it will be
influenced by what is probably regarded as the remote
contingency of the direct armed intervention of Austria and
Russia. All the warnings and scoldings in the world will not
suffice to preserve peace in Macedonia.
"It is difficult to say what foundation there may be for the
statement that the Sultan himself seeks to take advantage of
the disturbed condition of Macedonia for purposes of his own.
It is alleged that he wishes to prevent any change in the
existing regime in Crete by exciting the apprehension in
Athens and elsewhere that an attempt to modify the status quo
in that island would cause a massacre of the Hellenic
population in Macedonia. This view of the case finds
expression in the following extracts from a letter addressed
to the 'Roumanie,' one of the leading organs of
Bukharest:—'The thoroughly bad policy pursued by the Sublime
Porte in Macedonia, which consists in allowing that unhappy
province to remain a prey to Bulgarian agitators so as in case
of need to terrify diplomacy by the spectre of a revolution,
has contributed to open the eyes of the Powers. On the other
hand, the irresistible attraction exercised by the Kingdom of
Greece, not only on the Cretans themselves, but also on all
the rayahs of the Ottoman Empire, is an indisputable fact.'"
See, also (in this volume),
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.
TURKEY: A. D. 1900.
The Zionist movement of the Jews to colonize Palestine.
See (in this volume)
JEWS: A. D. 1897-1901.
TURKEY: A. D. 1901.
The Cretan question.
The provisional arrangement of government for Crete,
administered by Prince George, of Greece, as High Commissioner
for the Powers, expires by limitation in December, 1901. What
shall then be done with the island is a question that was
referred, by the several Powers of the Concert, in the early
part of the year, to their ambassadors at Rome, in conference
with the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs. The
administration of Prince George appears to have been quite
remarkably satisfactory to all concerned, and its continuation
was evidently desired, as much by the Cretans as by the
protecting Powers; but the former sought to have it placed on
a basis of permanency, in some form that would be practically
tantamount to the long craved annexation to Greece. Prince
George naturally looks in the same direction, and he is said
to have made it known that he would decline to hold his post
provisionally beyond the term of three years for which he
accepted it in 1898. The ambassadorial conference at Rome
decided, however, that the time has not come for a permanent
settlement of the Cretan question, and that the provisional
arrangement for its government must be renewed. A Press
despatch from Athens, on the 22d of March, 1901, announced the
decision and indicated the circumstances of the situation, as
follows:
"The Cretan Assembly meets at the end of next month, and its
probable attitude towards the question of union with Greece is
already the subject of speculation here. The decision of the
conference of Ambassadors at Rome is embodied in a memorandum
which has been handed to Prince George by the Consuls at
Canea, while a copy of the document has been unofficially
presented to King George 'à titre d'information.' The
Ambassadors express their opinion that any manifestation on
the part of the Cretans in favour of union with Greece would
be inopportune at the present moment, and they propose a
prolongation of the present provisional system of government
without assigning any definite term to the High Commissioner's
mandate.
"Whether Prince George, who is an enthusiastic advocate of
union with Greece, will accept the new arrangement
unconditionally remains to be seen. Meanwhile the islanders
are occupied with preparations for the elections.
{552}
"It appears that at a recent sitting of the Prince's Council
one of the most prominent of Cretan politicians advocated the
institution of an autonomous Principality on the lines already
laid down by the existing Constitution. The proposal provoked
a violent outburst on the part of the Athenian Press, which
denounces its author as a traitor to the cause of Hellenism.
The opinion apparently prevails here that the establishment of
a Principality would finally preclude the union of the island
with Greece."
TURKEY: A. D. 1901.
Order regulating the visit of Jews to Palestine.
See (in this volume)
JEWS: A. D. 1901.
----------TURKEY: End--------
TWAIN, Mark:
Description of scenes in the Austrian Reichsrath.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
U.
UCHALI, Treaty of.
See (in this volume)
ITALY: A. D. 1895-1896.
UGANDA: A. D. 1894.
Creation of the Protectorate.
See (in this volume)
BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE: A. D. 1895-1897.
UGANDA: A. D. 1897-1898.
Native insurrection and mutiny of Sudanese troops.
A train of serious troubles in the Uganda Protectorate began
in May, 1897, with an insurrection of some of the chiefs,
instigated by the king, Mwanga, who was restive under British
control. The revolt was suppressed after some sharp fighting,
especially at Kiango, on the 24th of July, and King Mwanga
escaped into German territory. In August he was formally
deposed by a council of chiefs, and his infant son, Chua, was
elected king in his place, under a regency of three of the
chiefs. But a more serious trouble followed, from the mutiny
of a part of the Sudanese troops which had been serving in
Uganda. These troops were being sent to join an expedition,
under Major Macdonald, for the exploration of the districts
adjacent to the Italian sphere of influence, and were not
permitted to take their women with them. This seems to have
been their chief grievance. They also complained of being
overworked, underpaid, insufficiently fed, and commanded by
young officers who would not listen to their complaints. They
seized Fort Lubas, on the frontier between Uganda and Usoga,
made prisoners of several of their officers, whom they finally
murdered, and held the fort against repeated attacks until early
in January, 1898, when they made their escape. They were
pursued and attacked (February 24) at Kabagambe, on Lake
Kioja, where they had built a fort. Many were killed, the
remainder much scattered. A considerable party got away to the
eastern side of the Nile and continued to give trouble there
throughout the year.
Meantime, the deposed king, Mwanga, had escaped from the
Germans and effected a new rising among his late subjects; and
another deposed king, Kabarega, of Unyoro, had also
reappeared, to make trouble in that region. After the
suppression of the Sudanese mutiny these risings were
overcome, with the help of some 1,100 troops brought from
India for the emergency. In March, there was news of
Kabarega's death, and the British Acting Commissioner and
Consul General issued the following proclamation:
"Whereas Kabarega, the deposed King of Unyoro, is reported to
have deceased, and whereas the present disordered state of
affairs in that country has proved that, for the maintenance
of good government and good-will, it is expedient to provide
for the succession to the kingdom of a member of the Royal
House, it is hereby publicly proclaimed that Karukala, son of
Kabarega, is now appointed King of Unyoro, under the
protection of Her Britannic Majesty. The Kingdom of Unyoro
comprises the provinces of—Busindi, Shifalu, Magungu, Kibero,
Bugoma, Bugahiaobeire. This appointment is in accordance with
the general conditions by which countries in British African
Protectorates are guided and regulated, and it secures to the
Kingdom of Unyoro all the advantages which accrue from its
being an integral part of such a Protectorate. The local
government of the country will be administered, under the
guidance of Her Majesty's Representative, by a Council of
Regency of either two or three Chiefs, to be appointed by Her
Majesty's Commissioner. This Council of Regency will, subject
to the approval of Her Majesty's Commissioner, select and
appoint the Katikiro and the other Chiefs of the first rank
required in accordance with local custom. These Chiefs, on
their appointment being confirmed, will select and appoint in
full Council the lesser grade Chiefs, until the system of
local administration is complete."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: Africa, Number 7, 1898, page 42).
UGANDA RAILWAY, The.
On the 30th of April, 1900, the British Parliament voted
£1,930,000 for the completion of the railway under
construction from Mombasa, on the Indian Ocean, to Lake
Victoria-Nyanza, officially known as the Mombasa-Victoria
Railway. Previous expenditure had been about £3,000,000. On
the 30th of October it was reported that rails were laid down
to the 452d mile from Mombasa, and that advance gangs were
working about 40 miles beyond that point.
UITLANDERS.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1885-1890, and after.
UNGAVA, The district of.
See (in this volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1895.
UNITED CHRISTIAN PARTY.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
UNITED IRISH LEAGUE, The.
See (in this volume)
IRELAND: A. D. 1900-1901.
UNITED STATES OF BRAZIL.
See (in this volume)
BRAZIL.
{553}
----------UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Start--------
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1868-1885.
Cuban questions in controversy with Spain.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1868-1885.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1894.
Legislation to promote the reclamation of arid lands.
The following measure of legislation to promote the
reclamation of arid lands was carried through Congress as an
amendment to the appropriation bill for Sundry Civil
Expenditures, and became law August 18, 1894:
"Section 4.
That to aid the public land States in the reclamation of the
desert lands therein, and the settlement, cultivation, and
sale thereof in small tracts to actual settlers, the Secretary
of the Interior with the approval of the President, be, and
hereby is, authorized and empowered, upon proper application
of the State to contract and agree, from time to time, with
each of the States in which there may be situated desert lands
as defined by the Act entitled 'An Act to provide for the sale
of desert land in certain States and Territories,' approved
March 3d, 1877, and the Act amendatory thereof, approved March
3d, 1891, binding the United States to donate, grant and
patent to the State free of cost for surveyor price such
desert lands, not exceeding one million acres in each State,
as the State may cause to be irrigated, reclaimed, occupied,
and not less than twenty acres of each one hundred and
sixty-acre tract cultivated by actual settlers, within ten
years next after the passage of this Act, as thoroughly as is
required of citizens who may enter under the said desert land
law.
"Before the application of any State is allowed or any
contract or agreement is executed or any segregation of any of
the land from the public domain is ordered by the Secretary of
the Interior, the State shall file a map of the said land
proposed to be irrigated which shall exhibit a plan showing
the mode of the contemplated irrigation and which plan shall
be sufficient to thoroughly irrigate and reclaim said land and
prepare it to raise ordinary agricultural crops and shall also
show the source of the water to be used for irrigation and
reclamation, and the Secretary of the Interior may make
necessary regulations for the reservation of the lands applied
for by the States to date from the date of the filing of the map
and plan of irrigation, but such reservation shall be of no
force whatever if such map and plan of irrigation shall not be
approved. That any State contracting under this section is
hereby authorized to make all necessary contracts to cause the
said lands to be reclaimed, and to induce their settlement and
cultivation in accordance with and subject to the provisions
of this section; but the State shall not be authorized to
lease any of said lands or to use or dispose of the same in
any way whatever, except to secure their reclamation,
cultivation and settlement.
"As fast as any State may furnish satisfactory proof according
to such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the
Secretary of the Interior, that any of said lands are
irrigated, reclaimed and occupied by actual settlers, patents
shall be issued to the State or its assigns for said land so
reclaimed and settled: Provided, That said States shall not
sell or dispose of more than one hundred and sixty acres of
said land to any one person, and any surplus of money derived
by any State from the sale of said lands in excess of the cost
of their reclamation, shall be held as a trust fund for and be
applied to the reclamation of other desert lands in such
State. That to enable the Secretary of the Interior to examine
any of the lands that may be selected under the provisions of
this section, there is hereby appropriated out of any moneys
in the Treasury, not otherwise appropriated, one thousand
dollars."
Acts, 53d Congress, 2d Session, chapter 301.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895.
Re-survey of Mexican boundary.
See (in this volume)
MEXICO: A. D. 1892-1895.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895 (January-February).
The monetary situation.
Contract for replenishing the gold reserve in the Treasury.
The alarming situation of the Treasury of the United States at
the beginning of the year 1895 was clearly described by the
President in his special Message to Congress, January 28.
See in volume 5, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895).
By the operation of what had been aptly called "the endless
chain" of the greenback currency issues of the government
(paid out with one hand, to be redeemed with the other in
gold, which the declining value of silver brought more and
more into demand) the gold reserve in the Treasury was fast
being exhausted, and the hour was approaching when, without
some effective relief, the obligations of the nation would
have to be paid in depreciated silver coin, and its credit
lost. The appeal of the President to Congress had no effect.
The Senate was controlled by a majority of men who desired
precisely the result which he wished to avert. The state of
things in that body was described by Senator Sherman, of the
Committee on Finance, in the following words:
"The Committee on Finance is utterly helpless to deal with
this vast question. We are quite divided upon it. We are not
allowed to propose a measure to this Senate which all can
approve of, unless there is attached to it a provision for
free coinage of silver."
The attitude of the House was different, but almost equally
hostile to the President's views. Its Republican majority was
not favorable to the aims of the free silver parties, but held
that the relief needed for the Treasury was to be sought in a
return to higher import duties, as a means of obtaining
increased revenue. Hence, a bill to carry out the
recommendations of the President was rejected in the House, on
the 7th of February, by a vote of 162 against 135.
On the following day, the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr.
Carlisle, exercising authority which he possessed to sell
certain four per cent. thirty year bonds, contracted with
August Belmont &; Co., who represented the Rothschilds of
London, and with the house of J. P. Morgan & Co., of New York,
on behalf of J. S. Morgan & Co., London, and themselves, for
supplying 3,500,000 ounces of standard gold coin of the United
States, at the rate of 817.80441 per ounce, in exchange for
such bonds. It was a condition of the contract that one half
of the coin supplied should be brought from Europe: also that
the contracting syndicate should use its influence to protect
the Treasury against withdrawals of gold.
{554}
At the same time, the Secretary of the Treasury reserved the
right to substitute three per cent. gold bonds, if Congress
would authorize such an issue, to be taken by the syndicate at
par, in place of the four per cents to which his existing
authority was restricted. It was shown that the consequent
saving in interest would be $539,000 per annum, amounting to
$16,174,770 in thirty years; but the proposal was rejected in
the House of Representatives by 167 votes against 120. The
contract was accordingly carried out in its original form,
with success so far that the withdrawals of gold from the
Treasury dropped for a considerable period to a low point. It
appeared that when this emergency break was put upon the
working of the "endless chain," the sub-treasury in New York
was believed to be within twenty-four hours of a suspension of
gold payments. But the contract was loudly condemned.
nevertheless, by the opponents of the administration.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895 (February).
Renewed insurrection in Cuba.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1895.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895 (April-May).
Decision of the Supreme Court against the constitutionality
of the Income Tax.
Cases testing the constitutionality of the income tax which
Congress had attached to the Tariff Act of 1894, were brought
to a partial decision in the Supreme Court in April, and
finally in May, 1895.
See, in volume 4 of original edition,
or in volume 5 of revised edition,
TARIFF LEGISLATION, UNITED STATES: A. D. 1894.
[Transcriber's note: For this set see, Volume 4,
"TARIFF: (United States): A. D. 1894."]
The cases in question were "Pollock v. Farmers' Loan and
Trust Company," and "Hyde v. Continental Trust Company." On
the first hearing, the illness and absence of one of the
justices, Mr. Jackson, of Tennessee, left but eight members
in attendance, and they divided equally on several points
which were vital to the decision of the question of
constitutionality in the tax. The appellants accordingly
filed a petition for a re-hearing, submitting, among other
reasons, the following: "The question involved in these cases
was as to the constitutionality of the provisions of the
tariff act of August 15, 1894 (sections 27 to 37), purporting
to impose a tax on incomes. The Court has held that the same
are unconstitutional, so far as they purport to impose a tax
upon the rent or income of real estate and income derived
from municipal bonds. It has, however, announced that it was
equally divided in opinion as to the following questions, and
has expressed no opinion in regard to them: (1) Whether the
void provisions invalidate the whole act. (2) Whether, as to
the income from personal property as such, the act is
unconstitutional as laying direct taxes. (3) Whether any part
of the tax, if not considered as a direct tax, is invalid for
want of uniformity.
"The court has reversed the decree of the Circuit Court and
remanded the case, with directions to enter a decree in favor
of complainant in respect only of the voluntary payment of the
tax on the rents and income of defendant's real estate and
that which it holds in trust, and on the income from the
municipal bonds owned or so held by it. While, therefore, the
two points above stated have been decided, there has been no
decision of the remaining questions regarding the
constitutionality of the act, and no judgment has been
announced authoritatively establishing any principle for
interpretation of the statute in those respects."
The re-hearing asked for was granted by the Court on the 6th
of May, when Justice Jackson was able to take his seat on the
bench, after which, on the 20th of May, by the opinion of five
members of the Court against four, the law was pronounced null,
so far as concerned the imposition of a tax on incomes. The
opinion of the majority was delivered by Chief Justice Fuller,
who said, in part:
"The Constitution divided Federal taxation into two great
classes, the class of direct taxes, and the class of duties,
imposts and excises; and prescribed two rules which qualified
the grant of power as to each class. The power to lay direct
taxes apportioned among the several States in proportion to
their representation in the popular branch of Congress, a
representation based on population as ascertained by the
census, was plenary and absolute; but to lay direct taxes
without apportionment was forbidden. The power to lay duties,
imposts, and excises was subject to the qualification that the
imposition must be uniform throughout the United States.
"Our previous decision was confined to the consideration of
the validity of the tax on the income from real estate and on
the income from municipal bonds. … We are now permitted to
broaden the field of inquiry, and to determine to which of the
two great classes a tax upon a person's entire income, whether
derived from rents, or products, or otherwise, of real estate,
or from bonds, stocks, or other forms of personal property,
belongs; and we are unable to conclude that the enforced
subtraction from the yield of all the owner's real or personal
property, in the manner prescribed, is so different from a tax
upon the property itself, that it is not a direct, but an
indirect tax in the meaning of the Constitution.
"The words of the Constitution are to be taken in their
obvious sense, and to have a reasonable construction. In
Gibbons v. Ogden, Mr. Chief Justice Marshall, with his usual
felicity, said: 'As men, whose intentions require no
concealment, generally employ the words which most directly
and aptly express the ideas they intend to convey, the
enlightened patriots who framed our Constitution, and the
people who adopted it must be understood to have employed
words in their natural sense, and to have intended what they
have said.' 9 Wheat. 1, 188. And in Rhode Island v.
Massachusetts, where the question was whether a controversy
between two States over the boundary between them was within
the grant of judicial power, Mr. Justice Baldwin, speaking for
the Court, observed: 'The solution of this question must
necessarily depend on the words of the Constitution; the
meaning and intention of the convention which framed and
proposed it for adoption and ratification to the conventions
of the people of and in the several States; together with a
reference to such sources of judicial information as are
resorted to by all courts in construing statutes, and to which
this court has always resorted in construing the
Constitution.' 12 Pet. 657, 721. We know of no reason for
holding otherwise than that the words 'direct taxes,' on the
one hand, and 'duties, imposts and excises,' on the other,
were used in the Constitution in their natural and obvious
sense. Nor in arriving at what those terms embrace do we
perceive any ground for enlarging them beyond or narrowing
them within their natural and obvious import at the time the
Constitution was framed and ratified.
{555}
"And passing from the text, we regard the conclusion reached
as inevitable, when the circumstances which surrounded the
convention and controlled its action and the views of those
who framed and those who adopted the Constitution are
considered. … In the light of the struggle in the convention
as to whether or not the new Nation should be empowered to
levy taxes directly on the individual until after the States
had failed to respond to requisitions—a struggle which did not
terminate until the amendment to that effect, proposed by
Massachusetts and concurred in by South Carolina, New
Hampshire, New York, and Rhode Island, had been rejected—it
would seem beyond reasonable question that direct taxation,
taking the place as it did of requisitions, was purposely
restrained to apportionment according to representation, in
order that the former system as to ratio might be retained
while the mode of collection was changed. This is forcibly
illustrated by a letter of Mr. Madison of January 29, 1789,
recently published, written after the ratification of the
Constitution, but before the organization of the government
and the submission of the proposed amendment to Congress,
which, while opposing the amendment as calculated to impair
the power only to be exercised in extraordinary emergencies,
assigns adequate ground for its rejection as substantially
unnecessary, since, he says, 'every State which chooses to
collect its own quota may always prevent a Federal collection,
by keeping a little beforehand in its finances and making its
payment at once into the Federal treasury.'
"The reasons for the clauses of the Constitution in respect of
direct taxation are not far to seek. The States, respectively,
possessed plenary powers of taxation. They could tax the
property of their citizens in such manner and to such extent
as they saw fit; they had unrestricted powers to impose duties
or imposts on imports from abroad, and excises on
manufactures, consumable commodities, or otherwise. They gave
up the great sources of revenue derived from commerce; they
retained the concurrent power of levying excises, and duties
if covering anything other than excises; but in respect of
them the range of taxation was narrowed by the power granted
over interstate commerce, and by the danger of being put at
disadvantage in dealing with excises on manufactures. They
retained the power of direct taxation, and to that they looked
as their chief resource; but even in respect of that, they
granted the concurrent power, and if the tax were placed by
both governments on the same subject, the claim of the United
States had preference. Therefore, they did not grant the power
of direct taxation without regard to their own condition and
resources as States; but they granted the power of apportioned
direct taxation, a power just as efficacious to serve the needs
of the general government, but securing to the States the
opportunity to pay the amount apportioned, and to recoup from
their own citizens in the most feasible way, and in harmony
with their systems of local self-government. If, in the
changes of wealth and population in particular States,
apportionment produced inequality, it was an inequality
stipulated for, just as the equal representation of the
States, however small, in the Senate, was stipulated for. …
"Moreover, whatever the reasons for the constitutional
provisions, there they are, and they appear to us to speak in
plain language. It is said that a tax on the whole income of
property is not a direct tax in the meaning of the
Constitution, but a duty, and, as a duty, leviable without
apportionment, whether direct or indirect. We do not think so.
Direct taxation was not restricted in one breath and the
restriction blown to the winds in another. Cooley (On
Taxation, page 3) says that the word 'duty' ordinarily 'means
an indirect tax imposed on the importation, exportation or
consumption of goods'; having a broader meaning than "custom,"
which is a duty imposed on imports or exports'; that 'the term
"impost" also signifies any tax, tribute or duty, but it is
seldom applied to any but the indirect taxes. An excise duty
is an inland impost, levied upon articles of manufacture or
sale, and also upon licenses to pursue certain trades or to
deal in certain commodities.' In the Constitution the words
'duties, imposts and excises' are put in antithesis to direct
taxes. Gouverneur Morris recognized this in his remarks in
modifying his celebrated motion, as did Wilson in approving of
the motion as modified. …
"Our conclusions may therefore be summed up as follows:
"First. We adhere to the opinion already announced, that,
taxes on real estate being indisputably direct taxes, taxes on
the rents or income of real estate are equally direct taxes.
"Second. We are of opinion that taxes on personal property, or
on the income of personal property, are likewise direct taxes.
"Third. The tax imposed by sections twenty-seven to
thirty-seven, inclusive, of the act of 1894, so far as it
falls on the income of real estate and of personal property,
being a direct tax within the meaning of the Constitution,
and, therefore, unconstitutional and void because not
apportioned according to representation, all those sections,
constituting one entire scheme of taxation, are necessarily
invalid."
Four dissenting opinions were prepared, by Justices Harlan,
Brown, Jackson and White. In that of Mr. Justice Harlan, he
said: "What are 'direct taxes' within the meaning of the
Constitution? In the convention of 1787, Rufus King asked what
was the precise meaning of 'direct' taxation, and no one
answered. Madison Papers, 5 Elliott's Debates, 451. The
debates of that famous body do not show that any delegate
attempted to give a clear, succinct definition of what, in his
opinion, was a direct tax. Indeed the report of those debates,
upon the question now before us, is very meagre and
unsatisfactory. An illustration of this is found in the case
of Gouverneur Morris. It is stated that on the 12th of July,
1787, he moved to add to a clause empowering Congress to vary
representation according to the principles of 'wealth and
numbers of inhabitants,' a proviso 'that taxation shall be in
proportion to representation.' And he is reported to have
remarked, on that occasion, that while some objections lay
against his motion, he supposed 'they would be removed by
restraining the rule to direct taxation.' Elliott's Debates,
302.
{556}
But, on the 8th of August, 1787, the work of the Committee on
Detail being before the convention, Mr. Morris is reported to
have remarked, 'let it not be said that direct taxation is to
be proportioned to representation.' 5 Elliott's Debates, 393.
If the question propounded by Rufus King had been answered in
accordance with the interpretation now given, it is not at all
certain that the Constitution, in its present form, would have
been adopted by the convention, nor, if adopted, that it would
have been accepted by the requisite number of States." The
following is from the dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Brown:
"In view of the fact that the great burden of taxation among
the several States is assessed upon real estate at a
valuation, and that a similar tax was apparently an important
part of the revenue of such States at the time the
Constitution was adopted, it is not unreasonable to suppose
that this is the only undefined direct tax the framers of the
Constitution had in view when they incorporated this clause
into that instrument. The significance of the words 'direct
taxes' was not so well understood then as it is now, and it is
entirely probable that these words were used with reference to
a generally accepted method of raising a revenue by tax upon
real estate. … But, however this may be, I regard it as very
clear that the clause requiring direct taxes to be apportioned
to the population has no application to taxes which are not
capable of apportionment according to population. It cannot be
supposed that the convention could have contemplated a
practical inhibition upon the power of Congress to tax in some
way all taxable property within the jurisdiction of the
Federal government, for the purposes of a national revenue.
And if the proposed tax were such that in its nature it could
not be apportioned according to population, it naturally
follows that it could not have been considered a direct tax,
within the meaning of the clause in question."
Mr. Justice Jackson concluded his dissenting opinion as
follows: "The practical operation of the decision is not only
to disregard the great principles of equality in taxation, but
the further principle that in the imposition of taxes for the
benefit of the government the burdens thereof should be
imposed upon those having the most ability to bear them. This
decision, in effect, works out a directly opposite result, in
relieving the citizens having the greater ability, while the
burdens of taxation are made to fall most heavily and
oppressively upon those having the least ability. It lightens
the burden upon the larger number in some States subject to
the tax, and places it most unequally and disproportionately
on the smaller number in other States. Considered in all its
bearings, this decision is, in my judgment, the most
disastrous blow ever struck at the constitutional power of
Congress. It strikes down an important portion of the most
vital and essential power of the government in practically
excluding any recourse to incomes from real and personal
estate for the purpose of raising needed revenue to meet the
government's wants and necessities under any circumstances.
"I am therefore compelled to enter my dissent to the judgment
of the court."
The opinion delivered by the majority of the Court was
criticised with severity by Mr. Justice White, who said: "The
injustice of the conclusion points to the error of adopting
it. It takes invested wealth and reads it into the
Constitution as a favored and protected class of property,
which cannot be taxed without apportionment, whilst it leaves
the occupation of the minister, the doctor, the professor, the
lawyer, the inventor, the author, the merchant, the mechanic,
and all other forms of industry upon which the prosperity of a
people must depend, subject to taxation without that
condition. A rule which works out this result, which, it seems
to me, stultifies the Constitution by making it an instrument of
the most grievous wrong, should not be adopted, especially
when, in order to do so, the decisions of this court, the
opinions of the law writers and publicists, tradition,
practice, and the settled policy of the government must be
overthrown.
"To destroy the fixed interpretation of the Constitution, by
which the rule of apportionment according to population, is
confined to direct taxes on real estate so as to make that
rule include indirect taxes on real estate and taxes, whether
direct or indirect, on invested personal property, stocks,
bonds, etc., reads into the Constitution the most flagrantly
unjust, unequal, and wrongful system of taxation known to any
civilized government. This strikes me as too clear for
argument. I can conceive of no greater injustice than would
result from imposing on one million of people in one State,
having only ten millions of invested wealth, the same amount
of tax as that imposed on the like number of people in another
State having fifty times that amount of invested wealth. The
application of the rule of apportionment by population to
invested personal wealth would not only work out this wrong,
but would ultimately prove a self-destructive process, from
the facility with which such property changes its situs. If so
taxed, all property of this character would soon be transferred
to the States where the sum of accumulated wealth was greatest
in proportion to population, and where therefore the burden of
taxation would be lightest, and thus the mighty wrong
resulting from the very nature of the extension of the rule
would be aggravated. It is clear then, I think, that the
admission of the power of taxation in regard to invested
personal property, coupled with the restriction that the tax
must be distributed by population and not by wealth, involves
a substantial denial of the power itself, because the
condition renders its exercise practically impossible. To say
a thing can only be done in a way which must necessarily bring
about the grossest wrong, is to delusively admit the existence
of the power, while substantially denying it. And the grievous
results sure to follow from any attempt to adopt such a system
are so obvious that my mind cannot fail to see that if a tax
on invested personal property were imposed by the rule of
population, and there were no other means of preventing its
enforcement, the red spectre of revolution would shake our
institutions to their foundation. …
"It is, I submit, greatly to be deplored that, after more than
one hundred years of our national existence, after the
government has withstood the strain of foreign wars and the
dread ordeal of civil strife, and its people have become
united and powerful, this court should consider itself
compelled to go back to a long repudiated and rejected theory
of the Constitution, by which the government is deprived of an
inherent attribute of its being, a necessary power of taxation."
United States Reports,
v. 158, pages 601-715.
{557}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895 (July-November).
Correspondence with the Government of Great Britain
on the Venezuela boundary question.
See (in this volume)
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1895 (JULY), and (NOVEMBER).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895 (September).
Executive order for the improvement of the consular service.
In his annual Message to Congress, December 2, 1895, President
Cleveland made the following statement of measures adopted for
the improvement of the consular service of the country:
"In view of the growth of our interests in foreign countries
and the encouraging prospects for a general expansion of our
commerce, the question of an improvement in the consular
service has increased in importance and urgency. Though there
is no doubt that the great body of consular officers are
rendering valuable services to the trade and industries of the
country, the need of some plan of appointment and control
which would tend to secure a higher average of efficiency can
not be denied. The importance of the subject has led the
Executive to consider what steps might properly be taken
without additional legislation to answer the need of a better
system of consular appointments. The matter having been
committed to the consideration of the Secretary of State, in
pursuance of his recommendations, an Executive order was
issued on the 20th of September, 1895, by the terms of which
it is provided that after that date any vacancy in a consular
or commercial agency with an annual salary or compensation
from official fees of not more than $2,500 or less than $1,000
should be filled either by transfer or promotion from some
other position under the Department of State of a character
tending to qualify the incumbent for the position to be
filled, or by the appointment of a person not under the
Department of State, but having previously served thereunder
and shown his capacity and fitness for consular duty, or by
the appointment of a person who, having been selected by the
President and sent to a board for examination, is found, upon
such examination, to be qualified for the position. Posts
which pay less than $1,000 being usually, on account of their
small compensation, filled by selection from residents of the
locality, it was not deemed practicable to put them under the
new system.
"The compensation of $2,500 was adopted as the maximum limit
in the classification for the reason that consular officers
receiving more than that sum are often charged with functions
and duties scarcely inferior in dignity and importance to
those of diplomatic agents, and it was therefore thought best
to continue their selection in the discretion of the Executive
without subjecting them to examination before a board.
Excluding seventy-one places with compensation at present less
than $1,000, and fifty-three places above the maximum in
compensation, the number of positions remaining within the
scope of the order is one hundred and ninety-six. This number
will undoubtedly be increased by the inclusion of consular
officers whose remuneration in fees, now less than $1,000,
will be augmented with the growth of our foreign commerce and
a return to more favorable business conditions. In execution
of the Executive order referred to, the Secretary of State has
designated as a board to conduct the prescribed examinations
the Third Assistant Secretary of State, the Solicitor of the
Department of State, and the Chief of the Consular Bureau, and
has specified the subjects to which such examinations shall
relate.
"It is not assumed that this system will prove a full measure
of consular reform. It is quite probable that actual
experience will show particulars in which the order already
issued may be amended, and demonstrate that, for the best
results, appropriate legislation by Congress is imperatively
required. In any event these efforts to improve the consular
service ought to be immediately supplemented by legislation
providing for consular inspection. This has frequently been a
subject of Executive recommendation, and I again urge such
action by Congress as will permit the frequent and thorough
inspection of consulates by officers appointed for that
purpose or by persons already in the diplomatic or consular
service. The expense attending such a plan would be
insignificant compared with its usefulness, and I hope the
legislation necessary to set it on foot will be speedily
forthcoming.
"I am thoroughly convinced that in addition to their salaries
our ambassadors and ministers at foreign courts should be
provided by the Government with official residences. The
salaries of these officers are comparatively small and in most
cases insufficient to pay, with other necessary expenses, the
cost of maintaining household establishments in keeping with
their important and delicate functions. The usefulness of a
nation's diplomatic representative undeniably depends upon the
appropriateness of his surroundings, and a country like ours,
while avoiding unnecessary glitter and show, should be certain
that it does not suffer in its relations with foreign nations
through parsimony and shabbiness in its diplomatic outfit.
These considerations and the other advantages of having fixed
and somewhat permanent locations for our embassies, would
abundantly justify the moderate expenditure necessary to carry
out this suggestion."
Message of the President
(54th Congress, 1st Session,
House Documents, volume 1).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895 (December).
Message of President Cleveland on the boundary dispute
between Great Britain and Venezuela.
Prompt response from Congress.
On the 17th of December, 1895, the country was startled and
the world at large excited by a message from President
Cleveland to Congress, relating to the disputed boundary
between British Guiana and Venezuela, and the refusal of the
British government to submit the dispute to arbitration.
See, (in this volume),
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1895 (DECEMBER).
The tone in which the President recommended the appointment of
a commission to ascertain the "true divisional line" between
Venezuela and British Guiana, with a view to determining the
future action of the United States, was peremptory and
threatening enough to awaken all the barbaric passions which
wait and watch for signals of war; and Congress, in both
branches, met the wishes of the President with the singular
alacrity that so often appears in the action of legislative
bodies when a question arises which carries the scent of war.
The House refused to wait for any reference of the matter to
its Committee on Foreign Relations, but framed and passed at
once (December 18) without debate or division, an act
authorizing the suggested commission and appropriating
$100,000 for the expenses of its work.
{558}
In the Senate there were some voices raised against needless
and unseemly haste in the treatment of so grave a proposition.
Senator Teller, of Colorado, was one who spoke to that effect,
saying: "I do not understand that our great competitor in
commerce and trade, our Great English-speaking relative, has
ever denied our right to assert and maintain the Monroe
doctrine. What they claim is that the Monroe doctrine does not
apply to this case. Whether it applies to this case depends upon
the facts, which are unknown to us, it appears. If I knew what
the facts were, as an international lawyer I would have no
difficulty in applying the law. As a believer in the American
doctrine of the right to say that no European power shall
invade American soil, either of North or South America, I
should have no trouble in coming to a conclusion. Is it an
invasion of American soil? I do not know that. I repeat, I
thought I did. I have found that I do not.
"If the President of the United States had said that in the
Department of State they had determined what was the true line
between the British possessions and Venezuela, and if he had
said, 'We are confident that the British Government, instead
of attempting to arrange a disputed line, is attempting to use
this disputed line as a pretense for territorial acquisition,'
no matter what may be the character of the Administration,
whether Democratic or Republican, I would have stood by that
declaration as an American Senator, because there is where we
get our information upon these subjects, and not from our own
judgment. We must stand by what the Department says upon these
great questions when the facts are ascertained by it. The
President says that he needs assistance to make this
determination. We are going to give it to him. Nobody doubts
that. The only question is, how shall we give it to him? I am
as firm a believer in the Monroe doctrine as any man who
lives. I am as firm a believer as anyone in the maintenance of
the honor of the American people, and do not believe it can be
maintained if we abandon the Monroe doctrine.
"Mr. President, there is no haste in this matter. The dispute
is one of long standing. Great Britain is not now taking any
extraordinary steps with reference to the control of the
territory in dispute. They took, it is said, five months to
answer our Secretary's letter of July 20. Mr. President, the
time was not excessive. It is not unreasonable in diplomatic
affairs that there should be months taken in replying to
questions of so much importance. We may properly take months,
if we choose, to consider it before we plant ourselves upon
what we say are the facts in this case. I repeat, so far as
the American people are concerned, the Monroe doctrine is not
in dispute, is not in doubt, whatever may be the doubt about
the facts in this case. If the facts are not ascertained, we
must, before we proceed further, ascertain them.
"This is a very important question. It is not a question of
party politics. It is not a question that any political party
ought to take advantage of to get votes. The political party
that attempts to make capital out of this question will find
that it is a loser in the end. The American people will not be
trifled with on a question of this kind. If the other side of
the Chamber, or the Administration, or anybody, attempts to
make capital out of it they will find that they will lose in
the end, as we should lose on our side if we should be foolish
enough, as I know we are not, to attempt to make capital out
of it in any way. … This question is of so much importance
that I do not care myself if the bill goes to the Committee on
Foreign Relations and lies there a month. You will not impress
the world with our solidarity and solidity on this question by
any haste in this body. Let this proceeding be a dignified
proceeding. Let the bill go to the committee. Let the
committee take their time on it. Let them return it here and
say what is the best way by which we can strengthen the hands
of the President of the United States in his efforts to
maintain this American doctrine.
"Mr. President, I am not one of those who want war. I do not
believe in war. I believe in this case Great Britain made a
great mistake when she said she would not arbitrate, and I
have faith enough in the love of justice and right that
pervades the people of Great Britain to believe that on second
sober thought they will submit this question to arbitration,
as many of their representative men have declared they are
willing to submit all questions of this character. … Let this
bill go to the committee. Let it be considered. If the
committee wants a week, ten days, or two weeks, or a month,
let the committee take it. Nothing will be lost. Great Britain
will not misunderstand our attitude. She does not misunderstand
it now. She knows just as well how we feel upon these subjects
as she will when we pass this bill. She has had it dinned in
her ears again and again from nearly every Secretary of State
that we were not willing to abandon the Monroe doctrine, nor
view with indifference the improper interference of any
European power with any existing American Government, whether
such interference is a violation of the Monroe doctrine or
not."
Congressional Record,
December 19, 1895, page 246.
Senator Call made a similar appeal, saying: "As to all this
talk about war, in my opinion there is no possibility of war.
There can be, and ought to be, no possibility of it. The
enlightened sentiment of the nations of the world would forbid
that there should be a war between this country and England
upon this question. Nevertheless, it would be the duty of this
country to maintain by force of arms the proposition that
there shall be no forcible establishment of European
institutions and European Governments over any portion of this
territory. Who can entertain the idea that war can be made
with Great Britain, and that the people of the British Empire
will permit that Government to engage in war upon a question
of boundaries which is not sustained by the facts of the case,
but a mere aggression, and that the peace of mankind shall be
disturbed by it. …
"I agree with the Senator from Ohio [Mr. Sherman] that there
is no necessity for haste in this action and that it comports
better with the dignity of Congress for the Senate of the
United States and the House of Representatives to declare that
this Government will firmly maintain, as a definite proposition,
that Venezuela shall not be forced to cede any portion of her
territory to Great Britain or to recognize a boundary line
which is not based upon the facts of history and upon clear
and ascertained proof.
{559}
It seems to me, Mr. President, that all this discussion about
war should not have place here, but that we should make a bold
and independent and firm declaration as to the proper policy
of this Government, and vote the President of the United
States the money necessary, in his judgment, to carry out that
declaration so far as obtaining information which may be
desired. …
"The possibility that war between these two nations will be
the result of our defending the right of Venezuela to the
integrity of her territory against its forced appropriation by
England should not be entertained. These two nations, the
United States and Great Britain, are the main pillars of the
civilization of the world, neither can afford to demand of the
other anything that is wrong or any injustice to the other.
Great Britain recognizes the supremacy of the United States in
the Western Hemisphere, and it is sufficient for them to know
that we will maintain this with all the power of the Republic,
and that this is not an idle menace.
"This is my view of the situation. The President has done his
duty. He has recommended that the traditional policy of this
country to protect all people who establish governments of
their choice against forcible intervention by European powers,
under whatever pretense, whether by claiming fictitious
boundaries and enforcing their claim, or by any other means,
and that we will be the judge of this, but that we are ready
to submit the facts to the judgment of a fair arbitration. It
is sufficient for us to sustain this declaration and for us to
provide the means of obtaining the information necessary for
an intelligent judgment on the question. It will suffice for
the able statesman who represents the Government of Great
Britain to know and to inform his Government that the people
of the United States are united in the determination to
maintain and defend this policy with all their power, and a
peaceable settlement of the question will be made."
Congressional Record,
December 20, 1895, page 264.
The Senate was persuaded to refer the House Bill to its
Committee on Foreign Relations, but the Committee reported it
on the following day (December 20), and it was passed without
division.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895-1896 (December-January).
The feeling in England and America over the
Venezuela boundary dispute.
Happily President Cleveland's Message did not provoke in
England the angry and combative temper that is commonly roused
by a demand from one nation upon another, made in any
peremptory tone. The feeling produced there seemed to have in
it more of surprise and regret than of wrath, revealing very
plainly that friendliness had been growing of late, much
warmer in English sentiment toward the American Republic than
in American sentiment toward England. Within the past thirty
years there had been what in France would be called a
"rapprochement" in feeling going on between the two peoples;
but the rate of approach had been greater on one side than on
the other, and neither had understood the fact until it was
brought home to them by this incident. There seems to be no
doubt that the English people were astonished and shocked by
the sudden prospect of a serious quarrel with the United
States, and that Americans were generally surprised and moved
by the discovery of that state of feeling in the English mind.
The first response in the United States to the President's
message came noisily from the more thoughtless part of the
people, and seemed to show that the whole nation was fairly
eager for war with its "kin beyond sea." But that was a
short-lived demonstration. The voices that really speak for
the country soon made themselves heard in a different
tone,—anxious to avert war,—critical of the construction that
had been given to the Monroe doctrine by President Cleveland
and his Secretary of State,—earnestly responsive to the
pacific temper of the English public,—and yet firm in
upholding the essential justice of the ground on which their
government had addressed itself to that of Great Britain. The
feeling in the two countries, respectively, at the beginning
of 1896, appears to have been described very accurately by two
representative writers in the "North American Review" of
February in that year. One was Mr. James Bryce, the well-known
English student of American institutions—author of "The
American Commonwealth"—who wrote:
"Those Englishmen who have travelled in America have of course
been aware of the mischief your school-books do in teaching
young people to regard the English as enemies because there
was war in the days of George III. Such Englishmen knew that
as Britain is almost the only great power with which the
United States has had diplomatic controversies, national
feeling has sometimes been led to regard her as an adversary,
and displays of national feeling often took the form of
defiance. Even such travellers, however, were not prepared for
the language of the President and its reception in many
quarters, while as to Englishmen generally, they could
scarcely credit their eyes and ears. 'Why,' they said, 'should
we be regarded as enemies by our own kinsfolk? No territorial
dispute is pending between us and them, like those we have or
have lately had with France and Russia. No explosions of
Jingoism have ever been directed against them, like those
which Lord Beaconsfield evoked against Russia some twenty
years ago. There is very little of that commercial, and none
of that colonial, rivalry which we have with France and
Germany, for the Americans are still chiefly occupied in
developing their internal resources, and have ample occupation
for their energy and their capital in doing so. Still less is
there that incompatibility of character and temper which
sometimes sets us wrong with Frenchmen, or Russians, or even
Germans, for we and the Americans come of the same stock,
speak the same language, read the same books, think upon
similar lines, are connected by a thousand ties of family and
friendship. No two nations could be better fitted to
understand one another's ideas and institutions. English
travellers and writers used no doubt formerly to assume airs
of supercilious condescension which must have been offensive
to Americans. But those airs were dropped twenty or thirty
years ago, and the travellers who return now return full of
gratitude for the kindness they have received and full of
admiration for the marvellous progress they have witnessed. We
know all about the Irish faction; but the Irish faction do not
account for this.
{560}
So we quite understand that resentment was caused in the North
and West of America by the attitude of our wealthy class
during the Civil War. But that attitude was not the attitude
of the British nation. … Our press, whose tone often
exasperates Continental nations, is almost uniformly
respectful and friendly to America. What can we have done to
provoke in the United States feelings so unlike those which we
ourselves cherish?'
"In thus summing up what one has been hearing on all sides in
Britain during the last fortnight, I am not exaggerating
either the amazement or the regret with which the news of a
threatened breach between the two countries was received. The
average Englishman likes America far better than any foreign
nation; he admires the 'go,' as he calls it, of your people,
and is soon at home among you. In fact, he does not regard you
as a foreign nation, as any one will agree who has noticed how
different has been the reception given on all public occasions
to your last four envoys, Messrs. Welsh, Lowell, Phelps, and
Lincoln (as well as your present ambassador) from that
accorded to the ambassadors of any other power. The educated
and thoughtful Englishman has looked upon your Republic as the
champion of freedom and peace, has held you to be our natural
ally, and has even indulged the hope of a permanent alliance
with you, under which the citizens of each country should have
the rights of citizenship in the other and be aided by the
consuls and protected by the fleets of the other all over the
world. The sentiments which the news from America evoked were,
therefore, common to all classes in England. … Passion has not
yet been aroused, and will not be, except by the language of
menace."
J. Bryce,
British Feeling on the Venezuelan Question
(North American Review, February, 1896).
The writer who described American feeling, or opinion, in the
same magazine, was Mr. Andrew Carnegie, who said: "In the
United States, East, West, North and South, from which
divergent voices were at first heard, there is but one voice
now. Public opinion has crystallized into one
word—arbitration. In support of that mode of settlement we now
know the nation is unanimous. The proofs of this should not
fail to carry conviction into the hearts of Britons. The one
representative and influential body in the United States which
is most closely allied with Britain not only by the ties of
trade, but by the friendships which these ties have created,
is the Chamber of Commerce of New York. If that body were
polled by ballot, probably a greater proportion of its members
than of any other body of American citizens would register
themselves as friendly to England. So far did the feeling
extend in this body, that a movement was on foot to call a
meeting to dissent from the President's Message. Fortunately,
wiser counsels prevailed, and time was given for an
examination of the question, and for members to make up their
minds upon the facts. The result was that at the crowded
meeting subsequently held, there was passed a resolution, with
only one dissenting voice, in favor of a commission for
arbitration. In the whole proceedings there was only one
sentiment present in the minds of those assembled: 'this is a
question for arbitration.' …
"Every nation has its 'Red Rag,' some nations have more than
one, but what the 'Right of Asylum' is to Great Britain, the
Monroe Doctrine is to the United States. Each lies very deep
in the national heart. Few statesmen of Great Britain do not
share the opinion of Lord Salisbury, which he has not feared
to express, that the 'Right of Asylum' is abused and should be
restricted, but there has not arisen one in Britain
sufficiently powerful to deal with it. The United States never
had, and has not now, a statesman who could restrain the
American people from an outburst of passion and the extreme
consequences that national passion is liable to bring, if any
European power undertook to extend its territory upon this
continent, or to decide in case of dispute just where the
boundary of present possessions stand. Such differences must
be arbitrated. …
"In his speech at Manchester Mr. Balfour said he 'trusted and
believed the day would come when better statesmen in
authority, and more fortunate than even Monroe, would assert a
doctrine between the English-speaking peoples under which war
would be impossible.' That day has not to come, it has
arrived. The British Government has had for years in its
archives an invitation from the United States to enter into a
treaty of arbitration which realizes this hope, and Mr.
Balfour is one of those who, from their great position, seem
most responsible for the rejection of the end he so ardently
longs for. It is time that the people of Great Britain
understood that if war be still possible between the two
countries, it is not the fault of the Republic but of their
own country, not of President Cleveland and Secretary of State
Olney, but of Prime Minister Salisbury, and the leader of the
House of Commons, Mr. Balfour, who do not accept the offered
treaty which would banish war forever between the two nations
of our race. This invitation was sent by the same President
Cleveland, who is now denounced as favoring war. … It was my
office to introduce to Mr. Cleveland, then President of the
United States, as he is now, the delegation from the British
Parliament urging arbitration. In the conferences I had with
him previous to his receiving the deputation, I found him as
strong a supporter of that policy as I ever met. I do not
wonder at his outburst, knowing how deeply this man feels upon
that question; it is to him so precious, it constitutes so
great an advance over arbitrament by war that—even if we have
to fight, that any nation rejecting it may suffer—I believe he
feels that it would be our duty to do so, believing that the
nation which rejects arbitration in a boundary dispute
deserves the execration of mankind."-
A. Carnegie,
The Venezuelan Question
(North American Review, February, 1896).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895-1896 (December-February).
The gold reserve in the Treasury again imperilled.
Refusal of any measures of relief by the Senate.
In his annual Message to Congress, December 2d, 1895,
President Cleveland described at length the stress of
circumstances under which in the previous February, the
Secretary of the Treasury had contracted with certain bankers
and financiers to replenish and protect the reserve of gold in
the Treasury for redemption of United States notes (see above),
and added: "The performance of this contract not only restored
the reserve, but checked for a time the withdrawals of gold
and brought on a period of restored confidence and such peace
and quiet in business circles as were of the greatest possible
value to every interest that affects our people.
{561}
I have never had the slightest misgiving concerning the wisdom
or propriety of this arrangement, and am quite willing to
answer for my full share of responsibility for its promotion.
I believe it averted a disaster the imminence of which was,
fortunately, not at the time generally understood by our
people. Though the contract mentioned stayed for a time the
tide of gold withdrawal, its good results could not be
permanent. Recent withdrawals have reduced the reserve from
$107,571,230 on the 8th day of July, 1895, to $79,333,966. How
long it will remain large enough to render its increase
unnecessary is only matter of conjecture, though quite large
withdrawals for shipment in the immediate future are predicted
in well-informed quarters. About $16,000,000 has been
withdrawn during the month of November. The foregoing
statement of events and conditions develops the fact that
after increasing our interest-bearing bonded indebtedness more
than $162,000,000 to save our gold reserve we are nearly where
we started, having now in such reserve $79,383,966 as against
$65,488,377 in February, 1894, when the first bonds were
issued.
"Though the amount of gold drawn from the Treasury appears to
be very large as gathered from the facts and figures herein
presented, it actually was much larger, considerable sums
having been acquired by the Treasury within the several
periods stated without the issue of bonds. On the 28th of
January, 1895, it was reported by the Secretary of the
Treasury that more than $172,000,000 of gold had been
withdrawn for hoarding or shipment during the year preceding.
He now reports that from January 1, 1879, to July 14, 1890, a
period of more than eleven years, only a little over
$28,000,000 was withdrawn, and that between July 14, 1890, the
date of the passage of the law for an increased purchase of
silver, and the 1st day of December, 1895, or within less than
five and a half years, there was withdrawn nearly
$375,000,000, making a total of more than $403,000,000 drawn
from the Treasury in gold since January 1, 1879, the date
fixed in 1875 for the retirement of the United States notes.
"Nearly $327,000,000 of the gold thus withdrawn has been paid
out, on these United States notes, and yet everyone of the
$346,000,000 is still uncanceled and ready to do service in
future gold depletions. More than $76,000,000 in gold has
since their creation in 1890 been paid out from the Treasury
upon the notes given on the purchase of silver by the
Government, and yet the whole, amounting to $155,000,000,
except a little more than $16,000,000 which has been retired
by exchanges for silver at the request of the holders, remains
outstanding and prepared to join their older and more
experienced allies in future raids upon the Treasury's gold
reserve. In other words, the Government has paid in gold more
than nine-tenths of its United States notes and still owes
them all. It has paid in gold about one-half of its notes
given for silver purchases without extinguishing by such
payment one dollar of these notes.
"When, added to all this, we are reminded that to carry on
this astounding financial scheme the Government has incurred a
bonded indebtedness of $95,500,000 in establishing a gold
reserve, and of $162,315,400 in efforts to maintain it; that
the annual interest charge on such bonded indebtedness is more
than $11,000,000; that a continuance of our present course may
result in further bond issues, and that we have suffered or
are threatened with all this for the sake of supplying gold
for foreign shipment or facilitating its hoarding at home, a
situation is exhibited which certainly ought to arrest
attention and provoke immediate legislative relief.
"I am convinced the only thorough and practicable remedy for
our troubles is found in the retirement and cancellation of
our United States notes, commonly called greenbacks, and the
outstanding Treasury notes issued by the Government in payment
of silver purchases under the act of 1890. I believe this
could be quite readily accomplished by the exchange of these
notes for United States bonds, of small as well as large
denominations, bearing a low rate of interest. They should be
long-term bonds, thus increasing their desirability as
investments, and because their payment could be well postponed
to a period far removed from present financial burdens and
perplexities, when with increased prosperity and resources
they would be more easily met. …
"Whatever is attempted should be entered upon fully
appreciating the fact that by careless easy descent we have
reached a dangerous depth, and that our ascent will not be
accomplished without laborious toil and struggle. We shall be
wise if we realize that we are financially ill and that our
restoration to health may require heroic treatment and
unpleasant remedies.
"In the present stage of our difficulty it is not easy to
understand how the amount of our revenue receipts directly
affects it. The important question is not the quantity of
money received in revenue payments, but the kind of money we
maintain and our ability to continue in sound financial
condition. We are considering the Government's holdings of
gold as related to the soundness of our money and as affecting
our national credit and monetary strength. If our gold reserve
had never been impaired; if no bonds had ever been issued to
replenish it; if there had been no fear and timidity
concerning our ability to continue gold payments; if any part
of our revenues were now paid in gold, and if we could look to
our gold receipts as a means of maintaining a safe reserve,
the amount of our revenues would be an influential factor in
the problem. But unfortunately all the circumstances that
might lend weight to this consideration are entirely lacking.
In our present predicament no gold is received by the
Government in payment of revenue charges, nor would there be
if the revenues were increased. The receipts of the Treasury,
when not in silver certificates, consist of United States
notes and Treasury notes issued for silver purchases. These
forms of money are only useful to the Government in paying its
current ordinary expenses, and its quantity in Government
possession does not in the least contribute toward giving us
that kind of safe financial standing or condition which is
built on gold alone.
{562}
"If it is said that these notes if held by the Government can
be used to obtain gold for our reserve, the answer is easy.
The people draw gold from the Treasury on demand upon United
States notes and Treasury notes, but the proposition that the
Treasury can on demand draw gold from the people upon them
would be regarded in these days with wonder and amusement; and
even if this could be done there is nothing to prevent those thus
parting with their gold from regaining it the next day or the
next hour by the presentation of the notes they received in
exchange for it. The Secretary of the Treasury might use such
notes taken from a surplus revenue to buy gold in the market.
Of course he could not do this without paying a premium.
Private holders of gold, unlike the Government, having no
parity to maintain, would not be restrained from making the
best bargain possible when they furnished gold to the
Treasury; but the moment the Secretary of the Treasury bought
gold on any terms above par he would establish a general and
universal premium upon it, thus breaking down the parity
between gold and silver, which the Government is pledged to
maintain, and opening the way to new and serious
complications. In the meantime the premium would not remain
stationary, and the absurd spectacle might be presented of a
dealer selling gold to the Government and with United States
notes or Treasury notes in his hand immediately clamoring for
its return and a resale at a higher premium.
"It may be claimed that a large revenue and redundant receipts
might favorably affect the situation under discussion by
affording an opportunity of retaining these notes in the
Treasury when received, and thus preventing their presentation
for gold. Such retention to be useful ought to be at least
measurably permanent; and this is precisely what is
prohibited, so far as United States notes are concerned, by
the law of 1878, forbidding their further retirement. That
statute in so many words provides, that these notes when
received into the Treasury and belonging to the United States
shall be 'paid out again and kept in circulation.'"
United States, Message and Documents (Abridgment),
1895-1896, page 27.
"The difficulty which had been anticipated in keeping gold in
the treasury became acute as a result of the president's
Venezuelan message of December 17. The 'war scare' which was
caused by that document was attended by a panic on the London
Exchange, which communicated itself to the Continental
exchanges and produced at once serious consequences in New
York. Prices fell heavily, some failures were reported, and
the withdrawal of gold from the treasury assumed great
proportions. On the 20th the reserve had gone down to
$69,650,000, ten millions less than three weeks earlier, with
future large reductions obviously near at hand. The president
accordingly on that day sent to Congress a special message,
stating the situation, alluding to the effect of his recently
announced foreign policy, and declaring that the result
conveyed a 'warning that even the patriotic sentiment of our
people is not an adequate substitute for a sound financial
policy.' He asked Congress to postpone its holiday recess
until something had been done to reassure the apprehensive
among the people, but declared that in any case he should use
every means in the power of the executive to maintain the
country's credit. The suggestion was acted upon. …
"On December 26 two bills were introduced in the House of
Representatives by Chairman Dingley of the ways and means
committee. Adopting the view maintained by the Republicans,
that the chief cause of the difficulty in maintaining the gold
reserve was the deficiency in the revenue, he proposed first a
bill 'to temporarily increase the revenues.' This provided
that until August 1, 1898, the customs duties on most
varieties of wool and woolen goods and on lumber, should stand
at 60 per cent of those imposed by the McKinley Act of 1890,
and that the duties in all the other schedules of the tariff,
except sugar, should, with slight exceptions, be increased by
15 per cent over those of the existing law. This bill passed
the House on the 27th by a party vote of 205 to 81. On the
following day the second bill, 'to maintain and protect the
coin redemption fund,' was passed by 170 to 136,—47
Republicans in the minority. This bill authorized the
secretary of the treasury to procure coin for redeeming
legal-tenders by the sale of three-per-cent five-year bonds,
and to provide for temporary deficiencies by the issue of
three-year three-per-cent certificates of indebtedness in
small denominations. The administration was as little
satisfied with this bill as with that changing the tariff, and
proceeded with the bond issue. …
"The failure of the bills in the Senate was foreseen, but the
precise form in which it was manifested excited some surprise.
On February 1, [1896], the bond bill was transformed by the
adoption of a substitute providing for the free coinage of
silver, and this was passed by a vote of 42 to 35. On the 14th
the House refused, by 215 to 90, to concur in the Senate's
amendment, and the whole subject was dropped. Meanwhile the
Senate finance committee had reported a free-coinage
substitute for the House tariff bill also. But after this
further exhibition of their strength the silver senators
refused to go further, and on February 25 joined with the
Democrats in rejecting, by 33 to 22, a motion to take up the
bill for consideration. This vote was recognized as finally
disposing of the measure."
Political Science Quarterly,
June, 1896.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895-1896 (December-December).
Plans for coast defense.
In his annual report to the President, 1895, the Secretary of
War wrote as follows of pending plans for coast defense, and
of the progress of work upon them:
"In your annual message transmitted to Congress in December,
1886, attention was directed to the urgent necessity for
seacoast defense in these words: 'The defenseless condition of
our seacoast and lake frontier is perfectly palpable; the
examinations made must convince us all that certain of our
cities should be fortified and that work on the most important
of these fortifications should be commenced at once.' … Since
that time the condition of these defenses has been under grave
consideration by the people and by this Department. Its
inadequacy and impotency have been so evident that the
intelligence of the country long since ceased to discuss that
humiliating phase of the subject, but has addressed itself to
the more practical undertaking of urging more rapid progress
in the execution of the plan of defense devised by the
Endicott Board in 1886, with subsequent slight modifications.
That plan contemplated a system of fortifications at 27 ports
(to which Puget Sound was subsequently added), requiring 677
guns and 824 mortars of modern construction, at a cost of
$97,782,800, excluding $28,595,000 for floating batteries. By
an immediate appropriation at that time of $21,500,000 and an
annual appropriation of $9,000,000 thereafter, as then
recommended, the system of land defenses could have been
completed in 1895.
{563}
"The original plan contemplated an expenditure of $97,782,800
by the end of the present year. The actual expenditures and
appropriations for armament and emplacements have, however,
been but $10,631,000. The first appropriation for guns was
made only seven years ago and the first appropriation for
emplacements was made only five years ago. The average annual
appropriations for these two objects has been less than
$1,500,000. The work has therefore been conducted at about
one-seventh the rate proposed. If future appropriations for
the manufacture of guns, mortars, and carriages be no larger
than the average authorized for the purpose since 1888, it
will require twenty-two years more to supply the armament of
the eighteen important ports for which complete projects are
approved. If the appropriations for the engineer work are to
continue at the rate of the annual appropriations since 1890,
it will require seventy years to complete the emplacements and
platforms for this armament for the ports referred to."
Report of the Secretary of War, 1895,
page 19 (54th Congress, 1st Session,
House Document volume 1).
In his Message of the following year, the subject was touched
upon by the President, as follows:
"During the past year rapid progress has been made toward the
completion of the scheme adopted for the erection and armament
of fortifications along our seacoast, while equal progress has
been made in providing the material for submarine defense in
connection with these works. … We shall soon have complete
about one-fifth of the comprehensive system, the first step in
which was noted in my message to the Congress of December 4,
1893. When it is understood that a masonry emplacement not
only furnishes a platform for the heavy modern high-power gun,
but also in every particular serves the purpose and takes the
place of the fort of former days, the importance of the work
accomplished is better comprehended. In the hope that the work
will be prosecuted with no less vigor in the future, the
Secretary of War has submitted an estimate by which, if
allowed, there will be provided and either built or building
by the end of the next fiscal year such additional guns,
mortars, gun carriages, and emplacements, as will represent
not far from one-third of the total work to be done under the
plan adopted for our coast defenses—thus affording a prospect
that the entire work will be substantially completed within
six years. In less time than that, however, we shall have
attained a marked degree of security. The experience and
results of the past year demonstrate that with a continuation
of present careful methods the cost of the remaining work will
be much less than the original estimate. We should always keep
in mind that of all forms of military preparation coast
defense alone is essentially pacific in its nature."
Message of the President, 1896
(54th Congress, 2d Session, House Document, volume 1).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (January).
Admission of Utah to the Union.
See (in this volume)
UTAH: A. D. 1895-1896.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (January-February).
Appointment of commission to investigate the
Venezuela boundary.
Re-opening of discussion with Great Britain on the
arbitration of the dispute.
See (in this volume)
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1896-1899.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (February).
New treaty with Great Britain for arbitration of
Bering Sea claims.
See (in this volume)
BERING SEA QUESTIONS.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (February).
Weyler made Governor of Cuba.
His Concentration Order.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (March).
Removal of Confederate disabilities.
The following enactment of Congress, which may, with
propriety, be styled an "Act of Oblivion," was approved by the
President on the 31st of March, 1896:
"That section twelve hundred and eighteen of the Revised
Statutes of the United States, as amended by chapter forty-six
of the laws of 1884, which section is as follows: 'No person
who held a commission in the Army or Navy of the United States
at the beginning of the late rebellion, and afterwards served
in any capacity in the military, naval, or civil service of
the so-called Confederate States, or of either of the States
in insurrection during the late rebellion, shall be appointed
to any position in the Army or Navy of the United States,' be,
and the same is hereby, repealed."
United States of America, Statutes at Large,
volume 29, page 84.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (May).
Extension of civil service rules by President Cleveland.
See (in this volume)
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1893-1896.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (June-November).
The Presidential election.
The silver question at issue.
Party Platforms and Nominations.
A national conference held at Washington, in March, 1895, may
be looked upon as the beginning of a widely and powerfully
organized movement to force the demand for a free and
unlimited coinage of silver, on equal terms, as legal tender
money, with gold, into the front of the issues of the
presidential canvass of 1896. The agitation then projected was
carried on with extraordinary ardor and skill and had
astonishing success. It was helped by the general depression
of business in the country, and especially by the long
continued ruling of low prices for the produce of the
farms,—for all of which effects the gold standard of values
was held to be the one relentless cause. In both political
parties the free silver propaganda was pushed with startling
effect, and there seemed to be doubt, for a time, whether the
controlling politicians in either would take an opposing
stand. Southern influences proved decisive of the result in
the Democratic party; eastern influences in that of the
Republicans. The ranks of the former were swept rapidly into
the movement for free silver, and the party chiefs of the
latter were driven to a conflict with it, not wholly by
convictions or will of their own. During the spring and early
summer of 1896, the Democratic Party in State after State
became committed on the question, by declarations for the
unlimited free coinage of silver, at the ratio of 16 to 1;
until there was tolerable certainty, some weeks before the
meeting of the national convention, that its nominee for
President must be one who represented that demand. How
positively the Republican Party would champion the gold
monetary standard was somewhat less assured, though its stand
on that side had been taken in a general way.
{564}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
Republican Platform and Nominations.
The Republican national convention was held at St. Louis, on
the 16th, 17th and 18th of June. The "platform" reported by
the committee on resolutions was adopted without amendment on
the last named date. Its declarations were as follows:
"The Republicans of the United States, assembled by their
representatives in National Convention, appealing for the
popular and historical justification of their claims to the
matchless achievements of the thirty years of Republican rule,
earnestly and confidently address themselves to the awakened
intelligence, experience, and conscience of their countrymen
in the following declaration of facts and principles:
"For the first time since the civil war the American people
have witnessed the calamitous consequences of full and
unrestricted Democratic control of the Government. It has been
a record of unparalleled incapacity, dishonor, and disaster.
In administrative management it has ruthlessly sacrificed
indispensable revenue, entailed an unceasing deficit, eked out
ordinary current expenses with borrowed money, piled up the
public debt by $262,000,000 in time of peace, forced an
adverse balance of trade, kept a perpetual menace hanging over
the redemption fund, pawned American credit to alien
syndicates, and reversed all the measures and results of
successful Republican rule.
"In the broad effect of its policy it has precipitated panic,
blighted industry and trade with prolonged depression, closed
factories, reduced work and wages, halted enterprise, and
crippled American production while stimulating foreign
production for the American market. Every consideration of
public safety and individual interest demands that the
Government shall be rescued from the hands of those who have
shown themselves incapable to conduct it without disaster at
home and dishonor abroad, and shall be restored to the party
which for thirty years administered it with unequalled success
and prosperity, and in this connection we heartily endorse the
wisdom, patriotism, and the success of the administration of
President Harrison.
"We renew and emphasize our allegiance to the policy of
protection as the bulwark of American industrial independence
and the foundation of American development and prosperity.
This true American policy taxes foreign products and
encourages home industry; it puts the burden of revenue on
foreign goods; it secures the American market for the American
producer; it upholds the American standard of wages for the
American workingman; it puts the factory by the side of the
farm, and makes the American farmer less dependent on foreign
demand and price; it diffuses general thrift, and founds the
strength of all on the strength of each. In its reasonable
application it is just, fair, and impartial; equally opposed
to foreign control and domestic monopoly, to sectional
discrimination, and individual favoritism.
"We denounce the present Democratic tariff as sectional,
injurious to the public credit, and destructive to business
enterprise. "We demand such an equitable tariff on foreign
imports which come into competition with American products as
will not only furnish adequate revenue for the necessary
expenses of the Government, but will protect American labor
from degradation to the wage level of other lands. We are not
pledged to any particular schedules. The question of rates is
a practical question, to be governed by the conditions of the
time and of production; the ruling and uncompromising
principle is the protection and development of American labor
and industry. The country demands a right settlement, and then
it wants rest.
"We believe the repeal of the reciprocity arrangements
negotiated by the last Republican administration was a
national calamity, and we demand their renewal and extension
on such terms as will equalize our trade with other nations,
remove the restrictions which now obstruct the sale of
American products in the ports of other countries, and secure
enlarged markets for the products of our farms, forests, and
factories.
See, in volume 5,
TARIFF LEGISLATION (UNITED STATES):
A. D. 1890, and 1894.
"Protection and reciprocity are twin measures of Republican
policy and go hand in hand. Democratic rule has recklessly
struck down both, and both must be re-established. Protection
for what we produce; free admission for the necessaries of
life which we do not produce; reciprocity agreements of mutual
interests which again open markets for us in return for our
open markets to others. Protection builds up domestic industry
and trade and secures our own market for ourselves; reciprocity
builds up foreign trade and finds an outlet for our surplus.
We condemn the present administration for not keeping faith
with the sugar producers of this country. The Republican party
favors such protection as will lead to the production on
American soil of all the sugar which the American people use,
and for which they pay other countries more than $100,000,000
annually. To all our products—to those of the mine and the
fields as well as to those of the shop and the factory—to
hemp, to wool, the product of the great industry of sheep
husbandry, as well as to the finished woollens of the mill—we
promise the most ample protection.
"We favor restoring the early American policy of
discriminating duties for the upbuilding of our merchant
marine and the protection of our shipping in the foreign
carrying trade, so that American ships—the product of American
labor, employed in American shipyards, sailing under the Stars
and Stripes, and manned, officered, and owned by Americans—may
regain the carrying of our foreign commerce.
"The Republican party is unreservedly for sound money. It
caused the enactment of the law providing for the resumption
of specie payments in 1879; since then every dollar has been
as good as gold. We are unalterably opposed to every measure
calculated to debase our currency or impair the credit of our
country. We are, therefore, opposed to the free coinage of
silver except by international agreement with the leading
commercial nations of the world, which we pledge ourselves to
promote, and until such agreement can be obtained the existing
gold standard must be preserved. All our silver and paper
currency must be maintained at parity with gold, and we favor
all measures designed to maintain inviolably the obligations
of the United States and all our money, whether coin or paper,
at the present standard, the standard of the most enlightened
nations of the earth.
{565}
"The veterans of the Union Army deserve and should receive
fair treatment and generous recognition. Whenever practicable,
they should be given the preference in the matter of
employment, and they are entitled to the enactment of such
laws as are best calculated to secure the fulfillment of the
pledges made to them in the dark days of the country's peril.
We denounce the practice in the Pension Bureau, so recklessly
and unjustly carried on by the present administration, of
reducing pensions and arbitrarily dropping names from the
rolls as deserving the severest condemnation of the American
people.
"Our foreign policy should be at all times firm, vigorous, and
dignified, and all our interests in the Western Hemisphere
carefully watched and guarded. The Hawaiian Islands should be
controlled by the United States, and no foreign power should
be permitted to interfere with them; the Nicaraguan Canal
should be built, owned, and operated by the United States; and
by the purchase of the Danish Islands we should secure a
proper and much needed naval station in the West Indies.
"The massacres in Armenia have aroused the deep sympathy and
just indignation of the American people, and we believe that
the United States should exercise all the influence it can
properly exert to bring these atrocities to an end. In Turkey
American residents have been exposed to the gravest dangers
and American property destroyed. There and everywhere American
citizens and American property must be absolutely protected at
all hazards and at any cost.
"We reassert the Monroe doctrine in its full extent, and we
reaffirm the right of the United States to give the doctrine
effect by responding to the appeal of any American State for
friendly intervention in case of European encroachment. We
have not interfered with and shall not interfere with the
existing possessions of any European power in this hemisphere,
but those possessions must not on any pretext be extended. We
hopefully look forward to the eventual withdrawal of European
powers from this hemisphere and to the ultimate union of all
the English-speaking parts of the continent by the free
consent of its inhabitants.
"From the hour of achieving their own independence the people
of the United States have regarded with sympathy the struggles
of other American people to free themselves from European
domination. We watch with deep and abiding interest the heroic
battle of the Cuban patriots against cruelty and oppression,
and our best hopes go out for the full success of their
determined contest for liberty. The Government of Spain having
lost control of Cuba, and being unable to protect the property
or lives of resident American citizens, or to comply with its
treaty obligations, we believe that the Government of the
United States should actively use its influence and good
offices to restore peace and give independence to the island.
"The peace and security of the Republic and the maintenance of
its rightful influence among the nations of the earth demand a
naval power commensurate with its position and responsibility.
We therefore favor the continued enlargement of the navy and a
complete system of harbor and seacoast defenses.
"For the protection of the quality of our American citizenship
and of the wages of our workingmen against the fatal
competition of low-priced labor, we demand that the
immigration laws be thoroughly enforced and so extended as to
exclude from entrance to the United States those who can
neither read nor write.
"The civil-service law was placed on the statute book by the
Republican party, which has always sustained it, and we renew
our repeated declarations that it shall be thoroughly and
honestly enforced and extended wherever practicable.
"We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be
allowed to cast one free and unrestricted ballot, and that
such ballot shall be counted and returned as cast.
"We proclaim our unqualified condemnation of the uncivilized
and barbarous practice, well known as lynching or killing of
human beings suspected or charged with crime, without process
of law. We favor the creation of a National board of
arbitration to settle and adjust differences which may arise
between employers and employed engaged in interstate commerce.
"We believe in an immediate return to the free-homestead
policy of the Republican party, and urge the passage by
Congress of a satisfactory free-homestead measure such as has
already passed the House and is now pending in the Senate.
"We favor the admission of the remaining Territories at the
earliest practicable date, having due regard to the interests
of the people of the Territories and of the United States. All
the Federal officers appointed for the Territories should be
selected from bona fide residents thereof, and the right of
self-government should be accorded as far as practicable.
"We believe the citizens of Alaska should have representation
in the Congress of the United States, to the end that needful
legislation may be intelligently enacted.
"We sympathize with all wise and legitimate efforts to lessen
and prevent the evils of intemperance and promote morality.
"The Republican party is mindful of the rights and interests
of women. Protection of American industries includes equal
opportunities, equal pay for equal work, and protection to the
home. We favor the admission of women to wider spheres of
usefulness, and welcome their co-operation in rescuing the
country from Democratic and Populist mismanagement and
misrule.
"Such are the principles and policies of the Republican party.
By these principles we will abide and these policies we will
put into execution. We ask for them the considerate judgment
of the American people. Confident alike in the history of our
great party and in the justice of our cause, we present our
platform and our candidates in the full assurance that the
election will bring victory to the Republican party and
prosperity to the people of the United States."
Before the adoption of this platform, a motion to amend its
currency "plank," by substituting a declaration in favor of
"the use of both gold and silver as equal standard money," was
laid on the table by a vote of 818½ to 105½. A protest from
delegates representing Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Montana
and South Dakota was then read, and twenty-two withdrew from
the convention, as a sign of secession from the party.
{566}
Immediately following the adoption of the platform, the
Honorable William McKinley, ex-Governor of Ohio, and of fame
in his connection with the tariff act of 1890, was nominated
on the first ballot for President of the United States, by
661½ votes against 240½ divided among several opposing
candidates, and the nomination was then made unanimous. For
Vice President, the Honorable Garret A. Hobart, of New Jersey,
was named, and similarly by the first voting.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 1896.
Democratic Platform and Nominations.
The Democratic national convention was held in Chicago, July
7-11. The delegates who came to it from the southern States,
and from most of the States west of Ohio, were arrayed with a
close approach to solid ranks for free silver; while those
from New England and the Middle States opposed them in a
phalanx almost equally firm. The "Gold Democrats" or "Sound
Money Democrats," as the latter were called, ably led by
ex-Governor Hill, of New York, fought hard to the end, but
without avail. The financial resolution they strove to place
in the platform was the following:
"We declare our belief that the experiment on the part of the
United States alone of free-silver coinage, and a change in
the existing standard of value independently of the action of
other great nations, would not only imperil our finances, but
would retard or entirely prevent the establishment of
international bimetallism, to which the efforts of the
government should be steadily directed. It would place this
country at once upon a silver basis, impair contracts, disturb
business, diminish the purchasing power of the wages of labor,
and inflict irreparable evils upon our nation's commerce and
industry.
"Until international co-operation among leading nations for
the coinage of silver can be secured, we favor the rigid
maintenance of the existing gold standard as essential to the
preservation of our national credit, the redemption of our
public pledges, and the keeping inviolate of our country's
honor. We insist that all our paper currency shall be kept at
a parity with gold. The democratic party is the party of hard
money, and is opposed to legal-tender paper money as a part of
our permanent financial system; and we therefore favor the
gradual retirement and cancellation of all United States notes
and treasury notes, under such legislative provisions as will
prevent undue contraction. We demand that the national credit
shall be resolutely maintained at all times and under all
circumstances. "
This resolution was rejected by 626 votes against 303. Another
resolution from the same source, commending "the honesty,
economy, courage and fidelity" of the "democratic national
administration" of President Cleveland, was voted down by 564
to 357. Resolutions to protect existing contracts against a
change of monetary standard, and to provide for a suspension
of silver free coinage, at the ratio of 16 to 1, after trial
for one year, if it failed to maintain parity between silver
and gold, were similarly voted down. The declarations then
adopted, for the "platform" of the party, were as follows:
"We, the Democrats of the United States, in National
Convention assembled, do reaffirm our allegiance to those
great essential principles of justice and liberty upon which
our institutions are founded, and which the Democratic party
has advocated from Jefferson's time to our own—freedom of
speech, freedom of the press, freedom of conscience, the
preservation of personal rights, the equality of all citizens
before the law, and the faithful observance of constitutional
limitations.
"During all these years the Democratic party has resisted the
tendency of selfish interests to the centralization of
governmental power, and steadfastly maintained the integrity
of the dual scheme of government established by the founders
of this Republic of republics. Under its guidance and
teachings the great principle of local self-government has
found its best expression in the maintenance of the rights of
the States and in its assertion of the necessity of confining
the General Government to the exercise of the powers granted
by the Constitution of the United States.
"Recognizing that the money question is paramount to all
others at this time, we invite attention to the fact that the
Federal Constitution names silver and gold together as the
money metals of the United States, and that the first coinage
law passed by Congress under the Constitution made the silver
dollar the monetary unit, and admitted gold to free coinage at
a ratio based upon the silver-dollar unit.
"We declare that the act of 1873 demonetizing silver without
the knowledge or approval of the American people has resulted
in the appreciation of gold and a corresponding fall in the
prices of commodities produced by the people; a heavy increase
in the burden of taxation and of all debts, public and
private; the enrichment of the money-lending class at home and
abroad; prostration of industry and impoverishment of the
people.
"We are unalterably opposed to gold monometallism, which has
locked fast the prosperity of an industrial people in the
paralysis of hard times. Gold monometallism is a British
policy, and its adoption has brought other nations into
financial servitude to London. It is not only un-American but
anti-American, and it can be fastened on the United States
only by the stifling of that spirit and love of liberty which
proclaimed our political independence in 1776 and won it in
the war of the Revolution.
"We demand the free and unlimited coinage of both gold and
silver at the present legal ratio of sixteen to one, without
waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation. We demand
that the standard silver dollar shall be a full legal tender,
equally with gold, for all debts, public and private, and we
favor such legislation as will prevent for the future the
demonetization of any kind of legal-tender money by private
contract.
"We are opposed to the policy and practice of surrendering to
the holders of the obligations of the United States the option
reserved by law to the Government of redeeming such
obligations in either silver coin or gold coin.
"We are opposed to the issuing of interest-bearing bonds of
the United States in time of peace, and condemn the
trafficking with banking syndicates which, in exchange for
bonds and at an enormous profit to themselves, supply the
Federal Treasury with gold to maintain the policy of gold
monometallism.
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"Congress alone has the power to coin and issue money, and
President Jackson declared that this power could not be
delegated to corporations or individuals. We therefore demand
that the power to issue notes to circulate as money be taken
from the National banks, and that all paper money shall be
issued directly by the Treasury Department, be redeemable in
coin, and receivable for all debts, public and private.
"We hold that the tariff duties should be levied for purposes
of revenue, such duties to be so adjusted as to operate
equally throughout the country and not discriminate between
class or section, and that taxation should be limited by the
needs of the Government honestly and economically
administered.
"We denounce, as disturbing to business, the Republican threat
to restore the:McKinley law, which has been twice condemned by
the people in national elections, and which, enacted under the
false plea of protection to home industry, proved a prolific
breeder of trusts and monopolies, enriched the few at the
expense of the many, restricted trade, and deprived the
producers of the great American staples of access to their
natural markets. Until the money question is settled we are
opposed to any agitation for further changes in our tariff
laws, except such as are necessary to make the deficit in
revenue caused by the adverse decision of the Supreme Court on
the income tax.
"There would be no deficit in the revenue but for the
annulment by the Supreme Court of a law passed by a Democratic
Congress in strict pursuance of the uniform decisions of that
court for nearly 100 years, that court having sustained
constitutional objections to its enactment which had been
overruled by the ablest judges who have ever sat on that
bench. We declare that it is the duty of Congress to use all
the constitutional power which remains after that decision, or
which may come by its reversal by the court, as it may
hereafter be constituted, so that the burdens of taxation may
be equally and impartially laid, to the end that wealth may
bear its due proportion of the expenses of the Government.
"We hold that the most efficient way to protect American labor
is to prevent the importation of foreign pauper labor to
compete with it in the home market, and that the value of the
home market to our American farmers and artisans is greatly
reduced by a vicious monetary system, which depresses the
prices of their products below the cost of production, and
thus deprives them of the means of purchasing the products of
our home manufacture.
"We denounce the profligate waste of the money wrung from the
people by oppressive taxation and the lavish appropriations of
recent Republican Congresses, which have kept taxes high,
while the labor that pays them is unemployed, and the products
of the people's toil are depressed in price till they no
longer repay the cost of production. We demand a return to
that simplicity and economy which best befit a Democratic
Government and a reduction in the number of useless offices,
the salaries of which drain the substance of the people.
"We denounce arbitrary interference by Federal authorities in
local affairs as a violation of the Constitution of the United
States and a crime against free institutions, and we
especially object to government by injunction as a new and
highly dangerous form of oppression, by which Federal judges,
in contempt of the laws of the States and rights of citizens,
become at once legislators, judges, and executioners, and we
approve the bill passed at the last session of the United
States Senate, and now pending in the House, relative to
contempts in Federal courts, and providing for trials by jury
in certain cases of contempt.
"No discrimination should be indulged by the Government of the
United States in favor of any of its debtors. We approve of
the refusal of the Fifty-third Congress to pass the Pacific
Railroad funding bill, and denounce the effort of the present
Republican Congress to enact a similar measure.
"Recognizing the just claims of deserving Union soldiers, we
heartily endorse the rule of the present Commissioner of
Pensions that no names shall be arbitrarily dropped from the
pension roll, and the fact of an enlistment and service should
be deemed conclusive evidence against disease or disability
before enlistment.
"We extend our sympathy to the people of Cuba in their heroic
struggle for liberty and independence.
"We are opposed to life tenure in the public service. We favor
appointments based upon merit, fixed terms of office, and such
an administration of the civil-service laws as will afford
equal opportunities to all citizens of ascertained fitness.
"We declare it to be the unwritten law of this Republic,
established by custom and usage of 100 years, and sanctioned
by the examples of the greatest and wisest of those who
founded and have maintained our Government, that no man should
be eligible for a third term of the Presidential office.
"The absorption of wealth by the few, the consolidation of our
leading railroad systems, and formation of trusts and pools
require a stricter control by the Federal Government of those
arteries of commerce. ''We demand the enlargement of the
powers of the Inter-state Commerce Commission, and such
restrictions and guarantees in the control of railroads as
will protect the people from robbery and oppression.
"We favor the admission of the Territories of New Mexico and
Arizona into the Union as States, and we favor the early
admission of all the Territories giving the necessary
population and resources to entitle them to Statehood; and
while they remain Territories we hold that the officials
appointed to administer the government of any Territory,
together with the District of Columbia and Alaska, should be
bona fide residents of the Territory or District in which
their duties are to be performed. The Democratic party
believes in home rule, and that all public lands of the United
States should be appropriated to the establishment of free
homes for American citizens.
"We recommend that the Territory of Alaska be granted a
Delegate in Congress, and that the general land and timber
laws of the United States be extended to said Territory.
"The Federal Government should care for and improve the
Mississippi River and other great waterways of the Republic so
as to secure for the interior people easy and cheap
transportation to tidewater. When any waterway of the Republic
is of sufficient importance to demand aid of the Government,
such aid should be extended upon a definite plan of continuous
work until permanent improvement is secured.
{568}
"Confiding in the justice of our cause and the necessity of
its success at the polls, we submit the foregoing declaration
of principles and purposes to the considerate judgment of the
American people. We invite the support of all citizens who
approve them, and who desire to have them made effective
through legislation for the relief of the people and the
restoration of the country's prosperity."
In the course of the debate upon the silver question, a speech
of impassioned eloquence was made by William J. Bryan, of
Nebraska, who had represented his district in Congress for two
terms, 1891-1894, and who was rising to prominence among the
leaders of the free-silver Democracy of the west. The speech
excited an enthusiasm and an admiration which led to the
nomination of Mr. Bryan for the presidency. That unexpected
choice was reached after four ballots, in each of which the
votes for the Nebraska orator rose steadily in number. At the
fifth ballot they had passed the requisite two-thirds, and his
nomination was declared to be unanimous, though protests were
made. The entire delegation from New York and many delegates
from New England and New Jersey cast no votes, refusing to
take any part in the nomination of a candidate on the platform
laid down. The chosen candidate for Vice President was Arthur
Sewall, of Maine.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 1896.
The National Silver Party.
The considerable body of Republicans who desired an unlimited
free coinage of silver, and were prepared to quit their party
on that issue, had made efforts to persuade the Democratic
convention at Chicago to accept their leader, Senator Teller,
of Colorado, for its presidential candidate. Failing in that,
they assembled a convention of delegates at St. Louis, July
22-24, and, under the name of the "National Silver Party,"
took the alternative method of uniting the free-silver
Republican vote with that of the free-silver Democracy, by
accepting the Democratic nominations as their own. William J.
Bryan and Arthur Sewall were duly nominated for President and
Vice President, and a "platform" set forth as follows:
"The National Silver Party in Convention assembled hereby
adopts the following declaration of principles:
"First. The paramount issue at this time in the United States
is indisputably the money question. It is between the gold
standard, gold bonds, and bank currency on the one side and
the bimetallic standard, no bonds, and Government currency on
the other.
"On this issue we declare ourselves to be in favor of a
distinctively American financial system. We are unalterably
opposed to the single gold standard, and demand the immediate
return to the constitutional standard of gold and silver, by
the restoration by this Government, independently of any
foreign power, of the unrestricted coinage of both gold and
silver into standard money at the ratio of sixteen to one, and
upon terms of exact equality, as they existed prior to 1873;
the silver coin to be a full legal tender equally with gold
for all debts and dues, private and public, and we favor such
legislation as will prevent for the future the demonetization
of any kind of legal-tender money by private contract.
"We hold that the power to control and regulate a paper
currency is inseparable from the power to coin money, and
hence that all currency intended to circulate as money should
be issued, and its volume controlled by the General Government
only, and should be legal tender.
"We are unalterably opposed to the issue by the United States
of interest-bearing bonds in time of peace, and we denounce as
a blunder worse than a crime the present Treasury policy,
concurred in by a Republican House, of plunging the country in
debt by hundreds of millions in the vain attempt to maintain
the gold standard by borrowing gold, and we demand the payment
of all coin obligations of the United States as provided by
existing laws, in either gold or silver coin, at the option of
the Government and not at the option of the creditor.
"The demonetization of silver in 1873 enormously increased the
demand for gold, enhancing its purchasing power and lowering
all prices measured by that standard; and since that unjust
and indefensible act the prices of American products have
fallen upon an average nearly fifty per cent., carrying down
with them proportionately the money value of all other forms
of property. Such fall of prices has destroyed the profits of
legitimate industry, injuring the producer for the benefit of
the non-producer, increasing the burden of the debtor,
swelling the gains of the creditor, paralyzing the productive
energies of the American people, relegating to idleness vast
numbers of willing workers, sending the shadows of despair
into the home of the honest toiler, filling the land with
tramps and paupers, and building up colossal fortunes at the
money centres.
"In the effort to maintain the gold standard the country has,
within the last two years, in a time of profound peace and
plenty, been loaded down with $262,000,000 of additional
interest-bearing debt, under such circumstances as to allow a
syndicate of native and foreign bankers to realize a net
profit of millions on a single deal.
"It stands confessed that the gold standard can only be upheld
by so depleting our paper currency as to force the prices of
our product below the European and even below the Asiatic
level to enable us to sell in foreign markets, thus
aggravating the very evils our people so bitterly complain of,
degrading American labor, and striking at the foundations of
our civilization itself.
"The advocates of the gold standard persistently claim that
the cause of our distress is over-production; that we have
produced so much that it has made us poor—which implies that
the true remedy is to close the factory, abandon the farm, and
throw a multitude of people out of employment, a doctrine that
leaves us unnerved and disheartened, and absolutely without
hope for the future.
"We affirm it to be unquestioned that there can be no such
economic paradox as over-production, and at the same time tens
of thousands of our fellow-citizens remaining half-clothed and
half-fed, and who are piteously clamoring for the common
necessities of life.
{569}
"Second. That over and above all other questions of policy we
are in favor of restoring to the people of the United States
the time-honored money of the Constitution—gold and silver,
not one, but both—the money of Washington and Hamilton and
Jefferson and Monroe and Jackson and Lincoln, to the end that
the American people may receive honest pay for an honest
product; that the American debtor may pay his just obligations
in an honest standard, and not in a standard that has depreciated
100 per cent. above all the great staples of our country, and
to the end further that the standard countries may be deprived
of the unjust advantage they now enjoy in the difference in
exchange between gold and silver—an advantage which tariff
legislation alone cannot overcome.
"We therefore confidently appeal to the people of the United
States to leave in abeyance for the moment all other
questions, however important and even momentous they may
appear, to sunder, if need be, all former party ties and
affiliations, and unite in one supreme effort to free
themselves and their children from the domination of the money
power—a power more destructive than any which has ever been
fastened upon the civilized men of any race or in any age, and
upon the consummation of our desires and efforts we invoke the
gracious favor of Divine Providence.
"Inasmuch as the patriotic majority of the Chicago convention
embodied in the financial plank of its platform the principles
enunciated in the platform of the American Bimetallic party,
promulgated at Washington, D. C., January 22, 1896, and herein
reiterated, which is not only the paramount but the only real
issue in the pending campaign, therefore, recognizing that
their nominees embody these patriotic principles, we recommend
that this convention nominate William J. Bryan, of Nebraska, for
President, and Arthur Sewall, of Maine, for Vice President."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 1896.
People's or Populist Party Platform and Nominations.
The People's Party, more commonly called the Populist Party,
held its national convention at St. Louis on the 22d-25th of
July, simultaneously with that of the National Silver Party,
and with strong influences urging it to act on the same line.
One section of the party strove to bring about a complete
endorsement of the Democratic nominations made at Chicago.
Another section, styled the "Middle-of-the-Road" Populists,
opposed any coalition with other parties; while a third wished
to nominate Bryan, with a Populist candidate for Vice
President, looking to an arrangement with the Democratic
organization for a fusion of electoral tickets in various
States. The idea of the latter prevailed, and William J. Bryan
was nominated for President, with Thomas E. Watson, of
Georgia, for Vice President. The People's Party had little
disagreement with the Chicago declarations of the Democratic
Party, and none at all on financial questions, concerning
which its doctrines were set forth in the following platform:
"The People's Party, assembled in National Convention,
reaffirms its allegiance to the principles declared by the
founders of the Republic, and also to the fundamental
principles of just government as enunciated in the platform of
the party in 1892.
"We recognize that through the connivance of the present and
preceding administrations the country has reached a crisis in
its National life, as predicted in our declaration of four
years ago, and that prompt and patriotic action is the supreme
duty of the hour.
"We realize that while we have political independence, our
financial and industrial independence is yet to be attained by
restoring to our country the constitutional control and
exercise of the functions necessary to a people's government,
which functions have been basely surrendered by our public
servants to corporations and monopolies. The influence of
European money-changers has been more potent in shaping
legislation than the voice of the American people. Executive
power and patronage have been used to corrupt our legislatures
and defeat the will of the people, and plutocracy has been
enthroned upon the ruins of democracy. To restore the
government intended by the fathers, and for the welfare and
prosperity of this and future generations, we demand the
establishment of an economic and financial system which shall
make us masters of our own affairs and independent of European
control, by the adoption of the following declaration of
principles:
"We demand a National money, safe and sound, issued by the
general government only, without the intervention of banks of
issue, to be a full legal tender for an debts, public and
private, and a just, equitable, and efficient means of
distribution direct to the people and through the lawful
disbursements of the Government.
"We demand the free and unrestricted coinage of silver and
gold at the present legal ratio of sixteen to one, without
waiting for the consent of foreign nations.
"We demand that the volume of circulating medium be speedily
increased to an amount sufficient to meet the demands of the
business population of this country and to restore the just
level of prices of labor and production.
"We denounce the sale of bonds and the increase of the public
interest-bearing bond debt made by the present administration
as unnecessary and without authority of law, and we demand
that no more bonds be issued except by specific act of
Congress.
"We demand such legislation as will prevent the demonetization
of the lawful money of the United States by private contract.
"We demand that the Government, in payment of its obligations,
shall use its option as to the kind of lawful money in which
they are to be paid, and we denounce the present and preceding
administrations for surrendering this option to the holders of
government obligations.
"We demand a graduated income tax, to the end that aggregated
wealth shall bear its just proportion of taxation, and we
denounce the recent decision of the Supreme Court relative to
the income-tax law as a misinterpretation of the Constitution
and an invasion of the rightful powers of Congress over the
subject of taxation.
"We demand that postal savings banks be established by the
Government for the safe deposit of the savings of the people
and to facilitate exchange.
"Transportation being a means of exchange and a public
necessity, the Government should own and operate the railroads
in the interest of the people and on non-partisan basis, to
the end that all may be accorded the same treatment in
transportation, and that the tyranny and political power now
exercised by the great railroad corporations, which result in
the impairment if not the destruction of the political rights
and personal liberties of the citizens, may be destroyed. Such
ownership is to be accomplished gradually, in a manner
consistent with sound public policy.
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"The interest of the United States in the public highways
built with public moneys and the proceeds of extensive grants
of land to the Pacific railroads should never be alienated,
mortgaged, or sold, but guarded and protected for the general
welfare as provided by the laws organizing such railroads. The
foreclosure of existing liens of the United States on these
roads should at once follow default in the payment of the debt
of the companies, and at the foreclosure sales of said roads
the Government should purchase the same if it becomes
necessary to protect its interests therein, or if they can be
purchased at a reasonable price; and the Government should
operate said railroads as public highways for the benefit of
the whole and not in the interest of the few, under suitable
provisions for protection of life and property, giving to all
transportation interests and privileges and equal rates for
fares and freight.
"We denounce the present infamous schemes for refunding those
debts and demand that the laws now applicable thereto be
executed and administered according to their true intent and
spirit.
"The telegraph, like the post-office system, being a necessity
for the transmission of news, should be owned and operated by
the Government in the interest of the people.
"The true policy demands that the National and State
legislation shall be such as will ultimately enable every
prudent and industrious citizen to secure a home, and
therefore the land should not be monopolized for speculative
purposes.
"All land now held by railroads and other corporations in
excess of their actual needs should by lawful means be
reclaimed by the Government and held for actual settlers only,
and private land monopoly, as well as alien ownership, should
be prohibited.
"We condemn the frauds by which the land grant to the Pacific
Railroad Companies have, through the connivance of the
Interior Department, robbed multitudes of bona fide settlers
of their homes and miners of their claims, and we demand
legislation by Congress which will enforce the exemption of
mineral land from such grants after as well as before patent.
"We demand that bona fide settlers on all public lands be
granted free homes, as provided in the National homestead law,
and that no exception be made in the case of Indian
reservations when opened for settlement, and that all lands
not now patented come under this demand.
"We favor a system of direct legislation through the
initiative and referendum under proper constitutional
safeguards.
"We demand the election of President, Vice-President, and
United States Senators by a direct vote of the people.
"We tender to the patriotic people of Cuba our deepest
sympathy in their heroic struggle for political freedom and
independence, and we believe the time has come when the United
States, the great Republic of the world, should recognize that
Cuba is and of right ought to be a free and independent State.
"We favor home rule in the Territories and the District of
Columbia and the early admission of the Territories as States.
"All public salaries should be made to correspond to the price
of labor and its products.
"In times of great industrial depression idle labor should be
employed on public works as far as practicable.
"The arbitrary course of the courts in assuming to imprison
citizens for indirect contempt and ruling by injunction should
be prevented by proper legislation.
"We favor just pensions for our disabled Union soldiers.
"Believing that the elective franchise and untrammelled ballot
are essential to a government of, for, and by the people, the
People's Party condemn the wholesale system of
disfranchisement adopted in some States as unrepublican and
undemocratic, and we declare it to be the duty of the several
State legislatures to take such action as will secure a full,
free, and fair ballot and an honest count.
"While the foregoing propositions constitute the platform upon
which our party stands, and for the vindication of which its
organization will be maintained, we recognize that the great
and pressing issue of the pending campaign, upon which the
present Presidential election will turn, is the financial
question, and upon this great and specific issue between the
parties we cordially invite the aid and co-operation of all
organizations and citizens agreeing with us upon this vital
question."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 1896.
National Democratic Platform and Nominations.
An extensive revolt in the Democratic Party against the
declarations and the action of the party convention at Chicago
had been quickly made manifest, and steps were soon taken
towards giving it an organized form. These led to the
assembling of a convention of delegates at Indianapolis, on
the 2d and 3d of September, which, in the name of the
"National Democratic Party," repudiated the platform and the
candidates put forward at Chicago, and branded them as false
to the historic party name which they assumed. General John M.
Palmer, of Illinois, was put in nomination for President, and
General Simon Bolivar Buckner, of Kentucky, for Vice
President, of the United States, and a declaration of
Democratic principles adopted, the fundamental passages of
which are quoted in the following:
"This convention has assembled to uphold the principles upon
which depend the honor and welfare of the American people, in
order that democrats throughout the Union may unite their
patriotic efforts to avert disaster from their country and
ruin from their party.
"The democratic party is pledged to equal and exact justice to
all men of every creed and condition; to the largest freedom
of the individual consistent with good government; to the
preservation of the federal government in its constitutional
vigor, and to the support of the states in all their just
rights; to economy in the public expenditures; to the
maintenance of the public faith and sound money; and it is
opposed to paternalism and all class legislation. The
declarations of the Chicago convention attack individual
freedom, the right of private contract, the independence of
the judiciary, and the authority of the president to enforce
federal laws. They advocate a reckless attempt to increase the
price of silver by legislation, to the debasement of our
monetary standard; and threaten unlimited issues of paper
money by the government.
{571}
They abandon for republican allies the democratic cause of
tariff reform, to court favor of protectionists to their
fiscal heresy. In view of these and other grave departures
from democratic principles, we cannot support the candidates
of that convention, nor be bound by its acts. The democratic
party has survived defeats, but could not survive a victory
won in behalf of the doctrine and policy proclaimed in its
name at Chicago.
"The conditions, however, which made possible such utterances
from a national convention, are the direct result of class
legislation by the republican party. It still proclaims, as it
has for years, the power and duty of government to raise and
maintain prices by law, and it proposes no remedy for existing
evils except oppressive and unjust taxation. … The demand of
the republican party for an increase in tariff taxation has
its pretext in the deficiency of the revenue, which has its
causes in the stagnation of trade and reduced consumption, due
entirely to the loss of confidence that has followed the
populist threat of free coinage and depreciation of our money,
and the republican practice of extravagant appropriations beyond
the needs of good government. We arraign and condemn the
populistic conventions of Chicago and St. Louis for their
cooperation with the republican party in creating these
conditions, which are pleaded in justification of a heavy
increase of the burdens of the people by a further resort to
protection. We therefore denounce protection and its ally,
free coinage of silver, as schemes for the personal profit of
a few at the expense of the masses; and oppose the two parties
which stand for these schemes as hostile to the people of the
republic, whose food and shelter, comfort and prosperity are
attacked by higher taxes and depreciated money. In fine, we
reaffirm the historic democratic doctrine of tariff for
revenue only. …
"The experience of mankind has shown that, by reason of their
natural qualities, gold is the necessary money of the large
affairs of commerce and business, while silver is conveniently
adapted to minor transactions, and the most beneficial use of
both together can be insured only by the adoption of the
former as a standard of monetary measure, and the maintenance
of silver at a parity with gold by its limited coinage under
suitable safeguards of law. Thus the largest possible
employment of both metals is gained with a value universally
accepted throughout the world, which constitutes the only
practical bimetallic currency, assuring the most stable
standard, and especially the best and safest money for all who
earn their livelihood by labor or the produce of husbandry. They
cannot suffer when paid in the best money known to man, but
are the peculiar and most defenceless victims of a debased and
fluctuating currency, which offers continual profits to the
money changer at their cost.
"Realizing these truths demonstrated by long and public
inconvenience and loss, the democratic party, in the interests
of the masses and of equal justice to all, practically
established by the legislation of 1834 and 1853 the gold
standard of monetary measurement, and likewise entirely
divorced the government from banking and currency issues. To
this long-established democratic policy we adhere, and insist
upon the maintenance of the gold standard, and of the parity
therewith of every dollar issued by the government, and are
firmly opposed to the free and unlimited coinage of silver and
to the compulsory purchase of silver bullion. But we denounce
also the further maintenance of the present costly patchwork
system of national paper currency as a constant source of
injury and peril. We assert the necessity of such intelligent
currency reform as will confine the government to its
legitimate functions, completely separated from the banking
business, and afford to all sections of our country uniform,
safe, and elastic bank currency under governmental
supervision, measured in volume by the needs of business.
"The fidelity, patriotism, and courage with which President
Cleveland has fulfilled his great public trust, the high
character of his administration, its wisdom and energy in the
maintenance of civil order and the enforcement of the laws,
its equal regard for the rights of every class and every
section, its firm and dignified conduct of foreign affairs,
and its sturdy persistence in upholding the credit and honor
of the nation are fully recognized by the democratic party,
and will secure to him a place in history beside the fathers
of the republic. We also commend the administration for the
great progress made in the reform of the public service, and
we indorse its effort to extend the merit system still
further. We demand that no backward step be taken, but that
the reform be supported and advanced until the un-democratic
spoils system of appointments be eradicated."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 1896.
Prohibition Platform and Nominations.
The Prohibition Party had been the first to open the
presidential campaign with candidates placed in the field. Its
national convention was held at Pittsburg, on the 27th and
28th of May, and its nominees for President and Vice President
were Joshua Levering, of Maryland, and Hale Johnson, of
Illinois. But a split in the convention occurred on attempts
made to graft free-silver and kindred doctrines on the
one-issue platform which the majority of the party desired.
Except in a single particular, the latter prevailed. The
platform adopted was as follows:
"The Prohibition Party, in national convention assembled,
declares its firm conviction that the manufacture,
exportation, importation, and sale of alcoholic beverages has
produced such social, commercial, industrial, and political
wrongs, and is now so threatening the perpetuity of all our
social and political institutions, that the suppression of the
same by a national party organized therefor is the greatest
object to be accomplished by the voters of our country, and is
of such importance that it, of right, ought to control the
political actions of all our patriotic citizens until such
suppression is accomplished. The urgency of this course
demands the union without further delay of all citizens who
desire the prohibition of the liquor traffic. Therefore be it
"Resolved, That we favor the legal prohibition by state and
national legislation of the manufacture, importation, and sale
of alcoholic beverages. That we declare our purpose to
organize and unite all the friends of prohibition into one
party; and in order to accomplish this end we deem it of right
to leave every prohibitionist the freedom of his own
convictions upon all other political questions, and trust our
representatives to take such action upon other political
questions as the changes occasioned by prohibition and the
welfare of the whole people shall demand."
{572}
Resolved, "The right of suffrage ought not to be abridged on
account of sex."
Those delegates who were dissatisfied with this platform
withdrew from the convention, assembled in another hall,
assumed the name of "The National Party," adopted the
following declarations, and nominated Charles E. Bentley, of
Nebraska, and J. II. Southgate, of North Carolina, for the two
highest offices in the national government:
"The National Party, recognizing God as the author of all just
power in government, presents the following declaration of
principles, which it pledges itself to enact into effective
legislation when given the power to do so:
"The suppression of the manufacture and sale, importation,
exportation, and transportation of intoxicating liquors for
beverage purposes. We utterly reject all plans for regulating
or compromising with this traffic, whether such plans be
called local option, taxation, license, or public control. The
sale of liquors for medicinal and other legitimate uses should
be conducted by the State, without profit, and with such
regulations as will prevent fraud or evasion.
"No citizen should be denied the right to vote on account of
sex.
"All money should be issued by the General Government only,
and without the intervention of any private citizen,
corporation, or banking institution. It should be based upon
the wealth, stability, and integrity of the nation. It should
be a full legal tender for all debts, public and private, and
should be of sufficient volume to meet the demands of the
legitimate business interests of the country. For the purpose
of honestly liquidating our outstanding coin obligations, we
favor the free and unlimited coinage of both silver and gold,
at the ratio of sixteen to one, without consulting any other
nation.
"Land is the common heritage of the people and should be
preserved from monopoly and speculation. All unearned grants
of land, subject to forfeiture, should be reclaimed by the
Government and no portion of the public domain should
hereafter be granted except to actual settlers, continuous use
being essential to tenure.
"Railroads, telegraphs, and other natural monopolies should be
owned and operated by the Government, giving to the people the
benefit of service at actual cost.
"The National Constitution should be so amended as to allow
the national revenues to be raised by equitable adjustment of
taxation on the properties and incomes of the people, and
import duties should be levied as a means of securing
equitable commercial relations with other nations.
"The contract convict-labor system, through which speculators
are enriched at the expense of the State, should be abolished.
"All citizens should be protected by law in their right to one
day of rest in seven, without oppressing any who
conscientiously observe any other than the first day of the
week.
"American public schools, taught in the English language,
should be maintained, and no public funds should be
appropriated for sectarian institutions.
"The President, Vice-President, and United States Senators
should be elected by direct vote of the people.
"Ex-soldiers and sailors of the United States army and navy,
their widows, and minor children, should receive liberal
pensions, graded on disability and term of service, not merely
as a debt of gratitude, but for service rendered in the
preservation of the Union.
"Our immigration laws should be so revised as to exclude
paupers and criminals. None but citizens of the United States
should be allowed to vote in any State, and naturalized
citizens should not vote until one year after naturalization
papers have been issued.
"The initiative and referendum and proportional representation
should be adopted.
"Having herein presented our principles and purposes, we
invite the co-operation and support of all citizens who are
with us substantially agreed."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 1896.
Socialist-Labor Party Nominations.
Still another party which placed candidates for the presidency
and vice-presidency in nomination was the Socialist-Labor
organization, which held a convention in New York, July 4-10,
and named for the two high offices, Charles H. Matchett, of
New York, and Mathew Maguire, of New Jersey. Its platform
embodied the essential doctrines of socialism, as commonly
understood, and was as follows:
"The Socialist Labor Party of the United States, in convention
assembled, reasserts the inalienable rights of all men to
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
"With the founders of the American Republic we hold that the
purpose of government is to secure every citizen in the
enjoyment of this right; but in the right of our conditions we
hold, furthermore, that no such right can be exercised under a
system of economic inequality, essentially destructive of
life, of liberty, and of happiness.
"With the founders of this Republic we hold that the true
theory of politics is that the machinery of government must be
owned and controlled by the whole people; but in the light of
our industrial development we hold, furthermore, that the true
theory of economics is that the machinery of production must
likewise belong to the people in common.
"To the obvious fact that our despotic system of economics is
the direct opposite of our democratic system of politics, can
plainly be traced the existence of a privileged class, the
corruption of Government by that class, the alienation of
public property, public franchises, and public functions to
that class, and the abject dependence of the mightiest of
nations upon that class.
"Again, through the perversion of democracy to the ends of
plutocracy, labor is robbed of its wealth which it alone
produces, is denied the means of self-employment, and by
compulsory idleness in wage slavery, is even deprived of the
necessaries of life.
"Human power and natural forces are thus wasted, that the
plutocracy may rule. Ignorance and misery, with all their
concomitant evils, are perpetuated, that the people may be
kept in bondage. Science and invention are diverted from their
humane purpose to the enslavement of women and children.
"Against such a system the Socialist Labor party once more
enters its protest. Once more it reiterates its fundamental
declaration that private property in the natural sources of
production and in the instruments of labor is the obvious
cause of all economic servitude and political dependence.
{573}
"The time is fast coming when, in the natural course of social
evolution, this system, through the destructive action of its
failures and crises on one hand, and the constructive
tendencies of its trusts and other capitalistic combinations
on the other hand, shall have worked out its own downfall.
"We therefore call upon the wage-workers of the United States,
and upon all honest citizens, to organize under the banner of
the Socialist Labor party into a class-conscious body, aware
of its rights and determined to conquer them by taking
possession of the public powers, so that, held together by an
indomitable spirit of solidarity under the most trying
conditions of the present class struggle, we may put a summary
end to that barbarous struggle by the abolition of classes,
the restoration of the land and of all the means of
production, transportation, and distribution to the people as
a collective body, and the substitution of the co-operative
commonwealth for the present state of planless production,
industrial war, and social disorder, a commonwealth in which
every worker shall have the free exercise and full benefit of
his faculties, multiplied by all modern factors of
civilization.
"With a view to immediate improvement in the condition of
labor we present the following demands:
"1. Reduction of the hours of labor in proportion to the
progress of production.
"2. The United States shall obtain possession of the
railroads, canals, telegraphs, telephones, and all other means
of public transportation and communication; the employés to
operate the same co-operatively under control of the Federal
Government and to elect their own superior officers, but no
employé shall be discharged for political reasons.
"3. The municipalities shall obtain possession of the local
railroads, ferries, waterworks, gas-works, electric plants,
and all industries requiring municipal franchises; the
employés to operate the same co-operatively under control of
the municipal administration and to elect their own superior
officers, but no employé shall be discharged for political
reasons.
"4. The public lands declared inalienable. Revocation of all
land grants to corporations or individuals the conditions of
which have not been complied with.
"5. The United States to have the exclusive right to issue
money.
"6. Congressional legislation providing for the scientific
management of forests and waterways, and prohibiting the waste
of the natural resources of the country.
"7. Inventions to be free to all: the inventors to be
remunerated by the nation.
"8. Progressive income tax and tax on inheritances; the
smaller incomes to be exempt.
"9. School education of all children under fourteen years of
age to be compulsory, gratuitous, and accessible to all by
public assistance in meals, clothing, books, etc., where
necessary.
"10. Repeal of all pauper, tramp, conspiracy, and sumptuary
laws. Unabridged right of combination.
"11. Prohibition of the employment of children of school age
and of female labor in occupations detrimental to health or
morality. Abolition of the convict-labor contract system.
"12. Employment of the unemployed by the public authorities
(county, State, or nation).
"13. All wages to be paid in lawful money of the United
States. Equalization of women's wages to those of men where
equal service is performed.
"14. Laws for the protection of life and limb in all
occupations, and an efficient employers' liability law.
"15. The people to have the right to propose laws and to vote
upon all measures of importance according to the referendum
principle.
"16. Abolition of the veto power of the Executive (National,
State, or municipal), wherever it exists.
"17. Abolition of the United States Senate and all upper
legislative chambers.
"18. Municipal self-government.
"19. Direct vote and secret ballots in all elections.
Universal and equal right of suffrage without regard to color,
creed, or sex. Election days to be legal holidays. The
principle of proportional representation to be introduced.
"20. All public officers to be subject to recall by their
respective constituencies.
"21. Uniform civil and criminal law throughout the United
States. Administration of justice free of charge. Abolition of
capital punishment."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 1896.
The Canvass and Election.
The canvass which occupied the months between party
nominations and the election was the most remarkable, in many
respects, that the country had ever gone through. On both
sides of the silver question intense convictions were burning
and intense anxieties being felt. To the defenders of the gold
standard of value—the monetary standard of the world at
large—an unlimited free coinage of silver legal tender money,
at the ratio of 16 to 1, meant both dishonor and ruin—national
bankruptcy, the wreck of industry, and chaos in the commercial
world. To many of those who strove with desperate eagerness to
bring it about it meant, on the contrary, a millennial social
state, in which abundance would prevail, the goods of the
world be divided more fairly, and labor have a juster reward.
So the issue fronted each as one personal, vital, almost as of
life and death. Their conflict bore no likeness to those
commonly in politics, where consequences seem remote, vague,
general to the body politic,—not, instantly overhanging the
head of the individual citizen, as in this case they did. Not
even the patriotic and moral excitements of the canvass of
1860 produced so intense a feeling of personal interest in the
election—so painful an anxiety in waiting for its result. And
never in any former political contest had the questions
involved been debated so earnestly, studied so widely and
intently, set forth by every artifice of exposition and
illustration with so much ingenious pains. The "campaign
literature" distributed by each party was beyond computation
in quantity and beyond classification in its kinds. The
speeches of the canvass were innumerable. Mr. Bryan
contributed some hundreds, in tours which he made through the
country, and Mr. McKinley, at his home, in Canton, Ohio,
received visiting delegations from all parts of the country
and addressed them at more or less length.
{574}
With all the excitement of anxiety and the heated conflict of
beliefs there was little violence of any kind, from first to
last. The critical election day (November 3) passed with no
serious incidents of disorder. The verdict of the people,
pronounced for the preservation of the monetary standard which
the world at large has established in general use, was
accepted with the equanimity to which self-governing citizens
are trained. Nearly fourteen millions of votes were cast, of
which the Republican presidential electors received 7,104,244;
electors representing the various parties which had nominated
Mr. Bryan received, in all, 6,506,835; those on the National
Democratic ticket received 134,652; those on the Prohibition
tickets, 144,606; those on the Socialist-Labor ticket, 36,416.
In the Electoral College, there were 271 votes for McKinley,
and 176 for Bryan. The States giving their electoral votes for
McKinley were California (excepting 1 vote, cast for Bryan),
Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky
(except 1), Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan,
Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota,
Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West
Virginia, Wisconsin. The States which chose electors for Bryan
were Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho,
Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska,
Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota,
Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming, besides
the single votes won in California and Kentucky. For Vice
President, Hobart received 271 electoral votes—the same as
McKinley; but Sewall received 27 less than Bryan, that number
being cast for the Populist candidate, Watson. This was
consequent on fusion arrangements between Democrats and
Populists in 28 States.
In some States, the majority given against silver free coinage
was overwhelming, as for example, in New York, 268,000
plurality for McKinley, besides 19,000 votes cast for the
"Gold Democratic" candidate; New Jersey, 87,000 Republican
plurality and 6,000 votes for General Palmer; Pennsylvania,
295,000 and 11,000; Massachusetts, 173,000 and 11,000. On the
other hand, Texas gave Bryan a plurality of 202,000, and
Colorado 135,000.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (November).
Agreement with Great Britain for the settlement of the
Venezuela dispute.
See (in this volume)
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1896-1899.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (December).
President Cleveland on affairs in Cuba.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896-1897.
Immigration Bill vetoed by President Cleveland.
On the 17th of December, 1896, a bill to amend the immigration
laws, which had passed the House of Representatives during the
previous session of Congress, passed the Senate, with
amendments which the House refused to accept. By conferences
between the two branches of Congress an agreement was finally
reached, in which the House concurred on the 9th of February
and the Senate on the 17th. But the President disapproved the
measure, and returned it to Congress on the 2d of March, with
his objections set forth in the following Message:
"I herewith return without approval House bill No. 7864,
entitled 'An act to amend the immigration laws of the United
States.'
"By the first section of this bill it is proposed to amend
section 1 of the act of March 3, 1891, relating to immigration
by adding to the classes of aliens thereby excluded from
admission to the United States the following: 'All persons
physically capable and over 16 years of age who can not read
and write the English language or some other language; but a
person not so able to read and write who is over 50 years of
age and is the parent or grandparent of a qualified immigrant
over 21 years of age and capable of supporting such parent or
grandparent may accompany such immigrant, or such a parent or
grandparent may be sent for and come to join the family of a
child or grandchild over 21 years of age similarly qualified
and capable, and a wife or minor child not so able to read and
write may accompany or be sent for and come and join the
husband or parent similarly qualified and capable.'
"A radical departure from our national policy relating to
immigration is here presented. Heretofore we have welcomed all
who came to us from other lands except those whose moral or
physical condition or history threatened danger to our
national welfare and safety. Relying upon the zealous
watchfulness of our people to prevent injury to our political
and social fabric, we have encouraged those coming from
foreign countries to cast their lot with us and join in the
development of our vast domain, securing in return a share in
the blessings of American citizenship. A century's stupendous
growth, largely due to the assimilation and thrift of millions
of sturdy and patriotic adopted citizens, attests the success
of this generous and free-handed policy which, while guarding
the people's interests, exacts from our immigrants only
physical and moral soundness and a willingness and ability to
work. A contemplation of the grand results of this policy can
not fail to arouse a sentiment in its defense, for however it
might have been regarded as an original proposition and viewed
as an experiment its accomplishments are such that if it is to be
uprooted at this late day its disadvantages should be plainly
apparent and the substitute adopted should be just and
adequate, free from uncertainties, and guarded against
difficult or oppressive administration.
"It is not claimed, I believe, that the time has come for the
further restriction of immigration on the ground that an
excess of population overcrowds our land. It is said, however,
that the quality of recent immigration is undesirable. The
time is quite within recent memory when the same thing was
said of immigrants who, with their descendants, are now
numbered among our best citizens. It is said that too many
immigrants settle in our cities, thus dangerously increasing
their idle and vicious population. This is certainly a
disadvantage. It can not be shown, however, that it affects
all our cities, nor that it is permanent; nor does it appear
that this condition where it exists demands as its remedy the
reversal of our present immigration policy. The claim is also
made that the influx of foreign laborers deprives of the
opportunity to work those who are better entitled than they to
the privilege of earning their livelihood by daily toil. An
unfortunate condition is certainly presented when any who are
willing to labor are unemployed, but so far as this condition
now exists among our people it must be conceded to be a result
of phenomenal business depression and the stagnation of all
enterprises in which labor is a factor.
{575}
With the advent of settled and wholesome financial and
economic governmental policies and consequent encouragement to
the activity of capital the misfortunes of unemployed labor
should, to a great extent at least, be remedied. If it
continues, its natural consequences must be to check the
further immigration to our cities of foreign laborers and to
deplete the ranks of those already there. In the meantime
those most willing and best entitled ought to be able to
secure the advantages of such work as there is to do.
"It is proposed by the bill under consideration to meet the
alleged difficulties of the situation by establishing an
educational test by which the right of a foreigner to make his
home with us shall be determined. Its general scheme is to
prohibit from admission to our country all immigrants
'physically capable and over 16 years of age who can not read
and write the English language or some other language,' and it
is provided that this test shall be applied by requiring
immigrants seeking admission to read and afterwards to write
not less than twenty nor more than twenty-five words of the
Constitution of the United States in some language, and that
any immigrant failing in this shall not be admitted, but shall
be returned to the country from whence he came at the expense
of the steamship or railroad company which brought him.
"The best reason that could be given for this radical
restriction of immigration is the necessity of protecting our
population against degeneration and saving our national peace
and quiet from imported turbulence and disorder. I can not
believe that we would be protected against these evils by
limiting immigration to those who can read and write in any
language twenty-five words of our Constitution. In my opinion,
it is infinitely more safe to admit a hundred thousand
immigrants who, though unable to read and write, seek among us
only a home and opportunity to work than to admit one of those
unruly agitators and enemies of governmental control who can
not only read and write, but delights in arousing by
inflammatory speech the illiterate and peacefully inclined to
discontent and tumult. Violence and disorder do not originate
with illiterate laborers. They are, rather, the victims of the
educated agitator. The ability to read and write, as required
in this bill, in and of itself affords, in my opinion, a
misleading test of contented industry and supplies
unsatisfactory evidence of desirable citizenship or a proper
apprehension of the benefits of our institutions. If any
particular element of our illiterate immigration is to be
feared for other causes than illiteracy, these causes should
be dealt with directly, instead of making illiteracy the
pretext for exclusion, to the detriment of other illiterate
immigrants against whom the real cause of complaint cannot be
alleged.
"The provisions intended to rid that part of the proposed
legislation already referred to from obvious hardship appear
to me to be indefinite and inadequate. A parent, grandparent,
wife, or minor child of a qualified immigrant, though unable
to read and write, may accompany the immigrant or be sent for
to join his family, provided the immigrant is capable of
supporting such relative. These exceptions to the general rule
of exclusion contained in the bill were made to prevent the
separation of families, and yet neither brothers nor sisters
are provided for. In order that relatives who are provided for
may be reunited, those still in foreign lands must be sent for
to join the immigrant here. What formality is necessary to
constitute this prerequisite, and how are the facts of
relationship and that the relative is sent for to be
established? Are the illiterate relatives of immigrants who
have come here under prior laws entitled to the advantage of
these exceptions? A husband who can read and write and who
determines to abandon his illiterate wife abroad will find
here under this law an absolutely safe retreat. The illiterate
relatives mentioned must not only be sent for, but such immigrant
must be capable of supporting them when they arrive. This
requirement proceeds upon the assumption that the foreign
relatives coming here are in every case, by reason of poverty,
liable to become a public charge unless the immigrant is
capable of their support. The contrary is very often true. And
yet if unable to read and write, though quite able and willing
to support themselves and their relatives here besides, they
could not be admitted under the provisions of this bill if the
immigrant was impoverished, though the aid of his fortunate
but illiterate relative might be the means of saving him from
pauperism.
"The fourth section of this bill provides—'That it shall be
unlawful for any male alien who has not in good faith made his
declaration before the proper court of his intention to become
a citizen of the United States to be employed on any public works
of the United States or to come regularly or habitually into
the United States by land or water for the purpose of engaging
in any mechanical trade or manual labor for wages or salary,
returning from time to time to a foreign country.' The fifth
section provides—'That it shall be unlawful for any person,
partnership, company, or corporation knowingly to employ any
alien coming into the United States in violation of the next
preceding section of this act.'
"The prohibition against the employment of aliens upon any
public works of the United States is in line with other
legislation of a like character. It is quite a different
thing, however, to declare it a crime for an alien to come
regularly and habitually into the United States for the
purpose of obtaining work from private parties, if such alien
returns from time to time to a foreign country, and to
constitute any employment of such alien a criminal offense.
When we consider these provisions of the bill in connection
with our long northern frontier and the boundaries of our
States and Territories, often but an imaginary line separating
them from the British dominions, and recall the friendly
intercourse between the people who are neighbors on either
side, the provisions of this bill affecting them must be
regarded as illiberal, narrow, and un-American. The residents
of these States and Territories have separate and especial
interests which in many cases make an interchange of labor
between their people and their alien neighbors most important,
frequently with the advantage largely in favor of our
citizens. This suggests the inexpediency of Federal
interference with these conditions when not necessary to the
correction of a substantial evil, affecting the general
welfare. Such unfriendly legislation as is proposed could
hardly fail to provoke retaliatory measures, to the injury of
many of our citizens who now find employment on adjoining
foreign soil.
{576}
The uncertainty of construction to which the language of these
provisions is subject is a serious objection to a statute
which describes a crime. An important element in the offense
sought to be created by these sections is the coming
'regularly or habitually into the United States.' These words
are impossible of definite and certain construction. The same
may be said of the equally important words 'returning from
time to time to a foreign country.'
"A careful examination of this bill has convinced me that for
the reasons given and others not specifically stated its
provisions are unnecessarily harsh and oppressive, and its
defects in construction would cause vexation and its operation
would result in harm to our citizens.
GROVER CLEVELAND."
In the House of Representatives, the Bill was passed again,
over the veto, by the requisite vote of two-thirds; in the
Senate it was referred to the Committee on Immigration, and no
further action was taken upon it. Therefore, it did not become
a law.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896-1898.
Agitation for monetary reforms.
The Indianapolis Commission.
Secretary Gage's plan.
The Senatorial block in the way.
On November 18, 1896, the Governors of the Indianapolis Board
of Trade invited the Boards of Trade of Chicago, St. Louis,
Cincinnati, Louisville, Cleveland. Columbus, Toledo, Kansas
City, Detroit, Milwaukee, St. Paul, Des Moines, Minneapolis,
Grand Rapids, Peoria, and Omaha to a conference on the first
of December following, to consider the advisability of calling
a larger convention from commercial organizations throughout
the country for the purpose of discussing the wisdom of
selecting a non-partisan commission to formulate a sound
currency system. This preliminary conference issued a call for
a non-partisan monetary convention of business men, chosen
from boards of trade, chambers of commerce, and commercial
clubs, to meet in Indianapolis, on January 12, 1897. At the
convention there were assembled, with credentials, 299
delegates, representing business organizations and cities in
nearly every State in the Union. The result of its
deliberations was expressed in resolutions which opened as
follows:
"This convention declares that it has become absolutely
necessary that a consistent, straightforward, and deliberately
planned monetary system shall be inaugurated, the fundamental
basis of which should be: First, that the present gold
standard should be maintained. Second, that steps should be
taken to insure the ultimate retirement of all classes of
United States notes by a gradual and steady process, and so as
to avoid the injurious contraction of the currency, or
disturbance of the business interests of the country, and that
until such retirements provision should be made for a
separation of the revenue and note-issue departments of the
Treasury. Third, that a banking system be provided, which
should furnish credit facilities to every portion of the
country and a safe and elastic circulation, and especially
with a view of securing such a distribution of the loanable
capital of the country as will tend to equalize the rates of
interest in all parts thereof."
Recognizing the necessity of committing the formulation of
such a plan to a body of men trained and experienced in these
matters, a commission was proposed. In case no commission
should be authorized by Congress in the spring of 1897, the
Executive Committee of the Convention was authorized to select
a commission of eleven members, "to make thorough
investigation of the monetary affairs and needs of this
country, in all relations and aspects, and to make appropriate
suggestions as to any evils found to exist, and the remedies
therefor."
Congress did not authorize the appointment of a monetary
commission; and the Executive Committee of the Convention
selected a commission of eleven members, which began its
sittings in Washington, September 22, 1897. … The Commission
was composed as follows: George F. Edmunds, Vermont, chairman;
George E. Leighton, Missouri, vice-chairman; T. G. Bush,
Alabama; W. B. Dean, Minnesota; Charles S. Fairchild, New
York; Stuyvesant Fish, New York; J. W. Fries, North Carolina;
Louis A. Garnett, California; J. Laurence Laughlin, Illinois;
C. Stuart Patterson, Pennsylvania; Robert S. Taylor, Indiana;
and L. Carron Root and H. Parker Willis, secretaries. Early in
January, 1898, the report of the Monetary Commission was
made public, and a second convention of delegates from the
boards of trade and other commercial organizations of leading
cities in the country was called together at Indianapolis,
January 20-26, to consider its recommendations. The measures
proposed by the Commission were approved by the convention,
and were submitted to Congress by a committee appointed to
urge their enactment in law. The Secretary of the Treasury,
Mr. Gage, had already, in his first annual report and in the
draft of a bill which he laid before the House committee on
banking and currency, made recommendations which accorded in
principle with those of the Commission, differing somewhat in
details. Both plans, with some proposals from other sources,
were now taken in hand by the House committee on banking and
currency, and a bill was prepared, which the committee
reported to the House on the 15th of June. But the other
branch of Congress, the Senate, had already declared itself in
a way which forbade any hope of success. By a vote of 47 to
32, that body had resolved, on the 28th of January, that "all
the bonds of the United States issued, or authorized to be
issued, under the said acts of Congress herein before recited,
are payable, principal and interest, at the option of the
government of the United States, in silver dollars, of the
coinage of the United States, containing 412½ grains each of
standard silver: and that to restore to its coinage such
silver coins as a legal tender in payment of said bonds,
principal and interest, is not in violation of the public
faith, nor in derogation of the rights of the public
creditor." The House, by 182 to 132, had rejected this
resolution; but the Senate action had demonstrated the evident
uselessness of attempting legislation in the interest of a
monetary reform. Accordingly the House bill, after being
reported and made public, for discussion outside, was
withdrawn by the committee, and the subject rested in
Congress, while agitation in the country went on.
{577}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897.
The Industrial Revolution.
"In 1865 the problem presented was this: The United States
could certainly excel any European nation in economic
competition, and possibly the whole Continent combined, if it
could utilize its resources. So much was admitted; the doubt
touched the capacity of the people to organize a system of
transportation and industry adequate to attain that end.
Failure meant certain bankruptcy. Unappalled by the magnitude
of the speculation, the American people took the risk. What
that risk was may be imagined when the fact is grasped that in
1865, with 35,000 miles of road already built, this people
entered on the construction of 160,000 miles more, at an
outlay, probably, in excess of $10,000,000,000. Such figures
convey no impression to the mind, any more than a statement of
the distance of a star. It may aid the imagination, perhaps,
to say that Mr. Giffen estimated the cost to France of the war
of 1870, including the indemnity and Alsace and Lorraine, at
less than $3,500,000,000, or about one-third of this
portentous mortgage on the future.
"As late as 1870 America remained relatively poor, for
America, so far as her export trade went, relied on
agriculture alone. To build her roads she had to borrow, and
she expected to pay dear; but she did not calculate on having
to pay twice the capital she borrowed, estimating that capital
in the only merchandise she had to sell. Yet this is very nearly
what occurred. Agricultural prices fell so rapidly that
between 1890 and 1897, when the sharpest pressure prevailed,
it took something like twice the weight of wheat or cotton to
repay a dollar borrowed in 1873, that would have sufficed to
satisfy the creditor when the debt was contracted. Merchandise
enough could not be shipped to meet the emergency, and
balances had to be paid in coin. The agony this people endured
may be measured by the sacrifice they made. At the moment of
severest contraction, in the single year 1893. the United
States parted with upwards of $87,000,000 of gold, when to
lose gold was like draining a living body of its blood. …
"What America owed abroad can never be computed; it is enough
that it reached an enormous sum, to refund which, even under
favorable circumstances, would have taken years of effort;
actually forced payment brought the nation to the brink of a
convulsion. Perhaps no people ever faced such an emergency and
paid, without recourse to war. America triumphed through her
inventive and administrative genius. Brought to a white heat
under compression, the industrial system of the Union suddenly
fused into a homogeneous mass. One day, without warning, the
gigantic mechanism operated, and two hemispheres vibrated with
the shock. In March, 1897, the vast consolidation of mines,
foundries, railroads, and steamship companies, centralized at
Pittsburg, began producing steel rails at $18 the ton, and at
a bound America bestrode the world. She had won her great
wager with fate. … The end seems only a question of time.
Europe is doomed not only to buy her raw material abroad, but
to pay the cost of transport. And Europe knew this
instinctively in March, 1897, and nerved herself for
resistance. Her best hope, next to a victorious war, lay in
imitating America, and in organizing a system of
transportation which would open up the East.
"Carnegie achieved the new industrial revolution in March,
1897. Within a twelvemonth the rival nations had emptied
themselves upon the shore of the Yellow Sea. In November
Germany seized Kiao-chau, a month later the Russians occupied
Port Arthur, and the following April the English appropriated
Wei-hai-wei; but the fact to remember is that just 400 miles
inland, due west of Kiao-chau, lies Tszechau, the centre,
according to Richthofen, of the richest coal and iron deposits
in existence. There with the rude methods used by the Chinese,
coal actually sells at 13 cents the ton. Thus it has come to
pass that the problem now being attacked by all the statesmen,
soldiers, scientific men, and engineers of the two eastern
continents is whether Russia, Germany, France, England, and
Japan, combined or separately, can ever bring these resources
on the market in competition with the United States."
B. Adams,
The New Industrial Revolution
(Atlantic Monthly, February, 1901).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (January-May).
Arbitration Treaty with Great Britain rejected by the Senate.
See, (in this volume),
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1896-1899.
The correspondence which took place between the governments of
the United States and Great Britain, on the subject of an
arbitration of the Venezuela Boundary dispute, having led to
the revival of a project for the negotiation of a general
treaty of arbitration, which the late American Secretary of
State, Mr. Gresham, had broached to the British government in
the spring of 1895, the terms of such an arrangement were
carefully and fully discussed between Secretary Olney and Lord
Salisbury, during the year 1896, and an agreement was reached
which took form in a solemn compact for the settlement by
arbitration of all matters in difference between the two
countries, signed at Washington on the 11th of January, 1897.
The treaty thus framed was as follows:
"ARTICLE I.
The High Contracting Parties agree to submit to Arbitration in
accordance with the provisions and subject to the limitations
of this Treaty all questions in difference between them which
they may fail to adjust by diplomatic negotiation.
"ARTICLE II.
All pecuniary claims or groups of pecuniary claims which do
not in the aggregate exceed £100,000 in amount, and which do
not involve the determination of territorial claims, shall be
dealt with and decided by an Arbitral Tribunal constituted as
provided in the next following Article. In this Article and in
Article IV the words 'groups of pecuniary claims' mean
pecuniary claims by one or more persons arising out of the
same transactions or involving the same issues of law and
fact.'
"ARTICLE III.
Each of the High Contracting Parties shall nominate one
arbitrator who shall be a jurist of repute and the two
arbitrators so nominated shall within two months of the date
of their nomination select an umpire. In case they shall fail
to do so within the limit of time above mentioned, the umpire
shall be appointed by agreement between the Members for the
time being of the Supreme Court of the United States and the
Members for the time being of the Judicial Committee of the
Privy Council in Great Britain, each nominating body acting by
a majority. In case they shall fail to agree upon an umpire
within three months of the date of an application made to them
in that behalf by the High Contracting Parties or either of
them, the umpire shall be selected in the manner provided for
in Article X. The person so selected shall be the President of
the Tribunal and the award of the majority of the Members
thereof shall be final.
{578}
"ARTICLE IV.
All pecuniary claims or groups of pecuniary claims which shall
exceed £100,000 in amount and all other matters in difference,
in respect of which either of the High Contracting Parties
shall have rights against the other under Treaty or otherwise,
provided that such matters in difference do not involve the
determination of territorial claims, shall be dealt with and
decided by an Arbitral Tribunal, constituted as provided in
the next following Article.
"ARTICLE V.
Any subject of Arbitration described in Article IV shall be
submitted to the Tribunal provided for by Article III, the
award of which Tribunal, if unanimous, shall be final. If not
unanimous either of the High Contracting Parties may within
six months from the date of the award demand a review thereof.
In such case the matter in controversy shall be submitted to
an Arbitral Tribunal consisting of five jurists of repute, no
one of whom shall have been a member of the Tribunal whose
award is to be reviewed and who shall be selected as follows,
viz:—two by each of the High Contracting Parties, and one, to
act as umpire, by the four thus nominated and to be chosen
within three months after the date of their nomination. In
case they shall fail to choose an umpire within the limit of
time above-mentioned, the umpire shall be appointed by
agreement between the Nominating Bodies designated in Article
III acting in the manner therein provided. In case they shall
fail to agree upon an umpire within three months of the date
of an application made to them in that behalf by the High
Contracting Parties or either of them, the umpire shall be
selected in the manner provided for in Article X. The person
so selected shall be the President of the Tribunal and the
award of the majority of the Members thereof shall be final.
"ARTICLE VI.
Any controversy which shall involve the determination of
territorial claims shall be submitted to a Tribunal composed
of six members, three of whom (subject to the provisions of
Article VIII) shall be Judges of the Supreme Court of the
United States or Justices of the Circuit Courts to be
nominated by the President of the United States, and the other
three of whom (subject to the provisions of Article VIII)
shall be Judges of the British Supreme Court of Judicature or
Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council to be
nominated by Her Britannic Majesty, whose award by a majority
of not less than five to one shall be final. In case of an
award made by less than the prescribed majority, the award
shall also be final unless either Power shall, within three
months after the award has been reported, protest that the
same is erroneous, in which case the award shall be of no
validity. In the event of an award made by less than the
prescribed majority and protested as above provided, or if the
members of the Arbitral Tribunal shall be equally divided,
there shall be no recourse to hostile measures of any
description until the mediation of one or more friendly Powers
has been invited by one or both of the High Contracting
Parties.
"ARTICLE VII.
Objections to the jurisdiction of an Arbitral Tribunal
constituted under this Treaty shall not be taken except as
provided in this Article. If before the close of the hearing
upon a claim submitted to an Arbitral Tribunal constituted
under Article III or Article V either of the High Contracting
Parties shall move such Tribunal to decide, and thereupon it
shall decide that the determination of such claim necessarily
involves the decision of a disputed question of principle of
grave general importance affecting the national rights of such
party as distinguished from the private rights whereof it is
merely the international representative, the jurisdiction of
such Arbitral Tribunal over such claim shall cease and the
same shall be dealt with by arbitration under Article VI.
"ARTICLE VIII.
In cases where the question involved is one which concerns a
particular State or Territory of the United States, it shall
be open to the President of the United States to appoint a
judicial officer of such State or Territory to be one of the
Arbitrators under Article III or Article V or Article VI. In
like manner in cases where the question involved is one which
concerns a British Colony or possession, it shall be open to
Her Britannic Majesty to appoint a judicial officer of such
Colony or possession to be one of the Arbitrators under
Article III or Article V or Article VI.
"ARTICLE IX.
Territorial claims in this Treaty shall include all claims to
territory and all claims involving questions of servitudes,
rights of navigation and of access, fisheries and all rights
and interests necessary to the control and enjoyment of the
territory claimed by either of the High Contracting Parties.
"ARTICLE X.
If in any case the nominating bodies designated in Articles
III and V shall fail to agree upon an Umpire in accordance
with the provisions of the said Articles, the Umpire shall be
appointed by His Majesty the King of Sweden and Norway. Either
of the High Contracting Parties, however, may at any time give
notice to the other that, by reason of material changes in
conditions as existing at the date of this Treaty, it is of
opinion that a substitute for His Majesty should be chosen
either for all cases to arise under the Treaty or for a
particular specified case already arisen, and thereupon the
High Contracting Parties shall at once proceed to agree upon
such substitute to act either in all cases to arise under the
Treaty or in the particular case specified as may be indicated
by said notice; provided, however, that such notice shall have
no effect upon an Arbitration already begun by the constitution
of an Arbitral Tribunal under Article III. The High
Contracting Parties shall also at once proceed to nominate a
substitute for His Majesty in the event that His Majesty shall
at any time notify them of his desire to be relieved from the
functions graciously accepted by him under this Treaty either
for all cases to arise thereunder or for any particular
specified case already arisen.
"ARTICLE XI.
In case of the death, absence or incapacity to serve of any
Arbitrator or Umpire, or in the event of any Arbitrator or
Umpire omitting or declining or ceasing to act as such,
another Arbitrator or Umpire shall be forthwith appointed in
his place and stead in the manner provided for with regard to
the original appointment.
{579}
"ARTICLE XII.
Each Government shall pay its own agent and provide for the
proper remuneration of the counsel employed by it and of the
Arbitrators appointed by it and for the expense of preparing
and submitting its case to the Arbitral Tribunal. All other
expenses connected with any Arbitration shall be defrayed by
the two Governments in equal moieties. Provided, however,
that, if in any case the essential matter of difference
submitted to arbitration is the right of one of the High
Contracting Parties to receive disavowals of or apologies for
acts or defaults of the other not resulting in substantial
pecuniary injury, the Arbitral Tribunal finally disposing of
the said matter shall direct whether any of the expenses of
the successful party shall be borne by the unsuccessful party,
and if so to what extent.
"ARTICLE XIII.
The time and place of meeting of an Arbitral Tribunal and all
arrangements for the hearing and all questions of procedure
shall be decided by the Tribunal itself. Each Arbitral
Tribunal shall keep a correct record of its proceedings and
may appoint and employ all necessary officers and agents. The
decision of the Tribunal shall, if possible, be made within
three months from the close of the arguments on both sides. It
shall be made in writing and dated and shall be signed by the
Arbitrators who may assent to it. The decision shall be in
duplicate, one copy whereof shall be delivered to each of the
High Contracting Parties through their respective agents.
"ARTICLE XIV.
This Treaty shall remain in force for five years from the date
at which it shall come into operation, and further until the
expiration of twelve months after either of the High
Contracting Parties shall have given notice to the other of
its wish to terminate the same.
"ARTICLE XV.
The present Treaty shall be duly ratified by the President of
the United States of America, by and with the advice and
consent of the Senate thereof, and by Her Britannic Majesty;
and the mutual exchange of ratifications shall take place in
Washington or in London within six months of the date hereof
or earlier if possible."
United States, 54th Congress, 2d Session,
Senate Document Number 63.
Public feeling in both countries gave joyful welcome to this
nobly conceived treaty when it was announced. All that was
best in English sentiment and American sentiment had been
shuddering at the thought of possible war between the kindred
peoples, and thanked God for what promised some certitude that
no dispute would be pushed to that barbarous appeal. Only the
mean thought and temper of either country was provoked to
opposition; but, unhappily, the meaner temper and the narrower
and more ignorant opinion on one side of the sea had been
getting so strong a representation in the United States Senate
as to prove capable of much mischief there, on this and other
matters of most serious public concern. When the great
covenant of peace went to that body for approval, there were
senators who found it offensive to them because it came from
the hands of President Cleveland and Secretary Olney; and
there were other senators whose dignity was hurt by the eager
impatience with which the public voice cried out for their
ratifying vote; and still others there were who looked with
official jealousy at the project of an arbitral tribunal which
might sometimes take something from senatorial functions in
foreign affairs. And the combination of pitiful motives had
strength enough to baffle the high hopes and defeat the will
of the American people.
Of the public feeling thus outraged, the following is one
expression of the time, among many which it would be possible
to quote:
Many people "are represented by influential papers like the
St. Paul 'Pioneer Press' and the Minneapolis 'Journal,' the
latter declaring that it is humiliating to think that, widely
as the treaty is favored throughout the country, a few
ill-natured men in the Senate have the power to delay
ratification. In the Central West the feeling is generally
strong for arbitration, if we may judge from the Chicago
'Times-Herald,' the St. Louis 'Republic,' the Indianapolis
'Journal,' and the Cleveland 'Leader.' In the South there are
such cheering reports as this from the Memphis 'Scimetar'; 'If
the treaty now under consideration in the Senate Committee on
Foreign Relations should fail of ratification, public opinion
in this country would demand that the incoming Administration
provide another embodying the same vital principle.' In the
East the sentiment in favor of immediate ratification of the
original draft has been almost universal, the only two
journals of note differing from this being the New York 'Sun'
and the Washington 'Post.' The trend of opinion is shown in
the adoption by the Massachusetts House of Representatives of
an endorsement by a vote of 141 to 11. An important meeting
took place last week in Washington in favor of ratification.
The speakers were ex-Secretary of State Foster, Mr. G. G.
Hubbard, Professor B. L. Whitman, ex-Senator J. B. Henderson,
ex-Governor Stanard, and Justice Brewer, of the Supreme Court.
The last named said; 'I do not believe in saying to the
gentlemen charged with the duty of considering carefully that
treaty, that "you must vote for it." There is something in my
own nature which, when anybody says to me "you must," causes
something to run up my spinal column which says "I won't." It
is the Senate's duty to consider that treaty carefully, and
when I say that, I say it is no trespass upon their rights for
American citizens to express their views of that treaty. What are
the errors and losses incidental to arbitration compared to
the horrors of war? What are a few million dollars of wrongful
damages in comparison to the sacrifice of thousands of human
lives?'"
The Outlook, February 6, 1897.
"This treaty was greeted with widespread favor in the press,
but was antagonized at once in the Senate by the jingo element
and by the personal adversaries of the administration. The
committee on foreign relations reported the draft favorably,
but with certain amendments, on February 1. The ensuing debate
soon revealed that a vote on ratification could not be
obtained before March 4, and the whole matter was dropped. At
the opening of the new Congress the Senate Committee again
considered the treaty and reported it, with amendments, on
March 18. During two weeks' discussion the Senate adopted the
committee's amendments and also others, with the result that
the draft was radically transformed.
{580}
Instead of the general reference of all disputes to the
tribunals, it was provided that any difference 'which, in the
judgment of either power, materially affects its honor or its
domestic or foreign policy,' should be submitted to
arbitration only by special agreement; that no question should
be submitted save with the consent of the Senate in its
treaty-making capacity; and that no claim of a British subject
against a state or territory of the United States should be
submitted under any circumstances. The first of these changes
was due mainly to the objection that without it the Monroe
Doctrine might be subjected to arbitration; the second to the
sensitiveness of senators as to their constitutional functions
in foreign relations; and the third to a desire to protect
states against claims on their defaulted bonds. Other changes
modified materially the method of appointing the arbitrators
for the United States, and struck out entirely the designation
of the King of Sweden as umpire. Even with these amendments,
the opposition to the treaty was not overcome; and the final
vote on ratification, taken May 5, resulted in its rejection,
the vote standing 43 to 26, less than two-thirds in the
affirmative. Thirty Republicans and 13 Democrats voted for the
treaty; 8 Republicans, 12 Democrats and 6 Populists against
it."
Political Science Quarterly,
June, 1897.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (March).
Inauguration of President McKinley.
Leading topics of the inaugural address.
The President's Cabinet.
The inauguration of President McKinley was performed with the
customary ceremonies on the 4th of March. In his inaugural
address, the new President laid somewhat less emphasis than
might have been expected on the need of measures for reforming
the monetary system of the country, but strongly urged that
instant steps be taken to increase the revenues of the
government by a return to higher tariff charges. "With
adequate revenue secured," he argued, "but not until then, we
can enter upon such changes in our fiscal laws as will, while
insuring safety and volume to our money, no longer impose upon
the government the necessity of maintaining so large a gold
reserve, with its attendant and inevitable temptations to
speculation. Most of our financial laws are the outgrowth of
experience and trial, and should not be amended without
investigation and demonstration of the wisdom of the proposed
changes. We must be both 'sure we are right' and 'make haste
slowly.' …
"The question of international bimetallism will have early and
earnest attention. It will be my constant endeavor to secure
it by cooperation with the other great commercial powers of
the world. Until that condition is realized, when the parity
between our gold and silver money springs from and is
supported by the relative value of the two metals, the value
of the silver already coined, and of that which may hereafter
be coined, must be kept constantly at par with gold by every
resource at our command. The credit of the government, the
integrity of its currency, and the inviolability of its
obligations must be preserved. This was the commanding verdict
of the people, and it will not be unheeded.
"Economy is demanded in every branch of the government at all
times, but especially in periods like the present of
depression in business and distress among the people. The
severest economy must be observed in all public expenditures,
and extravagance stopped wherever it is found, and prevented
wherever in the future it may be developed. If the revenues
are to remain as now, the only relief that can come must be
from decreased expenditures. But the present must not become
the permanent condition of the government. It has been our
uniform practice to retire, not increase, our outstanding
obligations; and this policy must again be resumed and
vigorously enforced. Our revenues should always be large
enough to meet with ease and promptness not only our current
needs and the principal and interest of the public debt, but
to make proper and liberal provision for that most deserving
body of public creditors, the soldiers and sailors and the
widows and orphans who are the pensioners of the United
States. …
"A deficiency is inevitable so long as the expenditures of the
government exceed its receipts. It can only be met by loans or
an increased revenue. While a large annual surplus of revenue
may invite waste and extravagance, inadequate revenue creates
distrust and undermines public and private credit. Neither
should be encouraged. Between more loans and more revenue
there ought to be but one opinion. We should have more
revenue, and that without delay, hindrance, or postponement. A
surplus in the treasury created by loans is not a permanent or
safe reliance. It will suffice while it lasts, but it cannot
last long while the outlays of the government are greater than
its receipts, as has been the case during the last two years.
… The best way for the government to maintain its credit is to
pay as it goes—not by resorting to loans, but by keeping out
of debt—through an adequate income secured by a system of
taxation, external, or internal, or both. It is the settled
policy of the government, pursued from the beginning and
practiced by all parties and administrations, to raise the
bulk of our revenue from taxes upon foreign productions
entering the United States for sale and consumption, and
avoiding, for the most part, every form of direct taxation
except in time of war.
"The country is clearly opposed to any needless additions to
the subjects of internal taxation, and is committed by its
latest popular utterance to the system of tariff taxation.
There can be no misunderstanding either about the principle
upon which this tariff taxation shall be levied. Nothing has
ever been made plainer at a general election than that the
controlling principle in the raising of revenue from duties on
imports is zealous care for American interests and American
labor. The people have declared that such legislation should
be had as will give ample protection and encouragement to the
industries and the development of our country. … The paramount
duty of congress is to stop deficiencies by the restoration of
that protective legislation which has always been the firmest
prop of the treasury. The passage of such a law or laws would
strengthen the credit of the government both at home and
abroad, and go far toward stopping the drain upon the gold
reserve held for the redemption of our currency, which has
been heavy and well-nigh constant for several years. In the
revision of the tariff, especial attention should be given to
the re-enactment and extension of the reciprocity principle of
the law of 1890, under which so great a stimulus was given to
our foreign trade in new and advantageous markets for our
surplus agricultural and manufactured products."
{581}
Without effect, the incoming President urged the ratification
of the treaty of arbitration with Great Britain, negotiated by
his predecessor and still pending in the Senate. In concluding
his address he announced his intention to convene Congress in
extra session, saying: "The condition of the public treasury
demands the immediate consideration of congress. It alone has
the power to provide revenue for the government. Not to
convene it under such circumstances, I can view in no other
sense than the neglect of a plain duty."
On the day following his inauguration, the President sent to
the Senate the following nominations for his Cabinet, which
were confirmed:
Secretary of State, John Sherman of Ohio;
Secretary of the Treasury, Lyman J. Gage of Illinois;
Secretary of War, Russel A. Alger of Michigan;
Attorney-General, Joseph McKenna of California;
Postmaster-General, James A. Gary of Maryland;
Secretary of the Navy, John D. Long of Massachusetts;
Secretary of the Interior, Cornelius N. Bliss of New York;
Secretary of Agriculture, James Wilson of Iowa.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (March-July).
Passage of the Dingley Tariff Act.
Carrying out an intention announced in his Inaugural Address,
President McKinley called Congress together in extra session
on the 15th of March, asking for immediate action to increase
the revenue of the government by increased duties, "so levied
upon foreign products as to preserve the home market, so far
as possible, to our own producers." In his Inaugural Address
the President had expressed the understanding of his party as
to the chief meaning of the late election, by saying that "the
country is … committed by its latest popular utterance to the
system of tariff taxation. … The people have declared that
such legislation should be had as will give ample protection
and encouragement to the industries and development of our
country. … The paramount duty of Congress is to stop
deficiencies by the restoration of that protective legislation
which has always been the firmest prop of the treasury." To
the majority in both Houses of Congress these views were
entirely acceptable, and they were acted upon at once. The
Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives in
the previous Congress had already prepared a comprehensive new
tariff bill, which it passed on to its successor. This
ready-made bill was reported to the House on the first day of
the session, by Mr. Dingley, chairman of the newly appointed
committee, as he had been of the one before it. Debate on the
measure began a week later, and was controlled by a fixed
programme, which required it to be ended on the 31st of March.
The bill was then passed, by a vote of 205 against 121. Of the
action of the Senate upon it, and of the main features of the
bill as it was finally shaped and became law, the following is
a succinct account:
"The bill, referred at once to the Senate Committee on
Finance, was reported after a month, on May 8, with important
amendments. There was an attempt to impose some purely revenue
duties, and, as to the protective duties, the tendency was
towards lower rates than in the House bill, though on certain
articles, such as wools of low grade, hides, and others (of
which more will be said presently), the drift was the other
way. The Senate, however, paid much less respect than the
House to the recommendations of the committee in charge. In
the course of two months, from May 4 to July 7, it went over
the tariff bill item by item, amending without restraint,
often in a perfunctory manner, and not infrequently with the
outcome settled by the accident of attendance on the
particular day; on the whole, with a tendency to retain the
higher rates of the House bill. As passed finally by the
Senate on July 7, the bill, though it contained some 872
amendments, followed the plan of the House Committee rather
than that of the Senate Committee. As usual, it went to a
Conference Committee. In the various compromises and
adjustments in the Senate and in the Conference Committee
there was little sign of the deliberate plan and method which
the House had shown, and the details of the act were settled
in no less haphazard fashion than has been the case with other
tariff measures. As patched up by the Conference Committee,
the bill was promptly passed by both branches of Congress, and
became law on July 24. In what manner these political
conditions affected the character of the act will appear from
a consideration of the more important specific changes.
"First and foremost was the reimposition of the duties on
wool. As the repeal of these duties had been the one important
change made by the act of 1894, so their restoration was the
salient feature in the act of 1897. … Clothing wool was
subjected once more to a duty of 11 cents a pound, combing
wool to one of 12 cents. On carpet wool there were new graded
duties, heavier than any ever before levied. If its value was
12 cents a pound or less the duty was 4 cents; if over 12
cents, the duty was 7 cents. … The duties on carpet wool, as
has already been noted, were made higher than ever before. In
the House the rates of the act of 1890 had been retained; but
in the Senate new and higher rates were inserted. … They were
demanded by the Senators from some States in the Far West,
especially from Idaho and Montana. … They [the Senators in
question] needed to be placated and they succeeded in getting
higher duties on the cheap carpet wools, on the plea of
encouragement for the comparatively coarse clothing wool of
their ranches. … The same complications that led to the high
duty on carpet wool brought about a duty on hides. This rawest
of raw materials had been on the free list for just a quarter
of a century, since 1872, when the duty of the war days had
been repealed. … But here, again, the Senators from the
ranching States were able to dictate terms. … In the Senate a
duty of 20 per cent. was tacked on. The rate was reduced to 15
per cent. in the Conference Committee, and so remains in the
act. The restored duties on wool necessarily brought in their
train the old system of high compensating duties on woollens.
… In the main, the result was a restoration of the rates of
the act of 1890. There was some upward movement almost all
along the line; and the ad valorem duty alone, on the classes
of fabrics which are most largely imported, crept up to 55 per
cent. …
{582}
"On cotton goods the general tendency was to impose duties
lower than those of 1890. This was indicated by the drag-net
rate, on manufactures of cotton not otherwise provided for,
which had been 50 per cent. in 1890, and was 45 per cent. in
1897. On two large classes of textile goods new and distinctly
higher duties were imposed,—on silks and linens. … The mode of
gradation was to levy the duties according to the amount of
pure silk contained in the goods. The duties were fixed by the
pound, being lowest all goods containing a small proportion of
pure silk, and rising as that proportion became larger; with
the proviso that in no case should the duty be less than 50
per cent. … Thus, the duty on certain kinds of silks was $1.30
cents per pound, if they contained 45 per cent in weight of
silk; but advanced suddenly to $2.25, if they contained more
than 45 per cent. … On linens another step of the same kind
was taken, specific duties being substituted here also for
ad-valorem. … Linens were graded somewhat as cottons had been
graded since 1861, according to the fineness of the goods as
indicated by the number of threads to the square inch. If the
number of threads was 60 or less per square inch, the duty was
1¾ cents a square yard; if the threads were between 60 and
120, the duty was 2¾ cents; and so on,—plus 30 per cent.
ad-valorem duty in all cases. But finer linen goods, unless
otherwise specially provided for, were treated leniently. If
the weight was small (less than 4½ ounces per yard), the duty
was but 35 per cent. On the other hand, linen laces, or
articles trimmed with lace or embroidery, were dutiable at 60
percent.,—an advance at 10 per cent. over the rate of 1890. …
It was inevitable, under the political conditions of the
session, that in this schedule something should again be
attempted for the farmer; and, accordingly, we find a
substantial duty on flax. The rate of the act of 1890 was
restored,—3 cents a pound on prepared flax, in place of the
rate of 1½ cents imposed by the act of 1894. …
"On chinaware the rates of 1890 were restored. The duty on the
finer qualities which are chiefly imported had been lowered to
35 per cent. in 1894, and was now once more put at 60 per
cent. On glassware, also, the general ad-valorem rate, which
had been reduced to 35 per cent. in 1894, was again fixed at
45 per cent., as in 1890. Similarly the specific duties on the
cheaper grades of window-glass and plate-glass, which had been
lowered in 1894, were raised to the figures of 1890. … The metal
schedules in the act of 1897 showed in the main a striking
contrast with the textile schedules. Important advances of
duty were made on many textiles, and in some cases rates went
considerably higher even than those of 1890. But on most
metals, and especially on iron and steel, duties were left
very much as they had been in 1894. … On steel rails there was
even a slight reduction from the rate of 1894—$6.72 per ton
instead of $7.84. On coal there was a compromise rate. The
duty had been 75 cents a ton in 1890, and 40 cents in 1894; it
was now fixed at 67 cents. On the other hand, as to certain
manufactures of iron and steel farther advanced beyond the
crude stage, there was a return to rates very similar to those
of 1890. Thus, on pocket cutlery, razors, guns, we find once
more the system of combined ad-valorem and specific duties,
graded according to the value of the article. … Copper
remained on the free list, where it had been put in 1894. …
For good or ill the copper duty had worked out all its effects
years before. On the other hand, the duties on lead and on
lead ore went up to the point at which they stood in 1890.
Here we have once more the signs of concession to the silver
Republicans of the far West. … The duty on tin plate, a bone
of contention under the act of 1890, was disposed of, with
little debate, by the imposition of a comparatively moderate
duty. …
"A part of the act which aroused much public attention and
which had an important bearing on its financial yield was the
sugar schedule—the duties on sugar, raw and refined. … The act
of 1890 had admitted raw sugar free, while that of 1894 had
imposed a duty of 40 per cent. ad valorem. … The price of raw
sugar had maintained its downward tendency; and the duty of 40
per cent. had been equivalent in 1896 to less than one cent a
pound. In the act of 1897 the duty was made specific, and was
practically doubled. Beginning with a rate of one cent a pound
on sugar tested to contain 75 per cent., it advanced by stages
until on sugar testing 95 per cent. (the usual content of
commercial raw sugar) it reached 1.65 cents per pound. The
higher rate thus imposed was certain to yield a considerable
increase of revenue. Much was said also of the protection now
afforded to the beet sugar industry of the West. That
industry, however, was still of small dimensions and uncertain
future. … On refined sugar, the duty was made 1.95 cents per
pound, which, as compared with raw sugar testing 100 per
cent., left a protection for the domestic refiner,—i. e., for
the Sugar 'Trust,'—of 1/8 of one cent a pound. Some intricate
calculation would be necessary to make out whether this
'differential' for the refining interest was more or less than
in the act of 1894; but, having regard to the effect of the
substitution of specific for ad-valorem duties, the Trust was
no more favored by the act of 1897 than by its predecessor,
and even somewhat less favored. The changes which this part of
the tariff act underwent in the two Houses are not without
significance." In the bill passed by the House. "the so-called
differential, or protection to the refiners, was one-eighth of
a cent per pound. In the Senate there was an attempt at
serious amendment. The influence of the Sugar Trust in the
Senate had long been great. How secured, whether through party
contributions, entangling alliances, or coarse bribery, the
public could not know; but certainly great, as the course of
legislation in that body demonstrated." The Senate attempted
to make an entire change in the scheme of sugar duties, which
would give the Trust a fifth of a cent per pound of protective
differential, instead of an eighth; but the House resisted,
with more success than in 1894, and the senatorial friends of
the Sugar Trust had to give way.
See, also (in this volume),
TRUSTS: UNITED STATES;
and SUGAR BOUNTIES.
"The tariff act of 1894 had repealed the provisions as to
reciprocity in the act of 1890, and had rendered nugatory such
parts of the treaties made under the earlier act as were
inconsistent with the provisions of its successor. The act of
1897 now revived the policy of reciprocity, and in some ways
even endeavored to enlarge the scope of the reciprocity
provisions"
See below: A. D. 1899-1901.
F. W. Taussig,
Tariff History of the United States,
4th edition, chapter 7 (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (April-October).
Negotiations for an international bi-metallic agreement.
See (in this volume)
MONETARY QUESTIONS: A. D 1897 (APRIL-OCTOBER).
{583}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (June).
Appointment of the Nicaragua Canal Commission.
See (in this volume)
CANAL, INTEROCEANIC: A. D. 1889-1899.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (November).
Refusal to negotiate with the insurgent republic of the
Philippine Islands.
On the 3d of November, 1897, Mr. Rounseville Wildman, the U.
S. Consul at Hongkong, addressed the following to the State
Department: "Since my arrival in Hongkong I have been called
upon several times by Mr. F. Agoncilla, foreign agent and high
commissioner, etc., of the new republic of the Philippines.
Mr. Agoncilla holds a commission, signed by the president,
members of cabinet, and general in chief of the republic of
Philippines, empowering him absolutely with power to conclude
treaties with foreign governments. Mr. Agoncilla offers on
behalf of his government alliance offensive and defensive with
the United States when the United States declares war on
Spain, which, in Mr. Agoncilla's judgment, will be very soon.
In the meantime he wishes the United States to send to some
port in the Philippines 20,000 stand of arms and 200,000
rounds of ammunition for the use of his government, to be paid
for on the recognition of his government by the United States.
He pledges as security two provinces and the custom-house at
Manila. He is not particular about the price—is willing the
United States should make 25 per cent or 30 per cent profit.
He is a very earnest and attentive diplomat and a great
admirer of the United States. On his last visit he surprised
me with the information that he had written his government
that he had hopes of inducing the United States to supply the
much-needed guns, etc. In case Señor Agoncilla's dispatch
should fall into the hands of an unfriendly power and find its
way into the newspapers, I have thought it wise to apprise the
State Department of the nature of the high commissioner's
proposals. Señor Agoncilla informs me by late mail that he
will proceed at once to Washington to conclude the proposed
treaty, if I advise. I shall not advise said step until so
instructed by the State Department."
To this communication, the Third Assistant Secretary of State,
Mr. Cridler, returned the following reply, December 15, 1897:
"I have to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch Number 19
of November 3, 1897, in which you announce the arrival at your
post of Mr. F. Agoncilla, whom you describe as foreign agent
and high commissioner of the new republic of the Philippines,
and who holds full power to negotiate and conclude treaties
with foreign powers. Mr. Agoncilla offers an alliance
'offensive and defensive with the United States when the
United States declares war on Spain, which, in Mr. Agoncilla's
judgment, will be very soon,' and suggests that 20,000 stand
of arms and 200,000 rounds of ammunition be supplied to his
government by that of the United States. You may briefly
advise Mr. Agoncilla, in case he should call upon you, that
the Government of the United States does not negotiate such
treaties and that it is not possible to forward the desired
arms and ammunition. You should not encourage any advances on
the part of Mr. Agoncilla, and should courteously decline to
communicate with the Department further regarding his alleged
mission."
Treaty of Peace and Accompanying Papers
(55th Congress, 3d Session, Senate Document
Number 62, part 1, pages 333,334).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (November).
Treaty with Russia and Japan to suspend pelagic sealing.
See (in this volume)
BERING SEA QUESTIONS.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (December).
President McKinley on Cuban affairs.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (December).
Stringent measures against pelagic sealing.
See (in this volume)
BERING SEA QUESTIONS.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897-1898 (December-March).
Reports from Cuba of the suffering condition of
the "reconcentrados."
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1897-1898 (DECEMBER-MARCH).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897-1899.
Agreements with the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Cherokee,
and Seminole tribes of Indians.
Work of the Dawes Commission.
See (in this volume)
INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1893-1899.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897-1900.
Treaty for the annexation of Hawaii.
Its failure of ratification.
Passage of joint resolution to annex, and of an Act
for the government of the islands.
See (in this volume)
HAWAII.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (February-March).
American sympathy with the Cubans and indignation
against Spain.
Destruction of the United States battle-ship "Maine"
in Havana harbor.
Investigation and findings of the American and
Spanish courts of inquiry.
Public feeling in the United States, excited by a terrible
state of suffering in Cuba, resulting from Spanish methods of
dealing with insurrection in that island, had been gathering
intensity for months past, and threatening a rupture of
peaceful relations between the United States and Spain.
See (in this volume),
CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897 and 1897-1898)
A sudden crisis in the situation was produced, on the morning
of the 15th of February, 1898, by news that the United States
battle-ship "Maine," while paying a visit of courtesy to the
harbor of Havana, had been totally destroyed, on the previous
evening, by an explosion which killed most of her crew. In a
subsequent message on the subject to Congress, President
McKinley recited the circumstances of the catastrophe, and the
proceedings adopted to ascertain its cause, with the
conclusions reached, in the following words: "For some time
prior to the visit of the 'Maine' to Havana Harbor our
consular representatives pointed out the advantages to flow
from the visit of national ships to the Cuban waters, in
accustoming the people to the presence of our flag as the
symbol of good will and of our ships in the fulfillment of the
mission of protection to American interests, even though no
immediate need therefor might exist. Accordingly on the 24th
of January last, after conference with the Spanish minister;
in which the renewal of visits of our war vessels to Spanish
waters was discussed and accepted, the peninsular authorities
at Madrid and Havana were advised of the purpose of this
Government to resume friendly naval visits at Cuban ports, and
that in that view the 'Maine' would forthwith call at the port
of Havana. This announcement was received by the Spanish
Government with appreciation of the friendly character of the
visit of the 'Maine,' and with notification of intention to
return the courtesy by sending Spanish ships to the principal
ports of the United States. Meanwhile the 'Maine' entered the
port of Havana on the 25th of January, her arrival being
marked with no special incident besides the exchange of
customary salutes and ceremonial visits.
{584}
"The 'Maine' continued in the harbor of Havana during the
three weeks following her arrival. No appreciable excitement
attended her stay; on the contrary, a feeling of relief and
confidence followed the resumption of the long-interrupted
friendly intercourse. So noticeable was this immediate effect
of her visit that the consul-general strongly urged that the
presence of our ships in Cuban waters should be kept up by
retaining the 'Maine' at Havana, or, in the event of her
recall, by sending another vessel there to take her place. At
forty minutes past 9 in the evening of the 15th of February
the 'Maine' was destroyed by an explosion, by which the entire
forward part of the ship was utterly wrecked. In this
catastrophe 2 officers and 264 of her crew perished, those who
were not killed outright by her explosion being penned between
decks by the tangle of wreckage and drowned by the immediate
sinking of the hull. Prompt assistance was rendered by the
neighboring vessels anchored in the harbor, aid being
especially given by the boats of the Spanish cruiser 'Alfonso
XII' and the Ward Line steamer 'City of Washington,' which lay
not far distant. The wounded were generously cared for by the
authorities of Havana, the hospitals being freely opened to
them, while the earliest recovered bodies of the dead were
interred by the municipality in a public cemetery in the city.
Tributes of grief and sympathy were offered from all official
quarters of the island.
"The appalling calamity fell upon the people of our country
with crushing force, and for a brief time an intense
excitement prevailed, which in a community less just and
self-controlled than ours might have led to hasty acts of
blind resentment. This spirit, however, soon gave way to the
calmer processes of reason and to the resolve to investigate
the facts and await material proof before forming a judgment
as to the cause, the responsibility, and, if the facts
warranted, the remedy due. This course necessarily recommended
itself from the outset to the Executive, for only in the light
of a dispassionately ascertained certainty could it determine
the nature and measure of its full duty in the matter. The
usual procedure was followed, as in all cases of casualty or
disaster to national vessels of any maritime State. A naval
court of inquiry was at once organized, composed of officers
well qualified by rank and practical experience to discharge
the onerous duty imposed upon them. Aided by a strong force of
wreckers and divers, the court proceeded to make a thorough
investigation on the spot, employing every available means for
the impartial and exact determination of the causes of the
explosion. Its operations have been conducted with the utmost
deliberation and judgment, and while independently pursued no
attainable source of information was neglected, and the
fullest opportunity was allowed for a simultaneous
investigation by the Spanish authorities. The finding of the
court of inquiry was reached, after twenty-three days of
continuous labor, on the 21st of March, instant, and, having
been approved on the 22d by the commander in chief of the
United States naval force on the North Atlantic Station, was
transmitted to the Executive. It is herewith laid before the
Congress, together with the voluminous testimony taken before
the court. Its purport is, in brief, as follows:
"When the 'Maine' arrived at Havana she was conducted by the
regular Government pilot to buoy Number 4, to which she was
moored in from 5½ to 6 fathoms of water. The state of
discipline on board and the condition of her magazines,
boilers, coal bunkers, and storage compartments are passed in
review, with the conclusion that excellent order prevailed and
that no indication of any cause for an internal explosion
existed in any quarter. At 8 o'clock in the evening of
February 15 everything had been reported secure, and all was
quiet. At forty minutes past 9 o'clock the vessel was suddenly
destroyed. There were two distinct explosions, with a brief
interval between them. The first lifted the forward part of
the ship very perceptibly. The second, which was more open,
prolonged, and of greater volume, is attributed by the court
to the partial explosion of two or more of the forward
magazines. The evidence of the divers establishes that the
after part of the ship was practically intact and sank in that
condition a very few moments after the explosion. The forward
part was completely demolished. Upon the evidence of a
concurrent external cause the finding of the court is as
follows:
"'At frame 17 the outer shell of the ship, from a point of 11½
feet from the middle line of the ship and 6 feet above the
keel when in its normal position, has been forced up so as to
be now about 4 feet above the surface of the water, therefore
about 34 feet above where it would be had the ship sunk
uninjured. The outside bottom plating is bent into a reversed
V shape (˄), the after wing of which, about 15 feet broad and
32 feet in length (from frame 17 to frame 25), is doubled back
upon itself against the continuation of the same plating,
extending forward. At frame 18 the vertical keel is broken
in two and the flat keel bent into an angle similar to the
angle formed by the outside bottom plates. This break is now
about 6 feet below the surface of the water and about 30 feet
above its normal position. In the opinion of the court this
effect could have been produced only by the explosion of a
mine situated under the bottom of the ship at about frame 18
and somewhat on the port side of the ship.'
"The conclusions of the court are: That the loss of the
'Maine' was not in any respect due to fault or negligence on
the part of any of the officers or members of her crew; That
the ship was destroyed by the explosion of a submarine mine,
which caused the partial explosion of two or more of her
forward magazines; and That no evidence has been obtainable
fixing the responsibility for the destruction of the 'Maine'
upon any person or persons.
"I have directed that the finding of the court of inquiry and
the views of this Government thereon be communicated to the
Government of Her Majesty the Queen Regent, and I do not
permit myself to doubt that the sense of justice of the
Spanish nation will dictate a course of action suggested by
honor and the friendly relations of the two Governments. It
will be the duty of the Executive to advise the Congress of
the result, and in the meantime deliberate consideration is
invoked."
Congressional Record, March 28, 1898.
{585}
A Spanish naval board of inquiry, convened by the maritime
authority at Havana, and investigating the matter with haste,
arrived at a conclusion quite opposite to that stated above,
reporting on the 22d of March that "an explosion of the first
order, in the forward magazine of the American ironclad
'Maine,' caused the destruction of that part of the ship and
its total submersion in the same place in this bay at which it
was anchored. … That the important facts connected with the
explosion in its external appearances at every moment of its
duration having been described by witnesses, and the absence
of all circumstances which necessarily accompany the explosion
of a torpedo having been proved by these witnesses and
experts, it can only be honestly asserted that the catastrophe
was due to internal causes. … That the character of the
proceedings undertaken and respect for the law which
establishes the absolute extra-territoriality of a foreign war
vessel have prevented the determination, even by conjecture,
of the said internal origin of the disaster, to which also the
impossibility of establishing the necessary communication
either with the crew of the wrecked vessel or the officials of
their Government commissioned to investigate the causes of the
said event, or with those subsequently intrusted with the
issue, has contributed. … That the interior and exterior
examination of the bottom of the 'Maine,' whenever it is
possible, unless the bottom of the ship and that of the place
in the bay where it is sunk are altered by the work which is
being carried on for the total or partial recovery of the
vessel, will prove the correctness of all that is said in this
report; but this must not be understood to mean that the
accuracy of these present conclusions requires such proof."
U. S. Senate Report Number 885,
55th Congress, 2d Session, page 635.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (February-December).
In the Chinese "battle of concessions."
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-DECEMBER).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (March).
Account by Senator Proctor of the condition of
the "reconcentrados" in Cuba.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1897-1898 (DECEMBER-MARCH).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (March-April).
Continued discussion of Cuban affairs with Spain.
Unsatisfactory results.
Message of the President asking Congress for authority
to terminate hostilities in Cuba.
On the 11th of April, President McKinley addressed another
special message to Congress, setting forth the unsatisfactory
results with which Cuban affairs had been further discussed
with the government of Spain, and formally asking to be
authorized and empowered to take measures for securing a "full
and final termination of hostilities" in the oppressed island.
He said:
"Obedient to that precept of the Constitution which commands
the President to give from time to time to the Congress
information of the state of the Union and to recommend to
their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary
and expedient, it becomes my duty now to address your body
with regard to the grave crisis that has arisen in the
relations of the United States to Spain by reason of the
warfare that for more than three years has raged in the
neighboring island of Cuba. I do so because of the intimate
connection of the Cuban question with the state of our own
Union, and the grave relation the course which it is now
incumbent upon the nation to adopt must needs bear to the
traditional policy of our Government, if it is to accord with
the precepts laid down by the founders of the Republic and
religiously observed by succeeding Administrations to the
present day.
"The present revolution is but the successor of other similar
insurrections which have occurred in Cuba against the dominion
of Spain, extending over a period of nearly half a century,
each of which, during its progress, has subjected the United
States to great effort and expense in enforcing its neutrality
laws, caused enormous losses to American trade and commerce,
caused irritation, annoyance, and disturbance among our
citizens, and, by the exercise of cruel, barbarous, and
uncivilized practices of warfare, shocked the sensibilities
and offended the humane sympathies of our people. Since the
present revolution began, in February, 1895, this country has
seen the fertile domain at our threshold ravaged by fire and
sword in the course of a struggle unequaled in the history of
the island and rarely paralleled as to the numbers of the
combatants and the bitterness of the contest by any revolution
of modern times where a dependent people striving to be free
have been opposed by the power of the sovereign state. Our
people have beheld a once prosperous community reduced to
comparative want, its lucrative commerce virtually paralyzed,
its exceptional productiveness diminished, its fields laid
waste, its mills in ruins, and its people perishing by tens of
thousands from hunger and destitution. We have found ourselves
constrained, in the observance of that strict neutrality which
our laws enjoin and which the law of nations commands, to
police our own waters and to watch our own seaports in
prevention of any unlawful act in aid of the Cubans. Our trade
has suffered; the capital invested by our citizens in Cuba has
been largely lost, and the temper and forbearance of our
people have been so sorely tried as to beget a perilous unrest
among our own citizens which has inevitably found its
expression from time to time in the National Legislature, so
that issues wholly external to our own body politic engross
attention and stand in the way of that close devotion to
domestic advancement that becomes a self-contained
commonwealth whose primal maxim has been the avoidance of all
foreign entanglements. All this must needs awaken, and has,
indeed, aroused the utmost concern on the part of this
Government, as well during my predecessor's term as in my own.
"In April, 1896, the evils from which our country suffered
through the Cuban war became so onerous that my predecessor
made an effort to bring about a peace through the mediation of
this Government in any way that might tend to an honorable
adjustment of the contest between Spain and her revolted
colony, on the basis of some effective scheme of
self-government for Cuba under the flag and sovereignty of
Spain. It failed through the refusal of the Spanish Government
then in power to consider any form of mediation or, indeed, any
plan of settlement which did not begin with the actual
submission of the insurgents to the mother country, and then
only on such terms as Spain herself might see fit to grant.
The war continued unabated. The resistance of the insurgents
was in no wise diminished. The efforts of Spain were
increased, both by the dispatch of fresh levies to Cuba and by
the addition to the horrors of the strife of a new and inhuman
phase happily unprecedented in the modern history of civilized
Christian peoples.
{586}
The policy of devastation and concentration, inaugurated by
the captain-general's bando of October 21, 1896, in the
province of Pinar del Rio, was thence extended to embrace all
of the island to which the power of the Spanish arms was able
to reach by occupation or by military operations. The
peasantry, including all dwelling in the open agricultural
interior, were driven into the garrison towns or isolated
places held by the troops. The raising and movement of
provisions of all kinds were interdicted. The fields were laid
waste, dwellings unroofed and fired, mills destroyed, and, in
short, everything that could desolate the land and render it
unfit for human habitation or support was commanded by one or
the other of the contending parties and executed by all the
powers at their disposal.
"By the time the present Administration took office, a year
ago, reconcentration—so called—had been made effective over
the better part of the four central and western
provinces—Santa Clara, Matanzas, Habana, and Pinar del Rio.
The agricultural population to the estimated number of 300,000
or more was herded within the towns and their immediate
vicinage, deprived of the means of support, rendered destitute
of shelter, left poorly clad, and exposed to the most
unsanitary conditions. As the scarcity of food increased with
the devastation of the depopulated areas of production,
destitution and want became misery and starvation. Month by
month the death rate increased in an alarming ratio. By March,
1897, according to conservative estimates from official
Spanish sources, the mortality among the reconcentrados, from
starvation and the diseases thereto incident, exceeded 50 per
centum of their total number. No practical relief was accorded
to the destitute. The overburdened towns, already suffering
from the general dearth, could give no aid. So-called 'zones
of cultivation' established within the immediate areas of
effective military control about the cities and fortified
camps proved illusory as a remedy for the suffering. The
unfortunates, being for the most part women and children, with
aged and helpless men, enfeebled by disease and hunger, could
not have tilled the soil without tools, seed, or shelter for
their own support or for the supply of the cities.
Reconcentration, adopted avowedly as a war measure in order to
cut off the resources of the insurgents, worked its
predestined result. As I said in my message of last December,
it was not civilized warfare; it was extermination. The only
peace it could beget was that of the wilderness and the grave.
"Meanwhile the military situation in the island had undergone
a noticeable change. The extraordinary activity that
characterized the second year of the war, when the insurgents
invaded even the thitherto unharmed fields of Pinar del Rio
and carried havoc and destruction up to the walls of the city
of Habana itself, had relapsed into a dogged struggle in the
central and eastern provinces. The Spanish arms regained a
measure of control in Pinar del Rio and parts of Habana, but,
under the existing conditions of the rural country, without
immediate improvement of their productive situation. Even thus
partially restricted, the revolutionists held their own, and
their conquest and submission, put forward by Spain as the
essential and sole basis of peace, seemed as far distant as at
the outset. In this state of affairs my Administration found
itself confronted with the grave problem of its duty. My
message of last December reviewed the situation, and narrated
the steps taken with a view to relieving its acuteness and
opening the way to some form of honorable settlement. The
assassination of the prime minister, Canovas, led to a change
of government in Spain. The former administration, pledged to
subjugation without concession, gave place to that of a more
liberal party, committed long in advance to a policy of reform
involving the wider principle of home rule for Cuba and Porto
Rico.
"The overtures of this Government, made through its new envoy,
General Woodford, and looking to an immediate and effective
amelioration of the condition of the island, although not
accepted to the extent of admitted mediation in any shape,
were met by assurances that home rule, in an advanced phase,
would be forthwith offered to Cuba, without waiting for the
war to end, and that more humane methods should thenceforth
prevail in the conduct of hostilities. Coincidentally with
these declarations, the new Government of Spain continued and
completed the policy already begun by its predecessor, of
testifying friendly regard for this nation by releasing
American citizens held under one charge or another connected
with the insurrection, so that by the end of November not a
single person entitled in any way to our national protection
remained in a Spanish prison.
"While these negotiations were in progress the increasing
destitution of the unfortunate reconcentrados and the alarming
mortality among them claimed earnest attention. The success
which had attended the limited measure of relief extended to
the suffering American citizens among them by the judicious
expenditure through the consular agencies of the money
appropriated expressly for their succor by the joint
resolution approved May 24, 1897, prompted the humane
extension of a similar scheme of aid to the great body of
sufferers. A suggestion to this end was acquiesced in by the
Spanish authorities. On the 24th of December last I caused to
be issued an appeal to the American people, inviting
contributions in money or in kind for the succor of the
starving sufferers in Cuba, following this on the 8th of
January by a similar public announcement of the formation of a
central Cuban relief committee, with headquarters in New York
City, composed of three members, representing the American
National Red Cross and the religious and business elements of
the community. The efforts of that committee have been
untiring and have accomplished much. Arrangements for free
transportation to Cuba have greatly aided the charitable work.
The president of the American Red Cross and representatives of
other contributory organizations have generously visited Cuba
and cooperated with the consul-general and the local
authorities to make effective distribution of the relief
collected through the efforts of the central committee. Nearly
$200,000 in money and supplies has already reached the
sufferers, and more is forthcoming. The supplies are admitted
duty free, and transportation to the interior has been
arranged, so that the relief, at first necessarily confined to
Habana and the larger cities, is now extended through most, if
not all, of the towns where suffering exists.
{587}
Thousands of lives have already been saved. The necessity for
a change in the condition of the reconcentrados is recognized
by the Spanish Government. Within a few days past the orders
of General Weyler have been revoked; the reconcentrados, it is
said, are to be permitted to return to their homes, and aided
to resume the self-supporting pursuits of peace. Public works
have been ordered to give them employment, and a sum of
$600,000 has been appropriated for their relief.
"The war in Cuba is of such a nature that short of subjugation
or extermination a final military victory for either side
seems impracticable. The alternative lies in the physical
exhaustion of the one or the other party, or perhaps of both—a
condition which in effect ended the ten years' war by the truce
of Zanjon. The prospect of such a protraction and conclusion
of the present strife is a contingency hardly to be
contemplated with equanimity by the civilized world, and least
of all by the United States, affected and injured as we are,
deeply and intimately, by its very existence. Realizing this,
it appeared to be my duty, in a spirit of true friendliness,
no less to Spain than to the Cubans who have so much to lose
by the prolongation of the struggle, to seek to bring about an
immediate termination of the war. To this end I submitted on
the 27th ultimo, as a result of much representation and
correspondence, through the United States minister at Madrid,
propositions to the Spanish Government looking to an armistice
until October 1 for the negotiation of peace with the good
offices of the President. In addition, I asked the immediate
revocation of the order of reconcentration, so as to permit
the people to return to their farms and the needy to be
relieved with provisions and supplies from the United States,
cooperating with the Spanish authorities, so as to afford full
relief.
"The reply of the Spanish cabinet was received on the night of
the 31st ultimo. It offered, as the means to bring about peace
in Cuba, to confide the preparation thereof to the insular
parliament, inasmuch as the concurrence of that body would be
necessary to reach a final result, it being, however,
understood that the powers reserved by the constitution to the
Central Government are not lessened or diminished. As the
Cuban parliament does not meet until the 4th of May next, the
Spanish Government would not object, for its part, to accept
at once a suspension of hostilities if asked for by the
insurgents from the general in chief, to whom it would
pertain, in such case, to determine the duration and
conditions of the armistice. The propositions submitted by
General Woodford and the reply of the Spanish Government were
both in the form of brief memoranda, the texts of which are
before me, and are substantially in the language above given.
The function of the Cuban parliament in the matter of
'preparing' peace and the manner of its doing so are not
expressed in the Spanish memorandum; but from General
Woodford's explanatory reports of preliminary discussions
preceding the final conference it is understood that the
Spanish Government stands ready to give the insular congress
full powers to settle the terms of peace with the
insurgents—whether by direct negotiation or indirectly by
means of legislation does not appear.
"With this last overture in the direction of immediate peace,
and its disappointing reception by Spain, the Executive is
brought to the end of his effort. In my annual message of
December last I said: 'Of the untried measures there remain
only: Recognition of the insurgents as belligerents;
recognition of the independence of Cuba; neutral intervention
to end the war by imposing a rational compromise between the
contestants, and intervention in favor of one or the other
party. I speak not of forcible annexation, for that can not be
thought of. That, by our code of morality, would be criminal
aggression.' Thereupon I review these alternatives, in the
light of President Grant's measured words, uttered in 1875,
when after seven years of sanguinary, destructive, and cruel
hostilities in Cuba he reached the conclusion that the
recognition of the independence of Cuba was impracticable and
indefensible; and that the recognition of belligerence was not
warranted by the facts according to the tests of public law. I
commented especially upon the latter aspect of the question,
pointing out the inconveniences and positive dangers of a
recognition of belligerence which, while adding to the already
onerous burdens of neutrality within our own jurisdiction,
could not in any way extend our influence or effective offices
in the territory of hostilities. Nothing has since occurred to
change my view in this regard; and I recognize as fully now as
then that the issuance of a proclamation of neutrality, by which
process the so-called recognition of belligerents is
published, could, of itself and unattended by other action,
accomplish nothing toward the one end for which we labor—the
instant pacification of Cuba and the cessation of the misery
that afflicts the island.
"Turning to the question of recognizing at this time the
independence of the present insurgent government in Cuba, we
find safe precedents in our history from an early day. They
are well summed up in President Jackson's message to Congress,
December 21, 1836, on the subject of the recognition of the
independence of Texas. He said: 'In all the contests that have
arisen out of the revolutions of France, out of the disputes
relating to the Crowns of Portugal and Spain, out of the
separation of the American possessions of both from the
European Governments, and out of the numerous and constantly
occurring struggles for dominion in Spanish America, so wisely
consistent with our just principles has been the action of our
Government that we have, under the most critical
circumstances, avoided all censure, and encountered no other
evil than that produced by a transient estrangement of good
will in those against whom we have been by force of evidence
compelled to decide. It has thus made known to the world that
the uniform policy and practice of the United States is to
avoid all interference in disputes which merely relate to the
internal government of other nations, and eventually to
recognize the authority of the prevailing party without
reference to our particular interests and views or to the
merits of the original controversy. … But on this, as on every
other trying occasion, safety is to be found in a rigid
adherence to principle. In the contest between Spain and the
revolted colonies we stood aloof, and waited not only until
the ability of the new States to protect themselves was fully
established, but until the danger of their being again
subjugated had entirely passed away.
{588}
Then, and not until then, were they recognized. Such was our
course in regard to Mexico herself. … It is true that with
regard to Texas the civil authority of Mexico has been
expelled, its invading army defeated, the chief of the
Republic himself captured, and all present power to control
the newly-organized government of Texas annihilated within its
confines; but, on the other hand, there is, in appearance at
least, an immense disparity of physical force on the side of
Texas. The Mexican Republic, under another Executive, is
rallying its forces under a new leader and menacing a fresh
invasion to recover its lost dominion. Upon the issue of this
threatened invasion the independence of Texas may be
considered as suspended; and were there nothing peculiar in
the relative situation of the United States and Texas, our
acknowledgment of its independence at such a crisis could
scarcely be regarded as consistent with that prudent reserve
with which we have hitherto held ourselves bound to treat all
similar questions.'
"Thereupon Andrew Jackson proceeded to consider the risk that
there might be imputed to the United States motives of selfish
interest in view of the former claim on our part to the
territory of Texas, and of the avowed purpose of the Texans in
seeking recognition of independence as an incident to the
incorporation of Texas in the Union, concluding thus:
'Prudence, therefore, seems to dictate that we should still
stand aloof and maintain our present attitude, if not until
Mexico itself or one of the great foreign powers shall
recognize the independence of the new government, at least
until the lapse of time or the course of events shall have
proved beyond cavil or dispute the ability of the people of
that country to maintain their separate sovereignty and to
uphold the government constituted by them. Neither of the
contending parties can justly complain of this course. By
pursuing it we are but carrying out the long-established
policy of our Government, a policy which has secured to us
respect and influence abroad and inspired confidence at home.'
"These are the words of the resolute and patriotic Jackson.
They are evidence that the United States, in addition to the
test imposed by public law as the condition of the recognition
of independence by a neutral state (to wit, that the revolted
state shall 'constitute in fact a body politic, having a
government in substance as well as in name, possessed of the
elements of stability,' and forming de facto, 'if left to
itself, a state among the nations, reasonably capable of
discharging the duties of a state'), has imposed for its own
governance in dealing with cases like these the further
condition that recognition of independent statehood is not due
to a revolted dependency until the danger of its being again
subjugated by the parent state has entirely passed away. This
extreme test was, in fact, applied in the case of Texas. The
Congress, to whom President Jackson referred the question as
one 'probably leading to war,' and therefore a proper subject
for 'a previous understanding with that body, by whom war can
alone be declared, and by whom all the provisions for
sustaining its perils must be furnished,' left the matter of
the recognition of Texas to the discretion of the Executive,
providing merely for the sending of a diplomatic agent when
the President should be satisfied that the Republic of Texas
had become 'an independent State.' It was so recognized by
President Van Buren, who commissioned a chargé d'affaires
March 7, 1837, after Mexico had abandoned an attempt to
reconquer the Texan territory, and when there was at the time
no bona fide contest going on between the insurgent province
and its former sovereign.
"I said in my message of December last, 'It is to be seriously
considered whether the Cuban insurrection possesses beyond
dispute the attributes of statehood which alone can demand the
recognition of belligerency in its favor.' The same
requirement must certainly be no less seriously considered
when the graver issue of recognizing independence is in
question, for no less positive test can be applied to the
greater act than to the lesser, while, on the other hand, the
influences and consequences of the struggle upon the internal
policy of the recognizing State, which form important factors
when the recognition of belligerency is concerned, are
secondary, if not rightly eliminable, factors when the real
question is whether the community claiming recognition is or
is not independent beyond peradventure.
"Nor from the standpoint of expediency do I think it would be
wise or prudent for this Government to recognize at the
present time the independence of the so-called Cuban republic.
Such recognition is not necessary in order to enable the United
States to intervene and pacify the island. To commit this
country now to the recognition of any particular government in
Cuba might subject us to embarrassing conditions of
international obligation toward the organization so
recognized. In case of intervention our conduct would be
subject to the approval or disapproval of such government. We
would be required to submit to its direction and to assume to
it the mere relation of a friendly ally. When it shall appear
hereafter that there is within the island a government capable
of performing the duties and discharging the functions of a
separate nation, and having, as a matter of fact, the proper
forms and attributes of nationality, such government can be
promptly and readily recognized and the relations and
interests of the United States with such nation adjusted.
"There remain the alternative forms of intervention to end the
war, either as an impartial neutral by imposing a rational
compromise between the contestants or as the active ally of
the one party or the other. As to the first, it is not to be
forgotten that during the last few months the relation of the
United States has virtually been one of friendly intervention
in many ways, each not of itself conclusive, but all tending
to the exertion of a potential influence toward an ultimate
pacific result just and honorable to all interests concerned.
The spirit of all our acts hitherto has been an earnest,
unselfish desire for peace and prosperity in Cuba untarnished
by differences between us and Spain and unstained by the blood
of American citizens. The forcible intervention of the United
States as a neutral to stop the war, according to the large
dictates of humanity and following many historical precedents
where neighboring states have interfered to check the hopeless
sacrifices of life by internecine conflicts beyond their
borders, is justifiable on rational grounds. It involves,
however, hostile constraint upon both the parties to the
contest, as well to enforce a truce as to guide the eventual
settlement.
{589}
"The grounds for such intervention may be briefly summarized
as follows:
First.
In the cause of humanity and to put an end to the barbarities,
bloodshed, starvation, and horrible miseries now existing there,
and which the parties to the conflict are either unable or
unwilling to stop or mitigate. It is no answer to say this is
all in another country, belonging to another nation, and is
therefore none of our business. It is specially our duty, for
it is right at our door.
Second.
We owe it to our citizens in Cuba to afford them that
protection and indemnity for life and property which no
government there can or will afford, and to that end to
terminate the conditions that deprive them of legal
protection.
Third.
The right to intervene may be justified by the very serious
injury to the commerce, trade, and business of our people and
by the wanton destruction of property and devastation of the
island.
Fourth,
and which is of the utmost importance. The present condition
of affairs in Cuba is a constant menace to our peace, and
entails upon this Government an enormous expense.
With such a conflict waged for years in an island so near us
and with which our people have such trade and business
relations—when the lives and liberty of our citizens are in
constant danger and their property destroyed and themselves
ruined—where our trading vessels are liable to seizure and
are seized at our very door by warships of a foreign nation,
the expeditions of filibustering that we are powerless to
prevent altogether, and the irritating questions and
entanglements thus arising—all these and others that I need
not mention, with the resulting strained relations, are a
constant menace to our peace, and compel us to keep on a
semi-war footing with a nation with which we are at peace.
"These elements of danger and disorder already pointed out
have been strikingly illustrated by a tragic event which has
deeply and justly moved the American people. I have already
transmitted to Congress the report of the naval court of
inquiry on the destruction of the battleship 'Maine' in the
harbor of Habana during the night of the 15th of February. The
destruction of that noble vessel has filled the national heart
with inexpressible horror. Two hundred and fifty-eight brave
sailors and marines and two officers of our Navy, reposing in
the fancied security of a friendly harbor, have been hurled to
death, grief and want brought to their homes and sorrow to the
nation. The naval court of inquiry, which, it is needless to
say, commands the unqualified confidence of the Government,
was unanimous in its conclusion that the destruction of the
'Maine' was caused by an exterior explosion, that of a
submarine mine. It did not assume to place the responsibility:
that remains to be fixed. In any event the destruction of them
'Maine' by whatever exterior cause, is a patent and
impressive proof of a state of things in Cuba that is
intolerable. That condition is thus shown to be such that the
Spanish Government cannot assure safety and security to a
vessel of the American Navy in the harbor of Habana on a
mission of peace, and rightfully there.
"Further referring in this connection to recent diplomatic
correspondence, a dispatch from our minister to Spain, of the
26th ultimo, contained the statement that the Spanish minister
for foreign affairs assured him positively that Spain will do
all that the highest honor and justice require in the matter
of the 'Maine.' The reply above referred to of the 31st
ultimo, also contained an expression of the readiness of Spain
to submit to an arbitration all the differences which can
arise in this matter, which is subsequently explained by the
note of the Spanish minister at Washington of the 10th
instant, as follows: 'As to the question of fact which springs
from the diversity of views between the reports of the
American and Spanish boards, Spain proposes that the facts be
ascertained by an impartial investigation by experts, whose
decision Spain accepts in advance.' To this I have made no
reply.
"President Grant, in 1875, after discussing the phases of the
contest as it then appeared, and its hopeless and apparent
indefinite prolongation, said: 'In such an event, I am of
opinion that other nations will be compelled to assume the
responsibility which devolves upon them, and to seriously
consider the only remaining measures possible—mediation and
intervention. Owing, perhaps, to the large expanse of water
separating the island from the peninsula, … the contending
parties appear to have within themselves no depository of
common confidence, to suggest wisdom when passion and
excitement have their sway, and to assume the part of
peacemaker. In this view in the earlier days of the contest
the good offices of the United States as a mediator were
tendered in good faith, without any selfish purpose, in the
interest of humanity and in sincere friendship for both
parties, but were at the time declined by Spain, with the
declaration, nevertheless, that at a future time they would be
indispensable. No intimation has been received that in the
opinion of Spain that time has been reached. And yet the
strife continues with all its dread horrors and all its
injuries to the interests of the United States and of other
nations. Each party seems quite capable of working great
injury and damage to the other, as well as to all the
relations and interests dependent on the existence of peace in
the island; but they seem incapable of reaching any
adjustment, and both have thus far failed of achieving any
success whereby one party shall possess and control the island
to the exclusion of the other. Under these circumstances, the
agency of others, either by mediation or by intervention,
seems to be the only alternative which must sooner or later be
invoked for the termination of the strife.'
"In the last annual message of my immediate predecessor during
the pending struggle, it was said: 'When the inability of
Spain to deal successfully with the insurrection has become
manifest, and it is demonstrated that her sovereignty is
extinct in Cuba for all purposes of its rightful existence,
and when a hopeless struggle for its re-establishment has
degenerated into a strife which means nothing more than the
useless sacrifice of human life and the utter destruction of
the very subject-matter of the conflict, a situation will be
presented in which our obligations to the sovereignty of Spain
will be superseded by higher obligations, which we can hardly
hesitate to recognize and discharge.'
{590}
"In my annual message to Congress, December last, speaking to
this question, I said: 'The near future will demonstrate
whether the indispensable condition of a righteous peace, just
alike to the Cubans and to Spain, as well as equitable to all
our interests so intimately involved in the welfare of Cuba,
is likely to be attained. If not, the exigency of further and
other action by the United States will remain to be taken.
When that time comes that action will be determined in the
line of indisputable right and duty. It will be faced, without
misgiving or hesitancy, in the light of the obligation this
Government owes to itself, to the people who have confided to
it the protection of their interests and honor, and to
humanity. Sure of the right, keeping free from all offense
ourselves, actuated only by upright and patriotic
considerations, moved neither by passion nor selfishness, the
Government will continue its watchful care over the rights and
property of American citizens and will abate none of its efforts
to bring about by peaceful agencies a peace which shall be
honorable and enduring. If it shall hereafter appear to be a
duty imposed by our obligations to ourselves, to civilization,
and humanity to intervene with force, it shall be without fault
on our part, and only because the necessity for such action
will be so clear as to command the support and approval of the
civilized world.'
"The long trial has proved that the object for which Spain has
waged the war cannot be attained. The fire of insurrection may
flame or may smoulder with varying seasons, but it has not
been and it is plain that it cannot be extinguished by present
methods. The only hope of relief and repose from a condition
which can no longer be endured is the enforced pacification of
Cuba. In the name of humanity, in the name of civilization, in
behalf of endangered American interests which give us the
right and the duty to speak and act, the War in Cuba must
stop.
"In view of these facts and of these considerations, I ask the
Congress to authorize and empower the President to take
measures to secure a full and final termination of hostilities
between the Government of Spain and the people of Cuba, and to
secure in the island the establishment of a stable government,
capable of maintaining order and observing its international
obligations, insuring peace and tranquillity and the security
of its citizens as well as our own, and to use the military
and naval forces of the United States as may be necessary for
these purposes. And in the interest of humanity and to aid in
preserving the lives of the starving people of the island I
recommend that the distribution of food and supplies be
continued, and that an appropriation be made out of the public
Treasury to supplement the charity of our citizens.
"The issue is now with the Congress. It is a solemn
responsibility. I have exhausted every effort to relieve the
intolerable condition of affairs which is at our doors.
Prepared to execute every obligation imposed upon me by the
Constitution and the law, I await your action.
"Yesterday, and since the preparation of the foregoing
message, official information was received by me that the
latest decree of the Queen Regent of Spain directs General
Blanco, in order to prepare and facilitate peace, to proclaim
a suspension of hostilities, the duration and details of which
have not yet been communicated to me. This fact with every
other pertinent consideration will, I am sure, have your just
and careful attention in the solemn deliberations upon which
you are about to enter. If this measure attains a successful
result, then our aspirations as a Christian, peace-loving
people will be realized. If it fails, it will be only another
justification for our contemplated action."
Congressional Record,
April 11, 1898.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (April).
Action of Congress empowering the President to expel
Spanish authority from the island of Cuba, and its result
in a state of war with Spain.
On the 13th of April, two days after receiving the President's
Message, as above, the House of Representatives adopted the
following resolution, by a vote of 324 against 19: "Resolved,
That the President is hereby authorized and directed to
intervene at once to stop the war in Cuba, to the end and with
the purpose of securing permanent peace and order there and
establishing by the free action of the people thereof a stable
and independent government of their own in the island of Cuba;
and the President is hereby authorized and empowered to use
the land and naval forces of the United States to execute the
purpose of this resolution."
Congressional Record,
April 13, 1898, pages 4192-4196.
Three days later the Senate adopted the following, by 27 votes
against 21: "Resolved by the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States of America in Congress
assembled,
First.
That the people of the Island of Cuba are, and of right ought
to be, free and independent, and that the Government of the
United States hereby recognizes the Republic of Cuba as the
true and lawful Government of that island.
"Second.
That it is the duty of the United States to demand, and the
Government of the United States does hereby demand, that the
Government of Spain at once relinquish its authority and
government in the Island of Cuba and withdraw its land and
naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters.
"Third.
That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is,
directed and empowered to use the entire land and naval forces
of the United States, and to call into the actual service of
the United States the militia of the several States, to such
extent as may be necessary to carry these resolutions into
effect.
"Fourth.
That the United States hereby disclaims any disposition or
intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control
over said island except for the pacification thereof, and
asserts its determination when that is accomplished to leave
the government and control of the island to its people."
Congressional Record,
April 16, 1898, page 4386-4387.
The two Houses were in conflict, it will be seen, on the
question of the recognition of what claimed to be the
government of the Republic of Cuba, organized by the
insurgents. A majority of the House shared the doubts
expressed by the President in his message, as to the existence
of such a government in Cuba as could be recognized without
embarrassment; a majority of the Senate shut its eyes to that
doubt. After two days of heated controversy, the Senate gave
way, and the following resolution, recommended by conference
committees, was adopted in both Houses,—in the Senate by 42
yeas to 35 nays (12 not voting); in the House by 311 to 6 (39
not voting):
{591}
"Resolved, etc.
"First.
That the people of the Island of Cuba are and of right ought
to be free and independent.
"Second.
That it is the duty of the United States to demand, and the
Government of the United States does hereby demand, that the
Government of Spain at once relinquish its authority and
government in the Island of Cuba and withdraw its land and
naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters.
"Third.
That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is,
directed and empowered to use the entire land and naval forces
of the United States, and to call into the actual service of
the United States the militia of the several States, to such
extent as may be necessary to carry these resolutions into
effect.
"Fourth.
That the United States hereby disclaims any disposition or
intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control
over said island, except for the pacification thereof, and
asserts its determination when that is accomplished to leave
the government and control of the island to its people."
Congressional Record,
April 18, 1898, pages 4421-4422, and 4461-4462.
One week later, on the 25th of April, the President
communicated to Congress an account of his action in
accordance with this joint resolution, and its result in a
state of war between the United States and Spain as follows:
"Upon communicating to the Spanish minister in Washington the
demand which it became the duty of the Executive to address to
the Government of Spain in obedience to said resolution, the
minister asked for his passports and withdrew. The United
States minister at Madrid was in turn notified by the Spanish
minister for foreign affairs that the withdrawal of the
Spanish representative from the United States had terminated
diplomatic relations between the two countries, and that all
official communications between their respective
representatives ceased therewith.
"I commend to your special attention the note addressed to the
United States minister at Madrid by the Spanish minister for
foreign affairs on the 21st instant, whereby the foregoing
notification was conveyed. It will be perceived therefrom that
the Government of Spain, having cognizance of the joint
resolution of the United States Congress, and in view of the
things which the President is thereby required and authorized
to do, responds by treating the reasonable demands of this
Government as measures of hostility, following with that
instant and complete severance of relations by its action
which, by the usage of nations, accompanies an existent state
of war between sovereign powers.
"The position of Spain being thus made known and the demands
of the United States being denied with a complete rupture of
intercourse by the act of Spain, I have been constrained, in
exercise of the power and authority conferred upon me by the
joint resolution aforesaid, to proclaim under date of April
22, 1898, a blockade of certain ports of the north coast of
Cuba, lying between Cardenas and Bahia Honda and of the port
of Cienfuegos on the south coast of Cuba; and further, in
exercise of my constitutional powers and using the authority
conferred upon me by the act of Congress approved April 22,
1898, to issue my proclamation dated April 23, 1898, calling
forth volunteers in order to carry into effect the said
resolution of April 20, 1898. …
"In view of the measures so taken, and with a view to the
adoption of such other measures as may be necessary to enable
me to carry out the expressed will of the Congress of the
United States in the premises, I now recommend to your
honorable body the adoption of a joint resolution declaring
that a state of war exists between the United States of
America and the Kingdom of Spain, and I urge speedy action
thereon, to the end that the definition of the international
status of the United States as a belligerent power may be made
known, and the assertion of all its rights and the maintenance
of all its duties in the conduct of a public war may be
assured."
Congressional Record,
April 25, 1898, page 4671.
The recommendation of the President was carried out, on the
same day, by the passage in both Houses, unanimously, of an
enactment, "First. That war be, and the same is hereby,
declared to exist, and that war has existed since the 21st day
of April, A. D. 1898, including said day, between the United
States of America and the Kingdom of Spain. Second. That the
President of the United States be, and he hereby is, directed
and empowered to use the entire land and naval forces of the
United States, and to call into the actual service of the
United States the militia of the several States, to such
extent as may be necessary to carry this act into effect."
Congressional Record,
April 25, pages 4674 and 4693.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (April).
Cabinet changes.
Two resignations from the President's cabinet occurred in
April, both occasioned by failing health. Honorable James A.
Gary was succeeded as Postmaster-General by Honorable Charles
Emory Smith, and Honorable John Sherman was followed in the
Secretaryship of State by his First Assistant in that office,
Judge William R. Day.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (April-May).
War with Spain.
Military preparations.
Regular and Volunteer armies.
"The Rough Riders."
At the outbreak of the war, the Regular Army of the United
States numbered but 28,000 officers and men. Under authority
given by acts of Congress it was rapidly increased, and
returns for May, 1898, show 2,191 officers and nearly 42,000
men in the ranks. At the same time, a Volunteer Army was being
speedily raised and equipped. By proclamation of April 2-3d,
the President called for 125,000 volunteers, to be
apportioned, as far as practicable, among the states and
territories, according to population. On the 25th of May he
called for 75,000 more. Before the end of May, 118,580
enlisted volunteers, with 6,224 officers, were reported to
have been mustered in. These were assembled in various camps
and prepared for service in a more or less hurried way. At the
beginning, six army corps were constituted, embracing both the
Regular and Volunteer branches of the army. The First Corps,
under Major General John R. Brooke, and the Third under Major
General James F. Wade, were organized at Camp Thomas, Georgia.
The Second was organized under Major General William M.
Graham, at Camp Alger, near Falls Church, Virginia. The
organization of the Fourth Corps, Major General John J.
Coppinger, commanding, was begun at Mobile, Alabama. The Fifth
Corps was organized at Tampa, Florid., under Major General
William R. Shafter.
{592}
A Sixth Corps, which had been provided for, was never
organized; but the Seventh was formed, at Tampa, Florida,
under Major General Fitzhugh Lee. Subsequently an Eighth Corps
was concentrated at San Francisco, and transported to the
Philippine Islands. Tampa, Florida, was the port chosen for
the shipment of troops to Cuba, and extensive preparations
were made for the transport service from that point. The
movement waited, first, for the preparation of newly levied
troops, and, secondly, for naval operations to make the voyage
of transports to Cuba safe from attack.
Annual Report of the Adjutant-General to the
Major-General Commanding the Army, 1898.
Among the Volunteer regiments organized, one known as that of
"the Rough Riders" excited public interest in the greatest
degree. "The moment that the newspapers sent broadcast the
tale that such a regiment was contemplated, excitement began
in nearly every State in the Union, and did not end until the
announcement was made that the regiment was complete. As it
stood, finished, the troops which made it up, theoretically
came from the following sections, although men from the East
and from other States and Territories were scattered through
each troop. Troops A, B, and C, from Arizona. Troop D, from
Oklahoma. Troops E, F, G, H, and I, from New Mexico. Troop K,
from Eastern colleges and cities. Troops L and M, from Indian
Territory.
"Senator Warren, of Iowa, is responsible for the idea of the
Rough Riders. He introduced and carried through Congress,
aided by Senators Kyle, Carter, and others, a bill authorizing
the enrollment of three regiments, to be made up of expert
hunters, riflemen, cow-men, frontiersmen, and such other hardy
characters as might care to enlist from the Territories.
Captain Leonard Wood, of the Medical Corps, was the
President's chief medical adviser, and had had much experience
in Indian fighting in the West. Theodore Roosevelt was
Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and had had some knowledge of
men and things on the frontier, through his life on his Own
and other ranches. It was the President's intention to offer
to Wood the colonelcy of one regiment, to Roosevelt the
colonelcy of a second, and to Griggsby, of Montana, the
colonelcy of a third. Wood and Roosevelt received their offers
at about the same moment. Roosevelt promptly declined his, on
the theory that he had not had sufficient military experience
to warrant him in taking command of a regiment. He asked that
he might be given the second place in the regiment commanded
by Wood, which was done. Thus the Rough Riders began.
"Alexander Brodie, who afterwards became major of the
regiment, was probably the first man to systematically start
towards the organization of this particular regiment. … It was
on the 3d of May that the Arizona men started for San Antonio.
It was on the 8th of May that the very last men of all—those
of K Troop—left Washington for San Antonio. These were the
'dude warriors,' the 'dandy troopers,' the 'gilded gang.' When
their train pulled into San Antonio, and they started
stragglingly to march into camp, they encountered a contingent
of 340 cowboys from New Mexico. Oil and water are not farther
removed than were the everyday natures of these two groups of
men. Yet, instantly they fraternized, and from that
moment—through the hardships of it all—these men were
brothers. … Probably no military organization has ever been
made up of men selected from so large a number of applicants,
or of men so carefully selected. … A large delegation of men
from Harvard College called upon Roosevelt one day in
Washington and offered their services in a body. Indeed,
delegations of that kind from most of the Eastern Colleges
went to him, but went to him in vain. His secretary answered
more than five thousand individual applications for places in
the regiment, and answered ninety-nine per cent. of them with
declinations."
E. Marshall,
The Story of the Rough Riders,
chapter 1
(Copyright, G. W. Dillingham & Co., New York).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (April-May: Cuba)
War with Spain.
Blockade of Cuban ports.
On the 21st of April, the following instructions were
despatched by the Secretary of the Navy to Rear-Admiral
Sampson, appointed that day to the command of the naval force
on the Atlantic Station: "You will immediately institute a
blockade of the north coast of Cuba, extending from Cardenas
on the east to Bahia Honda on the west; also, if in your
opinion your force warrants, the port of Cienfuegos, on the
south side of the island. It is considered doubtful if the
present force at your command would warrant a more extensive
blockade. It should be borne in mind that whenever the Army is
ready to embark for Cuba the Navy will be required to furnish
the necessary convoy for its transports. For this reason it
does not seem desirable that you should undertake at present
to blockade any more of the island than has been indicated. It
is believed that this blockade will cut off Havana almost
entirely from receiving supplies from the outside. The Navy
Department is considering the question of occupying the port
of Matanzas by a military force large enough to hold it and to
open communications with the insurgents, and this may be done
at an early date, even before the main party of the Army is
ready to embark. If this operation is decided upon, you are
directed to co-operate with the Army and assist with such
vessels as are necessary to cover and protect such a
movement."
Report of Secretary of Navy, 1898,
volume 2, page 175.
In previous confidential orders to the commander of the North
Atlantic squadron, issued April 6, in anticipation of
hostilities, the Department had directed as follows: "In the
event of hostilities with Spain, the Department wishes you to
do all in your power to capture or destroy the Spanish war
vessels in West Indian waters, including the small gunboats
which are stationed along the coast of Cuba.
"2. The Department does not wish the vessels of your squadron
to be exposed to the fire of the batteries at Havana, Santiago
de Cuba, or other strongly fortified ports in Cuba, unless the
more formidable Spanish vessels should take refuge within
those harbors. Even in this case the Department would suggest
that a rigid blockade and employment of our torpedo boats
might accomplish the desired object, viz, the destruction of
the enemy's vessels, without subjecting unnecessarily our own
men-of-war to the fire of the land batteries. There are two
reasons for this: First. There may be no United States troops
to occupy any captured stronghold, or to protect from riot and
arson, until after the dry season begins, about the first of
October. Second. The lack of docking facilities makes it
particularly desirable that our vessels should not be crippled
before the capture or destruction of Spain's most formidable
vessels.
{593}
"3. The Department further desires that, in case of war, you
will maintain a strict blockade of Cuba, particularly at the
ports of Havana, Matanzas, and, if possible, of Santiago de
Cuba, Manzanillo, and Cienfuegos. Such a blockade may cause
the Spaniards to yield before the rainy season is over."
Report of Secretary of Navy, 1898,
volume 2, page 171.
The prudent policy here set forth restricted the action of the
fleet to blockading duty so closely, during the early weeks of
the war, that no serious demonstrations against the Spanish
land batteries were made. Admiral Sampson had been urgent for
permission to force the entrance to Havana harbor, before its
defenses were strengthened, expressing perfect confidence that
he could silence the western batteries, and reach a position
from which the city would be at the mercy of his guns; but he
was not allowed to make the attempt. The projected occupation
of Matanzas was not undertaken.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (April-May: Philippines).
Statements of the circumstances in which Aguinaldo, the
head of the insurrectionary movement in the Philippines,
went to Manila, to co-operate with the American forces.
On the 4th of May, 1898, the following was published in the
"Singapore Free Press": "General Emilio Aguinaldo, accompanied
by his aide-de-camp, Colonel Marcelo H. del Pilar, and his
private secretary, Mr. J. Leyba, arrived incognito in
Singapore from Saigon on April 21, 1898. In Saigon, where
Aguinaldo had remained for one week, he had interviews with
one or two old Philippino friends now resident there. The
special purpose of Aguinaldo's visit to Singapore was to
consult other friends here, particularly Mr. Howard W. Bray,
an old and intimate English friend, for fifteen years resident
in the Philippines, about the state of affairs in the islands
generally—particularly as to the possibility of war between
the United States and Spain, and whether, in such an event,
the United States would eventually recognize the independence
of the Philippines, provided he lent his co-operation to the
Americans in the conquest of the country. The situation of the
moment was this, that the conditions of the honorable peace
concluded on December 14, 1897, between President Aguinaldo,
on behalf of the Philippine rebels, and H. E. Governor-General
Primo di Rivera, on behalf of Spain, had not been carried out,
although their immediate execution had been vouched for in
that agreement. These reforms would have provided protection
to the people against the organized oppression and rapacity of
the religious fraternities, would have secured improved civil
and criminal procedure in courts, and have guaranteed, in many
ways, improvements in the fiscal and social conditions of the
people. The repudiation by the Spanish Government of these
conditions, made by General Primo di Rivera, now left the
rebel leaders, who had for the most part gone to Hongkong,
free to act. And it was in pursuance of that freedom of action
that Aguinaldo again sought counsel of his friends in Saigon
and Singapore, with a view to the immediate resumption of
operations in the Philippines.
"Meantime Mr. Bray, whose assistance to this journal on
matters connected with the Philippines has been very
considerable, as our readers will have seen, was introduced by
the editor of the Singapore Free Press to Mr. Spencer Pratt,
consul-general of the United States, who was anxious, in view
of contingencies, to learn as much as possible about the real
condition of the Philippines. It was a few days after this
that Aguinaldo arrived incognito in Singapore, when he at once
met his friends, including Mr. Bray. Affairs now becoming more
warlike, Mr. Bray, after conversation with Mr. Spencer Pratt,
eventually arranged an interview between that gentleman and
General Aguinaldo, which took place late on the evening of
Sunday, the 24th April, at 'The Mansion,' River Valley road.
There were present on that occasion General Emilio Aguinaldo y
Fami, Mr. E. Spencer Pratt, consul-general United States of
America; Mr. Howard W. Bray; Aguinaldo's private secretary,
Mr. J. Leyba; Colonel M. H. del Pilar, and Dr. Marcelino
Santos.
"During this conference, at which Mr. Bray acted as
interpreter, General Aguinaldo explained to the American
consul-general, Mr. Pratt, the incidents and objects of the
late rebellion, and described the present disturbed state of
the country. General Aguinaldo then proceeded to detail the
nature of the co-operation he could give, in which he, in the
event of the American forces from the squadron landing and
taking possession of Manila, would guarantee to maintain order
and discipline amongst the native troops and inhabitants in
the same humane way in which he had hitherto conducted the
war, and prevent them from committing outrages on defenceless
Spaniards beyond the inevitable in fair and honorable warfare.
He further declared his ability to establish a proper and
responsible government on liberal principles, and would be
willing to accept the same terms for the country as the United
States intend giving to Cuba.
"The consul-general of the United States, coinciding with the
general views expressed during the discussion, placed himself
at once in telegraphic communication with Admiral Dewey at
Hongkong, between whom and Mr. Pratt a frequent interchange of
telegrams consequently took place. As a result another private
interview was arranged at the American consular residence at
the Raffles Hotel between General Aguinaldo, Mr. Spencer
Pratt, Mr. Howard Bray, and Mr. Leyba, private secretary to
General Aguinaldo. As a sequel to this interview, and in
response to the urgent request of Admiral Dewey, General
Aguinaldo left Singapore for Hongkong by the first available
steamer, the Peninsular and Oriental 'Malacca,' on Tuesday,
the 26th April, at noon, accompanied by his aide-de-camp,
Captain del Pilar, and Mr. Leyba, his private secretary. …
"Throughout the whole stay of General Aguinaldo in Singapore
the editor was kept fully informed daily of the progress of
affairs. Naturally, however, all statement of what occurred
has been withheld by us until what has been deemed the fitting
moment has arrived. The substance of the whole incident in its
relations to the recent course of affairs in the Philippines
has been very fully telegraphed by the editor both to New York
and London."
{594}
Mr. Pratt, the U. S. Consul-General at Singapore, had already,
under date of April 28, given his own official report of the
interview with General Aguinaldo, to the Department at
Washington, as follows:
"I have the honor to report that I sent you on the 27th
instant, and confirmed in my dispatch Number 211 of that date,
a telegram which deciphered read as follows. … 'General
Aguinaldo gone my instance Hongkong arrange with Dewey
co-operation insurgents Manila.
PRATT.'
"The facts are these: On the evening of Saturday the 23d
instant, I was confidentially informed of the arrival here,
incognito, of the supreme leader of the Philippine insurgents,
General Emilio Aguinaldo, by Mr. H. W. Bray, an English gentleman
of high standing, who, after fifteen years' residence as a
merchant and planter in the Philippines, had been compelled by
the disturbed condition of things resulting from Spanish
misrule to abandon his property and leave there, and from whom
I had previously obtained much valuable information for
Commodore Dewey regarding fortifications, coal deposits, etc.,
at different points in the islands. Being aware of the great
prestige of General Aguinaldo with the insurgents, and that no
one, either at home or abroad, could exert over them the same
influence and control that he could, I determined at once to
see him, and, at my request, a secret interview was
accordingly arranged for the following morning, Sunday, the
24th, in which, besides General Aguinaldo, were only present
the General's trusted advisers and Mr. Bray, who acted as
interpreter.
"At this interview, after learning from General Aguinaldo the
state of and object sought to be obtained by the present
insurrectionary movement, which, though absent from the
Philippines, he was still directing, I took it upon myself,
whilst explaining that I had no authority to speak for the
Government, to point out the danger of continuing independent
action at this stage; and, having convinced him of the
expediency of co-operating with our fleet, then at Hongkong,
and obtained the assurance of his willingness to proceed
thither and confer with Commodore Dewey to that end, should
the latter so desire, I telegraphed the Commodore the same day
as follows, through our consul-general at Hongkong:
'Aguinaldo, insurgent leader, here. Will come Hongkong arrange
with Commodore for general cooperation insurgents Manila if
desired. Telegraph.
PRATT.'
"The Commodore's reply reading thus:
'Tell Aguinaldo come soon as possible.
DEWEY.'
"I received it late that night, and at once communicated to
General Aguinaldo, who, with his aide-de-camp and private
secretary, all under assumed names, I succeeded in getting off
by the British steamer 'Malacca,' which left here on Tuesday,
the 26th. Just previous to his departure, I had a second and
last interview with General Aguinaldo, the particulars of
which I shall give you by next mail. The general impressed me
as a man of intelligence, ability, and courage, and worthy the
confidence that had been placed in him.
"I think that in arranging for his direct cooperation with
the commander of our forces, I have prevented possible
conflict of action and facilitated the work of occupying and
administering the Philippines. If this course of mine meets
with the Government's approval, as I trust it may, I shall be
fully satisfied; to Mr. Bray, however, I consider there is due
some special recognition for most valuable services rendered.
How that recognition can best be made I leave to you to
decide."
Two days later (April 30), Mr. Pratt reported further, as
follows: "Referring to my dispatch No. 212, of the 28th
instant, I have the honor to report that in the second and
last interview I had with General Emilio Aguinaldo, on the eve
of his departure for Hongkong, I enjoined upon him the
necessity, under Commodore Dewey's direction, of exerting
absolute control over his forces in the Philippines, as no
excesses on their part would be tolerated by the American
Government, the President having declared that the present
hostilities with Spain were to be carried on in strict accord
with modern principles of civilized warfare. To this General
Aguinaldo fully assented, assuring me that he intended and was
perfectly able, once on the field, to hold his followers, the
insurgents, in check and lead them as our commander should
direct. The general further stated that he hoped the United
States would assume protection of the Philippines for at least
long enough to allow the inhabitants to establish a government
of their own, in the organization of which he would desire
American advise and assistance. These questions I told him I
had no authority to discuss."
Of the arrival of Aguinaldo at Hongkong and his conveyance
thence to Manila, the following account was given by Mr.
Wildman, the U. S. Consul at Hongkong, in a communication to
the State Department at Washington, which bears date July 18:
"On May 2 Aguinaldo arrived in Hongkong and immediately called
on me. It was May 16 before I could obtain permission from
Admiral Dewey to allow Aguinaldo to go by the United States
ship 'McCulloch,' and I put him aboard in the night so as to
save any complications with the local Government. Immediately
on the arrival of Aguinaldo at Cavite he issued a
proclamation, which I had outlined for him before he left,
forbidding pillage, and making it a criminal offense to
maltreat neutrals. He, of course, organized a government of
which he was dictator, an absolutely necessary step if he
hoped to maintain control over the natives, and from that date
until the present time he has been uninterruptedly successful
in the field and dignified and just as the head of his
government. According to his own statements to me by letter,
he has been approached by both the Spaniards and the Germans,
and has had tempting offers made him by the Catholic Church.
He has been watched very closely by Admiral Dewey, Consul
Williams, and his own junta here in Hongkong, and nothing of
moment has occurred which would lead anyone to believe that he
was not carrying out to the letter the promises made to me in
this consulate. The insurgents are fighting for freedom from
the Spanish rule, and rely upon the well-known sense of
justice that controls all the actions of our Government as to
their future."
{595}
In reply to Consul Pratt's report of his interviews with
General Aguinaldo, and of his proceedings in connection with
the departure of that personage from Singapore to Hongkong,
the United States Secretary of State, Mr. Day, wrote, June 16,
as follows: "The Department observes that you informed General
Aguinaldo that you had no authority to speak for the United
States; and, in the absence of the fuller report which you
promise, it is assumed that you did not attempt to commit this
Government to any alliance with the Philippine insurgents. To
obtain the unconditional personal assistance of General
Aguinaldo in the expedition to Manila was proper, if in so
doing he was not induced to form hopes which it might not be
practicable to gratify. This Government has known the
Philippine insurgents only as discontented and rebellious
subjects of Spain, and is not acquainted with their purposes.
While their contest with that power has been a matter of
public notoriety, they have neither asked nor received from
this Government any recognition. The United States, in
entering upon the occupation of the islands, as the result of
its military operations in that quarter, will do so in the
exercise of the rights which the state of war confers, and
will expect from the inhabitants, without regard to their
former attitude toward the Spanish Government, that obedience
which will be lawfully due from them. If, in the course of
your conferences with General Aguinaldo, you acted upon the
assumption that this government would cooperate with him for
the furtherance of any plan of his own, or that, in accepting
his cooperation, it would consider itself pledged to recognize
any political claims which he may put forward, your action was
unauthorized and cannot be approved."
Treaty of Peace, and Accompanying Papers
(55th Congress, 3d Session, Senate Document Number 62,
part 2, pages 337-354).
See, also (in this volume),
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1806-1808.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (April-June).
The War with Spain.
Movements or the Spanish squadron under Admiral Cervera,
and the blockading of it in the harbor of Santiago de Cuba.
Lieutenant Hobson's exploit.
The sinking of the collier "Merrimac" in the channel.
The opening of hostilities found a Spanish squadron of four
armored cruisers (the "Cristobal Colon," the "Almirante
Oquendo," the "Vizcaya," and the "Infanta Maria Teresa,") with
three torpedo-boat destroyers (the "Pluton," "Furor" and
"Terror") and some lighter craft, assembled at the Cape Verde
islands, under Rear-Admiral Pascual Cervera. They were in
Portuguese waters, and Portugal, though friendly to Spain, was
forced to issue a proclamation of neutrality, on the 20th of
April, which required the Spanish fleet to depart. Some of the
vessels then returned to Spain; but the seven named above
sailed westward, and their destination became a mystery, very
exciting for some time to the American mind. They might
attempt to surprise some American coast city; they might
intercept the battle-ship "Oregon," then making her way from
the Pacific coast, by the long circuit around Cape Horn; they
might have some plan for breaking the Cuban blockade. Acting
on the latter conjecture, and surmising that Porto Rico would
be chosen for the Spanish naval base, Admiral Sampson moved in
that direction to seek them. He attacked the forts at San Juan
(May 12), and satisfied himself that no fleet was in the bay.
The truth was that Cervera was then just entering the
Caribbean Sea, considerably to the south of Sampson's search.
He touched at the French island of Martinique, and at the
Dutch island of Curaçoa, and then slipped across to Santiago
de Cuba, where he was to be overtaken by his fate. In the long
hill-sheltered bay, with a narrow entrance, which forms this
excellent Cuban harbor, the Spanish fleet was so hidden that
nearly a fortnight passed before its whereabouts could be
fully ascertained. It was not until May 20 that a blockade of
Santiago was established by a flying squadron of the American
fleet, under Commodore Schley, with certainty that the
squadron of Cervera was harbored there. On the 1st of June,
Admiral Sampson arrived on the scene, with a stronger naval
force, and took command. To attempt to force the narrow
entrance of the harbor, strongly fortified and thickly mined
as it was, and attack the Spanish fleet in the bay, was not
deemed practicable. The course resolved upon was to hold the
enemy fast in the shelter he had sought, until Santiago could
be taken, by a land attack. In pursuance of this plan, an
exploit of splendid daring was performed, in the early morning
of June 3, by a young officer, Lieutenant Richmond Pearson
Hobson, with a crew of seven volunteers, who placed and sank a
huge coaling ship, the "Merrimac," in the channel that leads
into Santiago Bay. The following is Admiral Sampson's report
of the undertaking and its achievement:
"Before coming here, I decided to make the harbor entrance
secure against the possibility of egress of the Spanish ships
by obstructing the narrow part of the entrance by sinking a
collier at that point. Upon calling upon Mr. Hobson for his
professional opinion as to a sure method of sinking the ship,
he manifested a most lively interest in the problem. After
several days' consideration he presented a solution which he
considered would insure the immediate sinking of the ship when
she had reached the desired point in the channel. This plan we
prepared for before we reached Santiago. This plan included
ten electric torpedoes on the outside of the ship, each of 78
pounds of gunpowder, sinking the ship partially before going
in, cutting the sea valves, and opening the cargo ports. The
plan contemplated a crew of only seven men and Mr. Hobson, who
begged that it might be intrusted to him. The anchor chains
were ranged upon deck for both the anchors, forward and aft,
the plan including the anchoring of the ship almost
automatically. As soon as I reached Santiago and had the
collier to work upon the details were commenced and diligently
prosecuted, hoping to complete them in one day, as the moon
and tide served best the first night after our arrival.
Notwithstanding every effort, the hour of 4 o'clock in the
morning arrived and the preparations were scarcely completed.
After a careful inspection of the final preparations I was
forced to relinquish the plan for that morning, as dawn was
breaking. Mr. Hobson begged to try it at all hazards.
"This morning proved more propitious, as a prompt start could
be made. Nothing could have been more gallantly executed. We
waited impatiently after the firing by the Spaniards had
ceased. When they did not reappear from the harbor at 6
o'clock I feared they had all perished. A steam launch, which
had been sent in charge of Naval Cadet Powell to rescue the
men, appeared at this time, coming out under a persistent fire
from the batteries, but brought none of the crew. A careful
inspection of the harbor from this ship showed that the
'Merrimac' had been sunk in the channel somewhat farther in
than had been intended.
{596}
This afternoon the chief of staff of Admiral Cervera came out
under a flag of truce with a letter from the Admiral extolling
the bravery of the crew in an unusual manner. I can not myself
too earnestly express my appreciation of the conduct of Mr.
Hobson and his gallant crew. I venture to say that a more
brave and daring thing has not been done since Cushing blew up
the 'Albemarle.'" The sunken ship did not actually block the
channel; but that fact takes nothing from the gallantry of the
exploit. Why the intended spot in the channel was missed was
explained by Lieutenant Hobson in a statement which he
afterwards made: "When the 'Merrimac' poked her nose into the
channel," says the Lieutenant, "our troubles commenced. The
deadly silence was broken by the swash of a small boat
approaching us from the shore. I made her out to be a picket
boat. She ran close up under the stern of the 'Merrimac' and
fired several shots from what seemed to be 3 pounder guns. The
'Merrimac's' rudder was carried away by this fire. That is why
the collier was not sunk across the channel. We did not discover
the loss of the rudder until Murphy [the volunteer assigned to
that duty] had cast anchor. We then found that the 'Merrimac'
would not answer to the helm and were compelled to make the
best of the situation. … Submarine mines and torpedoes were
exploded all around us, adding to the excitement. The mines
did no damage, although we could hear the rumbling and feel
the ship tremble. We were running without lights, and only the
darkness saved us from utter destruction. When the ship was in
the desired position and we found that the rudder was gone, I
called the men on deck. While they were launching the
catamaran I touched off the explosives. At the same time two
torpedoes, fired by the 'Reina Mercedes,' struck the
'Merrimac' amidships. I can not say whether our own explosives
or the Spanish torpedoes did the work, but the 'Merrimac' was
lifted out of the water, and almost rent asunder."
What followed, in the experience of the crew, when their
vessel went down, is described as follows by Lieutenant
Hobson, in a narrative of "The Sinking of the Merrimac," which
he published at a later day: "The stricken vessel now reeled
to port. Some one said: 'She is going to turn over on us,
sir,' to which I replied: 'No; she will right herself in
sinking, and we shall be the last spot to go under.' The
firing suddenly ceased. The vessel lowered her head like a
faithful animal, proudly aware of its sacrifice, bowed below
the surface, and plunged forward. The stern rose and heeled
heavily; it stood for a moment, shuddering, then started
downward, righting as it went. A great rush of water came up
the gangway, seething and gurgling out of the deck. The mass
was whirling from right to left 'against the sun'; it seized
us and threw us against the bulwarks, then over the rail. Two
were swept forward as if by a momentary recession, and one was
carried down into a coal-bunker—luckless Kelly. In a moment,
however, with increased force, the water shot him up out of
the same hole and swept him among us. The bulwarks
disappeared. A sweeping vortex whirled above. We charged about
with casks, cans, and spars, the incomplete stripping having
left quantities on the deck. The life-preservers stood us in
good stead, preventing chests from being crushed, as well as
buoying us on the surface; for spars came end on like
battering-rams, and the sharp corners of tin cans struck us
heavily. … When we looked for the life-boat we found that it
had been carried away. The catamaran was the largest piece of
floating debris; we assembled about it. The line suspending it
from the cargo-boom held and anchored us to the ship, though
barely long enough to reach the surface, causing the raft to
turn over and set us scrambling as the line came taut.
"The firing had ceased. It was evident the enemy had not seen
us in the general mass of moving objects; but soon the tide
began to drift these away, and we were being left alone with
the catamaran. The men were directed to cling close in, bodies
below and only heads out, close under the edges, and were
directed not to speak above a whisper, for the destroyer was
near at hand, and boats were passing near. We mustered; all
were present, and direction was given to remain as we were
till further orders, for I was sure that in due time after
daylight a responsible officer would come out to reconnoiter.
It was evident that we could not swim against the tide to
reach the entrance. Moreover, the shores were lined with
troops, and the small boats were looking for victims that
might escape from the vessel. The only chance lay in remaining
undiscovered until the coming of the reconnoitering boat, to
which, perhaps, we might surrender without being fired on. …
The air was chilly and the water positively cold. In less than
five minutes our teeth were chattering; so loud, indeed, did
they chatter that it seemed the destroyer or the boats would
hear. … We remained there probably an hour."
At daylight a steam launch approached, and was hailed by
Lieutenant Hobson, who judged that there must be officers on
board to whom it would be safe to surrender. He was more than
right. The commander of the launch was Admiral Cervera, in
person, who took the nearly exhausted men from the water and
treated them with great kindness, admiring the bravery of
their exploit, and sending a flag of truce to Admiral Sampson
to announce their safety. They were taken aboard the 'Reina
Mercedes,' and, as prisoners of war, were confined at first in
Morro Castle, and afterwards in the city. It so happened that
they were locked in the Morro during a bombardment of the
Spanish coast defences and fleet by ten of our vessels on June
6th, when about 1,500 projectiles were fired; and much anxiety
and indignation were expressed in this country in view of that
circumstance; but Mr. Ramsden, British consul at Santiago,
explained in a despatch that they were removed as soon as
lodgings could be prepared in the barracks—actually on June
7th. They were released on July 6th in exchange for prisoners
captured by our forces.
{597}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (April-July).
War with Spain,
Destruction of the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay.
Despatches of Admiral Dewey.
His relations with Aguinaldo, the insurgent chief.
Arrival of American troops for the occupation of the city.
Commodore George Dewey, commanding the Asiatic Squadron, then
awaiting orders at Hongkong, received on the 25th of April the
following despatch by cable from the Secretary of the Navy: "War
has commenced between the United States and Spain. Proceed at
once to Philippine Islands. Commence operations at once,
particularly against the Spanish fleet. You must capture
vessels or destroy. Use utmost endeavors." On the sixth day
after receiving these orders (namely on May 1st), he was able
to report from Manila, by a telegram sent from Hongkong on the
7th: "The squadron arrived at Manila at daybreak this morning.
Immediately engaged enemy and destroyed the following Spanish
vessels: 'Reina Christina,' 'Castillia,' 'Don Antonio de
Biloa,' 'Don Juan de Austria,' 'Isla de Luzon,' 'Isla de
Cuba,' 'General Lezo,' 'Marques del Duaro,' 'El Curreo,'
'Velasco,' one transport, 'Isla de Mandano,' water battery at
Cavite. I shall destroy Cavite arsenal dispensatory. The
squadron is uninjured. Few men were slightly wounded. I
request the Department will send immediately from San
Francisco fast steamer with ammunition. The only means of
telegraphing is to the American consul at Hongkong."
In due time the post brought particulars of the action, in the
following report from Commodore Dewey, dated May 4: "The
squadron left Mirs Bay, [China] on April 27, immediately on
the arrival of Mr. O. F. Williams, United States consul at
Manila, who brought important information and who accompanies
the squadron. Arrived off Bolinao on the morning of April 30
and, finding no vessels there, proceeded down the coast and
arrived off the entrance to Manila Bay on the same afternoon.
The 'Boston' and 'Concord' were sent to reconnoiter Port
Subic, I having been informed that the enemy intended to take
position there. A thorough search of the port was made by the
'Boston' and 'Concord,' but the Spanish fleet was not found,
although, from a letter afterwards found in the arsenal (
inclosed with translation), it appears that it had been their
intention to go there. Entered the Boca Grande, or south
channel, at 11.30 p. m., steaming in column at distance at 8
knots. After half the squadron had passed, a battery on the
south side of the channel opened fire, none of the shots
taking effect. The 'Boston' and 'McCulloch' returned the fire.
The squadron proceeded across the bay at slow speed, and
arrived off Manila at daybreak, and was fired upon at 5.15 a.
m. by three batteries at Manila and two at Cavite and by the
Spanish fleet anchored in an approximately east and west line
across the mouth of Bakor Bay, with their left in shoal water
in Canacao Bay. The squadron then proceeded to the attack, the
flagship 'Olympia,' under my personal direction, leading,
followed at distance by the 'Baltimore,' 'Raleigh,' 'Petrel,'
'Concord,' and 'Boston,' in the order named, which formation
was maintained throughout the action. The squadron opened fire
at 5.41 a. m. While advancing to the attack, two mines were
exploded ahead of the flagship, too far to be effective. The
squadron maintained a continuous and precise fire at ranges
varying from 5,000 to 2,000 yards, countermarching in a line
approximately parallel to that of the Spanish fleet. The
enemy's fire was vigorous, but generally ineffective.
"Early in the engagement two launches put out toward the
'Olympia' with the apparent intention of using torpedoes. One
was sunk and the other disabled by our fire and beached before
an opportunity occurred to fire torpedoes. At 7 a. m. the Spanish
flagship 'Reina Christina' made a desperate attempt to leave
the line and come out to engage at short range, but was
received with such galling fire, the entire battery of the
'Olympia' being concentrated upon her, that she was barely
able to return to the shelter of the point. The fires started
in her by our shell at this time were not extinguished until
she sank. At 7.35 a. m., it having been erroneously reported
to me that only 15 rounds per gun remained for the 5-inch
rapid-fire battery, I ceased firing and withdrew the squadron
for consultation and a redistribution of ammunition, if
necessary. The three batteries at Manila had kept up a
continuous fire from the beginning of the engagement, which
fire was not returned by this squadron. The first of these
batteries was situated on the south mole head at the entrance
to the Pasig River, the second on the south bastion of the
walled city of Manila, and the third at Malate, about one-ha]f
mile farther south. At this point I sent a message to the
Governor-General to the effect that if the batteries did not
cease firing the city would be shelled. This had the effect of
silencing them.
"At 11.16 a. m., finding that the report of scarcity of
ammunition was incorrect, I returned with the squadron to the
attack. By this time the flagship and almost the entire
Spanish fleet were in flames, and at 12.30 p. m. the squadron
ceased firing, the batteries being silenced and the ships
sunk, burnt, and deserted. At 12.40 p. m. the squadron
returned and anchored off Manila, the 'Petrel' being left
behind to complete the destruction of the smaller gunboats,
which were behind the point of Cavite. This duty was performed
by Commander E. P. Wood in the most expeditious and complete
manner possible. The Spanish lost the following vessels:
Sunk—'Reina Christina,' 'Castillia,' 'Don Antonio de Ulloa.'
Burnt—'Don Juan de Austria,' 'Isla de Luzon,' 'Isla de Cuba,'
'General Lezo,' 'Marques del Duaro,' 'El Correo,' 'Velasco,'
and 'Isla Mindanao,' (transport). Captured—'Rapido,' and
'Hercules' (tugs), and several small launches. I am unable to
obtain complete accounts of the enemy's killed and wounded,
but believe their loss to be very heavy. The 'Reina Christina'
alone had 150 killed, including the captain, and 90 wounded.
"I am happy to report that the damage done to the squadron
under my command was inconsiderable. There were none killed,
and only 7 men in the squadron very slightly wounded. As will
be seen by the reports of the commanding officers which are
herewith inclosed, several of the vessels were struck and even
penetrated, but the damage was of the slightest, and the
squadron is in as good condition now as before the battle. I
beg to state to the Department that I doubt if any commander
in chief, under similar circumstances, was ever served by more
loyal, efficient, and gallant captains than those of the
squadron now under my command. … On May 2, the day following
the engagement, the squadron again went to Cavite, where it
remains. A landing party was sent to destroy the guns and
magazines of the batteries there. … On the 3d the military
forces evacuated the Cavite Arsenal, which was taken
possession of by a landing party."
{598}
Promptly in response to this report of his victory, a joint
resolution of thanks to Commodore Dewey and his officers and
men, by the two Houses of Congress, was despatched to them,
with announcement to the former of his promotion to the rank
of rear-admiral. The admiral replied, on the 13th, from
Cavite, making due acknowledgments, and adding: "I am
maintaining strict blockade of Manila by sea, and believe
rebels are hemming in by land, although they are inactive and
making no demonstrations. Great scarcity of provisions in the
city. I believe the Spanish Governor-General will be obliged
to surrender soon. I can take Manila at any moment. To retain
possession and thus control Philippine Islands would require,
in my best judgment, a well equipped force of 5,000 men."
On the 20th he reported, further: "Aguinaldo, the rebel
commander in chief, was brought down by the 'McCulloch' [from
Hongkong]. Organizing forces near Cavite and may render
assistance that will be valuable." On the 27th of June, in
reply to inquiries from the Navy Department, he explained his
relations with Aguinaldo, as follows: "Aguinaldo, insurgent
leader, with thirteen of his staff, arrived May 19, by
permission, on 'Nanshan.' Established self Cavite, outside
arsenal, under the protection of our guns, and organized his
army. I have had several conferences with him, generally of a
personal nature. Consistently I have refrained from assisting
him in any way with the force under my command, and on several
occasions I have declined requests that I should do so,
telling him the squadron could not act until the arrival of
the United States troops. At the same time I have given him to
understand that I consider insurgents as friends, being
opposed to a common enemy. He has gone to attend a meeting of
insurgent leaders for the purpose of forming a civil
government. Aguinaldo has acted independently of the squadron,
but has kept me advised of his progress, which has been
wonderful. I have allowed to pass by water recruits, arms, and
ammunition, and to take such Spanish arms and ammunition from
the arsenal as he needed. Have advised frequently to conduct
the war humanely, which he has done invariably. My relations
with him are cordial, but I am not in his confidence. The
United States has not been bound in any way to assist
insurgents by any act or promises, and he is not, to my
knowledge, committed to assist us. I believe he expects to
capture Manila without my assistance, but doubt ability, they
not yet having many guns. In my opinion these people are far
superior in their intelligence and more capable of
self-government than the natives of Cuba, and I am familiar
with both races."
Report of the Secretary of the Navy, 1898,
volume 2, pages 67-72 and 103.
On the 30th of June, troops sent from San Francisco, to the
number of 2,500 officers and men, commanded by General T. M.
Anderson, arrived in Manila Bay, to co-operate with the navy
in taking Manila and occupying the city, when taken. They were
followed by a second expeditionary force, under General F. V.
Greene, which arrived July 17, and by a third, July 25 and 31,
with which came General Merritt, commanding the corps and the
Department of the Pacific. General Merritt's army then
numbered nearly 11,000 men, and it was increased during the
next few weeks to more than 15,000.
Reports of the War Department, 1898,
volume 1, part 2, page 499.
An English officer, Major Younghusband, who visited Manila at
this time, remarked: "It may, perhaps, with some confidence be
prophesied that when the cold fit, which will in due course
follow the warmth of the present enthusiasm, falls on the
nation, America will discover that the true parting of the
ways was … in having allowed Admiral Dewey to do more than
defeat the Spanish fleet and exact a heavy indemnity from the
city of Manila before sailing away." It would seem to be more
true, however, to say that the parting of the ways was when a
military expedition was sent from San Francisco to Manila, to
be landed, for the capture of the city and for the occupation
of the islands. It is claimed with reason that Admiral Dewey
could not "sail away," after the destruction of the Spanish
ships, because he needed the harbor he had seized, his fleet
having lost most of the privileges it had formerly been using
in neutral ports, when it became the fleet of a belligerent
power. To retain possession of Manila Bay while it was needed
by the American fleet was clearly a measure connected
legitimately with the general conduct of the war against
Spain. But it is difficult to see that the landing of soldiers
on the island of Luzon and the capture of the city of Manila
added anything to the security with which the Bay was held for
the purposes of Admiral Dewey's fleet, or that it contributed
at all to the weakening of Spain in the war, and to the rescue
of Cuba from Spanish misrule. For two months, from the first
day of May until the last day of June, before a soldier
arrived, and for six weeks longer, before Manila surrendered,
Admiral Dewey appears to have been as fully and as
conveniently in possession of all the advantages that
harborage there could give him, as he was after the Spanish
flag had been lowered in the city and on the island.
Therefore, the American conquest of the Philippines does not
readily connect itself with the war for the liberation of
Cuba, as a necessary part of it, but presents itself to the
mind as a somewhat supplementary enterprise, undertaken with
objects of its own.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (May-August).
Conduct of English and German naval officers at Manila.
While Admiral Dewey was holding Manila Bay, before the taking
of the city, there were many rumors and exciting stories
afloat, of offensive behavior towards the American fleet by
commanders of German war ships that were sent to the scene. As
far as possible, the facts were officially suppressed, in
order to avoid a quarrel between the two countries, and no
authoritative account of what occurred can be found. But some
incidents obtained publicity which are probably true in the
main. The first unpleasant happening appears to have been the
arrival in Manila Bay of a German naval vessel, which steamed
in with entire disregard of the blockading fleet, as though
the port was its own. Thereupon Admiral Dewey sent a forcible
reminder to the captain that he was intruding upon a blockade,
by firing a shot across his bow, and ordering him to heave to.
The German captain, in a rage, is said to have called on the
commanding officer of a British squadron that was in the Bay,
for advice as to what he should do, and was told that he owed
the American Admiral an apology for his violation of naval
etiquette, well settled for such circumstances as those
existing in Manila Bay. According to the story, the British
commander, Captain Sir Edward Chichester, himself on the best
of terms with Admiral Dewey, visited the latter, on behalf of
the German officer, and made the matter smooth.
{599}
But, either through indiscretion of his own, or because he had
instructions to interfere as much as possible with the
proceedings of the Americans, the German commander continued
to pursue an offensive course. According to report, be went so
far as to stop a movement which Aguinaldo (then a recognized
ally of the United States) was making, to take possession of a
certain island, and to capture some Spaniards who were on it.
This provoked Admiral Dewey to a demonstration against him so
threatening that he drew back in haste, and the island was
occupied.
According to all accounts, Admiral Dewey showed unsurpassed
wisdom and dignity in meeting and checking these offensive
proceedings without allowing them to become a cause of
international quarrel; and he was happily aided in doing so by
the hearty support of the British naval commander. According
to still another report of the time, a German admiral, who had
come upon the scene, meditated an interference to forbid the
bombarding of Manila, when the city was about to be attacked,
and, calling upon Sir Edward Chichester to ascertain what
action the latter would take, was significantly told, "That is
only known to Admiral Dewey and myself,"—which convinced him
that his project was not wise. An English writer has related,
with much satisfaction, that when Sir Edward's ship, the
"Immortalité," finally steamed out of Manila Bay, returning to
Hong Kong, "every ship in the American fleet manned her yards
and gave the British man-of-war three cheers as she passed
along; and she with the answering signal, 'thank you,' flying
at her mast-head, went on her way."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (June).
Act creating the United States Industrial Commission.
An Act "authorizing the appointment of a non-partisan
Commission to collate information and to consider and
recommend legislation to meet the problems presented by labor,
agriculture, and capital," was passed by Congress and approved
by the President June 18, 1898. It provided:
"That a commission is hereby created, to be called the
'Industrial Commission,' to be composed as follows. Five
members of the Senate, to be appointed by the presiding
officer thereof; five members of the House of Representatives,
to be appointed by the Speaker, and nine other persons, who shall
fairly represent the different industries and employments, to
be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and
consent of the Senate. … That it shall be the duty of this
commission to investigate questions pertaining to immigration,
to labor, to agriculture, to manufacturing, and to business,
and to report to Congress and to suggest such legislation as
it may deem best upon these subjects. … That it shall furnish
such information and suggest such laws as may be made a basis
for uniform legislation by the various States of the Union, in
order to harmonize conflicting interests and to be equitable
to the laborer, the employer, the producer, and the consumer.
… That the commission shall give reasonable time for hearings,
if deemed necessary, and if necessary it may appoint a
subcommission or subcommissions of its own members to make
investigation in any part of the United States, and it shall
be allowed actual necessary expenses for the same. It shall
have the authority to send for persons and papers and to
administer oaths and affirmations. … That it may report from
time to time to the Congress of the United States, and shall
at the conclusion of its labors submit a final report."
The Commission thus contemplated was duly appointed by the
President, and organized by the election of Senator Kyle for
its chairman. For the scope and plan of its investigations a
committee on procedure made the following recommendations,
which were adopted by the Commission and which have been
followed in what it has done:
"The main work of the Commission may … be said to be to study
and compare existing laws bearing upon industrial conditions,
here and elsewhere, to ascertain by competent testimony
wherein they are deficient, defective, inoperative, or
oppressive, and to recommend such remedial statutes as will
tend not only to make the conditions of industry more uniform
as between the several States, but to remove such existing
sources or causes of discontent, inequality, and injustice as
can be reached and regulated through legislation. … In order
to secure satisfactory results, it appears to your committee
imperatively necessary that the work shall be confined
strictly to the main purpose, viz, of ascertaining the nature
and effects of existing legislation, and the nature of
remedial legislation which may be necessary or desirable to
equalize conditions in industry and to remove any just grounds
of complaint on the part of either labor or capital or of the
people at large.
"To facilitate the progress of the work we recommend the
division of the Commission into four subcommissions of five
members each, to be severally charged with the investigation
of present conditions and the formulation of remedial
suggestions in the following branches of industry:
1. On agriculture and agricultural labor.
2. On the conditions of labor and capital employed in
manufacturing and general business.
3. On the conditions of labor and capital employed in mining.
4. On transportation.
In addition, we recommend a fifth subcommission, to be known
as the subcommission on statistics, in the membership of which
there shall be one representative of each of the above
subcommissions. …
"The committee also suggests that there are certain subjects
of inquiry which appertain equally to all the groups into
which it has recommended that the Commission be segregated.
The subjects of immigration, of education, of combinations and
trusts, and of taxation at once suggest themselves as
belonging in this category. It is therefore recommended that
these subjects, one or more of them, be examined into by the
full Commission pending the organization of the several
subcommissions."
The subject to which the Commission gave earliest attention
was that of "Trusts and Industrial Combinations," on which it
submitted a preliminary report on the 1st of March, 1900.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS.
{600}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (June).
Act providing for the arbitration of disputes between
employers and employees in inter-state commerce.
The following are the main sections of a very important Act of
Congress, approved June 1, 1898, which provides for the
arbitration of disputes between railway and other employees
engaged in interstate commerce and the companies or
individuals employing them:
"That the provisions of this Act shall apply to any common
carrier or carriers and their officers, agents, and employees,
except masters of vessels and seamen, … engaged in the
transportation of passengers or property wholly by railroad,
or partly by railroad and partly by water, for a continuous
carriage or shipment, from one State or Territory of the
United States or the District of Columbia, to any other State
or Territory of the United States, or the District of
Columbia, or from any place in the United States to an
adjacent foreign country, or from any place in the United
States through a foreign country to any other place in the
United States. …
"Section 2. That whenever a controversy concerning wages,
hours of labor, or conditions of employment shall arise
between a carrier subject to this Act and the employees of
such carrier, seriously interrupting or threatening to
interrupt the business of said carrier, the chairman of the
Interstate Commerce Commission and the Commissioner of Labor
shall, upon the request of either party to the controversy,
with all practicable expedition, put themselves in
communication with the parties to such controversy, and shall
use their best efforts, by mediation and conciliation, to
amicably settle the same; and if such efforts shall be
unsuccessful, shall at once endeavor to bring about an
arbitration of said controversy in accordance with the
provisions of this Act.
"Section 3. That whenever a controversy shall arise between a
carrier subject to this Act and the employees of such carrier
which can not be settled by mediation and conciliation in the
manner provided in the preceding section, said controversy may
be submitted to the arbitration of a board of three persons,
who shall be chosen in the manner following: One shall be
named by the carrier or employer directly interested; the
other shall be named by the labor organization to which the
employees directly interested belong, or, if they belong to
more than one, by that one of them which specially represents
employees of the same grade and class and engaged in services
of the same nature as said employees so directly interested:
Provided, however, That when a controversy involves and
affects the interests of two or more classes and grades of
employees belonging to different labor organizations, such
arbitrator shall be agreed upon and designated by the
concurrent action of all such labor organizations; and in
cases where the majority of such employees are not members of
any labor organization, said employees may by a majority vote
select a committee of their own number, which committee shall
have the right to select the arbitrator on behalf of said
employees. The two thus chosen shall select the third
commissioner of arbitration; but, in the event of their
failure to name such arbitrator within five days after their
first meeting, the third arbitrator shall be named by the
commissioners named in the preceding section. A majority of
said arbitrators shall be competent to make a valid and
binding award under the provisions hereof. The submission
shall be in writing, shall be signed by the employer and by
the labor organization representing the employees, shall
specify the time and place of meeting of said board of
arbitration, shall state the questions to be decided, and
shall contain appropriate provisions by which the respective
parties shall stipulate, as follows:
"First. That the board of arbitration shall commence their
hearings within ten days from the date of the appointment of
the third arbitrator, and shall find and file their award, as
provided in this section, within thirty days from the date of
the appointment of the third arbitrator; and that pending the
arbitration the status existing immediately prior to the
dispute shall not be changed: Provided, That no employee shall
be compelled to render personal service without his consent.
"Second. That the award and the papers and proceedings,
including the testimony relating thereto certified under the
hands of the arbitrators and which shall have the force and
effect of a bill of exceptions, shall be filed in the clerk's
office of the circuit court of the United States for the
district wherein the controversy arises or the arbitration is
entered into, and shall be final and conclusive upon both
parties, unless set aside for error of law apparent on the
record.
"Third. That the respective parties to the award will each
faithfully execute the same, and that the same may be
specifically enforced in equity so far as the powers of a
court of equity permit: Provided, That no injunction or other
legal process shall be issued which shall compel the
performance by any laborer against his will of a contract for
personal labor or service.
"Fourth. That employees dissatisfied with the award shall not
by reason of such dissatisfaction quit the service of the
employer before the expiration of three months from and after
the making of such award without giving thirty days' notice in
writing of their intention so to quit. Nor shall the employer
dissatisfied with such award dismiss any employee or employees
on account of such dissatisfaction before the expiration of three
months from and after the making of such award without giving
thirty days' notice in writing of his intention so to
discharge.
"Fifth. That said award shall continue in force as between the
parties thereto for the period of one year after the same
shall go into practical operation, and no new arbitration upon
the same subject between the same employer and the same class
of employees shall be had until the expiration of said one
year if the award is not set aside as provided in section
four. That as to individual employees not belonging to the
labor organization or organizations which shall enter into the
arbitration, the said arbitration and the award made therein
shall not be binding, unless the said individual employees
shall give assent in writing to become parties to said
arbitration. …
"Section 7. That during the pendency of arbitration under this
Act it shall not be lawful for the employer, party to such
arbitration, to discharge the employees, parties thereto,
except for inefficiency, violation of law, or neglect of duty;
nor for the organization representing such employees to order,
nor for the employees to unite in, aid, or abet, strikes
against said employer; nor, during a period of three months
after an award under such an arbitration, for such an employer
to discharge any such employees, except for the causes
aforesaid, without giving thirty days' written notice of an
intent so to discharge; nor for any of such employees, during
a like period, to quit the service of said employer without
just cause, without giving to said employer thirty days'
written notice of an intent so to do; nor for such
organization representing such employees to order, counsel, or
advise otherwise.
{601}
Any violation of this section shall subject the offending
party to liability for damages; Provided, that nothing herein
contained shall be construed to prevent any employer, party to
such arbitration, from reducing the number of its or his
employees whenever in its or his judgment business necessities
require such reduction. …
"Section 10. That any employer subject to the provisions of
this Act and any officer, agent, or receiver of such employer
who shall require any employee, or any person seeking
employment, as a condition of such employment, to enter into
an agreement, either written or verbal, not to become or
remain a member of any labor corporation, association, or
organization; or shall threaten any employee with loss of
employment, or shall unjustly discriminate against any
employee because of his membership in such a labor
corporation, association, or organization; or who shall
require any employee or any person seeking employment, as a
condition of such employment, to enter into a contract whereby
such employee or applicant for employment shall agree to
contribute to any fund for charitable, social or beneficial
purposes; to release such employer from legal liability for
any personal injury by reason of any benefit received from
such fund beyond the proportion of the benefit arising from
the employer's contribution to such fund; or who shall, after
having discharged an employee, attempt or conspire to prevent
such employee from obtaining employment, or who shall, after
the quitting of an employee, attempt or conspire to prevent
such employee from obtaining employment, is hereby declared to
be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof in
any court of the United States of competent jurisdiction in
the district in which such offense was committed, shall be
punished for each offense by a fine of not less than one
hundred dollars and not more than one thousand dollars."
United States Statutes at Large,
volume 30, page 424.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (June).
The War with Spain.
Seizure of the island of Guam.
The following order, dated May 10, 1898, was addressed by the
Secretary of the Navy to the Commander of the U. S. S.
'Charleston':
"Upon the receipt of this order, which is forwarded by the
steamship 'City of Pekin' to you at Honolulu, you will proceed
with the 'Charleston' and 'City of Pekin' in company, to
Manila, Philippine Islands. On your way, you are hereby
directed to stop at the Spanish Island of Guam. You will use
such force as may be necessary to capture the port of Guam,
making prisoners of the governor and other officials and any
armed force that may be there. You will also destroy any
fortifications on said island and any Spanish naval vessels
that may be there, or in the immediate vicinity. These
operations at the Island of Guam should be very brief, and
should not occupy more than one or two days. Should you find
any coal at the Island of Guam, you will make such use of it
as you consider desirable. It is left to your discretion
whether or not you destroy it. From the Island of Guam,
proceed to Manila and report to Rear-Admiral George Dewey, U.
S. N., for duty in the squadron under his command."
In a despatch dated June 24, Captain Glass, of the
"Charleston," reported the execution of these orders as
follows: "I have the honor to report that in obedience to the
Department's telegraphic order of May 24, 1898, this ship
sailed from Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, on the 4th instant for
Manila with the transports 'City of Pekin,' 'Australia,' and
'City of Sydney' under convoy. When clear of land, I opened
the confidential order of May 10, 1898, and changed course for
the Island of Guam, next day informing Commander Gibson, in
charge of transports, and Brigadier-General Anderson,
commanding expeditionary force, of the change in my orders and
that the transports would accompany the 'Charleston.' Arriving
off the north end of the island at daylight, June 20, I first
visited the port of Agana, the capital of Guam, and of the
Mariana group, and finding no vessels there of any kind,
proceeded to San Luis D'Apra, where it was expected that a
Spanish gunboat and a military force would be found, a rumor
to that effect having reached me while at Honolulu. Arriving
off the port at 8.30 a. m., it was found that Fort Santiago,
on Oroté Point, was abandoned and in ruins, and I steamed
directly into the harbor, having ordered the transports to
take a safe position outside and await instructions. A few
shots were fired from the secondary battery at Fort Santa Cruz
to get the range and ascertain if it was occupied. Getting no
response, ceased firing and came to anchor in a position to
control the harbor, and it was then found that this fort also
was abandoned. The only vessel in port was a small Japanese
trading vessel from Yokohama. An officer had just shoved off
from the ship to board the Japanese vessel, and obtain
information as to the condition of affairs on shore, when a
boat was seen approaching the ship, through the reefs at the
head of the harbor, flying the Spanish flag and bringing two
officers, the captain of the port, a lieutenant-commander in
the Spanish navy, and the health officer, a surgeon of the
Spanish army. These officers came on board, and, in answer to
my questions, told me they did not know that war had been
declared between the United States and Spain, their last news
having been from Manila, under date of April 14. I informed
them that war existed and that they must consider themselves
as prisoners. As they stated that no resistance could be made
by the force on the island, I released them on parole for the
day, to proceed to Agana and inform the governor that I
desired him to come on board ship at once, they assuring me
that he would do so as soon as he could reach the port. While
awaiting the return of these officers, an examination was made
of the harbor, the only dangers to navigation were buoyed, and
the transports came in during the afternoon.
"At 5 p. m. the governor's secretary, a captain in the Spanish
army, came on board, bringing me a letter from the governor,
in which he stated that he was not allowed by law to go on
board a foreign vessel and requested me to meet him on shore
for a conference. This letter is appended, marked A. As it was
then too late to land a party, from the state of the tide on
the reef between the ship and the landing place, I directed
the secretary to return and say to the governor that I would
send an officer ashore with a communication for him early next
day.
{602}
… At 8.30 a. m. on June 21 Lieutenant William Braunersreuther
was sent ashore, under flag of truce, with a written demand
for the immediate surrender of the defenses of the Island of
Guam and all officials and persons in the military service of
Spain. Mr. Braunersreuther was directed to wait half an hour
only for a reply, to bring the governor and other officials on
board as prisoners of war in case of surrender, or in case of
refusal or delay beyond the time given, to return and take
command of the landing force, which he would find in
readiness, and proceed to Agaña. At 12.15 p. m. Mr.
Braunersreuther returned to the ship, bringing off the
governor and three other officers, his staff, and handed me a
letter from the governor acceding fully to my demand. Having
received the surrender of the Island of Guam, I took formal
possession at 2.45 p. m., hoisting the American flag on Fort
Santa Cruz and saluting it with 21 guns from the 'Charleston.'
From a personal examination of Fort Santa Cruz, I decided that
it was entirely useless as a defensive work, with no guns and
in a partly ruinous condition, and that it was not necessary
to expend any mines in blowing it up. The forts at Agaña, San
Luis D'Apra, and Umata are of no value and no guns remain in
the island except four small cast-iron guns of obsolete
pattern at Agaña, formerly used for saluting, but now
condemned as unsafe even for that purpose. No Spanish vessel
of war has visited Guam during the last eighteen months. No
coal was found on the island."
Annual Reports of the Navy Department, 1898,
volume 2, pages 151-3.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (June-July).
War with Spain.
Expedition of the army under General Shafter
against Santiago de Cuba.
Battles of El Caney and San Juan Hill.
To co-operate with the navy in operations for the capture of
Santiago de Cuba, and of the Spanish fleet blockaded in the
harbor of that town, orders were issued from Washington on the
31st of May, by Major-General Miles, Commanding the Army,
"with the approval of the Secretary of War," which directed
General Shafter, commanding the forces assembled at Tampa,
Florida, to place them on transports and proceed with them,
under convoy of the navy, to Santiago. Owing to an extreme
lack of both railway and harbor facilities at Tampa, an entire
week was consumed in the embarkation of the troops and
supplies. When on shipboard, the expedition was delayed
another week by false reports of the appearance of Spanish
cruisers on the Cuban coast, which seemed to the Washington
authorities to call for a stronger naval convoy to guard the
transport fleet. It was not until the 14th of June that the
fleet was permitted to sail, with 16,000 men. It arrived off
Guantanamo, near Santiago, on the morning of the 20th.
Meantime, the blockading fleet had bombarded the forts at
Santiago twice, on the 6th and on the 16th, and had silenced
them, for the time being, on both occasions, but apparently
with no permanent effect. With more success, two vessels from
the fleet had entered the harbor of Guantanamo on the 7th and
taken possession of the lower bay, where a marine battalion
was landed on the 10th and established in camp, to hold ground
until the army arrived. Meantime, also, communication with
General Garcia, commanding Cuban forces, had been opened, and
arrangements made, the results of which were subsequently
acknowledged by General Miles, in his annual report, as
follows:
"General Garcia regarded my requests as his orders, and
promptly took steps to execute the plan of operations. He sent
3,000 men to check any movement of the 12,000 Spaniards
stationed at Holguín. A portion of this latter force started
to the relief of the garrison at Santiago, but was
successfully checked and turned back by the Cuban forces under
General Feria. General Garcia also sent 2,000 men, under
Perez, to oppose the 6,000 Spaniards at Guantánamo, and they
were successful in their object. He also sent 1,000 men, under
General Ríos, against the 6,000 men at Manzanillo. Of this
garrison, 3,500 started to reenforce the garrison at Santiago,
and were engaged in no less than thirty combats with the
Cubans on their way before reaching Santiago. … With an
additional force of 5,000 men General Garcia besieged the
garrison of Santiago, taking up a strong position on the west
side and in close proximity to the harbor, and he afterwards
received General Shafter and Admiral Sampson at his camp near
that place. He had troops in the rear, as well as on both
sides of the garrison at Santiago before the arrival of our
troops."
Annual Reports of the War Department, 1898,
volume 1, part 2, page 16.
The troops from Tampa, under General Shafter, arriving on the
20th, were disembarked on the 22d, 23d and 24th, at Daiquiri,
and advanced to Siboney. The first resistance encountered was
at La Guasima, three miles from Siboney, on the Santiago road,
where the Spaniards were driven from strong entrenchments by a
part of Young's brigade of General Wheeler's cavalry division
(dismounted). The brigade thus first in the fighting was
composed of the 1st and 10th regiments of regular cavalry and
the 1st United States Volunteer cavalry, commonly called the
"Rough Riders." After the engagement at La Guasima, six days
were occupied in concentrating the army (including the Cuban
auxiliaries of General Garcia), mostly at Sevilla, a short
distance beyond La Guasima, on the same road, and in
overcoming great difficulties of transportation for supplies.
On June 30, General Shafter reconnoitered the country around
Santiago and made his plan of attack. "From a high hill," says
his subsequent report, "from which the city was in plain view,
I could see the San Juan Hill and the country about El Caney. The
roads were very poor, and, indeed, little better than
bridlepaths, until the San Juan River and El Caney were
reached. The position of El Caney, to the northeast of
Santiago, was of great importance to the enemy as holding the
Guantanamo road, as well as furnishing shelter for a strong
outpost that might be used to assail the right flank and rear
of any force operating against San Juan Hill. In view of this
I decided to begin the attack next day at El Caney with one
division, while sending two divisions on the direct road to
Santiago, passing by El Poso House, and, as a diversion, to
direct a small force against Aguadores from Siboney along the
railroad by the sea, with a view of attracting the attention
of the Spaniards in the latter direction and of preventing
them from attacking our left flank.
"During the afternoon I assembled the division commanders and
explained to them my general plan of battle. Lawton's division
[composed of Chaffee's, Miles' and Ludlow's brigades],
assisted by Capron's light battery, was ordered to move out
during the afternoon toward El Caney, to begin the attack
there early the next morning.
{603}
Map Illustrating the Santiago Campaign…
{604}
After carrying El Caney, Lawton was to move by the Caney road
toward Santiago and take position on the right of the line.
Wheeler's division of dismounted cavalry [embracing Sumner's
brigade—3d, 6th and 9th regular cavalry, and Young's brigade
mentioned above] and Kent's division of infantry [Wikoft's,
Hawkins's and Pearson's brigades] were directed on the
Santiago road, the head of the column resting near El Poso,
toward which heights Grimes's battery moved on the afternoon
of the 30th, with orders to take position thereon early the
next morning and at the proper time prepare the way for the
advance of Wheeler and Kent on San Juan Hill. The attack at
this point was to be delayed until Lawton's guns were heard
at El Caney and his infantry fire showed he had become well
engaged.
"The remainder of the afternoon and night was devoted to
cutting out and repairing the roads and to other necessary
preparations for battle. These preparations were far from what
I desired them to be; but we were in a sickly climate; our
supplies had to be brought forward by a narrow wagon road,
which the rains might at any time render impassable; fear was
entertained that a storm might drive the vessels containing
our stores to sea, thus separating us from our base of
supplies; and lastly, it was reported that General Pando, with
8,000 reenforcements for the enemy, was en route from
Manzanillo and might be expected in a few days. Under those
conditions I determined to give battle without delay.
"Early on the morning of July 1, Lawton was in position around
El Caney, Chaffee's brigade [7th, 12th, and 13th U. S.
Infantry] on the right, across the Guantanamo road; Miles's
brigade [1st, 4th, and 25th U. S. Infantry] in the center, and
Ludlow's [8th and 22d U. S. Infantry and 2d Microcassettes
Volunteers] on the left. The duty of cutting off the enemy's
retreat along the Santiago road was assigned to the latter
brigade. The artillery opened on the town at 6.15 A. M. The
battle here soon became general and was hotly contested. The
enemy's position was naturally strong and was rendered more so
by blockhouses, a stone fort, and entrenchments cut in solid
rock, and the loopholing of a solidly built stone church. The
opposition offered by the enemy was greater than had been
anticipated, and prevented Lawton from joining the right of
the main line during the day, as had been intended.
"After the battle had continued for some time Bates's brigade
of two regiments (3d and 20th United States Infantry] reached
my headquarters from Siboney. I directed him to move near El
Caney, to give assistance, if necessary. He did so and was put
in position between Miles and Chaffee. The battle continued
with varying intensity during most of the day and until the
place was carried by assault, about 4.30 p. m. As the
Spaniards endeavored to retreat along the Santiago road,
Ludlow's position enabled him to do very effective work and to
practically cut off all retreat in that direction.
"After the battle at El Caney was well opened and the sound of
the small-arms fire caused us to believe that Lawton was
driving the enemy before him, I directed Grimes's battery to
open fire from the heights of El Poso on the San Juan'
blockhouse, which could be seen situated in the enemy's
entrenchments extending along the crest of San Juan Hill. This
fire was effective and the enemy could be seen running away
from the vicinity of the blockhouse. The artillery fire from
El Poso was soon returned by the enemy's artillery. They
evidently had the range of this hill, and their first shells
killed and wounded several men. As the Spaniards used
smokeless powder it was very difficult to locate the positions
of their pieces, while, on the contrary, the smoke caused by our
black powder plainly indicated the position of our battery.
"At this time the cavalry division [of General Wheeler] under
General Sumner (commanding temporarily in consequence of the
illness of General Wheeler, who returned to duty that day],
which was lying concealed in the general vicinity of the El
Poso House, was ordered forward, with directions to cross the
San Juan River and deploy to the right on the Santiago side,
while Kent's division was to follow closely in its rear and
deploy to the left. These troops moved forward in compliance
with orders, but the road was so narrow as to render it
impracticable to retain the column of fours formation at all
points, while the undergrowth on either side was so dense as
to preclude the possibility of deploying skirmishers. It
naturally resulted that the progress made was slow, and the
long range rifles of the enemy's infantry killed and wounded a
number of our men while marching along this road and before
there was any opportunity to return this fire. At this time
Generals Kent and Sumner were ordered to push forward with all
possible haste and place their troops in position to engage the
enemy. General Kent, with this end in view, forced the head of
his column alongside of the cavalry column as far as the
narrow trail permitted, and thus hurried his arrival at the
San Juan and the formation beyond that stream. A few hundred
yards before reaching the San Juan the road forks, a fact that
was discovered by Lieutenant-Colonel Derby, of my staff, who
had approached well to the front in a war balloon. This
information he furnished to the troops, resulting in Sumner
moving on the right-hand road, while Kent was enabled to
utilize the road to the left. … After crossing the stream, the
cavalry moved to the right with a view of connecting with
Lawton's left when he should come up, and with their left
resting near the Santiago road. In the meanwhile Kent's
division, with the exception of two regiments of Hawkins's
brigade, being thus uncovered, moved rapidly to the front from
the forks previously mentioned in the road, utilizing both
trails, but more especially the one to the left, and crossing
the creek formed for attack in the front of San Juan Hill."
Annual Reports of the War Department, 1898,
volume 1, part 2, page 147.
"The particulars of this gallant attack, which won the hill
and decided the fate of Santiago, are given with more
clearness in the report of General Kent, who commanded the
division which had most of the fighting to do, than in that of
General Shafter. Wikoff's 'heroic brigade,' writes General
Kent, 'consisting of the 13th, 9th, and 24th United States
Infantry, speedily crossed the stream and were quickly
deployed to the left of the lower ford.
{605}
While personally superintending this movement Colonel Wikoff
was killed, the command of the brigade then devolving upon
Lieutenant-Colonel Worth, 13th Infantry, who immediately fell
severely wounded, and then upon Lieutenant-Colonel Liscum,
24th Infantry, who, five minutes later, also fell under the
withering fire of the enemy. The command of the brigade then
devolved upon Lieutenant-Colonel E. P. Ewers, 9th Infantry.
Meanwhile I had again sent a staff officer to hurry forward
the second brigade [Pearson's] which was bringing up the rear.
The 10th and 2d Infantry, soon arriving at the forks, were
deflected to the left to follow the Third Brigade [Wikoff's],
while the 21st was directed along the main road to support
Hawkins [whose brigade was composed of the 6th and 16th U. S.
Infantry and the 71st New York Volunteers].
"Crossing the lower ford a few minutes later, the 10th and 2d
moved forward in column in good order toward the green knoll …
on the left. Approaching the knoll the regiments deployed,
passed over the knoll, and ascended the high ridge beyond,
driving back the enemy in the direction of his trenches. I
observed this movement from the Fort San Juan Hill. … Prior to
this advance of the second brigade, the third, connecting with
Hawkins's gallant troops on the right, had moved toward Fort
San Juan, sweeping through a zone of most destructive fire,
scaling a steep and difficult hill, and assisting in capturing
the enemy's strong position (Fort San Juan) at 1.30 p. m. This
crest was about 125 feet above the general level and was
defended by deep trenches and a loopholed brick fort
surrounded by barbed-wire entanglements. General Hawkins, some
time after I reached the crest, reported that the 6th and 16th
Infantry had captured the hill, which I now consider
incorrect. Credit is almost equally due the 6th, 9th, 13th,
16th, and 24th regiments of infantry. … The Thirteenth
Infantry captured the enemy's colors waving over the fort, but
unfortunately destroyed them. …
"The greatest credit is due to the officers of my command,
whether company, battalion, regimental, or brigade commanders,
who so admirably directed the formation of their troops,
unavoidably intermixed in the dense thicket, and made the
desperate rush for the distant and strongly defended crest, I
have already mentioned the circumstances of my third brigade's
advance across the ford, where, in the brief space of ten
minutes, it lost its brave commander (killed) and the next two
ranking officers by disabling wounds; yet in spite of these
confusing conditions the formations were effected without
hesitation, although under a stinging fire, companies acting
singly in some instances and by battalions and regiments in
others, rushing through the jungle, across the stream, waist
deep, and over the wide bottom thickly set with barbed-wire
entanglements. …
"The enemy having retired to a second line of rifle pits, I
directed my line to hold their positions and intrench. At ten
minutes past 3 p. m. I received almost simultaneously two
requests—one from Colonel Wood, commanding a cavalry brigade,
and one from General Sumner—asking for assistance for the
cavalry on my right, 'as they were hard pressed.' I
immediately sent to their aid the 13th Infantry, who promptly
went on this further mission, despite the heavy losses they
had already sustained. Great credit is due to the gallant
officer and gentleman, Brigadier General H. S. Hawkins, who,
placing himself between the two regiments, leading his
brigade, the 6th and 16th Infantry, urged and led them by
voice and bugle calls to the attack so successfully
accomplished."
Annual Reports of the War Department, 1898,
volume 1, part 2, page 164.
The part borne by the dismounted cavalry division in the
capture of the Spanish intrenchments on San Juan Hill is
described as follows in the report of General Sumner,
temporarily in command:
"After crossing the creek with sufficient strength to hold it
and protect the crossing, I received verbal orders to move by
the right flank to connect with Lawton's left. During the
execution of this movement a balloon, under command of Colonel
Derby, came up the road, forcing open Wood's Brigade and
cutting it in two, thereby delaying the movement. The
artillery fire of the enemy opened upon the balloon and
continued for more than an hour, thereby subjecting part of my
command massed and the rest moving by the flank to long
shrapnel fire. Many officers and men were wounded here by
exploding shells and small arms' firing of the enemy. After
completing the deployment the command was so much committed to
battle that it became necessary either to advance or else
retreat under fire.
"Lieutenant Miley, representing General Shafter, authorized an
advance, which was ordered, Carroll's brigade taking the
advance, reinforced on the right by Roosevelt's regiment and
supported by the 1st and 10th Cavalry of Wood's Brigade. The
advance was made under heavy infantry fire through open flat
ground, cut up by wire fences, to the creek, dIstant about 600
yards. The advance was made in good order, the enemy's fire
being returned only under favorable opportunities. In crossing
the flat one officer (Captain O'Neil) and several men were
killed and several officers and men wounded. Both sides of the
creek are heavily wooded for about 200 yards. The creek was
swollen, and the crossing through this space and the creek was
made with great difficulty. After passing through the thick
woods the ground was entirely open and fenced by wire. From
this line it was necessary to storm the hill, upon the top of
which is a house loopholed, etc., for defense. The slope of
the hill is very difficult, but the assault was made with
great gallantry and with much loss to the enemy. In this
assault Colonel Hamilton, Lieutenants Smith and Shipp were
killed; Colonel Carroll, Lieutenants Thayer and Myer were
wounded. A number of casualties occurred among the enlisted
men. After taking this hill the front line advanced to take
the Fort San Juan Hill under fire from strong force of the
enemy in trenches and house known as 'Blockhouse.' … The
assault was successful, the line storming the trenches and
blockhouse with conspicuous gallantry and coolness, capturing
three prisoners, wounding and killing many of the enemy. …
Connected with my left, Hawkins's brigade of Kent's division
carried everything in front of it and captured the house and
hill known as 'Fort San Juan' proper."
Annual Reports of the War Department, 1898,
volume 1, part 2. page 370.
{606}
Lieutenant Colonel Roosevelt, who commanded the Rough Riders
regiment that day, while Colonel Wood commanded the brigade,
tells the story of the fight, and what followed, very tersely,
in his report: "After crossing the river at the ford," says
the Lieutenant-Colonel, "we were moved along and up its light
bank under fire, and were held in reserve at a sunken road.
Here we lost a good many men, including Captain O'Neil,
killed, and Lieutenant Haskell, wounded. We then received your
order to advance and support the regular cavalry in the attack
on the intrenchments and blockhouses on the hills to the left.
The regiment was deployed on both sides of the road, and moved
forward until we came to the rearmost lines of the regulars.
We continued to move forward until I ordered a charge, and the
men rushed the blockhouse and rifle pits on the hill to the
right of our advance. They did the work in fine shape, though
suffering severely. The guidons of Troops E and G were first
planted on the summit, though the first men up were some A and
B troopers who were with me.
"We then opened fire on the intrenchments on a hill to our
left which some of the other regiments were assailing and
which they carried a few minutes later. Meanwhile we were
under a heavy rifle fire from the intrenchments along the
hills to our front, from whence they also shelled us with a
piece of field artillery until some of our marksmen silenced
it. When the men got their wind we charged again and carried
the second line of intrenchments with a rush. Swinging to the
left, we then drove the Spaniards over the brow of the chain
of hills fronting Santiago. By this time the regiments were
much mixed, and we were under a very heavy fire, both of
shrapnel and from rifles from the batteries, intrenchments,
and forts immediately in front of the city. On the extreme
front I now found myself in command with fragments of the six
cavalry regiments of the two brigades under me. The Spaniards
made one or two efforts to retake the line, but were promptly
driven back.
"Both General Sumner and you sent me word to hold the line at
all hazards, and that night we dug a line of intrenchments
across our front, using the captured Spaniards' intrenching
tools. We had nothing to eat except what we captured from the
Spaniards; but their dinners had fortunately been cooked, and
we ate them with relish, having been fighting all day. We had
no blankets and coats, and lay by the trenches all night. The
Spaniards attacked us once in the night, and at dawn they
opened a heavy artillery and rifle fire. Very great assistance
was rendered us by Lieutenant Parker's Gatling battery at
critical moments; he fought his guns at the extreme front of
the firing line in a way that repeatedly called forth the
cheers of my men. One of the Spanish batteries which was used
against us was directly in front of the hospital so that the
red cross flag flew over the battery, saving it from our fire
for a considerable period. The Spanish Mauser bullets made
clean wounds; but they also used a copper-jacketed or
brass-jacketed bullet which exploded, making very bad wounds
indeed.
"Since then we have continued to hold the ground; the food has
been short; and until today [July 4] we could not get our
blankets, coats, or shelter tents, while the men lay all day
under the fire from the Spanish batteries, intrenchments, and
guerrillas in trees, and worked all night in the trenches,
never even taking off their shoes. But they are in excellent
spirits, and ready and anxious to carry out any orders they
receive. At the end of the first day the eight troops were
commanded, two by captains, three by first lieutenants, two by
second lieutenants, and one by the sergeant whom you made
acting lieutenant. We went into the fight about 490 strong; 86
were killed or wounded, and there are about half a dozen
missing. The great heat prostrated nearly 40 men, some of them
among the best in the regiment."
Annual Reports of the War Department, 1898,
volume 1, part 2, page 684.
There have been much contradiction and controversy concerning
some of the orders by which the battle of San Juan was
directed. The following are the conclusions on that subject of
a civilian observer who seems to have seen and investigated
with impartiality:
"The orders under which the battle of San Juan was fought were
given by Adjutant-General McClernand to General Kent, commanding
the Infantry Division—consisting, in addition to the
organizations already mentioned (Wikoff's and Pearson's
brigades), of the First Brigade, including the Sixth and
Sixteenth United States Infantry and the Seventy-first New
York, under General Hawkins—at about nine o'clock in the
morning. There is no question fortunately as to the exact
wording of the orders. A little green knoll to the left of the
Santiago road and half a mile short of the San Juan Heights was
pointed out as the point which was to be the extreme limit of
the forward movement of the Infantry Division. Once there,
further orders would be given. The orders under which General
Sumner advanced from El Pozo would appear to have been more
specific, and certainly more clear than the orders which
General Kent received for the Infantry Division a few minutes
later. At the same time, it is true that these orders were
also based upon a complete misconception of the situation and
a total ignorance of the Spanish position and the lay of the
country beyond El Pozo. General Sumner's orders were to
advance along that branch of the Aguadores Creek which runs
parallel with the Santiago road from El Pozo, until it joins
the main stream of the Aguadores at the angle subsequently
known as the 'bloody angle,' where the creek makes a sharp
turn to the left, and then runs a general southerly course
toward the town of Aguadores and the sea. This creek General
Sumner was instructed to hold until the result of Lawton's
attack upon Caney became known, and he received further
orders. Once the creek was reached, Sumner, under the most
unfavorable circumstances of a heavy fire, and the thick and
pathless jungles which his men had to penetrate, deployed his
whole division, and then sent back word to McClernand, the
adjutant-general of the corps, acquainting him with the actual
conditions by which he was confronted, and asking whether his
orders contemplated an attack upon the enemy's intrenched
position, setting forth at the same time the utter
impossibility of keeping his men inactive for a long time
under such a heavy fire as was being poured in upon them.
{607}
"Had it been proposed to carry out the plan, as discussed and
agreed upon at General Shafter's headquarters the night
before, to advance along the right flank of the Spanish
position, keeping in touch with Lawton, obviously these two
divisions, or a large part of them, should have been directed
to take the direct road which ran north from El Pozo to
Marianaje and thence to El Caney, leaving in front of San Juan
only force sufficient to retain the Spaniards in their
position. But the divisions were ordered to proceed along the
Santiago road, and in a very few minutes came under fire. The
original plan may have been changed at the last moment, of
course; but as every movement that was subsequently made was
in the line of carrying this plan out, until finally, on the
12th, General Lawton succeeded in completely investing the
town on the north and west, this does not seem likely. The
more probable explanation of the movement and of what
followed, and the one accepted by general officers, is as
follows: That it was still intended to follow Lawton's advance
on the right, but that owing to our failure to develop the
Spanish position in our front, and our complete ignorance of
the lay of the land, the flank movement was not begun until
too late—not until the troops had been led into a position
from which they could be extricated only by wresting from the
Spaniards the block-houses and the trenches from which,
unexposed and unseen, they were delivering such a galling fire
upon our men, engaged in wandering aimlessly about in an
almost trackless tropical jungle. At this moment of great
confusion and uncertainty, when the road was choked with the
regiments of both the cavalry and infantry divisions, mutually
hindering one another in their struggles to advance, and
having to sustain a heavy and destructive fire which could not
be answered, an ordeal even for the veteran soldier; at this
moment, when something might still have been done to mislead
the enemy and cover our advance, the war balloon was sent up
directly behind our columns. This mistake betrayed the exact
location of our advance, and the Spanish fire became heavier
and better directed, and our losses more severe."
S. Bonsal,
The Fight for Santiago,
chapter 6 (New York: Doubleday, Page & Company).
The same writer gives a sickening account of the sufferings of
the wounded after the battle and the miserable failure of
provision for any kind of succor or care of them. "Of course:"
he says, "in view of the perilous situation which the two
divisions now occupied upon the crest of the hill, and the
great anxiety which was felt at headquarters for the safety of
the whole army, and the preparations which had to be made
against the expected night attack of the Spaniards to drive
our men back and retake their lost position, the search for
the dead and wounded this evening had to be confined to a very
limited area, and was only as thorough as the shortness of the
time for which men could be spared from the colors permitted.
The jungle and the great fields of long grass were not
searched, and thus many of the wounded were not discovered
until the following day; and quite a number, indeed, not until
the armistice was declared, on the third day after the battle,
when the men had time to ransack the hill-side and the valley
for the missing. And there were some—those who had the
strength when they fell to crawl through the cactus, the
Spanish bayonet, and all manner of prickly and trailing plants
into the deeper and more protected recesses of the jungle—who
were never discovered at all until days, many days, had
passed; and the gathering of the vultures told where some poor
fellow had died without care and without food, of his wounds
or from starvation. Of such an one, when his place of hiding
was discovered, there was, as a rule, only left a whitened
skeleton and pieces of the uniform he had worn. The last
resting place of not a few was never discovered at all.
"I believe I am giving a moderate estimate when I say that at
least one-third of the men wounded on July 1st received no
attention, and were not brought back to the division hospital
until the afternoon of Ju]y 3d. This night we knew nothing,
and had not even the slightest suspicion, of how numerous the
undiscovered wounded were. … Only about half of the wounded
men who were discovered this evening and been brought back to
the dressing station when the moon rose above the dark forest
line, and lit up the battlefield and the heights of San Juan
as clearly, and, indeed, more clearly than day, for there was
now not the dazzling force and the confusing mirage of the
pitiless sunlight to blind the sight. The majority of these
men had had their wounds dressed where they fell, or soon
after falling, with the first-aid bandages. There were very
few indeed to whom it had been possible to give any further
attention than this, as the regimental surgeons, for want of
transportation, had been unable to bring their medical chests,
and those who were best provided carried with them only small
pocket cases. …
"When the first-aid bandages were applied, the wounded man and
those who helped him were, as a rule, under fire, which made
any but the most summary methods of wound-dressing quite
impossible. Fortunately these bandages, so simple and
practical, lent themselves excellently well to this procedure.
The first thing the soldiers or the hospital attendants would
do when they came upon a wounded man was, in the case of a
wound in the body, to tear off his shirt, or in the case of a
wound in the leg, tear off his trousers, and then wrap around
the wound the first-aid bandage. The wound-dressers were
generally in such haste, and the wounded men usually so
helpless to assist in any way, and their shirts and trousers
so rotten from the drenching rains in which they had been worn
without change day or night, that the taking off of the clothing
was literally what I call it—tearing, and the garment came off
so rent as to be quite useless for further wear. Consequently
the soldiers were carried half-naked, or, if they had been
wounded in both the body and the lower limbs, as was so
frequently the case, entirely naked, to the army wagons and so
down to the hospital, where there was not a scrap of clothing
or bedding forthcoming to cover them with. These who were
stripped in this way during the daytime were baked and
blistered by the fierce sunlight, only to shiver with the
penetrating cold and dampness after the rain had ceased to
fall and when the chill night came on.
"Knowing that he was totally unprepared to clothe or cover the
wounded that would probably be brought in, the chief surgeon
of the corps issued an order, the evening before the battle,
that all wounded men should be brought in with their blankets,
halves of shelter-tents, and ponchos when possible. This was
certainly a step in the right direction, even if it was but a
frank confession by the authorities that no preparation had
been made by them for the emergency which it cannot be said
was suddenly thrust upon them, but which they might have
foreseen and should have been preparing against for many weeks
previous.
{608}
While the attending soldiers, realizing how serious for their
wounded comrades it would be to have to lie in the hospitals
uncovered to wind and weather, made great efforts to find
their packs, these efforts were not often successful, and a
great majority of the wounded reached the hospital half
naked, and had thereafter only the covering and the bedding
which their comrades and the hospital attendants were able to
'rustle' for them, and this was little enough and not seldom
nothing at all.
"Had this expedition been provided with a greater number of
surgeons and hospital attendants, had the ambulances been at
hand which we left in Tampa or upon the transports, ambulances
without which it is reasonable to suppose—at least we had
supposed—no civilized power would enter upon an aggressive
war, much less upon a campaign in which we had the advantage
of choosing both our own time and the field of operations, the
outrageous treatment which our wounded suffered, and the
barbarous scenes which we were called upon to witness upon
this and the following days would never have occurred."
S. Bonsai,
The Fight for Santiago,
chapter 8 (New York: Doubleday, Page & Company).
The troops which had carried San Juan Hill were intrenched,
that night, in the positions they had gained, and those which
had taken El Caney were brought into connection with them,
Lawton's division on their right and Bates's brigade on the
left. The battle was renewed by the Spaniards soon after
daylight on the morning of the 2d, and raged with more or less
fury throughout the day. That evening, about 10 o'clock, a
fierce attempt was made to break through the American lines,
but without success. Again, on the morning of the third, the
Spaniards reopened battle, but with less vigor than before.
General Shafter then sent the following letter to General
Toral, the Spanish commander: "I shall be obliged, unless you
surrender, to shell Santiago de Cuba. Please inform the
citizens of foreign countries, and all women and children,
that they should leave the city before 10 o'clock to-morrow
morning." In reply, General Toral wrote; "It is my duty to say
to you that this city will not surrender, and that I will
inform the foreign consuls and inhabitants of the contents of
your message." Several of the foreign consuls at Santiago then
came into the American lines and persuaded General Shafter to
delay the shelling of the town until noon of the 5th, provided
that the Spanish forces made no demonstration meantime against
his own. This established a truce which was renewed, in a
series of negotiations until the 10th. "I was of the opinion,"
reported General Shafter, "that the Spaniards would surrender
if given a little time, and I thought this result would be
hastened if the men of their army could be made to understand
they would be well treated as prisoners of war. Acting upon
this presumption I determined to offer to return all the
wounded Spanish officers at El Caney who were able to bear
transportation, and who were willing to give their paroles not
to serve against the forces of the United States until
regularly exchanged. This offer was made and accepted. These
officers, as well as several of the wounded Spanish privates,
27 in all, were sent to their lines under the escort of some
of our mounted cavalry. Our troops were received with honors,
and I have every reason to believe the return of the Spanish
prisoners produced a good impression on their comrades. The
cessation of firing about noon on the 3d practically
terminated the battle of Santiago." General Shafter goes on to
say that when the battle was fiercest, on July 1st, he probably
had no more than 12,000 men on the firing line, not counting a
few Cubans who assisted in the attack on El Caney, and who
fought with valor. They were confronted by about equal numbers
of the enemy, in strong and intrenched positions. "Our losses
in these battles were 22 officers and 208 men killed, and 81
officers and 1,203 men wounded; missing 79. The missing, with
few exceptions, reported later." Up to this time, General
Shafter had been unable to complete the investment of the town
with his own men, and had depended upon General Garcia with
his Cubans, placed on the extreme right of the American lines,
to watch for and intercept reinforcements. They failed to do
so, and 2,800 Spaniards, under General Escario, entered the
city on the night of the 2d. The American commander now
extended his own lines as rapidly as possible and completed
the investment of the town.
Annual Reports of the War Department, 1898,
volume 1, part 2, pages 155-157.
As stated above, permission was given on the 3d for
non-combatants to leave the city. "They did leave in the
following days to the number of perhaps 20,000, filling the
neighboring villages and roads with destitute people, mostly
women and children. It then seemed to fall to our lot to see
that these people did not starve in a desolate country, and to
be as much our duty to take care of these people, whom our
policy had driven from their homes, as it was for Spain to
feed the reconcentrados, whom they drove from their homes
under their war policy. The task was not insignificant."
Report of Inspector-General
(Annual Reports of the War Department, 1898,
volume 1, part 2, page 596).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (July).
Annexation of the Hawaiian Islands.
See (in this volume)
HAWAIIAN ISLANDS: A. D. 1898.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (July 1).
National Bankrupt Law.
After years of effort on the part of its advocates, a national
bankrupt law was enacted by both Houses of Congress and
received the President's signature on the 1st of July, 1898.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (July 3).
Destruction of the Spanish squadron at Santiago.
On the morning of July 3, Admiral Cervera, convinced that
Santiago would be taken by the American forces, and acting
under orders from the Captain-General at Havana, made a
desperate attempt to save his squadron by escaping to sea. The
result was a total destruction of the Spanish ships, in an
engagement with the blockading fleet, of which Admiral Sampson
gave the following account in his official report:
"The enemy's vessels came out of the harbor between 9.35 and
10 a. m., the head of the column appearing around Cay Smith at
9.31 and emerging from the channel five or six minutes later.
The positions of the vessels of my command off Santiago at
that moment were as follows: The flagship 'New York' was 4
miles east of her blockading station and about 7 miles from
the harbor entrance. She had started for Siboney, where I
intended to land, accompanied by several of my staff, and go
to the front to consult with General Shafter.
{609}
A discussion of the situation and a more definite
understanding between us of the operations proposed had been
rendered necessary by the unexpectedly strong resistance of
the Spanish garrison of Santiago. I had sent my chief of staff
on shore the day before to arrange an interview with General
Shafter, who had been suffering from heat prostration. I made
arrangements to go to his headquarters, and my flagship was in
the position mentioned above when the Spanish squadron
appeared in the channel. The remaining vessels were in or near
their usual blockading positions, distributed in a semicircle
about the harbor entrance, counting from the eastward to the
westward, in the following order: The 'Indiana' about a mile
and a half from shore, the 'Oregon'—the 'New York's' place
being between these two—the 'Iowa,' 'Texas,' and 'Brooklyn,'
the latter two miles from the shore west of Santiago. The
distance of the vessels from the harbor entrance was from 2½
to 4 miles, the latter being the limit of day blockading
distance. The length of the arc formed by the ships was about
8 miles. The 'Massachusetts' had left at 4 a. m., for
Guantanamo for coal. Her station was between the 'Iowa' and
'Texas.' The auxiliaries 'Gloucester' and 'Vixen' lay close to
the land and nearer the harbor entrance than the large
vessels, the 'Gloucester' to the eastward and the 'Vixen' to
the westward. The torpedo boat 'Ericsson' was in company with
the flagship and remained with her during the chase until
ordered to discontinue, when she rendered very efficient
service in rescuing prisoners from the burning' Vizcaya.' …
"The Spanish vessels came rapidly out of the harbor, at a
speed estimated at from 8 to 10 knots, and in the following
order: 'Infanta Maria Teresa' (flagship), 'Vizcaya,'
'Cristobal Colon,' and the 'Almirante Oquendo.' The distance
between these ships was about 800 yards, which means that from
the time the first one became visible in the upper reach of
the channel until the last one was out of the harbor an
interval of only about 12 minutes elapsed. Following the
'Oquendo,' at a distance of about 1,200 yards, came the
torpedo-boat destroyer 'Pluton,' and after her the 'Furor.'
The armored cruisers, as rapidly as they could bring their
guns to bear, opened a vigorous fire upon the blockading
vessels, and emerged from the channel shrouded in the smoke
from their guns. The men of our ships in front of the port
were at Sunday 'quarters for inspection.' The signal was made
simultaneously from several vessels, 'Enemy ships escaping,'
and general quarters was sounded. The men cheered as they
sprang to their guns, and fire was opened probably within 8
minutes by the vessels whose guns commanded the entrance. The
'New York' turned about and steamed for the escaping fleet,
flying the signal, 'Close in towards harbor entrance and
attack vessels,' and gradually increasing speed, until toward
the end of the chase she was making 16½ knots, and was rapidly
closing on the 'Cristobal Colon.' She was not, at any time,
within the range of the heavy Spanish ships, and her only part
in the firing was to receive the undivided fire from the forts
in passing the harbor entrance, and to fire a few shots at one
of the destroyers, thought at the moment to be attempting to
escape from the 'Gloucester.'
"The Spanish vessels, upon clearing the harbor, turned to the
westward in column, increasing their speed to the full power
of their engines. The heavy blockading vessels, which had
closed in towards the Morro at the instant of the enemy's
appearance, and at their best speed, delivered a rapid fire,
well sustained and destructive, which speedily overwhelmed and
silenced the Spanish fire. The initial speed of the Spaniards
carried them rapidly past the blockading vessels, and the
battle developed into a chase in which the 'Brooklyn' and
'Texas' had, at the start, the advantage of position. The
'Brooklyn' maintained this lead. The 'Oregon,' steaming with
amazing speed from the commencement of the action, took first
place. The 'Iowa' and the 'Indiana' having done good work, and
not having the speed of the other ships, were directed by me,
in succession, at about the time the 'Vizcaya' was beached, to
drop out of the chase and resume blockading stations. These
vessels rescued many prisoners. The 'Vixen,' finding that the
rush of the Spanish ships would put her between two fires, ran
outside of our own column and remained there during the battle
and chase.
"The skillful handling and gallant fighting of the
'Gloucester' excited the admiration of everyone who witnessed
it, and merits the commendation of the Navy Department. She is
a fast and entirely unprotected auxiliary vessel—the yacht
'Corsair'—and has a good battery of light rapid-fire guns. She
was lying about 2 miles from the harbor entrance, to the
southward and eastward, and immediately steamed in, opening
fire upon the large ships. Anticipating the appearance of the
'Pluton' and 'Furor,' the 'Gloucester' was slowed, thereby
gaining more rapidly a high pressure of steam, and when the
destroyers came out she steamed for them at full speed, and
was able to close to short range, while her fire was accurate,
deadly, and of great volume. During this fight the
'Gloucester' was under the fire of the Socapa Battery. Within
twenty minutes from the time they emerged from Santiago Harbor
the careers of the 'Furor' and the 'Pluton' were ended, and
two-thirds of their people killed. The 'Furor' was beached and
sunk in the surf; the 'Pluton' sank in deep water a few
minutes later. The destroyers probably suffered much injury
from the fire of the secondary batteries of the battle ships
'Iowa,' 'Indiana,' and the 'Texas,' yet I think a very
considerable factor in their speedy destruction was the fire,
at close range, of the 'Gloucester's' battery. After rescuing
the survivors of the destroyers, the 'Gloucester' did
excellent service in landing and securing the crew of the
'Infanta Maria Teresa.'
"The method of escape attempted by the Spaniards, all steering
in the same direction, and in formation, removed all tactical
doubts or difficulties, and made plain the duty of every
United States vessel to close in, immediately engage, and
pursue. This was promptly and effectively done. As already
stated, the first rush of the Spanish squadron carried it past
a number of the blockading ships which could not immediately
work up to their best speed; but they suffered heavily in
passing, and the 'Infanta Maria Teresa' and the 'Oquendo' were
probably set on fire by shells fired during the first fifteen
minutes of the engagement. It was afterwards learned that the
'Infanta Maria Teresa's' fire main had been cut by one of our
first shots, and that she was unable to extinguish fire. With
large volumes of smoke rising from their lower decks aft,
these vessels gave up both fight and flight and ran in on the
beach—the 'Infanta Maria Teresa' at about 10.15 a. m. at Nima
Nima, 6½ miles from Santiago Harbor entrance, and the
'Almirante Oquendo' at about 10.30 a. m. at Juan Gonzales, 7
miles from the port.
{610}
"The 'Vizcaya' was still under the fire of the leading
vessels; the 'Cristobal Colon' had drawn ahead, leading the
chase, and soon passed beyond the range of the guns of the
leading American ships. The 'Vizcaya' was soon set on fire,
and, at 11.15, she turned inshore, and was beached at
Aserraderos, 15 miles from Santiago, burning fiercely, and
with her reserves of ammunition on deck already beginning to
explode. When about 10 miles west of Santiago the 'Indiana'
had been signaled to go back to the harbor entrance, and at
Aserraderos the 'Iowa' was signaled to 'Resume blockading
station.' The 'Iowa' assisted by the 'Ericsson' and the
'Hist,' took off the crew of the 'Vizcaya,' while the
'Harvard' and the 'Gloucester' rescued those of the 'Infanta
Maria Teresa' and the 'Almirante Oquendo.' This rescue of
prisoners, including the wounded, from the burning Spanish
vessels, was the occasion of some of the most daring and
gallant conduct of the day. The ships were burning fore and
aft, their guns and reserve ammunition were exploding, and it
was not known at what moment the fire would reach the main
magazines. In addition to this a heavy surf was running just
inside of the Spanish ships. But no risk deterred our officers
and men until their work of humanity was complete.
"There remained now of the Spanish ships only the 'Cristobal
Colon'—but she was their best and fastest vessel. Forced by
the situation to hug the Cuban coast, her only chance of
escape was by superior and sustained speed. When the 'Vizcaya'
went ashore, the 'Colon' was about 6 miles ahead of the
'Brooklyn' and the 'Oregon'; but her spurt was finished, and
the American ships were now gaining upon her. Behind the
'Brooklyn' and the 'Oregon' came the 'Texas,' 'Vixen,' and
'New York.' It was evident from the bridge of the 'New York'
that all the American ships were gradually overhauling the
chase, and that she had no chance of escape. At 12.50 the
'Brooklyn' and the 'Oregon' opened fire and got her range—the
'Oregon's' heavy shell striking beyond her—and at 1.20 she
gave up without firing another shot, hauled down her colors,
and ran ashore at Rio Torquino, 48 miles from Santiago.
Captain Cook, of the 'Brooklyn,' went on board to receive the
surrender. While his boat was alongside I came up in the 'New
York,' received his report, and placed the 'Oregon' in charge
of the wreck to save her, if possible, and directed the
prisoners to be transferred to the 'Resolute,' which had
followed the chase. Commodore Schley, whose chief of staff had
gone on board to receive the surrender, had directed that all
their personal effects should be retained by the officers.
This order I did not modify. The 'Cristobal Colon' was not
injured by our firing, and probably is not much injured by
beaching, though she ran ashore at high speed. The beach was
so steep that she came off by the working of the sea. But her
sea valves were opened and broken, treacherously, I am sure,
after her surrender, and despite all efforts she sank. When it
became evident that she could not be kept afloat, she was
pushed by the 'New York' bodily up on the beach, the 'New
York's' stem being placed against her for this purpose—the
ship being handled by Captain Chadwick with admirable
judgment—and sank in shoal water and may be saved. Had this
not been done she would have gone down in deep water and would
have been, to a certainty, a total loss.
"I regard this complete and important victory over the Spanish
forces as the successful finish of several weeks of arduous
and close blockade, so stringent and effective during the
night that the enemy was deterred from making the attempt to
escape at night, and deliberately elected to make the attempt
in daylight. The object of the blockade of Cervera's squadron
was fully accomplished, and each individual bore well his part
in it—the commodore in command on the second division, the
captains of ships, their officers, and men. The fire of the
battle ships was powerful and destructive, and the resistance
of the Spanish squadron was, in great part, broken almost
before they had got beyond the range of their own forts. …
Several of the [American] ships were struck—the 'Brooklyn'
more often than the others—but very slight material injury was
done, the greatest being aboard the 'Iowa.' Our loss was 1 man
killed and 1 wounded, both on the 'Brooklyn.' It is difficult to
explain this immunity from loss of life or injury to ships in
a combat with modern vessels of the best type, but Spanish
gunnery is poor at the best, and the superior weight and
accuracy of our fire speedily drove the men from their guns
and silenced their fire. This is borne out by the statements
of prisoners and by observation."
Annual Report of Secretary of the Navy, 1898,
volume 2, pages 506-511.
Some particulars of the destruction of the "Furor," the
"Pluton," and the "Infanta Maria Teresa," and of the rescue of
surviving Spaniards, including Admiral Cervera, are given in a
report by Lieutenant Huse, executive officer of the "Gloucester,"
as follows: "The 'Pluton' was run on the rocks about 4 miles
west of Morro and blew up. Our crew cheered at the sight of
the explosion. The 'Furor' soon commenced to describe circles
with a starboard helm, her fire ceased, and it became apparent
that she was disabled. A white rag was waved from forward and
we stopped firing. Lieutenants Wood and Norman and Assistant
Engineer Proctor were sent to rescue the crews and to see if
the prizes could be saved. These found a horrible state of
affairs on the 'Furor.' The vessel was a perfect shambles. As
she was on fire and burning rapidly, they took off the living
and then rescued all they could find in the water and on the
beach. The 'Pluton' was among the rocks in the surf and could
not be boarded, but her crew had made their way ashore or were
adrift on life buoys and wreckage. These were all taken on board.
I have since learned that the 'New York' passed a number of
men in the water who had doubtless jumped overboard from the
destroyers to escape our fire. All these were probably
drowned. While this work was going on several explosions took
place on the 'Furor,' and presently—at about 11.30—she threw
her bows in the air, and turning to port slowly sank in deep
water. …
{611}
"While one of our boats was still ashore, seeing heavy clouds
of smoke behind the next point the ship was moved in that
direction, the men being at quarters and everything in
readiness for further action. On rounding the point two
men-of-war were found on the beach burning fiercely aft, the
majority of the crew being crowded on the forecastle and
unable apparently to reach land, only 200 yards away. Our
boats, under Lieutenant Norman and Ensign Edson, put off to
the nearer vessel, which proved to be the flagship 'Infanta
Maria Teresa,' and rescued all on board by landing them on the
beach through the surf. Lieutenant Norman formally received
the surrender of the commander in chief and all his officers
and men present, and as soon as all hands had been transferred
ashore, brought on board this ship all the higher officers,
including the admiral. Lieutenant Wood meanwhile rescued the
remaining survivors on board the 'Oquendo,' the second of the
burning vessels. The Spanish officers not feeling that the
prisoners on shore were secure from attack by Cuban partisans,
by your orders I directed Lieutenant Norman to land with a
small force, establish a camp on shore, and hoist the United
States flag over it. He took with him all the rations that
could be spared from the stores aboard."
Annual Report of Secretary of the Navy, 1898,
volume 2, page 542.
The following is a translation, from Admiral Cervera's report,
as partly published in newspapers at Madrid, giving his
description of the destruction of his flagship and his own
rescue from death: "The enemy's fire produced terrible damages
on board the 'Infanta Maria Teresa,' destroying the elements
of defence—among others, the net for protection against fire.
In this critical moment the captain of the ship, Señor Concas,
fell wounded, and it was necessary to withdraw him, I taking
command of the vessel, because it was impossible to find the
second commandant of the 'Maria Teresa.' Immediately
afterwards they reported to me that my cabin was burning in
consequence of an explosion. The fire soon became very great
and ignited other parts of the ship. I gave orders to my aid
to flood the after magazines, but it was impossible. Dense
clouds of smoke impeded walking in the passages and practicing
any kind of operations. In this situation I could only think
of beaching the ship, and did so, running aground on Punta
Cabrera. The contest was impossible on our side, and there was
nothing more to be done but to save as much as possible. I
thought to lower the flag, but that was not possible on
account of the fire, which prevented all operations. In these
anxious moments two boats came to the aid of the 'Maria
Teresa,' into which a number of us jumped. Those that were not
dying were saved with nothing. The 'Teresa' lowered a small boat,
which sank before it could be of any service. Subsequently
they succeeded in launching a steam launch, but this also sank
after making one voyage to the beach. I succeeded in saving
myself with nothing, two sailors helping me, one named Andres
Sequeros and the officer D. Angel Cervera, all of us arriving
on board the American ship 'Gloucester' naked. At this time we
were all naked."
Annual Report of Secretary of the Navy, 1898,
volume 2, pages 558-559.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 July (4-17).
The surrender of Santiago and of all the Spanish forces
in eastern Cuba.
The following is a continuation of the report made by General
Shafter of his operations at Santiago de Cuba, resulting in
the surrender of the entire forces of Spain in eastern Cuba:
"The information of our naval victory was transmitted under
flag of truce to the Spanish commander in Santiago on July 4,
and the suggestion again made that he surrender to save
needless effusion of blood. On the same date I informed
Admiral Sampson that if he would force his way into the harbor
the city would surrender without any further sacrifice of
life. Commodore Watson replied that Admiral Sampson was
temporarily absent, but that in his (Watson's) opinion the
navy should not enter the harbor. In the meanwhile letters
passing between General Toral and myself caused the cessation
of hostilities to continue; each army, however, continued to
strengthen its intrenchments. I was still of the opinion the
Spaniards would surrender without much more fighting, and on
July 6 called General Toral's attention to the changed
conditions and at his request gave him time to consult his
home Government. This he did, asking that the British consul,
with the employees of the cable company, be permitted to
return from El Caney to the city. This I granted. The strength
of the enemy's position was such I did not wish to assault if
it could be avoided. An examination of the enemy's works, made
after the surrender, fully justified the wisdom of the course
adopted. The intrenchments could only have been carried with
very great loss of life, probably with not less than 3,000
killed and wounded.
"On July 8 General Toral offered to march out of the city with
arms and baggage, provided he would not be molested before
reaching Holguin, and to surrender to the American forces the
territory then occupied by him. I replied that while I would
submit his proposition to my home Government, I did not think
it would be accepted. In the meanwhile arrangements were made
with Admiral Sampson that when the army again engaged the
enemy the navy would assist by shelling the city from ships
stationed off Aguadores, dropping a shell every few minutes.
On July 10 the 1st Illinois and the 1st District of Columbia
arrived, and were placed on the line to the right of the
cavalry division. This enabled me to push Lawton further to
the right and to practically command the Cobra road. On the
afternoon of the date last mentioned the truce was broken off
at 4 p. m., and I determined to open with four batteries of
artillery, and went forward in person to the trenches to give
the necessary orders; but the enemy anticipated us by opening
fire with his artillery a few minutes after the hour stated.
His batteries were apparently silenced before night, while
ours continued playing upon his trenches until dark. During
this firing the navy fired from Aguadores, most of the shells
falling in the city. There was also some small-arms firing. On
this afternoon and the next morning we lost Captain Charles W.
Rowell, 2d Infantry, and 1 man killed, and Lieutenant Lutz, 2d
Infantry, and 10 men wounded. On the morning of July 11 the
bombardment by the Navy and my field guns was renewed and
continued until nearly noon, and on the same day I reported to
the Adjutant-General of the Army that the right of Ludlow's
brigade of Lawton's division rested on the bay. Thus our hold
upon the enemy was complete.
{612}
"At 2 p. m. on this date, the 11th, the surrender of the city
was again demanded. The firing ceased and was not again
renewed. By this date the sickness in the army was increasing
very rapidly as a result of exposure in the trenches to the
intense heat of the sun and the heavy rains. Moreover, the
dews in Cuba are almost equal to rains. The weakness of the
troops was becoming so apparent I was anxious to bring the
siege to an end, but in common with most of the officers of
the army I did not think an assault would be justifiable,
especially as the enemy seemed to be acting in good faith in
their preliminary propositions to surrender. On July 11 I
wrote General Toral as follows: 'With the largely increased
forces which have come to me, and the fact that I have your
line of retreat securely in my hands, the time seems fitting
that I should again demand of your excellency the surrender of
Santiago and of your excellency's army. I am authorized to
state that should your excellency so desire the Government of
the United States will transport the entire command of your
excellency to Spain.' General Toral replied that he had
communicated my proposition to his general-in-chief, General
Blanco.
"July 12 I informed the Spanish commander that Major-General
Miles, commander-in-chief of the American Army, had just
arrived in my camp, and requested him to grant us a personal
interview on the following day. He replied he would be pleased
to meet us. The interview took place on the 13th, and I
informed him his surrender only could be considered, and that
as he was without hope of escape he had no right to continue
the fight. On the 14th another interview took place, during
which General Toral agreed to surrender, upon the basis of his
army, the Fourth Army Corps, being returned to Spain, the
capitulation embracing all of eastern Cuba east of a line
passing from Acerraderos on the south to Sagua de Tanamo on
the north, via Palma Soriano. It was agreed commissioners
should meet during the afternoon to definitely arrange the
terms. … The terms of surrender finally agreed upon included
about 12,000 Spanish troops in the city and as many more in
the surrendered district. It was arranged the formal surrender
should take place between the lines on the morning of July 17,
each army being represented by 100 armed men. At the time
appointed, I appeared at the place agreed upon with my general
officers, staff, and 100 troopers of the Second Cavalry under
Captain Brett. General Toral also arrived with a number of his
officers and 100 infantry. We met midway between the
representatives of our two armies, and the Spanish commander
formally consummated the surrender of the city and the 24,000
troops in Santiago and the surrendered district. After this
ceremony I entered the city with my staff and escort, and at
12 o'clock noon the American flag was raised over the
governor's palace with appropriate ceremonies."
Annual Reports of the War Department, 1898,
volume 2, pages 157-159.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898
(July-August: Army administration).
Red-tape and politics.
Their working in the campaign.
"The Cuban campaign had been foreseen by intelligent officers
for more than a year, but the department which clothes the
army had taken no steps toward providing a suitable uniform
for campaigning in the tropics until war was declared. The
Fifth Army Corps, a comparatively small body of 17,000 men,
was concentrated at Tampa on the railroad within reach of all
the appliances for expediting business. Between April 26, when
war was declared, and, June 6, when the corps embarked for
Cuba, sufficient time elapsed to have clothed 1,000,000 men if
the matter had been handled in the same manner a wholesale
clothing firm would handle similar business. Yet the corps
went to Cuba wearing the winter clothing it had brought on its
backs from Montana, Wyoming, and Michigan. It endured the heat
of the tropics clad in this, and was furnished with light
summer clothing by the department to wear for its return to
Montauk, where the breezes were so bracing that the teeth
chattered even when the men were clad in winter clothing. The
only reason for this absolute failure to properly clothe the
army was that the methods of the department are too slow and
antiquated for the proper performance of business. There was
no lack of money. It was a simple case of red-tape delays.
There can be no doubt that the intention was that the summer
clothing should be worn in Cuba and that there should be warm
clothing issued at Montauk. It was issued after the troops had
shivered for days in their light clothes. The delays
unavoidably connected with an obsolete method caused great
suffering that should not have been inflicted upon men
expected to do arduous duty. A sensible man would not put a
heavy blanket on a horse to do draught work on a hot day; but
the red tape of an antiquated way of doing business caused our
soldiers to wear heavy woolen clothes in torrid heat, when every
nerve was to be strained to the breaking point in athletic
exertion. This is not pointed out in a fault-finding spirit.
The men are proud to have been in the Fifth Corps and to have
endured these things for the country and the flag; but these
unnecessary sufferings impaired the fighting strength of the
army, caused much of the sickness that visited the Fifth
Corps, and might have caused the failure of the whole
expedition. …
"The difficulty here depicted was one which beset the
department at every turn in the whole campaign. It is a
typical case. Transports, tentage, transportation—it was the
same in everything. With the most heroic exertions the
department was able to meet emergencies only after they had
passed. This was caused partly by lack of ready material, but
mainly by an inelastic system of doing business which broke
down in emergencies. This, in turn, was caused mainly by the
illiberal treatment accorded to this, as well as to every
other department of the army by Congress. It uniformly cuts
mercilessly all estimates of this, as of every other
department, and leaves no margin of expenditure or chance of
improvement. It dabbles in matters which are purely technical
and require the handling of expert executive talent. …
"Plans for war should be prepared in advance. This was
especially true of the last war, which had been foreseen for
years and considered a probability for several months. All
details should have been previously worked out, all
contingencies foreseen before hostilities began. Such plans
would require some modifications, of course, but would form a
working basis.
{613}
Neither Santiago nor Manila Bay would have been foreseen; but
any plans for war would have involved the consideration and
solution of the following problems: How to raise, arm, equip,
organize, mobilize, clothe, feed, shelter, and transport large
bodies of soldiers. The point where the battle might occur
would be a mere tactical detail to be worked out at the proper
time. The above problems could all be solved in time of peace and
should have been solved. The general staff performs this
function in foreign armies, but we had no such body in our
service and nothing to imperfectly take its place. …
"The most urgently needed reform is the absolute divorcement
of the army in all of its departments from politics. … No
department of the army should be more exempt from political
influence than the staff. This points at once to the most
urgent reform, viz., make the commanding general the real
working head of the army, instead of the Secretary of War. No
good results have come to the service by the extension of the
Secretary's powers in Grant's first administration. Most of
the evils of the service can be traced to the fact that the
general commanding has since that time been practically
deprived of his proper functions, and the real head of the
army has been a politician."
Lieutenant J. H. Parker,
Our Army Supply Department and the need of a General Staff
(Review of Reviews, December, 1898).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (July-August: Cuba).
The War with Spain.
Sickness in the American army at Santiago.
Its alarming state.
Hurried removal of troops to Montauk Point, Long Island.
"After the surrender of General Toral's army General Shafter
urged the War Department from time to time to hasten the
shipment of the Spanish prisoners to their homes, in order
that the American Army, whose condition was now deplorable,
might be transported to the United States. At this time about
half the command had been attacked by malarial fever, with a
few cases of yellow fever, dysentery, and typhoid fever. The
yellow-fever cases were mainly confined to the troops at
Siboney, and the few cases found among the troops at the front
were at once transferred to that place. … There was great
fear, and excellent grounds for it, that the yellow fever, now
sporadic throughout the command, would become epidemic. With
the command weakened by malarial fevers, and its general tone
and vitality much reduced by all the circumstances incident to
the campaign, the effects of such an epidemic would
practically mean its annihilation. The first step taken to
check the spread of disease was the removal of all the troops
to new camping grounds. … It was directed that the command be
moved in this way every few days, isolating the cases of
yellow fever as they arose, and it was expected that in a
short time the yellow fever would be stamped out. … But the
effect produced on the command by the work necessary to set up
the tents and in the removal of the camps increased the number
on the sick report to an alarming degree. Convalescents from
malarial fever were taken again with the fever, and yellow
fever, dysentery, and typhoid increased. It was useless now to
attempt to confine the yellow-fever cases to Siboney, and
isolation hospitals were established around Santiago. It was
apparent that to keep moving the command every few days simply
weakened the troops and increased the fever cases. Any exertion
in this heat caused a return of the fever, and it must be
remembered that the convalescents now included about 75 per
cent. of the command. The Commanding General was now directed
to move the entire command into the mountains to the end of
the San Luis railroad, where the troops would be above the
yellow fever limit; but this was a physical impossibility. …
"The situation was desperate; the yellow-fever cases were
increasing in number, and the month of August, the period in
which it is epidemic, was at hand. It was with these
conditions staring them in the face, that the officers
commanding divisions and brigades and the Chief Surgeon were
invited by General Shafter to discuss the situation. As a
result of this conference the General sent the following
telegram giving his views [and those of the General Officers
and Medical Officers]. … 'In reply to telegram of this date
[August 3], stating that it is deemed best that my command be
moved to end of railroad, where yellow fever is impossible, I
have to say that under the circumstances this move is
practically impossible. The railroad is not yet repaired,
although it will be in about a week. Its capacity is not to
exceed 1,000 men a day, at the best, and it will take until
the end of August to make this move, even if the sick-list
should not increase. An officer of my staff, Lieutenant Miley,
who has looked over the ground, says it is not a good camping
ground. … In my opinion there is but one course to take, and
that is to immediately transport the Fifth Corps and the
detached regiments that came with it, and were sent
immediately after it, with the least delay possible, to the
United States. If this is not done I believe the death-rate
will be appalling. I am sustained in this view by every
medical officer present. I called together to-day the General
Officers and the senior Medical Officers and telegraph you
their views.' …
"On August 4th instructions were received from the War
Department to begin the removal of the command to Montauk
Point, Long Island. Some of the immune regiments were on the
way to Santiago, and other regiments were at once ordered
there to garrison the district as General Shafter's command
was withdrawn. The first of the fleet of vessels to return the
Spanish troops arrived in time to be loaded and leave August
9th, and by the end of the month nearly all were transported.
"After the surrender the relations between the American and
Spanish troops were very cordial. There could be little or no
conversation between individuals, but in many ways the respect
each had for the other was shown, and there seemed to be no
hatred on either side. Most of the Spanish officers remained
in their quarters in town, and they shared in the feeling
displayed by their men. Salutations were generally exchanged
between the officers, and American ways and manners became
very popular among the Spaniards. …
{614}
"By the 25th of the month General Shafter's entire command,
with the exception of a few organizations just ready to
embark, had departed, and, turning over the command to General
Lawton, he sailed that day with his staff on the 'Mexico,' one
of the captured transports, and at noon September 1st went
ashore at Montauk Point, Long Island."
J. D. Miley, In Cuba with Shafter,
chapter 12 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (July-August: Philippines).
Correspondence between the General commanding
United States forces at Cavite and Manila,
and Aguinaldo, the Filipino leader.
On the 4th of July, General Thomas M. Anderson, then
commanding the "United States Expeditionary Forces" at Cavite
Arsenal, addressed the following communication to "Señor Don
Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy, Commanding Philippine Forces":
"General: I have the honor to inform you that the United
States of America, whose land forces I have the honor to
command in this vicinity, being at war with the Kingdom of
Spain, has entire sympathy and most friendly sentiments for
the native people of the Philippine Islands. For these reasons
I desire to have the most amicable relations with you, and to
have you and your people co-operate with us in military
operations against the Spanish forces. In our operations it
has become necessary for us to occupy the town of Cavite as a
base of operations. In doing this I do not wish to interfere
with your residence here and the exercise by yourself and
other native citizens of all functions and privileges not
inconsistent with military rule. I would be pleased to be
informed at once of any misconduct of soldiers under my
command, as it is the intention of my Government to maintain
order and to treat all citizens with justice, courtesy, and
kindness. I have therefore the honor to ask your excellency to
instruct your officials not to interfere with my officers in
the performance of their duties and not to assume that they
can not visit Cavite without permission."
On the following day Aguinaldo replied:
"General: Interpreting the sentiments of the Philippine
people, I have the honor to express to your excellency my most
profound gratefulness for the sympathy and amicable sentiments
with which the natives of these islands inspire the great North
American nation and your excellency. I also thank most
profoundly your desire of having friendly relations with us,
and of treating us with justice, courtesy, and kindness, which
is also our constant wish to prove the same, and special
satisfaction whenever occasion represents. I have already
ordered my people not to interfere in the least with your
officers and men, orders which I shall reiterate to prevent
their being unfulfilled; hoping that you will inform me of
whatever misconduct that may be done by those in my command,
so as to reprimand them and correspond with your wishes." …
To this communication General Anderson returned the following
on the 6th: "General: I am encouraged by the friendly
sentiment expressed by your excellency in your welcome letter
received on the 5th instant to endeavor to come to a definite
understanding, which I hope will be advantageous to both. Very
soon we expect a large addition to our forces, and it must be
apparent to you as a military officer that we will require
much more room to camp our soldiers, and also storeroom for
our supplies. For this I would like to have your excellency's
advice and co-operation, as you are best acquainted with the
resources of this country. It must be apparent to you that we
do not intend to remain here inactive, but to move promptly
against our common enemy. But for a short time we must
organize and land supplies, and also retain a place for
storing them near our fleet and transports. I am solicitous to
avoid any conflict of authority which may result from having
two sets of military officers exercising command in the same
place. I am also anxious to avoid sickness by taking sanitary
precaution. Your own medical officers have been making
voluntary inspections with mine, and fear epidemic diseases if
the vicinity is not made clean. Would it not be well to have
prisoners work to this end under the advice of the surgeons?"
…
On the 9th of July General Anderson reported to the War
Department at Washington: "General Aguinaldo tells me he has
about 15,000 fighting men, but only 11,000 armed with guns,
which mostly were taken from the Spaniards. He claims to have
in all 4,000 prisoners. When we first landed he seemed very
suspicious, and not at all friendly, but I have now come to a
better understanding with him and he is much more friendly and
seems willing to co-operate. But he has declared himself
dictator and president, and is trying to take Manila without
our assistance. This is not probable, but if he can effect his
purpose he will, I apprehend, antagonize any attempt on our
part to establish a provisional government."
On the 17th the American commander caused another
communication to be addressed to "General Emilio Aguinaldo" as
follows: "Sir: General Anderson wishes me to say that, the
second expedition having arrived, he expects to encamp in the
vicinity of Paranaque from 5,000 to 7,000 men. To do this,
supply this army and shelter, will require certain assistance
from the Filipinos in this neighborhood. We will want horses,
buffaloes, carts, etc., for transportation, bamboo for
shelter, wood to cook with, etc. For all this we are willing
to pay a fair price, but no more. We find so far that the
native population are not willing to give us this assistance
as promptly as required. But we must have it, and if it
becomes necessary we will be compelled to send out parties to
seize what we may need. We would regret very much to do this,
as we are here to befriend the Filipinos. Our nation has spent
millions of money to send forces here to expel the Spaniards
and to give good government to the whole people, and the
return we are asking is comparatively slight. General Anderson
wishes you to inform your people that we are here for their
good, and that they must supply us with labor and material at
the current market prices. We are prepared to purchase 500
horses at a fair price, but can not undertake to bargain for
horses with each individual owner. I regret very much that I
am unable to see you personally, as it is of the utmost
importance that these arrangements should be made as soon as
possible."
To this communication there seems to have been no written
reply until the 24th; and, on the 20th, the Chief
Quartermaster reported to General Anderson "that it is
impossible to procure transportation except upon Señor
Aguinaldo's order, in this section, who has an inventory of
everything. The natives have removed their wheels and hid
them." On the 23d General Anderson repeated his request, as
follows:
{615}
"General: When I came here three weeks ago I requested your
excellency to give what assistance you could to procure means
of transportation for the American Army, as it was to fight
the cause of your people. So far we have received no response.
As you represent your people, I now have the honor to make
requisition on you for 500 horses and 50 oxen and ox carts. If
you can not secure these, I will have to pass you and make
requisition directly on the people. I beg leave to request an
answer at your earliest convenience."
The next day Aguinaldo replied: "I have the honor to manifest
to your excellency that I am surprised beyond measure at that
which you say to me in it, lamenting the nonreceipt of any
response relative to the needs (or aids) that you have asked
of me in the way of horses, buffaloes, and carts, because I
replied in a precise manner, through the bearer, that I was
disposed to give convenient orders whenever you advised me of
the number of these with due anticipation (notice). I have
circulated orders in the provinces in the proximity that in
the shortest time possible horses be brought for sale, but I
cannot assure your excellency that we have the number of 500
that is needed, because horses are not abundant in these
vicinities, owing to deaths caused by epizootic diseases in
January and March last. Whenever we have them united (or
collected), I shall have the pleasure to advise your
excellency. I have also ordered to be placed at my disposal 50
carts that I shall place at your disposition whenever
necessary, always (premising) that you afford me a previous
advice of four days in anticipation."
Meantime, General Anderson had written to the War Department,
on the 18th: "Since reading the President's instructions to
General Merritt, I think I should state to you that the
establishment of a provisional government on our part will
probably bring us in conflict with insurgents, now in active
hostility to Spain. The insurgent chief, Aguinaldo, has
declared himself dictator and self-appointed president. He has
declared martial law and promulgated a minute method of rule and
administration under it. We have observed all official
military courtesies, and he and his followers express great
admiration and gratitude to the great American Republic of the
north, yet in many ways they obstruct our purposes and are
using every effort to take Manila without us. I suspect also
that Aguinaldo is secretly negotiating with the Spanish
authorities, as his confidential aid is in Manila. The city is
strongly fortified and hard to approach in the rainy season.
If a bombardment fails we should have the best engineering
ability here." And, again on the 21st, he had written: "Since
I wrote last, Aguinaldo has put in operation an elaborate
system of military government, under his assumed authority as
dictator, and has prohibited any supplies being given us,
except by his order. As to this last I have written to him
that our requisitions on the country for horses, ox carts,
fuel and bamboo (to make scaling ladders) must be filled, and
that he must aid in having them filled. His assumption of
civil authority I have ignored, and let him know verbally that
I could, and would, not recognize it, while I did not
recognize him as a military leader. It may seem strange that I
have made no formal protest against his proclamation as
dictator, his declaration of martial law, and publication and
execution of a despotic form of government. I wrote such a
protest, but did not publish it, at Admiral Dewey's request,
and also for fear of wounding the susceptibilities of
Major-General Merritt, but I have let it be known in every
other way that we do not recognize the dictatorship. These
people only respect force and firmness. I submit, with all
deference, that we have heretofore underrated the natives.
They are not ignorant, savage tribes, but have a civilization
of their own; and although insignificant in appearance, are
fierce fighters, and for a tropical people they are
industrious. A small detail of natives will do more work in a
given time than a regiment of volunteers."
On the 24th General Anderson received from the Philippine
leader a very clear and definite statement of his attitude
towards the "Expeditionary Forces of the United States," and
the intentions with which he and the people whom he
represented were acting. "I came," he wrote, "from Hongkong to
prevent my countrymen from making common cause with the
Spanish against the North Americans, pledging before my word
to Admiral Dewey to not give place [to allow] to any internal
discord, because, [being] a judge of their desires, I had the
strong convictions that I would succeed in both objects,
establishing a government according to their desires. Thus it
is that in the beginning I proclaimed the dictatorship, and
afterwards, when some of the provinces had already liberated
themselves from Spanish domination, I established a
revolutionary government that to-day exists, giving it a
democratic and popular character as far as the abnormal
circumstances of war permitted, in order that they [the
provinces] might be justly represented, and administered to
their satisfaction. It is true that my government has not been
acknowledged by any of the foreign powers, but we expected
that the great North American nation, which struggled first
for its independence, and afterwards for the abolition of
slavery, and is now actually struggling for the independence
of Cuba, would look upon it with greater benevolence than any
other nation. Because of this we have always acknowledged the
right of preference to our gratitude.
"Debtor to the generosity of the North Americans, and to the
favors we have received through Admiral Dewey, and [being]
more desirous than any other person of preventing any conflict
which would have as a result foreign intervention, which must be
extremely prejudicial, not alone to my nation but also to that
of your excellency, I consider it my duty to advise you of the
undesirability of disembarking North American troops in the
places conquered by the Filipinos from the Spanish, without
previous notice to this government, because as no formal
agreement yet exists between the two nations the Philippine
people might consider the occupation of its territories by
North American troops as a violation of its rights.
"I comprehend that without the destruction of the Spanish
squadron the Philippine revolution would not have advanced so
rapidly. Because of this I take the liberty of indicating to
your excellency the necessity that, before disembarking, you
should communicate in writing to this government the places
that are to be occupied and also the object of the occupation,
that the people may be advised in due form and [thus] prevent
the commission of any transgression against friendship.
{616}
I can answer for my people, because they have given me evident
proofs of their absolute confidence in my government, but I
can not answer for that which another nation whose friendship
is not well guaranteed might inspire in it [the people]; and
it is certain that I do this not as a menace, but as a further
proof of the true and sincere friendship which I have always
professed for the North American people, in the complete
security that it will find itself completely identified with
our cause of liberty."
In the same strain, on the 1st of August, Aguinaldo wrote to
United States Consul Williams, as to a "distinguished friend:"
"I have said always, and I now repeat, that we recognize the
right of the North Americans to our gratitude, for we do not
forget for a moment the favors which we have received and are
now receiving; but however great those favors may be, it is
not possible for me to remove the distrust of my compatriots.
These say that if the object of the United States is to annex
these islands, why not recognize the government established in
them, in order in that manner to join with it the same as by
annexation? Why do not the American generals operate in
conjunction with the Filipino generals and, uniting the
forces, render the end more decisive? Is it intended, indeed,
to carry out annexation against the wish of these people,
distorting the legal sense of that word? If the revolutionary
government is the genuine representative by right and deed of
the Filipino people, as we have proved when necessary, why is
it wished to oppress instead of gaining their confidence and
friendship?
"It is useless for me to represent to my compatriots the
favors received through Admiral Dewey, for they assert that up
to the present the American forces have shown not an active,
only a passive, co-operation, from which they suppose that the
intentions of these forces are not for the best. They assert,
besides, that it is possible to suppose that I was brought
from Hongkong to assure those forces by my presence that the
Filipinos would not make common cause with the Spaniards, and
that they have delivered to the Filipinos the arms abandoned
by the former in the Cavite Arsenal, in order to save
themselves much labor, fatigue, blood, and treasure that a war
with Spain would cost. But I do not believe these unworthy
suspicions. I have full confidence in the generosity and
philanthropy which shine in characters of gold in the history
of the privileged people of the United States, and for that
reason, invoking the friendship which you profess for me and
the love which you have for my people, I pray you earnestly,
as also the distinguished generals who represent your country
in these islands, that you entreat the Government at
Washington to recognize the revolutionary government of the
Filipinos, and I, for my part, will labor with all my power
with my people that the United States shall not repent their
sentiments of humanity in coming to the aid of an oppressed
people.
"Say to the Government at Washington that the Filipino people
abominate savagery; that in the midst of their past
misfortunes they have learned to love liberty, order, justice,
and civil life, and that they are not able to lay aside their
own wishes when their future lot and history are under
discussion. Say also that I and my leaders know what we owe to
our unfortunate country; that we know how to admire and are
ready to imitate the disinterestedness, the abnegation, and
the patriotism of the grand men of America, among whom stands
pre-eminent the immortal General Washington."
United States, 56th Congress, 1st Session,
Senate Document Number 208.
In an article published in the "North American Review,"
February, 1900, General Anderson discussed his relations with
Aguinaldo very frankly, in part as follows: "On the 1st of
July, 1898, I called on Aguinaldo with Admiral Dewey. He asked
me at once whether 'the United States of the North' either had
recognized or would recognize his government—I am not quite
sure as to the form of his question, whether it was 'had' or
'would.' In either form it was embarrassing. My orders were,
in substance, to effect a landing, establish a base, not to go
beyond the zone of naval co-operation, to consult Admiral
Dewey and to wait for Merritt. Aguinaldo had proclaimed his
government only a few days before (June 28), and Admiral Dewey
had no instructions as to that assumption. The facts as to the
situation at that time I believe to be these: Consul Williams
states in one of his letters to the State Department that
several thousand Tagals were in open insurrection before our
declaration of war with Spain. I do not know as to the number,
yet I believe the statement has foundation in fact. Whether
Admiral Dewey and Consuls Pratt, Wildman and Williams did or
did not give Aguinaldo assurances that a Filipino government
would be recognized, the Filipinos certainly thought so,
probably inferring this from their acts rather than from their
statements. If an incipient rebellion was already in progress,
what could be inferred from the fact that Aguinaldo and
thirteen other banished Tagals were brought down on a naval
vessel and landed in Cavite? Admiral Dewey gave them arms and
ammunition, as I did subsequently, at his request. They were
permitted to gather up a lot of arms which the Spaniards had
thrown into the bay; and, with the four thousand rifles taken
from Spanish prisoners and two thousand purchased in Hong
Kong, they proceeded to organize three brigades and also to
arm a small steamer they had captured. I was the first to tell
Admiral Dewey that there was any disposition on the part of
the American people to hold the Philippines, if they were
captured. The current of opinion was setting that way when the
first expeditionary force left San Francisco, but this the
Admiral had had no reason to surmise.
"But to return to our interview with Aguinaldo. I told him I
was acting only in a military capacity; that I had no
authority to recognize his government; that we had come to
whip the Spaniards, and that, if we were successful, the
indirect effect would be to free them from Spanish tyranny. I
added that, as we were fighting a common enemy, I hoped we
would get along amicably together. He did not seem pleased
with this answer. The fact is, he hoped and expected to take
Manila with Admiral Dewey's assistance, and he was bitterly
disappointed when our soldiers landed at Cavite. … A few days
thereafter, he made an official call, coming with cabinet and
staff and a band of music. On that occasion he handed me an
elaborate schedule for an autonomous government which he had
received from some Filipinos in Manila, with a statement that
they had reason to believe that Spain would grant them such a
form of government.
{617}
With this was an open letter addressed to the Filipino people
from Pedro Alexandre Paterno, advising them to put their trust
in Spain rather than America. The day before, two German
officers had called on Aguinaldo and I believed they had
brought him these papers. I asked him if the scheme was
agreeable to him. He did not answer, but asked if we, the
North Americans, as he called us, intended to hold the
Philippines as dependencies. I said I could not answer that,
but that in one hundred and twenty years we had established no
colonies. He then made this remarkable statement: 'I have studied
attentively the Constitution of the United States, and I find
in it no authority for colonies and I have no fear.' It may
seem that my answer was somewhat evasive, but I was at the
time trying to contract with the Filipinos for horses, carts,
fuel and forage. …
"The origin of our controversies and conflicts with the
Filipinos can … be traced back to our refusal to recognize the
political authority of Aguinaldo. Our first serious break with
them arose from our refusal to let them co-operate with us.
About nine o'clock on the evening of August 12, I received
from General Merritt an order to notify Aguinaldo to forbid
the Filipino insurgents under his command from entering
Manila. This notification was delivered to him at twenty
minutes past ten that night. The Filipinos had made every
preparation to assail the Spanish lines in their front.
Certainly, they would not have given up part of their line to
us unless they thought they were to fight with us. They,
therefore, received General Merritt's interdict with anger and
indignation. They considered the war as their war, and Manila
as their capital, and Luzon as their country. … At seven
o'clock I received an order from General Merritt to remove the
Filipinos from the city. … I therefore took the responsibility
of telegraphing Aguinaldo, who was at Bacoor, ten miles below,
requesting him to withdraw his troops and intimating that
serious consequences would follow if he did not do so. I
received his answer at eleven, saying that a Commission would
come to me the next morning with full powers. Accordingly the
next day Señors Buencomeno, Lagarde, Araneto and Sandeco came
to Division Headquarters in Manila and stated that they were
authorized to order the withdrawal of their troops, if we
would promise to reinstate them in their present positions on
our making peace with Spain. Thereupon I took them over to
General Merritt. Upon their repeating their demands, he told
them he could not give such a pledge, but that they could rely
on the honor of the American people. The General then read to
them the proclamation he intended to issue to the Filipino
people. …
"There is a great diversity of opinion as to whether a
conflict with the Filipinos could not have been avoided if a
more conciliatory course had been followed in dealing with
them. I believe we came to a parting of the ways when we
refused their request to leave their military force in a good
strategic position on the contingency of our making peace with
Spain without a guarantee of their independence."
T. M. Anderson,
Our Rule in the Philippines
(North American Review, volume 170, page 275).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (July-August: Porto Rico).
Occupation of Porto Rico.
"With the fall of Santiago the occupation of Porto Rico became
the next strategic necessity. General Miles had previously been
assigned to organize an expedition for that purpose.
Fortunately, he was already at Santiago, where he had arrived
on the 11th of July with reinforcements for General Shafter's
army. With these troops, consisting of 3,415 infantry and
artillery, 2 companies of engineers and 1 company of the
signal corps, General Miles left Guantanamo on July 21st,
having 9 transports, convoyed by the fleet, under Captain
Higginson, with the 'Massachusetts' (flagship), 'Dixie,',
Gloucester,' 'Columbia' and 'Yale,' the two latter carrying
troops. The expedition landed at on July 25th, which port
was entered with little opposition. Here the fleet was joined
by the 'Annapolis' and the 'Wasp,' while the 'Puritan' and
'Amphitrite' went to San Juan and joined the 'New Orleans,'
which was engaged in blockading that port. The major general
commanding was subsequently reinforced by General Schwan's
brigade of the Third Army Corps, by General Wilson with a part
of his division and also by General Brooke with a part of his
corps, numbering in all 16,973 officers and men. On July 27th
he entered Ponce, one of the most important ports in the
island, from which he thereafter directed operations for the
capture of the island. With the exception of encounters with
the enemy at Guayama, Hormigueros [the Rio Prieto], Coamo, and
Yauco and an attack on a force landed at Cape San Juan, there
was no serious resistance. The campaign was prosecuted with
great vigor and by the 12th of August much of the island was
in our possession and the acquisition of the remainder was
only a matter of a short time. At most of the points in the
island our troops were enthusiastically welcomed.
Protestations of loyalty to the flag and gratitude for
delivery from Spanish rule met our commanders at every stage."
Message of the President of the United States
to Congress, December 5, 1898.
"During the nineteen days of active campaign on the island of
Puerto Rico a large portion of the island was captured by the
United States forces and brought under our control. Our forces
were in such a position as to make the positions of the
Spanish forces, outside of the garrison at San Juan, utterly
untenable. The Spaniards had been defeated or captured in the
six different engagements which took place, and in every
position they had occupied up to that time. The volunteers had
deserted their colors, and many of them had surrendered to our
forces and taken the oath of allegiance. This had a
demoralizing effect upon the regular Spanish troops. … The
loss of the enemy in killed, wounded and captured was nearly
ten times our own, which was only 3 killed and 40 wounded."
General Miles,
Report
(Annual Reports of the War Department, 1898,
volume 1, part 2, page 36).
{618}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (July-September).
The War with Spain.
Capture of Manila.
Relations with the Filipino insurgents.
General Merritt's report.
Aguinaldo declared President of the Philippine Republic.
"Immediately after my arrival [July 25] I visited General
Greene's camp and made a reconnaissance of the position held
by the Spanish, and also the opposing lines of the insurgent
forces, hereafter to be described. I found General Greene's
command encamped on a strip of sandy land running parallel to
the shore of the bay and not far distant from the beach, but
owing to the great difficulties of landing supplies, the
greater portion of the force had shelter tents only, and were
suffering many discomforts, the camp being situated in a low,
flat place, without shelter from the heat of the tropical sun
or adequate protection during the terrific downpours of rain
so frequent at this season. I was at once struck by the
exemplary spirit of patient, even cheerful, endurance shown by
the officers and men under such circumstances, and this
feeling of admiration for the manner in which the American
soldier, volunteer and regular alike, accept the necessary
hardships of the work they have undertaken to do, has grown
and increased with every phase of the difficult and trying
campaign which the troops of the Philippine expedition have
brought to such a brilliant and successful conclusion.
"I discovered during my visit to General Greene that the left
or north flank of his brigade camp extended to a point on the
'Calle Real' about 3,200 yards from the outer line of Spanish
defenses of the city of Manila. This Spanish line began at the
powder magazine, or old Fort San Antonio, within a hundred
yards of the beach and just south of the Malate suburb of
Manila, and stretched away to the Spanish left in more or less
detached works, eastward, through swamps and rice fields,
covering all the avenues of approach to the town and
encircling the city completely. The Filipinos, or insurgent
forces at war with Spain, had, prior to the arrival of the
American land forces, been waging a desultory warfare with the
Spaniards for several months, and were at the time of my
arrival in considerable force, variously estimated and never
accurately ascertained, but probably not far from 12,000 men.
These troops, well supplied with small arms, with plenty of
ammunition and several field guns, had obtained positions of
investment opposite to the Spanish line of detached works
throughout their entire extent; and on the particular road
called the 'Calle Real,' passing along the front of General
Greene's brigade camp and running through Malate to Manila,
the insurgents had established an earthwork or trench within
800 yards of the powder-magazine fort. They also occupied as
well the road to the right, leading from the village of Pasay,
and the approach by the beach was also in their possession.
This anomalous state of affairs, namely, having a line of
quasi-hostile native troops between our forces and the Spanish
position, was, of course, very objectionable, but it was
difficult to deal with, owing to the peculiar condition of our
relations with the insurgents, which may be briefly stated as
follows:
"Shortly after the naval battle of Manila Bay, the principal
leader of the insurgents, General Emilio Aguinaldo, came to
Cavite from Hongkong, and, with the consent of our naval
authorities, began active work in raising troops and pushing
the Spaniards in the direction of the city of Manila. Having
met with some success, and the natives flocking to his
assistance, he proclaimed an independent government of
republican form, with himself as president, and at the time of
my arrival in the islands the entire edifice of executive and
legislative departments and subdivision of territory for
administrative purposes had been accomplished, at least on
paper, and the Filipinos held military possession of many
points in the islands other than those in the vicinity of
Manila. As General Aguinaldo did not visit me on my arrival
nor offer his services as a subordinate military leader, and
as my instructions from the President fully contemplated the
occupation of the islands by the American land forces, and
stated that 'the powers of the military occupant are absolute
and supreme and immediately operate upon the political
condition of the inhabitants,' I did not consider it wise to
hold any direct communication with the insurgent leader until
I should be in possession of the city of Manila, especially as
I would not until then be in a position to issue a
proclamation and enforce my authority, in the event that his
pretensions should clash with my designs.
"For these reasons the preparations for the attack on the city
were pressed and military operations conducted without
reference to the situation of the insurgent forces. The wisdom
of this course was subsequently fully established by the fact
that when the troops of my command carried the Spanish
intrenchments, extending from the sea to the Pasay road on the
extreme Spanish right, we were under no obligations, by
pre-arranged plans of mutual attack, to turn to the right and
clear the front still held against the insurgents, but were
able to move forward at once and occupy the city and suburbs.
"To return to the situation of General Greene's brigade as I
found it on my arrival, it will be seen that the difficulty in
gaining an avenue of approach to the Spanish line lay in the
fact of my disinclination to ask General Aguinaldo to withdraw
from the beach and the 'Calle Real,' so that Greene could move
forward. This was overcome by instructions to General Greene
to arrange, if possible, with the insurgent brigade commander
in his immediate vicinity to move to the right and allow the
American forces unobstructed control of the roads in their
immediate front. No objection was made, and accordingly
General Greene's brigade threw forward a heavy outpost line on
the 'Calle Real' and the beach and constructed a trench, in
which a portion of the guns of the Utah batteries was placed.
The Spanish, observing this activity on our part, made a very
sharp attack with infantry and artillery on the night of July
31. The behavior of our troops during this night attack was
all that could be desired, and I have, in cablegrams to the
War Department, taken occasion to commend by name those who
deserve special mention for good conduct in the affair. Our
position was extended and strengthened after this and resisted
successfully repeated night attacks, our forces suffering,
however, considerable loss in wounded and killed, while the
losses of the enemy, owing to the darkness, could not be
ascertained.
"The strain of the night fighting and the heavy details for
outpost duty made it imperative to re-enforce General Greene's
troops with General MacArthur's brigade, which had arrived in
transports on the 31st of July. The difficulties of this
operation can hardly be overestimated. The transports were at
anchor off Cavite, 5 miles from a point on the beach where it
was desired to disembark the men.
{619}
Several squalls, accompanied by floods of rain, raged day
after day, and the only way to get the troops and supplies
ashore was to load them from the ship's side into native
lighters (called 'cascos') or small steamboats, move them to a
point opposite the camp, and then disembark them through the
surf in small boats, or by running the lighters head on to the
beach. The landing was finally accomplished, after days of
hard work and hardship; and I desire here to express again my
admiration for the fortitude and cheerful willingness of the
men of all commands engaged in this operation. Upon the
assembly of MacArthur's brigade in support of Greene's, I had
about 8,500 men in position to attack, and I deemed the time
had come for final action. During the time of the night
attacks I had communicated my desire to Admiral Dewey that he
would allow his ships to open fire on the right of the Spanish
line of intrenchments, believing that such action would stop
the night firing and loss of life, but the admiral had
declined to order it unless we were in danger of losing our
position by the assaults of the Spanish, for the reason that,
in his opinion, it would precipitate a general engagement, for
which he was not ready. Now, however, the brigade of General
MacArthur was in position and the 'Monterey' had arrived, and
under date of August 6 Admiral Dewey agreed to my suggestion
that we should send a joint letter to the captain-general
notifying him that he should remove from the city all
non-combatants within forty-eight hours, and that operations
against the defenses of Manila might begin at any time after
the expiration of that period.
"This letter was sent August 7, and a reply was received the
same date, to the effect that the Spanish were without places
of refuge for the increased numbers of wounded, sick women,
and children now lodged within the walls. On the 9th a formal
joint demand for the surrender of the city was sent in. This
demand was based upon the hopelessness of the struggle on the
part of the Spaniards, and that every consideration of
humanity demanded that the city should not be subjected to
bombardment under such circumstances. The captain-general's
reply, of same date, stated that the council of defense had
declared that the demand could not be granted; but the
captain-general offered to consult his Government if we would
allow him the time strictly necessary for the communications
by way of Hongkong. This was declined on our part for the
reason that it could, in the opinion of the admiral and
myself, lead only to a continuance of the situation, with no
immediate result favorable to us, and the necessity was
apparent and very urgent that decisive action should be taken
at once to compel the enemy to give up the town, in order to
relieve our troops from the trenches and from the great
exposure to unhealthy conditions which were unavoidable in a
bivouac during the rainy season.
"The seacoast batteries in defense of Manila are so situated
that it is impossible for ships to engage them without firing
into the town, and as the bombardment of a city filled with
women and children, sick and wounded, and containing a large
amount of neutral property, could only be justified as a last
resort, it was agreed between Admiral Dewey and myself that an
attempt should be made to carry the extreme right of the
Spanish line of intrenchments in front of the positions at
that time occupied by our troops, which, with its flank on the
seashore, was entirely open to the fire of the navy. It was
not my intention to press the assault at this point, in case
the enemy should hold it in strong force, until after the navy
had made practicable breaches in the works and shaken the troops
holding them, which could not be done by the army alone, owing
to the absence of siege guns. … It was believed, however, as
most desirable, and in accordance with the principles of
civilized warfare, that the attempt should be made to drive
the enemy out of his intrenchments before resorting to the
bombardment of the city. …
"All the troops were in position on the 13th at an early hour
in the morning. About 9 a. m. on that day our fleet steamed
forward from Cavite and before 10 a. m. opened a hot and
accurate fire of heavy shells and rapid-fire projectiles on
the sea flank of the Spanish intrenchments at the powder
magazine fort, and at the same time the Utah batteries, in
position in our trenches near the 'Calle Real,' began firing
with great accuracy. At 10.25, on a prearranged signal from
our trenches that it was believed our troops could advance,
the navy ceased firing, and immediately a light line of
skirmishers from the Colorado regiment of Greene's brigade
passed over our trenches and deployed rapidly forward, another
line from the same regiment from the left flank of our
earthworks advancing swifty up the beach in open order. Both
these lines found the powder-magazine fort and the trenches
flanking it deserted, but as they passed over the Spanish
works they were met by a sharp fire from a second line
situated in the streets of Malate, by which a number of men
were killed and wounded, among others the soldier who pulled
down the Spanish colors still flying on the fort and raised
our own.
"The works of the second line soon gave way to the determined
advance of Greene's troops, and that officer pushed his
brigade rapidly through Malate and over the bridges to occupy
Binondo and San Miguel, as contemplated in his instructions.
In the meantime the brigade of General MacArthur, advancing
simultaneously on the Pasay road, encountered a very sharp
fire, coming from the blockhouses, trenches, and woods in his
front, positions which it was very difficult to carry, owing
to the swampy condition of the ground on both sides of the
roads and the heavy undergrowth concealing the enemy. With
much gallantry and excellent judgment on the part of the
brigade commander and the troops engaged these difficulties
were overcome with a minimum loss, and MacArthur advanced and
held the bridges and the town of Malate, as was contemplated
in his instructions.
"The city of Manila was now in our possession, excepting the
walled town, but shortly after the entry of our troops into
Malate a white flag was displayed on the walls, whereupon
Lieutenant Colonel C. A. Whittier, United States Volunteers,
of my staff, and Lieutenant Brumby, United States Navy,
representing Admiral Dewey, were sent ashore to communicate
with the Captain-General. I soon personally followed these
officers into the town, going at once to the palace of the
Governor-General, and there, after a conversation with the
Spanish authorities, a preliminary agreement of the terms of
capitulation was signed by the Captain-General and myself.
This agreement was subsequently incorporated into the formal
terms of capitulation, as arranged by the officers
representing the two forces, a copy of which is hereto
appended and marked.
{620}
Immediately after the surrender the Spanish colors on the sea
front were hauled down and the American flag displayed and
saluted by the guns of the navy. The Second Oregon Regiment,
which had proceeded by sea from Cavite, was disembarked and
entered the walled town as a provost guard, and the colonel
was directed to receive the Spanish arms and deposit them in
places of security. The town was filled with the troops of the
enemy driven in from the intrenchments, regiments formed and
standing in line in the streets, but the work of disarming
proceeded quietly and nothing unpleasant occurred.
"In leaving the subject of the operations of the 13th, I
desire here to record my appreciation of the admirable manner
in which the orders for attack and the plan for occupation of
the city were carried out by the troops exactly as
contemplated. I submit that for troops to enter under fire a
town covering a wide area, to rapidly deploy and guard all
principal points in the extensive suburbs, to keep out the
insurgent forces pressing for admission, to quietly disarm an
army of Spaniards more than equal in numbers to the American
troops, and finally by all this to prevent entirely all
rapine, pillage, and disorder, and gain entire and complete
possession of a city of 300,000 people, filled with natives
hostile to the European interests, and stirred up by the
knowledge that their own people were fighting in the outside
trenches, was an act which only the law-abiding, temperate,
resolute American soldier, well and skillfully handled by his
regimental and brigade commanders, could accomplish. …
"The amount of public funds and the numbers of the prisoners
of war and small arms taken have been reported in detail by
cable. It will be observed that the trophies of Manila were
nearly $900,000, 13,000 prisoners, and 22,000 arms.
Immediately after the surrender my headquarters were
established in the ayuntamiento, or city office of the
Governor-General, where steps were at once inaugurated to set
up the government of military occupancy. … On the 16th a
cablegram containing the text of the President's proclamation
directing a cessation of hostilities was received by me, and
at the same time an order to make the fact known to the
Spanish authorities, which was done at once. This resulted in
a formal protest from the Governor-General in regard to the
transfer of public funds then taking place, on the ground that
the proclamation was dated prior to the surrender. To this I
replied that the status quo in which we were left with the
cessation of hostilities was that existing at the time of the
receipt by me of the official notice, and that I must insist
upon the delivery of the funds. The delivery was made under
protest.
"After the issue of my proclamation and the establishment of
my office as military governor, I had direct written
communication with General Aguinaldo on several occasions. He
recognized my authority as military governor of the town of
Manila and suburbs, and made professions of his willingness to
withdraw his troops to a line which I might indicate, but at
the same time asking certain favors for himself. The matters
in this connection had not been settled at the date of my
departure. Doubtless much dissatisfaction is felt by the rank
and file of the insurgents that they have not been permitted
to enjoy the occupancy of Manila, and there is some ground for
trouble with them owing to that fact, but, notwithstanding
many rumors to the contrary, I am of the opinion that the
leaders will be able to prevent serious disturbances, as they
are sufficiently intelligent and educated to know that to
antagonize the United States would be to destroy their only
chance of future political improvement.
"On the 28th instant I received a cablegram directing me to
transfer my command to Major-General Otis, United States
Volunteers, and to proceed to Paris, France, for conference
with the peace commissioners. I embarked on the steamer
'China' on the 30th in obedience to these instructions."
Report of General Wesley Merritt
(Annual Reports of the War Department, 1898,
volume 1, pages 39-45).
"Aguinaldo … retired to Malalos, about 25 miles to the
northward, leaving his troops entrenched round Manila, and
there with considerable pomp and ceremony on September 29th,
1898, he was declared First President of the Philippine
Republic, and the National Congress was opened with Pedro
Paterno as President of that assembly."
G. J. Younghusband,
The Philippines and Round About,
page 27.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (July-December).
War with Spain.
Suspension of hostilities.
Negotiation of Treaty of Peace.
Instructions to American Commissioners.
Relinquishment of Spanish sovereignty over Cuba and cession
of Porto Rico, the island of Guam and the Philippine Islands
to the United States.
In his message to Congress, December 5, 1898, President
McKinley gave the following account of his reception of
overtures from Spain, for the termination of the war, and of
the negotiations which resulted in a treaty of peace:
"The annihilation of Admiral Cervera's fleet, followed by the
capitulation of Santiago, having brought to the Spanish
Government a realizing sense of the hopelessness of continuing
a struggle now become wholly unequal, it made overtures of
peace through the French Ambassador, who, with the assent of
his Government, had acted as the friendly representative of
Spanish interests during the war. On the 26th of July M.
Cambon presented a communication signed by the Duke of
Almodovar, the Spanish Minister of State, inviting the United
States to state the terms upon which it would be willing to
make peace. On the 30th of July, by a communication addressed
to the Duke of Almodovar and handed to M. Cambon, the terms of
this Government were announced, substantially as in the
protocol afterwards signed. On the 10th of August the Spanish
reply, dated August 7th, was handed by M. Cambon to the
Secretary of State. It accepted unconditionally the terms
imposed as to Cuba, Porto Rico and an island of the Ladrone
group, but appeared to seek to introduce inadmissible
reservations in regard to our demand as to the Philippine
Islands. Conceiving that discussion on this point could
neither be practical nor profitable, I directed that, in order
to avoid misunderstanding, the matter should be forthwith
closed by proposing the embodiment in a formal protocol of the
terms upon which the negotiations for peace were to be
undertaken.
{621}
The vague and inexplicit suggestion of the Spanish note could
not be accepted, the only reply being to present as a virtual
ultimatum a draft of protocol embodying the precise terms
tendered to Spain in our note of July 30th, with added
stipulations of detail as to the appointment of commissioners
to arrange for the evacuation of the Spanish Antilles. On
August 12th M. Cambon announced his receipt of full powers to
sign the protocol submitted. Accordingly, on the afternoon of
August 12th M. Cambon, as the plenipotentiary of Spain, and
the Secretary of State, as the plenipotentiary of the United
States, signed a protocol providing:
Article I—
Spain will relinquish all claim of sovereignty over and title
to Cuba.
Article II-
Spain will cede to the United States the island of Porto Rico
and other islands now under Spanish sovereignty in the West
Indies and also an island in the Ladrones to be selected by
the United States.
Article III-
The United States will occupy and hold the city, bay and
harbor of Manila pending the conclusion of a treaty of peace,
which shall determine the control, disposition and government
of the Philippines.
The fourth article provided for the appointment of joint
commissions on the part of the United States and Spain, to
meet in Havana and San Juan, respectively, for the purpose of
arranging and carrying out the details of the stipulated
evacuation of Cuba, Porto Rico and other Spanish islands in
the West Indies.
The fifth article provided for the appointment of not more
than five commissioners on each side, to meet at Paris not
later than October 1st, and proceed to the negotiation and
conclusion of a treaty of peace, subject to ratification
according to the respective constitutional forms of the two
countries.
The sixth and last article provided that upon the signature of
the protocol hostilities between the two countries should be
suspended and that notice to that effect should be given as
soon as possible by each government to the commanders of its
military and naval forces. Immediately upon the conclusion of
the protocol I issued a proclamation of August 12th,
suspending hostilities on the part of the United States. The
necessary orders to that end were at once given by telegraph.
The blockade of the ports of Cuba and San Juan de Porto Rico
was in like manner raised. On the 18th of August the
muster-out of 100,000 Volunteers, or as near that number as
was found to be practicable, was ordered. On the 1st of
December 101,165 officers and men had been mustered out and
discharged from the service and 9,002 more will be mustered
out by the 10th of this month. Also a corresponding number of
general staff officers have been honorably discharged from the
service. The military commissions to superintend the
evacuation of Cuba, Porto Rico and the adjacent islands were
forthwith appointed: For Cuba, Major-General James F. Wade,
Rear-Admiral William T. Sampson, Major-General Matthew C.
Butler. For Porto Rico, Major-General John R. Brooke,
Rear-Admiral Winfield S. Schley and Brigadier-General William
W. Gordon, who soon afterwards met the Spanish commissioners
at Havana and San Juan respectively. … Pursuant to the fifth
article of the protocol, I appointed William H. Day, late
Secretary of State; Cushman K. Davis, William P. Frye and
George Gray, Senators of the United States, and Whitelaw Reid,
to be the peace commissioners on the part of the United
States. Proceeding in due season to Paris they there met on
the first of October five commissioners, similarly appointed
on the part of Spain."
Message of the President to Congress,
December 5, 1898.
The instructions given (September 16) by President McKinley to
the commissioners appointed to treat for peace with Spain, and
the correspondence between the commissioners at Paris and the
President and the Secretary of State at Washington during the
progress of the negotiations, were communicated confidentially
to the United States Senate on the 30th of January, 1899, but
not published until February, 1901, when the injunction of
secrecy was removed and the printing of the papers ordered by
vote of the Senate. The chief interest of these papers lies in
their disclosure of what passed between the American executive
and the peace commissioners on the subject of the Philippine
Islands which led to the demand for their entire surrender by
Spain.
In his instructions of September 16th to the commissioners, on
their departure for the meeting with Spanish commissioners at
Paris, the President wrote on this subject: "By article 6 of
the protocol it was agreed that hostilities between the two
countries should be suspended, and that notice to that effect
should be given as soon as possible by each Government to the
Commanders of its military and naval forces. Such notice was
given by the Government of the United States immediately after
the signature of the protocol, the forms of the necessary
orders having previously been prepared. But before notice
could reach the commanders of the military and naval forces of
the United States in the Philippines they captured and took
possession by conquest of the city of Manila and its suburbs,
which are therefore held by the United States by conquest as
well as by virtue of the protocol. In view of what has taken
place it is necessary now to determine what shall be our
future relations to the Philippines. …
"Our aim in the adjustment of peace should be directed to
lasting results and to the achievement of the common good
under the demands of civilization rather than to ambitious
designs. The terms of the protocol were framed upon this
consideration. The abandonment of the Western Hemisphere by
Spain was an imperative necessity. In presenting that
requirement we only fulfilled a duty universally acknowledged.
It involves no ungenerous reference to our recent foe, but
simply a recognition of the plain teachings of history, to say
that it was not compatible with the assurance of permanent
peace on and near our own territory that the Spanish flag
should remain on this side of the sea. This lesson of events
and of reason left no alternative as to Cuba, Porto Rico, and
the other islands belonging to Spain in this hemisphere. The
Philippines stand upon a different basis. It is none the less
true, however, that, without any original thought of complete
or even partial acquisition, the presence and success of our
arms at Manila imposes upon us obligations which we can not
disregard. The march of events rules and overrules human
action. A vowing unreservedly the purpose which has animated
all our effort, and still solicitous to adhere to it, we can
not be unmindful that without any desire or design on our part
the war has brought us new duties and responsibilities which
we must meet and discharge as becomes a great nation on whose
growth and career from the beginning the Ruler of Nations has
plainly written the high command and pledge of civilization.
{622}
"Incidental to our tenure in the Philippines is the commercial
opportunity to which American statesmanship can not be
indifferent. It is just to use every legitimate means for the
enlargement of American trade; but we seek no advantages in
the Orient which are not common to all. Asking only the open
door for ourselves, we are ready to accord the open door to
others. The commercial opportunity which is naturally and
inevitably associated with this new opening depends less on
large territorial possessions than upon an adequate commercial
basis and upon broad and equal privileges. It is believed that
in the practical application of these guiding principles the
present interests of our country and the proper measure of its
duty, its welfare in the future, and the consideration of its
exemption from unknown perils will be found in full accord
with the just, moral, and humane purpose which was invoked as
our justification in accepting the war.
"In view of what has been stated, the United States can not
accept less than the cession in full right and sovereignty of
the island of Luzon. It is desirable, however, that the United
States shall acquire the right of entry for vessels and
merchandise belonging to citizens of the United States into
such ports of the Philippines as are not ceded to the United
States upon terms of equal favor with Spanish ships and
merchandise, both in relation to port and customs charges and
rates of trade and commerce, together with other rights of
protection and trade accorded to citizens of one country
within the territory of another. You are therefore instructed
to demand such concession, agreeing on your part that Spain
shall have similar rights as to her subjects and vessels in
the ports of any territory in the Philippines ceded to the
United States."
On the 7th of October, Mr. Day, on behalf of the American
commissioners, cabled a long communication from Paris to Mr.
Hay, his successor in the United States Department of State,
summarizing testimony given before the Commission by General
Merritt, lately commanding in the Philippines, and statements
brought by General Merritt from Admiral Dewey, General Greene,
and others. In part, the telegram was as follows:
"General Anderson, in correspondence with Aguinaldo in June
and July, seemed to treat him and his forces as allies and
native authorities, but subsequently changed his tone. General
Merritt reports that Admiral Dewey did not approve this
correspondence and advised against it. Merritt and Dewey both
kept clear of any compromising communications. Merritt
expresses opinion we are in no way committed to any insurgent
programme. Answering questions of Judge Day, General Merritt
said insurrection practically confined to Luzon. Tribal and
religious differences between the inhabitants of various
islands. United States has helped rather than injured
insurrection. Under no obligation other than moral to help
natives. Natives of Luzon would not accept Spanish rule, even
with amnesty. Insurgents would be victorious unless Spaniards
did better in future than in past. Insurgents would fight
among themselves if they had no common enemy. Think it
feasible for United States to take Luzon and perhaps some
adjacent islands and hold them as England does her colonies.
Natives could not resist 5,000 troops. … General Merritt
thinks that if United States attempted to take possession of
Luzon, or all the group as a colony, Aguinaldo and his
immediate followers would resist it, but his forces are
divided and his opposition would not amount to anything. If
the islands were divided, filibustering expeditions might go
from one island to another, thus exposing us to constant
danger of conflict with Spain. In answer to questions of
Senator Frye, Merritt said insurgents would murder Spaniards
and priests in Luzon and destroy their property if the United
States withdrew. United States under moral obligation to stay
there. He did not know whether the effect of setting up a
government by the United States in Luzon would be to produce
revolutions in other islands. It might cause reforms in their
government. … Answering questions of Mr. Gray, Merritt said
consequences in case of either insurgent or Spanish triumph
made it doubtful whether United States would be morally
justified in withdrawing. Our acts were ordinary acts of war,
as if we had attacked Barcelona, but present conditions in
Philippine Islands were partly brought about by us. Insurgents
not in worse condition by our coming. Spaniards hardly able to
defend themselves. If we restored them to their position and
trenches, they might maintain themselves with the help of a
navy when we withdrew. Did not know that he could make out a
responsibility by argument, but he felt it. It might be
sentimental. He thought it would be an advantage if the United
States would change its policy and keep the islands. (He)
thought our interests in the East would be helped by the cheap
labor in the Philippines, costing only from 20 to 80 cents a
day, according to skill. … Answering questions of Mr. Reid,
Merritt said he considered capture of Manila practically
capture of group. Nothing left of Spanish sovereignty that was
not at mercy of the United States. Did not think our humanity
bounded by geographical lines. After Dewey's victory we armed
insurgents to some extent, but Dewey says it was
over-estimated. Insurgents bought arms from Hongkong merchants
with Dewey's cognizance, but Dewey was not in favor of allowing
this to continue. Spaniards would destroy Aguinaldo and his
principal followers, if allowed to do so."
October 25, Judge Day cabled a message to Washington, saying:
"Differences of opinion among commissioners concerning
Philippine Islands are set forth in statements transmitted
herewith. On these we request early consideration and explicit
instructions. Liable now to be confronted with this question
in joint commission almost immediately." The differing
statements then transmitted were three in number, the first of
them signed by Messrs. Davis, Frye, and Reid, who said:
"Information gained by commission in Paris leads to conviction
that it would be naval, political, and commercial mistake to
divide the archipelago. Nearly all expert testimony taken
tends to this effect. As instructions provide for retention at
least of Luzon, we do not consider question of remaining in
Philippine Islands at all as now properly before us. We
therefore ask for extension of instructions. Spain governed
and defended these islands from Manila, and with destruction
of her fleet and the surrender of her army we became as
complete masters of the whole group as she had been, with
nothing needed to complete the conquest save to proceed with
the ample forces we had at hand to take unopposed possession.
{623}
The Ladrones and Carolines were also governed from the same
capital by the same governor-general. National boundaries
ought to follow natural divisions, but there is no natural
place for dividing Philippine Islands. … If we do not want the
islands ourselves, better to control their disposition; that
is, to hold the option on them rather than to abandon it.
Could then at least try to protect ourselves by ample treaty
stipulations with the acquiring powers. Commercially, division
of archipelago would not only needlessly establish dangerous
rivals at our door, but would impair value of part we kept."
Disagreeing with this view, Judge Day said:
"I am unable to agree that we should peremptorily demand the
entire Philippine island group. In the spirit of our
instructions, and bearing in mind the often declared
disinterestedness of purpose and freedom from designs of
conquest with which the war was undertaken, we should be
consistent in our demands in making peace. Territory
permanently held must be taken as war indemnity and with due
regard to our responsibility because of the conduct of our
military and naval authorities in dealing with the insurgents.
Whether this conduct was wise or unwise is not now important. We
cannot leave the insurgents to mere treaty stipulations or to
their unaided resources, either to form a government or to
battle against a foe which (although) unequal to us, might
readily overcome them. On all hands it is agreed that the
inhabitants of the islands are unfit for self-government. This
is particularly true of Mindanao and the Sulu group. Only
experience can determine the success of colonial expansion
upon which the United States is entering. It may prove
expensive in proportion to the scale upon which it is tried
with ignorant and semibarbarous people at the other side of
the world. It should therefore be kept within bounds." Judge
Day, accordingly, suggested a division of the archipelago that
would give to the United States Luzon, Mindoro, and Palawan,
and control the entrance to the China Sea. Senator Gray, in a
third statement, dissented from both these views, saying: "The
undersigned can not agree that it is wise to take Philippine
Islands in whole or in part. To do so would be to reverse
accepted continental policy of the country, declared and acted
upon throughout our history. Propinquity governs the case of
Cuba and Porto Rico. Policy proposed introduces us into
European politics and the entangling alliances against which
Washington and all American statesmen have protested. It will
make necessary a navy equal to largest of powers; a greatly
increased military establishment; immense sums for
fortifications and harbors; multiply occasions for dangerous
complications with foreign nations, and increase burdens of
taxation. Will receive in compensation no outlet for American
labor in labor market already overcrowded and cheap; no area
for homes for American citizens; climate and social conditions
demoralizing to character of American youth; new and disturbing
questions introduced into our politics; church question
menacing. On whole, instead of indemnity—injury. The
undersigned can not agree that any obligation incurred to
insurgents is paramount to our own manifest interests. … No
place for colonial administration or government of subject
people in American system. So much from standpoint of
interest; but even conceding all benefits claimed for
annexation, we thereby abandon the infinitely greater benefit
to accrue from acting the part of a great, powerful, and
Christian nation; we exchange the moral grandeur and strength
to be gained by keeping our word to nations of the world and
by exhibiting a magnanimity and moderation in the hour of
victory that becomes the advanced civilization we claim, for
doubtful material advantages and shameful stepping down from
high moral position boastfully assumed. We should set example
in these respects, not follow in the selfish and vulgar greed
for territory which Europe has inherited from medieval times.
Our declaration of war upon Spain was accompanied by a solemn
and deliberate definition of our purpose. Now that we have
achieved all and more than our object, let us simply keep our
word. … At the very least let us adhere to the President's
instructions and if conditions require the keeping of Luzon
forego the material advantages claimed in annexing other
islands. Above all let us not make a mockery of the injunction
contained in those instructions, where, after stating that we
took up arms only in obedience to the dictates of humanity and
in the fulfillment of high public and moral obligations, and
that we had no design of aggrandizement and no ambition of
conquest, the President among other things eloquently says:
'It is my earnest wish that the United States in making peace
should follow the same high rule of conduct which guided it in
facing war. It should be as scrupulous and magnanimous in the
concluding settlement as it was just and humane in its
original action.' This and more, of which I earnestly ask a
re-perusal, binds my conscience and governs my actions."
But the President had now arrived at a different state of
mind, and directed Secretary Hay to make the following reply,
on the 26th: "The information which has come to the President
since your departure convinces him that the acceptance of the
cession of Luzon alone, leaving the rest of the islands
subject to Spanish rule, or to be the subject of future
contention, can not be justified on political, commercial, or
humanitarian grounds. The cession must be of the whole
archipelago or none. The latter is wholly inadmissible and the
former must therefore be required. The President reaches this
conclusion after most thorough consideration of the whole
subject, and is deeply sensible of the grave responsibilities
it will impose, believing that this course will entail less
trouble than any other and besides will best subserve the
interests of the people involved, for whose welfare we can not
escape responsibility."
Two days later, the moral and political reflections of the
President on the subject were expressed still further to the
commissioners by Secretary Hay, in the following telegram:
"While the Philippines can be justly claimed by conquest,
which position must not be yielded, yet their disposition,
control, and government the President prefers should be the
subject of negotiation as provided in the protocol. It is
imperative upon us that as victors we should be governed only
by motives which will exalt our nation. Territorial expansion
should be our least concern; that we shall not shirk the moral
obligations of our victory is of the greatest.
{624}
It is undisputed that Spain's authority is permanently
destroyed in every part of the Philippines. To leave any part
in her feeble control now would increase our difficulties and
be opposed to the interests of humanity. The sentiment in the
United States is almost universal that the people of the
Philippines, whatever else is done, must be liberated from
Spanish domination. In this sentiment the President fully
concurs. Nor can we permit Spain to transfer any of the
islands to another power. Nor can we invite another power or
powers to join the United States in sovereignty over them. We
must either hold them or turn them back to Spain.
Consequently, grave as are the responsibilities and unforeseen
as are the difficulties which are before us, the President can
see but one plain path of duty—the acceptance of the archipelago.
Greater difficulties and more serious
complications—administrative and international—would follow
any other course. The President has given to the views of the
commissioners the fullest consideration, and in reaching the
conclusion above announced in the light of information
communicated to the commission and to the President since your
departure, he has been influenced by the single consideration
of duty and humanity. The President is not unmindful of the
distressed financial condition of Spain, and whatever
consideration the United States may show must come from its
sense of generosity and benevolence, rather than from any real
or technical obligation. The terms upon which the full cession
of the Philippines shall be made must be left largely with the
commission."
On the 3d of November, Judge Day cabled: "After a careful
examination of the authorities, the majority of the commission
are clearly of opinion that our demand for the Philippine
Islands can not be based on conquest. When the protocol was
signed Manila was not captured, siege was in progress and
capture made after the execution of the protocol. Captures
made after agreement for armistice must be disregarded and
status quo restored as far as practicable. We can require
cession of Philippine Islands only as indemnity for losses and
expenses of the war. Have in view, also, condition of islands,
the broken power of Spain, anarchy in which our withdrawal would
leave the islands, etc. These are legitimate factors."
On the 4th, Senator Davis added a personal telegram as
follows: "I think we can demand cession of entire archipelago
on other and more valid grounds than a perfected territorial
conquest of the Philippine Islands, such as indemnity or as
conditions of peace imposed by our general military success
and in view of our future security and general welfare,
commercial and otherwise. I think the protocol admits all
these grounds, and that the ground alone of perfected
territorial conquest of the Philippine Islands is too narrow
and untenable under protocol."
Secretary Hay replied, for the President, on the 5th: "The
President has no purpose to question the commission's judgment
as to the grounds upon which the cession of the archipelago is
to be claimed. His only wish in that respect is to hold all
the ground upon which we can fairly and justly make the claim.
He recognizes fully the soundness of putting forward indemnity
as the chief ground, but conquest is a consideration which
ought not to be ignored. How our demand shall be presented,
and the grounds upon which you will rest it, he confidently
leaves with the commissioners. His great concern is that a
treaty shall be effected in terms which will not only satisfy
the present generation but, what is more important, be
justified in the judgment of posterity."
Discussion followed, in which Judge Day and Senator Gray
repeated the views they had formerly expressed, in dissent
from the policy determined upon by the President and his
cabinet, the latter saying: "Believing that the result of a
failure to obtain a treaty would be the forcible seizure of
the whole Philippine Islands group, an event greatly to be
deprecated as inconsistent with the traditions and
civilization of the United States, I would be willing to take
the islands by the cession of a treaty of peace, and I would,
to that end, make such reasonable concessions as would comport
with the magnanimity of a great nation dealing with a weak and
prostrate foe. I mean that I would prefer the latter
alternative to the former, not that I have changed my mind as
to the policy of taking the Philippine Islands at all."
So far as concerned the demands of the United States (which
Spain was powerless to resist), the question was settled, on
the 13th of November, by a telegram from Secretary Hay to Mr.
Day, in which he said: "We are clearly entitled to indemnity
for the cost of the war. We can not hope to be fully
indemnified. We do not expect to be. It would probably be
difficult for Spain to pay money. All she has are the
archipelagoes of the Philippines and the Carolines. She surely
can not expect us to turn the Philippines back and bear the cost
of the war and all claims of our citizens for damages to life
and property in Cuba without any indemnity but Porto Rico,
which we have and which is wholly inadequate. … You are
therefore instructed to insist upon the cession of the whole
of the Philippines, and, if necessary, pay to Spain ten to
twenty millions of dollars, and if you can get cession of a
naval and telegraph station in the Carolines, and the several
concessions and privileges and guaranties, so far as
applicable, enumerated in the views of Commissioners Frye and
Reid, you can offer more."
United States, 56th Congress, 2d Session,
Senate Document Number 148
(Papers relating to the Treaty with Spain).
Discussion between the Spanish and American commissioners at
Paris was prolonged until the 10th of December, when the
former yielded to what they protested against as hard terms,
and the following Treaty of Peace was signed:
Treaty of Peace.
ARTICLE I.
Spain relinquishes all claim of sovereignty over and title to
Cuba. And as the island is, upon its evacuation by Spain, to
be occupied by the United States, the United States will, so
long as such occupation shall last, assume and discharge the
obligations that may under international law result from the
fact of its occupation, for the protection of life and
property.
ARTICLE II.
Spain cedes to the United States the island of Porto Rico and
other islands now under Spanish sovereignty in the West
Indies, and the island of Guam in the Marianas or Ladrones.
{625}
ARTICLE III.
Spain cedes to the United States the archipelago known as the
Philippine Islands, and comprehending the islands lying within
the following line: A line running from west to east along or
near the twentieth parallel of north latitude, and through the
middle of the navigable channel of Bachi, from the one hundred
and eighteenth (118th) to the one hundred and twenty seventh
(127th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich, thence
along the one hundred and twenty seventh (127th) degree
meridian of longitude east of Greenwich to the parallel of
four degrees and forty five minutes (4° 45') north latitude,
thence along the parallel of four degrees and forty five
minutes (4° 45') north latitude to its intersection with the
meridian of longitude one hundred and nineteen degrees and
thirty five minutes (119° 35') east of Greenwich, thence along
the meridian of longitude one hundred and nineteen degrees and
thirty five minutes (119° 35') east of Greenwich to the
parallel of latitude seven degrees and forty minutes (7° 40')
north, thence along the parallel of latitude of seven degrees
and forty minutes (7° 40') north to its intersection with the
one hundred and sixteenth (116th) degree meridian of longitude
east of Greenwich, thence by a direct line to the intersection
of the tenth (10th) degree parallel of north latitude with the
one hundred and eighteenth (118th) degree meridian of
longitude east of Greenwich, and thence along the one hundred
and eighteenth (118th) degree meridian of longitude east of
Greenwich to the point of beginning. The United States will
pay to Spain the sum of twenty million dollars ($20,000,000)
within three months after the exchange of the ratifications of
the present treaty.
ARTICLE IV.
The United States will, for the term of ten years from the
date of the exchange of the ratifications of the present
treaty, admit Spanish ships and merchandise to the ports of
the Philippine Islands on the same terms as ships and
merchandise of the United States.
ARTICLE V.
The United States will, upon the signature of the present
treaty, send back to Spain, at its own cost, the Spanish
soldiers taken as prisoners of war on the capture of Manila by
the American forces. The arms of the soldiers in question
shall be restored to them. Spain will, upon the exchange of
the ratifications of the present treaty, proceed to evacuate
the Philippines, as well as the island of Guam, on terms
similar to those agreed upon by the Commissioners appointed to
arrange for the evacuation of Porto Rico and other islands in
the West Indies, under the Protocol of August 12, 1898, which
is to continue in force till its provisions are completely
executed. The time within which the evacuation of the
Philippine Islands and Guam shall be completed shall be fixed
by the two Governments. Stands of colors, uncaptured war
vessels, small arms, guns of all calibres, with their
carriages and accessories, powder, ammunition, livestock, and
materials and supplies of all kinds, belonging to the land and
naval forces of Spain in the Philippines and Guam, remain the
property of Spain. Pieces of heavy ordnance, exclusive of
field artillery, in the fortifications and coast defences,
shall remain in their emplacements for the term of six months,
to be reckoned from the exchange of ratifications of the
treaty; and the United States may, in the meantime, purchase
such material from Spain, if a satisfactory agreement between
the two Governments on the subject shall be reached.
ARTICLE VI.
Spain will, upon the signature of the present treaty, release
all prisoners of war, and all persons detained or imprisoned
for political offences, in connection with the insurrections
in Cuba and the Philippines and the war with the United
States. Reciprocally the United States will release all
persons made prisoners of war by the American forces, and will
undertake to obtain the release of all Spanish prisoners in
the hands of the insurgents in Cuba and the Philippines. The
Government of the United States will at its own cost return to
Spain and the Government of Spain will at its own cost return
to the United States, Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines,
according to the situation of their respective homes,
prisoners released or caused to be released by them,
respectively, under this article.
ARTICLE VII.
The United States and Spain mutually relinquish all claims for
indemnity, national and individual, of every kind, of either
Government, or of its citizens or subjects, against the other
Government, that may have arisen since the beginning of the
late insurrection in Cuba and prior to the exchange of
ratifications of the present treaty, including all claims for
indemnity for the cost of the war. The United States will
adjudicate and settle the claims of its citizens against Spain
relinquished in this article.
ARTICLE VIII.
In conformity with the provisions of Articles I, II, and III
of this treaty, Spain relinquishes in Cuba, and cedes in Porto
Rico and other islands in the West Indies, in the island of
Guam, and in the Philippine Archipelago, all the buildings,
wharves, barracks, forts, structures, public highways and
other immovable property which, in conformity with law, belong
to the public domain, and as such belong to the Crown of
Spain. And it is hereby declared that the relinquishment or
cession, as the case may be, to which the preceding paragraph
refers, cannot in any respect impair the property or rights
which by law belong to the peaceful possession of property of
all kinds, of provinces, municipalities, public or private
establishments, ecclesiastical or civic bodies, or any other
associations having legal capacity to acquire and possess
property in the aforesaid territories renounced or ceded, or
of private individuals, of whatsoever nationality such
individuals may be. The aforesaid relinquishment or cession,
as the case may be, includes all documents exclusively
referring to the sovereignty relinquished or ceded that may
exist in the archives of the Peninsula. Where any document in
such archives only in part relates to said sovereignty, a copy
of such part will be furnished whenever it shall be requested.
Like rules shall be reciprocally observed in favor of Spain in
respect of documents in the archives of the islands above
referred to. In the aforesaid relinquishment or cession, as
the case may be, are also included such rights as the Crown of
Spain and its authorities possess in respect of the official
archives and records, executive as well as judicial, in the
islands above referred to, which relate to said islands or the
rights and property of their inhabitants. Such archives and
records shall be carefully preserved, and private persons
shall without distinction have the right to require, in
accordance with law, authenticated copies of the contracts,
wills and other instruments forming part of notarial protocols
or files, or which may be contained in the executive or
judicial archives, be the latter in Spain or in the islands
aforesaid.
{626}
ARTICLE IX.
Spanish subjects, natives of the Peninsula, residing in the
territory over which Spain by the present treaty relinquishes
or cedes her sovereignty, may remain in such territory or may
remove therefrom, retaining in either event all their rights
of property, including the right to sell or dispose of such
property or of its proceeds; and they shall also have the
right to carry on their industry, commerce and professions,
being subject in respect thereof to such laws as are
applicable to other foreigners. In case they remain in the
territory they may preserve their allegiance to the Crown of
Spain by making, before a court of record, within a year from
the date of the exchange of ratifications of this treaty, a
declaration of their decision to preserve such allegiance; in
default of which declaration they shall be held to have
renounced it and to have adopted the nationality of the
territory in which they may reside. The civil rights and
political status of the native inhabitants of the territories
hereby ceded to the United States shall be determined by the
Congress.
ARTICLE X.
The inhabitants of the territories over which Spain
relinquishes or cedes her sovereignty shall be secured in the
free exercise of their religion.
ARTICLE XI.
The Spaniards residing in the territories over which Spain by
this treaty cedes or relinquishes her sovereignty shall be
subject in matters civil as well as criminal to the
jurisdiction of the courts of the country wherein they reside,
pursuant to the ordinary laws governing the same; and they
shall have the right to appear before such courts, and to
pursue the same course as citizens of the country to which the
courts belong.
ARTICLE XII.
Judicial proceedings pending at the time of the exchange of
ratifications of this treaty in the territories over which
Spain relinquishes or cedes her sovereignty shall be
determined according to the following rules:
1. Judgments rendered either in civil suits between private
individuals, or in criminal matters, before the date
mentioned, and with respect to which there is no recourse or
right of review under the Spanish law, shall be deemed to be
final, and shall be executed in due form by competent
authority in the territory within which such judgments should
be carried out.
2. Civil suits between private individuals which may on the
date mentioned be undetermined shall be prosecuted to judgment
before the court in which they may then be pending or in the
court that may be substituted therefor.
3. Criminal actions pending on the date mentioned before the
Supreme Court of Spain against citizens of the territory which
by this treaty ceases to be Spanish shall continue under its
jurisdiction until final judgment; but, such judgment having
been rendered, the execution thereof shall be committed to the
competent authority of the place in which the case arose.
ARTICLE XIII.
The rights of property secured by copyrights and patents
acquired by Spaniards in the Island of Cuba and in Porto Rico,
the Philippines and other ceded territories, at the time of
the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty, shall
continue to be respected. Spanish scientific, literary and
artistic works, not subversive of public order in the
territories in question, shall continue to be admitted free of
duty into such territories, for the period of ten years, to be
reckoned from the date of the exchange of the ratifications of
this treaty.
ARTICLE XIV.
Spain will have the power to establish consular officers in
the ports and places of the territories, the sovereignty over
which has been either relinquished or ceded by the present
treaty.
ARTICLE XV.
The Government of each country will, for the term of ten
years, accord to the merchant vessels of the other country the
same treatment in respect of all port charges, including
entrance and clearance dues, light dues, and tonnage duties,
as it accords to its own merchant vessels, not engaged in the
coastwise trade. This article may at any time be terminated on
six months notice given by either Government to the other.
ARTICLE XVI.
It is understood that any obligations assumed in this treaty
by the United States with respect to Cuba are limited to the
time of its occupancy thereof; but it will upon the
termination of such occupancy, advise any Government
established in the island to assume the same obligations.
ARTICLE XVII.
The present treaty shall be ratified by the President of the
United States, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate thereof, and by Her Majesty the Queen Regent of Spain;
and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington within
six months from the date hereof, or earlier if possible. In
faith whereof, we, the respective Plenipotentiaries, have
signed this treaty and have hereunto affixed our seals. Done
in duplicate at Paris, the tenth day of December, in the year
of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight.
[Signed]
William R. Day,
Cushman K. Davis,
William P. Frye,
Geo. Gray,
Whitelaw Reid,
Eugenio Montero Ríos,
B. de Abarzuza,
J. de Garnica,
W. R. de Villa Urrutia,
Rafael Cerero.
That the treaty would be ratified by the Senate of the United
States was by no means certain when it was signed, and
remained questionable for two months.
See below:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
Some time after the conclusion of the treaty, it was
discovered that the boundaries defined in it for the cession
of the Philippine Islands failed to include the islands of
Cagayan, or Kagayan, and Sibutu, in the southern part of the
archipelago. Still later, it was found that several small
islands (the Bachi or Bashee group, and others) belonging to
the Spanish possessions in the East were left lying outside of
the northern Philippine boundary, as laid down in the treaty
of cession. It is said that the Japanese government called
attention to this latter error, desiring to have the islands
in question, which are near to Formosa, controlled by the
United States, rather than by Spain. By a new treaty with
Spain, negotiated in 1900, all these outlying islands were
acquired by the United States, for the sum of $100,000.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (August).
Losses of the armies at Santiago and in the Philippines.
See below:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (JUNE).
{627}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (August 21).
The War with Spain.
Letter from departing Spanish soldiers to the soldiers
of the American army.
The following letter, addressed, on the eve of their departure
for Spain, by the Spanish soldiers at Santiago, to the
soldiers of the American army, "is surely," says
Lieutenant-Colonel Miley, who quotes it in his book entitled
"In Cuba with Shafter"—"is surely the most remarkable letter
ever addressed by vanquished soldiers to their conquerors:
'Soldiers of the American Army: We would not be fulfilling our
duty as well-born men in whose breasts there lives gratitude
and courtesy, should we embark for our beloved Spain without
sending you our most cordial and sincere good wishes and
farewell. We fought you with ardor and with all our strength,
endeavoring to gain the victory, but without the slightest
rancor or hate toward the American nation. We have been
vanquished by you, so our generals and chiefs judged in
signing the capitulation, but our surrender and the
blood-battles preceding it have left in our souls no place for
resentment against the men who fought us nobly and valiantly.
You fought and acted in compliance with the same call of duty
as we, for we all but represent the power of our respective
States. You fought us as men, face to face, and with great
courage, as before stated—a quality we had not met with during
the three years we have carried on this war against a people
without a religion, without morals, without conscience, and of
doubtful origin, who could not confront the enemy, but shot
their noble victims from ambush and then immediately fled.
This was the kind of warfare we had to sustain in this
unfortunate land. You have complied exactly with all the laws
and usages of war as recognized by the armies of the most
civilized nations of the world; have given honorable burial to
the dead of the vanquished; have cured their wounded with
great humanity; have respected and cared for your prisoners
and their comfort; and lastly, to us, whose condition was
terrible, you have given freely of food and of your stock of
medicines, and have honored us with distinction and courtesy,
for after the fighting the two armies mingled with the utmost
harmony. With this high sentiment of appreciation from us all,
there remains but to express our farewell, and with the
greatest sincerity we wish you all happiness and health in
this land, which will no longer belong to our dear Spain, but
will be yours. You have conquered it by force and watered it
with your blood, as your conscience called for under the
demands of civilization and humanity; but the descendants of
the Congos and Guineas, mingled with the blood of unscrupulous
Spaniards and of traitors and adventurers—these people are
not able to exercise or enjoy their liberty, for they will
find it a burden to comply with the laws which govern
civilized humanity. From eleven thousand Spanish soldiers.
(Signed) Pedro Lopez De Castillo, Soldier of Infantry.
Santiago de Cuba, August 21, 1898.'"
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (August-December).
Situation in the Philippines following the occupation
of Manila by American forces.
Growing distrust and unfriendliness of the Tagalos.
Report of General Otis.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (December).
Organization of military government in Cuba.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1898-1899 (DECEMBER-OCTOBER).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898-1899.
Statistics of the Spanish-American War.
The following military and naval statistics of the war with
Spain, compiled from official sources, were submitted to the
House of Representatives, during its debate on the Army Bill,
in December, 1900, as part of an appendix to a speech made in
support of the Bill by Honorable Charles Dick, of Ohio:
ORGANIZATION AND STRENGTH OF THE ARMY
DURING AND AFTER THE WAR.
By an Act of Congress approved April 22, 1898, providing for
the temporary increase of the military establishment of the
United States, "the organized and active land forces were
declared to consist of the Regular Army and of the militia of
the several States when called into service, constituting two
branches, designated, respectively, as be Regular Army and the
Volunteer Army of the United States. And the President was
authorized to organize the regular and volunteer troops into
divisions of three brigades, each brigade to be composed of
three or more regiments, and when three or more divisions are
present in the same army, to organize them into army corps,
each corps to consist of not more than three divisions. Under
the authority conferred upon him by the joint resolution of
April 20 and the act of April 22, 1898, the President issued a
proclamation, dated April 23, 1898, calling for volunteers to the
number of 125,000 men, to be apportioned as far as practicable
among the several States, Territories, and the District of
Columbia, according to population, to serve for two years
unless sooner discharged. Among the several arms of the
service the troops were apportioned as follows: Five regiments
and 17 troops of cavalry, 16 batteries of light artillery, 1
regiment and 7 batteries of heavy artillery, 119 regiments and
10 battalions of infantry. May 25, 1898, the President issued
a proclamation calling for an additional force of 75,000 men.
For controlling military reasons, it was determined to utilize
so much of this additional force as was necessary to bring up
the several State organizations in service to the full legal
strength, the remainder to be apportioned among the several
States and Territories according to their respective quotas as
nearly as possible. The apportionment to the several arms of
service under this second call was for 16 batteries of light
artillery, 3 battalions of heavy artillery, and 22 regiments,
ten battalions, and 46 companies of infantry."
The strength of the Regular Army on the 1st of April, 1898,
just before the breaking out of the war, was as follows:
Officers. Enlisted Men.
General officers and staff corps. 532 2,026
Cavalry. 437 6,047
Artillery. 288 4,486
Infantry. 886 12,828
Miscellaneous. 653
Total. 2,143 26,040
The Regular Army was authorized to be increased to 65,000 men
as a war footing. The total strength of the armies, Regular
and Volunteer, at several later dates, was as follows:
{628}
DATE. Regulars. Volunteers. Total.
April 15, 1898 28,183 28,183
May 31, 1898 38,816 124,776 162,592
August 31, 1898 56,362 216,256 272,618
January 31, 1899 65,531 90,241 155,772
June 30, 1899 63,535 16,550 80,085
Maximum force at any one time during Spanish-American war,
274,717 officers and men. On the 29th of November, 1898, the
Army of the United States consisted of 2,324 officers and
61,444 enlisted men of the regular force, and of 5,216
officers and 110,202 enlisted men of the volunteer force,
making an aggregate of 7,540 officers and 171,646 enlisted
men.
PAY OF ARMY.
Payments made to Regular and Volunteer armies engaged during
Spanish-American war, from April 21, 1898, to April 11, 1899,
$67,065,629.56.
CASUALTIES IN ACTION.
In Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines between May 1, 1898,
and June 30, 1899.
Killed Cuba Porto Rico Philippines
Officers 21 16
Enlisted men 223 4 219
Wounded:
Officers 101 92
Enlisted men 1,344 36 1,349
Died of Wounds:
Officers 10 10
Enlisted men 64 8 82
Died of Disease:
Officers 34 4 11
Enlisted men. 888 251 369
Grand total, 5,136.
Casualties in Fifth Army Corps in campaign against Santiago,
June 22, 1898, to July 17, 1898.
Officers. Enlisted Men.
Killed. 21 222
Wounded 101 1,344
At battle of Las Guasimas, June 24, 1898.
Officers. Enlisted Men.
Killed. 1 15
Wounded 6 43
At battle of El Caney, July 1, 1898.
Officers. Enlisted Men.
Killed. 4 77
Wounded 25 335
At Aguadores, July 1-2, 1898.
Officers. Enlisted Men.
Killed. 2
Wounded 10
At battle of San Juan, July 1-3, 1898.
Officers. Enlisted Men.
Killed. 15 127
Wounded 69 945
Casualties around Santiago, July 10-12, 1898.
Officers. Enlisted Men.
Killed. 1 1
Wounded 1 11
Grand total of casualties in killed and wounded
during the war with Spain.
WHERE. KILLED. WOUNDED.
Officers. Enlisted Men. Officers. Enlisted Men.
Cuba 23 237 99 1,332
Porto Rico. 3 4 36
Manila 17 10 96
Total 23 257 113 1,464
The deaths from all causes (including casualties in action) in
the whole Army, regulars and volunteers, for the fourteen
months from May, 1898, to June, 1899, inclusive, were 6,619.
This is equivalent to an annual rate of 33.03 per thousand of
strength. The deaths from disease during the whole period were
at an annual rate of hut 25.68 per thousand. These were as
follows:
STATIONS. Number of Deaths Rate per 1,000.
United States 3,577 23.81
Cuba 928 45.14
Porto Rico 238 38.15
Philippines 402 17.20
{629}
Deaths in the armies of the United States, by countries,
between May 1, 1898, and June 30, 1899.
[Off. = Officer; Enl. = Enlisted Men.]
COUNTRY KILLED. DIED OF DISEASE. ACCIDENT.
WOUNDS
Off. Enl. Off. Enl. Off. Enl. Off. Enl.
REGULARS.
United States 1 5 10 32 874 1 51
Cuba 19 184 5 60 8 381 7
Porto Rico 3 73 3
Hawaiian Islands 10 1
Philippine Islands 4 81 1 33 4 109 10
At sea 1 11 4 77
Total 24 270 7 114 51 1,524 1 72
VOLUNTEERS.
United States 1 87 2,836 3 111
Cuba 3 39 10 16 457 2 12
Porto Rico 3 1 157 5
Hawaiian Islands 33 1
Philippine Islands 14 146 3 67 5 215 6
At sea 5 122 2
Total 17 188 3 78 114 3,820 5 137
Aggregate 38 458 10 192 165 5,344 6 209
COUNTRY. DROWNED. SUICIDE. MURDER TOTAL.
HOMICIDE
Off. Enl. Off. Enl. Off. Enl. Off. Enl.
REGULARS.
United States 1 16 19 18 35 993
Cuba 7 5 6 32 650
Porto Rico 1 3 1 3 81
Hawaiian Islands 1 12
Philippine Islands 19 1 3 1 10 256
At sea 1 4 2 6 94
Total 2 48 1 32 26 86 2,086
VOLUNTEERS.
United States 23 1 15 22 91 3,008
Cuba 4 3 21 525
Porto Rico 2 1 1 1 169
Hawaiian Islands 34
Philippine Islands 1 9 3 23 446
At sea 2 1 5 127
Total 1 40 1 20 26 141 4,309
Aggregate 3 88 2 52 52 224 6,395
{630}
Recapitulation of casualties in action in the armies of the
United States between May 1, 1898, and June 30, 1899.
[Off. = Officer; Enl. = Enlisted Men.]
COUNTRY. KILLED. WOUNDED. TOTAL. AGGREGATE
Off. Enl. Off. Enl. Off. Enl.
REGULARS.
Cuba 18 183 86 1,126 104 1,309 1,413
Porto Rico 1 2 15 2 16 18
United States 1 5 10 1 15 16
Philippines, to
August 13, 1898 7 1 25 1 32 33
Philippines since
February 4, 1899 2 74 20 410 22 484 506
Total 21 270 109 1,586 130 1,856 1,986
VOLUNTEERS.
Cuba 3 39 15 218 18 257 275
Porto Rico 3 2 21 2 24 26
Philippines,
to Aug. 13, 1898 11 9 74 9 85 94
Philippines, since
February 4, 1899 14 135 62 865 76 1,000 1,076
Total 17 188 88 1,178 105 1,366 1,471
Grand total 38 458 197 2,764 235 3,222 3,457
HOSPITALS.
From the declaration of war with Spain to September 20, 1899,
there have been established:
Beds.
20 field division hospitals, averaging 250 beds each 5,000
31 general hospitals with a total capacity of about 13,800
Railroad ambulance train 270
4 hospital ships 1,000
Total 20,070
In addition to these over 5,000 cases were treated in civil
hospitals. It is difficult even to approximate the number of
men treated in these hospitals. During that period somewhat
over 100,000 cases were admitted on sick report, a number
equal to 2,147 per 1,000 of strength during the year, or to
179 per 1,000 per month—the ratio of admissions to hospital
cases being 13 to 8. Using these data as a basis, and assuming
the mean strength of the Army (Regulars and Volunteers) to have
been 154,000, it would appear that from May 1, 1898, to
September 20, 1899, about 275,000 cases have been treated in
these hospitals.
TRANSPORTATION OF SPANISH PRISONERS OF WAR TO SPAIN.
The following is a statement showing the dates of embarkation,
names of vessels, and number of officers, enlisted men, and
others who took passage:
[Date = Date of Embarkation,
Off. = Officers
Men = Enlisted men,
Women = Women and children over 5 years of age,
Priests = Priests and Sisters of Charity.]
Date Name of Vessel. Off. Men Women Priests Total
August 9 Alicante 38 1,069 6 11 1,124
August 14 Isla de Luzon 137 2,056 40 4 2,237
August 16 Covadonga 109 2,148 79 2,336
August 19 Villaverde 52 565 34 651
August 19 Isla de Panay 99 1,599 26 5 1,729
August 22 P. de Satrustegui 128 2,359 68 2,555
August 25 Montevideo 136 2,108 122 2 2,368
August 27 Cherihon 18 905 37 960
August 28 Colón 100 1,316 59 1,475
August 30 do 23 726 5 754
September 1 Leon XIII 113 2,209 108 2,430
September 3 San Ignacio 59 1,408 20 12 1,499
September 6 Leonora 15 1,118 1,333
September 12 Cindad de Cadiz 53 19 14 86
September 17 San Augustin 65 800 45 910
September 17 San Francisco 18 588 11 617
Total 1,163 20,974 679 48 22,864
ARMS AND AMMUNITION CAPTURED AT SANTIAGO.
Mauser carbines, Spanish, 7 mm 16,902
Mauser rifles, Argentine, 7½ mm 872
Remington rifles, 7 mm 6,118
Total rifles 23,892
Mauser carbines, Spanish 833
Mauser carbines, Argentine 7½ mm 84
Remington carbines, 7½ mm 330
Total carbines 1,247
Revolvers 75
{631}
Mauser-Spanish—cartridges, 7 mm. 1,500,000
Mauser-Argentine—cartridges, 7½ mm. 1,471,200
Remington cartridges, 7½ mm 1,680,000
Total. 4,651,200
Nine hundred and seventy-three thousand Remington
cartridges, 7½ mm., worthless.
STRENGTH OF THE NAVY, REGULAR AND AUXILIARY.
The number of enlisted men allowed by law prior to the
outbreak of hostilities was 12,500. On August 15, when the
enlisted force reached its maximum, there were 24,123 men in
the service. This great increase was made necessary by the
addition of 128 ships to the Navy. The maximum fighting force
of the Navy, separated into classes, was as follows:
Battle ships (first class). 4
Battle ships (second class). 1
Armored cruisers. 2
Coast defense monitors. 6
Armored ram. 1
Protected cruisers. 12
Unprotected cruisers. 3
Gunboats. 18
Dynamite cruiser. 1
Torpedo boats. 11
Vessels of old Navy,
Including monitors. 14
Auxiliary Navy:
Auxiliary cruisers. 11
Converted yachts. 28
Revenue cutters. 15
Light-house tenders. 4
Converted tugs. 27
Converted colliers. 19
Miscellaneous. 19
NAVAL, PRISONERS OF WAR CAPTURED OFF SANTIAGO, JULY 3, 1898.
Officers. 99
Enlisted men. 1,675
CASUALTIES IN ACTION.
ENGAGEMENT. Casualties Killed Wounded Died later
from wounds
Action at Manila Bay,
May 1 9 9
Action off Cienfuegos,
May 11 12 1 11 1
Action off Cardenas,
May 11. 8 5 3
Action off San Juan,
Porto Rico, May 12 8 1 7
Engagements at Guantanamo,
Cuba, June 11 to 20 22 *6 16
Engagement off Santiago:
June 22 10 1 9
July 3 11 1 10
Miscellaneous:
Yankee, June 13. 1 1
Eagle, July 12 1 1
Bancroft, August 2 1 1
Amphitrite, August 7 1 1 †l
Total 84 16 68 2
* One accidentally killed.
† Accidentally shot.
Congressional Record,
February 1, 1901, pages 1941-1962.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898-1899.
Investigation of the conduct of the War Department
in the war with Spain.
Severe criticism of the conduct of the War Department during
the war with Spain, including many charges of inefficiency in
its service, produced by improper appointments made for
political reasons, and other charges of misdoing in the
purchase of supplies, under influences either political or
otherwise corrupt, led to the appointment by the President, in
September, 1898, of an investigating commission, composed of
nine soldier and civilian members, as follows:
General Grenville M. Dodge, President.
Colonel James A. Sexton.
Colonel Charles Denby,
Captain Evan P. Howell,
Honorable Urban A. Woodbury,
Brigadier-General John M. Wilson, U. S. A.,
General James A. Beaver,
Major-General Alexander McD. Cook, U. S. A.,
Dr. Phineas S. Conner.
The report of the Commission, made in the following February,
cannot be said to have been a convincing and satisfactory one
to the country at large. It was indignantly described as a
"whitewashing report," even by many journals and writers of
the party in power. Its inquiries did not appear to have been
keenly and impartially searching; its conclusions were not
thought to be drawn with a rigorous and fearless hand.
The charges against the War Department which excited most
feeling and drew most public attention related to the quality
of the fresh beef supplied to the army, which was in two
forms, refrigerated and canned. Major-General Miles,
commanding the Army, had declared that much of the
refrigerated beef furnished to the soldiers should be called
"embalmed beef," maintaining that it had been "apparently
preserved with secret chemicals, which destroy its natural
flavor" and which were believed to be "detrimental to the
health of the troops." He intimated that hundreds of tons of
such beef had been contracted for by the Commissary-General
"under pretense of experiment." In repelling this serious
accusation, Commissary-General Charles P. Eagan read a
statement before the Commission, so violent and unmeasured in
its vituperation of the commanding general that it was
returned to him for correction; many newspapers declined to
publish it, and he was subsequently tried by court-martial in
consequence—as related below. The conclusion of the
Commission on the subject of the charges relating to
refrigerated beef was stated in its report as follows:
"The Commission is of the opinion that no refrigerated beef
furnished by contractors and issued to the troops during the
war with Spain was subjected to or treated with any chemicals
by the contractors or those in their employ."
Concerning the canned beef, which had caused much disgust in
the army, the Commission reported:
"The result of our own testing and of all the analyses made at
our instance … is that the canned meat which has been brought
to our attention is pure, sound, and nutritive. It has not
been found to contain any acids or any deleterious substance,
but to be unadulterated meat. The testimony before us is that
the canned meat is not, in general, intended to be issued to
troops except as an emergency ration. The preponderance of the
proof is that meat on the hoof and the refrigerated beef are
more acceptable. A number of officers and others have
testified that the meat is unpalatable. Its palatability
greatly depends upon the mode in which it is cooked. In a
tropical climate, carried on the march, exposed to heat, the
meat so changes in appearance as to become repulsive. In the
Navy, where the meat is properly cared for, there has been no
complaint, so far as has appeared in evidence before us. After
careful consideration we find that canned meat, as issued to
the troops, was generally of good quality, was properly
prepared, and contained no deleterious substance.
{632}
At times probably material of poor quality is issued; in one
of the cans sent to us and examined by the chemist a large
amount of gristle was found. That it was not issued 'under
pretense of an experiment' is indicated by the fact that it
has been in use in the Army for more than 20 years."
On the general management of the Quarter-master's Department,
with which much fault had been found, the Commission reported:
"The conclusions drawn … are as follows:
"1. The Quartermaster's Department, a month before war was
declared, was neither physically nor financially prepared for
the tremendous labor of suddenly equipping and transporting an
army over ten times the size of the Regular Army of the United
States.
"2. That the department devoted the ability, zeal, and
industry of its officers to accomplish the herculean task
before it so soon as funds were made available and war was
declared.
"3. That it deserves credit for the great work accomplished,
for the immense quantity of materials obtained and issued
within so short a period, and for its earnest efforts in
reference to railroad transportation and in protecting the
great interests of the General Government committed to its
charge. Its officers, especially those at the head-quarters of
the department and at its depots, worked earnestly and
laboriously day and night, sparing themselves in no possible
way.
"4. There appears to have been a lack of system, whereby, even
as late as October, troops in camps and in the field were
lacking in some articles of clothing, camp and garrison
equipage; and hospitals, at least at two important localities
in the South—Fort Monroe, Virginia, and Huntsville,
Alabama—lacked stoves, while at Huntsville fuel was wanting.
"5. There appears to have been lack of executive or
administrative ability, either on the part of the
Quartermaster's Department or the railroad officials, in
preventing the great congestion of cars at Tampa and
Chickamauga when these camps were first established, which
congestion caused delay, annoyance, and discomfort to the
large bodies of troops concentrating at those places.
"6. There appears to have been a lack of foresight in
preparing and promptly having available at some central
locality on the seacoast the necessary fleet of transports
which it seemed evident would be required for the movement of
troops to a foreign shore, and, finally, when the call came
suddenly and the emergency was supreme, the department appears
not to have fully comprehended the capacity of the fleet under
its command; not to have supplied it with a complete outfit of
lighters for the immediate disembarkation of troops and
supplies; to have accepted without full investigation the
statement that the vessels were capable of transporting 25,000
men, while really they could not and did not transport more
than 17,000 with their artillery, equipments, ammunition, and
supplies, and lacked sufficient storage room for the necessary
amount of wagon transportation—that very important element
in the movement of an army in the face of an enemy.
"7. The Quartermaster's Department should maintain on hand at
all times a complete supply for at least four months for an
army of 100,000 men of all articles of clothing, camp and
garrison equipage, and other quartermaster's supplies which
will not deteriorate by storage or which cannot at once be
obtained in open market.
"Finally. In the opinion of this commission, there should be a
division of the labor now devolving upon the Quartermaster's
Department."
In another part of its report, dealing especially with the
Santiago campaign, the Commission makes a statement which
seems to reflect some additional light on the sixth paragraph
of the finding quoted above, relative to the unpreparedness of
the quartermaster's department for the landing of the Santiago
expedition. It says:
"The Navy Department, on the 31st of May, 1898, sent the
following communication to the honorable the Secretary of War:
'This Department begs leave to inquire what means are to be
employed by the War Department for landing the troops,
artillery, horses, siege guns, mortars, and other heavy
objects when the pending military expedition arrives on the
Cuban coast near Santiago. While the Navy will be prepared to
furnish all the assistance that may be in its power, it is
obvious that the crews of the armored ships and of such others
as will be called upon to remove the Spanish mines and to meet
the Spanish fleet in action can not be spared for other purposes,
and ought not to be fatigued by the work incident to landing
of the troops and stores, etc.' This information, so far as
can be ascertained, was never communicated to either General
Miles or General Shafter; the expedition therefore left Tampa
with no facilities for landing other than were afforded by the
boats of the several transports conveying the expedition, with
the exception of several lighters and steam tugs of light draft,
such as could be hastily secured."
On the conduct of the Medical Department, which was another
matter of investigation, the Commission reported: "To sum up,
in brief, the evidence submitted shows:
" 1. That at the outbreak of the war the Medical Department
was, in men and materials, altogether unprepared to meet the
necessities of the army called out.
"2. That as a result of the action through a generation of
contracted and contracting methods of administration, it was
impossible for the Department to operate largely, freely, and
without undue regard to cost.
"3. That in the absence of a special corps of inspectors, and
the apparent infrequency of inspections by chief surgeons, and
of official reports of the state of things in camps and
hospitals, there was not such investigation of the sanitary
conditions of the army as is the first duty imposed upon the
Department by the regulations.
"4. That the nursing force during the months of My, June, and
July was neither ample nor efficient, reasons for which may be
found in the lack of a proper volunteer hospital corps, due to
the failure of Congress to authorize its establishment, and to
the nonrecognition in the beginning of the value of women
nurses and the extent to which their services could be
secured.
"5. That the demand made upon the resources of the Department
in the care of sick and wounded was very much greater than had
been anticipated, and consequently, in like proportion, these
demands were imperfectly met.
{633}
"6. That powerless as the Department was to have supplies
transferred from point to point, except through the
intermediation of the Quartermaster's Department, it was
seriously crippled in its efforts to fulfil the regulation
duty of 'furnishing all medical and hospital supplies.'
"7. That the shortcomings in administration and operation may
justly be attributed, in large measure, to the hurry and
confusion incident to the assembling of an army of untrained
officers and men, ten times larger than before, for which no
preparations in advance had been or could be made because of
existing rules and regulations.
"8. That notwithstanding all the manifest errors, of omission
rather than of commission, a vast deal of good work was done
by medical officers, high and low, regular and volunteer, and
there were unusually few deaths among the wounded and the
sick.
"What is needed by the medical department in the future is—
"1. A larger force of commissioned medical officers.
"2. Authority to establish in time of war a proper volunteer
hospital corps.
"3. A reserve corps of selected trained women nurses, ready to
serve when necessity shall arise, but under ordinary
circumstances, owing no duty to the War Department, except to
report residence at determined intervals.
"4. A year's supply for an army of at least four times the
actual strength, of all such medicines, hospital furniture,
and stores as are not materially damaged by keeping, to be
held constantly on hand in the medical supply depots.
"5. The charge of transportation to such extent as will secure
prompt shipment and ready delivery of all medical supplies.
"6. The simplification of administrative 'paper work,' so that
medical officers may be able to more thoroughly discharge
their sanitary and strictly medical duties.
"7. The securing of such legislation as will authorize all
surgeons in medical charge of troops, hospitals, transports,
trains, and independent commands to draw from the Subsistence
Department funds for the purchase of such articles of diet as
may be necessary to the proper treatment of soldiers too sick
to use the army ration. This to take the place of all
commutation of rations of the sick now authorized.
"Convalescent soldiers traveling on furlough should be
furnished transportation, sleeping berths or staterooms, and
$1.50 per diem for subsistence in lieu of rations, the soldier
not to be held accountable or chargeable for this amount."
Report of the Commission, volume 1.
Public opinion of the report, when divested of partisan
prejudice, was probably expressed very fairly in the following
comments of "The Nation," of New York:
"The two leading conclusions of the court of inquiry as to the
quality of the beef supplied to our troops during the war with
Spain, are in accordance with the evidence and will be
accepted as fairly just by the country. The court finds that
so far as the canned roast beef was concerned, the charges
which General Miles made against it as an unsuitable ration
are sustained, but that as regards the use of chemicals in the
treatment of refrigerated beef his charges were not
established. If instead of saying 'not established,' the court
had said 'not fully sustained,' its verdict would have been
above criticism on these two points. There was evidence of the
use of chemicals, but it was not conclusive and was flatly
contradicted. There is no doubt whatever that the use of the
refrigerated beef was a blunder, but there was very little
evidence to sustain a more serious charge than that against
it.
"But while the court has found justly on these points, it is
difficult to read its report without feeling that its members
did so reluctantly, and that, if left to follow their
inclinations, they would have censured General Miles and
allowed everybody else concerned to go free. General Miles is
the one person involved whom they allow no extenuating
circumstances to benefit in their report. At every opportunity
they take the worst possible view of his conduct, while almost
invariably taking the most lenient view possible of nearly
everybody else. … So far as the findings of the court apply to
Eagan's conduct, they are condemnatory in general terms, but
they do not seek to go behind him for the reasons for his
conduct. … No attention whatever is paid to the evidence of
several reputable witnesses that Eagan had told them that he
had to buy of certain contractors; none is paid, either, to
the evidence of Eagan's subordinates that he himself so
altered the refrigerated beef contracts that no one could say
whether they called for preservation for seventy-two hours or
twenty-four. Leniency of this kind is never shown toward
General Miles."
The Nation,
May 11, 1899.
Perhaps a weightier criticism is represented by the following,
which we quote from an article contributed to "The
Independent" by General Wingate, President of the National
Guard Association of the United States: "So far as the
refrigerated beef was concerned, the truth probably is that
there was little, if any, 'embalming' about it. Soldiers
generally agree that the beef itself was almost universally
good. … General Miles, on the other hand, was clearly right in
asking that the troops might be furnished with beef cattle on the
hoof, which could follow the army over any road and which
would keep in good condition on the luxuriant grasses of Cuba
and Porto Rico. This was the system pursued in our Civil War.
No one has yet explained why it was abandoned for the
experiment of furnishing this kind of beef to places in the
tropics where it had to be hauled in wagons for many hours
over muddy roads, and when most of the wagons required to move
it promptly had to be left behind for want of water
transportation.
"The matter of the refrigerated or so-called 'embalmed' beef
is, however, of very slight consequence compared with that of
the canned roast beef. The use of that beef as an army ration
in this country, at least, was new. Officer after officer has
testified before the court of inquiry that they never saw it
so issued before the Cuban campaign. It is true that the navy
uses it, but the facilities on shipboard for caring for and
cooking food are so different and so superior to those of an
army in the field that no comparison can justly be made
between them. Moreover, as was recently stated in the 'Army
and Navy Journal,' the belief is general in the navy that the
canned beef it had rejected on inspection was afterward sold
to the army and accepted by it without inspection.
{634}
Be this as it may, the evidence is overwhelming that the
canned roast beef which was issued to the army was repulsive
in appearance and disagreeable in smell. … Governor Roosevelt
says in his testimony that 'from generals to privates he never
heard any one who did not condemn it as an army ration.' Its
defects appeared on the voyage to Santiago, if not before. It
was then so bad that the men would not touch it, and as
Governor Roosevelt says in his article in 'Scribner's,' his
Rough Riders, who certainly were not particular, could not eat
it, and as it constituted one-third of the rations, his men
had to go hungry. And yet, in spite of these facts, a million
pounds of that beef was purchased from Armour & Co. alone, and
its issue was continued not only in Cuba but in Porto Rico.
What is worse than all, after its defects were fully known it
was issued as a traveling ration to the fever-racked men on
their homeward voyage to this country; men who needed and were
entitled to receive the most nourishing food and to whom this
indigestible stuff was poison. This should never be forgotten
or forgiven by the plain people of the country. …
"No one in authority has been willing to admit that there was
the slightest thing wrong, or the least need for improvement
in his department. … This is another of the hundreds of
examples which have occurred in our past war, and which will
continue to take place in the future until the whole staff
system of the army has been rectified, of the reign of that
hide bound bureaucratic spirit which induces the head of a
department in Washington to decide in his office what should
be used by the troops in the field without practical
experience on the subject, and to stubbornly close his eyes
and ears to everything which will tend to show that it is
possible that his department has made a mistake. …
"It is noticeable that so far not an official in any of the
supply or medical departments is known to have been court
martialed or even censured. Yet I do not hesitate to say that
the summary dismissal from the service, in the beginning, of
two or three quartermasters and commissaries, including the
gentlemen who were the cause of sending thousands of cars to
Tampa without invoices or anything on the outside of them to
indicate their contents, would have saved the lives of
hundreds of our soldiers. Under these circumstances it is most
lamentable to find that the awful experiences which have made
so many homes desolate, and so many of our best young men
invalids, have borne no practical fruit. Both the army
officials and Congress are like the Bourbons, they 'have
learned nothing and forgotten nothing.'"
G. W. Wingate,
What the Beef Scandal Teaches
(Independent, April 6, 1899).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898-1899.
Joint High Commission for settlement of
pending questions with Canada.
See (in this volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1898-1899.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898-1899 (October-October).
Military government of Porto Rico.
See (in this volume)
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898-1899 (OCTOBER-OCTOBER).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898-1899 (December-January).
Instructions by the President to General Otis,
Military Governor of the Philippines.
Their proclamation by the latter in a modified form.
The effect.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898-1899 (DECEMBER-JANUARY).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (January).
The case of Commissary-General Eagan.
A court-martial, sitting in January, 1899, for the trial of
Commissary-General Eagan, on the charge that he had been
guilty of "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, and
conduct to the prejudice of good order and military
discipline," in the abusive language that he had applied to
the commanding general of the army, in the course of his
testimony before the Commission to investigate the conduct of
the War Department found the accused officer guilty, and
imposed the inevitable penalty of dismissal from the service,
but recommended executive clemency in his case.
See:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898-1899.
The sentence was commuted by the President to suspension from
rank and duty for six years. This involved no loss of pay,
and, at the end of six years, General Eagan will go on the
retired list.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (January).
Appointment of the First Commission to the Philippines.
The President's instructions to the Commissioners.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (January-February).
The Treaty of Peace in the Senate.
Its ratification.
The Treaty of Peace with Spain, signed at Paris December 10,
1898, was sent by the President to the Senate on the 4th of
January, 1899, and held under debate in that body until the
6th of February following. The opposition to it was very
strong, being especially directed against the acquisition of
the Philippine Islands, involving, as that acquisition did,
the embarkation of the Republic in a colonial or imperial
policy, of conquest and of government without the consent of
the governed, which seemed to a great number of thoughtful
people, not only incongruous with its constitution, but a
dangerous violation of the principles on which its republican
polity is founded. But even those most opposed to the
acquisition of the Philippine Islands were reluctant to reopen
the state of war by rejection of the treaty, and directed
their efforts mainly towards the securing of a definite
declaration from Congress of the intention of the government
of the United States to establish independence in the islands.
"Even before the signing of the treaty at Paris, on the 6th of
December, when the demand of the American commissioners for
cession of the Philippines was known, the opposition expressed
itself in the following resolution, introduced by Senator
Vest, of Missouri:
"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled. That under the
Constitution of the United States no power is given to the
Federal Government to acquire territory to be held and
governed permanently as colonies. The colonial system of
European nations can not be established under our present
Constitution, but all territory acquired by the Government,
except such small amount as may be necessary for coaling
stations, correction of boundaries, and similar governmental
purposes, must be acquired and governed with the purpose of
ultimately organizing such territory into States suitable for
admission into the Union."
This resolution became the ground of much senatorial debate
during the following weeks. The arguments opposed to it, and
supporting the policy of the administration, are represented
fairly by the following passage from a speech made by Senator
Platt, of Connecticut, on December 16:
{635}
"I propose to maintain that the United States is a nation;
that as a nation it possesses every sovereign power not
reserved in its Constitution to the States or the people; that
the right to acquire territory was not reserved, and is
therefore an inherent sovereign right; that is a right upon
which there is no limitation, and with regard to which there
is no qualification; that in certain instances the right may
be inferred from specific clauses in the Constitution, but
that it exists independent of these clauses; that in the right
to acquire territory is found the right to govern it; and as
the right to acquire is a sovereign and inherent right, the
right to govern is a sovereign right not limited in the
Constitution, and that these propositions are in accordance
with the views of the framers of the Constitution, the
decisions of the Supreme Court, and the legislation of
Congress.
"Mr. President, this is a nation. It has been called by
various names. It has been called a Confederated Republic, a
Federal Union, the Union of States, a league of States, a rope
of sand; but during all the time these names have been applied
to it it has been a nation. It was so understood by the
framers of the Constitution. It was so decided by the great
judges of the Supreme Court in the early days of the
Constitution. It is too late to deny it, and, Mr. President,
it is also too late to admit it, and not have faith in it.
Intellectual assent to the doctrines of Christianity does not
make a man a Christian. It is saving faith that makes the
Christian. And a mere intellectual assent to the doctrine that
we are a nation does not make the true patriot. It is high
time that we come to believe without qualification, to believe
in our hearts, in the exercise of patriotic faith, that the
United States is a nation. When we come to believe that, Mr.
President, many of the doubts and uncertainties which have
troubled men will disappear.
"It is time to be heroic in our faith and to assert all the
power that belongs to the nation as a nation. … The attempt to
shear the United States of a portion of its sovereign power is
an attempt which may well be thoroughly and fully discussed.
In the right to acquire territory is found the right to
govern, and as the right to acquire is sovereign and
unlimited, the right to govern is a sovereign right, and I
maintain is not limited in the Constitution. If I am right in
holding that the power to acquire is the sovereign power
without limitation, I think it must be admitted that the right
to govern is also sovereign and unlimited. But if it is sought
to rest the right to govern upon that clause of the
Constitution which gives Congress the power to dispose of or
make 'all needful rules and regulations' for the government of
the territory of the United States, I submit there is no
limitation there. There is no qualification there."
On the 4th of January the Senate received the treaty from the
President. On the 7th, Senator Mason, of Illinois, introduced
the following resolution, and, subsequently, spoke with
earnestness in its support:
"Whereas all just powers of government are derived from the
consent of the governed: Therefore, be it
"Resolved by the Senate of the United States, That the
Government of the United States of America will not attempt to
govern the people of any other country in the world without
the consent of the people themselves, or subject them by force
to our dominion against their will."
On the 9th an impressive speech was made by Senator Hoar, of
Massachusetts, mainly in reply to Senator Platt. He spoke
partly as follows:
"Mr. President, I am quite sure that no man who will hear or
who will read what I say today will doubt that nothing could
induce me to say it but a commanding sense of public duty. I
think I dislike more than most men to differ from men with
whom I have so long and so constantly agreed. I dislike to
differ from the President, whose election I hailed with such
personal satisfaction and such exulting anticipations for the
Republic. I dislike to differ from so many of my party
associates in this Chamber, with whom I have for so many years
trod the same path and sought the same goal. I am one of those
men who believe that little that is great or good or permanent
for a free people can be accomplished without the
instrumentality of party. And I have believed religiously, and
from my soul, for half a century, in the great doctrines and
principles of the Republican party. I stood in a humble
capacity by its cradle. I do not mean, if I can help it, to
follow its hearse. I am sure I render it a service; I am sure
I help to protect and to prolong the life of that great
organization, if I can say or can do anything to keep it from
forsaking the great principles and doctrines in which alone it
must live or bear no life. I must, in this great crisis,
discharge the trust my beloved Commonwealth has committed to
me according to my sense of duty as I see it. However
unpleasant may be that duty, as Martin Luther said, 'God help
me. I can do no otherwise.'
"I am to speak for my country, for its whole past and for its
whole future. I am to speak to a people whose fate is bound up
in the preservation of our great doctrine of constitutional
liberty. I am to speak for the dead soldier who gave his life
for liberty that his death might set a seal upon his country's
historic glory. I am to speak for the Republican party, all of
whose great traditions are at stake, and all of whose great
achievements are in peril. …
"The question with which we now have to deal is whether
Congress may conquer and may govern, without their consent and
against their will, a foreign nation, a separate, distinct,
and numerous people, a territory not hereafter to be populated
by Americans, to be formed into American States and to take its
part in fulfilling and executing the purposes for which the
Constitution was framed, whether it may conquer, control, and
govern this people, not for the general welfare, common
defense, more perfect union, more blessed liberty of the
people of the United States, but for some real or fancied
benefit to be conferred against their desire upon the people
so governed or in discharge of some fancied obligation to
them, and not to the people of the United States.
"Now, Mr. President, the question is whether the men who
framed the Constitution, or the people who adopted it, meant
to confer that power among the limited and restrained powers
of the sovereign nation that they were creating. Upon that
question I take issue with my honorable friend from
Connecticut.
{636}
I declare not only that this is not among the express powers
conferred upon the sovereignty they created, that it is not
among the powers necessarily or reasonably or conveniently
implied for the sake of carrying into effect the purposes of
that instrument, but that it is a power which it can be
demonstrated by the whole contemporaneous history and by our
whole history since until within six months they did not mean
should exist—a power that our fathers and their descendants
have ever loathed and abhorred—and that they believed that no
sovereign on earth could rightfully exercise it, and that no
people on earth could rightfully confer it. They not only did
not mean to confer it, but they would have cut off their right
hands, everyone of them, sooner than set them to an instrument
which should confer it. …
"The great contemporaneous exposition of the Constitution is
to be found in the Declaration of Independence. Over every
clause, syllable, and letter of the Constitution the
Declaration of Independence pours its blazing torch-light. The
same men framed it. The same States confirmed it. The same
people pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred
honor to support it. The great characters in the
Constitutional Convention were the great characters of the
Continental Congress. There are undoubtedly, among its burning
and shining truths, one or two which the convention that
adopted it were not prepared themselves at once to put into
practice. But they placed them before their countrymen as an
ideal moral law to which the liberty of the people was to
aspire and to ascend as soon as the nature of existing
conditions would admit. Doubtless slavery was inconsistent
with it, as Jefferson, its great author, has in more than one
place left on record. But at last in the strife of a great
civil war the truth of the Declaration prevailed and the
falsehood of slavery went down, and at last the Constitution
of the United States conformed to the Declaration and it has
become the law of the land, and its great doctrines of liberty
are written upon the American flag wherever the American flag
floats. Who shall haul them down?"
Two days later (January 11) the following resolutions were
introduced by Senator Bacon, of Georgia:
"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
First, That the Government and people of the United States
have not waged the recent war with Spain for conquest and for
the acquisition of foreign territory, but solely for the
purposes set forth in the resolution of Congress making the
declaration of said war, the acquisition of such small tracts
of land or harbors as may be necessary for governmental
purposes being not deemed inconsistent with the same.
"Second. That in demanding and in receiving the cession of the
Philippine Islands it is not the purpose of the Government of
the United States to secure and maintain dominion over the
same as a part of the territory of the United States, or to
incorporate the inhabitants thereof as citizens of the United
States, or to hold said inhabitants as vassals or subjects of
this Government.
"Third. That whereas at the time of the declaration of war by
the United States against Spain, and prior thereto, the
inhabitants of the Philippine Islands were actively engaged in
a war with Spain to achieve their independence, and whereas
said purpose and the military operations thereunder have not
been abandoned, but are still being actively prosecuted
thereunder, therefore, in recognition of and in obedience to
the vital principle announced in the great declaration that
governments derive 'their just powers from the consent of the
governed,' the Government of the United States recognizes that
the people of the Philippine Islands of a right ought to be
free and independent; that, with this view and to give effect
to the same, the Government of the United States has required
the Government of Spain to relinquish its authority and
government in the Philippine Islands and to withdraw its land
and naval forces from the Philippine Islands and from the
waters thereof.
"Fourth. That the United States hereby disclaim any
disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty,
jurisdiction, or control over said islands, and assert their
determination when an independent government shall have been
duly erected therein entitled to recognition as such, to
transfer to said government, upon terms which shall be
reasonable and just, all rights secured under the cession by
Spain, and to thereupon leave the government and control of
the islands to their people."
On the 13th, Senator McLaurin, of South Carolina, returned to
the question of constitutional power in the government of the
United States to hold territory in a permanently subject
state, and spoke against the view maintained by Senator Platt,
of Connecticut: "To hold," he said, "that there is an inherent
power of sovereignty in the nation, outside of the
Constitution, to do something not authorized by that
instrument is to place this 'inherent sovereignty' above the
Constitution and thus destroy the very foundation upon which
constitutional government rests. Judge Gray in the
Chinese-exclusion case, said: 'The United States are a
sovereign and independent nation, and are invested by the
Constitution with the entire control of international
relations and with all the powers of government necessary to
maintain that control and make it effective.' While holding
that the United States are a sovereign and independent nation,
it will be seen that he also holds that the sovereignty of the
nation is vested by the Constitution; and if so, it can only
be exercised in the mode pointed out in the Constitution and
is controlled by the words of the grant of this sovereignty.
There was no nation of the United States until the adoption of
the Federal Constitution; hence before that time there could
be no sovereignty of the nation. What conferred this
sovereignty? Clearly the States, by and through the Federal
Constitution. If so, then there can be no inherent right of
sovereignty except that conferred by the Constitution.
"The Senator further contends that we are a sovereign nation,
and as such have the same inherent right to acquire territory
as England, France, Germany, and Mexico. I controvert that
proposition. The sovereignty of the nation of Great Britain
and the others is vested in the people, and has never been
delegated and limited as in our country. These Governments
enjoy sovereignty in its elementary form.
{637}
What the government wills it may do without considering the
act or its consequences in the light of an organic law of
binding obligation. Our Government is in a very different
position. The Federal Constitution is the embodiment of the
sovereignty of the United States as a nation, and this
sovereignty can only be exercised in accordance with the
powers contained in its provisions. Great Britain can do
anything as a nation in the way of the exercise of
governmental functions. There is nothing to prohibit or
restrict the fullest exercise of her sovereignty as a nation.
Hence there is no analogy, and the sovereignty of the United
States as a nation differs widely from that of Great Britain.
"It is further contended that a sovereign right can not be
limited and that all our Constitution can do is to prescribe
the manner in which it can be exercised. If, as already shown,
the sovereignty of the United States was conferred by the
States through the Federal Constitution, it is clear that, in
conferring the power and prescribing the manner of its
exercise, they did set a limit in the very terms of the
instrument itself. I deny, therefore, that the United States
as a nation has a sovereign, inherent right and control
outside of the grant of such power in the Constitution. This
is not an essential element of nationality so far as our
nation is concerned, although it may be in England or Russia,
where the nationality and sovereignty incident to it are not
created and limited by a written constitution."
On the 14th of January, Mr. Hoar submitted the following:
"Resolved, That the people of the Philippine islands of right
ought to be free and independent; that they are absolved from
all allegiance to the Spanish Crown, and that all political
connection between them and Spain is and ought to be totally
dissolved, and that they have, therefore, full power to do all
acts and things which independent states may of right do; that
it is their right to institute a new government for
themselves, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most
likely to effect their safety and happiness; and that with
these rights the people of the United States do not propose to
interfere."
On the 18th, Mr. Bacon amended his resolutions, given above,
by changing the phrase "an independent government" to "a
stable and independent government," and then spoke upon them
with force, saying, among other things: "The simple fact that
we went to war with Spain did not devolve upon us any
obligation with reference to the Philippine Islands. We went
to war with Spain not for the purpose of correcting all the
evils with which her people were afflicted; we went to war
with Spain not to break the chains of tyranny with which she
might be binding her different colonies: we did not undertake
to be the great universal benefactor and to right all the
wrongs of all the world, or even all the wrongs that Spain
might be inflicting upon any of her people. "We went to war
because a particular colony which she was afflicting lay at
our doors; we went to war because the disorders of that
Government affected the peace of our community and were
injurious to our material interest. We said there was a
condition of affairs which was unbearable and that we would
put an end to it.
"To that extent and to that alone we claimed and avowed the
reason for the declaration of war. So it follows that the mere
declaration of war did not affect in any manner our relations
with the Philippine Islands except to put us in a state of war
with them as a part of the Spanish domain, and in no manner
laid any obligations upon us as to those islands. We were not
charged with the duty of preserving order in Asia. We were not
charged with the obligations of seeing that they had a stable
and orderly government in any part of that hemisphere. No such
duty rested upon us. None such was assumed by us. Therefore
the simple declaration of war did not lay any obligation upon
us as to the Philippine Islands, and I desire that any Senator
will put his finger upon the act which laid us under any
obligations to the Philippine Islands outside of the fact that
in the war which ensued we took those who were the insurgents
in those islands to be our allies and made a common cause with
them.
"Now, Mr. President, all that grows out of that—all that grows
out of the fact of that cooperation and that alliance—is to
impose upon us a single obligation which we must not ignore.
How far does that obligation go? Does it require that we shall
for all time undertake to be the guardians of the Philippine
Islands? Does that particular obligation lay upon us the duty
hereafter, not only now but for years to come, to maintain an
expensive military establishment, to burden our people with
debt, to run the risk of becoming involved in wars in order
that we may keep our hands upon the Philippine Islands and
keep them in proper condition hereafter? I am unable to see
how the obligation growing out of the fact that they were our
allies can possibly be extended to that degree. No Senator has
yet shown any reason why such an obligation rests upon us, and
I venture to say that none which is logical will or can be
shown."
The practical considerations, of circumstance and expediency,
which probably had more influence than those of law or
principle, were strongly urged by Senator Lodge, of
Massachusetts, who said, on the 24th:
"Suppose we ratify the treaty. The islands pass from the
possession of Spain into our possession without committing us
to any policy. I believe we can be trusted as a people to deal
honestly and justly with the islands and their inhabitants
thus given to our care. What our precise policy shall be I do
not know, because I for one am not sufficiently informed as to
the conditions there to be able to say what it will be best to
do, nor, I may add, do I think anyone is. But I believe that
we shall have the wisdom not to attempt to incorporate those
islands with our body politic, or make their inhabitants part
of our citizenship, or set their labor alongside of ours and
within our tariff to compete in any industry with American
workmen. I believe that we shall have the courage not to
depart from those islands fearfully, timidly, and unworthily
and leave them to anarchy among themselves, to the brief and
bloody domination of some self-constituted dictator, and to
the quick conquest of other powers, who will have no such
hesitation as we should feel in crushing them into subjection
by harsh and repressive methods. It is for us to decide the
destiny of the Philippines, not for Europe, and we can do it
alone and without assistance. …
{638}
"During the campaign of last autumn I said in many speeches to
the people of my State that I could never assent to hand those
islands back to Spain; that I wanted no subject races and no
vassal States; but that we had by the fortunes of war assumed
a great responsibility in the Philippines; that we ought to
meet it, and that we ought to give to those people an
opportunity for freedom, for peace, and for self-government;
that we ought to protect them from the rapacity of other
nations and seek to uplift those whom we had freed. From those
views I have never swerved, and I believed then, as I believe
now, that they met with the approbation of an overwhelming
majority of the people of Massachusetts. …
"Take now the other alternative. Suppose we reject the treaty
or strike out the clause relating to the Philippines. That
will hand the islands back to Spain; and I cannot conceive
that any American should be willing to do that. Suppose we
reject the treaty: what follows? Let us look at it
practically. We continue the state of war, and every sensible
man in the country, every business interest, desires the
re-establishment of peace in law as well as in fact. At the
same time we repudiate the President and his action before the
whole world, and the repudiation of the President in such a
matter as this is, to my mind, the humiliation of the United
States in the eyes of civilized mankind and brands us a people
incapable of great affairs or of taking rank where we belong,
as one of the greatest of the great world powers.
"The President cannot be sent back across the Atlantic in the
person of his commissioners, hat in hand, to say to Spain,
with bated breath, 'I am here in obedience to the mandate of a
minority of one-third of the Senate to tell you that we have
been too victorious, and that you have yielded us too much,
and that I am very sorry that I took the Philippines from
you.' I do not think that any American President would do
that, or that any American would wish him to."
Senator Harris, of Kansas, submitted the following on the 3d
of February:
"Resolved by the Senate of the United States of America, That
the United States hereby disclaim any disposition or intention
to exercise permanent sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control
over the Philippine Islands, and assert their determination,
when a stable and independent government shall have been
erected therein entitled to recognition as such, to transfer
to said government, upon terms which shall be reasonable and
just, all rights secured under the cession by Spain, and to
thereupon leave the government and control of the islands to
their people."
The following was offered on the 27th of January by Senator
Sullivan, of Mississippi:
"Resolved, That the ratification of the pending treaty of
peace with Spain shall in no wise determine the policy to be
pursued by the United States in regard to the Philippines, nor
shall it commit this Government to a colonial policy; nor is
it intended to embarrass the establishment of a stable,
independent government by the people of those islands whenever
conditions make such a proceeding hopeful of successful and
desirable results."
On the same day a joint resolution was proposed by Senator
Lindsay, of Kentucky:
"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That the
acquisition by the United States, through conquest, treaty, or
otherwise, of territory, carries with it no constitutional
obligation to admit said territory, or any portion thereof,
into the Federal Union as a State or States.
"Section 2.
That it is against the policy, traditions, and interests of
the American people to admit states erected out of other than
North American territory into our union of American States.
"Section 3.
That the United States accept from Spain the cession of the
Philippine Islands with the hope that the people of those
islands will demonstrate their capacity to establish and
maintain a stable government, capable of enforcing law and
order at home and of discharging the international obligations
resting on separate and independent States, and with no
expectation of permanently holding those islands as colonies
or provinces after they shall demonstrate their capacity for
self-government, the United States to be the judge of such
capacity."
None of the resolutions given above obtained favorable
consideration in the Senate. On the 6th of February the treaty
was ratified, by one vote in excess of the two-thirds which
the constitution requires. It received 57 votes against 27, or
61 against 29 if account be taken of senators absent and
paired. Of the supporters of the treaty, 42 were Republicans;
of its opponents, 24 were Democrats. It was signed by
President McKinley on the 10th of February, and by the Queen
of Spain on the 17th of March.
After the ratification of the treaty, the Senate, by 26 votes
against 22, adopted the following resolution, offered by Mr.
McEnery of Louisiana:
"Resolved, That by the ratification of the treaty of peace
with Spain it is not intended to incorporate the inhabitants
of the Philippine islands into citizenship of the United
States, nor is it intended to permanently annex said islands
as an integral part of the territory of the United States. But
it is the intention of the United States to establish on said
islands a government suitable to the wants and conditions of
the inhabitants of said islands, to prepare them for local
self-government, and in due time to make such disposition of
said islands as will best promote the interests of the
citizens of the United States and the inhabitants of said
islands."
Congressional Record,
December 6, 1898—February 6, 1899.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (January-November).
Attack on Americans at Manila by Aguinaldo's forces.
Continued hostilities.
Progress of American conquest.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY-NOVEMBER).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (March).
Appointment of the Isthmian Canal Commission.
See (in this volume)
CANAL, INTEROCEANIC: A. D. 1889-1899.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (May).
Modification of Civil Service Rules by President McKinley.
See (in this volume)
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1899.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (June-October).
Arbitration and settlement of the Venezuela boundary question.
See (in this volume)
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1896-1899.
{639}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (July).
Cabinet change.
General Russel A. Alger resigned his place in the President's
Cabinet as Secretary of War, in July, and was succeeded by the
Honorable Elihu Root, of New York.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (July).
Provisional government established in the island of Negros.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (MARCH-JULY).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (October).
Report of conditions in Cuba by the Military Governor.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1898-1899 (DECEMBER-OCTOBER).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (October).
Modus Vivendi fixing provisional boundary line between Alaska
and Canada.
See (in this volume)
ALASKA BOUNDARY QUESTION.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (November).
Death of Vice-President Hobart.
Honorable Garret A. Hobart, Vice-President of the United
States, died November 21. Under the Act provided for this
contingency, the Secretary of State then became the successor
to the President, in the event of the death of the latter
before the expiration of his term.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (November).
Re-arrangement of affairs in the Samoan Islands.
Acquisition of the eastern group, with Pago Pago harbor.
See (in this volume)
SAMOAN ISLANDS.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899-1900 (September-February).
Arrangement with European Powers of the commercial policy
of the "open-door" in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899-1900 (SEPTEMBER-FEBRUARY).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899-1900 (November-November).
Continued military operations in the Philippines.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899-1900.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899-1901.
Reciprocity arrangements under the Dingley Tariff Act,
not ratified by the Senate.
The Dingley Tariff Act, which became law on the 24th of July,
1897, authorized the making of tariff concessions to other
countries on terms of reciprocity, if negotiated within two
years from the above date. At the expiration of two years,
such conventions of reciprocity had been arranged with France
and Portugal, and with Great Britain for her West Indian
colonies of Jamaica, Barbadoes, Trinidad, Bermuda, and British
Guiana. With France, a preliminary treaty signed in May, 1898,
was superseded in July, 1899, by one of broader scope, which
opens the French markets to an extensive list of American
commodities at the minimum rates of the French tariff, and
cuts the American tariff from 5 to 20 per cent. on many French
products, not inclusive of sparkling wines. In the treaty with
Portugal, the reduction of American duties on wines is more
general. The reciprocal reduction on American products extends
to many agricultural and mineral products. The reciprocal
agreement with the British West Indies covers sugar, fruits,
garden products, coffee and asphalt, on one side, and flour,
meat, cotton goods, agricultural machinery, oils, etc., on the
other.
None of these treaties was acted upon by the United States
Senate during the session of 1899-1900, and it became
necessary to extend the time for their ratification, which was
done. Some additional reciprocity agreements were then
negotiated, of which the following statement was made by the
President in his Message to Congress, December 3, 1900:
"Since my last communication to the Congress on this subject
special commercial agreements under the third section of the
tariff act have been proclaimed with Portugal, with Italy and
with Germany. Commercial conventions under the general
limitations of the fourth section of the same act have been
concluded with Nicaragua, with Ecuador, with the Dominican
Republic, with Great Britain on behalf of the island of
Trinidad and with Denmark on behalf of the island of St.
Croix. These will be early communicated to the Senate.
Negotiations with other governments are in progress for the
improvement and security of our commercial relations."
The question of the ratification of all these treaties was
pending in the Senate when the term of the 56th Congress
expired, March 4, 1901. Opposing interests in the United
States seemed likely then to defeat their ratification. On the
last day of the special session of the Senate, March 5-9, an
agreement extending the time for the ratification of the
French reciprocity treaty was received and referred to the
committee on foreign relations. On the 15th of March,
Secretary Hay and Lord Pauncefote signed protocols extending
for one year the time of ratification for four of the British
West Indian reciprocity treaties, namely, Jamaica, Bermuda,
Guiana and Turks and Caicos islands.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900.
Naval strength.
See (in this volume)
NAVIES OF THE SEA POWERS.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900.
State of Indian schools.
Recent Indian policy.
Indian population.
See (in this volume)
INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1899-1900.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (January).
Report of the First Philippine Commission.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (January-March).
The outbreak of the "Boxers" in northern China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (February).
Negotiation of the Hay-Pauncefote Convention relative
to the Nicaragua Canal.
See (in this volume)
CANAL, INTEROCEANIC: A. D. 1900 (DECEMBER).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (March-December).
Passage of the Financial Bill.
Settlement of the question of the monetary standard.
The working of the act.
Legislation in the direction sought by the advocates of the
gold standard and of a reformed monetary system for the
country, whose agitations are referred to above, was attained
in the spring of 1900, by the passage of an important
"Financial Bill" which became law on the 14th of March.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896-1898
The provisions and the effect of the Act were summarized at
the time by the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Gage, in a
published statement, as follows:
"The financial bill has for its first object what its title
indicates, the fixing of the standard of value and the
maintaining at a parity with that standard of all forms of
money issued or coined by the United States. It reaffirms that
the unit of value is the dollar, consisting of 25.8 grains of
gold, nine tenths fine, but from that point it goes on to make
it the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to maintain all
forms of money issued or coined at a parity with this
standard. It puts into the hands of the Secretary ample power
to do that.
{640}
For that purpose, the bill provides in the Treasury bureaus of
issue and redemption and transfers from the general fund of
the Treasury's cash $150,000,000 in gold coin and bullion to
redemption fund, that gold to be used for the redemption of
United States notes and Treasury notes. That fund is
henceforth absolutely cut out of and separated from the cash
balance in the Treasury and the available cash balance will
hereafter show a reduction of $150,000,000 from the figures
that have heretofore prevailed. This $150,000,000 redemption
fund is to be used for no other purpose than the redemption of
United States notes and Treasury notes and those notes so
redeemed may be exchanged for the gold in the general fund or
with the public, so that the reserve fund is kept full with
gold to the $150,000,000 limit. If redemptions go on so that
the gold in this reserve fund is reduced below $100,000,000,
and the Secretary is unable to build it up to the $150,000,000
mark by exchange for gold in the general fund or otherwise, he
is given power to sell bonds and it is made his duty to
replenish the gold to the $150,000,000 mark by such means.
"The 'endless chain' is broken by a provision which prohibits
the use of notes so redeemed to meet deficiencies in the
current revenues. The act provides for the ultimate retirement
of all the Treasury notes issued in payment for silver bullion
under the Sherman act. As fast as that bullion is coined into
silver dollars Treasury notes are to be retired and replaced
with an equal amount of silver certificates. The measure
authorizes the issue of gold certificates in exchange for
deposits of gold coin, the same as at present, but suspends
that authority whenever and so long as the gold in the
redemption fund is below $100,000,000 and gives to the
Secretary the option to suspend the issue of such certificates
whenever the silver certificates and United States notes in
the general fund of the Treasury exceed $40,000,000. The bill
provides for a larger issue of silver certificates, by
declaring that hereafter silver certificates shall be issued
only in denominations of $10 and under except as to 10 per
cent. of the total volume. Room is made for this larger use of
silver certificates in the way of small bills by another
provision which makes it necessary as fast as the present
silver certificates of high denominations are broken up into
small bills to cancel a similar volume of United States notes
of small denominations and replace them with notes of
denominations of $10 and upward. Further room is made for the
circulation of small silver certificates by a clause which
permits national banks to have only one third of their capital
in denomination under $10.
"One clause of the bill which the public will greatly
appreciate is the right it gives to the Secretary to coin any
of the 1890 bullion into subsidiary silver coins up to a limit
of $100,000,000. There has for years been a scarcity of
subsidiary silver during periods of active retail trade, but
this provision will give the Treasury ample opportunity to
supply all the subsidiary silver that is needed. Another
provision that the public will greatly appreciate is the
authority given to the Secretary to recoin worn and uncurrent
subsidiary silver now in the Treasury or hereafter received.
"A distinct feature of the bill is in reference to refunding
the 3 per cent. Spanish war loan, the 2 per cent. bonds
maturing in 1907 and the 5 per cent. bonds maturing in 1904, a
total of $839,000,000, into new 2 per cent. bonds. These new 2
per cent. bonds will not be offered for sale, but will only be
issued in exchange for an equal amount, face value, of old
bonds. This exchange will save the Government, after deducting
the premium paid, nearly $23,000,000, if all the holders of the
old bonds exchange them for the new ones. National banks that
take out circulation based on the new bonds are to be taxed
only one half of 1 per cent. on the average amount of
circulation outstanding, while those who have circulation
based on a deposit of old bonds will be taxed, as at present,
1 per cent. There are some other changes in the national
banking act. The law permits national banks with $25,000
capital to be organized in places of 3,000 inhabitants or
less, whereas heretofore the minimum capital has been $50,000.
It also permits banks to issue circulation on all classes of
bonds deposited up to the par value of the bonds, instead of
90 per cent. of their face, as heretofore. This ought to make
an immediate increase in national bank circulation of
something like $24,000,000, as the amount of bonds now
deposited to secure circulation is about $242,000,000. If the
price of the new 2s is not forced so high in the market that
there is no profit left to national banks in taking out
circulation, we may also look for a material increase in
national bank circulation based on additional deposits of
bonds. National banks are permitted under the law to issue
circulation up to an amount equal to their capital. The total
capital of all national banks is $616,000,000. The total
circulation outstanding is $253,000,000. There is, therefore,
a possibility of an increase in circulation of $363,000,000,
although the price of the 2 per cent. bonds, as already
foreshadowed by market quotations in advance of their issue,
promises to be so high that the profit to the banks in taking
out circulation will not be enough to make the increase
anything like such a possible total."
Upon the working of the Act, during the first nine months of
its operation, Secretary Gage remarked as follows, in his
annual report dated December 14, 1900:
"The operation of the act of March 14 last with respect to
these two important matters of our finances has well
exemplified its wisdom. Confidence in the purpose and power of
the Government to maintain the gold standard has been greatly
strengthened. The result is that gold flows toward the
Treasury instead of away from it. At the date of this report
the free gold in the Treasury is larger in amount than at any
former period in our history. Including the $150,000,000
reserve, the gold in the Treasury belonging to the Government
amounts to over $242,000,000, while the Treasury holds,
besides, more than $230,000,000, against which certificates
have been issued. That provision of the act which liberalized
the conditions of bank-note issue was also wise and timely.
Under it, … there has been an increase of some $77,000,000 in
bank-note issues. To this fact may be chiefly attributed the
freedom from stress for currency to handle the large harvests
of cotton, wheat, and corn. In this respect the year has been
an exception to the general rule of stringency which for
several years has so plainly marked the autumn season.
{641}
"Nevertheless, the measures referred to, prolific as they have
been in good results, will yet need re-enforcement in some
important particulars. Thus, as to the redemption fund
provided for in said act, while the powers conferred upon the
Secretary are probably ample to enable a zealous and watchful
officer to protect fully the gold reserve, there appears to be
lacking sufficient mandatory requirement to furnish complete
confidence in the continued parity, under all conditions,
between our two forms of metallic money, silver and gold. Upon
this point further legislation may become desirable. As to the
currency, while the liberalizing of conditions has, as previously
noted, found response in a necessary increase of bank-note
issues, there is under our present system no assurance
whatever that the volume of bank currency will be continuously
responsive to the country's needs, either by expanding as such
needs require or by contracting when superfluous in amount.
The truth is that safe and desirable as is our currency system
in many respects, it is not properly related. The supply of
currency is but remotely, if at all, influenced by the ever
changing requirements of trade and industry. It is related
most largely, if not entirely, to the price of Government
bonds in the market."
Annual Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, 1900,
pages 72-73.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (April).
Speech of Senator Hoar in denial of the right of the
government of the United States, under the Constitution, to
hold the Philippine Islands as a subject state.
On the 17th of April, the following joint resolution was under
consideration in the Senate: "Be it resolved by the Senate and
House of Representatives of the United States of America in
Congress assembled, that the Philippine Islands are territory
belonging to the United States; that it is the intention of
the United States to retain them as such and to establish and
maintain such governmental control throughout the archipelago
as the situation may demand." Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts,
spoke in opposition to the resolution, and some passages from
his speech are quoted here, because they are notably
representative of the ground and spirit of an opposition which
existed within the party controlling the government to the war
of subjugation in the Philippine Islands, to which the party
and the government were finally committed by the adoption of
this Congressional declaration. The attitude and argument of
parties on the question are set forth below, in the platforms
and manifestos of the presidential election. This speech
exhibits a feeling on that question which was overridden in
the winning party, and it has an importance both forensic and
historical:
"The American people, so far as I know, were all agreed that
their victory [in the Spanish American war] brought with it
the responsibility of protecting the liberated peoples from
the cupidity of any other power until they could establish
their own independence in freedom and in honor. I stand here
to-day to plead with you not to abandon the principles that
have brought these things to pass. I implore you to keep to
the policy that has made the country great, that has made the
Republican party great, that has made the President great. I
have nothing new to say. But I ask you to keep in the old
channels, and to keep off the old rocks laid down in the old
charts, and to follow the old sailing orders that all the old
captains of other days have obeyed, to take your bearings, as
of old, from the north star,
Of whose true fixed and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament,
and not from this meteoric light of empire.
"Especially, if I could, would I persuade the great Republican
party to come back again to its old faith, to its old
religion, before it is too late. There is yet time. The
President has said again and again that his is only an ad
interim policy until Congress shall act. It is not yet too
late. Congress has rejected, unwisely, as I think, some
declarations for freedom. But the two Houses have not as yet
committed themselves to despotism. The old, safe path, the
path alike of justice and of freedom, is still easy. It is a
path familiar, of old, to the Republican party. If we have
diverged from it for the first time, everything in our
history, everything in our own nature calls us back. The great
preacher of the English church tells you how easy is the
return of a great and noble nature from the first departure
from rectitude:—
'For so a taper, when its crown of flame is newly blown off,
retains a nature so symbolical to light,
that it will with greediness reenkindle and snatch a ray
from the neighbor fire.'
"I, for one, believed, and still believe that the pathway to
prosperity and glory for the country was also the pathway to
success and glory for the Republican party. I thought the two
things inseparable. If, when we made the treaty of peace, we
had adhered to the purpose we declared when we declared war;
if we had dealt with the Philippine Islands as we promised to
deal, have dealt, and expect to deal with Cuba, the country
would have escaped the loss of 6,000 brave soldiers, other
thousands of wrecked and shattered lives, the sickness of many
more, the expenditure of hundreds of millions, and, what is
far worse than all, the trampling under foot of its cherished
ideals. There would have been to-day a noble republic in the
East, sitting docile at our feet, receiving from us
civilization, laws, manners, and giving in turn everything the
gratitude of a free people could give-love, obedience, trade.
The Philippine youth would throng our universities; our
Constitution, our Declaration, the lives of Washington and
Lincoln, the sayings of Jefferson and Franklin would have been
the textbooks of their schools. How our orators and poets
would have delighted to contrast America liberating and
raising up the republic of Asia, with England subduing and
trampling under foot the republic of Africa. Nothing at home
could have withstood the great party and the great President
who had done these things. We should have come from the next
election with a solid North and have carried half the South.
You would at least have been spared the spectacle of great
Republican States rising in revolt against Republican
policies. I do not expect to accomplish anything for liberty
in the Philippine Islands but through the Republican party.
Upon it the fate of these Islands for years to come is to
depend. If that party can not be persuaded, the case is in my
judgment for the present hopeless. …
{642}
"The practical question which divided the American people last
year, and which divides them to-day, is this: Whether in
protecting the people of the Philippine Islands from the
ambition and cupidity of other nations we are bound to protect
them from our own. … In dealing with this question, Mr.
President, I do not mean to enter upon any doubtful ground. I
shall advance no proposition ever seriously disputed in this
country till within twelve months. … If to think as I do in
regard to the interpretation of the Constitution; in regard to
the mandates of the moral law or the law of nations, to which
all men and all nations must render obedience; in regard to
the policies which are wisest for the conduct of the State, or
in regard to those facts of recent history in the light of
which we have acted or are to act hereafter, be treason, then
Washington was a traitor; then Jefferson was a traitor; then
Jackson was a traitor; then Franklin was a traitor; then
Sumner was a traitor; then Lincoln was a traitor; then Webster
was a traitor; then Clay was a traitor; then Corwin was a
traitor; then Kent was a traitor; then Seward was a traitor;
then McKinley, within two years, was a traitor; then the
Supreme Court of the United States has been in the past a nest
and hotbed of treason; then the people of the United States,
for more than a century, have been traitors to their own flag
and their own Constitution.
"'We are presented with an issue that can be clearly and
sharply stated as a question of constitutional power, a
question of international law, a question of justice and
righteousness, or a question of public expediency. This can be
stated clearly and sharply in the abstract, and it can be put
clearly and sharply by an illustration growing out of existing
facts.
"The constitutional question is: Has Congress the power, under
our Constitution, to hold in subjection unwilling vassal
States?
"The question of international law is: Can any nation
rightfully convey to another sovereignty over an unwilling
people who have thrown off its dominion, asserted their
independence, established a government of their own, over whom
it has at the time no practical control, from whose territory
it has been disseized, and which it is beyond its power to
deliver?
"The question of justice and righteousness is: Have we the
right to crush and hold under our feet an unwilling and
subject people whom we had treated as allies, whose
independence we are bound in good faith to respect, who had
established their own free government, and who had trusted us?
"The question of public expediency is: Is it for our advantage
to promote our trade at the cannon's mouth and at the point of
the bayonet?
"All these questions can be put in a way of practical
illustration by inquiring whether we ought to do what we have
done, are doing, and mean to do in the case of Cuba; or what
we have done, are doing, and some of you mean to do in the
case of the Philippine Islands.
"It does not seem to me to be worth while to state again at
length the constitutional argument which I have addressed to
the Senate heretofore. It has been encountered with eloquence,
with clearness and beauty of statement, and, I have no doubt,
with absolute sincerity by Senators who have spoken upon the
other side. But the issue between them and me can be summed up
in a sentence or two, and if, so stated, it can not be made
clear to any man's apprehension, I despair of making it clear
by any elaboration or amplification. I admit that the United
States may acquire and hold property, and may make rules and
regulations for its disposition. I admit that, like other
property, the United States may acquire and hold land. It may
acquire it by purchase. It may acquire it by treaty. It may
acquire it by conquest. And it may make rules and regulations
for its disposition and government, however it be acquired.
When there are inhabitants upon the land so acquired it may
make laws for their government. But the question between me
and the gentlemen on the other side is this: Is this
acquisition of territory, of land or other property, whether
gained by purchase, conquest, or treaty, a constitutional end
or only a means to a constitutional end? May you acquire,
hold, and govern territory or other property as an end for
which our Constitution was framed, or is it only a means
toward some other and further end? May you acquire, hold, and
govern property by conquest, treaty, or purchase for the sole
object of so holding and governing it, without the
consideration of any further constitutional purpose? Or must
you hold it for a constitutional purpose only, such as the
making of new States, the national defense and security, the
establishment of a seat of government, or the construction of
forts, harbors, and like works, which, of course, are
themselves for the national defense and security?
"I hold that this acquisition, holding and governing, can be
only a means for a constitutional end—the creation of new
States or some other of the constitutional purposes to which I
have adverted. And I maintain that you can no more hold and
govern territory than you can hold and manage cannon or fleets
for any other than a constitutional end; and I maintain that
the holding in subjection an alien people, governing them
against their will for any fancied advantage to them, is not
only not an end provided for by the Constitution, but is an
end prohibited therein. … It is an end which the generation
which framed the Constitution and the Declaration of
Independence declared was unrighteous and abhorrent. So, in my
opinion, we have no constitutional power to acquire territory
for the purpose of holding it in subjugation, in a state of
vassalage or serfdom, against the will of its people.
"It is to be noted just here that we have acquired no
territory or other property in the Philippine Islands, save at
few public buildings. By every other acquisition of territory
the United States became a great land owner. She owned the
public lands as she had owned the public lands in the
Northwest ceded to her by the old States. But you own nothing
in the Philippines. The people own their farms and dwellings
and cities. The religious orders own the rest. The Filipinos
desire to do what our English ancestors did in the old days
when England was Catholic. The laity feared that the Church
would engross all the land. So they passed their statute of
mortmain. You have either got to let the people of the
Philippine Islands settle this matter for themselves, or you
must take upon you the delicate duty of settling it for them.
{643}
Your purchase or conquest is a purchase or conquest of nothing
but sovereignty. It is a sovereignty over a people who are
never to be admitted to exercise it or to share it. In the
present case we have not, I repeat, bought any property. We
have undertaken to buy mere sovereignty. There were no public
lands in the Philippine Islands, the property of Spain, which
we have bought and paid for. The mountains of iron and the
nuggets of gold and the hemp-bearing fields—do you purpose to
strip the owners of their rightful title? We have undertaken
to buy allegiance, pure and simple. And allegiance is just
what the law of nations declares you can not buy. …
"I have been unable to find a single reputable authority more
than twelve months old for the power now claimed for Congress
to govern dependent nations or territories not expected to
become States. The contrary, until this war broke out, has
been taken as too clear for reasonable question. I content
myself with a few authorities. Among them are Daniel Webster,
William H. Seward, the Supreme Court of the United States,
James Madison.
"Daniel Webster said in the Senate, March 23, 1848: 'Arbitrary
governments may have territories and distant possessions,
because arbitrary governments may rule them by different laws
and different systems. We can do no such thing. They must be
of us, part of us, or else strangers. I think I see a course
adopted which is likely to turn the Constitution of the land
into a deformed monster, into a curse rather than a blessing;
in fact, a frame of an unequal government, not founded on
popular representation, not founded on equality, but on the
grossest inequality; and I think that this process will go on,
or that there is danger that it will go on, until this Union
shall fall to pieces. I resist it to-day and always! Whoever
falters or whoever flies, I continue the contest!'
"James Madison said in the Federalist: 'The object of the
Federal Constitution is to secure the union of the thirteen
primitive States, which we know to be practicable; and to add
to them such other States as may arise in their own bosoms, or
in their neighborhood, which we can not doubt will be
practicable.'
James Madison,
Federalist, Number 14.
"William H. Seward said: 'It is a remarkable feature of the
Constitution of the United States that its framers never
contemplated colonies, or provinces, or territories at all. On
the other hand, they contemplated States only, nothing less
than States, perfect States, equal States, as they are called
here, sovereign States. … There is reason—there is sound
political wisdom in this provision of the Constitution
excluding colonies, which are always subject to oppression,
and excluding provinces, which always tend to corrupt and
ultimately to break down the parent State.'
Seward's Works
Volume 1, page 122.
'By the Constitution of the United States, there are no
subjects, Every citizen of any one State is a free and equal
citizen of the United States. Again, by the Constitution of
the United States there are no permanent provinces or
dependencies.'
Seward's Works
Volume 4, page 167.
"The Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of
Fleming vs. Page, said: 'The genius and character of our
institutions are peaceful; and the power to declare war was
not conferred upon Congress for the purposes of aggression or
aggrandizement, but to enable the Government to vindicate by
arms, if it should become necessary, its own rights and the
rights of its citizens. A war, therefore, declared by
Congress, can never be presumed to be waged for the purpose of
conquest or the acquisition of territory; nor does the law
declaring the war imply an authority to the President to
enlarge the limits of the United States by subjugating the
enemy's country.'
"Our territories, so far, have all been places where Americans
would go to dwell as citizens, to establish American homes, to
obtain honorable employment, and to build a State. Will any
man go to the Philippine Islands to dwell, except to help
govern the people, or to make money by a temporary residence?
…
"When hostilities broke out, February 5, 1899, we had no
occupancy of and no title of any kind to any portion of the
Philippine territory, except the town and bay of Manila.
Everything else was in the peaceful possession of the
inhabitants. In such a condition of things, Mr. President,
international law speaks to us with its awful mandate. It
pronounces your proposed action sheer usurpation and robbery.
You have no better title, according to the law of nations, to
reduce this people to subjection than you have to subjugate
Mexico or Haiti or Belgium or Switzerland. This is the settled
doctrine, as declared by our own great masters of
jurisprudence. You have no right, according to tho law of
nations, to obtain by purchase or acquisition sovereignty over
a people which is not actually exercised by the country which
undertakes to convey it or yield it. We have not yet completed
the acquisition. But at the time we entered upon it, and at
the time of this alleged purchase, the people of the
Philippine Islands, as appears by General Otis's report, by
Admiral Dewey's report, and the reports of officers for whom
they vouched, held their entire territory, with the exception
of the single town of Manila. They had, as appears from these
reports, a full organized government. They had an army
fighting for independence, admirably disciplined, according to
the statement of zealous advocates of expansion.
"Why, Mr. President, is it credible that any American
statesman, that any American Senator, that any intelligent
American citizen anywhere, two years ago could have been found
to affirm that a proceeding like that of the Paris treaty
could give a just and valid title to sovereignty over a people
situated as were the people of those islands? A title of
Spain, originally by conquest, never submitted to nor admitted
by the people of the islands, with frequent insurrections at
different times for centuries, and then the yoke all thrown
off, a constitutional government, schools, colleges, churches,
universities, hospitals, town governments, a legislature, a
cabinet, courts, a code of laws, and the whole island occupied
and controlled by its people, with the single exception of one
city; with taxes lawfully levied and collected, with an army
and the beginning of a navy.
{644}
"And yet the Senate, the Congress enacted less than two years
ago that the people of Cuba—controlling peaceably no part of
their island, levying no taxes in any orderly or peaceable
way, with no administration of justice, no cabinet—not only of
right ought to be, but were, in fact, a free and independent
State. I did not give my assent to that declaration of fact. I
assented to the doctrine that they of right ought to be. But I
thought the statement of fact much calculated to embarrass the
Government of the United States, if it were bound by that
declaration; and it has been practically disregarded by the
Administration ever since. But the question now is a very
different one. You not only deny that the Filipinos are, but
you deny that they of right ought to be free and independent;
and you recognize Spain as entitled to sell to you the
sovereignty of an island where she was not at the time
occupying a foot of territory, where her soldiers were held
captives by the government of the island, a government to
which you had delivered over a large number of Spanish
prisoners to be held as captives. And yet you come here to-day
and say that they not only are not, but they of right ought
not to be free and independent; and when you are pressed you
answer us by talking about mountains of iron and nuggets of
gold, and trade with China.
"I affirm that you can not get by conquest, and you can not
get by purchase, according to the modern law of nations,
according to the law of nations as accepted and expounded by
the United States, sovereignty over a people, or title to a
territory, of which the power that undertakes to sell it or
the power from whom you undertake to wrest it has not the
actual possession and dominion. … You cannot buy a war. More
than this, you cannot buy a tyrant's claim to subject again an
oppressed people who have achieved their freedom. …
"Gentlemen tell us that the bill of the Senator from Wisconsin
is copied from that introduced in Jefferson's time for the
purchase of Louisiana. Do you claim that you propose to deal
with these people as Jefferson meant to deal with Louisiana?
You talk of Alaska, of Florida, of California; do you mean to
deal with the Philippines as we mean to deal with Alaska and
dealt with Florida or California?
"I have spoken of the Declaration of Independence as a solemn
affirmation of public law, but it is far more than that. It is
a solemn pledge of national faith and honor. It is a baptismal
vow. It is the bedrock of our republican institutions. It is,
as the Supreme Court declared, the soul and spirit of which
the Constitution is but the body and letter. It is the light
by which the Constitution must be read. … There is expansion
enough in it, but it is the expansion of freedom and not of
despotism; of life, not of death. Never was such growth in all
human history as that from the seed Thomas Jefferson planted.
The parable of the mustard seed, than which, as Edward Everett
said, 'the burning pen of inspiration, ranging heaven and
earth for a similitude, can find nothing more appropriate or
expressive to which to liken the Kingdom of God,' is repeated
again. 'Whereunto shall we liken it, or with what comparison
shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed,
which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the
seeds that be in the earth. But when it is sown, it groweth
up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out
great branches, so that the fowls of the air may lodge under
the shadow of it.' This is the expansion of Thomas Jefferson.
It has covered the continent. It is on both the seas. It has
saved South America. It is revolutionizing Europe. It is the
expansion of freedom. It differs from your tinsel, pinchbeck,
pewter expansion as the growth of a healthy youth into a
strong man differs from the expansion of an anaconda when he
swallows his victim. Ours is the expansion of Thomas
Jefferson. Yours is the expansion of Aaron Burr. It is
destined to as short a life and to a like fate. …
"There are 1,200 islands in the Philippine group. They extend
as far as from Maine to Florida. They have a population
variously estimated at from 8,000,000 to 12,000,000. There are
wild tribes who never heard of Christ, and islands that never
heard of Spain. But among them are the people of the island of
Luzon, numbering 3,500,000, and the people of the Visayan
Islands, numbering 2,500,000 more. They are a Christian and
civilized people. They wrested their independence from Spain
and established a republic. Their rights are no more to be
affected by the few wild tribes in their own mountains or by
the dwellers in the other islands than the rights of our old
thirteen States were affected by the French in Canada, or the
Six Nations of New York, or the Cherokees of Georgia, or the
Indians west of the Mississippi. Twice our commanding
generals, by their own confession, assured these people of
their independence. Clearly and beyond all cavil we formed an
alliance with them. We expressly asked them to co-operate with
us. We handed over our prisoners to their keeping; we sought
their help in caring for our sick and wounded. We were told by
them again and again and again that they were fighting for
independence. Their purpose was as well known to our generals,
to the War Department, and to the President, as the fact that
they were in arms. We never undeceived them until the time
when hostilities were declared in 1899. The President declared
again and again that we had no title and claimed no right to
anything beyond the town of Manila. Hostilities were begun by
us at a place where we had no right to be, and were continued
by us in spite of Aguinaldo's disavowal and regret and offer
to withdraw to a line we should prescribe. If we crush that
republic, despoil that people of their freedom and
independence, and subject them to our rule, it will be a story
of shame and dishonor. …
"But we are told if we oppose the policy of our imperialistic
and expanding friends we are bound to suggest some policy of
our own as a substitute for theirs. We are asked what we would
do in this difficult emergency. It is a question not difficult
to answer. I for one am ready to answer it.
"1. I would declare now that we will not take these islands to
govern them against their will.
"2. I would reject a cession of sovereignty which implies that
sovereignty may be bought and sold and delivered without the
consent of the people. Spain had no rightful sovereignty over
the Philippine Islands. She could not rightfully sell it to
us. We could not rightfully buy it from her.
"3. I would require all foreign governments to keep out of
these islands.
"4. I would offer to the people of the Philippines our help in
maintaining order until they have a reasonable opportunity to
establish a government of their own.
{645}
"5. I would aid them by advice, if they desire it, to set up a
free and independent government.
"6. I would invite all the great powers of Europe to unite in
an agreement that that independence shall not be interfered
with by us, by themselves, or by any one of them with the
consent of the others. As to this I am not so sure. I should
like quite as well to tell them it is not to be done whether
they consent or not.
"7. I would declare that the United States will enforce the
same doctrine as applicable to the Philippines that we
declared as to Mexico and Haiti and the South American
Republics. It is true that the Monroe Doctrine, a doctrine
based largely on our regard for our own interests, is not
applicable either in terms or in principle to a distant
Asiatic territory. But, undoubtedly, having driven out Spain,
we are bound, and have the right, to secure to the people we
have liberated an opportunity, undisturbed and in peace, to
establish a new government for themselves.
"8. I would then, in a not distant future, leave them to work
out their own salvation, as every nation on earth, from the
beginning of time, has wrought out its own salvation. Let them
work out their own salvation, as our own ancestors slowly and
in long centuries wrought out theirs; as Germany, as
Switzerland, as France, in briefer periods, wrought out
theirs; as Mexico and the South American Republics have
accomplished theirs, all of them within a century, some of
them within the life of a generation. To attempt to confer the
gift of freedom from without, or to impose freedom from
without, on any people, is to disregard all the lessons of
history. It is to attempt
'A gift of that which is not to be given
By all the blended powers of earth and heaven.'
"9. I would strike out of your legislation the oath of
allegiance to us and substitute an oath of allegiance to their
own country."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (April).
Act temporarily to provide revenues and a civil
government for Porto Rico.
See (in this volume)
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1899-1900; and 1900 (APRIL).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (April).
Appointment of Second Commission to the Philippines.
The President's instructions.
Steps toward the establishment of civil government and
the principles to be observed.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (APRIL).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (May-October).
The Twelfth Census of the Republic.
The Twelfth Census of the United States was taken between May
1 and November 1, 1900, with general results reported on the
latter date by the Director, William R. Merriam, as
follows:—The following statement … gives the population of the
United States in detail for each State and organized Territory
and for Alaska and Hawaii as finally revised. The figures
purporting to give the number of "persons in the service of
the United States stationed abroad" include an estimated
population of 14,400 for certain military organizations and
naval vessels stationed abroad, principally in the
Philippines, for which the returns have not yet been received.
The total population of the United States in 1900, as shown by
the accompanying statement, is 76,304,799, of which 74,610,523
persons are contained in the 45 States, representing the
population to be used for apportionment purposes. This
statement also shows a total of 134,158 Indians not taxed, of
which 44,617 are found in certain of the States and which are
to be deducted from the population of such States for the
purpose of determining the apportionment of Representatives.
The total population in 1890, with which the aggregate
population at the present census should be compared, is
63,069,756, comprising 62,622,250 persons enumerated in the
States and organized Territories at that census, 32,052
persons in Alaska, 180,182 Indians and other persons in the
Indian Territory, 145,282 Indians and other persons on Indian
reservations, etc., and 89,990 persons in Hawaii, this
last-named figure being derived from the census of the
Hawaiian Islands taken as of December 28, 1890. Taking this
population for 1890 as a basis, there has been a gain in
population of 13,235,043 during the ten years from 1890 to
1900, representing an increase of very nearly 21 per cent. No
provision was made by the census act for the enumeration of
the inhabitants of Porto Rico, but a census for that island,
taken as of October 16, 1899, under the direction of the War
Department, showed a population of 953,243.
STATES AND Indians not
TERRITORIES 1900 1890 taxed 1900
The United States. 76,304,799 63,009,756 134,158
STATES.
Alabama 1,828,697 1,513,017
Arkansas 1,311,564 1,128,179
California 1,485,053 1,208,130 1549
Colorado 539,700 412,198 597
Connecticut 908,355 746,258
Delaware 184,735 168,493
Florida 528,542 391,422
Georgia 2,216,331 1,837,353
Idaho 161,772 84,385 2,297
Illinois 4,821,550 3,826,351
Indiana 2,516,462 2,192,404
Iowa 2,231,853 1,911,896
Kansas 1,470,495 1,427,096
Kentucky 2,147,174 1,858,635
Louisiana l,381,625 1,118,587
Maine 694,466 661,086
Maryland 1,190,050 1,042,390
Massachusetts 2,805,346 2,238,943
Michigan 2,420,982 2,093,889
Minnesota 1,751,394 1,301,826 1,768
Mississippi 1,551,270 1,289,600
Missouri 3,106,665 2,679,184
Montana 243,329 132,159 10,746
Nebraska 1,068,539 1,058,910
Nevada 42,335 45,761 1,665
New Hampshire 411,588 376,530
New Jersey 1,883,669 1,444,933
New York 7,268,012 5,991,353 4,711
North Carolina 1,893,810 1,617,947
North Dakota 319,146 182,719 4,692
Ohio 4,157,145 3,672,316
Oregon 413,536 313,767
Pennsylvania 6,302,115 5,258,014
Rhode Island 428,556 345,506
South Carolina 1,340,316 1,151,149
South Dakota 401,570 328,808 10,932
Tennessee 2,020,616 1,767,518
Texas 3,048,710 2,235,523
Utah 276,749 207,905 1,472
Vermont 343,641 332,422
Virginia 1,854,184 1,655,980
Washington 518,103 349,390 2,531
West Virginia 958,800 762,704
Wisconsin 2,069,042 1,686,880 1,657
Wyoming 92,531 60,705
Total for
45 States 74,610,523 62,116,811 44,617
{646}
STATES AND TERRITORIES 1900 1890 Indians
not taxed 1900
TERRITORIES
Alaska 63,441 32,052
Arizona 122,931 59,620 24,644
District of Columbia 278,718 230,392
Hawaii 154,001 89,900
Indian Territory 391,960 180,182 56,033
New Mexico 195,310 153,593 2,937
Oklahoma 398,245 61,834 5,921
Total 1,604,606 807,663 89,541
Persons in the service
of the United States
stationed abroad 89,670
Indians, etc.,on
Indian reservations,
except Indian Territory 145,282
Report of the Director of the Census,
November 1, 1900.
"By the twelfth census the center of population
in 1900 was in the following position:
Latitude 39° 9' 36"; longitude 85° 48' 54".
In ten years the center of population has moved westward 16'
1", or about fourteen miles, and southward 2' 20", or about
two and one half miles. It rests now in Southern Indiana, at a
point about six miles southeast of Columbus, the county seat
of Bartholomew county, Indiana. The center of population is
the center of gravity of the country, each individual being
assumed to have the same weight. … The center of area of the
United States, excluding Alaska and Hawaii and other recent
accessions, is in northern Kansas, in approximate latitude 39°
55', and approximate longitude 98° 50'. The center of
population is therefore about three-fourths of a degree south
and more than 13 degrees east of the center of area."
United States, Twelfth Census,
Bulletin Number 62.
UNITED STATES: A. D. 1900 (May-November).
The Presidential election.
Party platforms and nominations.
The issues on which the presidential election of 1900 would
naturally and logically have turned were those growing out of
the Spanish-American War, relative to principles and policy in
dealing with the colonial possessions that were taken from
Spain. But circumstances forced those most important political
questions into the background of consideration, so far as
concerned the opinion of a large part of the American people.
The monetary question, which might have been supposed to be
settled by the election of 1896 and by the Congressional
legislation of March, 1900, was brought forward again with a
persistency that caused uneasy feeling in the commercial and
industrial world. The party which had fought the battle for a
silver monetary standard in 1896, and been beaten, seemed
willing to abandon that "lost cause," but the candidate to
whose fortunes the party had become committed would not
consent. His will prevailed, and the old issue came into the
canvass again, with such confusing effects that the real
meaning of the votes that were cast, as an expression of the
judgment and will of the American people, can by no
possibility be known. Men dreaded a disturbance of the
conditions under which the business of the country was active
and prosperous. How far their wish to preserve those
conditions coincided, as a motive in voting, with their
judgment on other issues, and how far it overcame dispositions
that urged them contrariwise, are puzzling questions which the
election of 1900 has left behind.
UNITED STATES:
United Christian Party Platform and Nominations.
The first candidates to be set in the field of the
presidential campaign were put forward by a convention held at
Rock Island, Illinois, May 1, representing a small combination of
voters styled the United Christian Party. It named, in the
first instance, the Reverend S. C. Swallow, of Pennsylvania,
for President, and John G. Woolley, of Illinois, for Vice
President, both of whom declined the nomination. Jonah F. R.
Leonard, of Iowa, and David H. Martin, of Pennsylvania, were
subsequently made the candidates of the party, and received a
few hundred votes at the ensuing election, mostly, it would
seem, in Illinois. The "Declarations" of the United Christian
Party were as follows:
"We, the United Christian party, in National Convention
assembled in the city of Rock Island, Illinois, May 1 and 2,
1900, acknowledging Almighty God as the source of all power
and authority, the Lord Jesus Christ as the sovereign ruler of
nations, and the Bible as the standard by which to decide moral
issues in our political life, do make the following
declaration:
"We believe the time to have arrived when the eternal
principles of justice, mercy, and love, as exemplified in the
life and teachings of Jesus Christ should be embodied in the
Constitution of our nation, and applied in concrete form to
every function of our Government.
"We maintain that this statement is in harmony with the
fundamental principles of our National common law; our
Christian usages and customs; the declaration of the Supreme
Court of the United States that 'This is a Christian nation,'
and the accepted principle in judicial decisions that no law
should contravene the Divine law.
"We deprecate certain immoral laws which have grown out of the
failure of our nation to recognize these principles, notably
such as require the desecration of the Christian Sabbath,
authorize unscriptural marriage and divorce, and license the
manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage.
"The execution of these immoral laws above mentioned we hold
to be neither loyalty to our country nor honoring to God;
therefore it shall be our purpose to administer the
Government, so far as it shall be intrusted to us by the
suffrages of the people, in accordance with the principles
herein set forth, and, until amended, our oath of office shall
be to the Constitution and laws as herein explained, and to no
other, and we will look to Him who has all power in Heaven and
in earth to vindicate our purpose in seeking His glory and the
welfare of our beloved land.
"As an expression of consent or allegiance on the part of the
governed, in harmony with the above statements, we declare for
the adoption and use of the system of legislation known as the
'initiative and referendum,' together with 'proportionate
representation' and the 'imperative mandate.'
"We hold that an men and women are created free and with equal
rights, and declare for the establishment of such political,
industrial, and social conditions as shall guarantee to every
person civic equality, the full fruits of his or her honest
toil, and opportunity for the righteous enjoyment of the same;
and we especially condemn mob violence and outrages against
any individual or class of individuals in our country.
{647}
"We declare against war, and for the arbitration of all
National and international disputes.
"We hold that the legalized liquor traffic is the crowning
infamy of civilization, and we declare for the immediate
abolition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors
as a beverage.
"We are gratified to note the widespread agitation of the
cigarette question, and declare ourselves in favor of the
enactment of laws prohibiting the sale of cigarettes or
tobacco in any form to minors.
"We declare for the daily reading of the Bible in the public
schools and institutions of learning under control of the
State.
"We declare for the Government ownership of public utilities.
"We declare for the election of the President and
Vice-President and United States Senators by the direct vote
of the people.
"We declare for such amendment of the United States
Constitution as shall be necessary to give the principles
herein set forth an undeniable legal basis in the fundamental
law of our land.
"We invite into the United Christian party every honest man
and woman who believes in Christ and His golden rule and
standard of righteousness. We say especially to the sons of
toil: Jesus, the carpenter's son, is your true friend. In His
name and through the practice of His principles you may obtain
your rights long withheld and long outraged. You have the
votes necessary to enthrone Him. His love and principles,
politically applied, will lift you up and give you true civic
liberty forever."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900.
People's or Populist Party Platforms and Nominations.
The second of the political parties to appear in the field of
the national contest was the People's, known more commonly as
the Populist Party, the division in which, shown in 1896, had
become separation, complete. The two wings of the party held
distinct conventions, in different places, but on the same
day, May 10. Those known as the Middle-of-the-Road Populists
assembled at Cincinnati and named Wharton Barker, of
Pennsylvania, for President, with Ignatius Donnelly, of
Minnesota for Vice President. The convention representing
those who wished to act in co-operation with the Democratic
Party, and known as the Fusion wing, met at Sioux Falls, South
Dakota, and anticipated the action of the Democracy by
nominating William J. Bryan for President, with Charles A.
Towne, of Minnesota, for Vice President.
See, also, (in this volume)
FARMERS' ALLIANCE.
The platform declarations of the two wings were substantially
the same on main questions; but those of the Fusionists
covered several subjects which the Cincinnati convention
passed by. They were as follows:
"The People's party of the United States, in convention
assembled, congratulating its supporters on the wide extension
of its principles in all directions, does hereby reaffirm its
adherence to the fundamental principles proclaimed in its two
prior platforms and calls upon all who desire to avert the
subversion of free institutions by corporate and imperialistic
power to unite with it in bringing the Government back to the
ideals of Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, and Lincoln. It
extends to its allies in the struggle for financial and
economic freedom, assurances of its loyalty to the principles
which animate the allied forces and the promise of honest and
hearty cooperation in every effort for their success. To the
people of the United States we offer the following platform as
the expression of our unalterable convictions:
"Resolved, That we denounce the act of March 14, 1900, as the
culmination of a long series of conspiracies to deprive the
people of their constitutional rights over the money of the
nation and relegate to a gigantic money trust the control of
the purse and hence of the people. We denounce this act,
First, for making all money obligations, domestic and foreign,
payable in gold coin or its equivalent, thus enormously
increasing the burdens of the debtors and enriching the
creditors.
Second—For refunding 'coin bonds' not to mature for years into
long-time gold bonds so as to make their payment improbable
and our debt perpetual.
Third—For taking from the Treasury over $50,000,000 in a time
of war and presenting it, as a premium, to bondholders to
accomplish the refunding of bonds not due.
Fourth—For doubling the capital of bankers by returning to
them the face value of their bonds in current money notes so
that they may draw one interest from the Government and
another from the people.
Fifth—For allowing banks to expand and contract their
circulation at pleasure, thus controlling prices of all
products.
Sixth—For authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to issue
new gold bonds to an unlimited amount whenever he deems it
necessary to replenish the gold hoard, thus enabling usurers
to secure more bonds and more bank currency by drawing gold
from the Treasury, thereby creating an 'endless chain' for
perpetually adding to a perpetual debt.
Seventh—For striking down the green back in order to force the
people to borrow $346,000,000 more from the banks at an annual
cost of over $20,000,000. While barring out the money of the
Constitution this law opens the printing mints of the Treasury
to the free coinage of bank paper money, to enrich the few and
impoverish the many.
"We pledge anew the People's party never to cease the
agitation until this great financial conspiracy is blotted
from the statute books, the Lincoln greenback restored, the
bonds all paid, and all corporation money forever retired. We
affirm the demand for the reopening of the mints of the United
States for the free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold
at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1, the immediate increase
in the volume of silver coins and certificates thus created to
be substituted, dollar for dollar, for the banknotes issued by
private corporations under special privilege granted by law of
March 14, 1900, and prior National banking laws, the remaining
portion of the banknotes to be replaced with full legal-tender
Government paper money, and its volume so controlled as to
maintain at all times a stable money market and a stable price
level.
"We demand a graduated income and inheritance tax, to the end
that aggregated wealth shall bear its just proportion of
taxation.
"We demand that postal savings banks be established by the
Government for the safe deposit of the savings of the people
and to facilitate exchange.
{648}
"With Thomas Jefferson we declare the land, including all
natural sources of wealth, the inalienable heritage of the
people. Government should so act as to secure homes for the
people and prevent land monopoly. The original homestead
policy should be enforced, and future settlers upon the public
domain should be entitled to a free homestead, while all who
have paid an acreage price to the Government under existing
laws should have their homestead rights restored.
"Transportation being a means of exchange and a public
necessity, the Government should own and operate the railroads
in the interests of the people and on a non-partisan basis, to
the end that all may be accorded the same treatment in
transportation, and that the extortion, tyranny, and political
power now exercised by the great railroad corporations, which
result in the impairment, if not the destruction, of the
political rights and personal liberties of the citizen, may be
destroyed. Such ownership is to be accomplished in a manner
consistent with sound public policy.
"Trusts, the overshadowing evil of the age, are the result and
culmination of the private ownership and control of the three
great instruments of commerce—money, transportation, and the
means of transmission of information—which instruments of
commerce are public functions, and which our forefathers
declared in the Constitution should be controlled by the
people through their Congress for the public welfare. The one
remedy for the trusts is that the ownership and control be
assumed and exercised by the people. We further demand that
all tariffs on goods controlled by a trust shall be abolished.
To cope with the trust evil, the people must act directly
without the intervention of representatives who may be
controlled or influenced. We therefore demand direct
legislation, giving the people the lawmaking and veto power
under the initiative and referendum. A majority of the people
can never be corruptly influenced.
"Applauding the valor of our army and navy in the Spanish War,
we denounce the conduct of the Administration in changing a
war for humanity into a war of conquest. The action of the
Administration in the Philippines is in conflict with all the
precedents of our National life; at war with the Declaration
of Independence, the Constitution, and the plain precepts of
humanity. Murder and arson have been our response to the
appeals of the people who asked only to establish a free
government in their own land. We demand a stoppage of this war
of extermination by the assurance to the Philippines of
independence and protection under a stable government of their
own creation.
"The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the
American flag are one and inseparable. The island of Porto
Rico is a part of the territory of the United States, and by
levying special and extraordinary customs duties on the
commerce of that island the Administration has violated the
Constitution, abandoned the fundamental principles of American
liberty, and has striven to give the lie to the contention of
our forefathers that there should be no taxation without
representation.
"Out of the imperialism which would force an undesired
domination on the people of the Philippines springs the
un-American cry for a large standing army. Nothing in the
character or purposes of our people justifies us in ignoring
the plain lesson of history and putting our liberties in
jeopardy by assuming the burden of militarism, which is
crushing the people of the Old World. We denounce the
Administration for its sinister efforts to substitute a
standing army for the citizen soldiery, which is the best
safeguard of the Republic.
"We extend to the brave Boers of South Africa our sympathy and
moral support in their patriotic struggle for the right of
self-government, and we are unalterably opposed to any
alliance, open or covert, between the United States and any
other nation that will tend to the destruction of liberty.
"And a further manifestation of imperialism is to be found in
the mining districts of Idaho. In the Cœur d'Alene soldiers
have been used to overawe miners striving for a greater
measure of industrial independence. And we denounce the State
Government of Idaho and the Federal Government for employing
the military arm of the Government to abridge the civil rights
of the people, and to enforce an infamous permit system which
denies to laborers their inherent liberty and compels them to
forswear their manhood and their right before being permitted
to seek employment.
"The importation of Japanese and other laborers under contract
to serve monopolistic corporations is a notorious and flagrant
violation of the immigration laws. We demand that the Federal
Government shall take cognizance of this menacing evil and
repress it under existing laws. We further pledge ourselves to
strive for the enactment of more stringent laws for the
exclusion of Mongolian and Malayan immigration.
"We indorse municipal ownership of public utilities, and
declare that the advantages which have accrued to the public
under that system would be multiplied a hundredfold by its
extension to natural interstate monopolies.
"We denounce the practice of issuing injunctions in the cases
of dispute between employers and employés, making criminal
acts by organizations which are not criminal when performed by
individuals, and demand legislation to restrain the evil.
"We demand that United States Senators and all other officials
as far as practicable be elected by direct vote of the people,
believing that the elective franchise and untrammelled ballot
are essential to a government for and by the people.
"The People's party condemns the wholesale system of
disfranchisement by coercion and intimidation, adopted in some
States, as un-republican and un-democratic. And we declare it
to be the duty of the several State Legislatures to take such
action as will secure a full, free, and fair ballot, and an
honest count.
"We favor home rule in the Territories and the District of
Columbia, and the early admission of the Territories as
States.
"We denounce the expensive red-tape system, political
favoritism, cruel and unnecessary delay and criminal evasion
of the statutes in the management of the Pension Office, and
demand the simple and honest execution of the law, and the
fulfilment by the nation of its pledges of service pension to
all its honorably discharged veterans."
{649}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900.
Socialist Labor Party Platform and Nominations.
The convention of the Populists was followed next by that of
the Socialist Labor Party, which met in New York City, on the
2d of June, and put in nomination Joseph P. Maloney, of
Massachusetts, and Valentine Remmel, of Pennsylvania. Its
Platform was as follows:
"The Socialist Labor party of the United States, in convention
assembled, reasserts the inalienable right of all men to life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
"With the founders of the American Republic we hold that the
purpose of government is to secure every citizen in the
enjoyment of this right; but in the light of our social
conditions we hold, furthermore, that no such right can be
exercised under a system of economic inequality, essentially
destructive of life, of liberty, and of happiness.
"With the founders of this Republic we hold that the true
theory of politics is that the machinery of government must be
owned and controlled by the whole people; but in the light of
our industrial development we hold, furthermore, that the true
theory of economics is that the machinery of production must
likewise belong to the people in common.
"To the obvious fact that our despotic system of economics is
the direct opposite of our democratic system of politics can
plainly be traced the existence of a privileged class, the
corruption of government by that class, the alienation of
public property, public franchises, and public functions to
that class, and the abject dependence of the mightiest of
nations upon that class.
"Again, through the perversion of democracy to the ends of
plutocracy, labor is robbed of the wealth which it alone
produces, is denied the means of self-employment, and, by
compulsory idleness in wage slavery, is even deprived of the
necessaries of life. Human power and natural forces are thus
wasted, that the plutocracy may rule. Ignorance and misery,
with all their concomitant evils, are perpetuated, that the
people may be kept in bondage. Science and invention are
diverted from their humane purpose to the enslavement of women
and children.
"Against such a system the Socialist Labor party once more
enters its protest. Once more it reiterates its fundamental
declaration that private property in the natural sources of
production and in the instruments of labor is the obvious
cause of all economic servitude and political dependence.
"The time is fast coming when, in the natural course of social
evolution, this system, through the destructive action of its
failures and crises on the one hand, and the constructive
tendencies of its trusts and other capitalistic combinations
on the other hand, shall have worked out its own downfall.
"We, therefore, call upon the wage workers of the United
States, and upon all other honest citizens, to organize under
the banner of the Socialist Labor party into a class-conscious
body, aware of its rights and determined to conquer them by
taking possession of the public powers; so that, held together
by an indomitable spirit of solidarity under the most trying
conditions of the present class struggle, we may put a summary
end to that barbarous struggle by the abolition of classes, the
restoration of the land and of all the means of production,
transportation, and distribution to the people as a collective
body, and the substitution of the Cooperative Commonwealth for
the present state of planless production, industrial war, and
social disorder—a commonwealth in which every worker shall
have the free exercise and full benefit of his faculties,
multiplied by all the modern factors of civilization."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900.
Republican Party Platform and Nominations.
On the 19th of June the national convention of the Republican
Party began its session at Philadelphia; adopted its platform
on the following day, and nominated President William McKinley
for re-election ou the 21st, naming Theodore Roosevelt, then
Governor of New York, for Vice President, in opposition to his
earnestly expressed wish. The adopted platform of principles
was as follows:
"The Republicans of the United States, through their chosen
representatives, met in National Convention, looking back upon
an unsurpassed record of achievement and looking forward to a
great field of duty and opportunity, and appealing to the
judgment of their countrymen, make these declarations:
"The expectation in which the American people, turning from
the Democratic party, intrusted power four years ago to a
Republican Chief Magistrate and a Republican Congress, has
been met and satisfied. When the people then assembled at the
polls, after a term of Democratic legislation and
administration, business was dead, industry paralyzed, and the
National credit disastrously impaired. The country's capital
was hidden away and its labor distressed and unemployed. The
Democrats had no other plan with which to improve the ruinous
conditions which they had themselves produced than to coin
silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. The Republican Party,
denouncing this plan as sure to produce conditions even worse
than those from which relief was sought, promised to restore
prosperity by means of two legislative measures—a protective
tariff and a law making gold the standard of value.
"The people, by great majorities, issued to the Republican
party a commission to enact these laws. This commission has
been executed, and the Republican promise is redeemed.
Prosperity more general and more abundant than we have ever
known has followed these enactments. There is no longer
controversy as to the value of any government obligations.
Every American dollar is a gold dollar, or its assured
equivalent, and American credit stands higher than that of any
nation. Capital is fully employed, and labor everywhere is
profitably occupied. No single fact can more strikingly tell
the story of what Republican government means to the country
than this—that while during the whole period of 107 years from
1790 to 1897 there was an excess of exports over imports of
only $383,028,497, there has been in the short three years of
the present Republican Administration an excess of exports
over imports in the enormous sum of $1,483,537,094.
{650}
"And while the American people, sustained by this Republican
legislation, have been achieving these splendid triumphs in
their business and commerce, they have conducted and in
victory concluded a war for liberty and human rights. No
thought of National aggrandizement tarnished the high purpose
with which American standards were unfurled. It was a war
unsought and patiently resisted, but when it came the American
Government was ready. Its fleets were cleared for action, its
armies were in the field, and the quick and signal triumph of
its forces on land and sea bore equal tribute to the courage
of American soldiers and sailors and to the skill and
foresight of Republican statesmanship. To ten millions of the
human race there was given 'a new birth of freedom,' and to
the American people a new and noble responsibility.
"'We indorse the Administration of William McKinley. Its acts
have been established in wisdom and in patriotism, and at home
and abroad it has distinctly elevated and extended the
influence of the American nation. Walking untried paths and
facing unforeseen responsibilities, President McKinley has
been in every situation the true American patriot and the
upright statesman, clear in vision, strong in judgment, firm
in action, always inspiring and deserving the confidence of
his countrymen. In asking the American people to indorse this
Republican record and to renew their commission to the
Republican party, we remind them of the fact that the menace
to their prosperity has always resided in Democratic
principles, and no less in the general incapacity of the
Democratic party to conduct public affairs. The prime
essential of business prosperity is public confidence in the
good sense of the Government, and in its ability to deal
intelligently with each new problem of administration and
legislation. That confidence the Democratic party has never
earned. It is hopelessly inadequate, and the country's
prosperity when Democratic success at the polls is announced
halts and ceases in mere anticipation of Democratic blunders
and failures.
"We renew our allegiance to the principle of the gold
standard, and declare our confidence in the wisdom of the
legislation of the Fifty-sixth Congress by which the parity of
all our money and the stability of our currency upon a gold
basis has been secured.
"We recognize that interest rates are potent factors in
production and business activity, and for the purpose of
further equalizing and of further lowering the rates of
interest, we favor such monetary legislation as will enable
the varying needs of the seasons and of all sections to be
promptly met in order that trade may be evenly sustained,
labor steadily employed, and commerce enlarged. The volume of
money in circulation was never so great per capita as it is
to-day.
"We declare our steadfast opposition to the free and unlimited
coinage of silver. No measure to that end could be considered
which was without the support of the leading commercial
countries of the world. However firmly Republican legislation
may seem to have secured the country against the peril of base
and discredited currency, the election of a Democratic
President could not fail to impair the country's credit and to
bring once more into question the intention of the American
people to maintain upon the gold standard the parity of their
money circulation. The Democratic party must be convinced that
the American people will never tolerate the Chicago platform.
"We recognize the necessity and propriety of the honest
cooperation of capital to meet new business conditions, and
especially to extend our rapidly increasing foreign trade, but
we condemn all conspiracies and combinations intended to
restrict business, to create monopolies, to limit production,
or to control prices, and favor such legislation as will
effectively restrain and prevent all such abuses, protect and
promote competition, and secure the rights of producers,
laborers, and all who are engaged in industry and commerce.
"We renew our faith in the policy of protection to American
labor. In that policy our industries have been established,
diversified, and maintained. By protecting the home market
competition has been stimulated and production cheapened.
Opportunity to the inventive genius of our people has been
secured and wages in every department of labor maintained at
high rates, higher now than ever before, and always
distinguishing our working people in their better conditions
of life from those of any competing country. Enjoying the
blessings of the American common school, secure in the right
of self-government, and protected in the occupancy of their
own markets, their constantly increasing knowledge and skill
have enabled them finally to enter the markets of the world.
"We favor the associated policy of reciprocity so directed as
to open our markets on favorable terms for what we do not
ourselves produce in return for free foreign markets.
"In the further interest of American workmen we favor a more
effective restriction of the immigration of cheap labor from
foreign lands, the extension of opportunities of education for
working children, the raising of the age limit for child
labor, the protection of free labor as against contract
convict labor, and an effective system of labor insurance.
"Our present dependence upon foreign shipping for nine-tenths
of our foreign carrying is a great loss to the industry of
this country. It is also a serious danger to our trade, for
its sudden withdrawal in the event of European war would
seriously cripple our expanding foreign commerce. The National
defence and naval efficiency of this country, moreover, supply
a compelling reason for legislation which will enable us to
recover our former place among the trade carrying fleets of
the world.
"The nation owes a debt of profound gratitude to the soldiers
and sailors who have fought its battles, and it is the
Government's duty to provide for the survivors and for the
widows and orphans of those who have fallen in the country's
wars. The pension laws, founded in this just sentiment, should
be liberal, and should be liberally administered, and
preference should be given wherever practicable with respect
to employment in the public service to soldiers and sailors
and to their widows and orphans.
"We commend the policy of the Republican party in maintaining
the efficiency of the Civil Service. The Administration has
acted wisely in its effort to secure for public service in
Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii and the Philippine Islands only those
whose fitness has been determined by training and experience.
We believe that employment in the public service in these
territories should be confined as far as practicable to their
inhabitants.
"It was the plain purpose of the Fifteenth Amendment to the
Constitution to prevent discrimination on account of race or
color in regulating the elective franchise. Devices of State
governments, whether by statutory or constitutional enactment
to avoid the purpose of this amendment are revolutionary and
should be condemned.
{651}
"Public movements looking to a permanent improvement of the
roads and highways of the country meet with our cordial
approval and we recommend this subject to the earnest
consideration of the people and of the Legislatures of the
several States. We favor the extension of the rural free
delivery service wherever its extension may be justified.
"In further pursuance of the constant policy of the Republican
party to provide free homes on the public domain, we recommend
adequate National legislation to reclaim the arid lands of the
United States, reserving control of the distribution of water for
irrigation to the respective States and Territories.
"We favor home rule for and the early admission to Statehood
of the Territories of New Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma.
"The Dingley act, amended to provide sufficient revenue for
the conduct of the war, has so well performed its work that it
has been possible to reduce the war debt in the sum of
$40,000,000. So ample are the Government's revenues and so
great is the public confidence in the integrity of its
obligations that its newly funded 2 per cent bonds sell at a
premium. The country is now justified in expecting, and it
will be the policy of the Republican party to bring about, a
reduction of the war taxes.
"We favor the construction, ownership, control and protection
of an isthmian canal by the Government of the United States.
"New markets are necessary for the increasing surplus of our
farm products. Every effort should be made to open and obtain
new markets, especially in the Orient, and the Administration
is warmly to be commended for its successful effort to commit
all trading and colonizing nations to the policy of the open
door in China.
"In the interest of our expanding commerce we recommend that
Congress create a department of commerce and industries in the
charge of a secretary with a seat in the Cabinet. The United
States consular system should be reorganized under the
supervision of this new department, upon such a basis of
appointment and tenure as will render it still more
serviceable to the Nation's increasing trade. The American
Government must protect the person and property of every
citizen wherever they are wrongfully violated or placed in
peril.
"We congratulate the women of America upon their splendid
record of public service in the volunteer aid association, and
as nurses in camp and hospital during the recent campaigns of
our armies in the Eastern and Western Indies, and we
appreciate their faithful co-operation in all works of
education and industry.
"President McKinley has conducted the foreign affairs of the
United States with distinguished credit to the American
people. In releasing us from the vexatious conditions of a
European alliance for the government of Samoa his course is
especially to be commended. By securing to our undivided
control the most important island of the Samoan group and the
best harbor in the Southern Pacific, every American interest
has been safeguarded. We approve the annexation of the
Hawaiian Islands to the United States. We commend the part
taken by our Government in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
We assert our steadfast adherence to the policy announced in
the Monroe Doctrine. The provisions of The Hague Convention
were wisely regarded when President McKinley tendered his
friendly offices in the interest of peace between Great
Britain and the South African republics. While the American
Government must continue the policy prescribed by Washington,
affirmed by every succeeding President and imposed upon us by
The Hague Treaty, of non-intervention in European
controversies, the American people earnestly hope that a way
may soon be found, honorable alike to both contending parties,
to terminate the strife between them.
"In accepting by the Treaty of Paris the just responsibility
of our victories in the Spanish war the President and the
Senate won the undoubted approval of the American people. No
other course was possible than to destroy Spain's sovereignty
throughout the West Indies and in the Philippine Islands. That
course created our responsibility before the world, and with
the unorganized population whom our intervention had freed
from Spain, to provide for the maintenance of law and order,
and for the establishment of good government and for the
performance of international obligations. Our authority could
not be less than our responsibility, and wherever sovereign
rights were extended it became the high duty of the Government
to maintain its authority, to put down armed insurrection and
to confer the blessings of liberty and civilization upon all
the rescued peoples. The largest measure of self-government
consistent with their welfare and our duties shall be secured
to them by law.
"To Cuba independence and self-government were assured in the
same voice by which war was declared, and to the letter this
pledge will be performed.
"The Republican party upon its history, and upon this
declaration of its principles and policies, confidently
invokes the considerate and approving judgment of the American
people."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900
Prohibition Party Platform and Nominations.
In the next week after the meeting of the Republican national
convention, that of the Prohibition Party was held at Chicago,
opening on the 27th of June. It chose Mr. John G. Woolley, of
Chicago (already named by the United Christian Party for Vice
President—see above) to be its candidate for President, with
Mr. Henry B. Metcalfe, of Rhode Island, for Vice President.
Setting aside all political issues save those connected with
the liquor traffic, its declarations were confined to that
subject alone, and were as follows:
"The National Prohibition party, in convention represented at
Chicago, June 27 and 28, 1900, acknowledged Almighty God as
the supreme source of all just government. Realizing that this
Republic was founded upon Christian principles, and can endure
only as it embodies justice and righteousness, and asserting
that all authority should seek the best good of all the
governed, to this end wisely prohibiting what is wrong and
permitting only what is right, hereby records and proclaims:
{652}
"First.—We accept and assert the definition given by Edward
Burke, that a party is 'a body of men joined together for the
purpose of protecting by their joint endeavor the National
interest upon some particular principle upon which they are
all agreed.'
"We declare that there is no principle now advocated, by any
other party, which could be made a fact in government with
such beneficent moral and material results as the principle of
prohibition applied to the beverage liquor traffic; that the
National interest could be promoted in no other way so surely
and widely as by its adoption and assertion through a National
policy and a cooperation therein by every State, forbidding
the manufacture, sale, exportation, importation, and
transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes;
that we stand for this as the only principle proposed by any
party anywhere for the settlement of a question greater and
graver than any other before the American people, and
involving more profoundly than any other their moral future
and financial welfare; and that all the patriotic citizenship
of this country agreed upon this principle, however much
disagreement there may be as to minor considerations and
issues, should stand together at the ballot-box from this time
forward until prohibition is the established policy of the
United States, with a party in power to enforce it and to
insure its moral and material benefits.
"We insist that such a party agreed upon this principle and
policy, having sober leadership, without any obligation for
success to the saloon vote and to those demoralizing political
combinations, can successfully cope with all other and lesser
problems of government, in legislative halls and in the
executive chair, and that it is useless for any party to make
declarations in its platform as to any questions concerning
which there may be serious differences of opinion in its own
membership and as to which, because of such differences, the
party could legislate only on a basis of mutual concessions
when coming into power.
"We submit that the Democratic and Republican parties are
alike insincere in their assumed hostility to trusts and
monopolies. They dare not and do not attack the most dangerous
of them all, the liquor power. So long as the saloon debauches
the citizen and breeds the purchasable voter, money will
continue to buy its way to power. Break down this traffic,
elevate manhood, and a sober citizenship will find a way to
control dangerous combinations of capital. We purpose, as a
first step in the financial problem of the nation, to save
more than a billion of dollars every year, now annually
expended to support the liquor traffic and to demoralize our
people. When that is accomplished, conditions will have so
improved that with a clearer atmosphere the country can
address itself to the questions as to the kind and quantity of
currency needed.
"Second.—We reaffirm as true indisputably the declaration of
William Windom, when Secretary of the Treasury in the Cabinet
of President Arthur, that 'considered socially, financially,
politically, or morally, the licensed liquor traffic is or
ought to be the overwhelming issue in American politics, and
that the destruction of this iniquity stands next on the
calendar of the world's progress.' We hold that the existence
of our party presents this issue squarely to the American
people, and lays upon them the responsibility of choice
between liquor parties, dominated by distillers and brewers,
with their policy of saloon perpetuation breeding waste,
wickedness, woe, pauperism, taxation, corruption, and crime,
and our one party of patriotic and moral principle, with a
policy which defends it from domination by corrupt bosses, and
which insures it forever against the blighting control of
saloon politics.
"We face with sorrow, shame, and fear the awful fact that this
liquor traffic has a grip on our Government, municipal, State,
and National, through the revenue system and a saloon
sovereignty, which no other party dare to dispute; a grip
which dominates the party now in power, from caucus to
Congress, from policemen to President, from the rum shop to
the White House; a grip which compels the Executive to consent
that law shall be nullified in behalf of the brewer, that the
canteen shall curse our army and spread intemperance across
the seas, and that our flag shall wave as the symbol of
partnership, at home and abroad, between this Government and
the men who defy and defile it for their unholy gain.
"Third.—We charge upon President McKinley, who was elected to
his high office by appeal to Christian sentiment and
patriotism almost unprecedented and by a combination of moral
influences never before seen in this country, that by his
conspicuous example as a wine-drinker at public banquets and
as a wine-serving host in the White House, he has done more to
encourage the liquor business, to demoralize the temperance
habits of young men, and to bring Christian practices and
requirements into disrepute than any other President this
Republic has had. "We further charge upon President McKinley
responsibility for the Army canteen, with all its dire brood
of disease, immorality, sin and death, in this country, in
Cuba, in Porto Rico and the Philippines; and we insist that by
his attitude concerning the canteen, and his apparent contempt
for the vast number of petitions and petitioners protesting
against it, he has outraged and insulted the moral sentiment
of this country in such a manner and to such a degree as calls
for its righteous uprising and his indignant and effective
rebuke. We challenge denial of the fact that our Chief
Executive, as commander in chief of the military forces of the
United States, at any time prior to or since March 2, 1899,
could have closed every Army saloon, called a canteen, by
executive order, as President Hayes in effect did before him,
and should have closed them, for the same reason that actuated
President Hayes; we assert that the act of Congress passed
March 2, 1899, forbidding the sale of liquor, 'in any post
exchange or canteen,' by any 'officer or private soldier' or
by 'any other person on any premises used for military
purposes in the United States,' was and is as explicit an act
of prohibition as the English language can frame; we declare
our solemn belief that the Attorney-General of the United
States in his interpretation of that law, and the Secretary of
War in his acceptance of that interpretation and his refusal
to enforce the law, were and are guilty of treasonable
nullification thereof, and that President McKinley, through
his assent to and indorsement of such interpretation and
refusal on the part of officials appointed by and responsible
to him, shares responsibility in their guilt; and we record
our conviction that a new and serious peril confronts our
country, in the fact that its President, at the behest of the
beer power, dare and does abrogate a law of Congress, through
subordinates removable at will by him and whose acts become
his, and thus virtually confesses that laws are to be
administered or to be nullified in the interest of a
law-defying business, by an Administration under mortgage to
such business for support.
{653}
"Fourth.-We deplore the fact that an Administration of this
Republic claiming the right and power to carry our flag across
seas, and to conquer and annex new territory, should admit its
lack of power to prohibit the American saloon on subjugated
soil, or should openly confess itself subject to liquor
sovereignty under that flag. We are humiliated, exasperated
and grieved by the evidence painfully abundant that this
Administration's policy of expansion is bearing so rapidly its
first fruits of drunkenness, insanity and crime under the
hothouse sun of the tropics; and when the president of the
first Philippine Commission says 'It was unfortunate that we
introduced and established the saloon there, to corrupt the
natives and to exhibit the vices of our race,' we charge the
inhumanity and un-Christianity of this act upon the
Administration of William McKinley and upon the party which
elected and would perpetuate the same.
"Fifth.—We declare that the only policy which the Government
of the United States can of right uphold as to the liquor
traffic under the National Constitution upon any territory
under the military or civil control of that Government is the
policy of prohibition; that 'to establish justice, insure
domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote
the general welfare, and insure the blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our posterity,' as the Constitution provides,
the liquor traffic must neither be sanctioned nor tolerated,
and that the revenue policy, which makes our Government a
partner with distillers and brewers and barkeepers, is a
disgrace to our civilization, an outrage upon humanity, and a
crime against God.
"We condemn the present Administration at Washington because
it has repealed the prohibitory law in Alaska, and has given
over the partly civilized tribes there to be the prey of the
American grogshop, and because it has entered upon a license
policy in our new possessions by incorporating the same in the
revenue act of Congress in the code of laws for the government
of the Hawaiian Islands.
"We call general attention to the fearful fact that
exportation of liquors from the United States to the
Philippine Islands increased from $337 in 1898 to $167,198 in
the first ten months of the fiscal year ended June 30, 1900;
and that while our exportations of liquor to Cuba never
reached $30,000 a year previous to American occupation of that
island, our exports of such liquors to Cuba during the fiscal
year of 1899 reached the sum of $629,655.
"Sixth.—One great religious body (the Baptist) having truly
declared of the liquor traffic 'that it has no defensible
right to exist, that it can never be reformed, that it stands
condemned by its unrighteous fruits as a thing unchristian,
un-American, and perilous utterly to every interest in life';
another great religious body (the Methodist) having as truly
asserted and reiterated that 'no political party has the right
to expect, nor should it receive, the votes of Christian men
so long as it stands committed to the license system or
refuses to put itself on record in an attitude of open
hostility to the saloons'; other great religious bodies having
made similar deliverances, in language plain and unequivocal,
as to the liquor traffic and the duty of Christian citizenship
in opposition thereto, and the fact being plain and undeniable
that the Democratic party stands for license, the saloon, and
the canteen, while the Republican party, in policy and
administration, stands for the canteen, the saloon, and
revenue therefrom, we declare ourselves justified in expecting
that Christian voters everywhere shall cease their complicity
with the liquor curse by refusing to uphold a liquor party,
and shall unite themselves with the only party which upholds
the prohibition policy, and which for nearly thirty years has
been the faithful defender of the church, the State, the home,
and the school against the saloon, its expanders and
perpetuators, their actual and persistent foes.
"We insist that no differences of belief, as to any other
question or concern of government, should stand in the way of
such a union of moral and Christian citizenship as we hereby
invite for the speedy settlement of this paramount moral,
industrial, financial, and political issue which our party
presents; and we refrain from declaring ourselves upon all
minor matters as to which differences of opinion may exist
that hereby we may offer to the American people a platform so
broad that all can stand upon it who desire to see sober
citizenship actually sovereign over the allied hosts of evil,
sin, and crime in a government of the people, by the people,
and for the people.
"We declare that there are but two real parties to-day
concerning the liquor traffic—Perpetuationists and
Prohibitionists—and that patriotism, Christianity, and every
interest of genuine republicanism and of pure democracy,
besides the loyal demands of our common humanity, require the
speedy union, in one solid phalanx at the ballot-box, of all
who oppose the liquor traffic's perpetuation, and who covet
endurance for this Republic."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900.
Democratic Party Platform and Nominations.
The delegates of the Democratic Party met in national
convention at Kansas City, on the Fourth of July. By unanimous
vote, on the following day, they again nominated William J.
Bryan, of Nebraska, for President, and subsequently associated
with him ex-Vice President Adlai E. Stevenson, of Illinois,
for Vice President. The platform, adopted on the same day,
reiterating the demand of 1896 for a free and unlimited
coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1, but emphasizing the
question of colonial expansion as the "paramount issue of the
campaign," was as follows: "'We, the representatives of the
Democratic party of the United States, assembled in national
convention on the anniversary of the adoption of the
Declaration of Independence, do reaffirm our faith in that
immortal proclamation of the inalienable rights of man, and
our allegiance to the constitution framed in harmony therewith
by the fathers of the Republic. We hold with the United States
Supreme Court that the Declaration of Independence is the spirit
of our government, of which the constitution is the form and
letter.
{654}
We declare again that all governments instituted among men
derive their just powers from the consent of the governed;
that any government not based upon the consent of the governed
is a tyranny; and that to impose upon any people a government
of force is to substitute the methods of imperialism for those
of a republic. We hold that the constitution follows the flag
and denounce the doctrine that an executive or congress,
deriving their existence and their powers from the
constitution, can exercise lawful authority beyond it, or in
violation of it. We assert that no nation can long endure half
republic and half empire, and we warn the American people that
imperialism abroad will lead quickly and inevitably to
despotism at home.
"Believing in these fundamental principles, we denounce the
Porto Rico law, enacted by a Republican Congress against the
protest and opposition of the Democratic minority, as a bold
and open violation of the Nation's organic law and a flagrant
breach of National good faith. It imposes upon the people of
Porto Rico a government without their consent, and taxation
without representation. It dishonors the American people by
repudiating a solemn pledge made in their behalf by the
commanding general of our Army, which the Porto Ricans
welcomed to a peaceful and unresisted occupation of their
land. It dooms to poverty and distress a people whose
helplessness appeals with peculiar force to our justice and
magnanimity. In this, the first act of its imperialistic
programme, the Republican party seeks to commit the United
States to a colonial policy inconsistent with republican
institutions and condemned by the Supreme Court in numerous
decisions.
"We demand the prompt and honest fulfilment of our pledge to
the Cuban people and the world, that the United States has no
disposition nor intention to exercise sovereignty,
jurisdiction, or control over the island of Cuba, except for
its pacification. The war ended nearly two years ago, profound
peace reigns over all the island, and still the Administration
keeps the government of the island from its people, while
Republican carpetbag officials plunder its revenue and exploit
the colonial theory to the disgrace of the American people.
"We condemn and denounce the Philippine policy of the present
Administration. It has embroiled the Republic in an
unnecessary war, sacrificed the lives of many of its noblest
sons, and placed the United States, previously known and
applauded throughout the world as the champion of freedom, in
the false and un-American position of crushing with military
force the efforts of our former allies to achieve liberty and
self-government. The Filipinos cannot be citizens without
endangering our civilization; they cannot be subjects without
imperilling our form of government; and as we are not willing
to surrender our civilization, or to convert the Republic into
an empire, we favor an immediate declaration of the Nation's
purpose to give to the Filipinos, first, a stable form of
government; second, independence; and third, protection from
outside interference such as has been given for nearly a
century to the republics of Central and South America. The
greedy commercialism which dictated the Philippine policy of
the Republican Administration attempts to justify it with the
plea that it will pay, but even this sordid and unworthy plea
fails when brought to the test of facts. The war of 'criminal
aggression' against the Filipinos, entailing an annual expense
of many millions, has already cost more than any possible
profit that could accrue from the entire Philippine trade for
years to come. Furthermore, when trade is extended at the
expense of liberty the price is always too high.
"We are not opposed to territorial expansion, when it takes in
desirable territory which can be erected into States in the
Union, and whose people are willing and fit to become American
citizens. We favor trade expansion by every peaceful and
legitimate means. But we are unalterably opposed to the
seizing or purchasing of distant islands to be governed
outside the Constitution and whose people can never become
citizens. We are in favor of extending the Republic's
influence among the nations, but believe that influence should
be extended not by force and violence, but through the
persuasive power of a high and honorable example.
"The importance of other questions now pending before the
American people is in nowise diminished and the Democratic
party takes no backward step from its position on them; but
the burning issue of imperialism, growing out of the Spanish
war, involving the very existence of the Republic and the
destruction of our free institutions, we regard as the
paramount issue of the campaign.
"The declaration of the Republican platform adopted at the
Philadelphia Convention, held in June, 1900, that the
Republican party 'steadfastly adheres to the policy announced
in the Monroe Doctrine,' is manifestly insincere and
deceptive. This profession is contradicted by the avowed
policy of that party, in opposition to the spirit of the
Monroe Doctrine, to acquire and hold sovereignty over large
areas of territory and large numbers of people in the Eastern
Hemisphere. We insist on the strict maintenance of the Monroe
Doctrine in all its integrity, both in letter and in spirit,
as necessary to prevent the extension of European authority on
these continents and as essential to our supremacy in American
affairs. At the same time we declare that no American people
shall ever be held by force in unwilling subjection to
European authority.
"We oppose militarism. It means conquest abroad and
intimidation and oppression at home. It means the strong arm
which has ever been fatal to free institutions. It is what
millions of our citizens have fled from in Europe. It will
impose upon our peace loving people a large standing army, an
unnecessary burden of taxation, and would be a constant menace
to their liberties. A small standing army and a well
disciplined State militia are amply sufficient in time of
peace. This Republic has no place for a vast military
establishment, a sure forerunner of compulsory military
service and conscription. When the Nation is in danger the
volunteer soldier is his country's best defender. The National
Guard of the United States should ever be cherished in the
patriotic hearts of a free people. Such organizations are ever
an element of strength and safety. For the first time in our
history and coeval with the Philippine conquest has there been
a wholesale departure from our time honored and approved
system of volunteer organization. We denounce it as
un-American, undemocratic and unrepublican and as a subversion
of the ancient and fixed principles of a free people.
{655}
"Private monopolies are indefensible and intolerable. They
destroy competition, control the price of raw material and of
the finished product, thus robbing both producer and consumer.
They lessen the employment of labor and arbitrarily fix the terms
and conditions thereof; and deprive individual energy and
small capital of their opportunity for betterment. They are
the most efficient means yet devised for appropriating the
fruits of industry to the benefit of the few at the expense of
the many, and, unless their insatiate greed is checked, all
wealth will be aggregated in a few hands and the Republic
destroyed. The dishonest paltering with the trust evil by the
Republican party in its State and National platforms is
conclusive proof of the truth of the charge that trusts are
the legitimate product of Republican policies, that they are
fostered by Republican laws, and that they are protected by
the Republican Administration in return for campaign
subscriptions and political support. We pledge the Democratic
party to an unceasing warfare in Nation, State and city
against private monopoly in every form. Existing laws against
trusts must be enforced and more stringent ones must be
enacted providing for publicity as to the affairs of
corporations engaged in interstate commerce and requiring all
corporations to show, before doing business outside of the
State of their origin, that they have no water in their stock,
and that they have not attempted and are not attempting to
monopolize any branch of business or the production of any
articles of merchandise; and the whole constitutional power of
Congress over interstate commerce, the mails and all modes of
interstate communication shall be exercised by the enactment
of comprehensive laws upon the subject of trusts.
"Tariff laws should be amended by putting the products of
trusts upon the free list, to prevent monopoly under the plea
of protection. The failure of the present Republican
Administration, with an absolute control over all the branches
of the National Government, to enact any legislation designed
to prevent or even curtail the absorbing power of trusts and
illegal combinations, or to enforce the anti-trust laws
already on the statute books, proves the insincerity of the
high sounding phrases of the Republican platform. Corporations
should be protected in all their rights and their legitimate
interests should be respected, but any attempt by corporations
to interfere with the public affairs of the people or to
control the sovereignty which creates them should be forbidden
under such penalties as will make such attempts impossible. We
condemn the Dingley tariff law as a trust breeding measure
skilfully devised to give to the few favors which they do not
deserve, and to place upon the many burdens which they should
not bear. We favor such an enlargement of the scope of the
Interstate Commerce law as will enable the Commission to
protect individuals and communities from discrimination and
the public from unjust and unfair transportation rates.
"We reaffirm and indorse the principles of the National
Democratic platform adopted at Chicago in 1896 and we
reiterate the demand of that platform for an American
financial system made by the American people for themselves,
which shall restore and maintain a bimetallic price level, and
as part of such system the immediate restoration of the free
and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the present legal
ratio of 16 to 1, without waiting for the aid or consent of
any other nation.
"We denounce the currency bill enacted at the last session of
Congress as a step forward in the Republican policy which aims
to discredit the sovereign right of the National Government to
issue all money, whether coin or paper, and to bestow upon
National banks the power to issue and control the volume of
paper money for their own benefit. A permanent National bank
currency, secured by Government bonds, must have a permanent
debt to rest upon, and, if the bank currency is to increase
with population and business, the debt must also increase. The
Republican currency scheme is, therefore, a scheme for
fastening upon the taxpayers a perpetual and growing debt for
the benefit of the banks. We are opposed to this private
corporation paper circulated as money, but without legal
tender qualities, and demand the retirement of National bank
notes as fast as Government paper or silver certificates can
be substituted for them. We favor an amendment to the Federal
Constitution providing for the election of United States
Senators by direct vote of the people, and we favor direct
legislation wherever practicable. We are opposed to government
by injunction; we denounce the blacklist, and favor
arbitration as a means of settling disputes between
corporations and their employés.
"In the interest of American labor and the upbuilding of the
workingman as the cornerstone of the prosperity of our
country, we recommend that Congress create a Department of
Labor, in charge of a Secretary, with a seat in the Cabinet,
believing that the elevation of the American laborer will
bring with it increased production and increased prosperity to
our country at home and to our commerce abroad. We are proud
of the courage and fidelity of the American soldiers and
sailors in all our wars; we favor liberal pensions to them and
their dependents; and we reiterate the position taken in the
Chicago platform in 1896, that the fact of enlistment and
service shall be deemed conclusive evidence against disease
and disability before enlistment.
"We favor the immediate construction, ownership and control of
the Nicaraguan canal by the United States, and we denounce the
insincerity of the plank in the Republican national platform
for an Isthmian canal, in the face of the failure of the
Republican majority to pass the bill pending in Congress.
"We condemn the Hay-Pauncefote treaty as a surrender of
American rights and interests, not to be tolerated by the
American people.
"We denounce the failure of the Republican party to carry out
its pledges to grant statehood to the territories of Arizona,
New Mexico and Oklahoma, and we promise the people of those
territories immediate statehood, and home rule during their
condition as territories; and we favor home rule and a
territorial form of government for Alaska and Porto Rico.
"We favor an intelligent system of improving the arid lands of
the West, storing the waters for the purposes of irrigation,
and the holding of such lands for actual settlers.
{656}
"We favor the continuance and strict enforcement of the
Chinese exclusion law and its application to the same classes
of all Asiatic races.
"Jefferson said: 'Peace, commerce and honest friendship with
all nations, entangling alliances with none.' We approve this
wholesome doctrine and earnestly protest against the
Republican departure which has involved us in so-called world
politics, including the diplomacy of Europe and the intrigue
and land-grabbing in Asia, and we especially condemn the
ill-concealed Republican alliance with England, which must
mean discrimination against other friendly nations, and which
has already stifled the nation's voice while liberty is being
strangled in Africa.
"Believing in the principles of self-government and rejecting,
as did our forefathers, the claims of monarchy, we view with
indignation the purpose of England to overwhelm with force the
South African Republics. Speaking, as we believe, for the
entire American nation, except its Republican officeholders,
and for all free men everywhere, we extend our sympathy to the
heroic Burghers in their unequal struggle to maintain their
liberty and independence.
"We denounce the lavish appropriations of recent Republican
congresses, which have kept taxes high and which threaten the
perpetuation of the oppressive war levies. We oppose the
accumulation of a surplus to be squandered in such barefaced
frauds upon the taxpayers as the shipping subsidy bill, which,
under the false pretense of fostering American ship-building,
would put unearned millions into the pockets of favorite
contributors to the Republican campaign fund.
"We favor the reduction and speedy repeal of the war taxes,
and a return to the time-honored Democratic policy of strict
economy in governmental expenditures.
"Believing that our most cherished institutions are in great
peril, that the very existence of our constitutional Republic
is at stake, and that the decision now to be rendered will
determine whether or not our children are to enjoy those
blessed privileges of free government which have made the
United States great, prosperous and honored, we earnestly ask
for the foregoing declaration of principles the hearty support
of the liberty-loving American people, regardless of previous
party affiliations."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900.
Silver Republican Platform and Nominations.
The Republicans who broke from their party in 1896 on the
silver question, and supported Mr. Bryan for the presidency,
were still in affiliation with him and his party, but
preserving a distinct organization, assuming the name of
Lincoln Republicans. Simultaneously with that of the Democrats
(July 6), they held a convention at Kansas City, and named Mr.
Bryan as their candidate for President. The nomination for
Vice President was referred to the national committee, which
ultimately placed Mr. Stevenson's name on the Silver
Republican ticket. The platform adopted differed little in
leading principles from that of the Democratic party, except
in the greater emphasis put on the monetary doctrines that
were common to both. It was as follows:
"We, the Silver Republican party, in National Convention
assembled, declare these as our principles and invite the
cooperation of all who agree therewith:
"We recognize that the principles set forth in the Declaration
of Independence are fundamental and everlastingly true in
their applications of governments among men. We believe the
patriotic words of Washington's farewell to be the words of
soberness and wisdom, inspired by the spirit of right and
truth. We treasure the words of Jefferson as priceless gems of
American statesmanship.
"We hold in sacred remembrance the broad philanthropy and
patriotism of Lincoln, who was the great interpreter of
American history and the great apostle of human rights and of
industrial freedom, and we declare, as was declared by the
convention that nominated the great emancipator, that the
maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration
of Independence and embodied in the Federal Constitution,
'that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to
secure these rights governments are instituted among men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,'
is essential to the preservation of our republican
institutions.
"We declare our adherence to the principle of bimetallism as
the right basis of a monetary system under our National
Constitution, a principle that found place repeatedly in
Republican platforms from the demonetization of silver in 1873
to the St. Louis Republican Convention of 1896. Since that
convention a Republican Congress and a Republican President,
at the dictation of the trusts and money power, have passed
and approved a currency bill which in itself is a repudiation
of the doctrine of bimetallism advocated theretofore by the
President and every great leader of his party.
"This currency law destroys the full money power of the silver
dollar, provides for the payment of all government obligations
and the redemption of all forms of paper money in gold alone;
retires the time-honored and patriotic greenbacks,
constituting one-sixth of the money in circulation, and
surrenders to banking corporations a sovereign function of
issuing all paper money, thus enabling these corporations to
control the prices of labor and property by increasing or
diminishing the volume of money in circulation, thus giving
the banks power to create panics and bring disaster upon
business enterprises. The provisions of this currency law
making the bonded debt of the Republic payable in gold alone
change the contract between the Government and the bondholders
to the advantage of the latter, and is in direct opposition to
the declaration of the Matthews resolution passed by Congress
in 1878, for which resolution the present Republican
President, then a member of Congress, voted, as did also all
leading Republicans, both in the House and Senate. We declare
it to be our intention to lend our efforts to the repeal of
this currency law, which not only repudiates the ancient and
time-honored principles of the American people before the
Constitution was adopted, but is violative of the principles
of the Constitution itself, and we shall not cease our efforts
until there has been established in its place a monetary
system based upon the free and unlimited coinage of silver and
gold into money at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1 by the
independent action of the United States, under which system
all paper money shall be issued by the Government and all such
money coined or issued shall be a full legal tender in payment
of all debts, public and private, without exception.
{657}
"We are in favor of a graduated tax upon incomes, and if
necessary to accomplish this we favor an amendment to the
Constitution.
"We believe that United States Senators ought to be elected by
direct vote of the people, and we favor such amendment of the
Constitution and such legislation as may be necessary to that
end.
"We favor the maintenance and the extension wherever
practicable of the merit system in the public service,
appointments to be made according to fitness, competitively
ascertained, and public servants to be retained in office only
so long as shall be compatible with the efficiency of the
service.
"Combinations, trusts, and monopolies contrived and arranged
for the purpose of controlling the prices and quantity of
articles supplied to the public are unjust, unlawful, and
oppressive. Not only do these unlawful conspiracies fix the
prices of commodities in many cases, but they invade every
branch of the State and National Government with their
polluting influence and control the actions of their employés
and dependents in private life until their influence actually
imperils society and the liberty of the citizen. We declare
against them. We demand the most stringent laws for their
destruction and the most severe punishment of their promoters
and maintainers and the energetic enforcement of such laws by
the courts.
"We believe the Monroe doctrine to be sound in principle and a
wise National policy, and we demand a firm adherence thereto.
We condemn acts inconsistent with it and that tend to make us
parties to the interests and to involve us in the
controversies of European nations and to recognition by
pending treaty of the right of England to be considered in the
construction of an interoceanic canal. We declare that such
canal, when constructed, ought to be controlled by the United
States in the interests of American nations.
"We observe with anxiety and regard with disapproval the
increasing ownership of American lands by aliens and their
growing control over our international transportation, natural
resources, and public utilities. We demand legislation to
protect our public domain, our natural resources, our
franchises, and our internal commerce and to keep them free
and maintain their independence of all foreign monopolies,
institutions, and influences, and we declare our opposition to
the leasing of the public lands of the United States whereby
corporations and syndicates will be able to secure control
thereof and thus monopolize the public domain, the heritage of
the people.
"We are in favor of the principles of direct legislation. In
view of the great sacrifice made and patriotic services
rendered we are in favor of liberal pensions to deserving
soldiers, their widows, orphans, and other dependents. We
believe that enlistment and service should be accepted as
conclusive proof that the soldier was free from disease and
disability at the time of his enlistment. We condemn the
present administration of the pension laws.
"We tender to the patriotic people of the South African
Republics our sympathy and express our admiration for them in
their heroic attempts to preserve their political freedom and
maintain their national independence. We declare the
destruction of these republics and the subjugation of their
people to be a crime against civilization. We believe this
sympathy should have been voiced by the American Congress, as
was done in the case of the French, the Greeks, the
Hungarians, the Poles, the Armenians, and the Cubans, and as
the traditions of this country would have dictated. We declare
the Porto Rican Tariff law to be not only a serious but a
dangerous departure from the principles of our form of
government. We believe in a republican form of government and
are opposed to monarchy and to the whole theory of
imperialistic control.
"We believe in self-government—a government by the consent of
the governed—and are unalterably opposed to a government based
upon force. It is clear and certain that the inhabitants of
the Philippine Archipelago cannot be made citizens of the
United States without endangering our civilization. We are,
therefore, in favor of applying to the Philippine Archipelago
the principle we are solemnly and publicly pledged to observe
in the case of Cuba.
"There no longer being any necessity for collecting war taxes,
we demand the repeal of the war taxes levied to carry on the
war with Spain.
"We favor the immediate admission into the union of States the
Territories of Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.
"We demand that our nation's promises to Cuba shall be
fulfilled in every particular.
"We believe the National Government should lend every aid,
encouragement, and assistance toward the reclamation of the
arid lands of the United States, and to that end we are in
favor of a comprehensive survey thereof and an immediate
ascertainment of the water supply available for such
reclamation, and we believe it to be the duty of the General
Government to provide for the construction of storage
reservoirs and irrigation works so that the water supply of
the arid region may be utilized to the greatest possible
extent in the interests of the people, while preserving all
rights of the State.
"Transportation is a public necessity and the means and
methods of it are matters of public concern. Railway companies
exercise a power over industries, business, and commerce which
they ought not to do, and should be made to serve the public
interests without making unreasonable charges or unjust
discriminations.
"We observe with satisfaction the growing sentiment among the
people in favor of the public ownership and operation of
public utilities.
"We are in favor of expanding our commerce in the interests of
American labor and for the benefit of all our people by every
honest and peaceful means. Our creed and our history justify
the nations of the earth in expecting that wherever the
American flag is unfurled in authority human liberty and
political liberty will be found. We protest against the
adoption of any policy that will change in the thought of the
world the meaning of our flag.
"We are opposed to the importation of Asiatic laborers in
competition with American labor, and favor a more rigid
enforcement of the laws relating thereto.
"The Silver Republican party of the United States, in the
foregoing principles, seeks to perpetuate the spirit and to
adhere to the teachings of Abraham Lincoln."
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900.
Platform of the American League of Anti-Imperialists.
Republicans and others opposed to a policy of conquest, and to
the government of people, not as citizens, but as subjects of
the Republic of the United States, and who wished to make that
opposition distinct and emphatic in the presidential canvass,
met in convention at Indianapolis, on the 16th of August, as
the "Liberty Congress of the American League of
Anti-Imperialists." One party among them thought the best
demonstration of public opinion on this issue could be
obtained by the nomination of a third ticket; while another
and larger party deemed it expedient to indorse the candidacy
of William J. Bryan, as a pronounced opponent of the imperial
policy. The views of the latter prevailed, and the indorsement
of Mr. Bryan was carried in the convention; but many of the
former refused submission to the vote of the majority, and
subsequently held a Third Party convention at New York (see
below). The Indianapolis Declaration was as follows:
"This Liberty Congress of Anti-Imperialists recognizes a great
National crisis, which menaces the Republic, upon whose future
depends in such large measure the hope of freedom throughout
the world. For the first time in our country's history the
President has undertaken to subjugate a foreign people and to
rule them by despotic power. He has thrown the protection of
the flag over slavery and polygamy in the Sulu Islands. He has
arrogated to himself the power to impose upon the inhabitants
of the Philippines government without their consent and
taxation without representation. He is waging war upon them
for asserting the very principles for the maintenance of which
our forefathers pledged their lives, their fortunes and their
sacred honor. He claims for himself and Congress authority to
govern the territories of the United States without
constitutional restraint.
"We believe in the Declaration of Independence. Its truths,
not less self-evident to-day than when first announced by our
fathers, are of universal application and cannot be abandoned
while government by the people endures.
"We believe in the Constitution of the United States. It gives
the President and Congress certain limited powers and secures
to every man within the jurisdiction of our Government certain
essential rights. We deny that either the President or
Congress can govern any person anywhere outside the
Constitution.
"We are absolutely opposed to the policy of President
McKinley, which proposes to govern millions of men without
their consent, which in Porto Rico establishes taxation
without representation, and government by the arbitrary will
of a legislature unfettered by constitutional restraint, and
in the Philippines prosecutes a war of conquest and demands
unconditional surrender from a people who are of right free
and independent. The struggle of men for freedom has ever been
a struggle for constitutional liberty. There is no liberty if
the citizen has no right which the Legislature may not invade,
if he may be taxed by the Legislature in which he is not
represented, or if he is not protected by fundamental law
against the arbitrary action of executive power. The policy of
the President offers the inhabitants of Porto Rico, Hawaii and
the Philippines no hope of independence, no prospect of
American citizenship, no constitutional protection, no
representation in the Congress which taxes them. This is the
government of men by arbitrary power without their consent.
This is imperialism. There is no room under the free flag of
America for subjects. The President and Congress, who derive
all their powers from the Constitution, can govern no man
without regard to its limitations.
"We believe the greatest safeguard of liberty is a free press,
and we demand that the censorship in the Philippines, which
keeps from the American people the knowledge of what is done
in their name, be abolished. We are entitled to know the
truth, and we insist that the powers which the President holds
in trust for us shall not be used to suppress it.
"Because we thus believe, we oppose the reelection of Mr.
McKinley. The supreme purpose of the people in this momentous
campaign should be to stamp with their final disapproval his
attempt to grasp imperial power. A self-governing people can
have no more imperative duty than to drive from public life a
Chief Magistrate who, whether in weakness or of wicked
purpose, has used his temporary authority to subvert the
character of their government and to destroy their National
ideals.
"We, therefore, in the belief that it is essential at this
crisis for the American people again to declare their faith in
the universal application of the Declaration of Independence
and to reassert their will that their servants shall not have
or exercise any powers whatever other than those conferred by
the Constitution, earnestly make the following recommendations
to our countrymen:
"First, that, without regard to their views on minor questions
of domestic policy, they withhold their votes from Mr.
McKinley, in order to stamp with their disapproval what he has
done.
"Second, that they vote for those candidates for Congress in
their respective districts who will oppose the policy of
imperialism.
"Third, while we welcome any other method of opposing the
re-election of Mr. McKinley we advise direct support of Mr.
Bryan as the most effective means of crushing imperialism. We
are convinced of Mr. Bryan's sincerity and of his earnest
purpose to secure to the Filipinos their independence. His
position and the declarations contained in the platform of his
party on the vital issue of the campaign meet our unqualified
approval.
"We recommend that the Executive committees of the American
Anti-Imperialist League and its allied leagues continue and
extend their organizations, preserving the independence of the
movement; and that they take the most active part possible in
the pending political campaign.
"Until now the policy which has turned the Filipinos from warm
friends to bitter enemies, which has slaughtered thousands of
them and laid waste their country, has been the policy of the
President. After the next election it becomes the policy of
every man who votes to re-elect him and who thus becomes with
him responsible for every drop of blood thereafter shed.
"In declaring that the principles of the Declaration of
Independence apply to all men, this Congress means to include
the negro race in America as well as the Filipinos. We
deprecate all efforts, whether in the South or in the North,
to deprive the negro of his rights as a citizen under the
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United
States."
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900.
The "Third Party" Anti-Imperialist Platform and Nominations.
The Anti-Imperialists who desired a Third Party ticket in the
field, called a convention which met in the city of New York,
September 5, and put in nomination for President and Vice
President Senator Donelson Caffery, of Louisiana, and
Archibald Murray Howe, of Massachusetts. The name "National
Party" was assumed, and its "aims and purposes" were thus
declared:
"We find our country threatened with alternative perils. On
the one hand is a public opinion misled by organized forces of
commercialism, that have perverted a war intended by the
people to be a war of humanity into a war of conquest. On the
other is a public opinion swayed by demagogic appeals to
factional and class passions, the most fatal of diseases to a
republic. We believe that either of these influences, if
unchecked, would ultimately compass the downfall of our
country, but we also believe that neither represents the sober
conviction of our countrymen. Convinced that the extension of
the jurisdiction of the United States for the purpose of
holding foreign people as colonial dependents is an innovation
dangerous to our liberties and repugnant to the principles
upon which our Government is founded, we pledge our earnest
efforts through all constitutional means:
"First, to procure the renunciation of all imperial or
colonial pretensions with regard to foreign countries claimed
to have been acquired through or in consequence of military or
naval operations of the last two years.
"Second, we further pledge our efforts to secure a single gold
standard and a sound banking system.
"Third, to secure a public service based on merit only.
"Fourth, to secure the abolition of all corrupting special
privileges, whether under the guise of subsidies, bounties,
undeserved pensions or trust breeding tariffs."
Within a few weeks after the holding of this convention,
Senator Caffery and Mr. Howe withdrew their names from the
canvass, and it was decided to appoint electors-at-large in as
many states as possible, to receive the votes of those
supporting the movement.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900.
Social Democratic Party Platform and Nominations.
The last distinct movement of organization for the
presidential election was that of a "Social Democratic Party,"
whose convention, at Chicago, September 29, placed Eugene V.
Debs, of Illinois, in nomination for President, and Job
Harriman, of California, for Vice President, on principles
declared as follows:
"The Social Democratic party of America declares that life,
liberty, and happiness depend upon equal political and
economic rights.
"In our economic development an industrial revolution has
taken place, the individual tool of former years having become
the social tool of the present. The individual tool was owned
by the worker, who employed himself and was master of his
product. The social tool, the machine, is owned by the
capitalist, and the worker is dependent upon him for
employment. The capitalist thus becomes the master of the
worker, and is able to appropriate to himself a large share of
the product of his labor.
"Capitalism, the private ownership of the means of production,
is responsible for the insecurity of subsistence, the poverty,
misery, and degradation of the ever-growing majority of our
people; but the same economic forces which have produced and
now intensify the capitalist system will necessitate the
adoption of Socialism, the collective ownership of the means
of production for the common good and welfare.
"The present system of social production and private ownership
is rapidly converting society into two antagonistic classes—i.
e., the capitalist class and the propertyless class. The
middle class, once the most powerful of this great nation, is
disappearing in the mill of competition. The issue is now
between the two classes first named. Our political liberty is
now of little value to the masses unless used to acquire
economic liberty. Independent political action and the
trade-union movement are the chief emancipating factors of the
working class, the one representing its political, the other
its economic wing, and both must cooperate to abolish the
capitalist system.
"Therefore, the Social Democratic party of America declares
its object to be:
"First—The organization of the working class into a political
party to conquer the public powers now controlled by
capitalists.
"Second—The abolition of wage-slavery by the establishment of
a National system of cooperative industry, based upon the
social or common ownership of the means of production and
distribution, to be administered by society in the common
interest of all its members, and the complete emancipation of
the socially useful classes from the domination of capitalism.
"The working class and all those in sympathy with their
historic mission to realize a higher civilization should sever
connection with all capitalist and reform parties and unite
with the Social Democratic party of America. The control of
political power by the Social Democratic party will be
tantamount to the abolition of all class rule. The solidarity
of labor connecting the millions of class-conscious
fellow-workers throughout the civilized world will lead to
international Socialism, the brotherhood of man.
"As steps in that direction, we make the following demands:
"First-Revision of our Federal Constitution, in order to
remove the obstacles to complete control of government by the
people irrespective of sex.
"Second—The public ownership of all industries controlled by
monopolies, trusts, and combines.
"Third—The public ownership of all railroads, telegraphs, and
telephones; all means of transportation and communication; all
water-works, gas and electric plants, and other public
utilities.
"Fourth—The public ownership of all gold, silver, copper,
lead, iron, coal, and other mines, and all oil and gas wells.
"Fifth—The reduction of the hours of labor in proportion to
the increasing facilities of production.
{660}
"Sixth—The inauguration of a system of public works and
improvements for the employment of the unemployed, the public
credit to be utilized for that purpose.
"Seventh—Useful inventions to be free, the inventor to be
remunerated by the public.
"Eighth—Labor legislation to be National instead of local, and
international when possible.
"Ninth—National insurance of working people against
accidents, lack of employment, and want in old age.
"Tenth—Equal civil and political rights for men and women, and
the abolition of all laws discriminating against women.
"Eleventh—The adoption of the initiative and referendum,
proportional representation, and the right of recall of
representatives by the voters.
"Twelfth—Abolition of war and the introduction of
international arbitration."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900.
The Canvass and Election.
The canvass preceding the election was much less excited than
that of 1896. The confusion of issues greatly lessened the
intensity with which they were discussed. Mr. Bryan again took
the field in person, travelling widely through all parts of
the country, making great numbers of speeches to immense
audiences everywhere; and Governor Roosevelt did the same on
the Republican side, to a somewhat less extent.
The election, which occurred on the 6th of November, was
conducted with the quiet order that is rarely broken at such
times in America. About fourteen millions of votes were cast,
of which, according to the returns compiled for the Tribune
Almanac,
President McKinley received 7,214,027,
and Bryan, 6,342,514.
For the Prohibition ticket, 197,112 votes were cast;
for the Socialist Labor ticket, 32,433;
for the Social Democratic ticket, 82,904;
and 78,444 votes were scuttered among other candidates.
The States carried for McKinley were:
California, giving 9 electoral votes;
Connecticut, 6;
Delaware, 3;
Illinois, 24;
Indiana, 15;
Iowa, 13;
Kansas, 10;
Maine, 6;
Maryland, 8;
Massachusetts, 15;
Michigan, 14;
Minnesota, 9;
Nebraska, 8;
New Hampshire, 4;
New Jersey, 10;
New York, 36;
North Dakota, 3;
Ohio, 23;
Oregon, 4;
Pennsylvania, 32;
Rhode Island, 4;
South Dakota, 4;
Utah, 3;
Vermont, 4;
Washington, 4;
West Virginia, 6;
Wisconsin, 12;
Wyoming, 3;
Total, 292.
For Bryan, the electoral votes of the following States
were given:
Alabama, 11;
Arkansas, 8;
Colorado, 4;
Florida, 4;
Georgia, 13;
Idaho, 3;
Kentucky, 13;
Louisiana, 8;
Mississippi, 9;
Missouri, 17;
Montana, 3;
Nevada, 3;
North Carolina, 11;
South Carolina, 9;
Tennessee, 12;
Texas, 15;
Virginia, 12;
Total, 155.
President McKinley was re-elected by a majority of 137 votes
in the Electoral College, and by a majority of nearly half a
million of the popular vote.
" The popular vote for President shows three interesting
things:
"(1) Many men of each party abstained from voting, for the
total was only 45,132 greater than in 1896, whereas the
increase in population adds about a million to the electorate
every four years. The total vote last year was 13,970,234. Mr.
McKinley received only about 100,000 more than in 1896, and
Mr. Bryan 130,000 less. Many men in each party, then, were
dissatisfied with their candidate and platform.
"(2) Mr. Bryan's largest gains were in New England, because of
the anti-Imperialistic feeling, and in New York and New Jersey
and Illinois, because of a milder fear of financial
disturbance; and his losses were greatest in Utah, in
Colorado, and in the Pacific States, an indication of better
times and of less faith in free silver.
"(3) Twelve Southern States cast a smaller vote than in 1896,
partly because of the elimination of the Negroes, and partly
because many Gold Democrats abstained from voting."
The World's Work, February, 1901.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900.
The Democratic candidate on "Imperialism."
The issue which ought to have been supreme in the Presidential
election, because fundamental principles of government and
lasting consequences of policy were bound up in it, but which
was unhappily confused by prevailing anxieties in the
sensitive region of commercial and industrial affairs, is more
broadly and adequately defined in the declarations of the two
leading candidates, on their formal acceptance of nominations
by the Democratic and Republican parties, than it is in the
party platforms quoted above. The first to speak was Mr.
Bryan. Responding to the committee which notified him of his
nomination, at Indianapolis, ou the 8th of August, he devoted
the greater part of his remarks to the policy of colonial
acquisition on which the government had been embarked. The
following passages are fairly representative of the view taken
by those who condemned what they termed "imperialism," in the
undertaking of the government of the American Republic to
impose its sovereignty upon the people of the Philippine
Islands, and to hold their country as a "possession:"
"When the president, supported by a practically unanimous vote
of the House and Senate, entered upon a war with Spain for the
purpose of aiding the struggling patriots of Cuba, the
country, without regard to party, applauded. Although the
Democrats realized that the administration would necessarily
gain a political advantage from the conduct of a war which in
the very nature of the case must soon end in a complete
victory, they vied with the Republicans in the support which
they gave to the President. When the war was over and the
Republican leaders began to suggest the propriety of a
colonial policy, opposition at once manifested itself.
"When the President finally laid before the Senate a treaty
which recognized the independence of Cuba, but provided for
the cession of the Philippine Islands to the United States,
the menace of imperialism became so apparent that many
preferred to reject the treaty and risk the ills that might
follow rather than take the chance of correcting the errors of
the treaty by the independent action of this country. I was
among the number of those who believed it better to ratify the
treaty and end the war, release the volunteers, remove the
excuse for war expenditures, and then give the Filipinos the
independence which might be forced from Spain by a new treaty.
… The title of Spain being extinguished we were at liberty to
deal with the Filipinos according to American principles. The
Bacon resolution, introduced a mouth before hostilities broke
out at Manila, promised independence to the Filipinos on the
same terms that it was promised to the Cubans.
{661}
I supported this resolution and believe that its adoption
prior to the breaking out of hostilities would have prevented
bloodshed, and that its adoption at any subsequent time would
have ended hostilities. … If the Bacon resolution had been
adopted by the Senate and carried out by the President, either
at the time of the ratification of the treaty or at any time
afterwards, it would have taken the question of imperialism
out of politics and left the American people free to deal with
their domestic problems. But the resolution was defeated by
the vote of the Republican Vice-President, and from that time
to this a Republican Congress has refused to take any action
whatever in the matter.
"When hostilities broke out at Manila, Republican speakers and
Republican editors at once sought to lay the blame upon those
who had delayed the ratification of the treaty, and, during
the progress of the war, the same Republicans have accused the
opponents of imperialism of giving encouragement to the
Filipinos. …
"The Filipinos do not need any encouragement from Americans
now living. Our whole history has been an encouragement, not
only to the Filipinos, but to all who are denied a voice in
their own government. If the Republicans are prepared to
censure all who have used language calculated to make the
Filipinos hate foreign domination, let them condemn the speech
of Patrick Henry. When he uttered that passionate appeal,
'Give me liberty or give me death,' he expressed a sentiment
which still echoes in the hearts of men. Let them censure
Jefferson; of all the statesmen of history none have used
words so offensive to those who would hold their fellows in
political bondage. Let them censure Washington, who declared
that the colonists must choose between liberty and slavery.
Or, if the statute of limitations has run against the sins of
Henry and Jefferson and Washington, let them censure Lincoln,
whose Gettysburg speech will be quoted in defense of popular
government when the present advocates of force and conquest
are forgotten. … If it were possible to obliterate every word
written or spoken in defense of the principles set forth in
the Declaration of Independence, a war of conquest would still
leave its legacy of perpetual hatred, for it was God himself
who placed in every human heart the love of liberty. He never
made a race of people so low in the scale of civilization or
intelligence that it would welcome a foreign master.
"Those who would have this nation enter upon a career of
empire must, consider not only the effect of imperialism on
the Filipinos, but they must also calculate its effects upon
our own nation. We cannot repudiate the principle of
self-government in the Philippines without weakening that
principle here. …
"Our opponents, conscious of the weakness of their cause, seek
to confuse imperialism with expansion, and have even dared to
claim Jefferson as a supporter of their policy. Jefferson
spoke so freely and used language with such precision that no
one can be ignorant of his views. On one occasion he declared:
'If there be one principle more deeply rooted than any other
in the mind of every American, it is that we should have
nothing to do with conquest.' And again he said: 'Conquest is
not in our principles; it is inconsistent with our
government.' The forcible annexation of territory to be
governed by arbitrary power differs as much from the
acquisition of territory to be built up into states as a
monarchy differs from a democracy. The Democratic party does
not oppose expansion when expansion enlarges the area of the
Republic and incorporates land which can be settled by
American citizens, or adds to our population people who are
willing to become citizens and are capable of discharging
their duties as such. …
"A colonial policy means that we shall send to the Philippine
Islands a few traders, a few taskmasters and a few
officeholders and an army large enough to support the
authority of a small fraction of the people while they rule
the natives. If we have an imperial policy we must have a
great standing army as its natural and necessary complement.
The spirit which will justify the forcible annexation of the
Philippine Islands will justify the seizure of other islands
and the domination of other people, and with wars of conquest
we can expect a certain, if not rapid, growth of our military
establishment. …
"The Republican platform assumes that the Philippine Islands
will be retained under American sovereignty, and we have a
right to demand of the Republican leaders a discussion of the
future status of the Filipino. Is he to be a citizen or a
subject? Are we to bring into the body politic eight or ten
million Asiatics, so different from us in race and history
that amalgamation is impossible? Are they to share with us in
making the laws and shaping the destiny of this nation? No
Republican of prominence has been bold enough to advocate such
a proposition. The McEnery resolution, adopted by the Senate
immediately after the ratification of the treaty, expressly
negatives this idea. The Democratic platform describes the
situation when it says that the Filipinos cannot be citizens
without endangering our civilization. Who will dispute it? And
what is the alternative? If the Filipino is not to be a
citizen, shall we make him a subject? On that question the
Democratic platform speaks with equal emphasis. It declares
that the Filipino cannot be a subject without endangering our
form of government. A Republic can have no subjects. A subject
is possible only in a government resting upon force; he is
unknown in a government deriving its just powers from the
consent of the governed. "The Republican platform says that
'the largest measure of self-government consistent with their
welfare and our duties shall be secured to them (the
Filipinos) by law.' This is a strange doctrine for a
government which owes its very existence to the men who
offered their lives as a protest against government without
consent and taxation without representation. In what respect
does the position of the Republican party differ from the
position taken by the English government in 1776? Did not the
English government promise a good government to the colonists?
What king ever promised a bad government to his people? Did
not the English government promise that the colonists should
have the largest measure of self-government consistent with
their welfare and English duties? Did not the Spanish
government promise to give to the Cubans the largest measure
of self-government consistent with their welfare and Spanish
duties? The whole difference between a Monarchy and a Republic
may be summed up in one sentence. In a Monarchy the King gives
to the people what he believes to be a good government; in a
Republic the people secure for themselves what they believe to
be a good government. …
{662}
"The Republican platform promises that some measure of
self-government is to be given the Filipinos by law; but even
this pledge is not fulfilled. Nearly sixteen months elapsed
after the ratification of the treaty before the adjournment of
Congress last June, and yet no law was passed dealing with the
Philippine situation. The will of the President has been the
only law in the Philippine Islands wherever the American
authority extends. Why does the Republican party hesitate to
legislate upon the Philippine question? Because a law would
disclose the radical departure from history and precedent
contemplated by those who control the Republican party. The
storm of protest which greeted the Porto Rican bill was an
indication of what may be expected when the American people
are brought face to face with legislation upon this subject.
If the Porto Ricans, who welcomed annexation, are to be denied
the guarantees of our Constitution, what is to be the lot of
the Filipinos, who resisted our authority? If secret
influences could compel a disregard of our plain duty toward
friendly people, living near our shores, what treatment will
those same influences provide for unfriendly people 7,000
miles away? …
"Is the sunlight of full citizenship to be enjoyed by the
people of the United States, and the twilight of
semi-citizenship endured by the people of Porto Rico, while
the thick darkness of perpetual vassalage covers the
Philippines? The Porto Rico tariff law asserts the doctrine
that the operation of the Constitution is confined to the
forty-five States. The Democratic party disputes this doctrine
and denounces it as repugnant to both the letter and spirit of
our organic law. There is no place in our system of government
for the deposit of arbitrary and irresponsible power. That the
leaders of a great party should claim for any President or
Congress the right to treat millions of people as mere
'possessions' and deal with them unrestrained by the
Constitution or the bill of rights, shows how far we have
already departed from the ancient landmarks and indicates what
may be expected if this nation deliberately enters upon a
career of empire.
"The territorial form of government is temporary and
preparatory, and the chief security a citizen of a territory
has is found in the fact that he enjoys the same
constitutional guarantees and is subject to the same general
laws as the citizen of a state. Take away this security and
his rights will be violated and his interests sacrificed at
the demand of those who have political influence. This is the
evil of the colonial system, no matter by what nation it is
applied. …
"Let us consider briefly the reasons which have been given in
support of an imperialistic policy. Some say that it is our
duty to hold the Philippine Islands. But duty is not an
argument; it is a conclusion. To ascertain what our duty is,
in any emergency, we must apply well settled and generally
accepted principles. It is our duty to avoid stealing, no
matter whether the thing to be stolen is of great or little
value. It is our duty to avoid killing a human being, no
matter where the human being lives or to what race or class he
belongs. …
"It is said that we have assumed before the world obligations
which make it necessary for us to permanently maintain a
government in the Philippine Islands. I reply, first, that the
highest obligation of this nation is to be true to itself. No
obligation to any particular nations, or to all the nations
combined, can require the abandonment of our theory of
government, and the substitution of doctrines against which
our whole national life has been a protest. And, second, that
our obligation to the Filipinos, who inhabit the islands, is
greater than any obligation which we can owe to foreigners who
have a temporary residence in the Philippines or desire to
trade there. It is argued by some that the Filipinos are
incapable of self-government and that, therefore, we owe it to
the world to take control of them. Admiral Dewey, in an
official report to the Navy Department, declared the Filipinos
more capable of self-government than the Cubans, and said that
he based his opinion upon a knowledge of both races. …
"Republicans ask, 'Shall we haul down the flag that floats
over our dead in the Philippines?' The same question might
have been asked when the American flag floated over
Chapultepec and waved over the dead who fell there; but the
tourist who visits the City of Mexico finds there a national
cemetery owned by the United States and cared for by an
American citizen. Our flag still floats over our dead, but
when the treaty with Mexico was signed American authority
withdrew to the Rio Grande, and I venture the opinion that
during the last fifty years the people of Mexico have made
more progress under the stimulus of independence and
self-government than they would have made under a carpet-bag
government held in place by bayonets. The United States and
Mexico, friendly republics, are each stronger and happier than
they would have been had the former been cursed and the latter
crushed by an imperialistic policy disguised as 'benevolent
assimilation.'
"'Can we not govern colonies?', we are asked. The question is
not what we can do, but what we ought to do. This nation can
do whatever it desires to do, but it must accept
responsibility for what it does. If the Constitution stands in
the way, the people can amend the Constitution. I repeat, the
nation can do whatever it desires to do, but it cannot avoid
the natural and legitimate results of its own conduct. …
"Some argue that American rule in the Philippine Islands will
result in the better education of the Filipinos. Be not
deceived. If we expect to maintain a colonial policy, we shall
not find it to our advantage to educate the people. The
educated Filipinos are now in revolt against us, and the most
ignorant ones have made the least resistance to our
domination. If we are to govern them without their consent and
give them no voice in determining the taxes which they must
pay, we dare not educate them, lest they learn to read the
Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United
States and mock us for our inconsistency. The principal
arguments, however, advanced by those who enter upon a defense
of imperialism are:
"First—That we must improve the present opportunity to become
a world power and enter into international politics.
{663}
"Second—That our commercial interests in the Philippine
Islands and in the Orient make it necessary for us to hold the
islands permanently.
"Third—That the spread of the Christian religion will be
facilitated by a colonial policy.
"Fourth—That there is no honorable retreat from the position
which the nation has taken.
"The first argument is addressed to the nation's pride and the
second to the nation's pocket-book. The third is intended for
the church member and the fourth for the partisan. It is
sufficient answer to the first argument to say that for more
than a century this nation has been a world power. For ten
decades it has been the most potent influence in the world.
Not only has it been a world power, but it has done more to
affect the politics of the human race than all the other
nations of the world combined. Because our Declaration of
Independence was promulgated others have been promulgated.
Because the patriots of 1776 fought for liberty, others have
fought for it. Because our Constitution was adopted, other
constitutions have been adopted. The growth of the principle
of self-government, planted on American soil, has been the
overshadowing political fact of the nineteenth century. It has
made this nation conspicuous among the nations and given it a
place in history such as no other nation has ever enjoyed.
Nothing has been able to check the onward march of this idea.
I am not willing that this nation shall cast aside the
omnipotent weapon of truth to seize again the weapons of
physical warfare. I would not exchange the glory of this
Republic for the glory of all the empires that have risen and
fallen since time began.
"The permanent chairman of the last Republican National
Convention presented the pecuniary argument in all its
baldness when he said: 'We make no hypocritical pretense of
being interested in the Philippines solely on account of
others. While we regard the welfare of those people as a
sacred trust, we regard the welfare of the American people
first. We see our duty to ourselves as well as to others. We
believe in trade expansion. By every legitimate means within
the province of government and constitution we mean to
stimulate the expansion of our trade and open new markets.'
This is the commercial argument. It is based upon the theory
that war can be rightly waged for pecuniary advantage, and
that it is profitable to purchase trade by force and violence.
… The Democratic party is in favor of the expansion of trade.
It would extend our trade by every legitimate and peaceful
means; but it is not willing to make merchandise of human
blood. But a war of conquest is as unwise as it is
unrighteous. A harbor and coaling station in the Philippines
would answer every trade and military necessity, and such a
concession could have been secured at any time without
difficulty.
"It is not necessary to own people in order to trade with
them. We carry on trade to-day with every part of the world,
and our commerce has expanded more rapidly than the commerce
of any European empire. We do not own Japan or China, but we
trade with their people. We have not absorbed the republics of
Central and South America, but we trade with them. It has not
been necessary to have any political connection with Canada or
the nations of Europe in order to trade with them. Trade
cannot be permanently profitable unless it is voluntary. …
"Imperialism would be profitable to the army contractors; it
would be profitable to the ship-owners, who would carry live
soldiers to the Philippines and bring dead soldiers back; it
would be profitable to those who would seize upon the
franchises, and it would be profitable to the officials whose
salaries would be fixed here and paid over there; but to the
farmer, to the laboring man and to the vast majority of those
engaged in other occupations it would bring expenditure
without return and risk without reward.
"The pecuniary argument, though more effective with certain
classes, is not likely to be used so often or presented with
so much enthusiasm as the religious argument. If what has been
termed the 'gunpowder gospel' were urged against the Filipinos
only, it would be a sufficient answer to say that a majority
of the Filipinos are now members of one branch of the
Christian church; but the principle involved is one of much
wider application and challenges serious consideration. The
religious argument varies in positiveness, from a passive
belief that Providence delivered the Filipinos into our hands
for their good and our glory, to the exultation of the
minister who said that we ought to 'thrash the natives
(Filipinos) until they understand who we are,' and that 'every
bullet sent, every cannon shot and every flag waved, means
righteousness.' … If true Christianity consists in carrying
out in our daily lives the teachings of Christ, who will say
that we are commanded to civilize with dynamite and proselyte
with the sword? …
"Love, not force, was the weapon of the Nazarene; sacrifice
for others, not the exploitation of them, was His method of
reaching the human heart. A missionary recently told me that
the Stars and Stripes once saved his life because his
assailant recognized our flag as a flag that had no blood upon
it. Let it be known that our missionaries are seeking souls
instead of sovereignty; let it be known that instead of being
the advance guard of conquering armies, they are going forth
to help and uplift, having their loins girt about with truth
and their feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of
peace, wearing the breastplate of righteousness and carrying
the sword of the spirit; let it be known that they are
citizens of a nation which respects the rights of the citizens
of other nations as carefully as it protects the rights of its
own citizens, and the welcome given to our missionaries will
be more cordial than the welcome extended to the missionaries
of any other nation.
"The argument made by some that it was unfortunate for the
nation that it had anything to do with the Philippine Islands,
but that the naval victory at Manila made the permanent
acquisition of those islands necessary, is also unsound. We
won a naval victory at Santiago, but that did not compel us to
hold Cuba. The shedding of American blood in the Philippine
Islands does not make it imperative that we should retain
possession forever. American blood was shed at San Juan Hill
and El Caney, and yet the President has promised the Cubans
independence. The fact that the American flag floats over
Manila does not compel us to exercise perpetual sovereignty
over the islands; the American flag waves over Havana to-day,
but the President has promised to haul it down when the flag
of the Cuban Republic is ready to rise in its place. Better a
thousand times that our flag in the Orient give way to a flag
representing the idea of self-government than that the flag of
this Republic should become the flag of an empire.
{664}
"There is an easy, honest, honorable solution of the
Philippine question. It is set forth in the Democratic
platform, and it is submitted with confidence to the American
people. This plan I unreservedly indorse. If elected, I will
convene congress in extraordinary session as soon as
inaugurated and recommend an immediate declaration of the
nation's purpose, first, to establish a stable form of
government in the Philippine Islands, just as we are now
establishing a stable form of government in Cuba; second, to
give independence to the Cubans; third, to protect the
Filipinos from outside interference while they work out their
destiny, just as we have protected the republics of Central
and South America, and are, by the Monroe doctrine, pledged to
protect Cuba."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900.
The Republican candidate on the same subject.
The answer of the party controlling the government to the
impeachment of its policy of colonial acquisition, and
especially of its conduct in the Philippine Islands, was given
by Mr. McKinley, in a letter of acceptance, addressed,
September 8, to the committee which gave him formal notice of
his renomination by the Republican convention. After
rehearsing at considerable length the events which preceded,
attended and followed the capture of Manila, he continued:
"Would not our adversaries have sent Dewey's fleet to Manila
to capture and destroy the Spanish sea power there, or,
dispatching it there, would they have withdrawn it after the
destruction of the Spanish fleet; and, if the latter, whither
would they have directed it to sail? Where could it have gone?
What port in the Orient was opened to it? Do our adversaries
condemn the expedition under the command of General Merritt to
strengthen Dewey in the distant ocean and assist in our
triumph over Spain, with which nation we were at war? Was it
not our highest duty to strike Spain at every vulnerable
point, that the war might be successfully concluded at the
earliest practicable moment? And was it not our duty to
protect the lives and property of those who came within our
control by the fortunes of war? Could we have come away at any
time between May 1, 1898, and the conclusion of peace without a
stain upon our good name? Could we have come away without
dishonor at any time after the ratification of the peace
treaty by the Senate of the United States? There has been no
time since the destruction of the enemy's fleet when we could
or should have left the Philippine Archipelago. After the
treaty of peace was ratified, no power but Congress could
surrender our sovereignty or alienate a foot of the territory
thus acquired. The Congress has not seen fit to do the one or
the other, and the President had no authority to do either, if
he had been so inclined, which he was not. So long as the
sovereignty remains in us it is the duty of the Executive,
whoever he may be, to uphold that sovereignty, and if it be
attacked to suppress its assailants. Would our political
adversaries do less?
"It has been asserted that there would have been no fighting
in the Philippines if Congress had declared its purpose to
give independence to the Tagal insurgents. The insurgents did
not wait for the action of Congress. They assumed the
offensive; they opened fire on our Army. Those who assert our
responsibility for the beginning of the conflict have
forgotten that, before the treaty was ratified in the Senate,
and while it was being debated in that body and while the
Bacon resolution was under discussion, on February 4, 1899,
the insurgents attacked the American Army, after being
previously advised that the American forces were under orders
not to fire upon them except in defense. The papers found in
the recently captured archives of the insurgents demonstrate
that this attack had been carefully planned for weeks before
it occurred. This unprovoked assault upon our soldiers at a
time when the Senate was deliberating upon the treaty shows
that no action on our part, except surrender and abandonment,
would have prevented the fighting, and leaves no doubt in any
fair mind of where the responsibility rests for the shedding
of American blood.
"With all the exaggerated phrase-making of this electoral
contest, we are in danger of being diverted from the real
contention. We are in agreement with all of those who
supported the war with Spain and also with those who counseled
the ratification of the treaty of peace. Upon these two great
essential steps there can be no issue and out of these came
all of our responsibilities. If others would shirk the
obligations imposed by the war and the treaty, we must decline
to act further with them, and here the issue was made. It is our
purpose to establish in the Philippines a government suitable
to the wants and conditions of the inhabitants and to prepare
them for self-government when they are ready for it and as
rapidly as they are ready for it. That I am aiming to do under
my Constitutional authority, and will continue to do until
Congress shall determine the political status of the
inhabitants of the archipelago.
"Are our opponents against the treaty? If so, they must be
reminded that it could not have been ratified in the Senate
but for their assistance. The Senate which ratified the treaty
and the Congress which added its sanction by a large
approbation comprised Senators and Representatives of the
people of all parties. Would our opponents surrender to the
insurgents, abandon our sovereignty or cede it to them? If
that be not their purpose, then it should be promptly
disclaimed, for only evil can result from the hopes raised by
our opponents in the minds of the Filipinos, that with their
success at the polls in November there will be a withdrawal of
our Army and of American sovereignty over the archipelago; the
complete independence of the Tagalog people recognized and the
powers of government over all the other people of the
archipelago conferred upon the Tagalog leaders. The effect of
a belief in the minds of the insurgents that this will be done
has already prolonged the rebellion and increases the
necessity for the continuance of a large army. It is now
delaying full peace in the archipelago and the establishment
of civil governments and has influenced many of the insurgents
against accepting the liberal terms of amnesty offered by
General MacArthur under my direction. But for these false
hopes, a considerable reduction could have been had in our
military establishment in the Philippines, and the realization
of a stable government would be already at hand.
{665}
"The American people are asked by our opponents to yield the
sovereignty of the United States in the Philippines to a small
fraction of the population, a single tribe out of 80 or more
inhabiting the archipelago, a faction which wantonly attacked
the American troops in Manila while in rightful possession
under the protocol with Spain, awaiting the ratification of
the treaty of peace by the Senate, and which has since been in
active, open rebellion against the United States. We are asked
to transfer our sovereignty to a small minority in the
islands, without consulting the majority, and to abandon the
largest portion of the population, which has been loyal to us,
to the cruelties of the guerrilla insurgent bands. More, than
this, we are asked to protect this minority in establishing a
government, and to this end repress all opposition of the
majority. We are required to set up a stable government in the
interest of those who have assailed our sovereignty and fired
upon our soldiers, and then maintain it at any cost or
sacrifice against its enemies within and against those having
ambitious designs from without. This would require an army and
navy far larger than is now maintained in the Philippines and
still more in excess of what will be necessary with the full
recognition of our sovereignty. A military support of
authority not our own, as thus proposed, is the very essence
of militarism, which our opponents in their platform oppose,
but which by their policy would of necessity be established in
its most offensive form.
"The American people will not make the murderers of our
soldiers the agents of the Republic to convey the blessings of
liberty and order to the Philippines. They will not make them
the builders of the new commonwealth. Such a course would be a
betrayal of our sacred obligations to the peaceful Filipinos
and would place at the mercy of dangerous adventurers the
lives and property of the natives and foreigners. It would
make possible and easy the commission of such atrocities as
were secretly planned to be executed on the 22d of February,
1899, in the city of Manila, when only the vigilance of our
Army prevented the attempt to assassinate our soldiers and all
foreigners and pillage and destroy the city and its
surroundings. In short, the proposition of those opposed to us
is to continue all the obligations in the Philippines which
now rest upon the Government, only changing the relation from
principal, which now exists, to that of surety. Our
responsibility is to remain, but our power is to be
diminished. Our obligation is to be no less, but our title is
to be surrendered to another power, which is without
experience or training or the ability to maintain a stable
government at home and absolutely helpless to perform its
international obligations with the rest of the world. To this
we are opposed. We should not yield our title while our
obligations last. In the language of our platform, 'Our
authority should not be less than our responsibility,' and our
present responsibility is to establish our authority in every
part of the islands.
"No government can so certainly preserve the peace, restore
public order, establish law, justice and stable conditions as
ours. Neither Congress nor the Executive can establish a
stable government in these islands except under our right of
sovereignty, our authority and our flag. And this we are
doing. We could not do it as a protectorate power so
completely or so successfully as we are doing it now. As the
sovereign power, we can initiate action and shape means to
ends and guide the Filipinos to self-development and
self-government. As a protectorate power we could not initiate
action, but would be compelled to follow and uphold a people
with no capacity yet to go alone. In the one case we can
protect both ourselves and the Filipinos from being involved
in dangerous complications; in the other we could not protect
even the Filipinos until after their trouble had come. Beside,
if we cannot establish any government of our own without the
consent of the governed, as our opponents contend, then we
could not establish a stable government for them or make ours
a protectorate without the like consent, and neither the
majority of the people or a minority of the people have
invited us to assume it. We could not maintain a protectorate
even with the consent of the governed without giving
provocation for conflicts and possibly costly wars. Our rights
in the Philippines are now free from outside interference and
will continue so in our present relation. They would not be
thus free in any other relation. We will not give up our own
to guarantee another sovereignty.
"Our title is good. Our peace commissioners believed they were
receiving a good title when they concluded the treaty. The
Executive believed it was a good title when he submitted it to
the Senate of the United States for its ratification. The Senate
believed it was a good title when they gave it their
Constitutional assent, and the Congress seems not to have
doubted its completeness when they appropriated $20,000,000
provided by the treaty. If any who favored its ratification
believed it gave us a bad title, they were not sincere. Our
title is practically identical with that under which we hold
our territory acquired since the beginning of the government,
and under which we have exercised full sovereignty and
established government for the inhabitants. It is worthy of
note that no one outside of the United States disputes the
fulness and integrity of the cession. What then is the real
issue on this subject? Whether it is paramount to any other or
not, it is whether we shall be responsible for the government
of the Philippines with the sovereignty and authority which
enable us to guide them to regulated liberty, law, safety and
progress, or whether we shall be responsible for the forcible
and arbitrary government of a minority without sovereignty and
authority on our part and with only the embarrassment of a
protectorate which draws us into their troubles without the
power of preventing them. There were those who two years ago
were rushing us on to war with Spain who are unwilling now to
accept its clear consequence, as there are those among us who
advocated the ratification of the treaty of pence, but now
protest against its obligations. Nations which go to war must
be prepared to accept its resultant obligations, and when they
make treaties must keep them.
{666}
"Those who profess to distrust the liberal and honorable
purposes of the Administration in its treatment of the
Philippines are not justified. Imperialism has no place in its
creed or conduct. Freedom is a rock upon which the Republican
party was builded and now rests. Liberty is the great
Republican doctrine for which the people went to war and for
which 1,000,000 lives were offered and billions of dollars
expended to make it a lawful legacy of all without the consent
of master or slave. There is a strain of ill-conceived
hypocrisy in the anxiety to extend the Constitutional
guarantees to the people of the Philippines while their
nullification is openly advocated at home. Our opponents may
distrust themselves, but they have no right to discredit the
good faith and patriotism of the majority of the people, who
are opposing them; they may fear the worst form of imperialism
with the helpless Filipinos in their hands, but if they do, it
is because they have parted with the spirit and faith of the
fathers and have lost the virility of the founders of the
party which they profess to represent.
"The Republican party does not have to assert its devotion to
the Declaration of Independence. That immortal instrument of
the fathers remained unexecuted until the people under the
lead of the Republican party in the awful clash of battle
turned its promises into fulfillment. It wrote into the
Constitution the amendments guaranteeing political equality to
American citizenship and it has never broken them or counseled
others in breaking them. It will not be guided in its conduct by
one set of principles at home and another set in the new
territory belonging to the United States. If our opponents
would only practice as well as preach the doctrines of Abraham
Lincoln there would be no fear for the safety of our
institutions at home or their rightful influence in any
territory over which our flag floats.
"Empire has been expelled from Porto Rico and the Philippines
by American freemen. The flag of the Republic now floats over
these islands as an emblem of rightful sovereignty. Will the
Republic stay and dispense to their inhabitants the blessings
of liberty, education and free institutions, or steal away,
leaving them to anarchy or imperialism? The American question
is between duty and desertion—the American verdict will be for
duty and against desertion, for the Republic against both
anarchy and imperialism."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (June).
Revenues and expenditures of the government for the
fiscal year ended June 30, 1900.
The revenues of the Government from all sources (by
warrants) for the fiscal year ended June 30. 1900, were:
From internal revenue. $295,327,926.76
From customs. 233,164,871.16
From profits on coinage, bullion deposits, etc. 9,992,374.09
From District of Columbia. 4,008,722.77
From fees-consular, letters patents, and land. 3,291.716.68
From sales of public lands. 2,836.882.98
From tax on national banks. 1.998.554.00
From navy pension, navy hospital, clothing,
and deposit funds. 1,621.558.52
From sales of Indian lands. 1,384,663.49
From payment of interest by Pacific railways. 1,173,466.43
From miscellaneous. 997,375.68
From sales of Government property. 779,522.78
From customs fees, fines, penalties, etc. 675,706.95
From immigrant fund. 537,404.81
From deposits for surveying public lands. 273,247.19
From sales of ordnance material. 257,265.56
From Soldiers' Home, permanent fund. 247,926.62
From tax on seal skins, and rent of seal islands. 225,676.47
From license fees, Territory of Alaska. 157,234.94
From trust funds, Department of State. 152,794.56
From depredations on public lands. 76,307.58
From Spanish indemnity. 57,000.00
From sales of lands and buildings 3,842,737.68
From part payment Central Pacific
Railroad indebtedness. 3,338,016.49
From dividend received for account of
Kansas Pacific Railway. 821,891.70
From Postal Service. 102,354,579.29
Total receipts 669,595,431.18
The expenditures for the same period were:
For the civil establishment, including foreign
intercourse, public buildings, collecting
the revenues, District of Columbia,
and other miscellaneous expenses $98,542,411.37
For the military establishment, including
rivers and harbors, forts, arsenals, sea
coast defenses, and expenses of the war
with Spain and in the Philippines 134,174,761.18
For the naval establishment, including
construction of new vessels, machinery,
armament, equipment, improvement at
navy-yards, and expenses of the war
with Spain and in the Philippines 55,953,077.72
For Indian Service. 10,175,100.76
For pensions. 140,877,316.02
For interest on the public debt. 40,160,333.27
For deficiency in postal revenues. 7,230,778.79
For Postal Service. 102,354,579.29
Total expenditures. 590,068,371.00
Showing a surplus of 79,527,060.18
"As compared with the fiscal year 1899, the receipts for 1900
increased $58,613,426.83. … There was a decrease of
$117,358,388.14 in expenditures."
United States Secretary of the Treasury,
Annual Report on the State of the Finances,
1900, pages 7-9.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (June).
Return of losses from all causes in the armies of the
United States since May 1, 1898.
In response to a resolution of the Senate, the following
return (56th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Document 426) was
made by the Secretary of War, June 1, 1900, showing the losses
from all causes in the armies of the United States between May
1, 1898, and June 30, 1899; casualties in the Philippines
during the war with Spain, and after the close of the war with
Spain down to May 20, 1900; and other interesting details:
Statement showing losses, from all causes, in the armies of
the United States between May 1, 1898, and June 30, 1899.
Average strength.
1898:
Regular Army, 55,853:
Volunteers, 163,103.
1899:
Regular Army, 63,370;
Volunteers, 45,457.
REGULAR ARMY.
CAUSES. Officers. Enlisted Men. Total.
Deaths:
Killed in action. 24 270 294
By Wounds. 7 114 121
Disease. 51 1,524 1,575
Accident. 1 72 73
Drowning. 2 48 50
Suicide. 1 32 33
Murder or homicide. 26 26
Total 86 2,086 2,172
Wounded. 109 1,586 1,695
{667}
VOLUNTEERS.
CAUSES.
Officers. Enlisted Men Total.
Deaths:
Killed in action. 17 188 205
By wounds. 3 78 81
Disease. 114 3,820 3,934
Accident. 5 137 142
Drowning. 1 40 41
Suicide. 1 20 21
Murder or homicide. 26 26
Total. 141 4,309 4,450
Wounded. 88 1,178 1,266
GRAND TOTAL.
CAUSES.
Officers. Enlisted Men
Deaths:
Killed In action 38 458
By wounds 10 192
Disease 165 5,344
Accident 6 209
Drowning 3 88
Suicide. 2 52
Murder or homicide. 52
Total 224 6,395
Wounded 197 2,764
Casualties in the Philippines during the war
with Spain, June 30, 1898, to August 13, 1898.
Average strength, 10,900.
Officers. Enlisted Men. Total.
Killed
(no deaths from wounds) 18 18
Wounded 10 99 109
Total 10 117 127
In the Philippines, from February 4, 1899, to May 20, 1900,
Average strength, 43,232.
Officers. Enlisted Men. Total.
Killed or died of wounds. 43 579 622
Deaths:
By disease 19 1,054 1,073
Accident 1 43 44
Drowning 2 94 96
Suicide 6 23 29
Murder or homicide 11 11
Total 71 1,804 1,875
Wounded. 132 1,897 2,029
Grand total 203 3,701 3,904
Casualties in the Fifth Corps in the operations against
Santiago, June 22 to July 17, 1898:
KILLED. WOUNDED.
ACTIONS.
Officers. Men. Officers. Men.
Las Guasimas, June 24 1 15 6 43
El Caney, July 1 4 77 25 335
San Juan, July 1-3 15 127 69 945
Aguadores, July l-2 2 10
Around Santiago,
July 10-12 1 1 1 11
Total. 21 222 101 1,344
Died of wounds received in the five battles named:
Officers, 5; men, 70.
Total killed and died of wounds:
Officers, 26; men, 292.
Statement of the number of insane soldiers admitted to the
Government Hospital for the Insane, Washington, D. C., from
the Philippine Islands, May 24, 1900, and the disposition made
of them:
Regulars. Volunteers.
Admitted 47 15
Discharged recovered 16 3
Discharged unimproved 1
On visit from hospital 1
Remaining in hospital 29 12
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (June).
Immigration for the year ended June 30.
"The Commissioner-General of Immigration, in the annual report
of the operations of his Bureau for the fiscal year ended June
30, 1900, submits tabulated statements showing the arrival in
this country during that period of 448,572 alien immigrants,
425,372 through ports of the United States and 23,200 through
Canada. Of these, 304,148 were males and 144,424 females;
54,624 were under 14 years of age, 370,382 were from 14 to 45
years old, and 23,566 were 45 and over. As to the literacy of
persons 14 years of age and over, there were 93,576 who could
neither read nor write, and 2,097 who could read but were
unable to write; 54,288 brought each $30 or over, and 271,821
showed sums less than $30, the total amounts displayed to
inspectors aggregating $6,657,530. There were returned to
their own countries within one year after landing 356, and
hospital relief was rendered during the year to 2,417. The
total debarred, or refused a landing at the ports, were 4,246,
as compared with 3,798 last year. Of these, 1 was excluded for
idiocy, 32 for insanity, 2,974 as paupers or persons likely to
become public charges, 393 on account of disease, 4 as
convicts, 2 as assisted immigrants, 833 as contract laborers,
and 7 women upon the ground that they had been imported for
immoral purposes. In addition to the foregoing, there were
excluded at the Mexican and Canadian borders a total of 1,616
aliens.
"It appears that the Croatian and Slovenian races sent an
increase of 99 per cent over those of the same races who came
last year; the Hebrew, an increase of 62 per cent; the South
Italian (including Sicilian), 28 per cent; the Japanese, 271
per cent; the Finnish, 106 per cent; the Magyar, 181 per cent;
the Polish, 64 per cent; the Scandinavian, 41 per cent.; the
Slovak, 84 per cent. These nine races, of the total of
forty-one races represented by immigration, furnished nearly
as many immigrants as the total arrivals for the last year, or
310,444, and their aggregate increase represented 85 per cent of
the total increase shown for the year.
{668}
The total immigration reported, 448,572, is in excess of that
for the preceding year, 311,715, by 136,857, or 43.9 per cent.
As to countries of origin, 424,700 came from European, 17,946
from Asiatic, 30 from African, and 5,896 from all other
sources. The Commissioner-General points out that in addition
to the 448,572 immigrants there arrived 65,635 other alien
passengers, who, he contends, should be included in conformity
to law with those classified as immigrants."
United States, Secretary of the Treasury,
Annual Report, 1900, page 37.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (June).
Shipping, compared with that of other countries.
See (in this volume)
SHIPPING OF THE WORLD.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (June).
Alaska Act.
See (in this volume)
ALASKA: A. D. 1900.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (June).
Returns of Filipinos killed, wounded and captured from the
beginning of hostilities with them.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (MAY).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (June-December).
Co-operation with the Powers in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (July).
Appeal of citizens of Manila to the
Congress of the United States.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (JULY).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (July).
Forces sent to China under General Chaffee.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JULY).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (August).
Agreement with Russian proposal to withdraw troops
from Peking.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (September).
Opposition to German proposal for dealing with China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (September-November).
Legislative measures of the Philippine Commission.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (October).
Military forces in the Philippine Islands.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (OCTOBER).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (December).
Amendment and ratification of the Hay-Pauncefote Convention.
See (in this volume)
CANAL, INTEROCEANIC: A. D. 1900 (DECEMBER).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (December).
Celebration of the 100th anniversary of the removal of
the capital to Washington.
See (in this volume)
WASHINGTON.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (December).
Exports for the calendar year exceeding those
of any other nation.
A Press despatch from Washington, dated February 21, 1901,
announced the fact that the "complete figures for the calendar
year 1900, when compared with those of other nations, show
that American exports of domestic products are greater than
those of any other country. The total exports of domestic
merchandise from the United States in the calendar year 1900
were $1,453,013,659; those from the United Kingdom, which has
heretofore led in the race for this distinction were
$1,418,348,000, and those from Germany $1,050,611,000.
Additional interest is given to the first rank which the
United States now holds as an exporting nation by the fact
that a quarter of a century ago she stood fourth in that list.
In 1875 the domestic exports of the United States were
$497,263,737; those of Germany, $607,096,000; those of France,
$747,489,000, and those of the United Kingdom, $1,087,497,000.
To-day the United States stands at the head of the list, the
United Kingdom second, Germany third and France fourth, with
the figures as follows: United States, $1,453,013,659; United
Kingdom, $1,418,348,000; Germany, $1,050,611,000; France,
$787,060,000. All of these figures, it should be remembered,
relate to the exports of domestic products. Thus in the
quarter century the United States has increased her exports
from $497,263,737 to $1,453,013,659, or 192 per cent; Germany,
from $607,096,000 to $1,050,611,000, or 73 per cent; the
United Kingdom, from $1,087,497,000 to $1,418,348,000, or 34
per cent, and France, from $747,489,000 to $787,060,000, or 5
per cent.
"The following table, compiled from official reports, shows
the exports of domestic merchandise from the United States,
the United Kingdom and Germany in each calendar year from 1875
to 1900:
Year United States United Kingdom Germany
1875 $497,263,737 $1,087,497,000 $607,096,000
1876 575,735,804 976,410,000 619,919,000
1877 607,666,495 967,913,000 672,151,000
1878 723,286,821 938,500,000 702,513,000
1879 754,656,755 932,090,000 675,397,000
1880 875,564,075 1,085,521,000 741,202,000
1881 814,162,951 1,138,873,000 724,379,000
1882 749,911,309 1,175,099,000 776,228,000
18&1 777,523,718 1,166,982,000 796,208,000
1884 733,768,764 1,134,016,000 779,832,000
1885 673,593,506 1,037,124,000 695,892,000
1886 699,519,430 1,035,226,000 726,471,000
1887 703,319,692 1,079,944,000 762,897,000
1888 679,597,477 1,141,365,000 780,076,000
1889 814,154,864 1,211,442,000 770,537,000
1890 845,999,603 1,282,474,000 809,810,000
1891 907,333,551 1,203,169,000 772,679,000
1892 923,237,315 1,105,747,000 718,806,000
1893 854,729,454 1,062,162,000 753,301,000
1894 807,312,116 1,051,193,000 720,607,000
1895 807,742,415 1,100,452,000 807,328,000
1896 986,830,080 1,168,671,000 857,745,000
1897 1,079,834,296 1,139,882,000 884,486,000
1898 1,233,564,828 1,135,642,000 894,063,000
1899 1,203,460,000 1,287,971,039 1,001,278,000
1900 1,453,013,659 1,418,348,000 1,050,611,000
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900-1901.
Questions relating to the political status of the new
possessions of the nation submitted to the Supreme Court.
Questions of surpassing importance, touching the political
status of the new possessions which the nation had acquired
from Spain, the relations of their inhabitants to the
government and laws of the United States, the source and
nature of the authority to be exercised over them by the
Congress of the United States, whether exercised under the
constitution of the United States or independently of it, were
taken, in December and January (1900-1901), into the Supreme
Court for authoritative decision, by appeals to that tribunal
made in several suits which had arisen from disputed exactions
of duty on importations from Porto Rico and the Philippine
Islands. The questions had been burning ones in American
politics, from the moment that the treaty of peace with Spain
was signed, and the whole cast, character and consequence of
the new policy of over-sea expansion on which the American
Republic was then launched depended on the decision of the
Court.
{669}
Soon after the January argument and submission of these cases
to the Supreme Court, their extraordinary importance was
touched upon with impressive eloquence by the Honorable W.
Bourke Cockran, in an address upon "John Marshall," in which
he said:
"At this moment the [Supreme Court] is considering the gravest
question ever submitted to a judicial tribunal in the history
of mankind. Within a few days it must decide whether the
government of the United States, or rather whether two of its
departments can govern territory anywhere by the sword, or
whether authority exercised by officers of the United States
must be controlled and limited everywhere by the Constitution
of the United States.
"I do not mention this momentous question to express the
slightest opinion upon its merits, but merely that this
assemblage of judges and of lawyers may realize the part which
the judiciary is now required to play in determining the
influence which this country must exercise forevermore in the
family of nations. The power of Congress to acquire territory
is of course unquestioned, but the disposition to exercise
that power will always be controlled by the conditions under
which newly acquired territory must be held, and these
conditions the court must now prescribe. On the one hand it
may hold that wherever power is exercised under the
constitution there the limitations of the constitution must be
obeyed—that wherever the executive undertakes to administer, or
Congress to legislate, there the judiciary must enforce upon
both respect for the organic law to which they owe their
existence. If this doctrine be established it is clear that no
scheme of forcible conquest will ever be undertaken by this
government, for the simple reason that there can be no profit
in such an enterprise. On the other hand the Court may decide
that Congress can hold newly annexed territories on any terms
that it chooses—that it may govern them according to the
constitution or independently of it—that they may be
administered to establish justice among the governed or for
the glory and profit of the governors. If it be held that
government for profit can be maintained under the authority of
the United States, conceive the extent to which it may be
carried and the consequences which it may portend. If it be
possible to maintain two forms of government under our
constitution, it is possible to establish twenty in as many
different places. Territory may be annexed to the North, to
the South, to the East and to the West. The President of the
United States may be vested with imperial powers in one place,
with royal prerogatives in another and perhaps remain a
constitutional magistrate at home. He may be made a military
autocrat in some South American State, an anointed emperor in
some Northern clime, a turbaned sultan in some Eastern island.
Nay, more, Congress can move itself and the seat of government
from Washington to some newly annexed territory governed by
officers of its own creation, subject to its own unlimited
power, and thus take both outside the jurisdiction of the
Supreme Court.
"Has the world ever before seen—could the framers of this
constitution have conceived—a bench of judges exercising such
a power amid the universal submission and approval of the
whole people. And more extraordinary than all, this submission
remains unanimous though the decision of the court may
seriously affect its own position in the structure of our
government. For if it be held that the constitution does not
extend of itself over newly annexed territory, then clearly
the authority of the court cannot extend to it except by the
action of Congress and the executive. If the authority, that
is to say, the existence of the court in any part of the
territory of the United States, depends upon the other
departments, then it is idle to contend that it is an
independent and coordinate branch of the government. To decide
that the executive and legislative departments have the right
to govern territory outside the constitution the court must
deliberately renounce the importance which it has heretofore
enjoyed and accept for itself an inferior place in our
political system.
"To me this is the most sublime spectacle ever presented in
the history of the world. Think of it! A war has been waged
with signal success, vast territory has been exacted from a
conquered foe; a great political campaign has been fought and
won upon the policy of taking this territory and governing it
at the pleasure of Congress and the executive, yet if the
court should hold that what the executive has attempted, what
Congress has sanctioned, and what the people appear to have
approved at the polls is in contravention of the constitution,
not one voice would be raised to question the judgment or to
resist its enforcement. I have said the spectacle is sublime;
my friends, even a few weeks ago it was inconceivable. Before
the late election I confess I believed and said that the
success of the present administration would be interpreted as
a popular endorsement of its foreign policy and that the
popular verdict would very probably be made to exercise a
strong if not decisive influence on the court. I admit now
that I was mistaken. It is evident that this question will be
decided on its merits without the slightest attempt to coerce,
intimidate or influence the judges, and I say now with all
frankness that whatever may be the judgment it will be the
very best outcome for the people of this country, for the
peace of the world, for the welfare of the human race. I
cannot tell what this outcome may be, but I know that whenever
a crisis has arisen in the pathway of the republic, the
statesmanship of the common people has always met it with
justice and solved it with wisdom."
W. Bourke Cockran,
John Marshall: an address before the Erie County Bar
Association, February 4, 1901, at Buffalo.
Argument before the Supreme Court was begun on the 17th of
December, 1900, on two cases thus stated in the brief
submitted for the government: "On June 6, 1899, Goetze
imported from Porto Rico into the port of New York a quantity
of leaf or filler tobacco, upon which duty was assessed at 35
cents per pound as filler tobacco not specially provided for,
in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 213 of the
tariff act of 1897, commonly known as the 'Dingley Act.' The
importer protested, claiming that the merchandise was not
subject to duty, because Porto Rico at the time of the
importation was not a foreign country and because, therefore,
the imposition of duties on goods brought from a place within
the territory of the United States into a port of the United
States is not lawful and valid under the Constitution.
{670}
The Board of General Appraisers sustained the assessment of
duty imposed by the collector upon the merchandise in
question, and thereupon the importer appealed to the United
States circuit court for the southern district of New York, by
which court the decision of the Board of General Appraisers
was affirmed in an opinion rendered by District Judge
Townsend. From the judgment of the circuit court this appeal
was taken.
"Porto Rico was partially occupied by the war forces of the
United States during the months of July and August, 1898. By
the protocol of August 12, 1898, between the United States and
Spain, Spain agreed to cede Porto Rico to the United States
and immediately evacuate. The evacuation was effected and full
possession of the island assumed by the United States prior to
January 1, 1899. From that date until the 1st of May, 1900,
Porto Rico was occupied and governed by the military forces of
the United States, under the command of the President, as
conquered territory, under the law of belligerent right. The
treaty of Paris, made in pursuance of the protocol, was signed
December 10, 1898, ratified by the Senate February 6, 1899,
and ratifications exchanged April 11, 1899. So that the
importation in this case was subsequent to the ratification of
the treaty, but prior to the establishment of a civil
government in the island under act of Congress. It does not
appear that the importers are citizens of the United States or
of Porto Rico, nor whether or not the imported tobacco was the
product of Porto Rico.
"In the case of Fourteen Diamond Rings, it appears that the
claimant, Pepke, is a citizen of the United States and served
as a United States soldier in the Island of Luzon; that while
there he purchased or acquired the rings in question and
brought them into the United States without paying duty
thereon some time in the year 1899, between July 31 and
September 25. The rings were seized, on May 18, 1900, at
Chicago, by a United States customs officer as merchandise
liable to duty which should have been invoiced, and was
fraudulently imported and brought into the United States
contrary to law. An information for the forfeiture of the
rings was filed on behalf of the Government, June 1, 1900, to
which the claimant pleaded. Setting up that at the time he
acquired said property Luzon was a part of the territory of
the United States and that the seizure of said goods was
contrary to the claimant's right as a citizen of the United
States under the Constitution, and particularly under section
2, Article IV, thereof, and he insisted that under Article I,
section 8, Congress is required in laying and collecting taxes
to see to it that all taxes and duties shall be uniform
throughout the United States. To this plea the United States
demurred, and upon hearing of the demurrer, the district court
gave judgment of forfeiture for the Government. This judgment
the claimant has removed into this court by a writ of error."
The contention of the government as set forth in the same
brief, and the main contention of the appellants in the case,
against which the argument for the government was directed,
were partly as follows:
"The Tariff Act of 1897 declares that 'there shall be levied,
collected and paid upon all articles imported from foreign
countries and mentioned in the schedules herein contained, the
rates of duty which are by the schedules and paragraphs
respectively prescribed.' (30 Stat., 151.)
"The Government contends, and the circuit court so held, that
this act applied to merchandise imported from Porto Rico and
the Philippine Islands after their cession to the United
States exactly as it did before; that within the meaning of
the act these countries are to be regarded as foreign,
belonging to but not forming in a domestic sense a part of the
United States.
"That it is within the constitutional province of the
treaty-making power to accept the cession of foreign territory
upon such terms, conditions, and limitations as to its
internal status as may best subserve the interests of the
United States, and it is not necessary to invest such
territory with the full status of an integral part of the
Union.
"That this is one of the ordinary and necessary sovereign
powers of an independent nation, and nothing in the Federal
Constitution or in the fundamental principles that underlie
our Republic denies to the nation a right to the full exercise
of this usual and common sovereign right.
"That the treaty-making power—the President and the Senate—as
evidenced by the language of the treaty of Paris, did not
intend to make Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands integral
parts of the United States, but intended, in several
particulars, to reserve their final status for adjustment by
Congress, at the same time making peculiar and special
differential provisions for variations and exceptions in
customs and port regulations as to Spain and Spanish goods and
subjects, which are inconsistent with the intention that the
ceded countries became upon the ratification of the treaty a
part of the United States in all respects and in the fullest
sense.
"The Government contends that the term 'foreign countries' in
the act of 1897 is to be regarded as having been understood by
Congress to be subject to the rule of interpretation of the
phrase given by the Supreme Court in the case of Fleming v.
Page, where it was held that under our revenue laws every port
is regarded as a foreign one until expressly established as
domestic under the authority and control of the statutes of
the United States.
"That the clause of the Constitution which declares that
duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the
United States does not apply to nor govern these cases,
because the term 'United States,' as there used, means only
the territory comprised within the several States of the
Union, and was intended only for their benefit and protection,
and not for the benefit or protection of outside territory
belonging to the nation; that in the latter sense duties on
imports from these islands are uniform throughout the United
States, because they are uniformly imposed at every port in
the United States, so that there is no preference given to the
ports of one State over those of another, nor is any
inequality between the several States created.
{671}
"That the right to bring merchandise into the United States is
a right entirely within the regulation of Congress; such right
in no wise differs as to either citizens or aliens.
Citizenship carries with it no special or peculiar privileges
at the custom-house. The American, the Spaniard, the Porto
Rican, are treated alike. The basis of the customs laws is not
ownership, but (1) the geographical origin of the shipment,
and (2) the nature of the goods. The duty is imposed against
merchandise, not upon the importer. "The Government contends,
therefore, that in view of the fact that tariff laws are 'in
rem,' there is no principle of justice, much less of
constitutional restriction, which forbids Congress from taxing
in this way the merchandise of outlying possessions of the
United States when brought into the ports of the Union. That
the limitations of the Constitution as to customs, etc., were
intended to secure equality between the States in the
geographical sense, and not to forbid Congress from exercising
the ordinary sovereign power of taxation as to the products of
other sections of country not included within the geographical
boundaries of the States; for which we rely upon the opinion
of this court in Knowlton v. Moore as decisive and conclusive.
"If the foregoing propositions are sound, then it is
established (1) that the tariff act of 1897 was intended by
Congress to classify as foreign all countries not a part of or
belonging to the United States at the time of its passage, and
the subsequent cession of the Spanish islands to the United
States did not operate to admit imports from those islands
free of duty, under that law; (2) that the tariff act so
construed and enforced violates no constitutional rule of
uniformity.
"And the case of the plaintiffs in error would seem on these
grounds to have no legal foundation.
"The Government might well be content to rest its argument
upon these propositions. But counsel for the plaintiffs in
error, in the court below as well us in this court, have gone
far beyond these limits, and have challenged and denied the
constitutionality of certain provisions of the treaty of
Paris, contending that the cession of Porto Rico and the
Philippine Archipelago effected a complete incorporation of
those countries with the United States, so that they have
become a part of the United States in the fullest and largest
sense, not only internationally, but organically, so
completely, indeed, that no difference or distinction can be
made by law between imports from those countries and imports
from one of the States of the Union.
"They insist that there can be no limited or qualified
acquisition of territory by this nation; that when Porto Rico
was ceded to the United States it came at once under the
obligations of the Constitution and became entitled to the
privileges of the Constitution, its inhabitants citizens of
the United States, and its territory a part of the United
States. They argue, therefore, that the clause of the treaty
which says that 'the civil rights and political status of the
inhabitants shall be determined by the Congress,' in so far as
it is intended to defer the full enjoyment of the rights and
privileges of citizenship under the Constitution until
Congress shall bestow them hereafter upon the inhabitants, is
'ultra vires' and void, or at least superfluous and
ineffective, because the Constitution 'ex proprio vigore'
extends at once, as an automatic operation, to all territory
ceded to this Government, and no treaty or treaty-making power
can hinder or even suspend it. …
"Counsel have been at great pains to prove that the Government
of the United States is one of delegated powers, and that its
powers are not absolute and untrammeled, but subject to
certain limits never and nowhere to be transcended; that the
vague political entity known as The People stands behind the
constituted agencies of government, holding in reserve the
sources of supreme power, capable and ready to alter or
destroy at its pleasure the machinery heretofore set up in its
behalf. They call these doctrines truisms, and so they are.
They do not help us in this case.
"The Government of the United States has been vested not with
all powers but only with certain particular powers. These
particular delegated powers are in some respects limited and
confined in scope and operation, but in other respects they
are entirely unlimited. So that the real and practical
question is whether there is any limitation preventing the
particular thing here complained of.
"It is worth while, in passing, to allude to the undeniable
fact that 'The People' referred to are not the people of the
Territories or of the outlying possessions of the United
States, but the people of the several States, who ordained and
established for themselves and their posterity the Federal
Constitution.
"Counsel confuse ideas when they argue that the contention of
the Government in these cases implies the possession by
Congress of all unlimited and despotic powers in the
government of territory. We mean no more than this court meant
when it said:
"'The power of Congress over the Territories is general and
plenary.
"'Its sovereignty over them is complete.
"'It has full and complete legislative authority over the
people of the Territories and all departments of the
Territorial governments.
"'The people of the United States, as sovereign owners of the
National Territories, have supreme power over them and their
inhabitants.
"'In legislating for the Territories Congress would doubtless
be subject to those fundamental limitations in favor of
personal rights which are formulated in the Constitution and
its amendments, but these limitations would exist rather by
inference and the general spirit of the Constitution than by
any express and direct application of its provisions.'"
In the Supreme Court of the United States,
October Term, 1900, John H. Goetze, Appellant, &c.;
Brief for the United States.
On the 8th of January, 1901, four other causes, involving
substantially the same questions, came before the Supreme
Court, and, by order of the Court, were consolidated, to be
dealt with virtually as one case. The titles of the cases were
respectively as follows:
Elias S. A. Dc Lima et al., plaintiffs in error,
agt. George R. Bidwell;
Samuel B. Downes et al., plaintiffs in error,
agt. George R. Bidwell;
Henry W. Dooley et al., plaintiffs in error,
agt. the United States;
Carlos Armstrong, appellant,
agt. the United States, and George W. Crossmon et al.,
appellants, agt. the United States.
{672}
For the plaintiffs, in the case of Henry W. Dooley et al., the
Honorable John G. Carlisle made an oral argument, in which he
said: "What is the Constitution? In the first place it is not
only the supreme law of the States composing the union, but
the supreme law of the land; supreme over every branch and
department of the Government; supreme over every one
exercising authority under the Government; supreme over every
other law or order or regulation, and supreme over all the
people, wherever they may be, within its jurisdiction, and
what we claim is, that so long as this Constitution exists
absolute and arbitrary power over the lives, liberties, or
property of the people can be exercised nowhere in this
Republic. It is now argued that it is supreme only within the
boundaries of the several States, unless Congress extends it
to the Territories; that it limits the powers of Congress only
when legislating for the geographical area embraced in the
States; that the inhabitants of the States are the only people
who can, as a matter of right, claim the benefit of its
guarantees and prohibitions for the protection even of those
personal and property rights which have for ages been secured
by the common law of England, and that all other people within
the jurisdiction of the United States are dependent for the
protection of their civil rights substantially upon the will
of Congress. The question whether the Constitution should be
declared to be the supreme law of the whole land, or only the
supreme law of the respective States and their inhabitants or
citizens, was presented in the Federal Convention of 1787, and
was finally disposed of by the adoption of the clause as it
now stands in the Constitution, which declares it to be "the
supreme law of the land.
"In the plan proposed by Mr. Charles Pinckney, of South
Carolina, it was provided that 'all acts made by the
legislature of the United States pursuant to this
Constitution, and all treaties made under the authority of the
United States, shall be the supreme law of the land,' etc. (1
Elliot, page 46). Mr. Patterson's plan proposed 'that all acts
of the United States in Congress assembled made by virtue and
in pursuance of the powers hereby vested in them, and by the
Articles of Confederation and all treaties made and ratified
under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme
law of the respective States, so far as those acts or treaties
shall relate to such States or their citizens,' etc. (pages
71, 72). These plans and others were referred to the Committee
of the Whole House and were reported back without any
provision upon this subject. Afterwards the Convention
unanimously agreed to the following resolution:
'That the Legislative acts made by virtue and in pursuance of
the Articles of Union and all treaties made and ratified under
the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law
of the respective States, so far as those acts or treaties
shall relate to the said States or their citizens or
inhabitants' (page 100). Thus it stood when referred to the
committee of five, of which Mr. Rutledge was chairman, and on
the 6th of August, 1787, that committee reported back to the
Convention a draft of the proposed Constitution, the eighth
article of which was the same as the resolution last quoted,
except that in the place of the words 'Articles of Union' it
contained the words 'this Constitution' (page 120). This
report was considered in the Committee of the Whole, and on
the 23d of August the eighth article was unanimously amended
so as to read: 'This Constitution and all laws of the United
States made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made under
the authority of the United States shall be the supreme law of
the several States and of their citizens and inhabitants,'
etc. (page 151).
"This was the form in which the article stood when the whole
draft was referred to the committee of eleven, but when
reported back September 12, it constituted the second clause
of the sixth article and declared that the Constitution and
laws and the treaties made and to be made should be 'the
supreme law of the land,' and so it now stands as part of the
Constitution. If the clause had been adopted in the form
agreed to in the committee and inserted in the first draft,
there would have been at least a certain degree of
plausibility in the argument made here for the Government, but
even in that case we think the powers of Congress would have
been limited whenever and wherever it might attempt to
exercise them. But it is argued here that the history of the
Constitution and the language employed in the preamble, and in
some other places, show that it was intended to establish a
government only for such of the States then existing as might
ratify it, and such other States as might thereafter be
admitted into the Union, and that, therefore, while it confers
power upon Congress to govern Territories, it does not require
that body to govern them in accordance with the supreme law of
the land; that is, in accordance with the instrument from
which the power to govern is derived. Even if the premises
were true, the conclusion would not follow; but is it true
that the Constitution was ordained and established for the
government of the States only? If so, how did it happen that
the great men who framed that instrument made it confer the
power to govern Territories as well as States? It is true that
the Constitution was ordained and established by the people of
the States, but it created a National Government for national
purposes, not a mere league or compact between the States, and
jurisdiction was conferred upon that Government over the whole
national domain, whatever its boundaries might be. It is not
true that the Government was established only for the States,
their inhabitants or citizens, but if it were true, then it
could exercise no power outside of the States, and this court
would have to put a new construction upon that provision which
authorizes Congress to dispose of and make all needful rules
and regulations respecting the territory, or other property,
belonging to the United States. The necessary construction of
that clause would be that it conferred power only to dispose
of land or other property, and to make necessary rules and
regulations respecting land or other property belonging to the
United States; that is, belonging to the several States
composing the Union. It would confer no power whatever to
govern the people outside of the States."
Supreme Court of the United States,
October Term, 1900,
Henry W. Dooley [et al.] vs. the United States:
Argument of J. G. Carlisle.
{673}
On one point the argument of Mr. Charles H. Aldrich, attorney
for the plaintiff in the case of the "Fourteen Diamond Rings,"
was as follows: In "the relations of the United States to other
nations, our government is a sovereign state, and has the
right, and as such 'free and independent State has full power,
to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish
commerce, and to do all other acts and things which
independent States may of right do.' In this relation it is
correct, as I conceive, to speak of the United States of
America as a unit and use a singular verb. It is such unit and
has this power because there was created a government upon
which the people conferred these powers. If war is declared it
must be under the constitution; if peace is concluded it is in
the exercise of a constitutional power; if commerce is
established it is because Congress under the constitution was
given power to regulate commerce; if alliances are contracted
it can only be done under the constitution. In short, the
sovereign nation exists through the adoption of the
constitution, and its powers are derived from that instrument
and must be found, as this court has often declared, in the
language thereof or by necessary implication therefrom. We are
in the Philippines and Porto Rico and can be rightfully there
only in the exercise of some of these enumerated powers, as in
the language of the tenth amendment, 'the powers not delegated
to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it
to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to
the people.' This amendment designates the constitution as the
source of the power of the United States and excludes the idea
of power free from constitutional restraint derived by
implication from powers delegated by the constitution.
"Nor is it true that at the time this declaration was made all
independent states or nations claimed and exercised the right
to acquire, hold and govern foreign dependencies, and no state
or nation then recognized its obligation to confer on the
people of such acquired territory the privileges and
immunities enjoyed by the people of the home government,
except at its own will and discretion. It is true that all
independent states claimed and exercised the right to acquire
territory, but if it were important in this case I think the
arguments of Pitt, Camden and Barre could be used to establish
the proposition that under the British Constitution as it
then was, that nation had, from the time of King John and the
Great Charter until King George, recognized that its subjects
had essential rights not dependent upon the 'will and
discretion' of the home government. It is unnecessary to
follow that subject here. It is sufficient that the
Declaration of Independence was brought about by the assertion
on the part of King George and his ministers of precisely the
present doctrine of this administration and its
representatives in this court. If value is to be attached to
contemporary history that fact cannot be lost sight of. The
speeches of Grenville and Townshend in favor of unlimited
power on the part of Parliament over the American colonists
and their affairs have been substantially parodied in Congress
by the advocates of unrestrained power over our 'colonies,' as
it is now unfortunately fashionable to denominate them. The
signers of the Declaration of Independence held that as
subjects of the British Constitution there was no right to
impose taxes upon them without their consent, to deprive them
of trial by jury, to deprive them of their legislatures, and
to declare Parliament in vested with power to legislate for
them 'in all cases whatsoever.' These and other grievances
were held denials of rights belonging to every British subject
as such and to justify rebellion and war. It seems impossible
that a people who rebelled for such reasons established a
State invested with the very power which they had denied to
the British government and the assertions of which made
rebellion necessary.
"This argument that the power to declare war and conclude
peace carries with it, as an auxiliary, power to do whatever
other nations are accustomed to do with the people and
territory acquired through the exercise of these powers, has a
remarkable likeness to the arguments put forward at the
beginning of the century with reference to the Alien and
Sedition Acts. The supporters of the constitutionality of
these acts claimed that the common law had been introduced and
become a part of the constitution of the United States, and
therefore the powers usually exercisable under the common law
could be exercised by the Congress of the United States in the
respects involved in those acts. Mr. Madison's letter
discussing this contention was answered, so far as it asserted
the right of a state to nullify an act of Congress, but was
never answered, so far as it denied the existence of the
common law as a part of the constitution of the United States.
His objections to that contention, succinctly stated, were,
that if the common law was a part of the constitution, then
there were no constitutional limitations. Congress, like
Parliament, could legislate in all cases whatsoever; that the
President would be possessed of the royal prerogatives (as is
now claimed in this case by the Attorney-General); that the
judiciary would have a discretion little short of legislative
power; that these powers in the different branches of the
government would not be alterable, because, being in the
constitution, they could only be repealed by amendment of that
instrument; and, lastly, that the constitution would have a
different meaning in different States, inasmuch as the common
law was different in such States, and that it would lack the
certainty which a constitution should have, as the common law
was an ever-growing or varying body of law, and, therefore,
with reference to the proper action of the government in each
instance, the question would be important as to what portion
of the common law was in the constitution and what not so
embodied.
"Nearly every sentence of Mr. Madison's able argument with
reference to the common law as a part of the constitution is
applicable to the contention that sovereign powers, so-called,
as derived from or defined by international law, became a part
of the constitution of the United States through the
delegation of the powers to make war, conclude peace, and make
all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory and
other property belonging to the United States. This court has
adopted the view of Mr. Madison. It is hoped that the child of
the old error by which again the executive and legislative
power is sought to be enlarged through the incorporation into
the constitution of 'the sovereign power of other nations'
will receive the same answer.
"In fact, we submit that this court has already held that
sovereign power in the sense that the words are used in the
law of nations as prerogative rights of the King or Emperor,
not only is not vested in the United States or in any branch
of its government, but cannot be so vested. The sovereign
power is with the people. In leaving it with the people our
government marked a departure from all that had previously
existed."
Supreme Court of the United States,
October Term, 1900, Number 419:
C. H. Aldrich, Argument in reply.
{674}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901.
Military and naval expenditure,
compared with that of other Powers.
See (in this volume)
WAR BUDGETS.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (January).
Apportionment of Representatives under the Twelfth Census.
The question of obedience to the Fourteenth Amendment.
Restrictions of the elective franchise in the States.
Section 3 of Article 1 of the Constitution requires that
"Representatives … shall be apportioned among the several
States which may be included within this Union according to
their respective numbers. … The actual enumeration shall be
made within three years after the first meeting of the
Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent
term of ten years. … The number of Representatives shall not
exceed one for every 30,000; but each State shall have at
least one." The first meeting of Congress was in 1789; the
required first census of the United States was taken in 1790,
and, in obedience to the constitutional requirement, the
enumeration has been repeated within the closing year of every
decade since, to supply the basis for a new apportionment of
representatives among the States. The twelfth census, taken in
1900, called for such new distribution, and action upon it was
taken in Congress in January, 1901.
As the section quoted above stood in the Constitution until
1868, it contained a further clause, inserted as one of the
original compromises made between the slaveholding and the
free States, requiring that the determination of numbers to be
represented in the several States should be made "by adding to
the whole number of free persons, including those bound to
service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed,
three-fifths of all other persons." This original clause of
the Constitution was superseded by the Fourteenth Amendment,
adopted in 1868, which introduced this new provision, in its
second section: "Representatives shall be apportioned among
the several States according to their respective numbers,
counting the whole number of persons in each State, except
Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election
for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of
the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive
and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the
Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants
of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of
the United States, or in any way abridged, except for
participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of
representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion
which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole
number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such
State." To many persons it seemed to be very clear that this
provision of the amended Constitution required account to be
taken of the qualifications by which a number of States have
abridged the suffrage, especially where done for the
understood purpose of disfranchising colored citizens and that
Congress was left with no discretion to do otherwise.
See, (in this volume),
LOUISIANA, NORTH CAROLINA, SOUTH CAROLINA,
MISSISSIPPI, and MARYLAND.
Those holding this view in the House of Representatives gave
support to the following resolution, introduced by Mr.
Olmsted, of Pennsylvania:
"Whereas the continued enjoyment of full representation in
this House by any State which has, for reasons other than
participation in rebellion or other crime, denied to any of
the male inhabitants thereof, being 21 years of age and
citizens of the United States, the right to vote for
Representatives in Congress, Presidential electors, and other
specified officers, is in direct violation of the fourteenth
amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which
declares that in such case 'the basis of representation
therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of
such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male
citizens 21 years of age in such State,' and is an invasion of
the rights and dignity of this House and of its members, and
an infringement upon the rights and privileges in this House
of other States and their representatives; and
"Whereas the States of Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut,
Delaware, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Wyoming, Oregon, and other States do, by the
provisions of the constitutions and statutes of said States,
and for reasons other than participation in rebellion or other
crime, deny the right to vote for members of Congress and
Presidential electors, as well as the executive and judicial
officers of such States and members of the legislatures
thereof, to male inhabitants 21 years of age and over and
citizens of the United States; and such denial in certain of
the said States extends to more than one-half of those who
prior to the last apportionment of representation were
entitled to vote in such States; and
"Whereas in order that the apportionment of membership of the
House of Representatives may be determined in a constitutional
manner: Therefore, be it
"Resolved by the House of Representatives, That the Director
of the Census is hereby directed to furnish this House, at the
earliest possible moment, the following information;
"First. The total number of male citizens of the United States
over 21 years of age in each of the several States of the
Union.
"Second. The total number of male citizens of the United
States over 21 years of age who, by reason of State
constitutional limitations or State legislation, are denied
the right of suffrage, whether such denial exists on account
of illiteracy, on account of pauperism, on account of
polygamy, or on account of property qualifications, or for any
other reason.
"Resolved further, That the Speaker of the House of
Representatives is hereby authorized and directed to appoint a
select committee of five members from the membership of the
Census Committee of the House of Representatives, who shall
investigate the question of the alleged abridgment of the
elective franchise for any of the causes mentioned in all the
States of the Union in which constitutional or legislative
restrictions on the right of suffrage are claimed to exist,
and that such committee report its findings within twenty days
from the date of the adoption of this resolution to the said
Census Committee, and that within one week after the said
report shall have been received by the Census Committee the
Census Committee shall return a bill to the House of
Representatives providing for the apportionment of the
membership of the House of Representatives based on the
provisions of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of
the United States."
{675}
Republicans, hardly less than Democrats, in Congress and
outside, were averse to raising what could not fail to be a
burning sectional issue, and grounds for ignoring the
constitutional mandate were sought with considerable eagerness
on both sides. Strict obedience to the requirement of the
Constitutional provision was claimed to be impracticable, at
least within the time available for proceedings connected with
the present apportionment of representatives. Said one
speaker, opposing the resolutions in the House: "There is not
a State in this Union that has not added to or subtracted from
the Federal constitutional requirements—not one. … If there is
any addition, whether as a matter of police regulation or
otherwise, to the constitutional amendments regulating the
franchise and the resultant representation in this House—if
there is addition or subtraction of one iota—then those who
desire to live up to this Constitution, no matter whether they
ruin their neighbors, no matter whether they again kindle the
fires of sectional strife, those who in their love for the
Constitution are so mentally rigid that they would demand its
enforcement though they set the Union aflame, must include
every State in this Union."
Said another: "How would anybody find out how many people in
the State of Mississippi were disfranchised for the reasons
stated in this resolution? There is there an educational
qualification. How are you to determine how many of the men in
the State of Mississippi who did not vote, did not vote
because they were disfranchised under the educational
qualification? Then there is a qualification in extension and
not in limitation of the suffrage, saying that even those who
can not read and write may still vote, provided they can give
an understanding interpretation of the Constitution or any
part of it. How are you going to determine how many are
disqualified by that? And then there is a qualification which
says that those can not vote who shall not by a certain time
have paid their poll tax. Out of the number of people who did
not vote, how are you going to determine which of them have
not voted because of the educational qualification? Which
because of the understanding qualification? Which because of
the poll-tax qualification? Which because of the registration
qualification? How many because of the pure Australian ballot
which exists in the State of Mississippi? … There is not a
State in the Union which has the Australian ballot which by
the very fact and the necessity of voting according to that
Australian ballot does not prevent the citizen who can not
read and write from voting if he votes a split ticket of any
sort."
A third speaker remarked: "To live up to that amendment, 'that
no male inhabitant shall be deprived of suffrage except for
participation in the rebellion or other crimes,' the male
inhabitant, I take it, is he who has acquired domicile in that
State, and the moment that he acquires domicile, and is a
male, he is a 'male inhabitant' of that State, and entitled
at once to suffrage; and yet every State in the Union, I
believe without exception, has requirements as to residence
not only in the State, but in the city, in the county, in the
precinct and ward and the voting place; and everyone of those
requirements, as every gentleman on that side must admit, are
in direct conflict with and contravention of the fourteenth
amendment to the Constitution of the United States literally
construed."
But the advocates of obedience to the Constitution, supporting
the resolutions of Mr. Olmsted, planted their argument on the
very facts brought against it, as demonstrating the need of
measures to check a growing tendency in the country to
restrict the elective franchise. Said Mr. Shattuck, of Ohio:
"We find that in 1870 there were three States that had
abridged their electorates—California, Connecticut, and
Massachusetts. In these three States there was a
constitutional provision for an educational qualification,
which disfranchised a certain percentage of the
electorate—namely, the illiterates. But, in those States, the
percentage of illiteracy is very light, averaging about 6 per
cent. The basis of representation would hardly have been
affected in those States had the fourteenth amendment been
conformed with.
"An examination into the election laws of the various States
reveals an astonishing tendency at this time to abridge their
electorates. When the Congress which adopted the existing
apportionment discussed the matter ten years ago but three
States had abridged their electorate by action of the State,
and in these the percentage of disfranchised males was but 6
per cent. But since that time similar policies have been
adopted by other States, and to-day we face the fact that ten
of the forty-five States of this Union have abridged their
electorates, and that in these the percentage of males 21
years of age and over, disfranchised, averages over 20 per
cent. The constitutions of several other States permit such an
abridgment. Besides, there are other States preparing to adopt
these policies and to disfranchise thousands of men who to-day
hold the right of franchise. In view of this remarkable
tendency it is inconceivable that Congress can longer permit
the fourteenth amendment to remain a dead letter, and to pass
a bill making an apportionment based solely upon the
population and neglecting the proviso which applies to all
States which have abridged their electorate.
"We will not review the past by any discussion of the question
as to whether the provisions of the fourteenth amendment
should have been made effective when the last apportionment
was made ten years ago. We find to-day conditions existing
which make its enforcement imperative. I do not propose to
discuss at this time whether the reasons given for these
abridgments by the people of the various States are valid or
not. … I am simply pointing out the conditions as they exist;
I am simply pointing out that the time has come when the
tendency of the States to abridge their electorates has grown
to such proportions as to demand that this Congress shall
proceed in a constitutional manner in making the new
apportionment. I do not say that States have not the right to
establish educational qualifications for their electors, but I
do maintain that when they have done so they must pay the penalty
prescribed in the Constitution, and have their representation
abridged proportionately.
{676}
I do not say that we shall punish only Louisiana;
I do not say that we shall punish only Massachusetts;
I do not say that we shall punish only California;
but I do say and insist, as the representative of a State in
which every male member 21 years of age and over is guaranteed
the sacred right of franchise, that there is a constitutional
remedy prescribed for their acts, and I do demand that that
remedy be applied."
The following interesting table, showing the restrictions of
the electorate in the various States of the Union, was
appended to the remarks of Mr. Shattuck:
STATES.
REQUIREMENTS AS TO CITIZENSHIP. [First paragraph]
PERSONS EXCLUDED FROM SUFFRAGE. [Second paragraph]
ALABAMA.
Citizen of United States, or alien who has declared intention.
Convicted of treason or other crime punishable by
imprisonment, idiots, or insane.
ARKANSAS.
Citizen of United States, or alien who has declared intention.
Idiots, insane, convicted of felony until pardoned, failure
to pay poll tax, United States soldiers on duty in State.
CALIFORNIA.
Citizen by nativity, naturalization, or treaty of Queretaro.
Chinese, insane, embezzlers of public moneys, convicted
of infamous crime, person unable to read Constitution
in English, and to write his name.
COLORADO.
Citizen or alien, male or female, who has declared intention 4
months prior to election.
Under guardianship, insane, idiots, or imprisoned.
CONNECTICUT.
Citizen of United States.
Convicted of felony or theft, unless pardoned.
Person unable to read Constitution or statutes.
DELAWARE.
Citizen who has paid registration fee of $1.
Idiots, insane, paupers, felons. Person who can not
read the English language and write his name.
FLORIDA.
Citizen of United States.
Insane, under guardianship, convicted of felony or any
infamous crime.
GEORGIA.
Citizen of the United States who has paid all
his taxes since 1877.
Idiots, insane, convicted of crime punishable by imprisonment
until pardoned, failure to pay taxes.
IDAHO.
Citizen of the United States, male or female.
Under guardianship, idiots, insane, convicted of felony,
treason, or embezzlement of public funds, polygamist or
bigamist.
ILLINOIS.
Citizen of the United States.
Convicted of felony.
INDIANA.
Citizen of United States, or alien who has declared intention
and resided 1 year in United States and 6 months in State.
Convicted of crime and disfranchised by judgment of the court,
United States soldiers, sailors, and marines.
IOWA.
Citizen of the United States.
Idiots, insane, convicted of infamous crime.
KANSAS.
Citizen of United States, alien who has declared intention, or
[under] treaties with Mexico.
Felons, insane, duelists, rebels, not restored to
citizenship, under guardianship, public embezzlers,
offering or accepting a bribe.
KENTUCKY.
Citizen of the United States.
Treason, felony, bribery at election.
LOUISIANA.
Citizen of United States or alien who has declared intention.
Idiots, insane, convicted of treason, embezzlement of public
funds, all crime punishable by imprisonment in penitentiary,
persons unable to read and write, and not owning property in
the State assessed at $300, or not the son or grandson of a
citizen of the United States prior to January 1, 1867, person
who has not paid pool tax.
MAINE.
Citizen of the United States.
Paupers, persons under guardianship, Indians not taxed, and in
1893 all new voters who can not read the Constitution or write
their own names in English.
MARYLAND.
Citizen of the United States.
Convicted of larceny or other infamous crime, unless pardoned,
persons convicted of bribery.
MASSACHUSETTS.
Citizen of the United States.
Paupers and persons under guardianship, person who can not
read Constitution in English and write his name.
MICHIGAN.
Citizen or inhabitant who has declared intention under United
States laws 6 months before election and lived in State
2½ years.
Indians, duelists, and accessories.
MINNESOTA.
Citizen of United States or alien who has declared intention,
and civilized Indians.
Convicted of treason or felony, unless pardoned, persons
under guardianship or insane.
MISSISSIPPI.
Citizen of the United States.
Insane, idiots, Indians not taxed, felons, persons who have
not paid taxes, persons who can not read or understand
Constitution.
Missouri.
Citizen of United States or alien who has declared intention
not less than 1 year or more than 5 before offering to vote.
United States soldiers and marines, paupers, criminals
convicted once until pardoned, felons and violators of
suffrage laws convicted a second time.
MONTANA.
Citizen of the United States.
Felons, unless pardoned, idiots, insane, United States
soldiers, seamen, and marines, Indians.
NEBRASKA.
Citizen of United States or alien who has declared intention.
Convicts.
NEVADA.
Citizen of the United States.
Idiots, insane, unpardoned convicts, Indians, Chinese.
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Citizen of United States.
Paupers (except honorably discharged United States soldiers
and sailors), persons excused from paying taxes at their own
request,
NEW JERSEY.
Citizen of the United States or alien who has declared
intention 30 days prior to election.
Idiots, insane paupers, persons convicted of crimes (unless
pardoned) which exclude them from being witnesses.
NEW YORK.
Citizen who shall have been a citizen for 90 days.
Convicted of bribery or any infamous crime, Indians under
tribal relations.
NORTH CAROLINA.
Citizen of the United States.
Convicted of felony or other infamous crime, idiots,
lunatics, persons unable to read or write, unless lineal
descendant of citizen of United States prior to January 1,
1867, nonpayment of poll tax.
NORTH DAKOTA.
Citizen of the United States, alien who has declared
intention 1 year, and civilized Indian.
Under guardianship, persons non compos mentis, or convicted
of felony and treason, unless restored to civil rights.
OHIO.
Citizen of the United States.
Felony until pardoned, idiots, insane, United States
soldiers and sailors.
{677}
OREGON.
Citizen of Unite States or alien who
has declared intention 1 year preceding election.
Idiots, insane, convicted of felony, United States soldiers
and sailors, Chinese.
PENNSYLVANIA.
Citizen of the United States at least 1 month, and if 22 years
old or more, must have paid tax within 2 years.
Convicted of some offense whereby right of suffrage is
forfeited, non taxpayers.
RHODE ISLAND.
Citizen of the United States.
Paupers, lunatics, persons non compos mentis, convicted
of bribery or infamous crime until restored to right to
vote under guardianship.
SOUTH CAROLINA.
Citizen of the United States.
Convicted of treason, murder, or other infamous crime,
dueling, paupers, insane, idiots, person who has not
paid poll tax, who can not read an write any section of
the State constitution, or can show that he has paid all
taxes on property within the State assessed at $300.
SOUTH DAKOTA.
Citizen of the United States or alien
who has declared intention.
Under guardianship, idiots, insane, convicted of treason
or felony, unless pardoned.
TENNESSEE.
Citizen of the United States who has paid poll tax of
preceding year.
Convicted of bribery or other infamous offense.
TEXAS.
Citizen of the United States or alien who has declared
intention.
Idiots, lunatics, paupers, convicted of felony, United
States soldiers and seamen.
UTAH.
Citizen, male and female.
Idiots, insane, convicted of treason or violation of
election laws.
VERMONT.
Citizen of the United States.
Those who have not obtained the approbation of the board of
civil authority of the town in which they reside.
VIRGINIA.
Citizen of the United States.
Idiots, lunatics, convicted of bribery at election,
embezzlement of public funds, treason, felony and petty
larceny, duelists and abettors unless pardoned by legislature.
WASHINGTON.
Citizen of the United States.
Indians not taxed, idiots, insane, persons convicted of
infamous crimes.
WEST VIRGINIA.
Citizen of the State.
Paupers, idiots, lunatics, convicted of treason, felony, or
bribery at elections.
WISCONSIN.
Citizen of the United States or alien who has declared
intention.
Insane, under guardianship, convicted of treason or felony,
unless pardoned, Indians having tribal relations.
WYOMING.
Citizen of the United States, male and female.
Idiots, insane, persons convicted of infamous crimes unless
restored to civil rights, unable to read State constitution.
Congressional Record, January 4-5, 1901,
pages 618-20, and 662-5.
The resolutions of Mr. Olmsted were not adopted. The
reapportionment was made on the basis of the totals of the
census returns, with no reckoning of any denials of the right
to vote. The following is the text of the Act, as passed and
approved January 16:
"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled, That after
the third day of March, nineteen hundred and three, the House
of Representatives shall be composed of three hundred and
eighty-six members [the existing number being 357] to be
apportioned among the several States as follows:
Alabama, nine;
Arkansas, seven;
California, eight;
Colorado, three;
Connecticut, five;
Delaware, one;
Florida, three;
Georgia, eleven;
Idaho, one;
Illinois, twenty-five;
Indiana, thirteen;
Iowa, eleven;
Kansas, eight;
Kentucky, eleven;
Louisiana, seven;
Maine, four;
Maryland, six;
Massachusetts, fourteen;
Michigan, twelve;
Minnesota, nine;
Mississippi, eight;
Missouri, sixteen:
Montana, one;
Nebraska, six;
Nevada, one;
New Hampshire, two;
New Jersey, ten;
New York, thirty-seven;
North Carolina, ten;
North Dakota, two;
Ohio, twenty-one:
Oregon, two;
Pennsylvania, thirty-two;
Rhode Island, two;
South Carolina, seven;
South Dakota, two;
Tennessee, ten:
Texas, sixteen:
Utah, one;
Vermont, two;
Virginia, ten;
Washington, three;
West Virginia, five;
Wisconsin, eleven; and
Wyoming, one.
"SECTION 2.
That whenever a new State is admitted to the Union the
Representative or Representatives assigned to it shall be in
addition to the number three hundred and eighty-six.
"SECTION 3.
That in each State entitled under this apportionment, the
number to which such State may be entitled in the Fifty-eighth
and each subsequent Congress shall be elected by districts
composed of contiguous and compact territory and containing as
nearly as practicable an equal number of inhabitants. The said
districts shall be equal to the number of the Representatives
to which such State may be entitled in Congress, no one
district electing more than one Representative.
"SECTION 4.
That in case of an increase in the number of Representatives
which may be given to any State under this apportionment such
additional Representative or Representatives shall be elected
by the State at large, and the other Representatives by the
districts now prescribed by law until the legislature of such
State in the manner herein prescribed, shall redistrict such
State; and if there be no increase in the number of
Representatives from a State the Representatives thereof shall
be elected from the districts now prescribed by law until such
State be redistricted as herein prescribed by the legislature
of said State; and if the number hereby provided for shall in
any State be less than it was before the change hereby made,
then the whole number to such State hereby provided for shall
be elected at large, unless the legislatures of said States
have provided or shall otherwise provide before the time fixed
by law for the next election of Representatives therein.
"SECTION 5.
That all Acts and parts of Acts inconsistent with this Act are
hereby repealed."
No existing State quota was reduced by the new apportionment,
and the gains were as follows:
Illinois, New York and Texas, 3;
Minnesota, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, 2;
Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida,
Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, North
Carolina, North Dakota, Washington, West Virginia and
Wisconsin, 1.
{678}
That clause of the third section which requires districts to
be "composed of contiguous and compact territory" is intended
to be a bar to the partisan trick called "gerrymandering." The
vote on the bill in the House (165 against 102) was singularly
non-partisan. The minority was said to be composed of exactly
the same number of Republicans and Democrats, 51 of each, and
in the majority vote there were included 84 Republicans and 81
Democrats. The vote was also non-sectional, except that New
England voted almost solidly for the measure. East, South and
West the State delegations were almost equally divided.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (February).
Act to increase the standing army of the nation to 100,000 men.
In his annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1900, the
President set forth the military needs of the country, created
by its new policy of imperial expansion, and recommended that
the permanent army be raised to 100,000 in number, from 45,000
to 60,000 of which would be required in the Philippine Islands
until their people were made submissive to the authority of
the United States. In accord with the executive
recommendation, Congress passed "an Act to increase the
efficiency of the permanent military establishment of the
United States," which became law by the President's signature
on the 2d of February, 1901. Its first section provides that
"from and after the approval of this Act the Army of the
United States, including the existing organizations, shall
consist of fifteen regiments of cavalry, a corps of artillery,
thirty regiments of infantry, one Lieutenant-General, six
major-generals, fifteen brigadier-generals, an
Adjutant-General's Department, an Inspector-General's
Department, a Judge-Advocate-General's Department, a
Quartermaster's Department, a Subsistence Department, a
Medical Department, a Pay Department, a Corps of Engineers, an
Ordnance Department, a Signal Corps, the officers of the
Record and Pension Office, the chaplains, the officers and
enlisted men of the Army on the retired list, the professors,
corps of cadets, the army detachments and band at the United
States Military Academy, Indian scouts as now authorized by
law, and such other officers and enlisted men as may
hereinafter be provided for." A subsequent section enacts that
the total enlisted force of the line of the army shall not exceed
at any one time 100,000.
Section 2 provides that "each regiment of cavalry shall
consist of one colonel, one lieutenant-colonel, three majors,
fifteen captains, fifteen first lieutenants, and fifteen
second lieutenants; two veterinarians, one sergeant-major, one
quartermaster-sergeant, one commissary-sergeant, three
squadron sergeants-major, two color-sergeants with rank, pay,
and allowances of squadron sergeant-major, one band, and
twelve troops organized into three squadrons of four troops
each. … Each troop of cavalry shall consist of one captain,
one first lieutenant, one second lieutenant, one first
sergeant, one quartermaster-sergeant, six sergeants, six
corporals, two cooks, two farriers and blacksmiths, one
saddler, one wagoner, two trumpeters, and forty-three
privates; the commissioned officers to be assigned from among
those hereinbefore authorized."
Sections 3-9, relating to the Artillery, are, in part, as
follows:
"That the regimental organization of the artillery arm of the
United States Army is hereby discontinued, and that arm is
constituted and designated as the Artillery Corps. It shall be
organized as hereinafter specified and shall belong to the
line of the Army. That the Artillery Corps shall comprise two
branches—the coast artillery and the field artillery. The
coast artillery is defined as that portion charged with the
care and use of the fixed and movable elements of land and
coast fortifications, including the submarine mine and torpedo
defenses; and the field artillery as that portion accompanying
an army in the field, and including field and light artillery
proper, horse artillery, siege artillery, mountain artillery,
and also machine-gun batteries: Provided, That this shall not
be construed to limit the authority of the Secretary of War to
order coast artillery to any duty which the public service
demands or to prevent the use of machine or other field guns
by any other arm of the service under the direction of the
Secretary of War. … That the Artillery Corps shall consist of
a Chief of Artillery, who shall be selected and detailed by
the President from the colonels of artillery, to serve on the
staff of the general officer commanding the Army, and whose
duties shall be prescribed by the Secretary of War: fourteen
colonels, one of whom shall be the Chief of Artillery;
thirteen lieutenant-colonels, thirty-nine majors, one hundred
and ninety-five captains, one hundred and ninety-five first
lieutenants, one hundred and ninety-five second lieutenants;
and the captains and lieutenants provided for in this section
not required for duty with batteries or companies shall be
available for duty as staff officers of the various artillery
garrisons and such other details as may be authorized by law
and regulations; twenty-one sergeants-major, with the rank,
pay, and allowances of regimental sergeants-major of infantry;
twenty-seven sergeants-major, with the rank, pay, and
allowances of battalion sergeants-major of infantry; one
electrician sergeant to each coast artillery post having
electrical appliances; thirty batteries of field artillery,
one hundred and twenty-six batteries of coast artillery, and
ten bands organized as now authorized by law for artillery
regiments: Provided, That the aggregate number of enlisted men
for the artillery, as provided under this Act, shall not
exceed eighteen thousand nine hundred and twenty, exclusive of
electrician sergeants." Concerning the Infantry it is
provided, in Section 10, that "each regiment of infantry shall
consist of one colonel, one lieutenant colonel, three majors,
fifteen captains, fifteen first lieutenants, and fifteen
second lieutenants; one sergeant-major, one
quartermaster-sergeant, one commissary-sergeant, three
battalion sergeants-major, two color sergeants, with rank,
pay, and allowances of battalion sergeants-major, one band,
and twelve companies, organized into three battalions of four
companies each. Of the officers herein provided, the captains
and lieutenants not required for duty with the companies shall
be available for detail as regimental and battalion staff
officers and such other details as may be authorized by law or
regulations. … Each infantry company shall consist of one
captain, one first lieutenant, one second lieutenant, one
first sergeant, one quartermaster-sergeant, four sergeants,
six corporals, two cooks, two musicians, one artificer, and
forty-eight privates, the commissioned officers to be assigned
from those hereinbefore authorized."
{679}
Section 11 provides that "the enlisted force of the Corps of
Engineers shall consist of one band and three battalions of
engineers. … Each battalion of engineers shall consist of one
sergeant-major, one quartermaster-sergeant, and four
companies. Each company of engineers shall consist of one
first sergeant, one quartermaster-sergeant, with the rank,
pay, and allowances of sergeant, eight sergeants, ten
corporals, two musicians, two cooks, thirty-eight first-class
and thirty-eight second-class privates."
Section 12 relates to the appointment of army chaplains—one
for each regiment of cavalry and infantry, and twelve for the
corps of artillery—no person to be appointed who has passed
the age of forty years. The office of post chaplain is
abolished. Sections 13 to 27 relate mainly to the organization
of the several Departments, of the Adjutant-General,
Inspector-General, Judge-Advocate-General,
Quartermaster-General, Commissary-General, Surgeon-General,
Paymaster-General, Chief of Engineers, Chief of Ordnance, etc.
Section 28, prescribing the rules of promotion and
appointment, is as follows: "That vacancies in the grade of
field officers and captain, created by this Act, in the
cavalry, artillery, and infantry shall be filled by promotion
according to seniority in each branch, respectively. Vacancies
existing after the promotions have been made shall be provided
for as follows: A sufficient number shall be reserved in the
grade of second lieutenant for the next graduating class at
the United States Military Academy. Persons not over forty
years of age who shall have at any time served as volunteers
subsequent to April twenty-first, eighteen hundred and
ninety-eight, may be ordered before boards of officers for
such examination as may be prescribed by the Secretary of War,
and those who establish their fitness before these examining
boards may be appointed to the grades of first or second
lieutenant in the Regular Army, taking rank in the respective
grades according to seniority as determined by length of prior
commissioned service; but no person appointed under the
provisions of this section shall be placed above another in
the same grade with longer commissioned service, and nothing
herein contained shall change the relative rank of officers
heretofore commissioned in the Regular Army. Enlisted men of
the Regular Army or volunteers may be appointed second
lieutenants in the Regular Army to vacancies created by this
Act, provided that they shall have served one year, under the
same conditions now authorized by law for enlisted men of the
Regular Army."
Important provisions are embodied in Sections 35 and 36, as
follows:
"SECTION 35. That the Secretary of War be, and he is hereby,
authorized and directed to cause preliminary examinations and
surveys to be made for the purpose of selecting four sites
with a view to the establishment of permanent camp grounds for
instruction of troops of the Regular Army and National Guard,
with estimates of the cost of the sites and their equipment
with all modern appliances, and for this purpose is authorized
to detail such officers of the Army as may be necessary to
carry on the preliminary work; and the sum of ten thousand
dollars is hereby appropriated for the necessary expense of
such work, to be disbursed under the direction of the
Secretary of War: Provided, That the Secretary of War shall
report to Congress the result of such examination and surveys,
and no contract for said sites shall be made nor any
obligation incurred until Congress shall approve such
selections and appropriate the money therefor.
"SECTION 36. That when in his opinion the conditions in the
Philippine Islands justify such action the President is
authorized to enlist natives of those islands for service in
the Army, to be organized as scouts, with such officers as he
shall deem necessary for their proper control, or as troops or
companies, as authorized by this Act, for the Regular Army.
The President is further authorized, in his discretion, to
form companies, organized as are companies of the Regular
Army, in squadron's or battalions, with officers and
non-commissioned officers corresponding to similar
organizations in the cavalry and infantry arms. The total
number of enlisted men in said native organizations shall not
exceed twelve thousand, and the total enlisted force of the
line of the Army, together with such native force, shall not
exceed at any one time one hundred thousand. … When, in the
opinion of the President, natives of the Philippine Islands
shall, by their services and character, show fitness for
command, the President is authorized to make provisional
appointments to the grades of second and first lieutenants
from such natives, who, when so appointed, shall have the pay
and allowances to be fixed by the Secretary of War, not
exceeding those of corresponding grades of the Regular Army."
Section 38 abolishes the so-called "Army Canteen," in
compliance with strenuous demands from temperance
organizations in the country, notwithstanding much testimony
favorable to the canteen system from well-informed and
conscientious witnesses. The language of the section is as
follows: "The sale of or dealing in beer, wine, or any
intoxicating liquors, by any person in any post exchange or
canteen or army transport, or upon any premises used for
military purposes by the United States, is hereby prohibited.
The Secretary of War is hereby directed to carry the
provisions of this section into full force and effect." Prompt
obedience to this command of law was given by the War
Department, which issued the required general order February
4th.
The following amendment, proposed by Senator Hoar for addition
to the Act, was voted down: "Provided, That no further
military force shall be used in the Philippine Islands, except
such as may be necessary to keep order in places there now
actually under the peaceable control of the United States and
to protect persons or property to whom, in the judgment of the
President, protection may be due from the United States, until
the President shall have first proclaimed an amnesty for all
political offenses committed against the United States in the
Philippine Islands, and shall have, if in his power, agreed
upon an armistice with persons now in hostility to the United
States, and shall have invited such number, not less than 10,
as he shall think desirable of the leaders or representatives
of the persons now hostile to the United States there to come
to the United States and state their wishes and the condition,
character, and wishes of the people of the Philippine Islands
to the Executive and Congress, and shall have offered to
secure to them safe conduct to come, abide, and return, and
shall have provided at the public charge for the expenses of
their transportation both ways and their stay in this country
for a reasonable and sufficient time for such purpose."
{680}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1910 (February).
The Russian sugar question.
United States countervailing duty and Russian retaliation.
See (in this volume)
SUGAR BOUNTIES.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (February-March).
Adoption of the so-called "Spooner Amendment" to
the Army Appropriation Bill empowering the President to
establish a civil government in the Philippines.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (February-March).
Adoption of the "Platt Amendment," prescribing conditions on
which the President is authorized to "leave the government and
control of the island of Cuba to its people."
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (March).
Reinauguration of President McKinley for a second term in the
executive office. His inaugural address.
The reinauguration of President McKinley, for the second term
of office to which he had been elected, was performed with the
customary ceremonies, at the capitol, in Washington, on the
4th of March, 1001. His inaugural address upon the occasion is
especially interesting, for the reason that it indicates the
understanding with which the President received his
re-election, and the interpretation which he has put upon it
as an expression of the national will on questions of
extraordinary moment. He spoke as follows:
"My Fellow Citizens: When we assembled here on March 4, 1897,
there was great anxiety with regard to our currency and
credit. None exists now. Then our treasury receipts were
inadequate to meet the current obligations of the government.
Now they are sufficient for all public needs, and we have a
surplus instead of a deficit. Then I felt constrained to
convene the Congress in extraordinary session to devise
revenues to pay the ordinary expenses of the government. Now I
have the satisfaction to announce that the Congress just
closed has reduced taxation in the sum of $41,000,000. Then
there was deep solicitude because of the long depression in
our manufacturing, mining, agricultural and mercantile
industries, and the consequent distress of our laboring
population. Now every avenue of production is crowded with
activity, labor is well employed and American products find
good markets at home and abroad. Our diversified productions,
however, are increasing in such unprecedented volume as to
admonish us of the necessity of still further enlarging our
foreign markets by broader commercial relations. For this
purpose reciprocal trade arrangements with other nations
should in liberal spirit be carefully cultivated and promoted.
"The national verdict of 1896 has for the most part been
executed. Whatever remains unfulfilled is a continuing
obligation resting with undiminished force upon the Executive
and the Congress. But fortunate as our condition is, its
permanence can only be assured by sound business methods and
strict economy in national administration and legislation. We
should not permit our great prosperity to lead us to reckless
ventures in business or profligacy in public expenditures.
While the Congress determines the objects and the sum of
appropriations, the officials of the executive departments are
responsible for honest and faithful disbursement, and it
should be their constant care to avoid waste and extravagance.
Honesty, capacity and industry are nowhere more indispensable
than in public employment. These should be fundamental
requisites to original appointment and the surest guarantees
against removal.
"Four years ago we stood on the brink of war without the
people knowing it and without any preparation or effort at
preparation for the impending peril. I did all that in honor
could be done to avert the war, but without avail. It became
inevitable, and the Congress at its first regular session,
without party division, provided money in anticipation of the
crisis and in preparation to meet it. It came. The result was
signally favorable to American arms and in the highest degree
honorable to the government. It imposed upon us obligations
from which we cannot escape, and from which it would be
dishonorable to seek to escape. We are now at peace with the
world, and it is my fervent prayer that if differences arise
between us and other powers they may be settled by peaceful
arbitration, and that hereafter we may be spared the horrors
of war.
"Intrusted by the people for a second time with the office of
President, I enter upon its administration appreciating the
great responsibilities which attach to this renewed honor and
commission, promising unreserved devotion on my part to their
faithful discharge and reverently invoking for my guidance the
direction and favor of Almighty God. I should shrink from the
duties this day assumed if I did not feel that in their
performance I should have the cooperation of the wise and
patriotic men of all parties. It encourages me for the great
task which I now undertake to believe that those who
voluntarily committed to me the trust imposed upon the chief
executive of the republic will give to me generous support in
my duties to 'preserve, protect and defend the constitution of
the United States,' and to 'care that the laws be faithfully
executed.' The national purpose is indicated through a
national election. It is the constitutional method of
ascertaining the public will. When once it is registered it is
a law to us all, and faithful observance should follow its
decrees.
"Strong hearts and helpful hands are needed, and fortunately
we have them in every part of our beloved country. We are
reunited. Sectionalism has disappeared. Division on public
questions can no longer be traced by the war maps of 1861.
These old differences less and less disturb the judgment.
Existing problems demand the thought and quicken the
conscience of the country, and the responsibility for their
presence as well as for their righteous settlement rests upon
us all, no more upon me than upon you. There are some national
questions in the solution of which patriotism should exclude
partisanship. Magnifying their difficulties will not take them
off our hands nor facilitate their adjustment. Distrust of the
capacity, integrity and high purpose of the American people
will not be an inspiring theme for future political contests.
Dark pictures and gloomy forebodings are worse than useless.
These only becloud, they do not help to point the way of
safety and honor. 'Hope maketh not ashamed.'
{681}
"The prophets of evil were not the builders of the republic,
nor in its crises have they saved or served it. The faith of
the fathers was a mighty force in its creation, and the faith
of their descendants has wrought its progress and furnished
its defenders. They are obstructionists who despair and who
would destroy confidence in the ability of our people to solve
wisely and for civilization the mighty problems resting upon
them. The American people, intrenched in freedom at home, take
their love for it with them wherever they go, and they reject
as mistaken and unworthy the doctrine that we lose our own
liberties by securing the enduring foundations of liberty to
others. Our institutions will not deteriorate by extension,
and our sense of justice will not abate under tropic suns in
distant seas.
"As heretofore so hereafter will the nation demonstrate its
fitness to administer any new estate which events devolve upon
it, and in the fear of God will 'take occasion by the hand and
make the bounds of freedom wider yet.' If there are those
among us who would make our way more difficult we must not be
disheartened, but the more earnestly dedicate ourselves to the
task upon which we have rightly entered. The path of progress
is seldom smooth. New things are often found hard to do. Our
fathers found them so. We find them so. They are inconvenient.
They cost us something. But are we not made better for the
effort and sacrifice, and are not those we serve lifted up and
blessed?
"We will be consoled, too, with the fact that opposition has
confronted every onward movement of the republic from its
opening hour until now, but without success. The republic has
marched on and on, and its every step has exalted freedom and
humanity. We are undergoing the same ordeal as did our
predecessors nearly a century ago. We are following the course
they blazed. They triumphed. Will their successors falter and
plead organic impotency in the nation? Surely after one
hundred and twenty-five years of achievement for mankind we
will not now surrender our equality with other Powers on
matters fundamental and essential to nationality. With no such
purpose was the nation created. In no such spirit has it
developed its full and independent sovereignty. We adhere to
the principle of equality among ourselves, and by no act of
ours will we assign to ourselves a subordinate rank in the
family of nations.
"My fellow citizens, the public events of the last four years
have gone into history. They are too near to justify recital.
Some of them were unforeseen; many of them momentous and far
reaching in their consequences to ourselves and our relations
with the rest of the world. The part which the United States
bore so honorably in the thrilling scenes in China, while new
to American life, has been in harmony with its true spirit and
best traditions, and in dealing with the results its policy
will be that of moderation and fairness.
"We face at this moment a most important question—that of the
future relations of the United States and Cuba. With our near
neighbors we must remain close friends. The declaration of the
purposes of this government in the resolution of April 20,
1898, must be made good. Ever since the evacuation of the
island by the army of Spain the Executive with all practicable
speed has been assisting its people in the successive steps
necessary to the establishment of a free and independent
government prepared to assume and perform the obligations of
international law, which now rest upon the United States under
the Treaty of Paris. The convention elected by the people to
frame a constitution is approaching the completion of its
labors. The transfer of American control to the new government
is of such great importance, involving an obligation resulting
from our intervention and the treaty of peace, that I am glad
to be advised by the recent act of Congress of the policy
which the legislative branch of the government deems essential
to the best interests of Cuba and the United States. The
principles which led to our intervention require that the
fundamental law upon which the new government rests should be
adapted to secure a government capable of performing the
duties and discharging the functions of a separate nation, of
observing its international obligations, of protecting life
and property, insuring order, safety and liberty, and
conforming to the established and historical policy of the
United States in its relation to Cuba.
"The peace which we are pledged to leave to the Cuban people
must carry with it the guarantees of permanence. We became
sponsors for the pacification of the island, and we remain
accountable to the Cubans no less than to our own country and
people for the reconstruction of Cuba as a free commonwealth,
on abiding foundations of right, justice, liberty and assured
order. Our enfranchisement of the people will not be completed
until free Cuba shall 'be a reality, not a name—a perfect
entity, not a hasty experiment, bearing within itself the
elements of failure.'
"While the treaty of peace with Spain was ratified on February
6, 1899, and ratifications were exchanged nearly two years
ago, the Congress has indicated no form of government for the
Philippine Islands. It has, however, provided an army to
enable the Executive to suppress insurrection, restore peace,
give security to the inhabitants and establish the authority
of the United States throughout the archipelago. It has
authorized the organization of native troops as auxiliary to
the regular force. It has been advised from time to time of
the acts of the military and naval officers in the islands, of
my action in appointing civil commissions, of the instructions
with which they were charged, of their duties and powers, of
their recommendations and of their several acts under
Executive commission, together with the very complete general
information they have submitted.
"These reports fully set forth the conditions, past and
present, in the islands, and the instructions clearly show the
principles which will guide the Executive until the Congress
shall, as it is required to do by the treaty, determine 'the
civil rights and political status of the native inhabitants.'
The Congress having added the sanction of its authority to the
powers already possessed and exercised by the Executive under
the constitution, thereby leaving with the Executive the
responsibility for the government of the Philippines, I shall
continue the efforts already begun until order shall be
restored throughout the islands, and as fast as conditions
permit will establish local governments, in the formation of
which the full co-operation of the people has been already
invited, and when established will encourage the people to
administer them.
{682}
"The settled purpose, long ago proclaimed, to afford the
inhabitants of the islands self-government as fast as they
were ready for it will be pursued with earnestness and
fidelity. Already something has been accomplished in this
direction. The government's representatives, civil and
military, are doing faithful and noble work in their mission
of emancipation, and merit the approval and support of their
countrymen. The most liberal terms of amnesty have already
been communicated to the insurgents, and the way is still open
for those who have raised their arms against the government
for honorable submission to its authority.
"Our countrymen should not be deceived. We are not waging war
against the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands. A portion
of them are making war against the United States. By far the
greater part of the inhabitants recognize American
sovereignty, and welcome it as n guarantee of order and
security for life, property, liberty, freedom of conscience
and the pursuit of happiness. To them full protection will be
given. They shall not be abandoned. We will not leave the
destiny of the loyal millions in the islands to the disloyal
thousands who are in rebellion against the United States.
Order under civil institutions will come as soon as those who
now break the peace shall keep it. Force will not be needed or
used when those who make war against us shall make it no more.
May it end without further bloodshed, and there be ushered in
the reign of peace, to be made permanent by a government of
liberty under law."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (March).
Rejection by the British government of the Interoceanic Canal
Treaty as amended by the Senate.
See (in this volume)
CANAL, INTEROCEANIC: A. D. 1901 (MARCH).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (March).
Death of Ex-President Harrison.
Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States 1889-1893,
died at his home in Indianapolis, on the afternoon of March
13, 1901, after an illness of a few days.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (March-April).
Capture of Aguinaldo, the Filipino leader.
His oath of allegiance to the United States.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901 (MARCH-APRIL).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (April).
Organization of the enlarged regular army.
Its strength, 76,000 men.
A Press despatch from Washington, April 24, announced that the
Secretary of War had approved recommendations of
Lieutenant-General Miles for the organization of the army, not
raising it to the full strength of 100,000 men authorized by
Congress, but providing for a force of 76,787 enlisted men,
distributed as follows:
"Line of the army, 74,504;
ordnance department, 700;
signal corps, 760;
post quartermaster sergeants, 150;
post commissary sergeants, 200;
electrician sergeants, 100;
Military Academy detachment and band, 298;
Indian scouts, 75.
The cavalry is to be organized into fifteen regiments,
consisting of 12 troops of 85 enlisted men, which, with the
bands, will make a cavalry force of 15,840 men. The infantry
is to consist of 38,520 men, divided into 30 regiments of 12
companies each. The artillery corps will have a total of
18,862 men, of which the coast artillery will have 13, 734,
organized into 126 companies of 109 men each; and the field
artillery, 4,800 men, organized into 30 batteries of 150 men
each. The engineer battalions will consist of 12 companies
amounting to 1,282 men. This plan makes no provision for the
employment of Filipino natives, but this is explained by the
fact that the 12,000 authorized for the native military force
was made a distinctive feature of the Army bill by Congress
and separated from the Regular Army."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (April).
Petition from the workingmen of Porto Rico.
See (in this volume)
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1901 (APRIL).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (May).
Decision of the Supreme Court in the cases involving
questions touching the status of the new territorial
possessions of the nation.
The opinions of the Supreme Court in the cases before it known
as "the insular cases," involving questions touching the
relations of the government of the United States to the
insular possessions lately acquired (see above: A. D.
1900-1901), were announced on the 27th of May, as these sheets
of the present volume were about to go to press.
In the case of Elias S. A. De Lima et al. the opinion of the
majority of the Court, delivered by Justice Brown, was against
the claim of the government to duties on goods imported into
the United States from Porto Rico after the ratification of
the treaty of peace with Spain and before the passage of the
Porto Rican act of April 12, 1900.
See, (in this volume),
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1899-1900; and 1900, APRIL).
It was held in this decisive opinion that Porto Rico, at the
time the duties in question were collected, was not a foreign
country, but a territory of the United States. Said Justice
Brown: "If an Act of Congress be necessary to convert a
foreign country into domestic territory, the question at once
suggests itself, What is the character of the legislation
demanded for this purpose? Will an act appropriating money for
its purchase be sufficient? Apparently not. Will an act
appropriating the duties collected upon imports to and from
such country for the benefit of its government be sufficient?
Apparently not. Will acts making appropriations for its postal
service, for the establishment of lighthouses, for the
maintenance of quarantine stations, for erecting public
buildings, have that effect? Will an act establishing a
complete local government, but with the reservation of a right
to collect duties upon commerce, be adequate for that purpose?
None of these, nor all together, will be sufficient, if the
contention of the government be sound, since acts embracing
all these provisions have been passed in connection with Porto
Rico, and it is insisted that it is still a foreign country
within the meaning of the tariff laws. We are unable to
acquiesce in this assumption that a territory may be at the
same time both foreign and domestic. We are, therefore, of the
opinion that at the time these duties were levied Porto Rico
was not a foreign country within the meaning of the tariff
laws, but a territory of the United States; that the duties
were illegally exacted, and that the plaintiffs are entitled
to recover them back."
But in the case of Samuel B. Downes et al. a different set of
circumstances was dealt with, since the duties in question
were on goods imported from Porto Rico after the passage of
the Act of April 12 (called "the Foraker Act"). On the
question thus presented the majority of the Court sustained
the contention of the government, saying, in an opinion
delivered by Justice Brown:
{683}
"We are of opinion that the island of Porto Rico is a
territory appurtenant and belonging to the United States, but
not a part of the United States within the revenue clause of
the Constitution; that the Foraker act is constitutional so
far as it imposes duties upon imports from such island and
that the plaintiff cannot recover the duties exacted in this
case." The following general conclusions were held by Justice
Brown to be established:
"First—That the District of Columbia and the Territories are
not States, within the judicial clause of the Constitution
giving jurisdiction in cases between citizens of different
States.
"Second—That Territories are not States, within the meaning of
revised statutes, section 709, permitting writs of error from
this court in cases where the validity of a State's statute is
drawn in question.
"Third—That the District of Columbia and the Territories are
States as that word is used in treaties with foreign powers,
with respect to the ownership, disposition and inheritance of
property.
"Fourth—That the Territories are not within the clause of the
Constitution providing for the creation of a Supreme Court and
such inferior courts as Congress may see fit to establish.
"Fifth—That the Constitution does not apply to foreign
countries or trials therein conducted, and that Congress may
lawfully provide for such trials before consular tribunals,
without the intervention of a grand or petit jury.
"Sixth—That where the Constitution has been once formally
extended by Congress to Territories, neither Congress nor the
Territorial Legislature can enact laws inconsistent
therewith."
Five of the nine justices of the Court concurred in the decree
announced by Justice Brown; but three of them, viz., Justices
White, Shims and McKenna, placed their concurrence on
different and quite opposed grounds, in an opinion prepared by
Justice White. In their view of the case before the court,
"the sole and only issue is, had Porto Rico, at the time of
the passage of the Act in question, been incorporated into and
become an integral part of the United States?" and their
conclusion is reported to have been, that "the question when
Porto Rico was to be incorporated was a political question, to
be determined by the American people, speaking through
Congress, and was not for the courts to determine."
The minority of the Court, consisting of Chief Justice Fuller,
Justices Harlan, Brewer and Peckham dissented from the decree
rendered by the majority, and from the varying grounds on
which the two sections of that majority had rested it. As
summarized in press despatches of the day, their opinion,
delivered by the Chief Justice, "absolutely rejected the
contention that the rule of uniformity [that is, the
constitutional provision that 'all duties, imposts and excises
shall be uniform throughout the United States'] was not
applicable to Porto Rico because it had not been incorporated
into and become an integral part of the United States; the
word incorporation had no occult meaning, and whatever its
situation before, the Foraker act made Porto Rico an organized
Territory of the United States." "The concurring opinion of
the majority," said the Chief Justice, "recognized that
Congress, in dealing with the people of new territories or
possessions, is bound to respect the fundamental guarantees of
life, liberty and property, but assumes that Congress is not
bound in those territories or possessions to follow the rules
of taxation prescribed by the Constitution. And yet the power
to tax involves the power to destroy and the levy of duty
touches all our people in all places under the jurisdiction of
the Government. The logical result is that Congress may
prohibit commerce altogether between the States and
Territories, and may prescribe one rule of taxation in one
Territory, and a different rule in another. That theory
assumes that the Constitution created a government empowered
to acquire countries throughout the world, to be governed by
different rules than those obtaining in the original States
and Territories, and substitutes for the present system of
republican government, a system of domination over distant
provinces in the exercise of unrestricted power. In our
judgment, so much of the Porto Rican act as authorized the
imposition of these duties is invalid and plaintiffs were
entitled to recover."
Justice Harlan announced his concurrence with the dissenting
opinion delivered by the Chief Justice. He regarded the
Foraker act as unconstitutional in its revenue provisions, and
believed that Porto Rico, after the ratification of the treaty
with Spain, became a part of the United States. In conclusion,
Justice Harlan said: "The addition of Porto Rico to the
territory of the United States has been recognized by direct
action upon the part of Congress. It has legislated in
recognition of the treaty with Spain. If Porto Rico did not by
such action become a part of the United States it did become
such, at least, when Congress passed the Foraker act. I can
not believe that Congress may impose any duty, impost or
excise with respect to that territory and its people which is
not consistent with the constitutional requirement that all
duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the
United States."
No decision was rendered in the case of the Fourteen Diamond
Rings, which involved questions relative to the status of the
Philippine Islands in their relations to the government of the
United States.
----------UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: End--------
UNITED STATES OF CENTRAL AMERICA.
Its formation and dissolution.
See (in this volume)
CENTRAL AMERICA: A. D. 1821-1898.
UNITED STATES STEEL CORPORATION.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: UNITED STATES: THE CLIMAX, &c.
UNIVERSITIES.
See (in this volume)
EDUCATION.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA:
Expeditions to explore the ruins of Nippur.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL, RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.
UNYORO:
British regulation of the kingdom.
See (in this volume)
UGANDA: A. D. 1897-1898.
UR.
See (in volume 1)
BABYLONIA, PRIMITIVE;
See (in volume 4)
SEMITES;
and (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA.
{684}
URUGUAY: A. D. 1896-1899.
Revolutionary movement.
Assassination of President Borda.
Blancos and Colorados.
Restoration of tranquil government by the
Vice President, Cuestas.
In November, 1896, a movement for the overthrow of President
Borda was begun, with strong assistance from the neighboring
Brazilian State of Rio Grande do Sul. Months of civil war
followed, with varying fortunes, but the summer of 1897 found
the President parleying with the insurgents, endeavoring to
make terms. His original opponents had been the party called
that of the Blancos, or Whites; the Colorados, or Reds, had
supported him; but he seemed to be making enemies among them.
By an assassin of his own party he was shot, on the 25th of
August, as he came from a service in the cathedral at
Montevideo which commemorated the anniversary of Uruguayan
independence. Senor Juan Luis Cuestas, the President of the
Senate and ex-officio Vice President of the Republic, assumed
the administration of the government, made peace with the
insurgents, and prepared to deal with a faction in the
Chambers which is said to have made good government
impossible. "The Representatives had made themselves hated by
violence, corruption, and attacks on property. Senor Cuestas
accordingly removed all officials devoted to the Chambers,
called out a thousand National Guards, and being thus master
of the situation, on February 10th dissolved the Chambers and
declared himself provisional President. He then appointed a
'Council' of eighty prominent citizens of all parties,
invested them with the legislative power, and directed them to
elect a new President, and to settle the method and time of
the next elections. … According to the 'Times',
correspondent, the citizens of Monte Video of all parties
approved his action, not a stroke was struck for the Chambers,
and public securities rose at once by from eight to fourteen
points. Senor Cuestas, in fact, is trusted and competent."
The Spectator (London),
March 26, 1898.
In due time, the Provisional President had to deal with a
military revolt, which he effectually suppressed. Then, on the
1st of March, 1899, he was constitutionally elected President,
after resigning his dictatorial powers for a fortnight, in
order that the election might be freely held.
UTAH: A. D. 1895-1896.
Prohibition of polygamous marriages.
Proclamation of admission to the Union.
On the 4th of January, 1896, a proclamation by the President
of the United States, after reciting the provisions of the Act
of Congress approved July 16, 1894, and the action taken by a
convention of the people of Utah, held in accordance with the
said act, in March, 1895, which convention "did, by ordinance
irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the
people of said State, as required by said act, provide that
perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured and
that no inhabitant of said State shall ever be molested in person
or property on account of his or her mode of religious
worship, but that polygamous or plural marriages are forever
prohibited," thereupon declared and proclaimed the creation of
the State of Utah and its admission into the Union to be
accomplished. The constitution of the new State has some
radical features, providing for an eight-hours labor-day, and
giving to women equal rights with men in suffrage and in
eligibility to public office.
V.
VASSOS, Colonel, in Crete.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).
"VEGETARIANS," The.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1895 (AUGUST).
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1895.
Revolt suppressed.
An attempted rising, in the interest of Dr. Rojas Paul,
against the government of President Crespo, in the autumn of
1895, was quickly suppressed.
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1895 (July).
The question of the boundary of British Guiana taken up by the
government of the United States.
Despatch of Secretary Olney to Ambassador Bayard.
For a number of years the government of the United States had
been exerting itself to bring about the settlement of a long
standing dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela
concerning the line of boundary between the territory of
Venezuela and that of British Guiana. In 1895 the effort
became more resolute, as appeared in a lengthy despatch
addressed, on the 20th of July, by the American Secretary of
State, Mr. Olney, to the American Ambassador in London, Mr.
Bayard. In this despatch Mr. Olney reviewed the long
controversy which had been in progress, and recalled the
communications on the subject which had passed between the
governments of the United States and Great Britain since 1886.
He then summarised "the important features of the existing
situation" as represented in his recital, by the following
statement:
"1. The title to territory of indefinite but confessedly very
large extent is in dispute between Great Britain on the one
hand, and the South American Republic of Venezuela on the
other.
2. The disparity in the strength of the claimants is such that
Venezuela can hope to establish her claim only through
peaceful methods—through an agreement with her adversary
either upon the subject itself or upon an arbitration.
3. The controversy with varying claims on the part of Great
Britain has existed for more than half-a-century, during which
period many earnest and persistent efforts of Venezuela to
establish a boundary by agreement have proved unsuccessful.
4. The futility of the endeavour to obtain a conventional line
being recognized, Venezuela, for a quarter of a century, has
asked and striven for arbitration.
5. Great Britain, however, has always and continuously
refused, and still refuses, to arbitrate except upon the
condition of a renunciation of a large part of the Venezuelan
claim, and of a concession to herself of a large share of the
territory in controversy.
{685}
6. By the frequent interposition of its good offices at the
instance of Venezuela, by constantly urging and promoting the
restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries,
by pressing for arbitration of the disputed boundary, by offering
to act as Arbitrator, by expressing its grave concern whenever
new alleged instances of British aggression upon Venezuelan
territory have been brought to its notice, the Government of
the United States has made it clear to Great Britain and to
the world that the controversy is one in which both its honour
and its interests are involved, and the continuance of which
it cannot regard with indifference."
Mr. Olney proceeds next to consider the rights, the interests
and the duty of the United States in the matter, and to what
extent, if any, it "may and should intervene in a controversy
between and primarily concerning only Great Britain and
Venezuela," and his conclusions on these points are founded on
the doctrine set forth by President Monroe, of resistance to
European intervention in American affairs. Quoting President
Monroe's celebrated Message on the subject, in 1823, Mr. Olney
remarks:
"The Message just quoted declared that the American continents
were fully occupied, and were not the subjects for future
colonization by European Powers. To this spirit and this
purpose, also, are to be attributed the passages of the same
Message which treat any infringement of the rule against
interference in American affairs on the part of the Powers of
Europe as an act of unfriendliness to the United States. It
was realized that it was futile to lay down such a rule unless
its observance could be enforced. It was manifest that the
United States was the only Power in this hemisphere capable of
enforcing it. It was therefore courageously declared, not
merely that Europe ought not to interfere in American affairs,
but that any European Power doing so would be regarded as
antagonizing the interests and inviting the opposition of the
United States.
"That America is in no part open to colonization, though the
proposition was not universally admitted at the time of its
first enunciation, has long been universally conceded. We are
now concerned, therefore, only with that other practical
application of the Monroe doctrine the disregard of which by
an European Power is to be deemed an act of unfriendliness
towards the United States. The precise scope and limitations
of this rule cannot be too clearly apprehended. It does not
establish any general Protectorate by the United States over
other American States. It does not relieve any American State
from its obligations as fixed by international law, nor
prevent any European Power directly interested from enforcing
such obligations or from inflicting merited punishment for the
breach of them. It does not contemplate any interference in
the internal affairs of any American State, or in the
relations between it and other American States. It does not
justify any attempt on our part to change the established form
of Government of any American State, or to prevent the people
of such State from altering that form according to their own
will and pleasure. The rule in question has but a single
purpose and object. It is that no European Power or
combination of European Powers shall forcibly deprive an
American State of the right and power of self-government, and
of shaping for itself its own political fortunes and
destinies. That the rule thus defined has been the accepted
public law of this country ever since its promulgation cannot
fairly be denied. …
"It is manifest that, if a rule has been openly and uniformly
declared and acted upon by the Executive Branch of the
Government for more than seventy years without express
repudiation by Congress, it must be conclusively presumed to
have its sanction. Yet it is certainly no more than the exact
truth to say that every Administration since President
Monroe's has had occasion, and sometimes more occasions than
one, to examine and consider the Monroe doctrine, and has in
each instance given it emphatic indorsement. … A doctrine of
American public law thus long and firmly established and
supported could not easily be ignored in a proper case for its
application, even were the considerations upon which it is
founded obscure or questionable. No such objection can be
made, however, to the Monroe doctrine understood and defined
in the manner already stated. It rests, on the contrary, upon
facts and principles that are both intelligible and
incontrovertible. That distance and 3,000 miles of intervening
ocean make any permanent political union between an European
and an American State unnatural and inexpedient will hardly be
denied. But physical and geographical considerations are the
least of the objections to such a union. Europe, as Washington
observed, has a set of primary interests which are peculiar to
herself. America is not interested in them, and ought not to
be vexed or complicated with them. …
"If, … for the reasons stated, the forcible intrusion of
European Powers into American politics is to be deprecated—if,
as it is to be deprecated, it should be resisted and
prevented—such resistance and prevention must come from the
United States. They would come from it, of course, were it
made the point of attack. But, if they come at all, they must
also come from it when any other American State is attacked,
since only the United States has the strength adequate to the
exigency. Is it true, then, that the safety and welfare of the
United States are so concerned with the maintenance of the
independence of every American State as against any European
Power as to justify and require the interposition of the
United States whenever that independence is endangered? The
question can be candidly answered in but one way. The States
of America, South as well as North, by geographical proximity,
by natural sympathy, by similarity of Governmental
Constitutions, are friends and allies, commercially and
politically, of the United States. To allow the subjugation of
any of them by an European Power is, of course, to completely
reverse that situation, and signifies the loss of all the
advantages incident to their natural relations to us. But that
is not all. The people of the United States have a vital
interest in the cause of popular self-government. … To-day the
United States is practically Sovereign on this continent, and
its fiat is law upon the subjects to which it confines its
interposition. Why? It is not because of the pure friendship
or good-will felt for it. It is not simply by reason of its
high character as a civilised State, nor because wisdom and
justice and equity are the invariable characteristics of the
dealings of the United States. It is because, in addition to
all other grounds, its infinite resources, combined with its
isolated position, render it master of the situation, and
practically invulnerable as against any or all other Powers.
{686}
All the advantages of this superiority are at once imperilled
if the principle be admitted that European Powers may convert
American States into Colonies or provinces of their own. The
principle would be eagerly availed of, and every Power doing
so would immediately acquire a base of military operations
against us. What one Power was permitted to do could not be
denied to another, and it is not inconceivable that the
struggle now going on for the acquisition of Africa might be
transferred to South America. If it were, the weaker countries
would unquestionably be soon absorbed, while the ultimate result
might be the partition of all South America between the
various European Powers. …
"The people of the United States have learned in the school of
experience to what extent the relations of States to each
other depend not upon sentiment nor principle, but upon
selfish interest. They will not soon forget that, in their
hour of distress, all their anxieties and burdens were
aggravated by the possibility of demonstrations against their
national life on the part of Powers with whom they had long
maintained the most harmonious relations. They have yet in
mind that France seized upon the apparent opportunity of our
Civil War to set up a Monarchy in the adjoining State of
Mexico. They realize that, had France and Great Britain held
important South American possessions to work from and to
benefit, the temptation to destroy the predominance of the
Great Republic in this hemisphere by furthering its
dismemberment might have been irresistible. From that grave
peril they have been saved in the past, and may be saved again
in the future, through the operation of the sure but silent
force of the doctrine proclaimed by President Monroe. …
"There is, then, a doctrine of American public law, well
founded in principle and abundantly sanctioned by precedent,
which entitles and requires the United States to treat as an
injury to itself the forcible assumption by an European Power
of political control over an American State. The application
of the doctrine to the boundary dispute between Great Britain
and Venezuela remains to be made, and presents no real
difficulty. Though the dispute relates to a boundary-line,
yet, as it is between States, it necessarily imports political
control to be lost by one party and gained by the other. The
political control at stake, too, is of no mean importance, but
concerns a domain of great extent—the British claim, it will
be remembered, apparently expanding in two years some 33,000
square miles—and, if it also directly involves the command of
the mouth of the Orinoco, is of immense consequence in
connection with the whole river navigation of the interior of
South America. It has been intimated, indeed, that in respect
of these South American possessions, Great Britain is herself
an American State like any other, so that a controversy
between her and Venezuela is to be settled between themselves
as if it were between Venezuela and Brazil, or between
Venezuela and Colombia, and does not call for or justify
United States intervention. If this view be tenable at all,
the logical sequence is plain. Great Britain as a South
American State is to be entirely differentiated from Great
Britain generally; and if the boundary question cannot be
settled otherwise than by force, British Guiana with her own
independent resources, and not those of the British Empire,
should be left to settle the matter with Venezuela—an
arrangement which very possibly Venezuela might not object to.
But the proposition that an European Power with an American
dependency is for the purposes of the Monroe doctrine to be
classed not as an European but as an American State will not
admit of serious discussion. If it were to be adopted, the
Monroe doctrine would be too valueless to be worth asserting.
…
"The declaration of the Monroe Message—that existing Colonies
or dependencies of an European Power would not be interfered
with by the United States—means Colonies or dependencies then
existing with their limits as then existing. So it has been
invariably construed, and so it must continue to be construed,
unless it is to be deprived of all vital force. Great Britain
cannot be deemed a South American State within the purview of
the Monroe doctrine, nor, if she is appropriating Venezuelan
territory, is it material that she does so by advancing the
frontier of an old Colony instead of by the planting of a new
Colony. The difference is matter of form, and not of
substance, and the doctrine if pertinent in the one case must
be in the other also. It is not admitted, however, and
therefore cannot be assumed, that Great Britain is in fact
usurping dominion over Venezuelan territory. While Venezuela
charges such usurpation Great Britain denies it, and the
United States, until the merits are authoritatively
ascertained, can take sides with neither. But while this is
so—while the United States may not, under existing
circumstances at least, take upon itself to say which of the
two parties is right and which wrong—it is certainly within
its right to demand that the truth shall be ascertained. …
"It being clear, therefore, that the United States may
legitimately insist upon the merits of the boundary question
being determined, it is equally clear that there is but one
feasible mode of determining them, viz., peaceful arbitration.
The impracticability of any conventional adjustment has been
often and thoroughly demonstrated. Even more impossible of
consideration is an appeal to arms—a mode of settling national
pretensions unhappily not yet wholly obsolete. If, however, it
were not condemnable as a relic of barbarism and a crime in
itself, so one-sided a contest could not be invited nor even
accepted by Great Britain without distinct disparagement to
her character as a civilized State. Great Britain, however,
assumes no such attitude. On the contrary, she both admits
that there is a controversy, and that arbitration should be
resorted to for its adjustment. But, while up to that point
her attitude leaves nothing to be desired, its practical
effect is completely nullified by her insistence that the
submission shall cover but a part of the controversy—that, as
a condition of arbitrating her right to a part of the disputed
territory, the remainder shall be turned over to her. If it
were possible to point to a boundary which both parties had
ever agreed or assumed to be such either expressly or tacitly,
the demand that territory conceded by such line to British Guiana
should be held not to be in dispute might rest upon a
reasonable basis. But there is no such line. The territory
which Great Britain insists shall be ceded to her as a
condition of arbitrating her claim to other territory has
never been admitted to belong to her.
{687}
It has always and consistently been claimed by Venezuela. Upon
what principle—except her feebleness as a nation—is she to be
denied the right of having the claim heard and passed upon by
an impartial Tribunal? No reason or shadow of reason appears
in all the voluminous literature of the subject. …
"In these circumstances, the duty of the President appears to
him unmistakable and imperative. Great Britain's assertion of
title to the disputed territory, combined with her refusal to
have that title investigated, being a substantial
appropriation of the territory to her own use, not to protest
and give warning that the transaction will be regarded as
injurious to the interests of the people of the United States,
as well as oppressive in itself, would be to ignore an
established policy with which the honour and welfare of this
country are closely identified. While the measures necessary
or proper for the vindication of that policy are to be
determined by another branch of the Government, it is clearly
for the Executive to leave nothing undone which may tend to
render such determination unnecessary. You are instructed,
therefore, to present the foregoing views to Lord Salisbury by
reading to him this communication (leaving with him a copy
should he so desire), and to reinforce them by such pertinent
considerations as will doubtless occur to you. They call for a
definite decision upon the point whether Great Britain will
consent or will decline to submit the Venezuelan boundary
question in its entirety to impartial arbitration. It is the
earnest hope of the President that the conclusion will be on
the side of arbitration, and that Great Britain will add one
more to the conspicuous precedents she has already furnished
in favour of that wise and just mode of adjusting
international disputes. If he is to be disappointed in that
hope, however—a result not to be anticipated, and in his
judgment calculated to greatly embarrass the future relations
between this country and Great Britain—it is his wish to be
made acquainted with the fact at such early date as will
enable him to lay the whole subject before Congress in his
next Annual Message."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command:
United States Number 1, 1896, pages 13-21).
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1895 (November).
The British Guiana boundary question.
Replies of Lord Salisbury to Secretary Olney.
The reply of Lord Salisbury was not written until the 26th of
November. It was then given in two despatches, bearing the
same date,—one devoted entirely to a discussion of "the Monroe
doctrine" and of the argument founded on it by Mr. Olney; the
other to a rehearsal of the Venezuela controversy from the
standpoint of the British government. In the communication
first mentioned he wrote:
"The contentions set forth by Mr. Olney in this part of his
despatch are represented by him as being an application of the
political maxims which are well known in American discussion
under the name of the Monroe doctrine. As far as I am aware,
this doctrine has never been before advanced on behalf of the
United States in any written communication addressed to the
Government of another nation; but it has been generally
adopted and assumed as true by many eminent writers and
politicians in the United States. It is said to have largely
influenced the Government of that country in the conduct of
its foreign affairs; though Mr. Clayton, who was Secretary of
State under President Taylor, expressly stated that that
Administration had in no way adopted it. But during the period
that has elapsed since the Message of President Monroe was
delivered in 1823, the doctrine has undergone a very notable
development, and the aspect which it now presents in the hands
of Mr. Olney differs widely from its character when it first
issued from the pen of its author. The two propositions which
in effect President Monroe laid down were, first, that America
was no longer to be looked upon as a field for European
colonization; and, secondly, that Europe must not attempt to
extend its political system to America, or to control the
political condition of any of the American communities who had
recently declared their independence. The dangers against
which President Monroe thought it right to guard were not as
imaginary as they would seem at the present day. … The system
of which he speaks, and of which he so resolutely deprecates
the application to the American Continent, was the system then
adopted by certain powerful States upon the Continent of
Europe of combining to prevent by force of arms the adoption
in other countries of political institutions which they
disliked, and to uphold by external pressure those which they
approved. … The dangers which were apprehended by President
Monroe have no relation to the state of things in which we
live at the present day. … It is intelligible that Mr. Olney
should invoke, in defence of the views on which he is now
insisting, an authority which enjoys so high a popularity with
his own fellow-countrymen. But the circumstances with which
President Monroe was dealing, and those to which the present
American Government is addressing itself, have very few
features in common. Great Britain is imposing no 'system' upon
Venezuela, and is not concerning herself in any way with the
nature of the political institutions under which the
Venezuelans may prefer to live. But the British Empire and the
Republic of Venezuela are neighbours, and they have differed
for some time past, and continue to differ, as to the line by
which their dominions are separated. It is a controversy with
which the United States have no apparent practical concern. It
is difficult, indeed, to see how it can materially affect any
State or community outside those primarily interested, except
perhaps other parts of Her Majesty's dominions, such as
Trinidad. The disputed frontier of Venezuela has nothing to do
with any of the questions dealt with by President Monroe. It is
not a question of the colonization by a European Power of any
portion of America. It is not a question of the imposition
upon the communities of South America of any system of
government devised in Europe. It is simply the determination
of the frontier of a British possession which belonged to the
Throne of England long before the Republic of Venezuela came
into existence.
{688}
"But even if the interests of Venezuela were so far linked to
those of the United States as to give to the latter a 'locus
standi' in this controversy, their Government apparently have
not formed, and certainly do not express, any opinion upon the
actual merits of the dispute. The Government of the United States
do not say that Great Britain, or that Venezuela, is in the
right in the matters that are in issue. But they lay down that
the doctrine of President Monroe, when he opposed the
imposition of European systems, or the renewal of European
colonization, confers upon them the right of demanding that
when a European Power has a frontier difference with a South
American community, the European Power shall consent to refer
that controversy to arbitration; and Mr. Olney states that
unless Her Majesty's Government accede to this demand, it will
'greatly embarrass the future relations between Great Britain
and the United States.' Whatever may be the authority of the
doctrine laid down by President Monroe, there is nothing in
his language to show that he ever thought of claiming this
novel prerogative for the United States. … I will not now
enter into a discussion of the merits of this method of
terminating international differences. It has proved itself
valuable in many cases; but it is not free from defects, which
often operate as a serious drawback on its value. It is not
always easy to find an Arbitrator who is competent, and who,
at the same time, is wholly free from bias; and the task of
insuring compliance with the Award when it is made is not
exempt from difficulty. …
"In the remarks which I have made, I have argued on the theory
that the Monroe doctrine in itself is sound. I must not,
however, be understood as expressing any acceptance of it on
the part of Her Majesty's Government. It must always be
mentioned with respect, on account of the distinguished
statesman to whom it is due, and the great nation who have
generally adopted it. But international law is founded on the
general consent of nations; and no statesman, however eminent,
and no nation, however powerful, are competent to insert into
the code of international law a novel principle which was
never recognized before, and which has not since been accepted
by the Government of any other country. … Though the language
of President Monroe is directed to the attainment of objects
which most Englishmen would agree to be salutary, it is
impossible to admit that they have been inscribed by any
adequate authority in the code of international law; and the
danger which such admission would involve is sufficiently
exhibited both by the strange development which the doctrine
has received at Mr. Olney's hands, and the arguments by which
it is supported, in the despatch under reply. In defence of it
he says: 'That distance and 3,000 miles of intervening ocean
make any permanent political union between a European and an
American State unnatural and inexpedient will hardly be
denied. But physical and geographical considerations are the
least of the objections to such a union. Europe has a set of
primary interests which are peculiar to herself; America is
not interested in them, and ought not to be vexed or
complicated with them.' … The necessary meaning of these words
is that the union between Great Britain and Canada; between
Great Britain and Jamaica and Trinidad; between Great Britain
and British Honduras or British Guiana are 'inexpedient and
unnatural.' President Monroe disclaims any such inference from
his doctrine; but in this, as in other respects, Mr. Olney
develops it. He lays down that the inexpedient and unnatural
character of the union between a European and American State
is so obvious that it 'will hardly be denied.' Her Majesty's
Government are prepared emphatically to deny it on behalf of
both the British and American people who are subject to her
Crown."
In his second despatch, Lord Salisbury drew the conclusions of
his government from the facts as seen on the English side, and
announced its decision, in the following terms: "It will be
seen … that the Government of Great Britain have from the
first held the same view as to the extent of territory which
they are entitled to claim as a matter of right. It comprised
the coast-line up to the River Amacura, and the whole basin of
the Essequibo River and its tributaries. A portion of that
claim, however, they have always been willing to waive
altogether; in regard to another portion, they have been and
continue to be perfectly ready to submit the question of their
title to arbitration. As regards the rest, that which lies
within the so-called Schomburgk line, they do not consider
that the rights of Great Britain are open to question. Even
within that line they have, on various occasions, offered to
Venezuela considerable concessions as a matter of friendship
and conciliation, and for the purpose of securing an amicable
settlement of the dispute. If as time has gone on the
concessions thus offered diminished in extent, and have now
been withdrawn, this has been the necessary consequence of the
gradual spread over the country of British settlements, which
Her Majesty's Government cannot in justice to the inhabitants
offer to surrender to foreign rule, and the justice of such
withdrawal is amply borne out by the researches in the
national archives of Holland and Spain, which have furnished
further and more convincing evidence in support of the British
claims.
"Her Majesty's Government are sincerely desirous of being in
friendly relations with Venezuela, and certainly have no
design to seize territory that properly belongs to her, or
forcibly to extend sovereignty over any portion of her
population. They have, on the contrary, repeatedly expressed
their readiness to submit to arbitration the conflicting
claims of Great Britain and Venezuela to large tracts of
territory which from their auriferous nature are known to be
of almost untold value. But they cannot consent to entertain,
or to submit to the arbitration of another Power or of foreign
jurists, however eminent, claims based on the extravagant
pretensions of Spanish officials in the last century, and
involving the transfer of large numbers of British subjects,
who have for many years enjoyed the settled rule of a British
Colony, to a nation of different race and language, whose
political system is subject to frequent disturbance, and whose
institutions as yet too often afford very inadequate
protection to life and property. No issue of this description
has ever been involved in the questions which Great Britain
and the United States have consented to submit to arbitration,
and Her Majesty's Government are convinced that in similar
circumstances the Government of the United States would be
equally firm in declining to entertain proposals of such a
nature."
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
United States Number 1, 1896, pages 23-31.
{689}
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1895 (December).
Message of President Cleveland to the United States Congress
on the Guiana boundary dispute.
As the replies given by Lord Salisbury showed no disposition
on the part of the British government to submit its dispute
with Venezuela to arbitration, President Cleveland took the
subject in hand, and addressed to Congress, on the 17th of
December, 1895, a special Message which startled the world by
the peremptoriness of its tone.
"In my annual message addressed to the Congress on the 3d
instant," he said, "I called attention to the pending boundary
controversy between Great Britain and the Republic of
Venezuela and recited the substance of a representation made
by this Government to Her Britannic Majesty's Government
suggesting reasons why such dispute should be submitted to
arbitration for settlement and inquiring whether it would be
so submitted. The answer of the British Government, which was
then awaited, has since been received, and, together with the
dispatch to which it is a reply, is hereto appended. Such
reply is embodied in two communications addressed by the
British prime minister to Sir Julian Pauncefote, the British
ambassador at this capital. It will be seen that one of these
communications is devoted exclusively to observations upon the
Monroe doctrine, and claims that in the present instance a new
and strange extension and development of this doctrine is
insisted on by the United States; that the reasons justifying
an appeal to the doctrine enunciated by President Monroe are
generally inapplicable 'to the state of things in which we
live at the present day,' and especially inapplicable to a
controversy involving the boundary line between Great Britain
and Venezuela.
"Without attempting extended argument in reply to these
positions, it may not be amiss to suggest that the doctrine
upon which we stand is strong and sound, because its
enforcement is important to our peace and safety as a nation
and is essential to the integrity of our free institutions and
the tranquil maintenance of our distinctive form of
government. It was intended to apply to every stage of our
national life and can not become obsolete while our Republic
endures. If the balance of power is justly a cause for jealous
anxiety among the Governments of the Old World and a subject
for our absolute non-interference, none the less is an
observance of the Monroe doctrine of vital concern to our
people and their Government. Assuming, therefore, that we may
properly insist upon this doctrine without regard to 'the
state of things in which we live' or any changed conditions
here or elsewhere, it is not apparent why its application may
not be invoked in the present controversy. If a European power
by an extension of its boundaries takes possession of the
territory of one of our neighboring Republics against its will
and in derogation of its rights, it is difficult to see why to
that extent such European power does not thereby attempt to
extend its system of government to that portion of this
continent which is thus taken. This is the precise action
which President Monroe declared to be 'dangerous to our peace
and safety,' and it can make no difference whether the
European system is extended by an advance of frontier or
otherwise.
"It is also suggested in the British reply that we should not
seek to apply the Monroe doctrine to the pending dispute
because it does not embody any principle of international law
which 'is founded on the general consent of nations,' and that
'no statesman, however eminent, and no nation, however
powerful, are competent to insert into the code of
international law a novel principle which was never recognized
before and which has not since been accepted by the government
of any other country.' Practically the principle for which we
contend has peculiar, if not exclusive, relation to the United
States. It may not have been admitted in so many words to the
code of international law, but since in international councils
every nation is entitled to the rights belonging to it, if the
enforcement of the Monroe doctrine is something we may justly
claim, it has its place in the code of international law as
certainly and as securely as if it were specifically
mentioned; and when the United States is a suitor before the
high tribunal that administers international law the question
to be determined is whether or not we present claims which the
justice of that code of law can find to be right and valid.
"The Monroe doctrine finds its recognition in those principles
of international law which are based upon the theory that
every nation shall have its rights protected and its just
claims enforced. Of course this government is entirely
confident that under the sanction of this doctrine we have
clear rights and undoubted claims. Nor is this ignored in the
British reply. The prime minister, while not admitting that
the Monroe doctrine is applicable to present conditions,
states: 'In declaring that the United States would resist any
such enterprise if it was contemplated, President Monroe
adopted a policy which received the entire sympathy of the
English Government of that date.'
"He further declares: 'Though the language of President Monroe
is directed to the attainment of objects which most Englishmen
would agree to be salutary, it is impossible to admit that
they have been inscribed by any adequate authority in the code
of international law.'
"Again he says: 'They [Her Majesty's Government] fully concur
with the view which President Monroe apparently entertained,
that any disturbance of the existing territorial distribution
in that hemisphere by any fresh acquisitions on the part of
any European State would be a highly inexpedient change.'
"In the belief that the doctrine for which we contend was
clear and definite, that it was founded upon substantial
considerations, and involved our safety and welfare, that it
was fully applicable to our present conditions and to the
state of the world's progress, and that it was directly
related to the pending controversy, and without any conviction
as to the final merits of the dispute, 'but anxious to learn
in a satisfactory and conclusive manner whether Great Britain
sought under a claim of boundary to extend her possessions on
this continent without right, or whether she merely sought
possession of territory fairly included within her lines of
ownership, this Government proposed to the Government of Great
Britain a resort to arbitration as the proper means of
settling the question, to the end that a vexatious boundary
dispute between the two contestants might be determined and
our exact standing and relation in respect to the controversy
might be made clear.
{690}
It will be seen from the correspondence herewith submitted
that this proposition has been declined by the British
Government upon grounds which in the circumstances seem to me
to be far from satisfactory. It is deeply disappointing that
such an appeal, actuated by the most friendly feelings toward
both nations directly concerned, addressed to the sense of
justice and to the magnanimity of one of the great powers of
the world, and touching its relations to one comparatively
weak and small, should have produced no better results.
"The course to be pursued by this Government in view of the
present condition does not appear to admit of serious doubt.
Having labored faithfully for many years to induce Great
Britain to submit this dispute to impartial arbitration, and
having been now finally apprised of her refusal to do so,
nothing remains but to accept the situation, to recognize its
plain requirements, and deal with it accordingly. Great
Britain's present proposition has never thus far been regarded
as admissible by Venezuela, though any adjustment of the
boundary which that country may deem for her advantage and may
enter into of her own free will can not of course be objected
to by the United States. Assuming, however, that the attitude
of Venezuela will remain unchanged, the dispute has reached
such a stage as to make it now incumbent upon the United
States to take measures to determine with sufficient certainty
for its justification what is the true divisional line between
the Republic of Venezuela and British Guiana. The inquiry to
that end should of course be conducted carefully and
judicially, and due weight should be given to all available
evidence, records, and facts in support of the claims of both
parties. In order that such an examination should be
prosecuted in a thorough and satisfactory manner, I suggest
that the Congress make an adequate appropriation for the
expenses of a commission, to be appointed by the Executive,
who shall make the necessary investigation and report upon the
matter with the least possible delay. When such report is made
and accepted it will, in my opinion, be the duty of the United
States to resist by every means in its power, as a willful
aggression upon its rights and interests, the appropriation by
Great Britain of any lands or the exercise of governmental
jurisdiction over any territory which after investigation we
have determined of right belongs to Venezuela.
"In making these recommendations I am fully alive to the
responsibility incurred and keenly realize all the
consequences that May follow. I am, nevertheless, firm in my
conviction that while it is a grievous thing to contemplate
the two great English-speaking peoples of the world as being
otherwise than friendly competitors in the onward march of
civilization and strenuous and worthy rivals in all the arts
of peace, there is no calamity which a great nation can invite
which equals that which follows a supine submission to wrong and
injustice and the consequent loss of national self-respect and
honor, beneath which are shielded and defended a people's
safety and greatness."
United States, Message and Documents
(Abridgment, 1895-1896).
The recommendations of the President were acted upon with
remarkable unanimity and promptitude in Congress, a bill
authorizing the appointment of the proposed commission, and
appropriating $100,000 for the necessary expenditure, being
passed by the House on the day following the Message (December
17), and by the Senate on the 20th.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895 (DECEMBER).
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1895-1896 (December-January).
Feeling in England and the United States
over the boundary dispute.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1895-1896 (DECEMBER-JANUARY).
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1896-1899.
Appointment of the United States Commission to investigate
the boundary question.
Reopening of negotiations between the United States
and Great Britain.
The solution of the main difficulty found.
Arbitration and its result.
The Commission authorized by the Congress of the United States
to investigate and report on the true divisional line between
British Guiana and Venezuela was named by the President of the
United States, on the 1st of January, as follows:
David J. Brewer, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court
of the United States;
Richard H. Alvey, Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals in
the District of Columbia;
Andrew D. White, ex-President of Cornell University,
and ex-Minister to Germany and Russia;
Daniel C. Gilman, President of Johns Hopkins University;
Frederick H. Coudert, of New York.
The Commission was organized on the 4th by the election of
Justice Brewer to be its President. Mr. S. Mallet Prevost was
subsequently appointed Secretary. One of the first proceedings
of the Commission was to address a letter to the Secretary of
State, suggesting a friendly intimation to the governments of
Great Britain and Venezuela that their assistance to it, in
procuring unpublished archives and the like evidence, would be
highly acceptable, and that "if either should deem it
appropriate to designate an agent or attorney, whose duty it
would be to see that no such proofs were omitted or
overlooked, the Commission would be grateful for such evidence
of good will." This overture was well received in England, and
had an excellent effect. It was responded to by Lord
Salisbury, with an assurance that Her Majesty's government
would readily place at the disposal of the President of the
United States any information at their command, and would
communicate advance copies of documents soon to be published
on the subject of the boundary line. Before the close of
January the Commission had organized its work, with several
experts engaged to assist on special lines. Professor Justin
Winsor, Librarian of Harvard University, had undertaken to
report on the early maps of the Guiana-Venezuela country.
Professor George L. Burr, of Cornell University, was making
ready to examine the Dutch archives in Holland, and Professor
J. Franklin Jameson, of Brown University, was enlisted for
other investigations.
Before these labors had gone far, however, the two
governments, of Great Britain and the United States, were
induced to reopen a discussion of the possibility of an
arbitration of the dispute. On the 27th of February, Mr.
Bayard, the Ambassador of the United States at London,
conveyed to Lord Salisbury a proposal from his government
"that Her Majesty's Ambassador at Washington should be
empowered to discuss the question at that capital with the
Secretary of State," and that "a clear definition of the
'settlements' by individuals in the territory in dispute,
which it is understood Her Majesty's Government desire should
be excluded from the proposed submission to arbitration,
should be propounded."
{691}
Lord Salisbury assented so far as to telegraph, on the same
day, to Sir Julian Pauncefote: "I have agreed with the United
States' Ambassador that, in principle, the matter may be
discussed between the United States Government (acting as the
friend of Venezuela) and your Excellency." But, a few days
later (March 5), the British Premier and Foreign Secretary
gave a broader range to the discussion, by recalling a
correspondence that had taken place in the spring of 1895
between the then American Secretary of State, Mr. Gresham, and
the British Ambassador, in contemplation of a general system
of international arbitration for the adjustment of disputes
between the two governments. Reviving that project, Lord
Salisbury submitted the heads of a general arbitration treaty
between the United States and Great Britain, which became a
subject of discussion for some weeks, without offering much
promise of providing for the settlement of the Venezuela
dispute. In May, the correspondence returned to the latter
subject more definitely, Lord Salisbury writing (May 22):
"From the first our objection has been to subject to the
decision of an Arbiter, who, in the last resort, must, of
necessity, be a foreigner, the rights of British colonists who
have settled in territory which they had every ground for
believing to be British, and whose careers would be broken,
and their fortunes possibly ruined, by a decision that the
territory on which they have settled was subject to the
Venezuelan Republic. At the same time, we are very conscious
that the dispute between ourselves and the Republic of
Venezuela affects a large portion of land which is not under
settlement, and which could be disposed of without any
injustice to any portion of the colonial population. We are
very willing that the territory which is comprised within this
definition should be subjected to the results of an
arbitration, even though some portion of it should be found to
fall within the Schomburgk line." He proposed, accordingly,
the creation of a commission of four persons, for the
determination of the questions of fact involved, on whose
report the two governments of Great Britain and Venezuela
should endeavor to agree on a boundary line; failing which
agreement, a tribunal of arbitration should fix the line, on
the basis of facts reported by the Commission. "Provided
always that in fixing such line the Tribunal shall not have
power to include as the territory of Venezuela any territory
which was bona fide occupied by subjects of Great Britain on
the 1st January, 1887, or as the territory of Great Britain
any territory bona fide occupied by Venezuelans at the same
date."
Objections to this proposal, especially to its final
stipulation, were raised by the government of the United
States, and the negotiation looked unpromising again for a
time; but at length, on the 13th of July, Mr. Olney made a
suggestion which happily solved the one difficulty that had
been, from the beginning, a bar to agreement between the two
governments. "Can it be assumed," he asked, in a letter of
that date, "that Her Majesty's Government would submit to
unrestricted arbitration the whole of the territory in
dispute, provided it be a rule of the arbitration, embodied in
the arbitral agreement, that territory which has been in the
exclusive, notorious, and actual use and occupation of either
party for even two generations, or say for sixty years, shall
be held by the arbitrators to be the territory of such party?
In other words, will Her Majesty's Government assent to
unrestricted arbitration of all the territory in controversy,
with the period for the acquisition of title by prescription
fixed by agreement of the parties in advance at sixty years?"
Lord Salisbury assented to the principle thus suggested, but
proposed a shorter term of occupation than sixty years.
Finally the term of fifty years was accepted on both sides,
and from that point the arrangement of a Treaty of Arbitration
between Great Britain and Venezuela went smoothly on. The good
news that England and America were practically at the end of
their dispute was proclaimed by Lord Salisbury, on the 9th of
November, in a speech at the Lord Mayor's banquet, in London,
when he said: "You are aware that in the discussion had with
the United States on behalf of their friends in Venezuela, our
question has not been whether there should be arbitration, but
whether arbitration should have unrestricted application; and
we have always claimed that those who, apart from historic
right, had the right which attaches to established
settlements, should be excluded from arbitration. Our
difficulty for months has been to define the settled
districts; and the solution has, I think, come from the
suggestion of the government of the United States, that we
should treat our colonial empire as we treat individuals; that
the same lapse of time which protects the latter in civic life
from having their title questioned, should similarly protect
an English colony; but, beyond that, when a lapse could not be
claimed, there should be an examination of title, and all the
equity demanded in regard thereto should be granted. I do not
believe I am using unduly sanguine words when I declare my
belief that this has brought the controversy to an end."
On the 10th of November, the Secretary of the United States
Commission appointed to investigate the disputed boundary
published the following: "The statements of Lord Salisbury, as
reported in the morning papers, make it probable that the
boundary dispute now pending between Great Britain and Venezuela
will be sewed by arbitration at an early day. Under the
circumstances the Commission, while continuing its deliberations
in the preparation and orderly arrangement of many valuable maps,
reports, and documents, which have been procured and used in the
course of its labors, does not propose to formulate any decision
for the present of the matters subject to its examination. It
will continue its sessions from time to time, but with the hope
and expectation that a friendly and just settlement of all
pending differences between the nations interested will make
any final decision on its part unnecessary." This hope was
substantially realized a few days later, when a convention
embodying the agreement of the United States and Great Britain
was signed by Secretary Olney and the British Ambassador, Sir
Julian Pauncefote. The agreement was carried to its next stage on
the 2d of February, 1897, when a treaty between Great Britain and
the United States of Venezuela was signed at Washington, which
provided as follows:
{692}
"Article I.
An Arbitral Tribunal shall be immediately appointed to
determine the boundary-line between the Colony of British
Guiana and the United States of Venezuela.
"Article II.
The Tribunal shall consist of five Jurists: two on the part of
Great Britain, nominated by the Members of the Judicial
Committee of Her Majesty's Privy Council, namely, the Right
Honourable Baron Herschell, Knight Grand Cross of the Most
Honourable Order of the Bath, and the Honourable Sir Richard
Henn Collins, Knight, one of the Justices of Her Britannic
Majesty's Supreme Court of Judicature; two on the part of
Venezuela, nominated, one by the President of the United
States of Venezuela, namely, the Honourable Melville Weston
Fuller, Chief Justice of the United States of America, and one
nominated by the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United
States of America, namely, the Honourable David Josiah Brewer,
a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of
America; and of a fifth Jurist to be selected by the four
persons so nominated, or in the event of their failure to
agree within three months from the date of the exchange of
ratifications of the present Treaty, to be selected by His
Majesty the King of Sweden and Norway. The Jurist so selected
shall be President of the Tribunal. In case of the death,
absence, or incapacity to serve of any of the four Arbitrators
above named, or in the event of any such Arbitrator omitting
or declining or ceasing to act as such, another Jurist of
repute shall be forthwith substituted in his place. If such
vacancy shall occur among those nominated on the part of Great
Britain, the substitute shall be appointed by the members for
the time being of the Judicial Committee of Her Majesty's
Privy Council, acting by a majority, and if among those
nominated on the part of Venezuela, he shall be appointed by
the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, acting
by a majority. If such vacancy shall occur in the case of the
fifth Arbitrator, a substitute shall be selected in the manner
herein provided for with regard to the original appointment.
"Article III.
The Tribunal shall investigate and ascertain the extent of the
territories belonging to, or that might lawfully be claimed
by, the United Netherlands or by the Kingdom of Spain
respectively at the time of the acquisition by Great Britain
of the Colony of British Guiana, and shall determine the
boundary-line between the Colony of British Guiana and the
United States of Venezuela.
"Article IV.
In deciding the matters submitted, the Arbitrators shall
ascertain all facts which they deem necessary to a decision of
the controversy, and shall be governed by the following Rules,
which are agreed upon by the High Contracting Parties as Rules
to be taken as applicable to the case, and by such principles
of international law not inconsistent therewith as the
Arbitrators shall determine to be applicable to the
case:—
Rules.
(a.) Adverse holding or prescription during a period of fifty
years shall make a good title. The Arbitrators may deem
exclusive political control of a district, as well as actual
settlement thereof, sufficient to constitute adverse holding
or to make title by prescription.
(b.) The Arbitrators may recognize and give effect to rights
and claims resting on any other ground whatever valid
according to international law, and on any principles of
international law which the Arbitrators may deem to be
applicable to the case, and which are not in contravention of
the foregoing rule.
(c.) In determining the boundary-line, if territory of one
Party be found by the Tribunal to have been at the date of
this Treaty in the occupation of the subjects or citizens of
the other Party, such effect shall be given to such occupation
as reason, justice, the principles of international law, and
the equities of the case shall, in the opinion of the
Tribunal, require. …
Article XIII.
The High Contracting Parties engage to consider the result of
the proceedings of the Tribunal of Arbitration as a full,
perfect, and final settlement of all the questions referred to
the Arbitrators:"
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
Treaty Series Number 5, 1897.
Before the Arbitrators named in the treaty had entered on
their duties, a vacancy in the tribunal was created by the
death of Baron Herschell, and the Lord Chief Justice of
England, Lord Russell of Killowen, was appointed in his place.
His Excellency, Frederic de Martens, Privy Councillor and
Permanent Member of the Council of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs in Russia, was selected to be the fifth Arbitrator. As
thus constituted, the Arbitral Tribunal met in Paris on the
15th of June, 1899. In the hearings before it, Venezuela was
represented by Benjamin Harrison, ex-President of the United
States, and other counsel; the British government by Sir
Richard Webster, Attorney-General of Great Britain, and
others. The decision of the Tribunal, which is said to have
been rendered with unanimity, was announced on the 3d of
October, 1899, as follows:
"We the undersigned Arbitrators do hereby make and publish our
decision, determination, and Award of, upon, and concerning
the questions submitted to us by the said Treaty of
Arbitration, and do hereby, conformably to the said Treaty of
Arbitration, finally decide, award, and determine that the
boundary-line between the Colony of British Guiana and the
United States of Venezuela is as follows:
Starting from the coast at Point Playa, the line of boundary
shall run in a straight line to the River Barima at its
junction with the River Mururuma, and thence along the
mid-stream of the latter river to its source, and from that
point to the junction of the River Haiowa with the Amakuru,
and thence along the mid-stream of the Amakuru to its source
in the Imataka Ridge, and thence in a south-westerly direction
along the highest ridge of the spur of the Imataka Mountains
to the highest point of the main range of such Imataka
Mountains opposite to the source of the Barima, and thence
along the summit of the main ridge in a south-easterly
direction of the Imataka Mountains to the source of the
Acarabisi, and thence along the mid-stream of the Acarabisi to
the Cuyuni, and thence along the northern bank of the River
Cuyuni westward to its junction with the Wenamu, and thence
following the mid-stream of the Wenamu to its westernmost
source, and thence in a direct line to the summit of Mount
Roraima, and from Mount Roraima to the source of the Cotinga,
and along the mid-stream of that river to its junction with
the Takutu, and thence along the mid-stream of the Takutu to
its source, thence in a straight line to the westernmost point
of the Akarai Mountains, and thence along the ridge of the
Akarai Mountains to the source of the Corentin called the
Cutari River.
{693}
Provided always that the line of delimitation fixed by this
Award shall be subject and without prejudice to any questions
now existing, or which may arise, to be determined between the
Government of her Britannic Majesty and the Republic of
Brazil, or between the latter Republic and the United States
of Venezuela.
"In fixing the above delimitation the Arbitrators consider and
decide that in times of peace the Rivers Amakuru and Barima
shall be open to navigation by the merchant-ships of all
nations, subject to all just regulations and to the payment of
light or other like dues: Provided that the dues charged by
the Republic of Venezuela and the Government of the Colony of
British Guiana in respect of the passage of vessels along the
portions of such rivers respectively owned by them shall be
charged at the same rates upon the vessels of Venezuela and
Great Britain, such rates being no higher than those charged
to any other nation: Provided also that no customs duties
shall be chargeable either by the Republic of Venezuela or by
the Colony of British Guiana in respect of goods carried on
board ships, vessels, or boats passing along the said rivers,
but customs duties shall only be chargeable in respect of
goods landed in the territory of Venezuela or Great Britain
respectively."
Great Britain, Papers by Command:
Venezuela Number 7, 1899, pages 6-7.
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1898-1900.
Change in the Presidency.
Death of ex-President Crespo.
Revolution.
Rebellion.
General Joaquin Crespo retired from the presidency and was
succeeded by General Ignacio Andrade on the 1st of March,
1898. A revolutionary movement was soon started, with General
Hernandez at its head, and ex-President Crespo, who led the
forces of the government against it, was killed in a charge,
on the 16th of April. Hernandez was surprised and captured a
few weeks later, and the rebellion then subsided for a time.
In the spring of 1899 Hernandez was set at liberty by Andrade,
who, meantime, had crushed a minor revolt, undertaken by one
General Guerra. August found the harassed President assailed
by a fresh rising, started by General Cipriano Castro, and the
restless revolutionist, Hernandez, was soon in league with it.
This proved to be a revolution in earnest, and, after hard
fighting, President Andrade fled from the capital and the
country in October; Puerto Cabello, the last town to hold out
for him, was bombarded and stormed the following month, and a
new government was established, nominally under the Vice
President, Rodriguez, but with Castro for its actual head.
Before this had been fully accomplished, however, Hernandez
was in arms against Castro, with his accustomed ill-success.
Before the year closed he had fled the country; but early in
1900 he was once more in the field, maintaining a troublesome
war until May, when he was defeated, and again a prisoner in
his opponents' hands.
VICTORIA, Queen:
The Diamond Jubilee celebration of her accession to the throne.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (JUNE).
VICTORIA, Queen:
Her death and funeral.
Tributes to her character.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).
VICTORIA.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRALIA; and CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRALIA.
VICTORIAN ORDER, The.
A new order of knighthood, to be known as the Victorian Order,
and to be conferred as a mark of high distinction, was
instituted by Queen Victoria on the 21st of April, 1896.
VIENNA: A. D. 1895-1896.
Anti-Semitic agitation.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1895-1896.
VIENNA: A. D. 1897.
Scenes in the Reichsrath.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
VIENNA: A. D. 1900.
Census.
According to a report from the United States Consul at Vienna,
the census taken December 31, 1900, shows a population of
1,635,647, or nearly 63,000 less than that of Chicago, when
the recent census of that city was taken. These figures show
Vienna to rank next after London, Paris and Berlin among the
European capitals, while in this country only New York and
Chicago are larger. In the last ten years Vienna has increased
21.9 per cent, or slightly faster than the average for the
whole United States. Of the two American cities larger than
Vienna New York increased in ten years 37.8 per cent. and
Chicago 54.4 per cent.
VIEQUEZ.
See (in this volume)
PORTO RICO: AREA AND POPULATION.
VILLIERS, Sir J. H. de:
Advice to President Kruger.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1899 (MAY-AUGUST).
VIRDEN, Conflict with striking miners at.
See (in this volume)
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES: A. D. 1898.
VIRGINIUS AFFAIR, The.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1868-1885.
VISAYAN ISLANDS, American occupation of the.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY-NOVEMBER).
VISAYANS, The.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: THE NATIVE INHABITANTS.
VOLKSRAAD, South African.
See (in this volume)
CONSTITUTION (GRONDWET) OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC.
VOLUNTARY SCHOOLS, English.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1896-1897.
VOLUNTEERS OF AMERICA, The.
See (in this volume)
SALVATION ARMY.
VOTING, Plural or Cumulative, and Compulsory.
See (in this volume)
BELGIUM: A. D. 1894-1895.
{694}
WADAI.
See (in this volume)
NIGERIA, A. D. 1882-1899.
WALDECK-ROUSSEAU, M.:
The Ministry of.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1899 (FEBRUARY-JUNE), and after.
WALES, The Prince or.
It has been announced that Prince George, Duke of Cornwall and
York, the only living son of King Edward VII., of England, and
heir to the British throne, will be created Prince of Wales,
by royal patent, after his return from Australia.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1901 (MAY).
WANA:
Inclusion in a new British Indian province.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
WAR:
Measures to prevent its occurrence and to mitigate its
barbarities.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
WAR BUDGETS:
Military and naval expenditures of the great Powers.
The following compilation of statistics of the military and
naval expenditure of the leading Powers (Great Britain
excepted) was submitted to the House of Representatives at
Washington by the Honorable George B. McClellan of New York,
in a speech, February 12, 1901, on the bill then pending in
Congress, to make appropriations for the support of the Army
of the United States. The tabulated statements were introduced
with explanations and comments as follows:
"For purposes of comparison, I have taken the armies and
navies of Austria-Hungary, France, the German Empire, Italy,
and Russia. I have not included Great Britain, for its
conditions have been abnormal for nearly two years. I have
based my estimates on the enlisted strength of the armies
referred to, excluding commissioned officers. The figures are
the most recent obtainable without direct communication with
foreign authorities and are for the most part for the last
fiscal year of the several countries, although in some cases
they are for 1898-99. The German naval budget does not include
the extraordinary expenditures for the new navy authorized by
the recent enactment of the Reichstag. This does not begin to
be effective until the next fiscal year. In estimating the
equivalent in dollars of the Italian budget I have allowed 6
per cent for the depreciation of the present paper currency—a
very moderate estimate. The Russian budget will appear
abnormally low, for I have recently seen it stated at
$159,000,000. This is because the ruble has been assumed to be
the gold ruble, worth 52 cents, but the budget is expressed in
paper rubles, and is now, under a recent order of M. Witte,
uniformly reckoned at two-thirds of the gold ruble. I have
therefore called it 34.6 cents."
As to the military expenditure of the United States, "the
House has during the present session appropriated, or is about
to appropriate, for the support of what may be called the
active Army, $152,068,100.84. The appropriations growing out
of past wars amount to a total of $154,694,292. I have charged
to this account every item that could by any possible
construction be assumed to refer to past wars and not to the
maintenance of the present Army. The pension appropriation
bill carried $145,245,230. The cost of administering the
Pension Bureau will amount to $3,352,790. The Record and
Pension Office costs $585,170. I have further included
appropriations for National and State Homes, back pay, etc.,
cemeteries, and $712,580 for extra clerks due to the Spanish
war. Adding the appropriations due to past wars to the
appropriation for the active Army, we find a total of
$306,762,392.84, which represents the total of our Army
budget. Taking the total cost of our active Army, and assuming
the enlisted strength of the Army to be 100,000, we find the
cost per annum of each enlisted man to be $l,520. Taking the
total Army budget, including appropriations arising from past
wars, we find the cost per annum of each enlisted man $3,067.
"Without including appropriations arising from past wars, we
find the cost of the Army per capita of population to be
$1.99. Including appropriations arising from past wars, we
find the cost of the Army per capita of population to be
$4.02. The army budget of Austria-Hungary is $67,564,446, the
cost of maintaining 1 enlisted man for one year being $183.86,
and the cost of the army per capita of population $1.50. The
army budget of France is $128,959,064, the cost of maintaining
1 enlisted man is $218.74, and the cost per capita of
population is $3.34. The army budget of the German Empire is
$156,127,743, the cost per annum of 1 enlisted man is $277.85,
the cost per capita of population is $2.98. The army budget of
Italy is $43,920,132, the cost of maintaining 1 enlisted man
per annum is $202.65, the cost per capita of population is
$1.39. The army budget of Russia is $99,927,997, the cost of
maintaining 1 enlisted man is $119.65, the cost per capita of
population is 77 cents.
"The appropriations for the support of the naval establishment
are by no means so widely distributed as are those for the
Army. The naval bill carries $77,016,635.60. In the
legislative, executive, and judicial bill there are carried
appropriations directly chargeable to the support of the Navy,
including pay of the clerical force in the Auditor's office,
the office of the Secretary, the office of the heads of the
bureaus, maintenance of building, and contingent expenses,
amounting to $399,150. In the sundry civil bill there are
carried, for printing and binding, appropriations amounting to
$127,000. Up to the present time the Secretary of the Treasury
has submitted to the House a statement of deficiencies for the
support of the naval establishment amounting to $2,491,549.64,
making a total of $80,034,335.24 that the House has
appropriated or is about to appropriate during the present
session for the support of the naval establishment. In
addition to this the legislative, executive, and judicial bill
carries an appropriation of $21,800 for the payment of extra
clerks whose employment is necessitated by the Spanish war,
making a total naval budget of $80,056,135.24.
"The naval budget of Austria-Hungary is $7,028,167, a cost per
capita of population of 15 cents. The naval budget of France
is $61,238,478, a cost per capita of population of $1.58. The
naval budget of the German Empire is $32,419,602, a cost per
capita of population of 62 cents. The naval budget of Italy is
$18,455,111, a cost per capita of population of 58 cents. The
naval budget of Russia is $48,132,220, a cost per capita of
population of 37 cents.
{695}
"The combined appropriations for the Army and Navy represent
the total war budget, or, as some European countries prefer to
call it, the 'defense budget.' The total war budget of the
United States, excluding appropriations due to past wars,
amounts to $233,102,435, or a cost per capita of population of
$3.03. Our total war budget, including appropriations due to
past wars, amounts to $386,818,527, a cost per capita of
population of $5.06. The total war budget of Austria-Hungary
is $74,592,613, a cost per capita of population of $1.66. The
total war budget of France is $190,197,542, a cost per capita
of population of $4.92. The total war budget of the German
Empire is $188,547,345, a cost per capita of population of
$3.60. The total war budget of Italy is $62,375,243, a cost
per capita of population of $1.97. The total war budget of
Russia is $148,060,017, a cost per capita of population of
$1.14. The combined total war budgets of France and of the
German Empire amount to $378,744,887, or $8,073,640 less than
that of the United States.
"The criticism has been made that there can be no comparison
between the cost of maintaining our Army and the cost of
maintaining those of Europe, for the reason that the European
private receives 'no pay' and ours receives $156 a year. As a
matter of fact, while service is compulsory on the Continent,
the continental private is paid a small sum, amounting on the
average to about $56 a year. In other words, our private
receives about $100 more than his comrade of Europe. This
criticism does not affect comparisons, as will be seen on the
consideration of a few figures. The war budget of the German
Empire is the largest in Europe. Were the Prussian private to
receive the same pay as our private the Prussian army budget
would be swelled to $212,354,343. Were the Russian private to
receive the same pay as our private the Russian budget would
be swelled to about $190,000,000 per annum. The difference in
pay does not account for the proportionate difference in the
size of the budgets, for were our Army to be increased to the
size of that of the German Empire our budget would be
increased by $702,644,320, making a total of $854,712,420,
without including expenses due to past wars, or, including
such expenses, making an Army budget of $1,009,406,712. Were
our Army to be increased to the size of Russia's, our budget
would be increased by $1,132,120,220, making a total Army
budget, without including appropriations due to past wars, of
81,284,188,320, or, including appropriations due to past wars,
making a total budget of $1,438,882,612.
"I submit these figures to the consideration of the House
without any comment whatsoever. Comment is unnecessary.
"TABLE A.
Analysis of the war budget of the United States as agreed to,
or about to be agreed to, by the House of Representatives,
first session Fifty-sixth Congress.
1. ARMY.
Appropriations for the active Army.
Army bill $117,994,649.10
Military Academy bill 700,151.88
Fortification bill 7,227,461.00
Legislative, executive, and judicial bill:
Office of the Secretary of War $104,150
Office of the Auditor for the War Department 318,300
Offices of heads of so-called "staff" departments 653,826
Maintenance of three-eighths of Department building 45,990
Rent 13,500
Stationery 32,500
Postage 1,000
Contingent expenses 58,000
Total 1,227,266.00
Sundry civil bill:
Arsenals and armories 281,550
Military posts 1,008,960
Bringing home dead 150,000
Maps, etc. 5,100
Printing and binding 241,000
Repairs, three-eighths Department building 31,500
Total 1,721,110.00
Deficiencies submitted:
December 11, 1900 12,062,223.36
January 21, 1901 5,835,239.50
January 26, 1001 5,300,000.00
Total 23,197,462.36
Total, active Army 152,068,100.84
Appropriations growing out of past wars.
Pensions $145,245,230.00
Salaries, Pension Bureau, etc. 3,352,700.00
Record and Pension Office 585,170.00
National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers 3,074,142.00
State Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers 950,000.00
Back pay and bounty (civil war) 325,000.00
Arrears of pay (Spanish war) 200,000.00
National cemeteries 191,880.00
Artificial limbs and appliances 27,000.00
Headstones and burials 28,000.00
Apache prisoners 2,500.00
Secretary of War, extra clerks (Spanish war) 600,000.00
Auditor for War Department,
extra clerks(Spanish war) 112,580.00
Total. 154,694,292.00
Appropriations for the active Army 152,068,100.84
Total Army budget. 300,762,392.81
2. NAVY.
Naval bill $77,016,635.60
Legislative, executive, and judicial bill:
Office of the Secretary of the Navy $47,900.00
Office of the Auditor for the Navy Department 68,080.00
Offices of heads of bureaus, etc. 224,430.00
Maintenance of three-eighths
of Department building 45,990.00
Contingent expenses 12,750.00
Total $399,150.00
Sundry civil bill:
Printing and binding 127,000.00
Deficiencies submitted:
December 11, 1900 74,481.09
December 17, 1900 20,000.00
January 21, 1901 2,267,068.55
January 25, 1901 130,000.00
Total 2,491,549.64
Total, active Navy 80,034,335.24
Auditor for Navy Department,
extra clerks (Spanish war) 21,800.00
Total Navy budget 80,056,135.24
3. RECAPITULATION.
Active Army $152,068,100.84
Active Navy 80,034,335.24
Total $232,102,436.08
Army (past wars) 154,694,292.00
Navy (past wars) 21,800.00
Total War Budget 154,716,092.00
Total war budget 386,818,528.08
{696}
TABLE B. Analysis of war budgets of various armies.
Country Population Latest Total Cost of Cost of Latest Cost of Total war
by last Obtainable enlisted maintaining army per obtainable navy per budget Cost of army and
census Army Budget strength, one enlisted capita of naval capita of combined
peace man for population budget population per capita of
footing one year. population.
Austria-Hungary 44,901,036 $67,564,446 368,002 $183.86 $1.50 $7,028,167 $0.15 $74,502,613 $1.66
France 38,517,975 128,959,064 589,541 218.74 3.34 61,238,478 1.58 190,197,542 4.92
German Empire 52,246,589 156,127,743 562,266 277.85 2.98 32,419,602 .62 188,547,345 3.60
Italy 31,479,217 43,020,132 216,720 202.65 1.39 18,455,111 .58 62,375,243 1.97
Russia 129,211,113 99,927,797 835,143 119.85 .77 48,132,220 .37 148,060,017 1.14
United States,
not including
cost of past
wars 76,295,220 152,068,100 100,000 1,520.00 1.99 80,034,335 1.04 233,102,435 3.03
United States,
including cost
of past wars 76,295,220 306,762,392 100,000 3,067.00 4.02 80,056,135 1.04 380,818,527 5.06
Congressional Record,
February 15, 1901, pages 2707-2709.
The following is an abstract of the British Army estimates for
1901-1902, submitted to Parliament in March, 1901, compared
with those of the previous year. They cover, of course, the
extraordinary expenditure incident to the South African war:
NET ESTIMATES.
1901-1002. 1900-1901.
I. NUMBERS.
Total Total
Numbers. Numbers.
Number of men on the Home
and Colonial Establishments
of the Army, exclusive of
those serving 111 India. 450,000 430,000
II. EFFECTIVE SERVICES. £ £
Pay, &c., of Army (General
Staff, Regiments, Reserve, and
Departments). 21,657,500 18,450,000
Medical Establishment: Pay,&c. 1,083,600 908,000
Militia: Pay, Bounty, &c. 2,662,000 2,288,000
Yeomanry Cavalry: Pay and
Allowances. 375,000 141,000
Volunteer Corps: Pay and
Allowances. 1,230,000 1,730,000
Transport and Remounts. 15,977,000 19,800,000
Provisions, Forage and other
Supplies. 18,782,000 18,200,000
Clothing Establishments and
Services. 4,825,000 5,530,000
Warlike and other Stores:
Supply and Repair. 13,450,000 13,200,000
Works, Buildings, and Repairs:
Engineer Services. 3,281,000 4,730,700
Establishments for Military
Education. 119,200 113,800
Miscellaneous Effective Services 218,200 200,900
War Office: Salaries and
Miscellaneous Charges. 305,000 275,000
Total Effective Services. 83,970,500 85,573,400
III. NON-EFFECTIVE SERVICES.
Non-Effective Charges for
Officers, &c. 2,271,000 1,861,000
Non-Effective Charges for Men, &c. 1,485,000 l,379,000
Superannuation, Compensation,
and Compassionate Allowances. 188,500 186,000
Total Non-Effective Services. 3,944,500 3,426,000
Total Effective and
Non-Effective Services. 87,915,000 88,999,400
NOTE. The provision for Ordinary and War
Services is as follows:
1901-02. 1900-01.
£ £
For War Services:
South Africa 56,070,000 61,286,700
China 2,160,000 3,450,000
Total 58,230,000 64,736,700
For Ordinary Services 29,685,000 24,262,700
Total 87,915,000 88,999,400
The British navy estimates for 1901-1902 amount to a net total
of £30,875,500, being an increase of £2,083,600 beyond the
amount of £28,791,900 voted for the year 1900-1901. The total
number of Officers, Seamen and Boys, Coastguard, and Royal
Marines, proposed for the year 1901-1902 is 118,635, being an
increase of 3,745.
The following statistics of the numerical strength and ratio
to population of the armies of twenty-two nations, compiled in
the War Department of the United States, were cited in the
debate in the United States Senate on the bill to increase the
strength of the United States Army, January 15, 1901. They
differ in some particulars, but not greatly, from the
corresponding figures given by Mr. McClellan:
"War Department, Adjutant-General's office, Washington, August
28, 1900. According to the latest available sources, which are
considered fairly reliable, the peace and war strength of the
armies of the nations mentioned below is stated to be as
follows:
NATION. PEACE STRENGTH. WAR STRENGTH.
Officers. Men.
Austria-Hungary, 1899. 26,454 335,239 1,872,178
Belgium, 1899 3,472 48,030 163,000
Brazil, 1897 2,300 25,860
China 300,000 1,000,000 (a)
France, 1900 29,740 586,735 2,500,000 (b)
(a) Estimated.
(b) Available men liable to military service.
{697}
NATION. PEACE STRENGTH. WAR STRENGTH.
Officers. Men.
Germany, 1899 23,230 562,266 3,000,000 (c)
Great Britain, 1900 11,904 241,237 (d) 503,484
Italy, 1898 14,084 310,602 1,304,854
Japan, 1898 6,356 115,673 407,963
Mexico, 1898 2,068 30,075 151,500
Persia 24,500 105,500
Portugal, 1899 1,804 30,000 157,126 (e)
Roumania 3,280 60,000 171,948
Russia, 1900 36,000 860,000 3,500,000 (f)
Servia, 1897 160,751 353,366
Spain, 1899 98,140 183,972
Sweden, 1899 2,513 37,639 327,000
Switzerland, 1899 (g) 509,707
Turkey, 1898 700,620 900,000
United States, 1900. 2,587 65,000 100,000
(c) Estimated on present organization to have over 3,000,000
trained men. War strength not given.
(d) Of this number 74,288 are Indian troops.
(e) In addition there are maintained in the colonies 9,478
officers and men.
(f) Approximately.
(g) No standing army.
"War Department, Adjutant General's office, Washington,
December 8, 1900. Peace strength of the armies, population, and
percentage of former to latter of the principal countries of the
world. This table is not strictly accurate at the present
time, because the dates of censuses vary. In preparing this
table the latest published census has been taken for
population, and the countries are arranged in order of their
percentages:
NATION. Peace Strength. Population. Percentage.
France 616,475 38,517,975 1.6
Norway 30,900 2,000,917 1.54
Germany 585,896 52,279,901 1.1
Roumania 63,280 5,800,000 1.1
Italy 324,686 31,856,675 1
Greece 25,338 2,433,806 1
Servia 22,448 2,312,484 .97
Austria-Hungary 361,693 41,351,184 0.87
Sweden 40,152 5,062,918 .79
Belgium 51,502 6,669,732 .77
Russia. 896,000 128,932,113 .69
Great Britain
and Ireland. 259,141 38,104,975 .68
Turkey. 244,000 38,791,000 .63
Portugal 31,804 5,049,729 .62
Spain 98,140 17,565,632 .56
Netherlands 21,696 5,074,632 .54
Denmark 9,769 2,185,335 .45
Japan 122,029 43,745,353 .30
Mexico 32,143 12,630,863 .25
Brazil 28,160 14,338,915 .19
United States 67,587 76,295,220 .089
Switzerland (h) 3,119,635
(h) Switzerland has no standing army, but every citizen has to
bear arms. The first Class (élite), composed of men between
the ages of 20 and 32, has from forty to eighty days' training
the first year, and every second year thereafter sixteen days.
About 18,000 men join the elite annually.
In December, 1900, the British Board of Trade issued a return,
for the year 1899 (except as stated otherwise), of the "Naval
expenditure and Mercantile Marine" of leading nations, from
which the following table is taken:
COUNTRIES. Aggregate Aggregate Aggregate
Naval Revenue Tonnage of
Expenditure Mercantile
on Seagoing Marine.
Force.
£ £ Tons.
Great Britain
(United Kingdom) 26,145,599 119,839,905 9,164,342
(1898-99) (Year ended
31st March, 1900)
Russian Empire 8,306,500 165,905,000 554,141
Germany 6,672,788 76,309,000 1,639,552
(1899-1900) (1898)
Netherlands 1,133,664 10,416,000 302,224
(1899-1900) (1898)
France 13,796,033 142,021,000 957,756
Portugal 749,226 11,474,000 129,522
(Year ended (1898)
30th June, 1900)
Spain 1,133,664 34,633,000 637,924
(Year ended (1898-99) (1897)
30th June, 1900)
Italy. 4,617,034 70,181,000 815,162
(Year ended (Year ended (1898)
30th June, 1900) 30th June, 1899)
Austria-Hungary 1,403,441
Austria. 66,171,000 164,506
(1898) (1898)
Hungary. 42,903,000 66,072
United States
(year ended
30th June) 9,840,912 127,288,000 848,246 (b).
(1900)
Japan 5,076,294 22,017,000 (a) 648,324
(1899-1900) (1898)
NOTE.
(a) Includes the Chinese indemnity.
(b) Registered for foreign trade only.
WAR DEPARTMENT, The United States:
Investigation of its conduct in the war with Spain.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898-1899.
WASHINGTON, D. C.: A. D. 1897.
Completion of the building for the Library of Congress.
See (in this volume)
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.
{698}
WASHINGTON, D. C.: A. D. 1900 (December).
Celebration of the Centennial Anniversary.
The 100th anniversary of the removal of the national capital
from Philadelphia to Washington was fittingly celebrated on
the 12th of December, 1900, by an imposing military parade and
by a notable assemblage in the House of Representatives, where
addresses were delivered and the principal exercises took
place. The President and the Vice President elect, members of
all branches of the public service, the Governors and
delegates from all the States and Territories, and various
other dignitaries, were present. The day of celebration was
not precisely that of the anniversary, but one chosen for
convenience to represent it. Under the law in 1800 the two
houses of Congress began their regular winter session about
two weeks earlier than they do now, and November 17 was set as
the date on which the VIth Congress should reassemble at the
new seat of Federal power. As neither house could have taken
part this year in anniversary ceremonies held on November 17,
a day was naturally chosen which should allow the legislative
branch its proper share in the centennial celebration. The
Executive Departments had, in fact, been partially installed
in the new District some time before the members of the VIth
Congress found their way to the unfinished Capitol. President
Adams, leaving Philadelphia on May 27, and travelling by a
circuitous route through Lancaster and Frederick, reached
Georgetown on June 3, 1800. He inspected the single wing of
the original Capitol, then far from finished, visited
Alexandria, at the southern extreme of the District, and after
a ten days stay in Georgetown departed for Massachusetts. The
President and Mrs. Adams returned to occupy the White House
early in November of the same year.
WAZIRIS, British-Indian wars with the.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1894, and 1897-1898.
WEI-HAI-WEI, Lease of the harbor of, by Great Britain.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (MARCH-JULY).
WELLMAN, Walter:
Second Arctic Expedition.
See (in this volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION, 1898-1899.
WELSH CHURCH:
Failure of Disestablishment Bill.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1894-1895.
WEST AFRICA: A. D. 1895.
Appointment of a Governor-General of the French possessions.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (FRENCH WEST AFRICA).
WEST AFRICA: A. D. 1899.
Definition of British and German boundaries.
See (in this volume)
SAMOAN ISLANDS.
WEST INDIES, The British: A. D. 1897.
Report of a Royal Commission on the condition and prospects
of the sugar-growing colonies.
A state of increasing distress in most of the British West
India colonies, caused by the depression of the sugar-growing
industry, led to the appointment, in December, 1896, of a
Royal Commission "to make an inquiry into the condition and
prospects of the colonies of Jamaica, British Guiana, Trinidad
and Tobago, Barbados, Grenada, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, and the
Leeward Islands, and to suggest such measures as appeared
calculated to restore and maintain the prosperity of these
colonies and their inhabitants." In the August following the
Commission made its report, with the following summary of
conclusions:
"a. The sugar industry in the West Indies is in danger of
great reduction, which in some colonies may be equivalent or
almost equivalent to extinction.
"b. The depression of the industry is due to the competition
of other sugar-producing countries and in a special degree to
the competition of beet sugar produced under a system of
bounties. It is also affected by high protective tariffs, and
by the competition of cane sugar, the production of which is
specially encouraged by the Governments concerned. The causes
of the depression may be described as permanent, inasmuch as
they are largely due to the policy of foreign countries, and
there is no indication that that policy is likely to be
abandoned in the immediate future.
"c. It is not due in any considerable degree to extravagance
in management, to imperfection in the process of manufacture,
or to inadequate supervision consequent on absentee
ownership, and the removal of these causes, wherever they
exist, would not enable it, generally, to be profitably
carried on under present conditions of competition. …
"d. The depression in the industry is causing sugar estates to
be abandoned, and will cause more estates to be abandoned, and
such abandonment is causing and will cause distress among the
labouring population, including a large number of East Indian
immigrants, and will seriously affect, for a considerable
time, the general prosperity of the sugar-producing Colonies,
and will render it impossible for some, and perhaps the
greater number of them, to provide, without external aid, for
their own government and administration.
"e. If the production of sugar is discontinued or very largely
reduced, there is no industry or industries that could
completely replace it in such islands as Barbados, Antigua,
and St. Kitts, and be profitably carried on and supply
employment for the labouring population. In Jamaica, in
Trinidad, in British Guiana, in St. Lucia, in St. Vincent, and
to some extent in Montserrat and Nevis, the sugar industry may
in time be replaced by other industries, but only after the
lapse of a considerable period and at the cost of much
displacement of labour and consequent suffering. In Dominica
the sugar industry is not at the present day of great
importance. We think it right to add that in all Colonies
where sugar can be completely, or very largely, replaced by
other industries, the Colonies in question will be in a much
sounder position, both politically and economically, when they
have ceased to depend wholly, or to a very great extent, upon
the continued prosperity of a single industry.
"f. The total or partial extinction of the sugar industry
would, in most places, very seriously affect the condition of
the labouring classes for the worse, and would largely reduce
the revenue of the Colonies. In some places the loss of
revenue could be met to a limited extent by economies, but
this could not be done universally nor in a material degree in
most of the Colonies. Some of the Colonies could not provide
the necessary cost of administration, including the relief of
distressed and necessitous persons, or of the support and
repatriation (when necessary) of the East Indian immigrants,
without subventions from the mother country. Jamaica,
Trinidad, and Grenada may be expected to meet from their own
resources the whole of the expenditure that is likely to fall
on them.
{699}
"g. The best immediate remedy for the state of things which we
have shown to exist would be the abandonment of the bounty
system by continental nations. This change would in all
probability enable a large portion of the sugar-cane
cultivation to be carried on successfully, and would certainly
reduce the rate at which it will diminish. Looking, however,
to what appears to be the policy of the United States of
America, to the great cheapening of the cost of production of
beet sugar, and the fact that many countries appear to have
singled out the sugar industry as one which ought to be
artificially stimulated in various ways, it is not clear that,
even if the bounties were abolished, another crisis of a similar
character might not arise in the West Indies at a future day.
"11. A remedy which was strongly supported by witnesses
interested in the West Indian sugar estates was the imposition
of countervailing duties on bounty-fed sugar when imported
into the United Kingdom. …
"i. The special remedies or measures of relief which we
unanimously recommend are—
(1.) The settlement of the labouring population on small
plots of land as peasant proprietors.
(2.) The establishment of minor agricultural industries,
and the improvement of the system of cultivation,
especially in the case of small proprietors.
(3.) The improvement of the means of communication between
the different islands.
(4.) The encouragement of a trade in fruit with New York,
and, possibly, at a future time, with London.
(5.) The grant of a loan from the Imperial Exchequer for
the establishment of Central Factories in Barbados.
The subject of emigration from the distressed tracts also
requires the careful attention of the various Governments,
though we do not find ourselves at the present time in a
position to make recommendations in detail.
"j. We estimate the cost of the special remedies recommended
in (2) (3) and (4) of i, at £27,000 a year for ten years, the
expenditure to be borne by the mother country. We estimate the
amount of the loan to Barbados for the erection of central
factories at £120,000. This measure no doubt involves the risk
of loss. Grants will be required in Dominica and St. Vincent
for roads, and to enable the settlement of the labouring
population on the land to be carried out, and their amount may
be taken at £30,000. A further grant of about £60,000 is
required to clear off the floating debt in some of the smaller
islands. In addition, the smaller islands should receive grants
to enable them to meet their ordinary expenditure of an
obligatory nature. The amount may be placed at £20,000 a year
for five years, and possibly a reduced amount for a further
period of five years. The expenditure which we are able to
estimate may be summarized as follows:—
(1.) A grant of £27,000 a year for ten years.
(2.) A grant of £20,000 a year for five years.
(3.) Immediate grants of £60,000 and £30,000, or £90,000 in
all.
(4.) A loan of £120,000 to Barbados for the establishment
of central factories."
On a proposal for the federation of the West India colonies
the Commission reported unfavorably, for the reason that the
colonies are too widely scattered and differ too greatly in
conditions for an efficient or economical common government.
"Nor does it seem to us," says the report, "that the very
important Island of Jamaica, which is separated by many
hundreds of miles of sea from all the other West Indian
Colonies, could dispense with a separate Governor, even if
there should be a Governor-General; whilst the circumstances
of British Guiana and Trinidad almost equally demand the
constant presence and attention of an Administrator of
Governor's rank. It might be possible, without disadvantage,
to make some reduction in the number of higher officials in
the smaller islands, and we are disposed to think that it
would be conducive to efficiency and economy if the islands of
the Windward Group, that is, Grenada and the Grenadines, St.
Vincent and St. Lucia, were again placed under the Governor of
Barbados, as they were for many years previous to 1885. We are
also disposed to think that the Island of Dominica, which is
not much further than Grenada from Barbados, and which, in its
physical, social and industrial conditions partakes more of
the character of the Windward Islands than of that of the
other Leeward Islands, might be placed under this Government
instead of being considered one of the Leeward Group. It
might, indeed, be found possible to bring the whole of the
Leeward Islands under the same Government as Barbados and the
Windward Islands, and thus effect a further economy."
Great Britain,
Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command;
C.-8655, 1897, pages 69-70, and 23).
With the sanction of Parliament, most of the recommendations
of the Commission were promptly carried out. Provision was
made for the construction of roads in the islands; for
subsidising steamer lines between the several islands and
between Jamaica, Canada and London; for developing the
cultivation of fruits and other crops by a botanical
department; for establishing model factories for the better
and cheaper working of sugar cane; and for wiping off certain
debts which were a cause of distress to some of the poorer
islands. In these measures the imperial government undertook
obligations which might, it was said, involve the payment of
£200,000.
WEST INDIES: A. D. 1899-1901.
Reciprocity arrangement with the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899-1901.
WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRALIA; and CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRALIA.
WEYLER y NICOLAU, General:
At Barcelona.
See (in this volume)
SPAIN: A. D. 1895-1896.
WEYLER y NICOLAU, General:
Administration in Cuba.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897.
WEYLER y NICOLAU, General:
Appointed Captain-General of Madrid.
See (in this volume)
SPAIN: A. D. 1900 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER).
WHEATON, General:
Military operations in the Philippine Islands.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY-NOVEMBER).
WHITE, Andrew D.:
American Commissioner to the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
WILDMAN, Rounseville:
Report of proposals from Philippine insurgents in 1897.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (NOVEMBER).
{700}
WILHELMINA, Queen of the Netherlands:
Enthronement and marriage.
See (in this volume)
NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1808, and 1901.
WILLIAM II., German Emperor.
Some of his autocratic speeches against the Social Democrats.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1894-1895.
WILLIAM II., German Emperor.
His claim to kingship by Divine Right.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D.1894-1899.
WILLIAM II., German Emperor.
His message to President Kruger relative to the Jameson Raid.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1896 (JANUARY).
WILLIAM II., German Emperor.
His speech to his brother, Prince Henry, at Kiel.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1897 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER).
WILLIAM II., German Emperor.
His speech to soldiers departing to China.
Punishment of its critics.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (OCTOBER 9).
WILLIAM II., German Emperor.
His system of personal government.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER).
WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA:
Race war.
See (in this volume)
NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1898.
WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: ELECTRICAL.
WITU. The State of.
See (in this volume)
BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE: A. D. 1895-1897.
WITWATERSRAND, The.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1885-1890.
WOLCOTT, Senator Edward O.:
Bimetallic mission to Europe.
See (in this volume)
MONETARY QUESTIONS: A. D. 1897 (APRIL-OCTOBER).
WOMAN SUFFRAGE.
Four States have given to women unlimited political freedom,
these States being Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho. The
women of all these States, except Idaho, had the privilege of
voting in the Presidential election of 1896. The women of
Idaho voted in the State election of 1898, but their first
chance to vote for a Presidential ticket was in 1900. To some
extent, in the election of school boards and officers, or on
questions of taxation, woman suffrage exists in a limited way
in Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky,
Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New
Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon,
South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
WOMAN'S CENTURY, The.
See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY. THE WOMAN'S CENTURY.
WOOD, Leonard, Colonel
of the Regiment of Rough Riders.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-MAY).
WOOD, Leonard, Colonel
Commanding at Santiago.
Report.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1898-1899 (DECEMBER-OCTOBER)
WOOD, Leonard, Colonel.
Military Governor of Cuba.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1809 (DECEMBER).
WORKINGMEN'S INSURANCE, Compulsory, in Germany.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1897-1900.
WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION ACT, English.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (MAY-JULY).
WORLD POWERS, The four great.
See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY: EXPANSION.
X.
X RAYS. The discovery of.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, REGENT: CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.
Y.
YAMAGATA, Marquis: Ministry.
See (in this volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1898-1899.
YANG-TSUN, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST 4-16).
YANG-TSZE REGION, Chinese agreement not to alienate.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY).
YAQUIS, Revolts of the.
See (in this volume)
MEXICO: A. D. 1896-1899.
YAUCO, Engagement at.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: PORTO RICO).
YELLOW FEVER, Detection of the mosquito as a carrier of.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: MEDICAL AND SURGICAL.
YERKES OBSERVATORY, The.
The Yerkes Observatory, built and equipped for the University
of Chicago, by Mr. Charles T. Yerkes, of Chicago, at the
village of Williams Bay, near Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, was
opened and dedicated on the 21st of October, 1897. A
remarkable gathering of eminent astronomers gave distinction
to the occasion. The Observatory was pronounced to be the most
perfectly equipped in the world. The lens of its great
telescope—40 inch objective—the last great work of the late
Alvan G. Clark, of Cambridge, Massachusetts was then the
largest ever made. Its cost was $66,000; the cost of the
equatorial mounting was $55,000.
YOUNG PEOPLE'S SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR.
See (in this volume)
CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR, YOUNG PEOPLE'S SOCIETY OF.
YUKON, The district of.
See (in this volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1895.
{701}
Z.
ZAMBESIA, Northern.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY):
A. D. 1894-1895.
ZANZIBAR: A. D. 1895.
Mainland divisions of the Sultanate included
in British East Africa Protectorate.
See (in this volume)
BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE: A. D. 1895-1897.
ZANZIBAR: A. D. 1896.
British suppression of an usurper.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1896 (ZANZIBAR).
ZANZIBAR: A. D. 1897.
Abolition of the legal status of slavery.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (ZANZIBAR).
ZANZIBAR: A. D. 1899.
Renunciation of rights of extra-territoriality by Germany.
See (in this volume)
SAMOAN ISLANDS.
ZIONIST MOVEMENT, The.
See (in this volume)
JEWS: A. D. 1897-1901.
ZULULAND:
Extension of boundary.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (ZULULAND).
ZULULAND:
Annexation to Natal Colony.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (ZULULAND).
ZOLA, Emile, and the Dreyfus case.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1897-1899, and 1900 (DECEMBER).
ZONA LIBRE.
See (in this volume)
MEXICAN FREE ZONE.
{702}
CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD OF EVENTS.
1895-1901.
1895.
January 1, 1895.
Murder of the reigning prince of Chitral,
on the northwestern Indian border.
January 7, 1895.
Independence of Korea proclaimed at Seoul.
January 13, 1895.
Death of Sir John Seeley (Professor John Robert Seeley).
January 17, 1895.
Election of M. Felix Faure President of the French Republic.
January 21, 1895.
Agreement between Great Britain and France defining the
boundaries of the hinterland of Sierra Leone.
January 22-23, 1895.
Resignation of President Saenz Peña of the Argentine
Republic, and election of President Uriburu.
January 24, 1895.
Death of Lord Randolph Churchill.
January 26, 1895.
Death of Arthur Cayley, English mathematician.
Death of Nikolai Karlovich de Giers, Russian statesman.
January 28, 1895.
Death of François Canrobert, Marshal of France.
February 7, 1895.
Rejection by the United States House of Representatives of
the measure asked for by President Cleveland for the relief
of the national treasury.
February 8, 1895.
Contract by the United States Secretary of the Treasury with
New York and London banking houses for supply of gold to
the treasury.
Death of Reginald Stuart Poole, English archæologist.
February 12, 1895.
Death of Charles Etienne Gayarré, historian of Louisiana.
February 16, 1895.
Death of Lady Stanley of Alderley.
February 18, 1895.
Death of Archduke Albrecht of Austria.
February 20, 1895.
Death of Frederick Douglass, the most eminent colored man
of his day.
February 24, 1895.
Renewal of insurrection in Cuba against Spanish rule.
March 1, 1895.
Beginning of the siege of a small force of British-Indian
troops in the fort at Chitral by surrounding tribes.
March 2, 1895.
Death of the Grand Duke Alexis,
brother of the Tzar Alexander III.
Death of Professor John Stuart Blackie.
Death of Ismail Pasha, ex-Khedive of Egypt.
March 5, 1895.
Death of Sir Henry Rawlinson, English archæologist.
March 9, 1895.
Death of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, German novelist.
March 11, 1895.
Agreement between Great Britain and Russia for fixing the
northern frontier of Afghanistan from Zulfikar on the
Heri-Rud to the Pamirs.
March 17, 1895.
Bloody battle in the streets of Lima, Peru, ending in the
overthrow of the usurping government of Caceres.
March 18, 1895.
Death of Captain Adam Badeau, military
biographer of General Grant.
March 31, 1895.
Death of Sir George Chesney, military writer.
April 20, 1895.
Relief of the beleaguered British garrison at Chitral.
April 30, 1895.
Death of Gustav Freytag, German novelist.
May 1, 1895.
Proclamation by the British South Africa Company giving
the name "Rhodesia" to its territories.
May 4, 1895.
Death of Roundell Pulmer, 1st Earl of Selborne.
May 5, 1895.
Death of Karl Vogt, German biologist.
May 6, 1895.
Re-hearing granted by the Supreme Court of the United States
on cases testing constitutionality of the income tax.
May 10, 1895.
Relinquishment by Japan of the Fêng-tien peninsula in China.
Census of the Argentine Republic.
May 20, 1895.
Final decision of the Supreme Court of the United States
against the constitutionality of the income tax.
May 23, 1895.
Consolidation of the Astor and Lenox libraries with the
"Tilden Trust," to form the New York Public Library.
May 24, 1895.
Death of Hugh McCulloch, American statesman and financier.
May 28, 1895.
Death of Walter Quinton Gresham,
United States Secretary of State.
May 30, 1895.
Death of Frederick Locker-Lampson, English poet.
May 31, 1895.
Death of Emily Faithfull, philanthropist and author.
June 14, 1895.
Census of the German Empire.
June 17, 1895.
Celebration of the opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Ship Canal
between the Baltic and North seas.
June 21-22, 1895.
Defeat in the British Parliament and resignation of the
Ministry of Lord Rosebery;
Lord Salisbury called to form a new government.
June 29, 1895.
Death of Professor Thomas Henry Huxley,
English biologist and scientific man of letters.
{703}
July 1, 1895.
Final transfer of the territories of the British East Africa
Company to the British government;
completed organization of the East Africa Protectorate.
July 8, 1895.
Opening of the railway from Delagoa Bay to Pretoria,
in the Transvaal.
July 13, 1895.
Parliamentary elections begun in Great Britain, resulting in a
large majority for the Conservatives and Liberal Unionists.
July 15, 1895.
Assassination of Mr. Stambouloff, late chief Minister in the
Bulgarian government, who died of his wounds on the 19th.
July 20, 1895.
Pressing despatch of Mr. Olney, United States Secretary of
State, to the American Ambassador to Great Britain, on the
question of the Venezuela boundary, asserting the Monroe
Doctrine.
July 21, 1895.
Death of Professor Rudolph von Gneist, German jurist and
historian.
July 24, 1895.
Defeat of Protectionist policy in the Parliamentary election,
New South Wales.
July 31, 1895.
Death of Heinrich von Sybel, historian, and Director of the
Prussian State Archives.
Death of Richard M. Hunt, American architect.
August 1, 1895.
Massacre of English and American missionaries at Hua Sang
in China.
August 2, 1895.
Death of Joseph Thomson, African explorer.
August 12, 1895.
Opening of the first session of the new Parliament in
Great Britain.
August 13, 1895.
Death of Christian Bernhard Tauchnitz, Leipzig publisher.
September 2, 1895.
Government of a young native prince, under British tutelage
and protection established at Chitral.
September 16-18, 1895.
Adoption of a constitution and organization of a republican
government by the Cuban insurgents.
September 18, 1895.
Opening of the Cotton States and International Exposition
at Atlanta.
September 20, 1895.
Executive order by President Cleveland for the improvement
of the consular service of the United States.
September 28, 1895.
Death of Louis Pasteur, the father of bacteriology.
September 30, 1895.
Attack by Turkish police in Constantinople on Armenians who
had gathered to present their grievances to the Sultan.
October 3, 1895.
Death of Professor Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen, Norwegian-American
novelist and poet.
October 7, 1895.
Death of William Wetmore Story, American sculptor and author.
October 8-9, 1895.
Massacre of Armenians at Trebizond by a Turkish mob.
October 17, 1895.
Turkish imperial irade directing reforms in Armenia which
were not carried out.
October 21, 1895.
Death of Henry Reeve, English author and editor.
November 4, 1895.
Revolutionary installation of Aloy Alfaro as executive chief
of the Republic of Ecuador.
Death of Eugene Field, American poet and journalist.
November 8, 1895.
Discovery of the X rays by Professor Rontgen.
November 9, 1895.
Death of Colonel Benjamin Wait, a leader of the Canadian
rebellion of 1837.
November 20, 1895.
Death of Chimelli de Marini, known as Rustem Pasha.
November 25, 1895.
More rigorous anti-slavery law instituted in Egypt.
Death of Jules Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire, French statesman
and orientalist.
November 26, 1895.
Reply of Lord Salisbury, for the British government,
to the despatch of Mr. Olney, on the Venezuela question.
Death of Henry Seebohm, English naturalist.
November 27, 1895.
Death of Alexandre Dumas, the younger.
November 29, 1895.
Death of Count Edward Taaffe, Austrian statesman.
December 8, 1895.
Death of George Augustus Sala, English journalist.
December 12, 1895.
Death of Allen G. Thurman,
American political leader and statesman.
December 17, 1895.
Message of President Cleveland to the Congress of the
United States on the boundary dispute between
Great Britain and Venezuela.
Death of Antonio Gallenga (Luigi Mariotti),
Italian revolutionist, journalist, and author.
December 18-20, 1895.
Passage by the two branches of the Congress of the United
States of an act authorizing the President to appoint a
commission to ascertain the true boundary of Venezuela.
December 20, 1895.
Special Message of President Cleveland to the Congress of
the United States on the financial situation of the country.
December 23, 1895.
Death of "Stepniak," Russian revolutionist and author.
Death of John Russell Hind, English astronomer.
December 27-28, 1895.
Passage of temporary tariff bill and bill to maintain the
coin redemption fund, by the United States House of
Representatives.
December 29, 1895.
Raid by Dr. Jameson, Administrator of the British South Africa
Company, into the Transvaal, with an armed force of 500 men.
1896.
January 1, 1896.
Appointment of an United States Commission to investigate the
divisional line between Venezuela and British Guiana.
Surrender of Dr. Jameson and his raiders to the Boers.
New constitution for South Carolina brought into effect.
January 3, 1896.
Congratulatory telegram from the German Emperor, William II.,
to President Kruger, of the South African Republic,
on the defeat of the Jameson Raid.
January 8, 1896.
Destructive earthquake shock in Persia.
Death of Paul Verlaine, French poet.
January 10, 1896.
Proclamation of President Kruger to the inhabitants of
Johannesburg, promising them a municipal government.
January 11, 1896.
Death of João de Deus, Portuguese poet.
{704}
January 15, 1896.
Declaration of agreement between Great Britain and France
concerning Siam.
January 17, 1896.
Occupation of Kumassi, the capital of Ashanti, by British
forces, and submission of King Prempeh.
January 18, 1896.
Submission by the Queen of Madagascar to a
French protectorate of the island.
January 20, 1896.
Death of Prince Henry of Battenberg.
January 24, 1896.
Death of Lord Leighton, English painter.
January 29, 1896.
Death of the Right Honourable Hugh Culling Eardley Childcrs,
ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer, Great Britain.
February 1, 1896.
Substitution, by the United States Senate, of a free silver
coinage bill for the House bill to maintain the coin
redemption fund.
February 6, 1896.
Death of Jean Auguste Barre, French sculptor.
February 8, 1896.
Signing of treaty between United States and Great Britain for
the arbitration of British claims for seizure of sealing vessels.
February 10, 1896.
Arrival of General Weyler at Havana as Governor and
Captain-General of Cuba.
February 11, 1896.
Notification by the French government to the Powers that it
had taken final possession of Madagascar.
February 14, 1896.
Rejection by the United States House of Representatives of
the Senate substitute for its bill to maintain the coin
redemption fund.
February 16, 1896.
Promulgation of Weyler's concentration order in Cuba.
February 25, 1896.
Defeat of the House tariff bill in the United States Senate.
February 26, 1896.
Death of Arsène Houssaye, French author.
February 27, 1896.
Reopening of a discussion of the Venezuela boundary question
between the governments of the united States and Great Britain.
March 1, 1896.
Defeat of the Italians by the Abyssinians at Adowa.
March 5, 1896.
Suggestion by Lord Salisbury of a general treaty of
arbitration between the United States and Great Britain.
March 10-12, 1896.
Passage of the Raines Liquor Law by the two branches of the
New York Legislature.
March 21, 1896.
Beginning of the Anglo-Egyptian movement for the recovery of
the Sudan from the Dervishes.
March 22, 1896.
Death of Thomas Hughes, author of "Tom Brown's School Days."
March 24, 1896.
Death of President Hippolyte of the Haytien Republic.
March 28, 1896.
Death of Mrs. Elizabeth Charles, English author.
March 30, 1896.
Resumption of the authority of the Pope over the Coptic Church,
and re-establishment of the Catholic patriarchate of
Alexandria.
March 31, 1896.
Reopening of the military and naval service of the United
States to persons who had held commissions in the Confederate
army or navy during the civil war.
April 6, 1896.
Revival of Olympic games at Athens.
April 8.
Highest latitude reached by Dr. Nansen, within 261 statute
miles of the north pole.
April 11, 1896.
Death of Charilaos Trikoupis, Greek statesman.
April 21, 1896.
Death of Jean Baptiste Léon Say, French statesman.
Death of Baron Hirsch, financier
and millionaire-philanthropist.
April 24, 1896.
Promulgation of amendments to the constitution of the
Republic of Mexico.
April 26, 1896.
Death of Sir Henry Parkes, Australian statesman.
May 1, 1896.
Opening of German industrial exposition at Berlin.
Assassination of the Shah of Persia.
Promulgation of additional amendments to the Mexican
constitution.
May 2, 1896.
Opening of the great national exposition and festival at
Buda-Pesth to celebrate the millennium of the
kingdom of Hungary.
May 3, 1896.
Death of Alfred William Hunt, English artist.
May 4, 1896.
Opening of the National Electrical Exposition in New York.
May 6, 1896.
Promulgation of civil service rules by President Cleveland,
adding 29,000 places to the classified service under the
government of the United States.
May 11, 1896.
The bill to consolidate New York, Brooklyn, and neighboring
cities, in the "Greater New York," made law by the
Governor's signature.
May 19, 1896.
Promulgation of the law of public education in Mexico,
establishing a national system.
Publication in England of the manifesto of a New Radical Party,
led by Sir Charles Dilke and Mr. Labouchere.
Death of the Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria.
May 20, 1896.
Death of Madame Clara Schumann, pianist.
May 24, 1896.
Outbreak of Turks against the Christians in Canea, Crete.
Death of Edward Armitage, English artist.
May 26, 1896.
Coronation of the Russian Tzar, Nicholas II.;
suffocation of nearly 3,000 people at the feasting.
May 27, 1896.
The city of St. Louis struck by a cyclone.
May 27-28, 1896.
Meeting of the national convention of the Prohibition Party,
at Pittsburgh, to nominate candidates for President and
Vice President of the United States.
June 2, 1896.
Death of Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs, African explorer.
June 4, 1896.
Death of Ernesto Rossi, Italian actor and author.
June 7, 1896.
Battle of the British and Egyptian army with the Dervishes
at Ferket.
June 8, 1896.
Death of Jules Simon, French statesmen and philosopher.
June 9, 1896.
Appointment of Commission to draft the "Greater New York"
charter.
June 16-18, 1896.
Meeting, at St. Louis, of the Republican national convention,
and nomination of William McKinley and Garret A. Hobart for
President and Vice President of the United States.
{705}
June 23, 1896.
Parliamentary elections in Canada, and substantial victory
of the Liberal Party.
Death of Sir Joseph Prestwich, English geologist.
June 26, 1896.
Resignation of Cecil J. Rhodes from the board of directors
of the British South Africa Company.
June 28, 1896.
Re-election of President Diaz, of Mexico, for a fifth term.
July 1, 1896.
Abolition of inter-state taxes in Mexico.
Death of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe.
July 4-10, 1896.
Meeting, in New York, of the national convention of the
Socialist Labor Party, to nominate candidates for President
and Vice President of the United States.
July 7-11, 1896.
Meeting, at Chicago, of the Democratic national convention,
and nomination of William J. Bryan and Arthur Sewall for
President and Vice President of the United States.
July 8, 1896.
Retirement of Sir Charles Tupper from and succession of Sir
Wilfrid Laurier to the Prime Ministry of the Canadian government.
July 11, 1896.
Death of Right Honourable Sir Augustus Berkeley Paget,
diplomatist.
July 12, 1896.
Death of Professor Ernst Curtius, German historian.
July 14, 1896.
First international conference in London to plan co-operative
work in the preparation of a catalogue of scientific
literature.
July 16, 1896.
Death of Edmond Huot Goncourt, French novelist.
July 17, 1896.
Report of an investigating committee of the Cape Colony House
of Assembly declaring Mr. Rhodes to be responsible for the
Jameson Raid.
July 20, 1896.
Opening of the trial, in England, of Dr. Jameson and other
leaders of the raid into the Transvaal.
Death of Charles Dickens, eldest son of the novelist.
July 22, 1896.
Meeting of the convention of the National Silver Party,
at St. Louis, to endorse the nominations of Bryan and Sewall,
for President and Vice President of the United States.
July 22-25, 1896.
Meeting of the People's, or Populist Party in national
convention at St. Louis;
nomination of William J. Bryan and Thomas E. Watson for
President and Vice President of the United States.
July 23, 1896.
Death of Mary Dickens, eldest daughter of Charles Dickens.
July 26, 1896.
Tidal wave on the coast of Kiangsu, China, destroying
several thousand people.
July 28, 1896.
Conviction of Dr. Jameson and four of his subordinates.
July 30, 1896.
Resolution of the British House of Commons to investigate
the administration of the British South Africa Company.
August, 1896.
Discovery of the Klondike gold fields.
August 1, 1896.
Death of Right Honourable Sir William R. Grove,
jurist and man of science.
August 19, 1896.
Death of Professor Josiah Dwight Whitney, American geologist.
August 25, 1896.
Revolution in the sultanate of Zanzibar suppressed by British
forces.
Arrangement of Turkey with the Powers for reforms in Crete.
August 26-28, 1896.
Attack of Armenians on the Ottoman Bank at Constantinople;
horrible massacre of Armenians by the Turks.
August 27, 1896.
Appointment of Monsignor Martinelli to succeed Cardinal
Satolli as Papal Delegate to the United States.
August 30, 1896.
Death of Prince Alexis Borisovich Lobanof-Rostofski,
Russian statesman and diplomatist.
August 31, 1896.
Proclamation establishing a British protectorate over the
hinterland of Sierra Leone.
September 2-3, 1896.
Meeting of a convention of the National Democratic Party at
Indianapolis;
nomination of General John M. Palmer and General Simon B.
Buckner for President and Vice President of the United States.
September 15, 1896.
Publication in the Paris "Eclair" of the fact that Captain
Alfred Dreyfus (degraded and imprisoned in 1894 for alleged
betrayal of military secrets to a foreign power) was
convicted on the evidence of a document shown secretly to
the court martial, and unknown to the prisoner and his counsel.
September 23, 1896.
The Dervishes driven from Dongola by the Anglo-Egyptian army.
September 27, 1896.
Abolition of slavery in Madagascar by decree of the
French Resident-General.
September 29, 1896.
Official announcement of bubonic plague at Bombay.
October 3, 1896.
Death of William Morris, English poet.
October 8, 1896.
Death of George Du Maurier, English artist and novelist.
October 11, 1896.
Death of Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury.
October 20-22, 1896.
Celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of
the founding of The College of New Jersey, which then
formally assumed the name of Princeton University.
October 26, 1896.
Peace made between the government of Italy and King Menelek,
of Abyssinia.
Death of Paul Amand Challemel Lacour, French publicist.
November 3, 1896.
Presidential election in the United States.
November 9, 1896.
Announcement by Lord Salisbury of the settlement of the
Venezuela question between Great Britain and the United States.
November 11, 1896.
Death of Mrs. Mary Frances Scott-Siddons, actress.
November 16, 1896.
First transmission of electric power from Niagara Falls to
Buffalo.
November 21, 1896.
Death of Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson, physician,
scientific investigator, and author.
November 26, 1896.
Death of Coventry Patmore, English poet.
Death of Mathilde Blind, author.
Death of Benjamin Apthorp Gould, American astronomer.
December 1, 1896.
Death of Heinrich Gätke, painter and naturalist.
December 7, 1896.
Death of Antonio Maceo, leader of Cuban insurgents,
killed in a skirmish with the Spaniards.
December 10, 1896.
Death of Alfred Noble, Swedish engineer and founder of a
great fund for annually rewarding benefactors of humanity.
{706}
December 11, 1896.
Political suffrage extended to women in Idaho by an amendment
of the constitution.
December 15, 1896.
Death of Emile François Chatrousse, French sculptor.
1897.
January 3, 1897
Death of Vivien St. Martin, French geographer.
January 3-4, 1897.
Outbreak of conflict between Christians
and Moslems at Canea in Crete.
January 5, 1897.
Death of George Whiting Flagg, American painter.
January 11, 1897.
Signing, at Washington, of a general treaty between the
United States and Great Britain for the arbitration of all
matters of difference.
January 12, 1897.
Meeting, at Indianapolis, of a national convention of
delegates from commercial organizations to take measures
for promoting monetary reform in the United States.
January 15, 1897.
Death of Sir Travers Twiss, English jurist.
January 16, 1897.
Death of Joel Tyler Headley, American man of letters.
January 27, 1897.
Overthrow of the slave-raiding Emir of Nupé by forces of
the Royal Niger Company.
February 2, 1897.
Signing, at Washington, of the treaty of arbitration
between Great Britain and Venezuela.
February 7, 1897.
Union of Crete with Greece proclaimed by insurgent Christians
at Halepa.
February 9, 1897.
The taking of the first general census of the Russian Empire.
Death of Eliza Greatorex, American painter.
February 11, 1897.
Announcement by the government of Greece to the Powers that
it had determined to intervene by force in behalf of the
Christians of Crete.
February 12, 1897.
Death of Homer Dodge Martin, American artist.
February 14, 1897.
Landing of a Greek expedition of 2,000 men in Crete,
under Colonel Vassos.
February 15, 1897.
Landing of a mixed force at Canea, Crete, by the Powers of
the "European Concert," to protect the town;
proclamation by the Greek commander, Colonel Vassos, that he
had occupied the island in the name of the King of the Greeks.
February 16, 1897.
Beginning of the British parliamentary investigation of the
Jameson Raid.
Presentation by the South African Republic of its claim for
indemnity on account of the Jameson Raid.
February 17, 1897.
Attack by the Greeks on the Turkish forces at Canea.
February 18, 1897.
Capture of Benin by British forces.
February 22, 1897.
Death of Jean François Gravelet Blondin, French acrobat.
March 2, 1897.
Veto of Immigration Bill by President Cleveland.
Joint note by the powers of the "Concert" to Greece and
Turkey, declaring that Crete cannot be annexed to Greece, but
that the island will be endowed by the Powers with an
autonomous administration.
March 4, 1897.
Inauguration of William McKinley in the office of President
of the United States.
March 6, 1897.
Death of Reverend Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, English author.
March 11, 1897.
Death of Professor Henry Drummond, Scottish religious writer.
March 15, 1897.
Meeting of Congress in extra session called by the President.
March 21, 1897.
"Pacific blockade" of the coast of Crete established by the
Powers of the European Concert.
March 25, 1897.
Passage of the Elementary Education Act by the British
House of Commons.
March 27, 1897.
Death of William Taylor Adams (Oliver Optic), American writer
of fiction for young readers.
March 30, 1897.
Opening of debate in the British Parliament on the report of
a Royal Commission on the financial relations between
Great Britain and Ireland.
March 31, 1897.
Passage of the Dingley tariff bill by the United States
House of Representatives.
April.
Unprecedented floods along the Mississippi river.
April 3, 1897.
Death of Johannes Brahms, German composer.
April 5, 1897.
Publication in Austria of the language decrees for Bohemia.
April 6, 1897.
Edict of the Sultan of Zanzibar terminating the legal
status of slavery.
April 9, 1897.
Incursion of irregular Greek troops into Turkish territory.
April 10, 1897.
Death of Daniel Wolsey Voorhees, United States Senator.
April 12, 1897.
Appointment of commissioners from the United States to
negotiate in Europe for an international bi-metallic agreement.
Formal delivery to the Governor of Massachusetts of the
manuscript of Bradford's History of Plymouth Colony
(called "the Log of the Mayflower ") as a gift from England.
Death of Edward Drinker Cope, American naturalist.
April 17, 1897.
Turkish declaration of a state of war with Greece; beginning
of hostilities between regular troops, at Milouna Pass.
April 22-24, 1897.
Retreat of the Greek army in panic rout from Tyrnavo.
April 27, 1897.
Resignation of the Greek Ministry of M. Delyannis.
April 30, 1897.
Repulse by the Greeks of a Turkish attack on positions
near Velestino.
Formation of a new Ministry in Greece, under Demetrius Ralli.
May 1, 1897.
Opening of the Centennial Exposition at Nashville, Tennessee.
May 2-7, 1897.
Continued attacks by the Turks on the line held by the Greeks
between Pharsala and Volo; withdrawal of the Greeks to Domoko.
May 14, 1897.
Fire in a charity bazaar at Paris which was horribly
destructive of life.
The "Greater New York" charter becomes law.
May 15, 1897.
Rejection by the United States Senate of the arbitration
treaty negotiated between the United States and Great Britain.
May 16, 1897.
Death of Henri Eugene Philippe Louis, Duc d' Aumale, French
prince of the Bourbon-Orleans family, soldier and author.
Death of James Theodore Bent, English traveler and writer.
{707}
May 8, 1897.
Announcement by the Greek government to the Powers that
Colonel Vassos and his forces would be withdrawn from Crete.
May 11, 1897.
Proffer by the Powers of the European Concert of mediation
between Turkey and Greece.
May 17, 1897.
Defeat of the Greeks by the Turks at Domoko.
May 20, 1897.
Arrangement of an armistice between the Turks and the Greeks.
May 23, 1897.
Withdrawal of the last of the Greek troops from Crete.
June 1, 1897.
Census taken in Egypt.
June 2, 1897.
Opening of the Commercial Museum in Philadelphia.
June 3, 1897.
Opening of negotiations for peace between
Turkey and Greece at Constantinople.
June 10, 1897.
Effect given to a new constitution for the State of Delaware,
establishing an educational qualification of the suffrage.
Rising of tribes on the Afghan frontier of India against the
British.
June 14, 1897.
Convention between France and Great Britain, establishing the
boundaries of their respective claims in the Niger region of
West Africa.
June 16, 1897.
Transmission to Congress of a new treaty for the annexation
of the Hawaiian Islands to the United States.
June 20-22, 1897.
Celebration in London of the sixtieth anniversary—the
"Diamond Jubilee"—of the accession of Queen Victoria to the
throne of the United Kingdom.
June 24, 1897.
Conference at London of the Premiers of British colonies with
the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
June 25, 1897.
Death of Mrs. Margaret Oliphant (Wilson) Oliphant, Scottish
novelist and writer in many fields.
July 2, 1897.
Death of Adjutant-General Francis Amasa Walker,
American economist.
July 7, 1897.
Passage of the Dingley tariff bill by the United States
Senate, with many amendments.
July 8, 1897.
Death of Isham Green Harris, United States Senator.
July 10, 1897.
Death of Daniel Greenleaf Thompson, American author.
July 11, 1897.
Adoption of constitutional amendments in Switzerland by
popular vote.
The starting of Andrée from Spitzbergen on his attempted
balloon voyage to the north pole.
July 12-15, 1897.
Conference of American commissioners with Lord Salisbury and
other British ministers, on the subject of an international
bi-metallic agreement.
July 13, 1897.
Report of the British parliamentary committee which
investigated the Jameson Raid.
Death of Alfred Marshall Mayer, American physicist.
July 14, 1897.
Death of Anthony John Mundella, English statesman.
July 15, 1897.
Death of Brigadier-General Philippe Regis de Trobriand,
French officer in the American civil war, and writer.
July 20, 1897.
Death of Sir John Skelton, Scottish historian.
Death of Sir John Charles Bucknill, English alienist.
July 24, 1897.
Final passage of the Dingley tariff bill by both branches
of the United States Congress.
July 26, 1897.
Attack on British garrisons in the Swat Valley
(Afghan frontier of India), excited by "the mad mullah."
July 30, 1897.
Death of Étienne Vacherot, French philosopher.
August 2, 1897.
Death of Adam Asnyk, Polish poet.
August 5, 1897.
Death of James Hammond Trumbull. American philologist.
August 8, 1897.
Assassination of Señor Canovas del Castillo,
Prime Minister of Spain.
August 25, 1897.
Assassination of President Borda, of Uruguay.
August 29-31, 1897.
Meeting of the first congress of the Zionists at Basle.
August 31, 1897.
Speech by the German Emperor at Coblenz, asserting
"kingship by the grace of God," with "responsibility to the
Creator alone."
Death of Mrs. Louisa Lane Drew, actress.
September 10, 1897.
Death of Theodore Lyman, American naturalist.
September 11, 1897.
Death of Reverend Abel Stevens,
American historian of the Methodist church.
September 12, 1897.
Ending of a great strike of coal miners in the United States,
which began in July.
September 16, 1897.
Death of Edward Austin Sheldon, American educator.
September 17, 1897.
Death of Henry Williams Sage, American philanthropist.
September 18, 1897.
Signing of a preliminary treaty of peace
between Turkey and Greece.
September 20, 1897.
Death of Wilhelm Wattenbach, German historian.
September 22, 1897.
Meeting at Washington of a commission on monetary reform,
appointed by the Indianapolis Convention of January 12.
Death of Charles Denis Sauter Bourbaki, French general.
September 28, 1897.
Vote on proposed constitutional amendments in New Jersey.
October 1, 1897.
Introduction of the gold monetary standard in Japan.
October 2, 1897.
Death of Neal Dow, American temperance reformer.
October 4, 1897.
Death of Professor Francis William Newman,
English scholar and philosopher.
October 6, 1897.
The Philippine Islands swept by a typhoon,
destroying over 6,000 lives.
Death of Sir John Gilbert, English artist.
October 18, 1897.
Death of Rear-Admiral John Lorimer Worden, U. S. N.
October 19, 1897.
Death of George Mortimer Pullman, American inventor.
October 21, 1897.
Opening and dedication of the Yerkes Observatory,
at Williams Bay, Wisconsin.
October 22, 1897.
Death of Justin Winsor, American historian and bibliographer.
October 24, 1897.
Death of Francis Turner Palgrave, English poet.
October 25, 1897.
Death of John Sartain, American artist.
Death of John Stoughton, English church historian.
October 27, 1897.
Death of Mary, Duchess of Teck.
Death of Alexander Milton Ross, Canadian naturalist.
{708}
October 28, 1897.
Stormy session of the Austrian Reichsrath; twelve-hours'
speech of Dr. Lecher.
Death of Hercules George Robinson, Baron Rosmead,
British colonial administrator.
October 29, 1897.
Death of Henry George, American economist.
November 2, 1897.
Election of the first Mayor of "Greater New York."
Death of Sir Rutherford Alcock, British diplomatist.
November 4, 1897.
Seizure by Germany of the port of Kiao-chau on the
northeastern coast of China.
November 6, 1897.
Signing of treaty between Russia, Japan and the United States,
providing for a suspension of pelagic sealing.
November 10, 1897.
Adoption of plans for a building for the
New York Public Library.
November 14, 1897.
Death of Thomas Williams Evans, American dentist in Paris,
founder of the Red Cross Society in the Franco-Prussian war.
November 15, 1897.
Commandant Esterhazy denounced to the French Minister of War,
by M. Matthieu Dreyfus, as the author of the "bordereau" on
which Captain Alfred Dreyfus was secretly convicted.
November 16, 1897.
The Dreyfus case brought into the French Chamber of Deputies
by a question to the Minister of War.
November 19, 1897.
Great fire in London, beginning in Aldersgate and spreading
over six acres, destroying property estimated at £2,000,000
in value.
Death of Henry Calderwood, Scottish philosopher.
November 21, 1897.
Death of Sir Charles Edward Pollock, English jurist.
November 23, 1897.
Death of A. Bardoux, French statesman.
November 25, 1897.
Promulgation by royal decree at Madrid of a constitution
establishing self-government in Cuba and Porto Rico.
November 29, 1897.
Death of James Legge, Scotch oriental scholar.
December, 1897.
Annexation of Zululand to Natal Colony.
December 5, 1897.
Death of Mrs. Alice Wellington Rollins, American author.
December 14.
Signing of the treaty of Biac-na-bato, between the Spaniards
and the insurgent Filipinos.
December 29, 1897.
Approval of Act of Congress forbidding the killing of seals
by citizens of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean north
of 35° North latitude.
Death of William James Linton, American artist and author.
December 31, 1897.
Imperial proclamation, closing the sittings of the Austrian
Reichsrath, and continuing the Austro-Hungarian "Ausgleich"
provisionally for six months.
1898.
January 2, 1898.
Death of Sir Edward Augustus Bond, formerly principal
librarian of the British museum.
January 12, 1898.
Acquittal of Commandant Esterhazy, after a farcical pretense
of trial by a military tribunal, on the charge of being the
author of the "bordereau" ascribed to Dreyfus.
January 13, 1898.
Publication in Paris of a letter by M. Zola, denouncing the
conduct of the courts martial in the cases of Dreyfus and
Esterhazy.
Death of Mrs. Mary Victoria Cowden Clarke.
January 16, 1898.
Death of Charles Pelham Villiers, English statesman.
January 18, 1898.
Death of Henry George Liddell, English historian and
classical scholar.
January 20, 1898.
Second meeting of monetary convention at Indianapolis, to
consider the report of its commission.
January 24, 1898.
Declaration by Count von Bülow, in the German Reichstag, that
no relations or connections of any kind had ever existed
between Captain Dreyfus and any German agents.
January 25, 1898.
Friendly visit of the United States battle ship "Maine" to
Havana, Cuba.
January 28, 1898.
End of a great strike and lockout in the British engineering
trades, which began in the previous July.
January 31, 1898.
Disastrous blizzard in New England.
February 4, 1898.
Re-election (by voting which began January 3) of
President Kruger for a fourth term of five years,
in the South African Republic.
February 7-15, 1898.
Prosecution of M. Zola for defamation of certain military
officers; his scandalous trial and conviction.
February 14, 1898.
Destruction of the United States battle ship "Maine,"
by an explosion, in the harbor of Havana, Cuba.
February 16, 1898.
Removal of Chief-Justice Kotze, of the High Court of the
South African Republic, by President Kruger.
February 18.
Death of Frances Elizabeth Willard, American social reformer.
February 19, 1898.
Death of Dr. Edward Constant Seguin, neurologist, New York.
February 26, 1898.
Death of Frederick Tennyson, English poet.
Death of Michael Gregorovich Tchernaieff, Russian soldier
and popular hero of the Panslavists.
February 27, 1898.
Death of Major-General William Booth Taliaferro,
Confederate army.
March 1, 1898.
Retirement of General Crespo from the Presidency of Venezuela;
succession of General Andrade to the office.
March 6, 1898.
Death of Felice Cavalotti, Italian statesman and dramatist.
March 11, 1898.
Death of Major-General William Starke Rosecrans.
March 15, 1898.
Death of Sir Henry Bessemer, English inventor.
March 16, 1898.
Death of Aubrey Beardsley, English artist.
March 17, 1898.
Speech of Senator Proctor, of Vermont, in the United States
Senate, describing the condition of the reconcentrados in Cuba,
as he saw them during a recent visit to the island.
Death of Blanche K. Bruce, register of the United States
Treasury, born a slave.
March 21, 1898.
Report of the United States naval court of inquiry on the
destruction of the battle ship "Maine."
Death of Brigadier-General George Washington Rains,
Confederate army.
{709}
March 22, 1898.
Report of Spanish naval board of inquiry on the destruction
of the United States battle ship "Maine."
March 23, 1898.
Primary election law in New York signed by the Governor.
March 25, 1898.
Death of James Payn, English novelist.
March 27, 1898.
Proposal by the government of the United States to that of
Spain of an armistice and negotiation of peace with the
insurgents in Cuba.
Cession by China to Russia of Port Arthur and Talienwan.
March 28, 1898.
Message of the President of the United States to Congress on
the destruction of the battle ship "Maine."
Death of Anton Seidl, composer and musical conductor.
March 31, 1898.
Reply of the Spanish government to the proposals of the
United States, for an armistice and negotiation with the
Cuban insurgents.
Death of Edward Noyes Westcott, American novelist.
April 2, 1898.
Quashing of the sentence pronounced on M. Zola, upon his
appeal to the Court of Cassation.
Lease by China to Great Britain of the port of Wei-hai Wei
with adjacent territory.
April 7, 1898.
Death of Margaret Mather, American actress.
April 8, 1898.
Great victory of the Anglo-Egyptian army, under the Sirdar,
General Kitchener, over the Dervishes, on the Atbara.
April 10, 1898.
Passage of bill through the German Reichstag to greatly
increase the German navy.
April 11, 1898.
Special Message of the President of the United States to
Congress on the relations of the country to Spain, consequent
on affairs in Cuba.
Lease by China to France of Kwang-chow Wan
on the southern coast.
April 13, 1898.
Adoption by the United States House of Representatives of a
joint resolution authorizing and directing the President to
"intervene at once to stop the war in Cuba."
April 16, 1898.
Adoption by the United States Senate of a joint resolution
not only directing intervention to stop the war in Cuba,
but recognizing the insurgent government of "the Republic of
Cuba."
Death of ex-President Crespo, of Venezuela, killed in battle.
April 17, 1898.
Death of Jules Marcou, French geologist.
April 18, 1898.
Arrangement of the disagreement between the two branches of
the United States Congress respecting the recognition of
"the Republic of Cuba," and passage of a joint resolution
to intervene for the stopping of the war in the island.
April 19, 1898.
Death of George Parsons Lathrop, American author.
Death of Gustave Moreau, French painter.
April 20, 1898.
Passports asked for and received by the
Spanish Minister at Washington.
April 21, 1898.
Appointment of Rear-Admiral Sampson to the command of the
United States naval force on the Atlantic station.
April 22, 1898.
Proclamation by the President of the United States declaring
a blockade of certain Cuban ports.
April 23, 1898.
Proclamation by the President of the United States calling
for 125,000 volunteers.
April 24, 1898.
Commodore Dewey, commanding the Asiatic squadron of the
United States, ordered to proceed from Hong Kong to the
Philippine Islands, to destroy or capture the Spanish fleet
in those waters.
Interview, at Singapore, between the leader of the Philippine
insurgents, Aguinaldo, and the United States Consul-General,
Mr. Spencer Pratt;
communication from Mr. Pratt to Commodore Dewey, at Hong Kong;
request from Commodore Dewey that Aguinaldo come to Hong Kong.
April 25, 1898.
Formal declaration of war with Spain by the Congress of the
United States, with authority given to the President to call
out the land and naval forces of the nation.
Removal of the American squadron under Commodore Dewey from
Hong Kong to Mirs Bay, China.
Signing of protocol between Russia and Japan relative to Korea.
April 27, 1898.
Sailing of the American squadron from Mirs Bay to Manila.
April 29, 1898.
Proclamation of neutrality by the Portuguese government,
which required the Spanish fleet under Admiral Cervera to
depart from the Cape Verde islands.
May 1, 1898.
Destruction of the Spanish squadron in Manila Bay by the
American squadron under Commodore Dewey.
May 2, 1898.
Arrival of Aguinaldo at Hong Kong.
May 3, 1898.
Occupation of Cavite arsenal by American naval forces.
May 8, 1898.
General elections for a new Chamber of Deputies in France;
first balloting.
May 9, 1898.
Serious fighting in Milan, ending bread riots in that city
and elsewhere in northern Italy.
May 12, 1898.
Attack on the Spanish forts at San Juan, Porto Rico, by
Admiral Sampson, then searching for Cervera's fleet.
May 13, 1898.
Death of Reverend William Stevens Perry,
American church historian.
May 16, 1898.
Major-General Wesley Merritt, U. S. A., assigned to the
command of the Department of the Pacific.
Conveyance of Aguinaldo from Hong Kong to Cavite by the
United States ship "McCulloch."
May 19, 1898.
Death of Mr. Gladstone.
Death of Maria Louise Pool, American novelist.
May 22, 1898.
Second balloting in French elections, where the first had
resulted in no choice.
Death of Spencer Walpole, English historian.
Death of Edward Bellamy, American novelist and social theorist.
May 25, 1898.
Proclamation by the President of the United States calling
for 75,000 additional volunteers.
Departure from San Francisco of the first military expedition
from the United States to the Philippine Islands, under
General T. M. Anderson.
May 28, 1898.
Public funeral of Mr. Gladstone;
burial in Westminster Abbey.
Death of Mrs. Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren, American author.
{710}
May 29, 1898.
Blockade of the Spanish squadron under Rear-Admiral Cervera,
in the harbor of Santiago de Cuba, by the American flying
squadron under Commodore Schley.
May 30, 1898.
Agreement between Great Britain, Canada and the United States,
creating a Joint High Commission for the adjustment of all
existing subjects of controversy between the United States
and Canada.
June 1, 1898.
Arrival of Admiral Sampson and his fleet off the entrance to
the harbor of Santiago de Cuba, to perfect the blockade of
the Spanish squadron.
Opening of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition at Omaha, Nebraska.
Enactment of law to provide for the arbitration of disputes
between employés and companies engaged in interstate commerce
in the United States.
June 2, 1898.
Death of George Eric Mackay, English poet.
June 3, 1898.
Sinking of the collier "Merrimac" in the channel of the
harbor-entrance at Santiago de Cuba, by Assistant Naval
Constructor Hobson. U. S. N.
June 6, 1898.
Bombardment of Spanish forts at Santiago de Cuba by the
American blockading fleet.
June 7-10, 1898.
Possession of the lower bay at Guantanamo, near Santiago de
Cuba, taken by vessels of the American navy, and a marine
battalion landed.
June 11, 1898.
Reform edict issued by the young Emperor of China.
June 14, 1898.
Sailing, from Tampa, Florida, of the military expedition
under General Shafter for the capture of Santiago de Cuba.
June 15, 1898.
Sailing, from San Francisco, of the second American military
expedition to the Philippines.
Adoption by the House of Representatives of a joint resolution
to provide for annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the
United States.
June 16, 1898.
Second bombardment of forts at Santiago de Cuba by the
American blockading fleet.
June 16-24, 1898.
Elections to the Reichstag of the German Empire.
June 17, 1898.
Resignation of the Ministry of Signor Rudini in Italy.
Death of Sir Edward Burne-Jones, English painter.
June 20, 1898.
Arrival, off Guantanamo, of the expedition under
General Shafter.
June 21, 1898.
Capture and occupation of the island of Guam by the U. S. S.
"Charleston."
June 22-24, 1898.
Landing of General Shafter's army at Daiquiri and Siboney.
June 24, 1898.
First engagement between American and Spanish troops in Cuba,
at La Guasima.
June 28, 1898.
Proclamation by Aguinaldo, assuming the administration of a
provisional government of the Philippine Islands.
Approval by the President of the United States of the "Curtis
Act," relating to the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians.
Formation of a new Italian Ministry by General Pelloux.
July, 1898.
Discussion and passage by the British Parliament of a
Local Government Act for Ireland.
July 1, 1898.
Assault by the American forces, at San Juan Hill and El Caney,
on the Spanish lines defending Santiago.
July 2-3, 1898.
Continued fighting on the lines around Santiago de Cuba.
July 3, 1898.
Demand of General Shafter for the surrender of Santiago, under
the threat of bombardment; truce arranged by foreign consuls and
negotiations for surrender opened.
Destruction of the Spanish fleet of Admiral Cervera on its
attempting to escape from the blockaded port of Santiago de
Cuba.
July 4, 1898.
Opening of communications between General Anderson, commanding
the first expedition of the United States forces landed near
Manila, and General Aguinaldo, "commanding the Philippine
forces."
July 6, 1898.
Destruction of the Spanish cruiser" Alphonso XII.," when
attempting to escape from the harbor of Havana.
Adoption by the U. S. Senate of the joint resolution to
provide for the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands.
Exchange of Lieutenant Hobson and his fellow captives for
prisoners taken from the Spanish forces.
July 7, 1898.
Declaration of M. Cavaignac, Minister of War, in the Chamber
of Deputies, of his absolute certainty of the guilt of Captain
Dreyfus.
Death of Francisco Javier Cisneros, Cuban patriot.
Death of M. Buffet, French statesman.
July 10, 1898.
Termination of truce at Santiago;
resumption of hostilities;
bombardment of the city by the navy.
July 11, 1898.
Death of Rear-Admiral Daniel Ammen, U. S. N.
July 12, 1898.
Outbreak of yellow fever in the military hospital at Siboney.
Arrival of General Miles at Santiago with reinforcements for
General Shafter.
July 13, 1898.
Interview of General Miles and General Shafter with General
Toral, the Spanish commander at Santiago.
July 14, 1898.
Agreement by General Toral to surrender the city of Santiago
and the entire district of eastern Cuba with 24,000 Spanish
troops.
Death of Mrs. Elizabeth Lynn Linton, English author.
July 16, 1898.
Signing of the terms of the Spanish surrender at Santiago.
July 17, 1898.
Death of Parker Pillsbury, American abolitionist.
Death of Karl Gehrt, German artist.
July 18, 1898.
Opening of second trial of M. Zola, at Versailles.
July 25, 1898.
Landing, at Guanica, of the expedition of United States
troops, under General Miles, for the conquest of Porto Rico.
July 26, 1898.
Overtures for peace addressed by the Spanish government to
that of the United States through the French Minister at
Washington.
July 27, 1898.
Occupation of Ponce, in Porto Rico, by the American forces
under General Miles.
July 28, 1898.
Death of Dr. William Pepper, of Philadelphia, physician, and
extraordinary leader in public enterprise.
{711}
July 30, 1898.
Terms of peace proposed to Spain by the United States.
Death of Reverend John Caird, Scottish divine and educator.
July 31, 1898.
Death of Prince Otto von Bismarck, at the age of 83.
August 3, 1898.
Urgent message from General Shafter to the United States War
Department, asking for the instant withdrawal of his forces
from Santiago, on account of the deadly ravages of yellow
fever, typhoid and dysentery.
August 4, 1898.
Orders given for the removal of the American army from
Santiago de Cuba to Montauk Point, Long Island.
August 7, 1898.
Acceptance by Spain of the terms of peace offered by the
United States.
Demand of Admiral Dewey and General Merritt for the
surrender of Manila.
Death of James Hall, American geologist.
August 8, 1898.
Death of Adolph Heinrich Joseph Sutro,
American mining engineer.
Death of Georg Moritz Ebers, German novelist and Egyptologist.
August 12, 1898.
Ceremony, at Honolulu, of the transfer of sovereignty over
the Hawaiian Islands to the United States.
Order by General Merritt forbidding the Filipino forces under
Aguinaldo to enter Manila when the city should be taken.
Signing of the protocol of terms for the negotiation of peace
between the United States and Spain;
proclamation by the President of the United States
suspending hostilities.
August 13, 1898.
Attack by American forces on the Spanish lines at Manila
and capture of the city.
August 21, 1898.
Friendly letter of Spanish soldiers at Santiago, Cuba,
before departing for Spain, to their late enemies, the
American soldiers.
August 22, 1898.
Death of Laupepa Malietoa, King of Samoa.
August 24, 1898.
Proposal by the Tzar of Russia of a conference of governments
to discuss the means of stopping the progressive increase of
military and naval armaments and promote the peace of the world.
August 25, 1898.
Transfer of command at Santiago from General Shafter
to General Lawton.
August 28, 1898.
General Merritt ordered to Paris for consultation with the
American Peace Commissioners;
command at Manila transferred to General Otis.
August 31, 1898.
Termination of the minority of Queen Wilhelmina, of the
Kingdom of the Netherlands, and of the regency of her mother,
Queen Emma.
Suicide of Colonel Henry, of the Intelligence Department of
the French Army, after confessing that he had forged one of
the documents on which M. Cavaignac based his certainty of
the guilt of Captain Dreyfus.
September 2, 1898.
Battle of Omdurman;
defeat of the Dervishes and occupation of the Khalifa's capital.
September 3, 1898.
Death of Wilford Woodruff, president of the Mormon Church.
September 4, 1898.
Resignation of M. Cavaignac from the French cabinet, because
of his opposition to a revision of the Dreyfus case.
September 6, 1898.
Enthronement of Queen Wilhelmina, at Amsterdam.
Turkish outbreak at Candia, Crete, against authority
exercised by the British admiral in the name of the
concerted Powers.
September 10, 1898.
Assassination of Elizabeth, Empress of Austria
and Queen of Hungary.
September 12, 1898.
Death of Thomas McIntyre Cooley, American jurist.
September 14, 1898.
Death of Samuel Eliot, American historian.
September 19, 1898.
Death of Sir George Grey, British administrator.
September 21, 1898.
Overthrow of the Chinese reformers at Peking;
submission of the Emperor to the Empress-Dowager.
Death of Theodor Fontane, German poet.
September 23, 1898.
Death of Richard Malcolm Johnston, American author.
September 26, 1898.
Decision of the French cabinet to submit the question of a
revision of the trial of Captain Dreyfus to the Court of
Cassation.
September 28, 1898.
Execution of six of the Chinese reformers at Peking.
Death of Thomas Francis Bayard, American statesman
and diplomatist.
September 29, 1898.
Government of a Philippine Republic organized at Malolos;
a national congress convened, and Aguinaldo declared President.
Popular vote in Canada on the question of Prohibition.
Death of Queen Louise of Denmark.
September 30, 1898.
Mob attack on foreigners near Peking.
October, 1898.
Discovery of the Cape Nome mining region in Alaska.
Outbreak of Indians of the Leech Lake Reservation in
Northern Minnesota.
October 1, 1898.
Call by foreign representatives at Peking for guards of
marines to protect their legations.
Meeting of Spanish and American commissioners at Paris to
negotiate a Treaty of Peace.
October 5, 1898.
Demand of the Powers for the withdrawal of Turkish garrisons
from Crete.
October 6, 1898.
Decree by the Empress-Dowager of China commanding protection
to Christian missionaries and converts.
October 7, 1898.
Death of Blanche Willis Howard, Baroness von Teuffel,
American novelist.
Death of Abraham Oakey Hall, American lawyer and politician.
October 12.
Inauguration of General Julio Roca President of the
Argentine Republic.
Serious conflict at Virden, Illinois, growing out of a
strike of coal miners;
14 persons killed and 25 wounded.
Death of Reverend Calvin Fairbank, anti-slavery worker and
helper of the freedmen.
October 19, 1898.
Death of Harold Frederic, American journalist and novelist.
October 25, 1898.
Decision of the Court of Cassation requiring a supplementary
investigation of the case of Captain Dreyfus.
Death of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, French painter.
October 29, 1898.
Death of Colonel George Edwin Waring,
American sanitary engineer.
October 31, 1898.
Death of Helena Faucit, Lady Martin, English actress.
{712}
November 1, 1898.
Establishment of the Constitution of the United States of
Central America.
November 2, 1898.
Announcement by Lord Salisbury of the amicable settlement,
between France and Great Britain, of "the Fashoda incident."
November 5, 1898.
Death of David Ames Wells, American economist and publicist.
November 12, 1898.
Death of Clara Fisher (Mrs. Clara Fisher Maeder), actress.
November 15, 1898.
Inauguration of Dr. M. F. de Campos Salles, President of
United States of Brazil.
Order by the Court of Cassation that Dreyfus be notified by
telegraph of the pending revision of his trial.
November 19, 1898.
Death of Brigadier-General Don Carlos Buell.
November 20, 1898.
Death of Sir George S. Baden-Powell, economist.
November 25, 1898.
Dissolution of the United States of Central America by
the secession of Salvador.
November 26, 1898.
Appointment of Prince George, of Greece, to be High
Commissioner of the Powers in Crete.
November 27, 1898.
Death of Charles Walter Couldock, actor.
November 28, 1898.
Death of Mrs. Mary Eliza (Joy) Haweis,
English author and artist.
December 5, 1898.
Final raising of the "pacific blockade" of Crete by the Powers.
December 6, 1898.
General Guy V. Henry appointed Military Governor of Porto Rico.
December 10, 1898.
Signing, at Paris, of the Treaty of Peace between the
United States and Spain.
Death of William Black, English novelist.
December 11, 1898.
Death of General Calixto Garcia, Cuban military leader.
December 13, 1898.
Appointment of General Brooke as commander and military
governor of Cuba, by direction of the President of the
United States.
Reception by the Empress-Dowager to the wives of foreign
representatives at Peking.
December 17, 1898.
Death of Baron Ferdinand James de Rothschild.
December 21, 1898.
Arrival of Prince George of Greece in Crete, to undertake
the administration of government as High Commissioner for
the Powers.
Instructions of the President of the United States to
General Otis, relative to the military government of the
Philippine Islands.
December 22, 1898.
Death of Sebastian Bach Mills, composer and pianist.
December 23, 1898.
Decision by the French government to comply with the demand
of the Court of Cassation for the secret papers
(the "dossier") in the Dreyfus case.
December 25, 1898.
Penny postage to all places in the British Empire except the
Australasian colonies and Cape Colony brought into operation.
December 28, 1898.
Death of Justin Smith Morrill, United States Senator.
December 30, 1898.
Death of Don Matias Romero,
Mexican ambassador to the United States.
1899.
January 1, 1899.
Formal relinquishment of the sovereignty of Spain over the
island of Cuba, by ceremonies performed at Havana.
January 4, 1899.
The Treaty of Peace between the United States and Spain sent
to the United States Senate by the President.
Proclamation of General Otis to the people of the Philippine
Islands, amending the instructions of the President.
January 5, 1899.
Proclamation of Aguinaldo to the people of the Philippine
Islands, counter to that of General Otis.
January 8, 1899.
Sensational resignation of the President of the civil section
of the French Court of Cassation.
January 11, 1899.
Second communication of the Tzar of Russia to other
governments on the subject of an International Conference
for the promotion of peace.
January 13, 1899.
Death of Representative Nelson Dingley, of Maine.
January 17, 1899.
Death of John Russell Young, librarian of Congress.
January 19, 1899.
Signing of an agreement between the government of Great
Britain and that of the Khedive of Egypt, establishing a
condominium or joint administration of government over the
Sudan.
January 20, 1899.
Appointment of the First Philippine Commission by the
President of the United States.
January 22, 1899.
Encyclical letter of Pope Leo XIII. condemning certain
opinions called Americanism.
January 29, 1899.
Death of Dr. R. Fruin, Dutch historian.
February 4, 1899.
First outbreak of hostilities between the American and
Filipino forces at Manila.
February 6, 1899.
Ratification by the United States Senate of the Treaty of
Peace with Spain.
Death of General Count Georg Leo von Caprivi, formerly
chancellor of the German empire.
Death of Irving Browne, American legal writer.
February 10, 1899.
Coup d'état of Señor Cuestas, declaring himself Provisional
President of Uruguay.
February 11, 1899.
Occupation of the City of Iloilo, in the Philippine Islands,
by the American forces.
February 12, 1899.
Sale of the Caroline and the Marianne or Ladrone Islands
(excepting Guam) by Spain to Germany.
February 15, 1899.
Promulgation of a Russian imperial ukase which seriously
impairs the constitutional independence of Finland.
Death of Henry Jones ("Cavendish").
February 16, 1899.
Sudden death of François Felix Faure,
President of the French Republic.
February 18, 1899.
Election of Emile Loubet to the
presidency of the French Republic.
February 20, 1899.
Adjournment of the Joint High Commission appointed to settle
questions in dispute between the United States and Canada.
February 23, 1899.
Funeral of the late President Faure, at Paris;
attempted revolutionary rising by the
"League of Patriots," and others.
February 24, 1899.
Death of Émile Welti, formerly President
of the Swiss Confederation.
February 25, 1899.
Death of Paul Julius de Reuter, Baron, founder of a telegraph
company and news agency.
{713}
February 28, 1899.
Defeat and resignation of the Spanish Ministry of Señor
Sagasta, on the question of the signing of the treaty of
Peace with the United States;
formation of the Ministry of Señor Silvela.
Death of Mrs. Emma Waller, English actress.
March, 1899.
Withdrawal of foreign legation guards from Peking.
March 1, 1899.
Formation of the Visayan Military District in the Philippines
under General Marcus P. Miller.
Death of Lord Herschell, English jurist.
March 3, 1899.
Creation of commission to examine and report on all possible
routes for an inter-oceanic canal, under the control and
ownership of the United States.
March 6, 1899.
Death of Princess Kaiulani, of Hawaii.
March 10, 1899.
Death of Sir Douglas Galton, British sanitary scientist.
March 11, 1899.
The signing of the treaty of peace with the United States
by the Queen of Spain, on her own responsibility.
March 13, 1899.
Death of Mr Julius Vogel,
British colonial statesman and author.
March 14, 1899.
Death of Emile Erckmann, French novelist.
March 18, 1899.
Modification of the plan of the Bureau of the American
Republics, at a conference of the representatives of
the American nations.
March 21, 1899.
Completed settlement of boundaries between English and
French claims in West Africa and the Western Sudan.
April 2, 1899.
Death of Baroness Hirsch.
April 11, 1899.
Death of Sir Monier Monier-Williams,
English philologist and Oriental scholar.
April 15, 1899.
Death of Ely Thayer, active organizer of "the Kansas crusade."
April 28, 1899.
Agreement between Great Britain and Russia concerning their
railway interests in China.
May 1, 1899.
Death of Professor Karl Christian Ludwig Büchner,
German physiologist and philosopher.
May 8, 1899.
General George W. Davis appointed Military
Governor of Porto Rico.
May 11, 1899.
Papal proclamation of the "Jubilee of the Holy Year 1900."
May 13, 1899.
Advice from the Netherlands government to President Kruger,
of the South African Republic, that he pursue a conciliatory
course towards Great Britain.
May 15, 1899.
Death of Francisque Sarcey, French essayist.
May 18, 1899.
Meeting and organization of the International Peace Conference
at The Hague.
Order by the Tzar of Russia looking to the abolition of
transportation to Siberia.
May 19, 1899.
Spanish garrison at Jolo, in the Sulu Archipelago,
replaced by American troops.
May 25, 1899.
Death of Emilio Castelar, Spanish orator and statesman.
Death of Rosa Bonheur, French artist.
May 27, 1899.
Death of Dr. Alphonse Charpentier, French physician.
May 29, 1899.
Order by President McKinley seriously modifying the
civil service rules.
May 31, 1899.
Conference at Bloemfontein between President Kruger of the
South African Republic and the British High Commissioner,
Sir Alfred Milner.
June, 1899.
International Convention respecting the liquor traffic in
Africa concluded at Brussels.
June 2, 1899.
Confession of Commandant Esterhazy, a refugee in England,
that he wrote the "bordereau" ascribed to Captain Dreyfus.
June 3, 1899.
Decision of the Court of Cassation, quashing and annulling,
in certain particulars, the judgment of condemnation
pronounced against Captain Dreyfus in 1894 and ordering a new
trial by court martial, to be held at Rennes.
Death of Johann Strauss, Austrian composer.
June 4, 1899.
Ruffianly demonstration of young French royalists against
President Loubet, at the Auteuil races; the President struck.
June 7, 1899.
Death of Augustin Daly, American theatrical manager.
June 10, 1899.
Death of John J. Lalor, American writer on
political and economic subjects.
June 12, 1899.
Resignation of the Ministry of M. Dupuy, in France;
formation of a "Government of Republican defense,"
under M. Waldeck-Rousseau.
June 15, 1899.
Meeting at Paris of the tribunal for the arbitration of the
Venezuela boundary.
Death of Representative Richard Parks Bland, of Missouri.
June 24, 1899.
Death of the Dowager Queen Kapiolani,
widow of King Kalakaua of Hawaii.
June 28-30, 1899.
Political rioting and threatened revolution at Brussels.
June 30, 1899.
Death of Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth, American novelist.
July 1, 1899.
Death of Charles Victor Cherbuliez, French novelist and critic.
July 6, 1899.
Death of Robert Bonner, American publisher.
July 7, 1899.
Death of George W. Julian, American anti-slavery leader.
July 10, 1899.
Death of the Grand Duke George, brother of the Tzar of Russia.
July 17, 1899.
Release of Japan from her old treaties with the Western Powers;
abolition of foreign consular courts.
July 18, 1899.
Death of Horatio Alger, American writer of stories for boys.
July 21, 1899.
Death of Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll,
American apostle of atheism.
July 22, 1899.
Organization of a half military, half autonomous government
in the Philippine island of Negros.
July 25, 1899.
Election to fill municipal offices in Porto Rico, under
orders from the Military Governor.
July 26, 1899.
Amendment of its franchise law by the South African Republic.
Assassination of General Heureaux, President of the
Dominican Republic.
July 29, 1899.
Adoption and signing of the "Final Act" of the Peace
Conference at The Hague, submitting three proposed
Conventions, three Declarations, and several other
recommendations, to the governments represented in it.
July 31, 1899.
Death of Dr. Daniel Garrison Brinton, American ethnologist.
{714}
August 1, 1899.
Proposal of the British government to that of the South
African Republic, that a joint inquiry be made as to the
effect, in practical working, of the new franchise law.
August 4, 1899.
Renewed counsel of moderation to President Kruger, from the
Netherlands government.
August 7, 1899.
Destructive cyclone in Porto Rico.
Opening of the new trial of Captain Dreyfus by court martial
at Rennes.
A terrific hurricane in the West Indies;
loss of life estimated at 5,000.
August 9, 1899.
Passage of Act creating a national Board of Education for
England and Wales.
August 11, 1899.
Death of Dr. Charles Janeway Stillé,
American author and educator.
August 12, 1899.
Arrest of Déronlède and other pestilential Frenchmen for
revolutionary conspiracy.
August 13, 1899.
Russian imperial order declaring Talienwan a free port.
August 14, 1899.
Attempt, at Rennes, to assassinate M. Labori, one of the
counsel for Captain Dreyfus.
August 16, 1899.
Death of Professor Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen,
German chemist.
August 19, 1899.
Counter proposals from the government of the South African
Republic to that of Great Britain.
August 20, 1899.
Rioting in Paris; barricading of M. Guérin and other members
of the "Anti-Semitic League" in their headquarters,
to defy arrest.
September 4, 1899.
Death of Jean Ristics, Servian statesman.
September 6, 1899.
Proposal by the government of the United States of an
"open-door" commercial policy in China.
September 8, 1899.
Authorized publication at Berlin of a repeated declaration
that the German government had never maintained, either
directly or indirectly, any relations with Captain Dreyfus.
September 9, 1899.
Verdict of "guilty" pronounced against Dreyfus by five of
the seven members of the Rennes court martial.
September 11, 1899.
Death of Cornelius Vanderbilt, millionaire.
September 12, 1899.
Impassioned protest by M. Zola against the Rennes verdict.
September 18, 1899.
Beginning of the trial, at Paris, of Déroulède and his
fellow conspirators against the Republic.
September 19, 1899.
Pardon of Captain Dreyfus by President Loubet.
September 22, 1899.
Ending of the discussion of the Uitlander franchise question
between the British and Boer governments.
Death of Major George Edward Pond, military author.
September 25, 1899.
Death of Consul Willshire Butterfield,
American historical writer.
September 27, 1899.
The Orange Free State makes common cause with the Transvaal
against the British.
Death of General Henry Heth, Confederate officer and historian.
October, 1899.
International Commercial Congress and National Export
Exposition at Philadelphia.
October 3, 1899.
Announcement of the decision of the tribunal of arbitration
upon the question of the boundary between Venezuela and
British Guiana.
Fall of eleven columns of the great temple at Karnak, Egypt.
October 9, 1899.
Ultimatum of the South African Republic to Great Britain.
October 10, 1899.
Reply of the British government to the Boer ultimatum.
Contract of the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua declared
forfeited by the Nicaraguan government.
October 12, 1899.
First act in the British-Boer war, in South Africa;
Boer invasion of Natal and of Cape Colony.
October 13, 1899.
Death of Vice-Admiral Philip Howard Colomb, of the British navy.
October 14, 1899.
Death of Charlotte Heine, sister of Heinrich.
October 15, 1899.
Death of Lawrence Gronlund, socialist author.
October 16, 1899.
Census of Cuba and Porto Rico, taken under the direction
of the War Department of the United States.
Death of Professor Edward Orton, American geologist.
October 20, 1899.
Battle at Talana Hill, Natal, between British and Boer forces;
mortal wounding of General Sir W. Penn Symons.
Agreement between Great Britain and the United States upon a
"modus vivendi" pending the settlement of the Alaska boundary.
October 21, 1899.
Battle at Elandslaagte, in Natal.
October 25, 1899.
Death of Grant Allen, author and naturalist.
October 27, 1899.
Death of Brigadier General Guy V. Henry, late military
governor of Porto Rico.
Death of Florence Marryat (Mrs. Francis Lean), English novelist.
October 28, 1899.
Death of John Codman Ropes, American military historian.
Death of Ottmar Mergenthaler, inventor of the linotype
printing process.
October 29, 1899.
Beginning of the siege of Ladysmith, in Natal.
November 2, 1899.
Earthquake and tidal wave in the island of Ceram, one of
the Moluccas, overwhelming many towns.
November 3, 1899.
Death of Colonel Henry Inman,
American writer on frontier history.
November 14, 1899.
Signing of treaties between Great Britain, Germany, and
the United States, relative to the Samoan Islands.
Inauguration of Juan Isidro Jiminez, President of the
Dominican Republic.
November 16, 1899.
Death of Moritz Busch, biographer of Bismarck.
November 19, 1899.
Death of Sir John William Dawson, Canadian geologist.
November 21, 1899.
Death of Garret A. Hobart,
Vice President of the United States.
November 23, 1899.
Battle of Belmont, in the South African war.
November 24, 1899.
Death of Reverend Samuel May, American abolitionist.
November 25, 1899.
Battle at Enslin, or Graspan, in the South African war.
November 28, 1899.
Battle at Modder River, in the South African war.
November 30, 1899.
Report of Isthmian Canal Commission in favor of
the Nicaragua route.
December 6, 1899.
Appointment of General Leonard Wood to the military
command and governorship of Cuba.
{715}
December 10, 1899.
Repulse of the British by the Boers at Stormberg.
December 11, 1899.
Battle at Majesfontein, in the South African war.
December 12, 1899.
Inauguration of William S. Taylor, Republican, Governor of
Kentucky, his election being disputed by Democratic opponents.
December 15, 1899.
First repulse of General Buller in attempting to pass the
Tugela River, South Africa.
December 18, 1899.
Death of Major-General Henry W. Lawton, U. S. V.
Death of Bernard Quaritch, London book dealer.
December 20, 1899.
Li Hung-chang appointed Acting Viceroy at Canton.
December 22, 1899.
Death of Dwight Lyman Moody, evangelist.
December 23, 1899.
Death of Dorman B. Eaton,
leader in American civil-service reform.
December 25, 1899.
Beginning of the "Jubilee of the Holy Year 1900," proclaimed
by Pope Leo XIII.
Death of Elliott Coues, American naturalist.
December 30, 1899.
Death of Sir James Paget, British surgeon.
December 31, 1899.
Murder of Mr. Brooks, an English missionary,
by Chinese "Boxers" in northern Shantung.
1900.
January 1, 1900.
Abolition of Roman Law and introduction of the Civil Code
throughout Germany.
Re-election of President Diaz, of Mexico, for a sixth term.
January 5, 1900.
Death of William A. Hammond, American physician.
January 10, 1900.
Landing of Field-Marshal Lord Roberts at the Cape, to take
the British command in South Africa.
January 12, 1900.
Death of Reverend Dr. James Martineau, English divine.
January 15, 1900.
Letting of contract for building the Rapid Transit Tunnel in
New York.
Death of George W. Steevens, English war correspondent.
January 17, 1900.
Beginning of the second movement of General Buller across
the Tugela River.
January 20, 1900.
Death of John Ruskin.
January 21, 1900.
Death of Richard Doddridge Blackmore, English novelist.
Death of the Duke of Teck.
January 23, 1900.
Futile storming of the Boer fortifications on Spion Kop
by the British troops under General Buller.
January 24, 1900.
Decree by the Chinese emperor relating to the succession
to the throne.
January 27, 1900.
"Identic note" by foreign Ministers at Peking to the
Tsung-li Yamen demanding action against the "Boxers"
in Shantung and Chihli.
January 28, 1900.
Elections to the French Senate;
substantial success of the moderate Republicans.
January 29, 1900.
Withdrawal of General Buller from beyond the Tugela.
January 30, 1900.
Assassination of Senator William Goebel,
Democratic claimant of the governorship of Kentucky.
January 31, 1900.
Report of First Philippine Commission.
February 5, 1900.
Third advance of General Buller across the Tugela River.
Signing at Washington of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty between
the United States and Great Britain, to facilitate the
construction of an inter-oceanic canal.
Death of William Henry Gilder, arctic explorer.
February 9, 1900.
Third retirement of General Buller from the north bank
of the Tugela.
February 11, 1900.
Beginning of the advance movement of Lord Roberts from the
Modder River.
February 15, 1900.
The Boer siege of Kimberley raised by General French.
February 20, 1900.
Death of William H. Beard, American animal painter.
February 21, 1900.
Agreement of Republican and Democratic leaders in Kentucky
for a settlement of the gubernatorial question in the courts.
Death of Henry Duff Traill, English man of letters.
Death of Dr. Charles Piazzi Smyth, British astronomer.
Death of Mr. Leslie E. Keeley, originator of the "gold cure"
for the liquor habit.
February 24, 1900.
Death of Richard Hovey, American poet.
February 25, 1900.
Opening of the new ship canal from the sea to Bruges.
February 27, 1900.
Surrender of General Cronje and his army to the British,
after nine days of battle, near Paardeberg.
February 27-28, 1900.
Final passage of the Tugela by General Buller, and relief
of Ladysmith.
March 1, 1900.
Preliminary report of the United States Industrial Commission,
on "trusts and industrial combinations."
March 5, 1900.
Overtures of peace to Lord Salisbury by Presidents Kruger
and Steyn, of the South African republics.
March 9, 1900.
Death of Edward John Phelps, American diplomatist.
March 10, 1900.
Battle of Driefontein, in the Orange Free State.
Death of Johann Feder E. Hartmann, Danish composer.
March 11, 1900.
Reply of Lord Salisbury to the Boer Presidents, declining
to assent to the independence of either of the two republics.
March 12, 1900.
Occupation of Bloemfontein, capital of the Orange Free State,
by the British forces.
March 13, 1900.
Death of Père Henri Didon, French Dominican
author and preacher.
March 14, 1900.
Approval of the Financial Bill, for reforming the monetary
system of the United States.
March 18, 1900.
Death of General Sir William Stephen Alexander Lockhart,
British military commander.
March 23, 1900.
Death of Sherman S. Rogers, American lawyer,
prominent in civil service reform.
March 25, 1900.
Rising of Ashantis and attack on the British in Kumassi.
March 26, 1900.
Death of Rabbi M. Wise, American Jewish divine.
March 27, 1900.
Death of General Pietrus Jacobus Joubert, Commandant-General
and Vice-President of the South African Republic.
March 29, 1900.
Order promulgated by the Military Governor of the Philippine
Islands providing for the election and institution of
municipal governments.
Death of Archibald Forbes, British war correspondent.
{716}
April, 1900.
Visit of Queen Victoria to Ireland.
April 1, 1900.
Death of Professor St. George Milvart,
English naturalist and scientific writer.
April 4, 1900.
Death of Ghazi Osman Nubar Pasha, Turkish general.
April 6, 1900.
Decision of the Kentucky Court of Appeals adverse to the
right of William S. Taylor to the Governor's office.
April 7, 1900.
The Philippine Islands constituted, by order of the United
States Secretary of War, a military division, consisting
of four departments.
Appointment of the Second Philippine Commission by the
President of the United States.
Death of Frederick E. Church, American landscape painter.
April 10, 1900.
Death of Frank H. Cushing, American ethnologist.
April 12, 1900.
Act of Congress of the United States to provide revenues
and a civil government for Porto Rico.
April 14, 1900.
Opening of the Paris Exposition, with unfinished preparations.
April 17, 1900.
Cession to the United States by Samoan chiefs of the islands
in that group lying east of the 171st degree of west longitude.
April 19, 1900.
Death of Robert Alan Mowbray Stevenson, British artist.
April 21, 1900.
Meeting of the third Ecumenical Conference on Protestant
Foreign Missions, at New York.
Death of Alphonse M. Edwards, French naturalist.
April 23, 1900.
Death of George Douglas Campbell,
Duke of Argyll, Scottish author.
April 26, 1900.
Great fire in the city of Ottawa, Canada,
and the town of Hull, on the opposite shore of the river.
April 30, 1900.
Approval of an Act of the Congress of the United States
"to provide a government for the Territory of Hawaii."
May 1, 1900.
Meeting, at Rock Island, Illinois, of the national convention
of the United Christian Party, to nominate candidates for
President and Vice President of the United States.
Inauguration of civil government in Porto Rico;
induction into office of Governor Charles H. Allen.
Death of Mihaly (Michael) Munkacsy, Hungarian painter.
May 10, 1900.
Meeting of the national conventions of the two wings of the
People's Party, at Cincinnati and at Sioux Falls, to nominate
candidates for President and Vice President of the United
States.
May 16, 1900.
Dissolution of the Italian Parliament by the King.
May 18, 1900.
Relief of Mafeking, after a siege of seven months by the Boers.
May 21, 1900.
Decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that it
had no jurisdiction in the matter of the disputed governorship
of Kentucky.
May 23, 1900.
Passage of the Meat Inspection Bill in the German Reichstag.
Death of Jonas Gilman Clark, founder of Clark University.
May 24, 1900.
Proclamation by Lord Roberts of the annexation of the Orange
Free State to the dominions of the British Queen.
May 28, 1900.
Partial destruction of railway near Peking by "Boxers."
Death of Sir George Grove, English musician.
May 30, 1900.
Congress of Cape Colony Afrikanders to protest against the
annexation of the Boer republics.
May 31, 1900.
Occupation of Johannesburg by the British forces.
Arrival at Peking of British, American, French, Italian,
Russian and Japanese guards for the legations.
June 1-3, 1900.
Fruitless peace parley between British and
Boer military commanders.
June 2, 1900.
Meeting of the national convention of the Socialist Labor
Party, at New York, to nominate candidates for President and
Vice President of the United States.
Death of Clarence Cook, American art critic and writer.
June 3, 1900.
Election of a new Italian Parliament;
resignation of the Pelloux Ministry;
formation of a new cabinet under Saracco.
June 5, 1900.
Occupation of Pretoria, the capital of the South African
Republic by the British forces.
Death of Reverend Richard Salter Storrs, American divine.
Death of Stephen Crane, author and journalist.
Death of Miss Mary H. Kingsley, African explorer.
June 6, 1900.
Approval by the President of the United States of an act
providing for the civil government of Alaska.
June 10, 1900.
International force of marines from foreign fleets at Taku
started for Peking under Vice-Admiral Sir Edward H. Seymour.
June 11, 1900.
Murder at Peking of Mr. Sugiyama, the Chancellor of the
Japanese Legation.
Counter proclamation of President Steyn, declaring the
annexation of the Orange Free State to be null and void.
June 12, 1900.
Death of Lucretia Peabody Rale, American author.
June 12-15, 1900.
Second fruitless discussion of terms of peace between the
British and Boer military leaders.
June 13, 1900.
Massacre of native Christians and burning of foreign buildings
by "Boxers" in Peking.
June 16, 1900.
Opening of the Elbe and Trave Canal.
Election of municipal officers throughout the island of Cuba,
under an election law promulgated by the military governor in
the previous April.
Death of the Prince de Joinville,
son of King Louis Philippe of France.
June 17, 1900.
Bombardment and capture of Taku forts by the allied fleets.
June 19, 1900.
Meeting, at Philadelphia, of the national convention of the
Republican Party, to nominate candidates for President and
Vice President of the United States.
{717}
June 20, 1900.
Beginning of the siege of the foreign legations and the
Pei-tang Cathedral at Peking.
Murder at Peking of the German Minister, Baron von Ketteler.
Death of Henry Brougham Loch, Baron,
British colonial administrator.
June 21, 1900.
Imperial Chinese decree proclaiming war upon foreigners and
praising the "Boxers" as patriotic soldiers.
Proclamation of amnesty by the Military Governor of the
Philippine Islands.
Death of Count Muravieff, Russian statesman.
June 22, 1900.
Burning, by the Chinese, of the Hanlin Imperial Academy,
at Peking.
June 25, 1900.
Death of ex-Judge Mellen Chamberlain,
American historical writer.
June 26, 1900.
Retreat of Admiral Seymour's expedition to Tientsin, driven
back by the Chinese.
Appointment of General Chaffee to command American forces
sent to China.
June 27, 1900.
Meeting at Chicago, of the national convention of the
Prohibition Party, to nominate candidates for President and
Vice President of the United States.
June 30, 1900.
Great fire at Hoboken, New Jersey, destroying the pier system,
with three large steamers, of the North German Lloyd steamship
line, and with a loss of life estimated at three hundred
persons.
July 4, 1900.
Meeting at Kansas City, of the national convention of the
Democratic Party, to nominate candidates for President and
Vice President of the United States.
July 5, 1900.
Death of Dr. Henry Barnard, American educator.
July 6, 1900.
Meeting of the national convention of Silver Republicans,
at Kansas City, to nominate candidates for President and
Vice President of the United States.
July 7, 1900.
Passage by the British Parliament of the Act to constitute
the Commonwealth of Australia.
July 13, 1900.
Capture of Tientsin by the allied forces.
July 14, 1900.
Opening of Chinese attacks on the Russians in Manchuria.
July 15, 1900.
Appeal to Congress by inhabitants of Manila.
Relief of the besieged British in Kumassi.
July 20, 1900.
First news from the beleaguered foreigners in Peking received
at Washington, in a cipher despatch from the American Minister,
Mr. Conger, sent through the Chinese Minister, Mr. Wu Ting Fang.
July 23, 1900.
Death of Baron von Manteuffel, German statesman.
July 27, 1900.
Speech of the German Emperor to troops departing for China,
enjoining them to give no quarter and make no prisoners, but
imitate the example of Attila and the Huns.
July 29, 1900.
Assassination of King Humbert, of Italy.
July 31, 1900.
Death of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Duke of Edinburgh,
second son of Queen Victoria.
Death of John Clark Ridpath, American historian.
August 4, 1900.
Movement of allied forces from Tientsin, nearly 19,000 strong,
for the rescue of foreigners in Peking.
Death of Major-General Jacob D. Cox,
American military historian.
August 6, 1900.
Capture of Yang-tsun by the allied forces.
Death of Wilhelm Liebknecht, German Socialist leader.
August 8, 1900.
Speech of William J. Bryan, at Indianapolis, accepting his
nomination for President of the United States.
Death of Cyrus Hamlin, founder of Robert College, Constantinople.
August 10, 1900.
Death of Baron Russell of Killowen,
Lord Chief Justice of England.
August 13, 1900.
International congress of Zionists at London.
Death of Collis P. Huntington, American railway magnate.
August 14, 1900.
Rescue of the besieged Legations at Peking;
entrance of the allied forces into the city.
August 15, 1900.
Forcing of the gates of the "Forbidden City," at Peking,
and expulsion of Chinese troops, by the American forces,
under General Chaffee.
August 16, 1900.
Meeting, at Indianapolis, of the American League of
Anti-Imperialists, to take action with reference to the
pending presidential election in the United States.
August 21, 1900.
Annexation of Austral Islands to France.
August 22, 1900.
Death of Carl Rohl Smith, American sculptor.
August 25, 1900.
Death of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche,
German philosopher (so-called).
August 28, 1900.
March of the allied army through the "Forbidden City,"
at Peking.
August 29, 1900.
Expressions from Russia and the United States in favor of
an early withdrawal of troops from Peking.
Death of Professor Henry Sidgwick, English economist.
September 1, 1900.
Transfer of all legislative authority from the Military
Governor of the Philippine Islands to the Second Philippine
Commission.
September 2, 1900.
Proclamation by Lord Roberts directing the burning of farms
in punishment of guerrilla warfare.
September 5, 1900.
Meeting of Anti-Imperialists, at New York, to nominate
candidates for President and Vice President of the
United States.
Decrees establishing compulsory military service in Chile.
September 8, 1900.
Letter of President McKinley, accepting his renomination for
a second term as President of the United States.
September 9, 1900.
The city of Galveston, Texas, overwhelmed by
hurricane and flood.
September 10, 1900.
Leave of absence given to President Kruger for
departure to Europe.
September 12, 1900.
Appropriation of $2,000,000 by the Philippine Commission
for improvement of highways and bridges.
September 15, 1900.
General election in Cuba of delegates to a convention for
framing a constitution.
September 17, 1900.
Dissolution of the British Parliament by royal proclamation,
and order given for new elections in October.
Proclamation of the Australian Commonwealth by Queen Victoria.
Beginning of a strike of 112,000 anthracite coal miners in
Pennsylvania.
September 19, 1900.
Adoption by the Philippine Commission of an Act for the
establishment and maintenance of an honest and efficient
civil service in the islands.
{718}
September 22, 1900.
Gigantic banquet in Paris to 23,000 representatives of the
municipalities of France, in celebration of the centenary of
the proclamation of the first French republic.
September 29, 1900.
Meeting, at Chicago, of the national convention of the Social
Democratic Party, to nominate candidates for President and
Vice President of the United States.
October 4, 1900.
Points submitted by the government of France as the suggested
basis for negotiations with the government of China, accepted
subsequently by all the Powers.
October 10, 1900.
Annexation of the Cook Islands to New Zealand.
October 16, 1900.
Agreement between Great Britain and Germany upon principles
to be observed "in regard to their mutual policy in China."
October 17, 1900.
Ending of the strike of anthracite coal miners in Pennsylvania.
October 18, 1900.
Resignation of Prince Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, Chancellor
of the German Empire, and appointment of Count von Bülow
to succeed him.
October 20, 1900.
Death of Charles Dudley Warner, American author.
October 21, 1900.
Fall of the Cabinet of Senor Silvela, in Spain;
formation of that of General Azcarraga.
October 22, 1900.
Death of John Sherman, American statesman.
October 24, 1900.
Conclusion of Parliamentary elections in Great Britain;
return of an increased majority for the Conservative and
Liberal Unionist government of Lord Salisbury.
October 25, 1900.
Annexation of the South African Republic to the dominions of
the Queen proclaimed by Lord Roberts.
October 28, 1900.
Speech of the French premier, M. Waldeck-Rousseau,
at Toulouse, foreshadowing a measure against the religious
orders in France—the Bill on Associations.
Census of Mexico.
Death of Professor Friedrich Max Müller,
Orientalist and philologist.
October 29, 1900.
Death of Prince Christian Victor, grandson of Queen Victoria.
October 31, 1900.
Union of the Free and the United Presbyterian churches
in Scotland.
November 4, 1900.
Rejection by popular vote in Switzerland of proposals for
proportional representation.
November 5, 1900.
Meeting of Cuban constitutional convention at Havana.
November 6, 1900.
Presidential election in the United States.
First election in Porto Rico under the Act establishing civil
government in the island.
November 7, 1900.
Parliamentary elections in Canada, sustaining the Liberal
ministry in power.
November 11, 1900.
Signing of Russo-Chinese agreement concerning the Manchurian
province of Fêng-tien.
November 12, 1900.
Closing of the Paris Exposition.
November 18, 1900.
Proclamation of Lord Roberts defining the intention of his
order concerning farm-burning.
Death of Martin Irons, American labor leader.
November 22, 1900.
Death of Sir Arthur Sullivan, British composer.
November 29, 1900.
The British command in South Africa delivered to Lord
Kitchener by Lord Roberts, lately appointed Commander-in-Chief
of the British Army.
Death of Professor Burke A. Hinsdale,
American historian and educator.
November 30, 1900.
Report of Second Philippine Commission.
Death of Oscar Wilde.
December 3, 1900.
Meeting and organization of the first Legislative Assembly
in Porto Rico.
Death of Ludwig Jacobowski, German poet and novelist.
December 5, 1900.
Death of Mrs. Abby Sage Richardson, dramatist, author, actress.
December 6, 1900.
Congress of Cape Colony Afrikanders at Worcester, to appeal
for peace and the independence of the defeated republics.
Meeting of the newly elected Parliament in Great Britain.
December 12, 1900.
Celebration of the centennial anniversary of the removal of
the capital of the United States from Philadelphia to Washington.
Fourth international conference in London on the cataloguing
of scientific literature, and final arrangement for beginning
the work.
December 13, 1900.
Death of Michael G. Mulhall, British statistician.
December 15, 1900.
Landing at Sydney of Lord Hopetoun, the first Governor-General
of the new Commonwealth of Australia.
December 17, 1900.
Opening of the first argument before the Supreme Court of the
United States in cases involving questions concerning the
status of new colonial possessions.
December 19, 1900.
Assumption of the title of Royal Highness by the
Prince of Montenegro.
December 20, 1900.
A joint note from the plenipotentiaries of the Powers at
Peking, setting forth the conditions of settlement with China,
formulated, after long discussion, and signed and delivered
to the Chinese plenipotentiaries.
Ratification (with amendments) of the Hay-Pauncefote
Treaty by the United States Senate.
December 12, 1900.
Death of Roger Wolcott, ex-governor of Massachusetts.
Death of Representative Richard A. Wise, of Virginia.
December 27, 1900.
Death of Sir William George Armstrong, first Baron Armstrong,
English inventor and gun manufacturer.
December 28, 1900.
Death of Professor Moses Coit Tyler, historian of American
literature.
Death of Major Serpa Pinto, Portuguese explorer of Africa.
December 30, 1900.
Death of Hiram Hitchcock, American archæologist.
December 31, 1900.
Fall of two stones at Stonehenge.
1901.
January 1, 1901.
The beginning of the Twentieth Century.
Organization of the Permanent Court of International
Arbitration at The Hague.
Inauguration of the Federal Government of the Commonwealth
of Australia.
January 2, 1901.
Death of Ignatius Donnelly, Shakespeare-Bacon theorist.
{719}
January 4, 1901.
Transfer of Sir Alfred Milner from the governorship of Cape
Colony to that of the Transvaal, continuing to be British
High Commissioner for South Africa at large.
January 8, 1901.
Opening of the second argument before the Supreme Court of
the United States in cases involving questions concerning
the status of new possessions.
January 12, 1901.
Submission of the Chinese government to the requirements of
the Powers.
January 14, 1901.
Defiant proclamation issued by President Steyn and
General De Wet.
Death of Right Reverend Mandell Creighton, English historian.
Death of Charles Hermite, French mathematician.
January 16, 1901.
Approval of the Act apportioning Representatives in the
Congress of the United States, under the census of 1900.
January 17, 1901.
Proclamation of martial law throughout most of Cape Colony.
January 18, 1901.
Celebration of the bicentenary of the coronation of the
first King of Prussia.
Encyclical letter of Pope Leo XIII. concerning Social
and Christian Democracy.
Death of Arnold Boecklin, German painter.
January 19, 1901.
Death of the Duc de Broglie, French statesman.
January 21, 1901.
Death of Professor Elisha Gray, one of the inventors of the
telephone.
Death of Colonel Frank Frederick Hilder,
geographer and ethnologist.
January 22, 1901.
Death of Queen Victoria.
January 24, 1901.
Formal proclamation of the accession of King Edward VII. to
the throne of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
January 25, 1901.
Death of Baron Wilhelm von Rothschild, financier.
January 27, 1901.
Death of Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer.
January 28, 1901.
Death of Count Joseph V. Gurko, Russian general.
January 29, 1901.
Death of Reverend Hugh Reginald Haweis,
English clergyman and author.
Death of Vicomte Henri de Bornier, French poet and dramatist.
February 1, 1901.
Death of Dr. Fitzedward Hall, entomologist.
February 1-4, 1901.
Ceremonies of the funeral of Queen Victoria.
February 2, 1901.
Act to increase the regular army of the United States to
100,000 men approved by the President.
February 5, 1901.
Chinese Imperial decree, commanding new undertakings of reform.
February 6, 1901.
Fall of the Saracco Ministry in Italy;
formation of a new government under Signor Zanardelli.
February 7, 1901.
Marriage of Queen Wilhelmina, of the Kingdom of the
Netherlands, to Duke Henry of Mecklenburg.
February 11, 1901.
Death of ex-King Milan of Servia.
February 12, 1901.
Order by the United States Treasury Department levying a
countervailing duty on Russian sugar, as being "bounty-fed."
Death of Don Ramon de Campoamor, Spanish poet, philosopher
and statesman.
February 14, 1901.
Marriage of the Princess of the Asturias, sister of the young
King of Spain, to Prince Charles, of the Neapolitan Bourbon
family.
Opening of the British Parliament in state by King Edward VII.
February 15, 1901.
Death of Maurice Thompson, American author.
February 16, 1901.
Retaliatory order by the Russian Minister of Finance,
levying additional duties on American manufactures of
iron and steel.
February 19, 1901.
Death of Paul Armand Silvestre, French poet and critic.
February 26, 1901.
Execution of two high Chinese officials, at Peking, in
compliance with the demands of the Powers.
Adoption by the United States Senate of the so-called
"Spooner amendment" to the Army Appropriation Bill,
authorizing the President to establish civil government
in the Philippines.
February 27, 1901.
Adoption by the U. S. Senate of the Platt Amendment to the
Army Appropriation Bill, defining the conditions under which
the President may "leave the government and control of the
island of Cuba to its people."
Assassination of the Russian Minister of Public Instruction.
February 28, 1901.
Unsuccessful peace parley opened between Lord Kitchener and
Commandant Botha.
Death of William Maxwell Evarts, American lawyer and statesman.
March 1, 1901.
Concurrence of the United States House of Representatives in
the "Spooner Amendment" and the Platt Amendment of the Senate
to the Army Appropriation Bill.
March 1-14, 1901.
Census of the Indian Empire, completed in 14 days.
March 2, 1901.
Official announcement of the terms of the formation of the
United States Steel Corporation.
March 4, 1901.
Inauguration of William McKinley for a second term as
President of the United States.
March 6, 1901.
Death of Canon William Bright, Oxford theologian.
March 11, 1901.
Rejection by the British government of the Hay-Pauncefote
Treaty, as amended by the United States Senate.
March 12, 1901.
Offer, by Mr. Andrew Carnegie, of $5,200,000, for the
establishing of branches of the New York Public Library.
March 13, 1901.
Death of Benjamin Harrison, ex-President of the United States.
March 15, 1901,
Order for withdrawal of American troops from China,
excepting a Legation guard.
March 17, 1901.
Death of Reverend Elijah Kellogg,
American writer of books for boys.
March 20, 1901.
Passage of a new election law by the Legislature of Maryland,
to exclude the illiterate from the suffrage.
March 21, 1901.
Death of Reverend Dr. Frederick A. Muhlenberg, American divine.
March 22, 1901.
Attempted assassination of M. Pobiedonostzeff,
Procurator of the Holy Synod, in Russia.
March 23, 1901.
Capture of the Philippine leader, Aguinaldo, by stratagem.
March 24, 1901.
Death of Charlotte Mary Yonge,
English novelist and historical writer.
{720}
March 28, 1901.
Debate in the British Parliament on the peace negotiations
between Lord Kitchener and Commandant Botha.
March 29, 1901.
Passage of the Bill on Associations by the French
Chamber of Deputies.
Death of James Stephens, Irish Fenian leader.
April 1, 1901.
Re-election of Mr. Samuel M. Jones for a third term as Mayor
of Toledo, Ohio, independently of political parties.
Death of Sir John Stainer, British organist and composer.
April 2, 1901.
An oath of allegiance to the government of the United States
taken by Aguinaldo.
April 10, 1901.
Death of Dr. William Jay Youmans, American scientist.
April 18, 1901.
Speech of Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, Chancellor of the Exchequer,
in the British House of Commons, introducing the Budget of
the year.
April 19, 1901.
Address to his countrymen issued by Aguinaldo, counselling
submission to the sovereignty of the United States.
Promulgation of a new constitution for the kingdom of Servia.
April 22, 1901.
Death of Right Reverend William Stubbs, Bishop of Oxford,
English constitutional historian.
May 27, 1901.
Opinions delivered by the Supreme Court of the United States
in the so-called "insular cases."
--------Volume 6: End-------------
----------Word List: Start--------
a
Aana
Aaron
abacists
Abadiyeh
abandon
abandoned
abandoning
Abandonment
Abarzuza
abate
abatement
abating
Abbey
Abbott
Abby
Abbé
abdicated
abdomen
abdominal
Abdul
Abdullah
Abdullahi
Abel
Abercorn
Abercrombie
Aberdare
abet
abetting
abettors
abeyance
Abgeordneten
abhorred
abhorrent
abide
abiding
abilities
ability
abject
able
ablest
ably
abnegation
abnormal
abnormally
aboard
abode
abolish
Abolished
abolishes
abolishing
abolition
abolitionist
abominable
abominate
abominations
aboriginal
ABORIGINES
abortive
abounded
about
above
Abraham
abrasive
abreast
abridge
abridged
Abridgement
abridging
Abridgment
abridgments
abroad
abrogate
abrogated
abrogation
abrupt
abruptly
Abruzzi
absence
absent
absentee
absenteeism
absentees
absenting
absolue
absolute
absolutely
absolutism
absolved
absorb
absorbed
absorbing
absorption
abstain
abstained
abstaining
abstention
abstentions
abstinence
abstract
abstracting
absurd
absurdity
absurdly
Abu
Abud
abul
abundance
Abundant
abundantly
abuse
abused
abuses
abusing
abusive
abuts
Abydos
Abyssinia
Abyssinian
Abyssinians
academic
academical
Academy
Acarabisi
accede
acceded
acceding
accelerated
acceleration
accept
acceptable
acceptance
acceptation
accepted
accepting
accepts
access
accessible
accession
accessions
accessories
accessory
accident
accidental
Accidentally
accidents
acclamation
acclamations
acclimatised
acclimatization
acclimatized
accommodate
accommodating
accommodation
accommodations
Accompanied
accompanies
accompaniment
accompany
accompanying
accompli
accomplice
accomplices
accomplish
accomplished
accomplishing
accomplishment
accomplishments
accord
accordance
accordant
accorded
according
Accordingly
accords
account
accountability
accountable
accountant
accounted
accounting
accounts
accredited
accrue
accrued
accruing
accumulate
accumulated
accumulating
accumulation
accuracy
accurate
accurately
accusation
accusations
accuse
accused
accuses
accusing
accustomed
accustoming
ace
Acerraderos
Acetylene
achieve
achieved
achievement
ACHIEVEMENTS
achieving
Achæan
Achæmenian
acids
acknowledge
acknowledged
acknowledges
acknowledging
Acknowledgment
acknowledgments
acquaint
acquaintance
acquainted
acquainting
acquiesce
acquiesced
acquiescence
acquire
acquired
acquires
acquiring
acquisition
acquisitions
acquit
Acquittal
acquitted
acquitter
acquitting
acre
acreage
acres
acrobat
Acropole
acropoli
acropolis
across
ACT
acted
acting
ACTION
actions
active
actively
activities
activity
actor
actors
actress
acts
actual
actually
actuated
acute
acuteness
ad
Adalbert
Adam
Adams
Adana
Adanan
adapt
adaptation
adaptations
adapted
adapting
Adare
add
added
adding
addition
Additional
additions
Addosio
address
addressed
addresses
addressing
adds
adduced
Adee
Adelaide
Aden
adequacy
adequate
adequately
adhere
adhered
adherence
adherents
adheres
adhering
adhesion
adhesions
adhesive
adjacent
Adjoining
adjourn
adjourned
adjournment
adjudged
adjudicate
adjudicated
adjudication
Adjuntas
adjust
adjustability
adjusted
adjusting
Adjustment
adjustments
Adjutant
Adlai
Adler
administer
administered
administering
administers
administration
administrations
administrative
administrator
administrators
admirable
admirably
admiral
admirals
Admiralty
admiration
admire
admired
admirer
admirers
admires
admiring
admiringly
admissible
Admission
admissions
admit
admits
admittance
admitted
admittedly
admitting
admixture
admonish
admonished
admonishing
admonition
admonitions
Adna
Adolph
adopt
adopted
adopting
adoption
adopts
adoration
adorned
adorning
Adowa
Adowah
adresse
Adrian
Adrien
adrift
adult
adulteration
Adultery
adults
advance
advanced
advancement
advances
advancing
advantage
advantageous
advantageously
advantages
advent
adventure
Adventurers
adventurous
adversaries
adversary
adverse
adversely
adverted
advertised
advertisement
advice
advices
advisability
advisable
advise
advised
advisedly
adviser
advisers
advises
advising
advisor
advisory
advocate
advocated
advocates
advocating
Aegean
afar
Aff
affability
affable
affair
Affaire
Affaires
affairs
affect
affectation
affected
affecting
affection
affectionate
affects
Affej
affidavits
affiliated
affiliation
affiliations
affinities
affirm
affirmation
affirmations
affirmative
affirmatively
affirmed
affirming
affix
affixed
afflict
afflicted
afflicting
afflictions
afflicts
affluent
affluents
afford
afforded
affording
affords
affront
affronted
Afghan
AFGHANISTAN
Afghans
Afion
aflame
afloat
afoot
aforementioned
aforesaid
afraid
afresh
AFRICA
African
Africander
Africanders
Africans
Afridi
Afridis
Afrikander
Afrikanders
Afrique
aft
AFTER
afternoon
afterthoughts
afterward
afterwards
afterwords
Afzul
again
AGAINST
Agamemnon
Agana
agape
agate
Agaña
AGE
aged
agencies
agency
Agent
agents
ages
agglomeration
aggrandised
aggrandisement
aggrandizement
aggravated
aggravating
Aggregate
aggregated
aggregating
aggregation
aggression
aggressive
aggressiveness
aggressor
aghast
Aghia
agitated
agitates
agitating
agitation
agitations
agitator
agitators
ago
Agoncilla
agonies
agonize
agony
Agram
Agramonte
agrarian
agrarianism
Agrarians
agree
agreeable
agreeably
agreed
agreeing
Agreement
Agreements
agrees
AGRICULTURAL
Agriculturalists
agriculture
agriculturist
agriculturists
aground
agt
Aguada
Aguadores
Aguas
AGUINALDO
Agutaya
Ahab
Ahaz
ahead
ai
Aid
aide
aided
Aidin
aiding
aids
ailing
ailments
aim
aimed
aiming
aimless
aimlessly
aims
Ain
Aintab
air
Aird
Airdrie
Aires
airs
aisle
Aiyun
Akarai
Akasheh
Akhissar
akin
AKKAD
Akkael
Aksakal
al
Alabama
alabaster
Alabat
alacrity
Alan
alarm
alarmed
alarming
alarmingly
alarms
alas
Alaska
Alaskan
Alawi
Albania
Albanian
Albanians
Albay
Albemarle
Albert
Albrecht
Albuquerque
alcabalas
alcalde
alcaldes
Alcock
alcohol
alcoholic
Alderley
aldermen
Aldersgate
Aldingen
Aldrich
ale
Alene
Aleph
Aleppo
alert
Alexander
Alexandra
Alexandre
Alexandretta
ALEXANDRIA
Alexandrian
Alexandrie
Alexandrovich
Alexandrovsky
Alexeieff
Alexis
Alfaro
Alfonso
Alford
Alfred
Alger
Algeria
Algerian
Algerians
Algerine
Algiers
algæ
Alhambra
Ali
Aliaga
Alicante
Alice
alien
alienate
alienated
alienation
alienist
Aliens
alight
alighting
alike
alive
Aliwal
alkaline
All
Allahabad
Allan
allay
allayed
allegation
allegations
allege
Alleged
Allegheny
allegiance
alleging
Allen
alleviate
alleviation
alleys
Allgemeine
ALLIANCE
alliances
allied
allies
allotment
allotments
allotted
allow
allowable
allowance
allowances
allowed
allowing
allows
allude
alluded
alludes
alluding
allured
allusion
allusions
alluvial
ally
Almanac
Almighty
Almirante
Almodovar
almond
Almost
Almyro
Alois
ALOISI
alone
Along
Alongside
Alonzo
aloof
aloud
Aloy
Alphabet
alphabetic
alphabetical
Alphonse
Alphonso
Alpine
Alps
Already
Alsace
Alsatian
also
altar
altars
alter
alterable
alteration
alterations
altered
altering
alternate
alternately
alternating
alternative
alternatives
alters
Altgeld
although
altitude
altitudes
altogether
aluminium
aluminum
Alva
Alvan
Alvey
always
am
Amacura
Amadeus
Amakuru
amalgamate
Amalgamated
amalgamating
amalgamation
amalgamations
Aman
Amand
Amapala
Amarna
Amasa
Amasia
AMATONGALAND
amazement
amazing
Amazon
Amazonian
Ambassador
ambassadorial
ambassadors
ambiguity
ambiguous
Ambil
ambit
ambition
ambitions
ambitious
Amboyna
Ambrogiana
Ambrose
Ambulance
ambulances
ambuscade
ambuscaded
ambush
Amdrup
Ameer
Ameers
Amelineau
ameliorate
amelioration
AMEN
amenable
amend
amendatory
amended
amending
AMENDMENT
amendments
amenity
Amenophis
Ament
America
AMERICAN
Americana
AMERICANISM
Americans
AMERICAS
Amery
Ames
Amharic
amiable
amicable
amicably
Amid
amidships
amidst
Amigos
Amir
amiss
amity
Ammen
ammunition
ammunitions
amnesty
among
amongst
amount
amounted
amounting
amounts
Amoy
amphitheater
Amphitrite
ample
amplification
amplified
amply
amputating
Amsterdam
Amur
amusement
amusing
amœbæ
an
Ana
anaconda
analogies
analogous
analogy
analyses
analysis
analyze
analyzed
anarchical
anarchism
anarchist
anarchistic
Anarchists
anarchy
Anatolian
anatomy
ancestor
ancestors
ancestral
anchor
anchorage
anchored
anchoring
anchors
Ancient
ancients
ancillary
Ancon
AND
Andean
Anderson
Ando
Andrade
Andres
ANDREW
Andrews
ANDRÉE
Andrée
aneurysms
anew
ang
angareb
Angel
Angeles
Angelo
anger
angered
Angiolillo
angle
angles
Anglican
Anglicans
Anglo
Angmagsalik
Angola
Angoni
Angoniland
Angora
angry
anguish
Anhui
animal
animals
animate
animated
animosities
animosity
animus
Anio
Ankaratoa
Ankauf
Anna
Annals
Annam
Annapolis
Anne
annex
annexation
annexationists
annexations
Annexed
annexing
annihilate
annihilated
annihilation
Anniversary
anno
announce
announced
Announcement
announcements
announces
announcing
annoyance
annoyed
annoying
Annschütz
annual
annually
annuities
annul
annull
annulled
annulling
annulment
annuls
annum
anointed
anomalous
Anopheles
another
answer
answerable
answered
Answering
answers
antagonism
antagonist
antagonistic
antagonists
antagonize
antagonized
antagonizing
Antananarivo
ANTARCTIC
ante
antecedents
Antemnae
ANTEMNÆ
Antemnæ
Anthem
Anthoine
Anthony
Anthoüard
Anthracite
anthrax
Anthropological
Anthropology
Anti
anticipate
anticipated
anticipates
Anticipating
anticipation
anticipations
ANTIGUA
Antilles
antipathy
antipodes
antiquarian
antiquaries
antiquary
antiquated
antique
Antiquities
Antiquity
Antisemitic
antisepsis
Antiseptic
antithesis
antitoxin
Antitoxine
Anton
Antonio
ants
Antwerp
Anvers
Anvil
anxieties
anxiety
anxious
anxiously
any
anybody
Anyone
anything
anywhere
anywise
Anzeiger
Anæsthetics
ao
Aoki
aorta
apace
Apache
Aparicio
apart
apartments
apathy
apex
aphasia
aphasic
Aphthonios
Apia
apiece
Apokorona
apologetic
apologia
apologies
apologising
apology
Apostle
Apostles
Apostolic
apostolical
Apostolici
Apostolicæ
appalling
apparatus
Apparent
apparently
appeal
appealed
appealing
Appeals
appear
appearance
appearances
appeared
appearing
appears
appease
appeased
appeasing
appellant
appellants
appellate
appellation
appellations
appendage
appended
appendicitis
Appendix
appertain
appertaining
appetite
applaud
applauded
Applauding
applause
apples
Appleton
appliances
applicable
applicant
applicants
application
applications
applied
applies
apply
Applying
appoint
appointed
appointee
appointees
Appointing
appointive
appointment
Appointments
appoints
Apponyi
apportion
apportioned
apportioning
Apportionment
apportionments
appraised
appraisement
Appraisers
appreciable
appreciate
appreciated
appreciates
appreciating
appreciation
apprehend
apprehended
apprehending
apprehension
apprehensions
apprehensive
Apprentices
apprenticeship
apprise
apprised
approach
approached
approaches
approaching
approbation
appropriate
appropriated
appropriately
appropriateness
appropriates
appropriating
Appropriation
appropriations
Approval
approve
approved
approves
approving
approximate
approximated
approximately
approximates
approximating
approximation
appurtenance
appurtenances
appurtenant
Apra
April
apt
Apthorp
aptitude
aptly
aqueduct
AQUILA
aquiline
Arab
Arabe
Arabia
Arabian
Arabic
arable
Arabs
Araneto
Arayat
Arbiter
Arbitral
arbitrament
arbitrarily
arbitrariness
arbitrary
arbitrate
arbitrated
arbitrating
ARBITRATION
Arbitrator
arbitrators
arbitrium
ARC
arcading
arch
archaeological
archaeology
Archangel
Archbishop
Archbishops
archduchies
Archduke
archeological
archeology
Archibald
ARCHIPELAGO
archipelagoes
Architect
architects
architectural
architecture
architraves
archive
archives
Archivist
ARCHÆOLOGICAL
archæological
archæologist
Archæology
Archœology
Arctic
Arcy
Ardagh
ardent
ardently
ardor
arduous
are
area
areas
Arecibo
Arellano
arena
Areopagus
Argentina
Argentine
Argentines
argon
argue
argued
arguing
Argument
argumentatively
arguments
Argun
Argyle
Argyll
Arian
Arica
arid
Arikis
Ariokh
arise
arisen
arises
arising
aristocracy
aristocratic
arithmetic
arithmetical
Arithmetically
Arizona
Ark
ARKANSAS
Arku
arm
armament
armaments
Armand
armchairs
armed
Armenia
Armenian
Armenians
armes
Armies
arming
armistice
Armistices
Armitage
Armitt
Armored
armories
armory
Armour
Armoury
arms
Armstrong
ARMY
armée
Arnawai
Arnold
arose
Around
arouse
aroused
arousing
Arpad
arraign
arraigned
arraigning
arraignments
arrange
arranged
Arrangement
arrangements
arranges
arranging
array
arrayed
arrears
Arrest
arrested
arresting
arrests
Arretez
arrival
arrivals
arrive
Arrived
arrives
arriving
arrivé
arrogance
arrogant
arrogate
arrogated
arrows
Arrêté
arsenal
arsenals
Arsenio
arson
Arsène
ART
Artacho
arterial
arteries
artery
ARTHUR
Article
articles
artifice
artificer
Artificial
artificiality
artificially
ARTILLERY
artillerymen
artisans
artist
artistic
artistically
artists
artizans
arts
As
ASA
ascend
ascendancy
ascendant
ascended
ascendency
ascending
ascends
Ascension
ascent
ascertain
ascertained
ascertaining
ascertainment
Asch
ascribe
ascribed
ascribes
ascribing
Asehkenazim
aseptic
Aserraderos
Ash
ashamed
Ashanti
Ashantis
Ashbel
ashes
Ashmolean
ashore
ASIA
Asian
Asiatic
Asiatics
aside
Asingan
ask
Askalon
Asked
asking
asks
Asmar
Asnyk
Asoka
aspect
aspects
aspersed
asphalt
asphyxiating
aspirant
aspirants
aspiration
aspirations
aspire
aspired
aspiring
assail
assailant
assailants
assailed
assailing
Assam
assassin
assassinate
assassinated
assassination
ASSASSINATIONS
assassins
Assault
assaulted
assaults
assemblage
assemble
assembled
assembles
assemblies
assembling
assembly
assemblymen
assent
assented
assents
Asser
assert
asserted
asserting
assertion
assertions
asserts
assess
assessed
assessing
assessment
assessments
asset
assets
assign
assigned
assigning
assignment
assigns
assimilate
assimilated
assimilation
Assiout
Assisi
assist
assistance
Assistant
assistants
assisted
assisting
assists
Assiut
Assizes
Associate
Associated
associates
associating
Association
ASSOCIATIONS
Assouan
Assuan
assume
assumed
assumes
assuming
Assumption
Assumptionist
assumptions
assurance
Assurances
assure
Assured
assuredly
assures
assuring
Assyria
Assyrian
Assyriologist
Assyriologists
Assyriology
astonished
astonishes
astonishing
astonishment
Astor
astounded
astounding
astronomer
astronomers
Astronomical
Astronomy
Asturias
astute
asunder
Asylum
Asylums
At
Atacama
Atago
ATBARA
ate
Ateneo
Athabasca
atheism
atheistic
Athenian
ATHENS
athirst
athletes
athletic
athletics
Atkins
Atkinson
Atlanta
Atlantic
atlas
atlases
Atlin
atmosphere
atmospheres
atmospheric
Atoka
atoms
atonement
atrocious
atrocities
attach
attache
attached
attaches
attaching
attachment
attaché
attack
attacked
attacking
attacks
attain
attainable
attainder
attained
attaining
attainment
attainments
attains
attainted
Attel
Attempt
attempted
attempting
attempts
attend
attendance
attendant
attendants
Attended
attending
attendsavant
attention
attentions
attentive
attentively
attenuated
attest
attestation
attesting
attests
Attila
attired
Attitude
attitudes
Attorney
attorneys
attract
attracted
attracting
attraction
attractive
attributable
attribute
attributed
attributes
attributing
attuning
Atua
Atuans
Au
Aubrey
Auckland
auction
audacious
audacity
Audencia
audible
audience
audiences
audiencia
audit
audited
auditor
audrocratic
AUDUBON
Aug
augmented
augmenting
augury
AuGUST
Augusta
Auguste
Augustin
Augustine
Augustinian
Augustinians
Augustus
Aumale
auriferous
Aurora
Ausgleich
auspices
Austin
Austral
Australasia
Australasian
AUSTRALIA
Australian
Australians
Austria
Austrian
Austrians
Austro
Auteuil
authentic
authentically
authenticated
authenticity
author
authorise
authorised
authoritative
authoritatively
authorities
Authority
Authorization
authorize
authorized
authorizes
authorizing
authors
authorship
autocrat
autocratic
autographs
automatic
automatically
autonomist
Autonomistic
autonomists
autonomous
autonomy
autorité
autre
autumn
aux
auxiliaries
auxiliary
avail
Available
availed
availing
avais
avalanche
avalanches
Avaradrano
avec
avenge
avenged
avenging
Avenue
avenues
average
averaged
averages
averaging
averment
Averoff
averse
aversion
aversions
avert
averted
averting
avez
avidity
avocations
avoid
avoidable
avoidance
avoided
avoiding
avoids
avoir
Avondale
avons
avowed
avowedly
await
awaited
awaiting
awaits
awake
awaken
awakened
awakening
awaking
Award
awarded
awards
aware
away
awful
awkward
awkwardly
awoke
Axe
axes
axiom
ayes
Aygun
Ayon
Ayr
AYRES
ayuntamiento
Ayuntamientos
Ayutla
Azcarraga
Azim
Aztec
Aztecs
b
babblings
Babel
babes
Babi
Babnyanes
Babuyan
Babylon
BABYLONIA
Babylonian
Babylonians
Baca
Bacatete
Bach
Bachi
bacilli
bacillus
Back
backbone
backed
background
backing
backs
backsheesh
backward
backwards
Bacolod
Bacon
Bacoor
Bacteria
BACTERIAL
bacteriologist
bacteriologists
bacteriology
bacterium
bad
Bade
Badeau
Baden
BADENI
badges
badly
baffle
baffled
bag
Bagata
BAGDAD
baggage
Baggara
Baggaras
bagging
baggy
Baghdad
Baghirmi
bags
Bahadur
Bahia
Bahr
Bai
Baikal
bail
Bailiff
Bairam
Bait
BAJAUR
baked
Baker
bakers
Bakor
Baksheesh
Balabae
Balance
balanced
balances
balconies
bald
Baldissera
baldness
Baldwin
Balearic
baled
Baler
bales
Balfour
Balinian
Balinians
Balkan
Balkans
balked
ball
ballads
Ballington
balloon
balloons
ballot
balloting
ballots
Balmaceda
Balmoral
BALTIC
Baltimore
Baluchistan
Balupiri
Balæna
Bamban
bamboo
Bancroft
band
bandage
bandages
Bandajuma
banded
bandit
bandits
banditti
bando
Bandora
Bands
baneful
Banffy
Bang
Bangkok
banish
banished
banishment
BANK
banker
bankers
Banking
banknotes
bankrupt
bankruptcy
bankrupts
Banks
banner
Bannerman
bannermen
banners
Bannu
banquet
banquets
Bantayan
Banton
baptised
baptismal
baptisms
Baptist
Baptiste
Baptists
baptized
Bar
Baranera
barangay
Baratieri
Barbadoes
BARBADOS
barbarian
barbarians
barbaric
barbarism
barbarities
Barbarity
barbarous
barbed
Barberton
Barbour
Barcelona
bard
Bardoux
bare
bared
barefaced
barely
Barents
barest
Barfleur
bargain
bargained
bargaining
bargains
barge
barges
Barima
barium
barkeepers
Barker
Barkly
barley
Barlow
Barnard
barnyard
Baroda
Barometer
baron
Baroness
Barotsiland
barracks
barrage
Barrages
Barranca
Barrawa
Barre
barred
barrel
barrelled
barren
barrenness
Barrett
barricade
barricaded
barricades
barricading
barrier
barring
barrio
Barrios
Barrow
Barry
bars
barter
Barth
Bartholomew
Barthélemy
Bartlett
Bartolome
BARTON
bas
base
based
Basel
baseless
basely
basement
bases
BASHEE
Bashgal
Bashi
Basilan
Basilica
basilicas
basin
basing
basins
basis
basket
baskets
Basle
Basques
Basra
Bassorah
bastards
bastinado
bastion
Basutoland
Bataan
Batag
Batan
Batangas
batch
batches
bated
Bates
Batetela
Batetelas
Bath
bathed
baths
bato
battalion
battalions
Battenberg
battered
batteries
battering
Battery
Battle
battlefield
battlefields
battles
battleship
battleships
Bauendahl
Bautista
Bavaria
Bavarian
Bax
BAY
Bayard
bayonet
bayoneted
bayonets
bays
Bazaar
bazaars
Bazouks
bc
Be
Beach
beached
beaching
beacons
Beaconsfield
beam
beams
bean
Bear
beard
bearded
beardless
beards
Beardsley
bearer
bearers
Bearing
bearings
bears
Beast
beastliness
beasts
beaten
Beatification
beating
beats
Beaulieu
Beaurepaire
beauties
beautiful
beautifully
beauty
Beaver
became
Because
Bechuana
BECHUANALAND
Beckham
becloud
become
Becomes
becometh
becoming
Bed
bedding
bedeviled
Bedouin
bedrock
bedrooms
Beds
BEECHER
BEEF
been
beer
Beerenbrouck
Beernaert
BEERS
bees
beet
Beethoven
beets
befallen
befalling
befell
befit
befitting
before
beforehand
befriend
beg
began
beget
beggar
beggars
begged
begin
beginning
beginnings
begins
begotten
begrudge
begs
beguiled
begun
behalf
behaved
behaving
behavior
behaviour
beheaded
beheading
beheld
behest
Behind
behindhand
Behnesa
behold
behooves
BEHRING
Being
beings
Beira
Beirut
Beit
Bel
Bela
belabor
beleaguered
Belfast
BELGIAN
Belgians
Belgica
Belgium
Belgrade
belief
beliefs
believable
believe
believed
believer
believes
believing
belittle
Bell
Bellaire
Bellamy
Bellevue
belligerence
belligerency
belligerent
Belligerents
Bellinghausen
bells
bellum
Belly
BELMONT
belong
belonged
belonging
belongings
belongs
beloved
below
belt
Bench
benches
bend
Bendigo
bending
beneath
Benedictines
benediction
benefactions
benefactor
benefactors
beneficent
beneficial
benefit
benefiting
benefits
benevolence
benevolent
Bengal
Benguela
Benguet
Bengula
benignity
benignly
BENIN
BENJAMIN
Bennet
Bennett
Benson
Bent
Bentley
Bentwich
Benué
bequeath
bequeathed
bequests
Berar
Berber
Berda
Berdrow
Beresford
BERGENDAL
BERING
Berkeley
BERLIN
Bermuda
Bermudez
Bernadottes
Bernadou
Bernard
Bernhard
Bernier
Berovitch
Berry
Berthelot
berths
beryls
Besançon
beseech
beseeching
beset
Beside
Besides
besieged
besiegers
bespattered
Bessemer
best
bestirred
bestow
bestowal
bestowed
bestrode
Beth
Bethlehem
Bethulie
betide
betrayal
betrayed
betraying
Betsimisaraka
better
betterment
between
Beust
Beuthen
beverage
beverages
bewildering
bewilderment
Bey
beyond
Bhiwandi
Bi
BIAC
bias
Bible
biblical
bibliographer
Bicentenary
Bichat
Bicol
BICOLS
bicycle
bid
BIDA
bidders
bidding
Bids
Bidwell
Bielusha
Bienfaisance
biennial
biennially
Bienvenido
bier
big
bigamist
bigger
biggest
bigoted
bigotedly
bilateral
Biliotti
Biliran
Bill
billets
billiard
Billings
billion
billions
Billot
Billow
Bills
Biloa
bimetallic
bimetallism
bin
bind
binding
binds
Bingham
Bingner
Binondo
biographer
BIOGRAPHERS
biography
biological
biologist
biology
Bird
birds
Birjud
Birmingham
Birs
Birth
birthday
birthplace
birthrate
birthright
births
Biscoe
Biscuit
Bishara
Bishop
Bishops
Bishopsgate
Bismarck
Bisukei
bit
bite
biter
bites
Bitlis
bits
bitten
bitter
bitterest
bitterly
bitterness
bivouac
bivouacked
Biñang
black
blackboards
Blackburn
blackened
blacker
Blackie
blacklist
blackmail
Blackmore
blacks
blacksmithing
blacksmiths
Blackwood
blade
Blagovestchensk
Blaine
Blake
blame
blamed
Blanche
Blanco
BLANCOS
Bland
blandly
blanket
blankets
blanks
blasphemer
blasphemy
blast
blasted
blasts
blaze
blazed
blazing
bleeding
blended
blending
bless
Blessed
blesses
blessing
blessings
bleu
blew
blighted
blighting
blind
blindly
blindness
Bliss
blistered
blizzard
block
Blockade
blockaded
blockading
blocked
Blockhouse
blockhouses
blocks
Bloemfontein
Blondin
blood
blooded
bloodless
bloods
bloodshed
bloodthirsty
Bloody
blotted
blouse
blouses
blow
blowing
blown
blows
Blue
Bluebook
BLUEFIELDS
Bluemantle
Blumentritt
blunder
blunders
blush
board
boarded
boarding
boards
boast
boasted
boastfully
boasting
boasts
boat
boats
Bobrikoff
Boca
Boden
bodes
bodied
bodies
bodily
Bodley
Body
bodyguard
Boecklin
Boer
BOERS
Boeschoten
Bogdanovich
Bogoliepoff
Bohemia
Bohemian
Bohemians
Bohol
boiled
boiler
boilers
boiling
Boisdeffre
boisterous
Bokhara
bold
bolder
bolding
boldly
boldness
Bolinao
Bolivar
Bolivia
Bolivian
bolo
bolos
bolt
bolts
Boma
bomb
Bombala
bombard
bombarded
bombarding
bombardment
Bombardments
Bombay
bombs
bona
Bonaparte
Bonapartist
bond
bondage
bonded
bondholders
Bondieu
bonding
Bondmen
bonds
Bondsmen
Bondstate
bone
bones
Bongao
Bonheur
Boniface
Bonilla
Bonner
Bonsai
Bonsal
bonum
bonus
bonuses
bony
Book
books
booksellers
boom
booming
boon
boot
Booth
booths
boots
booty
Borchardt
Borchgrevinck
BORDA
Bordeaux
border
bordereau
bordering
borders
bore
Borel
borings
Boris
Borisovich
Borissoff
born
borne
Borneo
Bornier
Borough
Boroughs
Borrerro
borrow
borrowed
borrowing
Borsippa
Bosch
Bosnia
Bosnian
bosom
bosoms
Bosphorus
Boss
bosses
Boston
botanical
Botany
Both
Botha
Botti
bottle
bottles
bottom
Bougainville
bought
Boukhara
Boulancy
Boulanger
Boulangism
Boulangist
Boulger
Boulogne
bound
Boundaries
BOUNDARY
bounded
bounding
boundless
bounds
bounties
bountifully
bounty
Bourassa
Bourbaki
Bourbon
Bourbons
Bourchier
Bourgeois
Bouri
Bourke
Bourne
Bourse
bout
Boutros
bow
bowed
Bowell
bowels
BOWER
bowl
Bowling
bowls
bows
box
Boxer
Boxers
boxes
boxing
boy
boycotted
Boyesen
boyish
Boyle
Boylston
boys
bracing
bracketed
brackets
Braddock
Braddon
BRADFORD
Bradley
bragging
Brahmins
Brahms
brain
brained
brainless
brains
Branch
branches
Brand
branded
Brandes
branding
brands
Brandwater
brandy
Branly
brass
Braunersreuther
brave
bravely
braver
bravery
braves
bravest
brawls
Bray
Braye
BRAZIL
Brazilian
Brazos
Brazzaville
breach
breaches
breaching
bread
breadth
break
breakdown
breaker
breakers
breaking
breakout
breaks
breastplate
breasts
breastwork
breath
breathe
breathed
bred
Breech
breed
breeder
breeding
breeds
breezes
Bremen
Bremerhaven
Bresci
Brethren
Brett
brewer
breweries
brewers
brewing
bribe
bribed
bribery
brick
bricks
brickwork
bride
bridegroom
BRIDGE
bridged
bridges
bridlepaths
Brief
briefer
briefest
briefly
Briefs
Brieger
Brien
brigade
brigaded
brigades
Brigadier
brigandage
brigands
Bright
brighter
brightest
brightness
brilliance
brilliancy
brilliant
brilliantly
brilliants
brimful
brine
bring
Bringing
brings
brink
Brinkerhoff
Brinton
brisk
Brisson
bristled
Britain
Britannia
Britannic
Britannica
British
Brito
Briton
Britons
broached
broad
broadcast
broaden
broadened
broader
broadest
broadly
Broadway
Brodie
Brodrick
Broglie
broke
broken
broker
brokerage
Bronx
bronze
bronzes
brood
brooded
brook
BROOKE
BROOKLYN
Brooks
Brophy
Brothels
brother
brotherhood
brotherly
brothers
Brougham
Brought
brow
brown
Browne
brows
Bruce
BRUGES
Brumbaugh
Brumby
Brunsbüttel
BRUNSWICK
brunt
Brusati
brush
brushed
brushes
brusque
Brussels
brutal
brutalities
brutality
brutally
brute
BRYAN
Bryant
Bryce
brûle
Brünn
Buad
bubble
bubbles
bubo
buboes
bubonic
Bucas
Buchanan
Buck
buckets
Buckingham
Buckner
Bucknill
buckwheat
bud
Buda
Budapest
Buddha
Buddhism
Buddhist
Buddhists
budget
BUDGETS
Buell
Buencomeno
Bueno
Buenos
Buergerliche
buff
BUFFALO
buffaloes
Buffet
buffeting
Bugahiaobeire
bugle
bugler
bugles
Bugoma
build
builded
builder
builders
Building
buildings
builds
Built
Buka
Bukharest
Bulacan
Bulawayo
bulb
Bulgaria
Bulgarian
Bulgarians
bulged
bulges
bulk
Bull
BULLER
bullet
Bulletin
bulletins
Bullets
bullion
bullock
bulls
bullying
Buluwayo
bulwark
bulwarks
Bulwer
bump
Buna
BUND
bundle
Buner
bunker
bunkers
Bunsen
buoy
buoyed
buoying
buoys
burden
burdened
burdening
burdens
Burdett
Bureau
bureaucracy
bureaucratic
bureaus
Bureh
Buren
BURGER
burgher
burghers
Burghersdorp
Burglary
burgomaster
burgomastership
burial
burials
Burias
buried
Burke
Burleigh
Burlington
burly
Burma
BURMAH
Burmese
burn
Burne
burned
Burnham
burning
burnings
burns
burnt
Burr
Burriel
burst
bursting
Burt
burthensome
bury
Busch
bush
Bushby
bushes
Bushire
busied
busiest
busily
Busindi
business
busts
Busuanga
busy
busybodies
But
butchers
butchery
Butler
butter
Butterfield
buttons
Buxton
buy
buyers
buying
buys
by
Byrn
Byron
BÊL
Bêl
Büchner
Bülow
c
ca
Cabanatuan
Cabell
Cabello
cabeza
Cabiao
cabin
cabinet
Cabinets
cabins
cable
cabled
cablegram
cablegrams
cables
Cabrera
Caceres
Cacraray
cactus
Cadet
cadets
Cadiz
Cadogan
cafe
Caffery
Cagayan
CAGAYANS
cage
Cagni
Caicos
Caird
Cairo
Caisse
Calabar
Calaguas
Calais
Calamian
Calamianes
calamities
calamitous
calamity
Calayan
calcification
calcium
calculate
calculated
calculation
calculations
calculi
Calculus
Calcutta
Calderwood
Caleb
Caledonia
calendar
calibre
calibres
Calientes
California
Californias
Calixto
call
Calle
called
Calleja
callers
calling
callous
callousness
calls
calm
calmed
calmer
Calmette
calmly
calmness
Calneh
calumnies
calumny
Calvin
Calvo
calzadas
Calzecchi
Camargo
camarilla
Camarines
CAMBON
Cambria
Cambridge
Camden
came
camel
camels
Camera
CAMEROONS
Camiguin
Camotes
camp
campaign
campaigning
campaigns
Campbell
Campeche
camped
camping
Campoamor
Campos
camps
Can
Canaan
Canacao
Canada
Canadian
Canadians
canaille
canal
canalization
canals
Canary
cancel
canceling
cancellation
cancelled
cancelling
Cancer
cancerous
Candia
candid
candidacy
candidate
candidates
candidly
candle
candor
cane
CANEA
canes
Caney
canned
cannibalism
cannibals
cannon
cannot
canoes
Canon
canonized
canons
Canossa
Canovas
Canrobert
cans
CANTEEN
Canterbury
cantering
Canton
cantonal
Cantonese
cantonments
cantons
canvas
Canvass
canvassed
Cap
capabilities
capability
capable
capably
capacities
capacity
Capas
CAPE
capita
Capital
Capitalism
capitalist
capitalistic
capitalists
capitalization
capitalized
capitals
Capitol
capitulation
Capitulations
Capiz
Capodistria
Cappadocia
capped
caprice
capriciously
Caprivi
Capron
capstone
capstones
Capt
Captain
Captains
captives
captivity
captor
captors
capture
captured
Captures
capturing
Capuchins
car
caravan
carbide
carbines
carbon
carbonates
carbons
carborundum
card
cardboard
Cardenas
Cardinal
cardinals
cards
care
cared
career
careers
careful
carefully
careless
carelessly
carelessness
cares
careth
Carew
cargo
Caribbean
caricatures
caring
Carinthia
Carl
Carlisle
Carlist
Carlos
Carmel
Carmich
carnage
CARNEGIE
carnival
Carnot
Caro
Carolina
Carolinas
Caroline
Carolines
Carolinian
carotid
carpenter
carpet
carpetbag
carpets
carriage
carriages
Carrie
Carried
carrier
carriers
carries
Carrington
CARROLL
Carron
carry
carrying
Carrère
cars
cart
carte
Carter
Carthage
cartridges
carts
Cartwright
carved
carving
carvings
cascos
case
Casella
Caserta
cases
Casey
cash
cashiered
cashiering
cashiers
Casimir
Casino
casks
Caspe
Caspian
CASSATION
Cassatt
Cassel
cast
caste
Castelar
Castelin
castes
Castillia
Castillo
Casting
castings
Castle
Castro
casts
casual
casualties
casualty
cataclysm
Catacombs
catalog
cataloged
CATALOGUE
cataloguing
CATALONIA
Catalonians
catamaran
Catanduanes
Catandunanes
cataract
cataracts
catastrophe
CATASTROPHES
catch
catching
categorical
category
cathedra
Cathedral
cathedrals
cathode
Catholic
Catholica
CATHOLICS
Catholicus
Catholiques
Catt
Cattle
Caucasian
Caucasus
caucus
caught
Cause
caused
causes
causeway
causing
caustic
caution
cautionary
cautious
cautiously
Cavaignac
cavalcade
Cavalieri
Cavalotti
CAVALRY
cavalryman
cavalrymen
Cave
Cavendish
cavernous
cavil
Cavite
cavity
Cavité
Cay
Cayetano
Cayley
Cañas
Cd
ce
cease
ceased
ceaseless
ceases
ceasing
Cebreco
Cebu
Cecil
cede
ceded
cedes
ceding
cedula
ceiled
ceilings
celebrate
celebrated
celebrates
Celebrating
Celebration
celestial
Cell
cellar
cellars
celle
Celli
cells
cellulose
cement
cemented
cemeteries
Cemetery
Censo
Censor
censors
censorship
censure
censured
censuring
census
censuses
cent
centavos
centenary
centennial
Center
centered
centering
centers
centigrade
CENTRAL
centralised
centralization
centralized
Centre
centred
centres
Centrum
cents
centum
centurial
centuries
century
cependant
Ceram
cereals
cerebral
cerebro
ceremonial
ceremonies
Ceremonious
ceremoniously
Ceremony
Cerero
Certain
certainly
certainty
certificate
certificates
certified
certifies
certify
certifying
certitude
Cervantes
CERVERA
Cespedes
cess
cessation
cession
cessions
Cet
cette
Cettigne
Ceylon
cf
Ch
Chad
Chadwick
CHAFFEE
CHAI
chain
chains
chaio
Chair
Chairman
chairmanship
chairmen
chairs
CHAKDARRA
Chakosi
CHALDEA
Chaldees
Chaldæa
Challemel
challenge
challenged
Challenger
challenges
challenging
Chaltin
chamber
Chamberlain
CHAMBERS
Chamot
Champ
champion
championed
champions
Champs
Chan
Chanak
chance
chanced
Chancellor
Chancellorship
Chancery
chances
Chang
change
changed
changer
changers
changes
changing
channel
channels
CHANNING
Chantabûn
chao
chaos
chapel
chapels
chaplain
chaplains
Chaplin
Chapman
chapter
chapters
Chapultepec
character
characterised
characteristic
Characteristically
Characteristics
characterize
characterized
characterizes
characters
charge
chargeable
charged
charges
charging
chargé
Charilaos
chariot
chariots
charitable
charities
Charity
Charlemagne
Charles
Charleston
Charlestown
Charlotte
charm
charming
charms
Charpentier
charred
chart
charted
charter
Chartered
chartering
charters
charts
chase
chased
chasse
chastisement
chastisements
chastising
chastity
chastizes
Chatrousse
Chattanooga
chatter
chattered
chattering
chau
Chaudie
Chaudiere
Chauvinism
Chavannes
Chaylard
che
cheap
cheapen
cheapened
cheapening
cheaper
cheapest
cheapness
Cheapside
Chebar
check
checked
checking
checkmated
checks
cheek
cheered
cheerful
cheerfully
cheering
cheerless
cheers
Chefoo
Chekiang
Cheliabinsk
Chemawa
chemical
chemicals
chemist
CHEMISTRY
Chemnitz
Chen
Cheng
Cheops
Cherbuliez
Cherche
Cherif
Cherihon
cherish
cherished
cherishing
Chermside
Cherokee
CHEROKEES
Cheshire
Chesney
chest
Chester
chests
Cheth
Chevalier
Cheyenne
Chi
chia
Chiang
Chiangsi
chiao
Chiaochou
Chicago
Chichester
Chickamauga
Chickasaw
CHICKASAWS
chicken
chief
chiefly
chiefs
chieftain
chieftains
Chieftainship
Chien
chih
Chihli
Chihuahua
Chikusi
Chilcat
Chilcoot
child
Childcrs
Childers
childhood
childish
childless
children
Chile
Chilean
Chileans
CHILI
Chilian
Chilkat
chill
chills
chilly
Chilocco
chimed
Chimelli
chimera
Chin
China
Chinaman
Chinamen
chinaware
Chinchou
Chine
Chinee
CHINESE
CHING
Chingkiang
Chinkiang
Chippewas
Chita
Chitral
Chitralis
chloroformed
Cho
Choate
Choctaw
CHOCTAWS
choice
choked
cholera
Cholmondeley
choose
chooses
choosing
chose
chosen
Choshu
chou
Chovevi
Chow
Chozen
Chris
Christ
Christendom
CHRISTIAN
Christiani
Christiania
Christianity
Christianized
CHRISTIANS
CHRISTINA
Christlich
Christmas
Christopher
chromosphere
chronic
Chronicle
chronicled
chronicler
chroniclers
chronological
chronologically
chronology
Chu
Chua
Chuang
Chugoku
chun
CHUNG
Chungking
church
churches
Churchill
churchwardens
churchyard
chwang
Chéng
Chêkiang
Chêng
Chêngtu
Chün
cider
Cienfuegos
cigarette
cigarettes
Cincinnati
Cindad
cipher
Cipriano
circa
Circle
circles
circuit
circuitous
circuits
circular
circulars
circulate
circulated
circulating
circulation
Circum
circumference
circumnavigated
circumspect
circumspection
circumstance
circumstances
circumstantial
Cisleithania
Cisleithanian
Cisneros
cistern
citadel
cited
cites
Cities
Citizen
citizens
citizenship
city
civic
civil
civilian
civilians
Civilis
civilisation
civilised
civilising
Civilization
civilizations
civilize
CIVILIZED
civilly
clad
claim
claimant
claimants
Claimed
claiming
claims
clair
Clam
clamor
clamored
clamoring
clamorous
clamoured
clan
Clancy
clandestinely
clans
clansmen
clap
Clara
Clarence
clarion
Clark
Clarke
Clary
clash
clashed
clashing
clasp
Class
classed
classes
classical
classically
classics
classification
classified
classify
Classifying
Claude
Clause
clauses
clawed
CLAY
claypits
Clayton
clean
cleaned
cleaners
cleaning
cleanliness
cleanse
cleansing
clear
clearance
cleared
clearer
clearest
clearing
Clearly
clearness
cleavage
cleave
clemency
Clemens
clement
Clements
clergy
clergyman
clergymen
Clerical
Clericalism
clericals
clerk
clerks
Clery
cleveite
CLEVELAND
clever
client
climate
climatic
Climatically
climax
climb
climbed
clime
Clinch
cling
clinging
clique
cliques
clock
clog
clos
close
Closed
closely
closer
closes
closest
closet
closing
clot
cloth
clothe
clothed
clothes
Clothing
clouded
clouds
cloven
Club
Clubs
clue
clumsy
clung
clustered
clusters
Cnossos
Co
coach
coadjutor
Coahnila
COAL
coalfield
coalfields
coaling
coalition
coals
COAMO
coarse
Coast
Coastguard
coasting
Coasts
coastwise
coat
coated
coats
Cobham
Coblenz
Cobra
Coburg
coccidium
Cockburn
cocked
cockpit
Cockran
cocoa
cocoanuts
cod
Code
codes
codfish
codification
Codlin
Codman
coeducational
coerce
coerced
coercion
coercive
coeval
coffee
coffer
coffers
coffin
coffins
cognisance
cognisant
cognizable
cognizance
coherence
coherent
coherer
cohesion
coil
coils
Coin
coinage
coincided
coincident
Coincidentally
coinciding
coined
coins
Coit
Coke
cold
coldly
Coleman
COLENSO
Coler
Colesberg
Colima
collapse
collapsed
collar
collars
collate
collateral
colleague
colleagues
collect
collected
collecting
collection
Collections
collective
collectively
collectivist
collector
collectors
collects
COLLEGE
COLLEGES
collegiate
collier
colliers
Collins
Collis
collision
collisions
Colloquially
Cologan
Colomb
Colombari
COLOMBIA
Colombian
Colombo
Colon
Colonel
colonelcy
colonels
colonial
colonials
Colonies
colonisation
colonists
colonization
colonize
colonizing
colonnade
Colony
color
COLORADO
Colorados
colored
colors
colossal
colossi
Colossus
colour
coloured
colourless
colours
cols
Colt
Columbia
Columbian
COLUMBUS
column
columns
Colón
Com
Comanches
combat
combatant
combatants
combated
combating
combative
combats
combed
combination
combinations
Combine
combined
combines
combing
combining
combustible
combustion
Come
comer
comers
comes
comfort
comfortable
comfortably
comforting
comforts
coming
comity
Command
commandant
Commandants
commanded
commandeer
commandeered
Commandeering
Commander
commanders
Commanding
COMMANDO
commandos
commands
comme
commemorate
commemorated
commemorates
commence
commenced
commencement
commences
Commencing
commend
commendable
commendation
commended
commending
commensurate
comment
commented
Commenting
comments
COMMERCE
Commercial
Commerciale
commercialism
Commercially
Commerford
commettant
comminuted
commissariat
commissaries
Commissary
Commission
COMMISSIONED
commissioner
commissioners
Commissions
commit
committal
committed
committee
committees
committing
commodities
commodity
Commodore
Common
Commoners
commonly
Commons
commonwealth
commonwealths
commotion
communal
communes
communicate
communicated
communicates
communicating
communication
Communications
communicative
communion
communions
communique
communities
community
commutation
commuted
comp
compact
compacted
compactly
Compagnie
companies
companion
companions
company
comparable
comparative
comparatively
Compare
Compared
compares
comparing
Comparison
comparisons
compartments
compass
compassed
Compassionate
compatible
compatriots
compel
Compelled
compelling
compels
compendium
compensate
compensates
compensating
COMPENSATION
compensations
Compensatory
compete
competed
competence
competency
competent
competing
Competition
competitive
competitively
competitor
competitors
compilation
compile
compiled
compilers
complacency
complacent
complain
complainant
complained
complaining
complaint
Complaints
complement
COMPLETE
completed
completely
completeness
completes
completing
completion
complex
complexities
complexity
compliance
complicate
complicated
complication
complications
complicity
complied
complies
complimenting
Compliments
comply
complying
component
comport
comports
compos
compose
composed
composer
composing
composite
composition
compound
compounded
compounds
comprehend
comprehended
comprehending
comprehension
comprehensive
compressed
compression
compressor
comprise
comprised
comprises
comprising
Compromis
compromise
compromised
compromises
compromising
Comptroller
compulsion
COMPULSORY
compunction
computation
computed
comrade
comrades
Comte
Comus
Concas
conceal
concealed
concealing
concealment
conceals
concede
conceded
concedes
conceding
conceit
conceivable
conceivably
conceive
conceived
Conceiving
concentrate
concentrated
concentrating
concentration
concentrations
concentric
Concepcion
conception
Conceptions
concern
concerned
Concerning
concerns
Concert
concerted
concerts
Concession
concessionaire
concessionary
concessions
conciliate
conciliated
conciliating
Conciliation
conciliators
conciliatory
concisely
conclude
concluded
concludes
concluding
Conclusion
conclusions
conclusive
conclusively
concocted
concomitant
Concord
Concordat
concourse
concrete
concubine
concupiscence
concur
concurred
concurrence
concurrent
concurrently
concurring
concurs
condamnant
condemn
condemnable
condemnation
condemnatory
condemned
condemning
condemns
condensation
condenser
condensers
condescension
condign
condition
conditional
conditionally
conditioned
conditions
CONDOMINIUM
conduce
conduces
conducive
conduct
conducted
conducting
conductive
conductivity
conductor
conductors
conducts
conduits
Condé
confederacies
CONFEDERATE
Confederated
Confederation
confer
Conference
conferences
conferred
conferring
confers
confess
confessed
confessedly
confesses
confessing
Confession
confessions
confessor
confessors
confide
confided
Confidence
Confident
confidential
confidentially
confidently
Confiding
configuration
confine
confined
confinement
confines
confining
confirm
Confirmation
confirmatory
confirmed
confirming
confirms
confiscated
conflagration
conflict
Conflicting
conflicts
confluence
conform
conformable
conformably
conformation
conformed
conformer
conforming
conformity
conformément
confounded
confounding
confront
confronted
confronts
Confucianism
Confucius
confuse
confused
confusing
confusion
Conger
Congested
congestion
conglomeration
Congo
Congolese
Congos
congratulate
congratulated
congratulating
congratulation
congratulations
Congratulatory
congregated
congregation
Congregational
congregations
congress
congresses
Congressional
Congressmen
Coninck
conjectural
conjecture
conjointly
conjunction
conjured
Connaught
Conneaut
connect
connected
CONNECTICUT
connecting
connection
connections
connects
Connellsville
Conner
connexion
connexions
connivance
connive
connived
Connolly
Connor
conquer
conquered
conquering
conqueror
conquerors
Conquest
conquests
conquistadores
conscience
consciences
conscientious
conscientiously
conscious
consciously
consciousness
conscription
consecrate
consecrated
consecrating
consecration
consecutive
conseil
Conselheiro
consensual
consensus
consent
consented
consenting
consents
consequence
consequences
consequent
Consequently
conservation
conservatism
Conservative
Conservatives
Conservators
conservatory
conserve
conserved
consider
Considerable
considerably
considerate
consideration
Considerations
Considered
considering
considers
consist
consisted
consistent
consistently
consisting
Consistorial
consists
consolation
consoled
consolidate
consolidated
consolidating
Consolidation
consolidations
consoling
Consols
consonant
consort
conspicuous
conspicuously
conspiracies
conspiracy
conspirator
conspirators
conspire
conspiring
Constable
constables
Constabulary
Constance
Constant
Constantin
Constantine
Constantinople
constantly
consternation
constituencies
constituency
constituent
constituents
constitute
constituted
constitutes
constituting
Constitution
constitutional
constitutionalism
Constitutionalist
Constitutionalists
constitutionality
Constitutionally
Constitutions
Constitutis
constrain
constrained
constraint
construct
constructed
constructing
construction
constructions
constructive
Constructor
construed
construing
consul
consular
consulate
consulates
consuls
Consult
consultation
consultative
consulted
consulting
consumable
consume
consumed
consumer
consumers
consuming
consummate
consummated
consummation
consumo
consumption
conséquence
contact
contagion
contagious
contain
contained
containing
contains
contaminates
contaminating
contemplate
Contemplated
contemplates
contemplating
contemplation
contemporaneous
contemporaneously
contemporaries
contemporary
contempt
contemptible
contempts
contemptuous
contend
contended
Contending
contends
content
contented
contentedly
contenting
contention
Contentions
contentment
contents
contenue
conterminous
contest
contestants
contested
contests
contestée
contiguous
continent
continental
continents
contingencies
contingency
contingent
contingents
continual
continually
continuance
continuation
continuations
continue
Continued
continuer
continues
continuing
continuity
continuous
continuously
contra
Contract
contracted
Contracting
contraction
contractions
contractive
contractor
contractors
contracts
contradicted
contradiction
contradictions
contradictoriness
contradictory
contrariwise
contrary
contrast
contrasted
contrasting
contravene
contravention
contribute
contributed
contributes
contributing
contribution
contributions
contributor
contributors
contributory
contrivance
contrive
contrived
contriving
control
controllable
controlled
Controller
controlling
controls
Controversies
Controversy
controvert
controverted
contrôleurs
contumelious
convalescence
Convalescent
convalescents
convene
convened
convenience
conveniences
convenient
conveniently
convening
convent
CONVENTION
conventional
conventions
convents
converge
conversant
conversation
conversations
converse
conversion
convert
converted
converting
converts
convey
Conveyance
conveyances
conveyed
conveying
convict
convicted
conviction
convictions
Convicts
convince
Convinced
convinces
convincing
convocation
convoke
convoy
convoyed
convoys
convulsed
convulsion
convulsive
Conway
Conyngham
cook
cooked
cooking
cooks
cool
cooled
Cooley
Coolgardie
Coolies
Cooling
coolness
Coomassie
cooped
COOPER
cooperate
cooperated
cooperating
cooperation
Cooperative
coordinate
Coorg
cope
Copenhagen
Copernicus
copied
copies
coping
copious
Copper
Coppinger
copra
Coptic
Copy
copying
copyists
Copyright
copyrighted
copyrights
cord
Cordero
Cordes
cordial
cordially
cordon
core
Corea
Corentin
Corinto
corn
Cornelius
Cornell
corner
corners
cornerstone
cornet
cornetcies
cornets
CORNWALL
Corocoro
corona
Coronado
coronation
Corporal
corporals
corporate
Corporation
corporations
Corps
corpse
corpses
Corpus
corpuscle
corpuscles
corral
correct
corrected
correcting
correction
Correctional
correctly
correctness
Correo
correspond
corresponded
correspondence
Correspondent
correspondents
corresponding
correspondingly
corresponds
corridors
corroborate
corroboration
corroding
corrupt
corrupting
corruption
corruptions
corruptly
Corsair
Corsicans
cortege
Cortes
Cortez
cortical
corvee
Corvey
Corvinus
Corvée
Corwin
cosmopolitan
Cossacks
cost
Costa
costing
costliest
costly
costs
costume
costumes
coterminous
Cotinga
cotta
cottage
cottagers
cotton
cottons
Coubertin
couch
couched
Coudert
Coues
Could
couldn
Couldock
Council
Councillor
councillors
Councilman
Councilmen
councilor
councilors
councils
Counsel
counseled
counselled
counselling
Counsellor
counsellors
counselor
counsels
Count
counted
countenance
Counter
counteract
counteracted
counteracting
counterbalanced
countermanding
countermarching
counterpart
counterpoise
countersigned
countervailing
counties
counting
countless
Countries
COUNTRY
countrymen
Counts
County
Coup
coupable
couple
coupled
Cour
courage
courageously
Courant
Courcol
courier
couriers
course
courses
COURT
courteous
courteously
courtesies
courtesy
Courts
courtyard
courtyards
cousin
Cousteau
Coutts
couvert
Covadonga
covenant
covenants
Coventry
cover
covered
covering
covers
covert
covertly
covet
coveted
covetous
cow
Coward
cowardice
cowardly
cowboys
Cowden
cowe
cowed
Cowes
cows
Cox
coöperation
crack
cracks
cradle
craft
crafty
Cragin
cramped
cranage
Cranborne
Crane
Crash
crashed
crashing
craved
crawl
crawled
creameries
create
created
creates
Creating
creation
Creator
creature
creatures
credence
credentials
credible
credibly
Credit
creditable
credited
creditor
creditors
credulity
creed
creeds
Creek
Creeks
creeps
Creighton
Creole
Creoles
crept
Crescent
Crespo
crest
crests
Cretan
Cretans
Crete
Creusot
crevices
crew
crews
Cridler
cried
cries
crime
Crimean
crimeless
crimes
criminal
criminally
criminals
cripple
crippled
cripples
crippling
crises
crisis
CRISPI
Cristobal
Critic
critical
critically
criticise
criticised
criticises
criticising
criticism
criticisms
criticized
critics
Croatia
Croatian
Croatians
crocketed
Croix
Croker
Crokerism
Crombet
Cromer
Cromwell
CRONJE
Crookes
crop
crops
crore
crores
Crosby
CROSS
crossed
crosses
crossing
crossings
Crossley
Crossmon
crowd
crowded
crowding
crowds
Crowell
Crown
crowned
crowning
Crowns
Crozier
crucial
crude
crudeness
crudest
cruel
cruelly
cruelties
cruelty
Cruikshank
Cruise
cruiser
cruisers
crumbles
crumbling
crusade
crusaders
crush
crushed
crushing
Cruz
cry
crying
crystal
crystallise
crystallized
crystallizes
Crystallography
Cuba
Cuban
Cubans
cubic
cubical
cuerda
Cuestas
CUGNONI
Cugo
cul
Culebra
Culex
culinary
cullender
Culling
Cullom
culminated
culminating
culmination
culpability
culpabilité
culpable
culprits
cult
cultivable
cultivate
cultivated
cultivating
cultivation
cultivator
cultivators
cults
culture
cultured
cultures
cumbrous
cumulative
cuneiform
cunning
cunningly
cup
cupidity
curable
curate
curates
Curaçoa
curbing
curdling
cure
cured
cures
Curia
curing
curio
curiosities
curiosity
curious
curiously
curling
currency
Current
currently
currents
Curreo
curriculum
Currie
curse
cursed
cursive
curtail
curtailed
curtailing
curtailment
curtails
curtain
curtains
Curtis
Curtius
curvature
curves
curving
CURZON
Curæ
Cushing
Cushman
Custance
custody
custom
customary
customers
Customs
cut
cutaneous
Cutari
cutlery
cutout
cuts
cutters
cutthroats
cutting
Cuyos
Cuyuni
cwt
cwts
cyanide
Cyclades
cycle
cyclone
cyclonic
Cydonia
cylinder
cylinders
cynosure
Cypriote
Cyprus
Cyrus
cysts
Czar
Czech
Czechs
Cæsar
côte
Cœur
d
dabbles
Daedalus
Daggett
Dagh
Dagupan
Dahlgren
DAHOMEY
daily
Daiquiri
dairies
dairy
Daka
DAKOTA
dale
Dall
Dallas
Dallul
Dalmatia
Dalni
Dalny
Dalton
Dalupiri
Daly
dam
damage
damaged
damages
Damaraland
Damascus
Damasus
Damietta
damning
damp
dampness
dams
dancing
dandy
Dane
Danes
danger
dangerous
dangerously
dangers
dangled
Daniel
Daniell
Danilo
Danish
dans
dantai
Danube
DANUBIAN
Daram
Darazzo
Darcy
dare
dared
dares
Darfour
Darfur
DARGAI
daring
dark
darkened
darker
DARKEST
darkness
Darwaz
Darwin
Das
dash
dashes
dashing
data
date
Dated
dates
dating
dato
Datory
datos
daughter
daughters
daunted
dauntlessly
Davenport
David
Davidson
Davies
DAVIS
Davitt
Davy
Dawes
dawn
dawned
Dawson
Day
daybreak
daylight
days
daytime
dazed
dazzled
dazzling
daïs
Dc
De
dead
deadening
Deadlock
deadly
deaf
deafening
Deakin
deal
dealer
dealing
Dealings
deals
dealt
dean
Deane
dear
dearly
dearth
death
Deaths
debar
debarred
debase
debased
debasement
debate
debated
debates
debauchery
debauches
debit
Deboe
debouching
debris
Debs
debt
debtor
debtors
debts
Dec
decade
decadence
decadent
decades
decapitated
decapitation
decay
decayed
decaying
Deccan
Decease
deceased
deceit
deceive
deceived
December
decenniums
decent
decentralization
deception
deceptions
deceptive
decide
decided
decidedly
decides
deciding
decimal
decimate
decimated
decipher
deciphered
decipherer
decipherment
decision
decisions
decisive
deck
decks
Declaration
Declarations
declare
declared
declares
declaring
Decle
declination
declinations
decline
declined
declining
declivities
decomposes
decomposition
decompositions
decoration
decorations
Decrease
decreased
decreases
decreasing
Decree
decreed
decreeing
decrees
decrepit
dedans
dedicate
dedicated
Dedication
deduced
deduces
Deduct
deducted
deducting
deduction
deductions
deed
Deeds
deem
deemed
Deeming
deems
deep
deepen
deepened
deeper
deepest
deeply
defaced
defamation
defamatory
defamed
default
defaulted
defaults
defeat
defeated
defeating
defeats
defect
defection
defective
defects
Defence
defenceless
defences
defend
defendant
defendants
defended
Defender
defenders
defending
defends
defense
defenseless
defenses
defensible
defensive
defer
deference
deferred
deferring
defiance
defiant
Deficiencies
deficiency
deficient
deficit
defied
defies
defile
defiling
define
defined
defines
Defining
Definite
definitely
definiteness
definition
definitions
definitive
deflected
deformed
Deformities
defrauded
defray
defrayed
defraying
defrays
deftness
defunct
defy
defying
degeneracy
degenerate
degenerated
degenerating
degeneration
degenerations
degradation
degrade
degraded
degrading
Degree
degrees
Dehn
deigned
deities
deity
DEL
Delagoa
Delarey
DELAWARE
delay
delayed
delaying
delays
Delcassé
delegate
delegated
delegates
delegation
delegations
deleterious
deliberate
deliberated
deliberately
deliberating
deliberation
deliberations
deliberative
delicacy
delicate
delicately
delight
delighted
delights
delimit
delimitated
delimitation
delimited
delinquents
deliver
deliverable
deliverance
deliverances
delivered
delivering
delivers
delivery
DELL
delta
deluded
deluding
deluges
delusively
Delyannis
demagogic
demagogues
demand
demande
demanded
demanding
demands
Demange
demarcation
demarcations
Demetrius
demise
democracy
Democrat
democratic
democrats
democritisation
demolished
demolishing
demolition
demonetization
demonetizing
demoniacal
demonstrate
demonstrated
demonstrates
demonstrating
Demonstration
demonstrations
demoralising
demoralization
demoralize
demoralized
demoralizing
demur
demurred
demurrer
demurs
den
denationalisation
denationalizing
Denby
denial
denials
denied
denies
Denis
Denison
DENMARK
Dennis
denominate
denomination
denominational
denominations
denote
denotes
denounce
denounced
denounces
denouncing
dens
dense
densely
densest
density
dentist
denude
denuded
denunciation
Denunciations
denunciatory
deny
denying
depart
departed
departing
department
departmental
departments
Departure
departures
depend
dependants
depended
dependence
dependencies
dependency
dependent
dependents
depending
depends
depicted
deplete
depleting
depletion
depletions
deplorable
deplorably
deplore
deplored
deploy
deployed
deploying
deployment
depopulated
depopulation
deport
deportation
deported
deportment
deposed
deposit
deposited
depositing
deposition
depositor
depositors
depository
deposits
depot
depots
deprecate
deprecated
deprecates
depreciated
depreciates
depreciating
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Deputation
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Deputies
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Dera
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Derdepoort
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Dervishes
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Descamps
Descartes
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Despots
Destelan
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Destournelles
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Detail
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Determination
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Detroit
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Dewar
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DEWEY
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Deák
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Diario
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Didon
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Digna
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Din
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Dinair
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DIR
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Disko
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DISTURBANCES
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DIVINE
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Doc
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Doctor
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Doctrine
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Documents
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Dodge
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Doerpfeld
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Does
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Dole
Doles
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Dolores
Domain
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Dominance
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Domingo
Domini
Dominic
Dominica
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Dominion
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Domoko
Don
Dona
Donald
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Done
Donelson
Dongola
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Donnelly
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Dooley
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DOOR
Doorkeeper
Doornkop
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Dortmund
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Dos
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Douglas
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DOWAGER
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Downes
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Dr
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Draga
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Dragon
Drah
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Drainage
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Draper
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Drawing
DRAWINGS
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Dreher
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DREYFUS
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Drinker
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Driver
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DROWNED
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Drs
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Drum
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Du
Duaba
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Duaro
Dublin
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Duc
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Duchess
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Dui
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Dumas
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Duncan
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Dupuy
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Durand
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Dutcher
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Duties
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Dwight
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Dyea
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dynamical
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Dynamite
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dynastic
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Dynasty
dysentery
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DÉROULÈDE
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débris
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Déronlède
Déroulède
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E
EACH
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eager
Eagerly
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Eagle
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Earl
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Earlier
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Earth
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earthly
Earthquake
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Eastchester
Easter
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Eaton
Ebenezer
Eberhard
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Ecclesiastical
ecclesiasticism
ecclesiastics
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Ecija
Eclair
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economic
economical
economically
economics
economies
Economist
economists
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ECUADOR
Ecuadorian
ECUMENICAL
ed
Eddy
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Edhem
Edict
Edicts
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Edinburgh
edited
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EDITION
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editorial
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Edmond
Edmund
Edmunds
Edouard
Edson
Eduardo
educate
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EDUCATION
educational
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Edward
EDWARDS
Edwin
Eerste
effaced
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EFFECTIVE
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Effendina
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efficiency
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Efforts
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Eger
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Egypt
Egyptian
Egyptianising
Egyptians
Egyptologist
Eider
eight
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Eighthly
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eighties
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Either
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Ekk
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EL
elaborate
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Elam
Elamite
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ELANDSLAAGTE
elapse
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Elassona
elastic
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Elba
Elbe
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Elected
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ELECTION
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Elections
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electorates
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Electric
electrical
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Electricity
electrified
Electro
electrodes
electrolyzed
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Elementary
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Eleventh
Elgin
ELI
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Elihu
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Eliza
ELIZABETH
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Elwell
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Emancipation
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Embarkation
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Embassy
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Embraced
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Embryology
embryonic
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Emerson
Emery
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Emile
Emilio
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Emir
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Emma
Emmanuel
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emoluments
Emory
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emotions
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Empire
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Employ
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Employer
Employers
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Emporia
empower
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Empress
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Ems
En
enable
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Enactment
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Encouraged
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encyclical
encyclicals
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ENDEAVOR
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Enderby
Endicott
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Enforcement
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Enfranchisement
Eng
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ENGAGEMENT
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Engel
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Engineering
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ENGLAND
ENGLISH
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Enigmas
enjoin
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Enl
enlarge
ENLARGED
enlargement
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enlist
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Enno
enormity
enormous
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Enough
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Enrique
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Enrollment
Ensign
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ENSLIN
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Enthronement
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Entrecasteaux
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Ephraim
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Episcopalian
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EPWORTH
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Equatoria
Equatorial
Equatoriale
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Eric
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Ernest
Ernesto
Ernst
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Errazuriz
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Erzeroum
Erzerum
Esaglia
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Escaped
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Escario
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Eski
Eskimo
Eskimos
Espagñol
España
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Esplanade
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Esq
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Essays
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Essequibo
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Establishment
ESTABLISHMENTS
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Estevoz
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Estimate
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Estrada
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ET
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Eteocretan
eternal
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ethical
ethnologist
Ethuike
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Etienne
etiology
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Etruria
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ETRUSCANS
Etta
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Eucken
Eudora
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Eugene
Eugenio
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Euphrates
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European
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Eva
evacuate
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Evan
evangelist
Evans
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Evaporation
Evarts
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Evelyn
Even
Evening
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Events
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Ever
Everard
Everett
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Evershed
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Evidently
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Ewers
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exalt
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Examination
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Examiner
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exasperate
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excavate
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exceed
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excel
excelled
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Excellencies
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excellent
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Excepting
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excerpt
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excesses
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excessively
exchange
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exchanges
Exchequer
excise
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excision
excitable
excite
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excitement
excitements
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exclude
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Excluding
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Exclusive
exclusively
exclusiveness
excommunication
excrements
excreta
excursions
excuse
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excuses
execration
execute
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Execution
executioners
executions
Executive
executives
executors
exemplary
exemplification
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exempt
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exemptions
exercisable
exercise
exerciseable
exercised
exercises
Exercising
exert
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Exhibit
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exhibitions
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exhort
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exhumation
exigcant
exigeant
exigencies
exigency
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exile
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exist
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Existing
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Exodus
expand
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expanders
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expanse
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expect
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expectation
Expectations
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expectorations
expects
expediency
expedient
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EXPEDITION
expeditionary
expeditions
expeditious
expel
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expend
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Expenditure
Expenditures
expends
expense
Expenses
expensive
expensively
Experience
experienced
experiences
experiment
Experimental
experimentally
experimentation
experimenters
experiments
expert
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expiation
Expiatory
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explain
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EXPLANATORY
explication
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explode
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exploration
Explorations
exploratory
explore
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explorers
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EXPLOSIVES
exponent
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Exports
expose
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Exposition
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Express
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EXTENDING
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Extensive
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extenuate
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extort
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extradition
extraordinaire
extraordinarily
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extravagant
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extremists
extremities
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extricate
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exultation
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eye
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Eyre
eyrie
Ezekiel
F
Fa
Fabian
fabled
fabric
fabrics
Fabrieken
fabriqué
fabulous
fac
face
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facilitates
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facilitation
Facilities
facility
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facsimile
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faction
factional
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factious
factitious
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factor
Factories
factors
Factory
factotum
facts
facultative
faculties
faculty
fade
faded
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fail
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Failing
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failures
fain
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fainting
Fair
Fairbank
Fairbanks
Fairchild
faire
Fairfield
fairly
fairness
fairs
fait
Faith
faithful
Faithfull
faithfully
faithfulness
faiths
Fajardo
Falkenhayn
Fall
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falsehoods
falseness
falsified
falsities
falsity
Falstaffian
falter
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Fame
famed
Fami
familiar
familiarize
familiarizing
familiarly
families
famille
Family
FAMINE
famines
famished
famishing
famous
FAMY
fan
fanatical
fanaticism
FANATICS
fancied
fancy
fanfare
fang
fangled
fanners
fanning
fans
fantastic
Fantis
far
Faraday
farce
farcical
fare
fares
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farm
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Farnham
FARRAGUT
Farrar
farriers
Farringdon
Farther
fas
fascinating
fashion
fashionable
fashioned
Fashoda
fast
fasten
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fastest
fastnesses
fatal
fatalistic
fatally
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Fateh
Father
fatherhood
Fatherland
fatherly
fathers
fathom
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fatigued
Fatimite
Fatshan
fatty
faucet
Faucit
Faulkner
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faults
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Faure
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Favier
favor
favorable
favorably
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favours
Fayetteville
Fayum
façade
fealty
Fear
feared
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fearless
fearlessly
fearlessness
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feasibility
feasible
feast
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feat
feathers
feats
feature
features
Feb
FEBRUARY
fed
feddans
Feder
federal
Federalist
Federals
federate
federated
Federating
FEDERATION
federations
fee
feeble
feebleness
feebly
feed
feeder
Feeders
feeding
feel
feeler
Feeling
feelingly
feelings
feels
fees
feet
Feichen
feigned
Feilden
feint
Felice
felicitous
felicitously
felicity
Felix
fell
Fellaheen
felled
felling
Fellow
fellows
fellowship
felons
Felony
felt
female
females
fence
fenced
fences
fencing
Feng
Fenghua
Fenian
Ferdinand
Feria
Ferket
ferment
fermented
Fermo
Fernandina
Fernando
ferocious
ferocity
Ferraris
ferret
ferries
fertile
fertility
fertilization
fertilizing
fervent
fervor
fervour
festered
festival
festivals
festivities
festivity
fetched
fetching
fetish
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feud
feudal
feudalism
feudatory
feuds
fever
fevers
Few
fewer
fewest
fiasco
fiat
fickle
fiction
fictions
fictitious
Fide
fidelity
Field
Fields
fiend
fiendish
fierce
fiercely
fierceness
fiercest
Fife
Fifteen
Fifteenth
Fifth
Fifthly
fifths
fiftieth
fifty
Figaro
Fight
fighters
fighting
fights
Figuereo
figure
figured
figures
filarial
filch
file
filed
files
filial
filibustering
filibusters
filing
filings
Filipino
Filipinos
fill
filled
filler
filling
filtered
filth
Final
finality
finally
Finance
financed
finances
financial
financially
financier
financiers
financing
Finck
find
finding
findings
finds
fine
fined
finely
fineness
finer
fines
finest
finger
fingered
fingers
finish
finished
finishing
finite
FINLAND
Finlanders
Finnish
Finns
fir
fire
firearms
fireballs
fired
firemen
fireproof
fires
firing
firm
firmament
firman
firmest
firmly
firmness
firms
First
Firstly
fiscal
Fischer
Fish
Fisher
Fisheries
fishermen
fishery
fishing
fissures
Fist
Fists
fit
Fitch
fitness
fits
fitted
fittest
fitting
fittingly
Fitzedward
Fitzhugh
Fiume
FIVE
fix
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fixes
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fixity
fixtures
Fjord
FLAG
flagella
flagelles
Flagg
flagged
Flagler
flagrant
flagranti
flagrantly
flags
flagship
Flaissières
flaking
flame
flames
flank
flanked
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flanks
flash
flat
Flatbush
flatly
flats
flatten
flattened
flavor
flavoring
flaw
flaws
flax
Fled
fledged
flee
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fleet
fleets
Fleming
Flemish
flesh
fleshless
Fleury
flew
Fliche
flies
flight
flimsiness
flimsy
flinch
flinched
Flinders
fling
flint
float
floated
floating
floats
flocked
flocking
flocks
floe
flogged
flogging
floggings
flood
flooded
flooding
floodings
floods
floor
floors
Flor
flora
floral
Florence
Florid
Florida
florin
florins
flotation
flour
flourish
flourished
Flourishing
flow
flowed
flower
flowering
flowing
flown
flows
fluctuating
fluently
fluid
fluorescence
fluorescent
Flushing
fly
flying
foe
foes
fog
fold
folded
folder
folders
folding
foliation
folk
folks
follow
followed
followers
Following
follows
fomented
fomenting
fomento
fond
fondly
Fontane
Foochow
food
foods
foodstuffs
Fookien
fool
fooled
foolish
foolishly
foot
foothold
footholds
footing
footings
Footnote
footpaths
Footsteps
FOR
forage
Foraker
Foran
forbad
forbade
forbearance
Forbes
forbid
Forbidden
forbidding
forbids
force
forced
forceful
forces
forcible
forcibly
forcing
ford
fords
fore
Forearmed
forebodings
forecast
Forecasting
forecastle
foreclosure
forefathers
forefront
forego
foregoing
forehead
foreheads
Foreign
foreigner
Foreigners
Foreland
forelock
Foreman
Foremost
forenoon
forensic
forerunner
forerunners
foresee
foreseen
foreshadowed
foreshadowing
foresight
forest
forestall
forested
forestry
forests
foretaste
foretell
forever
forevermore
forewarned
forfeit
forfeited
forfeits
forfeiture
forfeitures
forge
forged
forger
forgeries
forgery
forget
forgetful
forgetfulness
forgets
forgetting
forgings
Forgive
forgiven
forgot
forgotten
forks
forlorn
form
formal
Formaldehyde
formaldehydes
formalities
formality
formally
Forman
formation
formations
formed
former
formerly
formidable
formidably
forming
formless
Formosa
forms
formula
formulate
formulated
formulating
formulation
Forrest
forsake
forsaken
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Forster
forswear
forsworn
fort
forth
forthcoming
forthwith
forties
Fortieth
Fortification
fortifications
fortified
fortify
fortitude
fortnight
Fortnightly
fortress
fortresses
FORTS
Fortschrittliche
fortunate
fortunately
fortune
fortunes
forty
Forum
forward
forwarded
forwarding
Forwards
Forzinetti
fossils
foster
fostered
fostering
fought
foul
fouled
foulest
found
foundation
foundations
founded
Founder
foundered
founders
founding
foundries
founds
fountain
four
fourfold
fours
fourteen
fourteenth
Fourth
Fourthly
fourths
fowl
fowls
Fox
foyer
Foyn
fr
fraction
fractional
fractions
fracture
fractured
fractures
Fraenkel
fragile
fragment
fragmentary
fragments
frail
Fram
frame
framed
framers
framework
framing
France
Frances
Franchise
FRANCHISES
Francis
Franciscan
Franciscans
FRANCISCO
Francisque
Franco
Francois
francs
frank
franker
Frankfort
Franklin
frankly
frankness
frantic
Frantzius
FRANZ
Française
François
Fraser
fraternal
fraternised
fraternities
fraternity
fraternized
fraud
frauds
fraudulently
fraught
freak
Frear
Fred
Frederic
Frederick
Free
freed
freedmen
Freedom
freehold
freeing
freely
freemen
freer
Freetown
freeze
Freie
freight
freighted
freights
Frelinghuysen
Fremdenblatt
French
Frenchman
Frenchmen
frenzied
frenzy
frequencies
frequency
Frequent
frequented
frequenting
frequently
fresco
frescoes
fresh
freshly
freshman
Fresnel
Frey
Freycinet
Freytag
friar
FRIARS
friction
Friday
fried
Friedrich
friend
friendless
friendliness
friendly
Friends
friendship
friendships
Fries
frieze
friezes
frightened
frightful
frightfully
Frisch
fritter
frittered
frivolous
fro
Frogmore
From
front
frontage
fronted
frontier
frontiers
frontiersmen
fronting
fronts
frost
frosts
frosty
Frothingham
frothy
Froude
Frozen
frugal
Fruin
fruit
fruitful
fruitless
fruits
frustrate
frustrated
Frustration
Fry
Frye
frying
ft
fu
Fuchau
fuel
Fuga
fugitive
fugitives
fuh
Fukien
Fukushima
Fulah
fulfil
fulfill
fulfilled
fulfilling
fulfillment
fulfilment
Fulham
full
Fuller
fullest
Fully
fulness
FULTON
fumes
fumigation
function
functionaries
functions
fund
fundamental
fundamentally
funded
funding
funds
funeral
funereal
Funke
Funston
fur
furious
furiously
furlough
Furman
furnace
furnaces
furnish
furnished
furnishes
furnishing
furniture
Furor
furrows
further
furtherance
furthering
Furthermore
furthermost
furthest
fury
fuse
fused
fusil
fusillade
fusillades
Fusion
Fusionists
fuss
Futa
Futile
futility
future
Fuyu
FÊNG
Färoe
Fên
Fêng
Fêngtien
G
Gabes
gables
Gaelic
Gage
gain
gained
gainer
gaining
Gains
GALABAT
Galata
Galatz
gale
Galesburg
Galicia
Galician
Galilee
Galileo
gall
gallant
gallantly
gallantry
Gallas
Gallenga
gallery
galley
Gallifet
galling
Gallinger
gallons
galloped
Galton
galvanized
GALVESTON
Gambaga
Gambia
gamblers
gambling
game
GAMES
gametes
gametocytes
Gamewell
gamut
gan
gang
gangers
gangrenous
gangs
gangway
gaol
gap
gaping
gaps
Garay
garb
garbled
GARCIA
Garden
gardening
Gardens
Garibaldi
garlands
garment
Garnett
Garnica
Garret
Garrigues
Garrison
garrisoned
garrisoning
garrisons
Garstein
Garter
Gary
GAS
Gaselee
gaseous
Gases
Gatacre
gate
gates
Gateway
gateways
gather
gathered
gathereth
gathering
gatherings
gathers
Gatling
Gatty
gauche
gauge
Gaul
Gautama
Gautsch
gave
Gayarré
Gazaland
gaze
gazed
gazette
gear
Gedil
Gedrosia
Gee
Gehrt
Geistlichkeit
gems
Gen
gendarme
gendarmerie
gendarmes
genealogies
genealogy
genera
General
Generalcy
Generalissimo
generalities
generally
generals
generate
generated
generating
generation
generations
generators
generosity
generous
generously
genesis
GENEVA
genius
Gennesareth
Genoa
Gentile
gentle
gentleman
Gentlemen
gentleness
gentry
genuine
genuinely
genuineness
genus
Geo
Geodetic
Geoffray
geog
geographer
Geographical
geographically
Geographisch
Geography
geologic
geological
geologist
geology
Geometric
Geometry
Georg
George
Georges
Georgetown
Georgia
Gerald
Gerhard
Gerlache
Germ
Germain
German
Germanic
Germans
Germany
germinal
germs
Gerona
Geronimo
Gerritz
GERRYMANDERING
Gesenius
Gesetzbuch
gesso
gesturing
get
gets
getting
Gettysburg
Ghali
gharry
ghastly
Ghazal
Ghazel
Ghazi
Ghent
Ghezireh
Ghoorkas
ghoulish
giant
Gibbons
Gibraltar
Gibson
Giers
Giffen
gift
gifted
gifts
Gigantic
GILBERT
gilded
Gilder
Gilgit
Gillespie
Gilman
Gilroy
gin
girders
girl
Girls
girt
Giuseppe
give
given
giver
gives
giving
Glacial
glaciated
Glacier
glaciers
glacis
glad
gladly
Gladstone
glamour
glance
glancing
gland
glanders
GLASGOW
glass
glasses
glassware
glassworkers
gleamed
Gleason
glebes
Glen
Glencoe
glided
glides
glimmering
glitter
gloat
gloating
globe
gloom
gloomy
glories
glorification
Glorious
glory
glossy
Gloucester
glow
glowing
glucose
gluey
glut
glycerine
gnarled
gnats
gneiss
Gneist
go
goad
goal
goat
goats
gobbled
gobernadorcillo
Gobi
God
goddess
Godfrey
Godkin
godowns
gods
godsend
Goebel
goes
Goethe
Goetze
going
Golchika
Gold
golden
Goldfields
Goldsmid
Goldwin
Golfito
Golgi
Golo
Golofnin
Gomanikwenda
Gomez
Goncourt
gone
gonorrhœa
Gonse
Gonzales
Gonzalez
Good
goodness
Goodnow
goods
goodwill
Goold
Goorkhas
goose
Gordon
gore
gorge
gorges
Gorst
Goschen
Gosha
gospel
gospels
GOSPODAR
Gosse
got
Gotha
Gothard
GOTHENBURG
Gothic
gotten
gouged
Goujon
Gould
Goulâs
Gouverneur
govern
governance
governed
governing
government
governmental
governments
governor
Governors
governorship
governs
gown
Graaf
Graaff
grab
grabbed
grabber
grabbing
grace
graced
graceful
graces
Gracious
graciously
gradation
grade
graded
grades
grading
gradual
Gradually
graduate
graduated
graduates
graduating
graduation
Graf
graft
grafting
Graham
grain
grained
grains
Gram
grammar
Granada
grand
grandchild
grandchildren
Grande
Grandee
grander
grandest
grandeur
grandfather
grandparent
grandson
grandsons
granite
grant
granted
granting
Grants
grapes
graphic
graphically
graphite
grasp
GRASPAN
grasped
grass
grasses
grateful
gratefully
gratefulness
gratification
gratified
gratify
gratifying
gratis
gratitude
gratuitous
gratuity
Grave
gravel
Gravelet
gravels
gravely
graver
graves
gravest
Gravitation
gravity
Gray
Grayson
grazing
GREAT
greater
greatest
greatly
greatness
Greatorex
Greece
greed
greediness
greedy
Greek
Greeks
Greeley
green
greenback
GREENBACKS
Greene
Greenfield
GREENLAND
Greenleaf
greensward
Greenwich
greet
greeted
greeting
greetings
Gregorio
Gregorovich
Gregory
Grenada
Grenadines
Grenfell
Grenville
Gresham
Gresovala
grew
grewsome
Grey
greybeards
GREYTOWN
Griblin
grief
grievance
grievances
grieved
grieveth
grievous
grievously
Griffin
Griffith
Griffiths
Griggs
Griggsby
grim
Grimes
grin
grinding
grinning
grip
Griqualand
grisly
gristle
groaning
groans
Grobler
grogshop
Grondwet
Gronlund
Groote
grooving
groping
gropings
gross
grossest
Grossgrundbesitz
grossly
Grosvenor
grotesque
Ground
grounds
Group
grouped
groupings
Groups
Grove
GROVER
groves
grow
growers
groweth
growing
grown
grows
Growth
growths
grudge
grumbling
grâce
Græco
Guam
Guanajuato
Guanica
guano
Guantanamo
Guantánamo
guarantee
guaranteed
guaranteeing
guarantees
guaranties
guaranty
guard
guarded
guardian
guardians
guardianship
guarding
Guards
Guarnaschelli
GUASIMA
Guasimas
Guaso
Guatemala
GUAYAMA
gubernatorial
guerilla
Guerra
Guerre
Guerrero
guerrilla
guerrillas
guess
guessed
guessing
guest
guests
Guglielmo
Guiana
guidance
guide
guided
guides
guiding
guidons
Guild
Guildhall
guilds
guileless
Guillermo
guilt
guiltiness
guiltless
guilty
Guimaras
guinea
Guineas
Guintinua
guise
Gujarat
gulches
Gulf
gulleys
gum
gun
gunboat
gunboats
GUNGUNHANA
gunnery
gunpowder
guns
gunshot
gurgling
Gurko
Gurob
Gustav
Gustave
Gutierrez
gutta
gutted
gutters
Guy
GUÉRIN
Guérin
Gwelo
Gwynn
gymnasium
gymnasiums
gymnastics
gypsum
Gätke
Géographie
Göttingen
H
ha
Haas
Habana
Habarovsk
habeas
Habert
habit
habitable
habitation
habitations
habited
habits
habitual
habitually
Habsburg
haciendas
hacked
hacking
had
Haderslev
Hadjin
HAFFKINE
HAGUE
hai
Haicheng
Haida
Haidarabad
Haifa
haikwan
hail
hailed
Hainan
Hains
Haiowa
hair
haired
hairy
Haiti
Haitian
Haji
Halbherr
Hale
HALEPA
Half
Halfa
halfpenny
Halifax
HALL
Halle
Halliday
halls
halt
halted
halting
halts
halves
hamals
Hamar
Hamburg
Hamed
Hamid
Hamilton
Hamipo
hamlet
hamlets
Hamlin
Hammer
hammered
Hammond
hamper
hampered
hampering
Hampshire
Hampson
Hamud
Hamza
Han
Hancock
hand
Handbook
handed
handful
handicraftsman
handing
handiwork
handkerchief
handle
handled
handling
hands
handsome
handwriting
Hangchow
hanged
hangers
Hanging
hankering
HANKOW
Hanlin
Hanotaux
Hanover
Hansa
Hansard
Hansen
haphazard
happen
happened
happening
happens
happier
happily
happiness
happy
har
Hara
Harald
harassed
harassing
Harbor
harborage
harbored
Harbors
harbour
harbours
Harcourt
hard
Harden
hardened
harder
hardest
hardihood
Hardinge
hardly
hardship
hardships
hardware
hardy
Hare
harem
harems
Harkness
Harlan
Harlem
Harley
harlotry
harm
harmless
harmlessness
harmonious
harmoniously
harmonize
harmonized
harmonizing
Harmony
HARMSWORTH
harness
harnessed
harnessing
Harold
Harper
harpies
Harpoot
harried
Harriet
Harriman
Harris
Harrison
harrowing
Harry
harsh
harshly
harshness
HART
Hartmann
HARVARD
harvest
harvesting
harvests
Has
Haskell
haste
hasten
hastened
hastening
hastily
Hastings
hasty
hat
Hata
Hatch
hatched
hatching
hate
hated
hateful
hath
hating
hatred
hats
Hatteras
Hattie
Hatzfeldt
haughty
haul
hauled
haunting
Haupt
Hausa
Hausas
Haussas
Havana
Have
Havel
Havelock
Havemeyer
haven
Haverfield
having
havoc
Havre
HAWAII
Hawaiian
Hawaiians
Haweis
Hawick
Hawkins
Hawksley
hawser
HAWTHORNE
Hay
Hayes
Haynes
Hays
Hayti
Haytien
hazardous
hazards
haze
Hazzard
Haïnan
he
Head
headed
heading
headings
headless
Headley
headlong
headman
headmen
headpiece
headquarters
heads
headship
Headstones
headway
heal
healed
healing
health
healthiest
healthy
Healy
Healyites
heap
heaps
hear
hearably
heard
hearers
Hearing
hearings
hearsay
hearse
heart
hearted
heartfelt
hearth
heartily
heartlessness
heartrending
hearts
hearty
heat
heated
heathen
heating
heave
heaven
heavens
heavier
heaviest
heavily
heavy
Hebrew
HEBREWS
Hebrides
Hecker
hectolitre
heed
heel
heeled
heels
Hei
height
heights
Heilungchiang
Heine
heinous
Heinrich
Heinze
Heir
heiress
heirs
held
Helena
Helene
helicoidal
heliograph
heliographic
helium
hell
Hellenes
Hellenic
Hellenism
helm
Helmholtz
helots
Help
helped
helper
helpers
helpful
helping
helpless
helplessly
helplessness
helps
Helsingfors
helter
Helu
Hely
hemisphere
hemispheres
hemmed
hemming
hemp
Hempstead
hen
Hence
Henceforth
henceforward
Henderson
Heng
Henkel
Henn
Henri
Henrietta
HENRY
Henschel
her
herald
heraldic
heralding
Heralds
Herat
Herbert
herbs
herculean
Hercules
herd
herded
herdless
herds
here
hereafter
hereby
hereditary
herein
hereinafter
hereinbefore
hereof
heresies
heresy
heretical
hereto
heretofore
hereunder
hereunto
herewith
Herholdt
Heri
heritage
Hermite
Hermon
Hernandez
hero
Herodotus
heroes
heroic
heroism
Herr
Herrera
herrings
hers
Herschel
Herschell
Herself
Hertz
HERVEY
Herzl
hesitancy
hesitate
hesitated
hesitating
hesitation
hesitations
Hetairia
heterogeneous
Heth
Heureaux
Hewett
hewing
hewn
Hezekiah
Hibbert
hibernated
Hicks
hid
hidden
hide
hideous
hideously
hides
hiding
hien
hierarchic
hierarchy
hieratic
hieroglyph
hieroglyphic
hieroglyphics
hieroglyphs
Higginson
high
higher
Highest
Highland
Highlanders
HIGHLANDS
highly
Highness
Highnesses
highway
highways
Hilaire
Hilder
HILL
Hillah
Hillebrand
Hillegas
Hillier
hills
hilltop
hilly
Hilo
Hilprecht
Hiltebrandt
him
Himalayas
Himself
Hind
Hinde
hinder
hindered
hindering
Hindoo
hindrance
hindrances
Hindu
Hindus
Hingan
hinges
Hinsdale
hint
Hintchak
hinted
hinterland
Hinterlands
Hintonburg
hints
Hippolyte
Hiram
Hiraoka
hire
hired
hireling
Hirsch
his
Hispano
Hissarlik
hissed
Hist
historian
HISTORIANS
historic
historical
historically
history
hit
Hitchcock
hitherto
Hitt
Hittite
Hizen
Hjalmar
Hjort
Hjorth
Hjärne
ho
Hoa
hoar
hoard
hoarding
Hobart
Hoboken
Hobson
Hodgson
hoe
Hofmeyr
Hogarth
Hohenlohe
Hohenstein
hoist
hoisted
hoisting
Hokuriku
hol
hold
holder
holders
Holding
holdings
holds
hole
holes
Holguin
Holguín
holiday
holidays
Holiness
HOLLAND
Hollander
Hollanders
hollow
hollows
HOLLS
Holm
Holman
Holstein
Holt
Holtenau
HOLY
homage
hombre
home
homeless
homemade
Homer
Homeric
homes
Homesickness
homestead
homesteads
homeward
homicidal
homicide
Hommel
homogeneous
Homonkon
Hon
Honan
Honda
HONDURAS
honest
honestly
honesty
honey
HONG
Hongkong
Honolulu
honor
honorable
honorably
honorarium
honorary
honored
honoring
honors
honour
honourable
honourably
honoured
honouring
Honours
hood
Hoods
hoof
hooks
Hoop
hope
hoped
Hopeful
hopefully
hopefulness
hopeless
hopelessly
hopelessness
hopes
Hopetoun
hoping
Hopkins
HORACE
Horatio
hordes
horizon
horizontal
horizontally
HORMIGUEROS
horn
Horns
horrible
horribly
horrid
horrified
horror
horrors
hors
Horse
horseback
horsemanship
horsemen
horsepower
horses
horseshoe
Horsley
horticultural
Hoshi
hospitable
hospital
hospitality
hospitals
host
hostages
hostess
Hostile
hostilities
hostility
hosts
hot
hotbed
hotel
hotels
Hotep
hothouse
hotly
Hottentot
hottest
Houghton
hounded
hour
hours
HOUSE
housed
Household
householder
householders
households
housekeeper
housekeepers
houseless
HOUSES
Houssaye
Houston
Houx
Hova
hovels
hover
Hovey
How
Howard
Howe
Howell
However
howl
howsoever
Hoyle
Hs
Hsiang
Hsien
Hsiku
Hsin
Hsiu
Hsu
Hsuan
Hsueh
Hsü
Hu
HUA
huai
Huaichaca
huan
Huang
Hubbard
hucksters
huddled
HUDSON
hue
huei
hug
huge
Hugh
Hughes
Hugo
Huguenots
HUI
Huis
Hull
Humac
Humacao
human
humane
humanely
humanitarian
Humanity
HUMBERT
humble
humbled
humbler
humbles
humbly
humiliated
humiliating
humiliation
humiliations
humility
Humingan
humming
humouring
Hun
Hunan
Hunch
HUNDRED
hundredfold
Hundreds
hung
Hungarian
Hungarians
HUNGARY
hunger
hungry
Huns
Hunt
hunted
Hunter
hunters
hunting
Huntington
huntsman
Huntsville
Hunyady
Huok
Huot
Hupeh
Hupei
hurled
hurrah
hurricane
Hurried
hurriedly
hurry
hurrying
hurt
husband
HUSBANDISTS
husbandry
husbands
Huse
Hushed
Huskisson
hustled
hut
Hutchinson
Hutchison
Hutin
huts
Huxley
Hwei
Hy
Hyacinth
Hyde
hydraulic
hydrogen
hydrographic
hydrographical
Hydrological
hygiene
hygienic
Hyndman
Hyperborean
hypnotized
hypocrisy
hypocritical
hypotheses
hypothesis
hysterical
Hæmamœbidæ
hésitez
hêng
Hübner
I
Ian
iao
Ibayat
Ibero
Ibi
Ibrahimieh
ice
ICELAND
icequake
Ichang
IDAHO
Ide
idea
ideal
ideals
ideas
Identic
identical
identification
identified
identify
identifying
identity
idiocy
idiots
idle
idleness
idol
idolatrous
idolatry
idols
if
Ignacio
Ignatius
ignited
ignorance
ignorant
ignore
ignored
ignoring
II
iii
Il
Iles
Ilios
ill
illegal
illegality
illegalité
illegally
illiberal
illicit
illimitable
Illinois
illiteracy
illiterate
illiterates
illness
Illocos
illogical
ills
illuminant
illuminate
illuminating
illumination
illumined
illusion
illusory
illustrate
Illustrated
Illustrating
illustration
illustrations
illustrative
illustrious
Illustrirte
Ilocanos
Ilocos
Iloilo
Ilorin
im
Image
imaginable
imaginary
imagination
imagine
imagined
Imarovatana
Imataka
imbued
Imerina
Imgur
imitate
imitated
imitating
imitation
immaterial
immeasurable
immeasurably
Immediate
Immediately
immemorial
immense
immensity
immigrant
immigrants
immigrated
immigration
imminence
imminent
immoral
immorality
immortal
Immortalité
immovable
immune
immunities
immunity
immunized
impact
impair
impaired
impairing
impairment
impairs
impart
imparted
impartial
impartiality
impartially
impassable
Impassioned
impatience
impatient
impatiently
impeached
impeachment
impede
impeded
impediment
impediments
impending
imperative
imperatively
imperfect
imperfection
imperfections
imperfectly
imperfectness
IMPERIAL
imperialism
Imperialist
Imperialistic
imperialists
imperil
imperilled
imperilling
imperils
imperious
imperishable
impermeable
impersonation
impertinent
impervious
impetus
impinge
impinges
impiously
implacable
implants
implements
implicate
implicated
implication
implicitly
implied
implies
implore
implored
imploring
imply
implying
impolicy
impolitic
import
importance
Important
importantly
importation
importations
imported
importer
importers
importing
imports
importunate
importunately
importuned
impose
imposed
imposes
imposing
imposition
impossibility
impossible
impost
imposts
impotence
impotency
impoverish
impoverished
impoverishment
impracticability
impracticable
impregnable
impregnated
impress
impressed
impressing
impression
impressionable
impressions
impressive
impressively
impressiveness
imprison
imprisoned
imprisonment
improbable
improper
improperly
impropriety
improve
improved
Improvement
Improvements
improvidence
improving
imprudence
impudence
impudent
impulse
impulses
impulsive
impunity
imputation
imputed
Imus
in
inability
inaccessible
inaccuracy
inaccurate
inaction
inactive
inactivity
inadequacy
inadequate
inadequately
inadmissible
inadvisability
inadvisable
inalienable
inapplicable
inarticulate
inasmuch
Inaugural
inaugurate
inaugurated
inaugurating
inauguration
Inayat
incalculable
incalculably
incandescent
incantations
incapable
incapacitated
incapacity
incarcerated
incarceration
Incarnation
incarnations
Incas
incendiarism
incense
incensed
incentive
inception
incessant
incessantly
inch
inches
incidence
INCIDENT
Incidental
incidentally
incidents
incipient
incisions
incisive
incite
incited
inciting
inclination
inclinations
inclined
inclose
inclosed
incloses
inclosure
inclosures
include
Included
includes
Including
Inclusion
inclusions
inclusive
incognito
incoherent
INCOME
incomers
incomes
incoming
incomparable
incompatibility
incompatible
incompetent
incomplete
incomprehensible
inconceivable
inconclusive
incongruous
inconsiderable
inconsistency
inconsistent
incontestable
incontinently
incontrovertible
inconvenience
inconveniences
inconvenient
inconveniently
incorporate
incorporated
incorporates
incorporating
incorporation
incorrect
incorrectly
increase
increased
Increases
increasing
increasingly
incredible
incredibly
incredulity
increment
incriminated
incubation
inculcated
incumbency
incumbent
incumbered
incur
incurable
incurably
incurred
incurs
incursion
incursions
Indang
indebted
indebtedness
indecision
indecisive
indeed
indefensible
indefinite
indefinitely
indelible
indemnified
indemnify
Indemnities
indemnity
indenture
Independence
Independent
independently
Independents
indescribable
indeterminate
index
indexes
indexing
INDIA
Indian
INDIANA
Indianapolis
Indians
indicate
indicated
indicates
indicating
indication
indications
indicted
indictment
indictments
Indies
indifference
indifferent
indifferently
indigenous
indigestible
indigestion
indignant
indignantly
indignation
indignity
indigo
Indios
indiquant
indirect
indirectly
indiscretion
indiscriminate
indispensable
indispensably
indisputable
indisputably
indissoluble
individual
individuality
individually
individuals
indomitable
INDONESIAN
Indonesians
indoor
indorse
indorsed
indorsement
indubitable
induce
induced
inducement
induces
inducing
inductance
inducted
induction
indulge
indulged
indulgence
indulgences
indulgent
indulges
indulging
indunas
Indus
industrial
industrialism
Industries
industrious
industry
ineffaceably
ineffective
Ineffectual
inefficiency
inefficient
inelastic
inequality
inequitable
ineradicable
inertia
inestimable
inevitable
inevitably
inexhaustible
inexpediency
inexpedient
inexpensive
inexplicable
inexplicit
inexpressible
inextricably
infallible
infallibly
infamous
infamy
infancy
infant
Infanta
Infanticide
INFANTRY
infants
infect
infected
infecting
infection
infectious
infer
inference
Inferior
inferiority
infernally
inferred
inferring
infested
infidelium
infinite
infinitely
infirm
infirmaries
inflamed
inflammable
inflammation
inflammatory
inflexible
inflict
inflicted
inflicting
Influence
influenced
influences
influential
influenza
influx
inform
informal
informally
informant
informants
information
informed
informing
informs
infraction
infractions
infrequency
infrequently
infringe
infringement
infringing
infused
ING
ingenious
ingeniously
ingenuity
Ingersoll
ingested
Ingolf
ingots
inhabit
inhabitant
inhabitants
inhabited
inhabiting
inhabits
inhaled
inharmonious
inherent
inherit
inheritance
inheritances
inherited
inheritor
inherits
inhibition
inhuman
inhumanity
iniquities
iniquitous
iniquity
initial
initiate
initiated
initiation
initiative
Initiator
injected
injecting
injection
injudicious
injunction
injunctions
injure
injured
injuries
injuring
injurious
injuriously
injury
injustice
Inland
inlet
inlets
Inman
inmates
inn
Inner
Innes
innings
innocence
innocent
innocently
innocuous
innovation
innovations
innumerable
inoculated
Inoculation
inoculations
inoffensive
inoperative
inopportune
Inouye
inquire
inquired
inquirer
inquires
inquiries
inquiring
inquiry
inquisitive
inroad
inroads
insane
insanity
insatiable
insatiate
inscribe
inscribed
inscription
Inscriptions
insect
insecticide
insects
insecure
insecurity
inseparable
insert
inserted
insertion
inshore
inside
insight
insignia
insignificance
insignificant
insincere
insincerity
insinuation
insinuations
insist
insisted
insistence
insistent
insisting
insists
insolence
insolent
insolvency
insolvent
insolvents
insomnia
insomuch
inspect
inspected
inspecting
INSPECTION
inspections
Inspector
Inspectorate
inspectors
inspiration
inspire
inspired
inspiring
inst
installation
installations
installed
installment
installments
instalment
instalments
instance
instances
instant
instantaneous
instantaneously
instanter
instantly
Instead
instigated
instigates
instigating
instigation
instigator
instigators
instill
instinct
instinctive
instinctively
instincts
Institut
Institute
instituted
institutes
institution
institutional
institutions
instruct
instructed
instructing
Instruction
Instructions
instructive
instructors
instrument
instrumental
instrumentality
instruments
insubordination
insufficiency
insufficient
insufficiently
insular
insulating
insulation
insult
insulted
insulting
insultingly
insults
insuperable
insurance
insure
insured
insures
insurgent
insurgents
insuring
Insurrection
insurrectionary
insurrections
insusceptible
intact
intake
integral
integrity
intellectual
Intelligence
intelligent
intelligently
intelligible
intemperance
intend
Intendants
intended
intending
intends
intense
intensely
intensify
intensity
intent
intention
intentional
intentionally
intentioned
intentions
intently
intents
INTER
interaction
interceded
intercept
intercepted
intercepting
interchange
interchanged
Intercolonial
Intercontinental
intercourse
interdict
interdicted
interdiction
Interest
interested
interesting
interestingly
interests
interfere
interfered
Interference
interfering
interim
interior
interlopers
intermarriage
intermarry
intermediaries
intermediary
intermediate
intermediation
interments
interminable
intermission
intermittent
Intermix
intermixed
intern
internal
International
internationalisation
internationally
internecine
interned
internment
internments
Interoceanic
interparliamentary
Interpellation
interpeller
interposed
interposition
interpret
interpretation
interpretative
interpreted
interpreter
interpreting
interprets
interred
interregnum
interrogated
interrupt
interrupted
interrupters
interrupting
interruption
interruptions
intersected
intersection
interspersed
interstate
interval
intervals
intervene
intervened
intervenes
intervening
intervention
interview
Interviews
interwoven
intestine
intimate
intimated
intimately
intimating
intimation
intimations
intimidate
intimidated
intimidation
intituled
into
intolerable
intolerance
intoxicants
intoxicating
intra
intractable
intrench
intrenched
intrenching
intrenchments
intrepid
intrepidity
intrepidly
intricate
intrigue
intriguers
intrigues
intrinsic
introduce
introduced
introduces
introducing
Introduction
introductory
intruders
intruding
intrusion
intrust
intrusted
intuition
intuitions
intéressants
inundated
inundation
inundations
invade
invaded
invaders
invading
Invalid
invalidate
invalided
Invalides
invalidity
invalids
invaluable
invariable
invariably
invasion
invasions
inveighing
invent
invented
inventing
invention
INVENTIONS
inventive
inventor
inventors
inventory
Inverness
invest
invested
investigate
investigated
investigating
INVESTIGATION
investigations
investigator
investigators
investing
investment
investments
investors
invests
inveterately
inviolability
inviolable
inviolably
inviolate
invisible
invitation
invitations
invite
invited
invites
inviting
invocation
invoice
invoiced
invoices
invoke
invoked
invokes
invoking
involuntary
involve
involved
involves
involving
invulnerability
invulnerable
inward
inwardly
iota
Iowa
irade
Iraq
IRELAND
Irish
irksome
Irkutch
Irkutsk
Iron
ironclad
Irons
Ironside
Iroquois
irrational
irreconcilable
irreconcilables
irregular
irregularities
irregularity
irregularly
irregulars
irrelevant
irremediable
Irreparable
irrepressible
irresistible
irrespective
irresponsible
irrevocable
irrevocably
irrigate
irrigated
irrigates
irrigation
irritable
irritated
irritating
irritation
irritations
Irving
is
Isaac
Isabela
Isham
Ishpeming
Isidro
Iskanderoun
Isla
Islam
island
islanders
islands
Isle
Ismail
Ismid
isolate
isolated
isolating
isolation
Ispahan
Isparhecher
ISRAEL
Israelite
Israelites
Israélite
issuance
Issue
Issued
issues
Issuing
isthmian
isthmus
Istria
it
ITAGAKI
Italian
Italians
Italy
item
items
Ito
Its
itself
IV
ivory
IVth
ivy
IX
J
Jacinto
Jack
jackals
jacket
jacketed
jackets
jacks
Jackson
Jacob
Jacobinism
Jacobowski
Jacobus
Jacquemyns
jade
Jaffa
jailors
Jalhay
Jalisco
Jallon
JAMAICA
jamais
James
Jameson
jams
Jan
Janeiro
Janeway
JANUARY
Japan
Japanese
jar
Jardine
Jarlin
jarring
jars
Jasen
Javier
Jay
je
jealous
jealousies
jealously
jealousy
Jean
Jedburgh
jeering
JEFFERSON
Jeffersonian
Jehovah
Jehu
Jena
Jenner
jeopardize
jeopardized
jeopards
jeopardy
Jerid
Jerome
Jersey
Jerusalem
Jesse
Jesuit
Jesuits
Jesus
jet
jetties
Jew
jewel
jewels
Jewish
Jews
Jiji
Jiminez
jingo
Jingoism
Joan
Joannes
Joaquin
Job
jobbers
jobbery
jobs
Joel
Johann
Johannes
JOHANNESBURG
Johannesburgers
Johansen
John
Johns
Johnson
Johnston
Johnstown
join
joined
Joining
joins
joint
jointly
joints
Joinville
Joliet
Jolo
Jomalig
Jonah
Jonas
JONATHAN
Jones
Jonkheer
Joppa
Joralemon
Jordan
Jorge
Jorgensen
Jose
JOSEF
Joseph
Josephine
Joshua
Josiah
Joss
Josshouse
José
Joubert
jour
Journal
journalism
journalist
journalistic
journalists
journals
journey
journeyed
journeying
journeys
Joy
joyful
joyfully
joys
João
Jr
Ju
Juan
Juanillo
Juarez
Juba
Jubaland
JUBILEE
Judah
Judean
Judge
judged
Judges
judging
judgment
Judgments
judicature
judicial
judicially
Judiciary
judicious
judiciously
Judson
Judæa
Judæan
jugement
juger
Juggernaut
jugular
jugée
Jui
Juif
Jules
Julian
Julio
Julius
JULY
jumble
jumped
jumps
junction
JUNE
Jung
jungle
jungles
Junior
Junius
Junker
Junkerthum
junks
junta
Jura
jurally
juridiquc
juries
Juris
jurisdiction
jurisdictional
jurisdictions
jurisprudence
Jurist
Jurists
Juror
jurors
Jury
Just
justement
juster
Justice
justices
justifiable
justification
justified
justifies
justify
justifying
Justin
justly
Jutland
Jutlanders
juvenile
juxtaposition
Jêho
k
Kabagambe
Kabarega
Kabayama
Kabayma
Kabul
Kabyle
Kabyles
Kaffir
Kaffirs
Kafiristan
Kafirs
Kafukwe
Kagayan
Kagoshima
Kahoolawe
Kahului
kai
Kaidalovo
kaids
Kaimakam
Kaiphing
Kaiping
Kairwan
Kaiser
Kaishin
Kaishinto
Kaiulani
Kakushinto
Kalabaka
Kalakaua
Kalamines
Kalgoorlie
Kalindero
Kalnoky
Kamchatka
Kamerun
KAMERUNS
Kandahar
Kanem
KANG
Kanitz
Kann
Kansas
Kansu
Kao
Kaph
KAPILAVASTU
Kapiolani
Kara
Karachi
Karahissar
Karatheodory
Karene
Karina
Karl
Karlovich
KARNAK
Karnatik
Karukala
Kasar
Kashgar
Kashmir
Kasr
Kassaba
KASSALA
Kasson
Katholische
Katikiro
KATIPUNAN
Kauai
Kazan
Kazungu
KEARSARGE
Kedleston
Kedong
keel
Keeley
keen
Keene
keener
keenest
keenly
keep
keeper
keepers
Keeping
keeps
Keewatin
Keifer
Kekewich
Kelat
Kellogg
Kelly
Kelvin
Kempff
Kengi
Kensei
Kent
Kentucky
Kepler
kept
Keramia
Kerens
kerosene
Kestner
Ketteler
kew
key
keys
Keystone
KHAIBAR
Khalid
Khalifa
khalifas
Khan
khans
Khaorbin
Kharran
Khartoum
Khartum
Khedival
Khedive
Khedivial
Khel
Khiva
Khodynskoye
Khotan
Khufu
Khulan
Khyber
Ki
KIANG
Kiango
Kiangsi
Kiangsu
KIAO
Kiaochau
Kiaochou
Kiaochow
Kibero
kicking
kidnapped
kidnapping
kidney
kidneys
Kieff
Kiel
Kien
Kienning
Kiffi
Kiggins
Kikuyu
kill
killed
KILLING
Killowen
kilograms
kilometers
kilometre
kilometres
kilomètres
Kimberley
kin
kind
kindle
kindled
kindlier
kindliest
kindly
kindness
kindred
kinds
king
kingcraft
kingdom
Kingdoms
kingly
kings
Kingsbridge
kingship
Kingsley
Kingston
Kingstown
kinsfolk
kinsmen
Kioja
Kipini
Kirin
Kirksville
Kirtomado
Kis
Kishm
Kismayu
kiss
Kissamo
Kitasato
kitchen
Kitchener
Kittleson
Kitts
Kiukiang
Klaheela
Klehini
KLONDIKE
Klondyke
Klukwan
knee
knees
knell
knew
Knife
Knight
knighthood
Knipovich
knit
knives
knocked
knoll
Knossos
knot
knots
Know
Knowing
knowingly
knowledge
Knowlton
known
knows
Knox
ko
Kobbé
Kobe
Kock
Kohat
Kohlen
Kohlensyndikat
Koinadugu
Kokang
Koku
Koldewey
Kollar
Koloman
Kolonial
Kolthoff
Komati
Komura
KONG
Kongo
Koniah
Konieh
Konrad
Konversations
Koordish
Koords
Kooznesk
KOP
kopjes
Koptos
Kordofan
KOREA
Korean
Koreans
Korsakovsky
Kossuth
Kotlass
Kotze
Kotzebue
Kou
Koutzo
Kow
Kowlon
Kowloon
Kozar
kraal
Krag
Kristensen
Kroonstad
Kropotkin
KRUGER
Krugerism
Krugerite
Krugersdorp
Krupp
Ku
Kuan
KUANG
Kuka
Kumasai
Kumassi
Kumassis
KUN
Kung
Kuping
Kurabu
Kuram
Kurbash
Kurds
Kurigalzu
Kurihama
Kurile
Kurla
Kuropatkin
KURRAM
Kuruman
Kurun
Kush
Kusumoto
kwa
kwan
Kwang
KWANGCHOW
Kwangsi
Kwangtung
Kwanti
Kwanto
Kwei
Kweichow
kweitze
Kwungtung
Kwyhoo
Kydonia
Kyle
Kyushu
Kálman
Kämpfe
Königreiche
Königsberg
Köppen
Körber
l
La
laagers
LABOR
laboratories
Laboratory
labored
laborer
Laborers
Labori
laboring
laborious
laboriously
labors
Labouchere
Laboulaye
Labour
laboured
labourers
labouring
labours
LABRADOR
labrys
LABYRINTH
lace
laces
lack
lacked
lacking
Lacour
ladders
laden
ladies
Lado
LADRONE
ladrones
Lady
LADYSMITH
Lafargue
Lagarde
Lagas
Lagofsky
LAGOS
Laguan
Laguna
Lahovari
Lai
laid
Laing
laissez
laity
Lajas
lake
Lakes
lakh
lakhs
Lakkiotes
Lakkos
Lalor
Lama
Lamb
Lambermont
lamentable
lamentations
lamented
lamenting
laments
Lamia
Lammasch
lamp
lamps
Lampson
Lamsdorff
Lamu
Lan
Lanai
Lancashire
Lancaster
lance
Lancet
LAND
Landdrost
Landdrosts
landed
landholders
landholding
landing
landlord
landlordism
landlords
landmark
landmarks
landowner
landowners
Landrost
Landrosts
Lands
landscape
Landsthing
Landtag
landwards
Lane
lanes
Lang
Langfang
Langford
Langson
language
languages
Lankester
Lansdowne
Lanyon
Laotze
lapis
Lappa
lapse
lapsed
larceny
Laredo
large
largely
larger
largest
Larissa
LARNED
Laroche
Larsen
larvæ
Las
lashed
last
lasted
lasting
lastly
lasts
Latané
late
lately
latent
later
lateral
laterally
Lateran
latest
Lathrop
Latin
latitude
latitudinal
latter
latterly
Lattimer
laudable
Lauenburg
laughed
laughing
Laughlin
launch
launched
launches
launching
laundry
Laupepa
Laura
Laureate
laurel
laurels
Laurence
LAURIER
Lauth
lava
Laval
Laveran
lavish
lavished
Lavoro
law
lawbreakers
lawful
lawfully
lawgivers
Lawless
lawlessness
lawmaking
Lawrence
laws
Lawson
lawsuit
lawsuits
LAWTON
lawyer
Lawyers
laxity
lay
Layard
layer
layers
laying
layman
lays
Lazaro
Lazear
Lazes
lazuli
lazy
lb
le
lead
leader
leaders
leadership
leading
leadingstrings
leads
leaf
leafy
LEAGUE
leagued
leagues
leaked
Lean
Leander
leaned
leaning
leanings
Leao
leap
leaped
leaps
learn
learned
Learning
learns
learnt
lease
leased
leasehold
leases
leash
leasing
Least
leathern
leave
leavened
leaves
leaving
Lebanon
Lebel
Leblois
Lebrun
Lebœuf
LECHER
lecherous
lecture
lectured
lecturers
Lectures
lecturing
Led
ledges
Lee
Leech
Leeds
Lees
Leeward
left
leg
legacy
legal
legality
legalized
legally
Legaria
Legaspi
legation
legations
legend
legendary
legends
Legge
legion
legions
legislate
legislated
legislating
LEGISLATION
Legislative
legislators
Legislature
Legislatures
Legitimate
legitimately
legs
Lehigh
Lei
LEICHAU
Leighton
Leipsic
Leipzig
leisure
leisurely
Leite
Leland
Lemercier
Lena
Lenard
lend
lenders
lending
length
lengthened
lengthening
lengths
lengthy
leniency
lenient
leniently
Lenox
lens
lent
Lentilhon
Leo
Leon
Leonard
LEONE
Leonora
Leopold
leper
Lerner
Leroy
les
Leslie
less
lessees
lessen
lessened
lessening
Lesseps
Lesser
lesson
lessons
lessor
lest
let
lethargy
Letran
Letter
letters
Letting
Leucocytes
Levant
level
leveled
levelled
levelling
lever
Levering
Levi
leviable
levied
levies
Levis
levy
levying
Lewis
Lewiston
LEX
Lexicon
Lexow
Leyba
Leyden
Leyds
Leydsdorp
Leyte
Lezo
li
liabilities
Liability
Liable
Liang
Liao
Liaotung
libel
libellous
libels
liberal
liberalism
liberality
liberalized
liberalizing
liberally
Liberals
liberated
liberating
liberation
liberators
Liberia
liberties
liberty
libidinous
Libog
Librarian
librarians
libraries
Library
LIBRE
Libyan
Libyans
libérateur
libéré
licence
Licences
licencia
license
licensed
licensee
licenses
licensing
licentious
lichens
licked
lid
Liddell
lie
Liebig
Liebknecht
Liechtenstein
Liefsting
Liege
lien
liens
lies
lieu
lieutenancy
Lieutenant
lieutenants
life
lifeless
lifelong
lifetime
lift
lifted
lifter
light
lighted
lightened
lightening
lightens
lighter
lighters
lightest
Lighthouse
lighthouses
Lighting
lightly
lightning
lights
lightships
LII
LIII
Like
liked
likelihood
likely
liken
likened
likeness
likes
Likewise
likin
liking
Likipia
lil
Liliuokalani
Lille
Lima
Limantour
limb
Limbancauyan
Limbourg
limbs
lime
limes
limit
limitation
limitations
limited
limiting
limits
limply
Limpopo
Lin
Linapacan
Linares
LINCOLN
Linde
Lindsay
line
lineage
lineal
linear
lined
linen
Linens
LINES
Lingay
Lingayen
lingering
Lingey
Linivitch
link
linked
links
linotype
Linton
lion
Lionel
lioness
lionised
lions
lip
Lippett
Lippincott
lips
Liquefaction
liquefy
liquefying
liquid
liquidated
liquidating
liquidator
liquids
liquor
liquors
Lisbon
Liscum
lisière
list
listen
listened
listening
lists
lit
literacy
literal
literally
Literary
literati
Literature
litigants
litigation
Littell
litters
LITTLE
Littmann
littoral
LIU
LIV
live
lived
liveliest
livelihood
lively
liver
Liverpool
lives
livestock
Living
Livingstone
LIX
LL
Lloyd
lo
Loa
load
loaded
Loading
loads
loafers
Loan
loanable
Loanda
Loango
loans
loath
loathed
loathful
loathsome
loaves
Lobanof
lobster
lobsters
local
localities
locality
locally
locate
located
location
locations
Loch
Lock
locked
Locker
Lockhart
lockout
LOCKOUTS
Lockroy
locks
locksmiths
Lockyer
loco
LOCOMOTION
locomotive
locomotives
locus
lodge
lodged
lodgers
lodging
lodgings
lodgment
Loengi
loftiest
lofty
LOG
Logan
Logia
logical
logically
logomachy
Lohman
loins
Lokal
Lokko
Lokoja
Lombardy
Lombok
LONDON
Londoner
lone
lonely
Long
longed
longer
longest
longevity
LONGFELLOW
longing
Longitude
Longmans
longs
Longstaff
look
looked
lookers
Looking
looks
loom
looming
loop
loopholed
loopholes
loopholing
loose
loosened
looser
loot
looted
looters
LOOTING
Lopez
Lorain
Lord
lords
lordship
lordships
Lorenzo
Loret
Loreto
Lorimer
Lorraine
los
lose
loser
loses
losing
Loss
losses
lost
lot
Lothaire
lots
lotteries
lottery
lotus
LOUBET
loud
loudly
LOUIS
Louisa
Louise
Louisiana
Louisville
lounging
Lourenço
lovableness
love
loved
lover
lovers
loves
loving
lovingly
low
Lowe
Lowell
lower
lowered
lowering
lowest
lowland
Lowry
loyal
loyalists
loyally
loyalty
lu
Luan
Luang
Luangwa
Lubang
Lubas
Lubbock
Luccheni
Lucia
lucid
lucidity
Lucien
Lucifer
luckless
lucky
lucrative
Lucretia
Ludgate
ludicrous
Ludlow
Ludwig
Lueders
Lueger
Lugal
Luh
lui
Luigi
Luis
Luke
Lukoja
Lukou
Lukouchiao
Lukács
lull
lulled
lumber
Lumbini
luminary
luminescence
luminescent
luminosity
luminous
lumière
Lummis
lump
Luna
lunatic
Lunatics
luncheon
Lung
Lungchow
lungs
Lupao
lurk
Lusan
Lushington
Lushunk
lust
lustful
Lutai
Luther
Lutin
Lutz
Lutzow
LUXEMBOURG
Luxemburg
Luxor
luxuriant
luxuries
luxury
Luzon
LV
LVI
LVII
LVIII
LX
LXI
lxxviii
Lycée
lying
Lyman
LYNCH
lynching
lynchings
Lynde
Lyne
Lynn
Lyon
lyric
LÈSE
LÜBECK
Länder
Lèse
légale
Léon
Lü
Lübeck
m
Ma
Mabini
Macabebe
Macabebes
macadamized
Macao
Macarius
macaroni
MacArthur
MACCHI
MacCormac
MacCracken
MacDonald
Macedo
MACEDONIA
Macedonian
Macedonians
MACEO
maces
MACHADADORP
Machadodorp
machete
Machia
machinations
machine
machinery
machines
machinâ
Mackay
Mackenzie
Macmillan
Macoun
Macris
macrogametocytes
Mactan
mad
MADAGASCAR
Madame
Madder
made
Madeleine
Madison
madly
madness
Madras
Madrid
Madu
Maeder
Mafeking
Mafia
Magalang
Magalhaes
Magaliesburg
magazine
magazines
Magellan
Maghallanes
magic
magical
magistrate
Magistrates
Magnalia
magnanimity
magnanimous
magnate
Magnates
magnesium
magnet
magnetic
magnetism
magnificence
magnificent
magnified
magnify
Magnifying
magnitude
Maguire
Magungu
Magyar
Magyars
Mahan
Maharaja
MAHDI
Mahdism
Mahdists
Mahmoud
Mahmud
Mahomed
Mahomedan
Mahometan
Mahometans
Mahommedan
Mahommedanism
Mahon
Mahukona
Mai
Maibung
mail
mailed
mails
maimed
main
Maine
Mainland
Mainly
mains
maintain
maintainable
maintained
maintainers
maintaining
Maintenance
Mainz
maison
Maizar
maize
Majesfontein
majestic
Majesty
MAJESTÉ
majesté
Major
majorities
majority
majors
Majuba
Makaroff
make
makee
maker
makers
makes
makeshift
maketh
Makh
making
Malaboch
Malabon
Malacca
Malaga
MALAGASY
Malakand
Malalos
malaria
malarial
Malate
Malatia
Malay
MALAYAN
Malays
Malcolm
malcontent
Malcontento
malcontents
male
malefactors
malefic
males
Malet
malevolent
Malhou
malicious
Malietoa
malignant
maligned
malignity
mall
Mallet
Malolos
Maloney
malt
Maltese
Malthus
maltreat
maltreated
maltreatment
mamelukes
mammals
Mamprusi
man
manacles
manage
managed
management
Manager
managers
managing
Managua
Manchester
Manchu
MANCHURIA
Manchurian
Manchus
Manda
Mandaloyan
Mandamus
Mandano
Mandarin
Mandarindom
mandate
mandates
mandatory
Mandell
Mandian
MANETHO
mangled
mangrove
MANHATTAN
manhood
mania
manifest
manifestation
manifestations
manifested
manifesting
manifestly
manifesto
manifestos
manifold
Manila
manipulation
Manishtusu
Manitoba
mankind
manly
Mann
Mannaberg
manned
manner
mannered
manners
Manoquin
manor
manors
Mansion
Manson
Manteuffel
Manu
Manua
Manual
Manuel
manufactories
Manufacture
manufactured
manufacturer
manufacturers
manufactures
manufacturing
manumission
manuscript
manuscripts
many
Manzanillo
manœuvre
manœuvres
Maoris
Map
mapped
mapping
maps
Maputa
mar
Marash
Marathon
marauders
marauding
marble
Marblehead
Marburg
Marcel
Marcelino
Marcelo
march
MARCHAND
marched
marches
Marchiafava
marching
Marconi
Marcou
Marcus
Marduk
Margaret
margin
Maria
Mariana
Marianaje
Marianas
Marianne
Marimba
Marinas
Marindugna
marine
Mariner
Marines
Marini
Marion
Mariotti
Maripipi
Mariquina
maritime
mark
Marked
market
markets
marking
markings
marks
marksman
marksmen
Maronite
Marques
Marquess
Marquez
Marquis
marriage
marriages
married
marrow
marry
Marryat
Mars
Marseilles
marsh
Marshal
marshaled
Marshall
Marshalmen
marshals
marshes
marshy
Marsovan
Martens
Marti
martial
martialed
Martin
Martineau
Martinelli
Martinez
Martini
Martinique
Martinis
Martitz
marts
martyred
martyrology
martyrs
marvellous
marvellously
marvelous
Mary
MARYLAND
Masai
Masbate
Mascart
Maschin
MASELLA
MASHONALAND
Mashonas
mask
Masoch
Mason
masonry
Maspero
MASS
Massachusetts
massacre
massacred
massacres
massacring
masse
massed
Masses
massing
massive
Masso
Massowah
mast
master
mastered
masterpieces
masters
mastery
masts
Mastuj
mat
Mataafa
Matabele
Matabeleland
Matabeles
Matadi
Matamoras
Matanzas
match
matched
matches
Matchett
matchless
Mateo
material
materially
materials
materiel
maternity
mathematical
mathematically
mathematician
Mathematics
Mather
Matheson
Mathew
Mathias
Mathilde
Mati
Matias
Matignon
Matin
Matoppo
Matou
matrimonial
mats
Matsuda
Matsugata
Matsukata
matter
Matters
MATTHEW
Matthews
Matthieu
mattresses
mature
matured
maturing
maturity
Matzen
Mau
Maud
Maui
Mauri
Maurice
Maurier
Mauritius
Mauser
mausoleum
Mavromichali
Max
Maxim
Maximilian
Maximo
Maximoff
Maxims
Maximum
Maxwell
may
Mayaguez
maybe
Mayen
Mayer
Mayflower
Mayon
Mayor
mayoral
mayoralty
Mayors
maze
MAZET
Mazrui
Mazzella
Maître
McArthur
McCallum
McClellan
McClelland
McClernand
McClure
McCulloch
McCutcheon
McD
McDonald
McDougall
McEnery
McGrath
McIlwraith
McIntyre
McKee
McKeesport
McKelway
McKenna
McKenzie
McKinley
McLaurin
McMurdo
me
mea
Mead
meager
meagerly
meagre
meal
meals
mean
meaner
meaning
meanings
meanness
means
meant
meantime
meanwhile
measles
measurably
measure
measured
measurement
measures
measuring
Meat
meats
Mecca
mechanic
MECHANICAL
MECHANICS
Mechanicsburg
mechanism
Mecklenburg
medal
medals
meddling
media
median
mediate
mediating
mediation
mediator
mediators
Medical
medicinal
medicine
medicines
medieval
Medina
mediocre
meditated
meditation
Mediterranean
medium
mediæval
mediævalism
medley
meek
meet
meeting
meetings
meets
megalithic
Mehtar
Meiji
Meiklong
Meinam
Meishan
Mekka
Mekong
Mekran
melancholy
Melbourne
Melchite
Meline
mell
Mellen
mellow
melodramatically
Melouna
melt
melting
meltings
Melvil
Melville
member
members
membership
membrane
memoir
memoirs
memorable
memoranda
memorandum
memorial
memorialised
memorialist
memorialists
memorialize
memorialized
memorializing
Memorials
memories
Memory
Memphis
men
MENA
menace
menaced
menaces
menacing
Menam
Mencius
mend
mendacity
mendicant
mending
MENELEK
Menes
Mengtz
meningitis
mensuration
mental
mentall
mentally
mention
mentioned
mentioning
mentions
mentis
Merawi
Mercado
Mercantile
Mercedes
mercenaries
merchandise
merchandize
merchant
merchantmen
merchants
Mercier
mercies
merciful
mercifully
merciless
mercilessly
mercury
Mercy
mere
merely
MERENPTAH
meres
merest
merge
merged
Mergen
Mergenthaler
merging
meridian
meridional
merit
merited
merits
Merodach
Meron
Merriam
Merrill
MERRIMAC
Merritt
Merry
Mersine
mes
Mesa
Mesaba
Meshed
Mesopotamia
message
messages
messenger
messengers
Messieurs
messing
Messrs
mestizo
met
metal
metallic
Metalliferous
metallism
metallurgical
metallurgists
metals
Metcalfe
mete
meteoric
meteorite
meteorites
Meteoritic
meteorological
Meteorology
Meteors
meters
Metford
Metfords
methane
method
methodical
Methodist
methods
Methuen
metre
metres
metric
metropolis
Metropolitan
mewed
MEXICAN
Mexico
Meyer
Mgr
miasms
mice
Michael
MICHIGAN
Michoacan
micro
microbe
microbes
Microcassettes
microgametes
microscope
microscopic
microzoa
Mid
midday
Middelburg
Middle
middlemen
Midi
Midland
Midlothian
midnight
midshipman
midst
midway
midwinter
Mieh
Mier
Mifflin
might
mightier
mightiest
Mighty
Miguel
Mihaileano
Mihaly
Mikado
Milan
Milanese
Milburn
mild
milder
mile
mileage
Miles
Miley
militaire
militarism
MILITARY
militated
militia
milk
MILL
Millard
Millennial
MILLENNIUM
millenniums
Miller
Millerand
millet
milliard
million
millionaire
millionaires
millions
mills
Milner
Milouna
Milton
Milvart
Milwaukee
mimicking
Min
mind
MINDANAO
minded
mindedness
mindful
Mindoro
minds
mine
mined
miner
mineral
Mineralogy
minerals
miners
Mines
Ming
mingled
Mingo
miniature
minimise
minimum
mining
minister
Ministerial
ministers
Ministries
Ministry
Ministère
Minneapolis
Minnesota
minor
minorities
minority
minors
MINOS
Minotaur
mint
mintage
mints
Minute
minuteness
minutes
minutest
minutiæ
Miquel
Miquelon
miracle
miracles
miraculously
mirage
Mirko
Miro
Mirri
Mirs
Mirza
misadventure
misapprehension
misbehaviour
miscalculated
MISCELLANEOUS
mischief
mischievous
misconception
misconduct
misconstruction
misdeed
misdeeds
misdemeanor
misdemeanors
misdoing
miserable
miserably
miseries
misery
misfortune
misfortunes
misgiving
misgivings
misgovernment
misguided
mishap
mishaps
misinform
misinformed
misinterpretation
mislead
misleading
misled
mismanaged
mismanagement
misnamed
misnomer
misrepresent
misrule
misruled
Miss
missed
missing
mission
Missionaries
missionary
missioners
MISSIONS
Mississippi
Missouri
mist
mistake
mistaken
mistakes
mistrust
misunderstand
misunderstanding
misunderstandings
misunderstood
misuse
misused
Mitchel
Mitchell
mitigate
mitigated
Mitry
mix
mixed
mixing
mixture
MM
Mme
moat
moats
mob
Mobile
mobilisation
mobility
mobilization
mobilize
mobilized
mobilizing
mobs
Mochamera
mock
mockery
Modder
mode
model
modeled
models
moderate
moderately
Moderates
moderating
moderation
Modern
modernised
modernizing
modes
modest
modestly
modification
modifications
Modified
modify
modifying
modus
Moeris
Mohamed
Mohammed
Mohammedan
Mohammedans
Mohmand
moieties
moiled
Moines
Moisson
molasses
Moldavia
molded
mole
Molecular
molecules
molest
molestation
molested
molesting
Molinos
Molokai
Molucca
Moluccas
Mombasa
moment
momentarily
Momentary
momentous
moments
Mommsen
Mona
Monaco
Monaghan
Monarch
monarchical
Monarchists
monarchs
monarchy
monasteries
monastery
monastic
Moncada
Monday
Monet
MONETARY
MONEY
moneys
Mongol
Mongolia
Mongolian
Mongols
monied
Monier
monitors
monk
monks
Monmouth
monographs
monometallic
monometallism
MONOPOLIES
monopolise
monopolistic
monopolize
monopolized
MONOPOLY
monotonous
Monroe
Monseigneur
monsieur
Monsignor
monsoon
monster
monsters
monstrosity
monstrous
Mont
Montalban
Montana
Montauk
Monte
Montefiore
Montenegrin
Montenegrins
MONTENEGRO
Monterey
Montero
Montevideo
Montgomery
month
monthly
months
Montjuich
Montluçon
Montreal
Montreux
Montserrat
Montsioa
Montt
monument
monumental
monuments
Monza
moods
Moody
Mooi
Moon
Moore
moored
moorings
mooted
Moral
Morales
morality
morally
Morals
Moravia
Morazan
More
Moreau
Morelos
Moreover
Morgan
Moritz
Morley
Mormon
morning
Moro
Morocco
Morong
MOROS
Morozugu
Morrill
Morris
Morrison
Morro
morrow
MORSE
mortal
mortality
mortally
mortars
mortgage
mortgaged
mortgages
mortification
mortifying
Mortimer
Mortimore
mortised
mortmain
Morton
mosaic
Moscow
Moses
Moslem
MOSLEMS
Mosque
mosques
Mosquito
mosquitoes
Moss
Mossamedes
mosses
most
mostly
mot
Motcha
mote
Mother
motherland
mothers
motion
motionless
motions
motive
motives
motley
Motono
motor
motors
motto
mottoes
Mouillin
Moukden
mouldering
moulding
mouldy
mound
mounds
Mount
Mountain
mountainous
Mountains
Mounted
mounting
Mouravieff
mourned
mourning
mourns
Moush
mouth
mouths
movable
move
moveable
Moved
movement
Movements
moves
moving
Mowbray
Mozambique
Mpanjakany
Mr
Mrs
Msiri
MSS
Mu
Mubarak
much
mud
muddy
Mudirieh
Mudirs
Muertos
Muhammadan
Muhammadans
Muhlenberg
Mujelibeh
MUKDEN
Mul
mulatto
mulattoes
mulberry
mule
mules
Mulhall
Mulk
mullah
multiplication
multiplicity
multiplied
multiply
multiplying
multitude
multitudes
multitudinous
Mundella
Muneris
Munich
MUNICIPAL
municipalities
Municipality
municipio
municipios
munificence
munificently
munitions
Munkacsy
Munroe
Muong
mural
Muravieff
MURDER
murdered
murderer
murderers
murdering
murderous
murders
Murdoch
murmur
Murphy
Murray
Mururuma
muscle
muscles
Muscogee
Muscovite
muscular
museum
museums
MUSIC
MUSICAL
musician
musicians
musketry
Mussulman
Mussulmans
must
mustache
mustard
muster
mustered
musters
musty
mutes
mutilate
mutilated
mutilation
mutineers
mutinied
mutinous
Mutiny
Mutsu
mutterings
mutton
Mutual
mutually
Muzaffar
Muzzle
muzzled
muzzles
Mwanga
Mwasi
My
Mycenae
Mycenaean
Myer
Myers
Mykenae
Mykenai
Mykenæan
myriads
Myself
mysterious
mystery
mystic
mystical
mythical
mythologic
Mzerib
Méline
mên
Möllner
Müller
N
NA
Nabonidos
Nagada
Nagasaki
nagging
Nagodan
Nahua
Naic
Naikaku
nailed
nails
naked
Nam
Namacpacan
Namaqueland
name
named
nameless
namely
Names
naming
Namwan
Nan
Nancy
Nanking
Nanning
NANSEN
Nanshan
Nantes
Naples
Napoleon
Napoleonic
Narahara
Naram
Narbolpolassar
Narbonne
Nares
narrate
narrated
narrating
narrative
narrow
narrowed
narrower
narrowest
narrowing
narrowly
Narâm
nascent
NASHVILLE
nata
Natal
Natalie
NATHANIEL
Nathorst
nation
National
Nationalism
Nationalist
NATIONALISTS
nationalities
nationality
nationals
nations
Native
natives
Nativity
natural
naturalisation
naturalise
naturalised
naturalist
naturalistically
naturalists
Naturalization
naturalized
Naturally
nature
natured
natures
naught
nauseating
nautical
naval
Navarin
navies
navigable
navigate
navigated
navigating
Navigation
navvies
navy
nay
nays
Nazarene
naïvely
nd
ne
Neal
Neapolitan
near
nearer
nearest
nearing
Nearly
nearness
neat
Nebo
Nebraska
Nebuchadnezzar
Nebuchadrezzar
necessaries
necessarily
necessary
necessitate
necessitated
necessities
necessitous
necessity
neck
necked
necks
necropoli
need
needed
needful
needing
needle
needles
needless
needlessly
needs
needy
NEELY
nefas
negative
negatived
negatives
negge
neglect
neglected
neglecting
negligence
negligently
negotiate
negotiated
negotiating
Negotiation
Negotiations
negotiators
Negras
Negrito
Negritos
negro
negroes
Negros
Negus
neighbor
neighborhood
neighborhoods
neighboring
neighbors
neighbourhood
neighbouring
neighbours
Neil
Neither
NEK
Nelson
Nelspruit
Nemi
Nemitti
neo
Nepal
Nepalese
nephew
nerve
nerved
nerves
nervous
nest
nests
net
Netherland
Netherlands
Nethterland
Netted
Netten
Netter
network
Netzahualcoyotl
Netze
Neue
Neues
neuralgia
neurologist
neurons
Neutral
neutrality
neutralization
neutralize
neutralized
neutralizing
neutrals
Nevada
Never
Nevertheless
Nevis
new
Newark
Newcastle
Newchwang
newcomer
newcomers
Newel
newer
newest
Newfoundland
Newfoundlanders
newly
Newman
Newnes
Newport
news
newspaper
newspapers
Newton
Newtonian
Newtown
next
Nezeros
ngan
Niagara
Nicaragua
Nicaraguan
Nicea
NICHOLAS
NICHOLS
Nicholson
nickel
Nicol
Nicolas
Nicolau
Nicoya
Nieh
Nien
Nietzsche
NIFFER
Nigel
Niger
Nigeria
nigh
night
nights
Nigra
Niihau
Nikola
Nikolaefsk
Nikolai
Nikolaieff
Nikolas
Nil
Nile
Niles
Nima
Nimrod
Nimrûd
Nin
Nine
ninepence
nineteen
nineteenth
Ninety
Nineveh
Ninfa
ning
Ningpo
Ninguta
Ninib
ninth
Ninthly
nipped
NIPPUR
nitrates
nitro
nitrogen
nitrous
Niu
Niuchuang
NIUCHWANG
Nizam
no
Nobel
nobility
Noble
nobleman
noblemen
nobles
noblest
nobly
nobodies
nobody
Nochistongo
noes
Nogales
noise
noisemaker
noises
noisily
Noisy
nomad
nomadic
nomads
NOME
nomenclature
nominal
nominally
nominate
nominated
nominating
nomination
Nominations
nominee
nominees
Non
nonacceptance
noncommissioned
Nonconformists
noncumulative
None
nonentities
nonfulfillment
nonpayment
nonreceipt
nonrecognition
nonrecurring
nonreservation
nonresident
nonsense
noon
noose
nor
Nordenfeldt
Nordenfelt
Nordenskïold
NORFOLK
normal
normally
Norman
Norris
Norrland
Norroy
Norte
north
Northeast
northeasterly
northeastern
northeastwardly
northerly
northern
Northumberlands
Northward
northwardly
northwards
NORTHWEST
Northwestern
northwestwardly
Norton
NORWAY
Norwegian
Norwegians
nose
noses
Not
notabilitles
NOTABLE
notables
notably
Notarbartolo
notarial
notary
Note
noted
Notekeeper
Notes
noteworthy
nothing
nothingness
Notice
noticeable
noticed
notices
noticing
Notification
notified
notify
notifying
noting
notion
notions
notoriety
notorious
notoriously
notulenhouder
Notwithstanding
nourish
nourishing
nourishment
Nous
Nouvelle
nouvelles
Nova
Novarum
novel
Noveleta
novelist
novels
novelty
NOVEMBER
now
Nowadays
nowhere
nowise
noxious
Noyes
Nozaleda
nozzles
Ntonda
Nubar
Nubas
Nubian
nuclear
nucleus
Nueva
NUFFAR
nugatory
nuggets
nuisance
nuisances
null
nullement
nulli
nullification
nullified
nullifies
nullify
nullifying
nullity
numb
number
numbered
numbering
Numbers
numerals
numerical
numerically
NUMEROUS
numerously
Nun
Nunciature
Nuncio
nuns
NUPÉ
Nupé
NUREMBERG
nurse
nursed
nursemaids
nurses
nursing
nurtured
nutrition
nutritive
Nyanza
Nyasa
Nyasaland
Nyassa
Nyassaland
Nâsr
o
Oahu
oak
Oakey
Oakland
oars
Oath
oaths
oats
Oaxaca
Ob
obedience
Obedient
obeisance
obelisk
obey
obeyed
obeying
obeys
Obi
object
objected
objecting
Objection
objectionable
objections
objective
objects
obligated
obligation
obligations
obligatory
oblige
obliged
obliges
obligingly
obliquely
obliterate
obliterated
obliterating
Oblivion
obnoxious
obscure
obscured
obscurities
obscurity
obsequies
observable
observance
observation
observations
OBSERVATORY
observe
observed
observer
observers
observes
observing
obsidian
obsolete
obstacle
obstacles
obstinacy
obstinate
obstinately
Obstruct
obstructed
obstructing
obstruction
obstructionist
obstructionists
obstructions
obstructive
obstructs
obtain
Obtainable
obtained
obtaining
obtains
obviate
obviated
obviating
obvious
obviously
occasion
Occasional
occasionally
occasioned
occasions
occult
occupancy
occupant
occupants
occupation
occupations
occupied
occupier
occupies
occupy
occupying
occur
occurred
occurrence
occurrences
occurring
occurs
ocean
oceanic
oceans
Oct
octave
OCTOBER
octroi
oculist
odd
odds
Odell
Oder
odes
Odessa
odious
odours
Oesterreichische
of
Off
offence
offences
offended
offenders
offending
offense
offenses
offensive
Offer
offered
offering
offers
Office
officeholders
officer
officered
OFFICERS
Offices
official
officially
officials
officio
offset
offshoot
offspring
offsprings
Oficial
Ofoo
oft
often
oftener
Ogaden
Ogadens
Ogden
Oh
OHIO
Oil
oils
Okhotsk
Oklahoma
Okuma
OLD
older
oldest
olds
oligarchy
Oliphant
olive
Olivecrona
Oliver
Olmsted
OLNEY
Olosenga
Olutanga
Olympia
Olympian
Olympic
Omaha
OMDURMAN
ominous
omission
omissions
omit
omits
omitted
omitting
omnipotent
omniscient
Omoso
Omri
Omsk
On
once
One
onerous
ones
onesided
Onesti
onlooker
Only
Onor
Onslaught
Ont
Ontario
onto
onward
onwards
Oom
Oorlog
OPEN
opened
opening
openings
openly
opens
operate
operated
operates
operating
operation
operations
operative
operatively
operatives
operators
opinion
opinions
opium
Oporto
Oppert
opponent
opponents
opportune
opportunities
Opportunity
oppose
opposed
opposing
opposite
opposition
oppress
oppressed
oppresses
oppressing
Oppression
oppressions
oppressive
oppressively
oppressiveness
oppressor
oppressors
Optic
optimistic
option
optional
Options
Oquendo
or
oracular
oral
orally
Orange
oranges
orating
orator
orators
ordained
ordeal
ORDER
ordered
ordering
orderlies
orderly
Orders
ordinance
Ordinances
Ordinaries
ordinarily
Ordinary
ordinations
ordnance
ordre
ore
Oregon
ores
organ
organic
organically
organisation
organise
organised
organiser
organising
organism
organisms
organist
ORGANIZATION
organizations
organize
organized
organizer
organizes
organizing
organs
orgies
orgy
ORIENT
Oriental
Orientalist
origin
original
originality
Originally
originals
originate
originated
originating
originator
origine
Orinoco
Orion
Orlando
Orleanists
Orleans
Ormescheville
ornamentation
ornaments
Oro
Oroté
Orphan
orphanage
orphans
Orsova
Orthodox
orthography
Orton
Oruro
Osborne
Oscar
oscillate
oscillatory
oser
Osiris
OSMAN
Ostend
ostensibly
Oswald
other
others
otherwise
OTIS
Ottawa
Ottmar
Otto
OTTOMAN
Ottumwa
ou
Oudh
ought
ounce
ounces
Our
Ourfa
ours
ourself
ourselves
ousted
ousting
out
Outbreak
Outbreaks
outburst
outbursts
outcast
outcome
outcry
outdone
outdoor
Outer
outfit
outfits
outflanked
outflow
outgoings
outgrew
outgrowth
Outlander
Outlanders
outlaw
outlaws
outlay
outlays
outlet
outline
outlined
Outlook
outlying
outnumbered
outpost
outposts
output
outrage
outraged
outrageous
outrages
outraging
outright
outrival
outs
outset
Outside
outsider
outsiders
outskirts
outspoken
outstanding
outstripped
outward
Outwardly
outweigh
outweighed
outwit
outwits
Ouvrier
oval
ovation
oven
over
overawe
overawed
overboard
overburdened
overcame
overcapitalization
overcaution
overcharged
overcoat
overcome
overcoming
overcrowd
overcrowded
overcrowding
overcrowds
overdrawn
overestimated
overflow
overflowed
overflows
overhanging
overhauling
overhead
overhung
overland
overlap
overlooked
overlooking
overlooks
overnight
overpowered
overpowering
overridden
overrule
overruled
overrules
overruling
overrun
overseers
overshadowed
overshadowing
overspill
overspread
overstated
overstay
overstepping
overt
overtake
overtaken
overtaxed
overthrew
overthrow
overthrowing
overthrown
overtime
overture
Overtures
overturned
overweening
overwhelm
overwhelmed
overwhelming
overwhelmingly
overworked
overworn
ovum
owe
owed
Owen
owes
Owing
owls
Own
owned
owner
owners
ownership
owning
owns
ox
Oxen
Oxford
oxhead
oxide
Oxus
oxygen
Oxyrhynchus
Oyapok
Ozi
P
Pa
Paarde
PAARDEBERG
Pac
pace
paces
Pacific
pacifically
pacification
pacified
pacify
pacifying
pack
packages
packed
packers
packet
packing
packs
PACT
Pacto
pagan
Pagano
pagans
Page
pageant
pageants
pages
Paget
Pago
pagodas
paid
pain
Paine
painful
painfully
pains
painstaking
paint
painted
painter
painters
painting
paintings
pair
paired
Pakhoi
palace
palaces
Palanan
palatability
Palatine
Palawan
pale
paleolithic
Paleontology
Palermo
PALESTINE
palettes
Palgrave
palisade
palisades
Palizzolo
Pall
palliative
palliatives
palm
Palma
PALMER
palms
palpable
palpitating
paltering
paltry
palæographic
palæographist
palæography
palæolithic
Pamir
Pamirs
Pamlico
Pampanga
PAMPANGAS
pampas
pamphlet
pamphlets
pan
Pana
Panama
Panaon
Panay
pandemonium
Pando
pane
panels
Pang
Pangani
Pangasinan
PANGASINANS
Pangasinaus
Panglao
Pangmua
Pangutaran
panic
panics
Panique
Panizzardi
Panjah
panned
panniers
Pannonia
pans
Panslavists
pantomime
Pao
Paolini
Paoting
PAPACY
Papagayo
papal
Paper
Papers
papier
papyri
papyrus
par
parable
parade
paraded
paradox
paradoxically
paragraph
paragraphs
Paraguay
parallel
paralleled
paralleling
paralyse
paralysed
paralysing
paralysis
paralyze
paralyzed
paralyzing
paramount
Paranaque
parapet
paraphernalia
parasite
parasites
parcel
parcels
Pardon
pardonable
pardoned
pardoning
Pardons
parent
parental
parentis
Parents
Paris
parish
parishes
parishioners
parity
park
Parker
Parkes
Parkhurst
Parks
parlance
parle
parler
parley
parleying
Parliament
parliamentarian
Parliamentary
Parliaments
parlour
Parnell
Parnellites
parochial
parodied
parole
paroles
parrying
parsimonious
parsimony
parsonages
parsoned
Parsons
part
partake
partakes
partaking
parte
parted
parthenogenesis
Parti
Partial
partiality
partially
partibus
participate
participating
participation
particles
particular
Particularism
particularized
particularly
particulars
parties
parting
partisan
partisans
partisanship
partition
partly
partner
partners
partnership
parts
PARTY
pas
Pasay
Paschal
Pasco
Pascual
Pase
Pasha
Pashas
Pasig
Pasijan
Paso
pass
passably
passage
passages
Passamaqnoddy
passed
passenger
passengers
passer
passers
passes
passing
Passion
passionate
passions
passive
passport
Passports
past
Pasteur
pastime
pastor
pastoral
pastors
pasture
pastures
Patagonia
patch
patched
patches
patchwork
patent
patented
patents
paternal
paternalism
Paterno
Paterson
patesis
path
Pathetic
pathless
Pathology
Pathos
paths
pathway
patience
patient
patiently
patients
Patmore
Patriarch
patriarchal
patriarchate
Patriarchs
Patrick
patrie
patrimony
patriot
Patriotic
patriotically
patriotism
patriots
patrol
patrolled
patrolling
patrols
patron
patronage
patronate
patronato
patronise
Patrons
Patta
Patten
pattern
patterns
Patterson
Paty
Paua
Paul
Pauli
Paulists
Paulus
Pauncefote
pauper
pauperism
pauperize
paupers
Pause
paused
pausing
pave
paved
pavilion
pavilions
paving
pawed
pawned
pax
PAY
payable
payer
paying
Paymaster
paymasters
payment
payments
Payn
pays
Pe
PEABODY
peace
peaceable
peaceably
peaceful
peacefully
peacemaker
Peacock
peak
Peake
peal
pearl
pearls
Pearson
PEARY
peasant
peasantry
Peasants
Pecheli
Pechili
Peckham
peculation
peculiar
peculiarity
peculiarly
pecuniary
pedagogical
pedantry
pedestal
Pedro
Peer
peerage
peeresses
peers
peg
Peh
Pei
Peiho
Peirce
Peiyang
Pekah
Pekin
Peking
pelagic
Pelasgian
Pelasgic
PELEW
Pelham
pell
pellets
Pellieux
Pelliot
Pelloux
Peloponnesus
Pelz
pen
Penal
penalize
penalties
penalty
penance
pence
pencil
pendency
Pending
Pendleton
Pendulum
penetrate
Penetrated
penetrates
penetrating
penetration
penetrative
Peninsula
Peninsular
Peninsulars
penitent
penitentiary
Penn
penned
Penniless
PENNSYLVANIA
PENNY
Penrhyn
pens
Pension
pensionable
pensioned
pensioners
pensioning
PENSIONS
pentelic
peon
Peonage
PEONES
PEOPLE
peopled
peoples
Peoria
Pepke
Pepper
Pepperman
Pepy
per
Pera
peradventure
perceive
perceived
perceiving
percent
percentage
percentages
perceptibility
perceptible
perceptibly
perception
percha
Percy
perdition
perdu
Pereira
peremptorily
peremptoriness
Peremptory
Perez
perfect
perfected
perfecting
perfection
perfectly
perfidy
perforation
perforce
perform
performance
performances
performed
performing
performs
perfumes
perfunctorily
perfunctory
Pergamos
perhaps
Perier
Peril
perilous
perils
period
periodic
periodical
periodically
periodicals
periodicity
periods
peripheries
perish
perishable
perished
perishing
peritoneum
peritonitis
Perivolia
perjured
perjury
Perm
permanence
permanency
permanent
permanently
permeable
permeates
permeating
permissible
Permission
permissive
permit
permits
permitted
permitting
pernicious
Perouse
perpendicular
perpetrated
perpetrating
perpetrators
perpetual
perpetually
perpetuate
perpetuated
perpetuation
Perpetuationists
perpetuators
perpetuity
perplexing
perplexities
perplexity
PERRY
persecute
persecution
persecutions
perseverance
persevere
persevered
perseveringly
PERSIA
Persian
persist
persisted
persistence
persistency
persistent
persistently
persisting
person
personage
personages
personal
personality
Personally
personalty
personifications
personne
personnel
persons
perspective
persuade
persuaded
persuading
persuasion
persuasive
pertain
pertaining
pertains
Perth
pertinacious
pertinent
perturb
perturbation
Peru
perusal
perused
Peruvian
pervades
perversion
pervert
perverted
PESCADORES
peseta
pesetas
Peshawar
Peshawur
peso
pesos
pessimism
pessimistic
pest
PESTH
pestilence
pestilences
pestilent
pestilential
pet
Petar
Petcha
PETER
Peters
Petersburg
Pethick
Pethiek
Petit
Petition
petitioned
petitioners
petitions
Petrel
Petrie
Petriou
petroleum
Petrology
Petrozicky
pettiest
petty
Petuna
Petunê
peut
pewter
Peña
pf
Phaenician
phalanx
Pharaoh
Pharaohs
Pharisaic
pharmacists
Pharmacology
pharmacy
Pharsala
phase
phases
Phelps
phenakite
phenomena
phenomenal
phenomenon
Philadelphia
philanthropic
philanthropist
philanthropists
philanthropy
Philip
Philipp
Philippe
Philippine
Philippines
Philippino
Philips
Philipstown
Phillips
Philo
philologist
philosopher
philosophic
philosophical
philosophies
philosophy
Phineas
phlegmatic
Phocaeans
Phoenicia
Phoenician
Phoenicians
Phoenix
phonograph
Photiades
photograph
photographed
photographer
photographing
photographs
Photography
Phrabang
phrase
phrases
physical
physically
physician
physicians
physicist
physicists
physics
physiognomy
physiological
physiologist
Physiology
physique
PHŒNICIANS
Phœnician
pianist
Piazzi
Picard
Pichon
pick
pickax
picked
Pickersgill
picket
picking
picnic
Picquart
pictorial
picture
pictures
picturesque
piece
pieced
piecemeal
pieces
Piedras
pien
pier
pierced
pierces
Pierola
Pierre
piers
Piet
Pietersburg
Pietrus
piety
pig
pigeon
pigment
pigmy
pigs
pigtail
pigtails
Pike
pikes
Pilar
pile
piled
piles
Pileser
pilgrim
pilgrimage
pilgrimages
Pilgrims
piling
pill
Pillage
pillaged
PILLAGER
pillaging
pillar
pillars
pillows
Pillsbury
pilot
pin
Pinar
pinch
pinchbeck
Pinckney
Pincus
pine
Pines
ping
Pinney
Pinto
Pioneer
pioneers
pious
pipage
Pipe
pipes
piracies
piracy
pirates
Pistoia
pistol
piston
pit
Pitcairn
pitch
pitched
pitching
piteously
pith
Pithole
pitiable
pitiful
pitiless
Pitlogo
pits
Pitsani
Pitt
pittance
Pittsburg
Pittsburgh
pity
Pius
pivot
pivoted
pièce
placard
placarded
placards
placated
Place
placed
places
placing
PLAGUE
plain
plaine
plainer
Plaines
plainly
plains
plaintiff
plaintiffs
plaited
plan
plane
planet
plank
planless
planned
planning
plans
plant
plantations
planted
planter
planters
planting
plants
plasm
plastering
plastic
Plate
plateau
plateaux
plates
platform
Platforms
plating
platino
platinum
Platt
plausibility
Plausible
play
Playa
played
Playfair
playgrounds
playing
plays
plea
plead
pleaded
pleading
pleasant
please
pleased
pleases
pleasing
pleasure
pleasures
plebiscitary
plebiscite
plebs
pledge
pledged
Pledges
pledging
plenary
plenipotentiaries
Plenipotentiary
plenitude
plentiful
plenty
pliable
plied
plodding
plot
plots
plotters
plotting
plough
plow
plum
plumage
Plumer
plumes
plunder
plundered
plunderers
plundering
plunged
plungers
plunging
Plunkett
Plural
plurality
plus
plutocracy
Pluton
plying
PLYMOUTH
Plébiscite
pneumatic
pneumonia
Po
Pobedonostzeff
Pobiedonostzeff
Poblacion
pocket
pocketed
pockets
poems
poet
poetic
poetical
poetry
Poets
Point
pointed
pointedly
pointing
points
poison
poisoned
poisoning
poisonous
poked
POLAND
polar
Polare
Polaveja
Polavieja
pole
poles
Police
policeman
policemen
policies
Policy
Polillo
POLISH
polished
polite
politely
politeness
politic
political
politically
politician
Politicians
POLITICO
politics
polity
poll
polled
polling
Pollock
polls
polluted
polluting
polychromatic
polygamist
polygamous
polygamy
polygonal
polyphase
polyphased
polytechnic
pomp
Pompey
Ponce
ponchos
Pond
ponder
Pondoland
ponds
ponies
Ponson
Pont
Pontiff
Pontiffs
Pontifical
Pontificate
pony
pood
Pool
Poole
pooling
pools
Poona
Poor
poorer
poorest
poorly
Poort
POP
Pope
Popham
poppy
populace
Popular
popularity
popularly
populated
population
populations
Populist
populistic
Populists
populous
porch
Porcupine
Porfirio
Poro
porphyry
Porritt
PORT
portable
Portal
portant
Porte
portend
portentous
porter
porters
portfolio
portfolios
portion
portions
Portland
Porto
portrait
portraits
Ports
Portsmouth
PORTUGAL
Portuguese
posed
Posen
Poshan
position
positions
positive
positively
positiveness
Poso
possess
possessed
possesses
possessing
Possession
possessions
possessors
possibilities
possibility
possible
possibly
possumus
post
POSTAGE
Postal
posted
posterity
posters
posthumous
posting
postmaster
postmasters
postmasterships
postpone
postponed
postponement
Posts
postscript
posture
pot
potable
Potato
potatoes
Potchefstrom
Potchefstroom
potent
potentates
potential
potentiality
potentially
potently
pots
Potsdam
potted
potter
pottery
pouch
poultry
pounced
pound
pounder
pounders
pounding
pounds
pour
poured
pouring
pours
pouvoir
Poverty
powder
powdered
Powders
POWELL
Power
powerful
powerfully
powerless
Powers
pox
Pozo
Pozorrubio
practicability
practicable
practical
Practically
practice
practiced
practices
practicing
practise
practised
practising
practitioner
Pragmatic
Prague
prairie
praise
praised
praises
praiseworthy
praising
prandial
PRATT
Praxedes
pray
prayed
prayer
prayers
praying
prays
pre
preach
preached
preacher
preachers
preaching
Preamble
prearranged
precaution
precautionary
precautions
precede
preceded
precedence
precedent
precedents
preceding
precept
precepts
precinct
precincts
precious
precipitate
precipitated
precipitately
precipitation
precipitous
precis
precise
precisely
precision
preclude
precluded
precludes
preconcerted
precursor
predatory
predecessor
predecessors
predestined
predicament
predicated
predict
predicted
predicting
predictions
predicts
predispose
predominance
PREDOMINANT
preeminence
PREFACE
prefaced
Prefect
Prefects
Prefecture
Prefectures
prefer
preferable
preference
preferences
preferential
preferment
preferred
preferring
prefers
pregnant
PREHISTORIC
prehistory
prejudice
prejudiced
prejudices
prejudicial
prejudicially
prelates
preliminaries
preliminary
premature
premeditated
Premier
Premiers
premiership
premises
premising
premium
premiums
Prempeh
Prenez
Prentice
preoccupation
preoccupied
preparation
preparations
preparatory
prepare
prepared
preparedness
prepares
preparing
preponderance
preponderating
prepossessing
prepossession
prepossessions
preposterous
prerequisite
prerogative
prerogatives
PRESBYTERIAN
prescribe
prescribed
prescribes
prescribing
prescription
presence
present
Presentation
presented
presenting
Presently
Presentment
presents
preservation
preserve
preserved
preservers
preserves
preserving
preside
presided
Presidency
President
Presidentes
Presidential
presidents
presides
presiding
press
Presse
pressed
presses
Pressing
pressure
prestige
Preston
Prestwich
presumably
presume
presumed
presuming
presumption
presumptive
presumptively
presupposes
pretence
pretences
pretend
pretending
pretense
pretenses
pretensions
pretext
pretexts
Pretoria
pretorian
pretty
preuve
preuves
prevail
prevailed
prevailing
prevails
prevalent
prevalently
prevent
prevented
preventing
prevention
preventive
preventives
prevents
Previous
previously
prevision
Prevost
prey
Priam
Pribilof
price
priced
priceless
Prices
pricked
prickly
pride
prided
prie
priest
priesthood
priestly
priests
PRIETO
Prim
primal
primarily
primary
Primates
prime
primeval
primitive
Primo
primordial
prince
princely
Princes
princess
princesses
Princeton
principal
principalities
Principality
principally
principals
Principe
principle
Principles
PRINSLOO
print
printed
printer
Printing
Prior
priori
priority
Prison
prisoner
Prisoners
Prisons
Private
privately
privates
privation
privations
privilege
privileged
privileges
Privy
Prix
prize
prizes
Pro
probabilities
probability
probable
Probably
probed
probing
problem
problems
procedure
Proceed
proceeded
proceeding
proceedings
proceeds
process
processes
Procession
processionally
proclaim
proclaimed
proclaiming
proclaims
Proclamation
Proclamations
proclivity
procrastinate
procrastination
PROCTOR
Procurator
procure
procured
Procureur
procuring
procès
procédure
prodigious
produce
produced
producer
producers
produces
producing
product
Production
productions
productive
productiveness
products
produire
produit
Prof
Profane
profess
professe
professed
professes
profession
professional
professionnel
professions
professor
professors
Proffer
proffers
proficiency
profile
profiles
profit
profitable
profitably
profited
profits
profligacy
profligate
profound
profoundly
profuse
program
programme
Progress
progressed
progressing
Progressist
Progressists
Progressive
progressively
Progressives
Prohibit
prohibited
Prohibiting
PROHIBITION
prohibitionist
Prohibitionists
prohibitions
prohibitive
prohibitory
prohibits
project
projected
projectile
projectiles
Projection
projector
projects
proletariat
proliferation
prolific
prolong
Prolongation
prolonged
prolonging
prominence
prominent
prominently
promiscuously
promise
promised
promises
promising
promissory
promontory
promote
promoted
promoter
promoters
promotes
promoting
promotion
promotions
Prompt
prompted
promptitude
promptly
promptness
promulgate
promulgated
promulgating
Promulgation
prone
pronounce
pronounced
pronouncement
pronouncements
pronounces
pronouncing
Proof
proofs
prop
propaganda
propagandism
propagate
propagates
propagating
Propagation
propagators
propelling
proper
properly
properties
property
propertyless
prophecies
prophecy
prophesied
prophesy
Prophet
prophetic
prophets
prophylactic
Propinquity
propitious
proportion
proportional
proportionally
proportionate
proportionately
proportioned
proportions
proposal
Proposals
propose
proposed
proposers
proposes
proposing
proposition
propositions
propounded
propped
proprietary
proprietor
proprietorial
proprietors
proprietorship
propriety
proprio
propylaea
prorogue
prorogued
prosaic
proscription
prosecute
prosecuted
prosecutes
prosecuting
Prosecution
Prosecutions
Prosecutor
proselyte
proselytizing
prospect
prospected
prospecting
prospective
prospectors
prospects
prosper
prospered
prospering
prosperity
Prospero
prosperous
prostrate
prostrated
prostration
protect
protected
Protecteur
protecting
protection
protectionist
Protectionists
protective
protector
PROTECTORATE
protectorates
protectors
protects
Protest
Protestant
Protestantism
Protestants
protestations
protested
protesting
Protests
Protococcus
protocol
protocols
prototype
prototypes
protozoa
protracted
protraction
protruding
proud
proudly
prouve
provably
prove
proved
proven
proverbial
proves
provide
Provided
providence
providential
Providentially
provides
Providing
province
provinces
Provincial
provincials
proving
Provision
Provisional
provisionally
provisioned
PROVISIONS
proviso
provocation
provocations
provocative
provoke
provoked
Provost
proximity
proxy
Prudence
prudent
prudently
Prussia
Prussian
Prussians
PRÁXEDES
Præclara
Psalm
Psychology
pu
Publ
PUBLIC
publication
publications
publici
publicist
Publicists
publicity
publicly
publish
published
publisher
PUBLISHERS
publishes
Publishing
puddles
Puebla
pueblo
pueblos
puerilities
Puerto
Puertorican
Puertoricans
Puget
puis
pull
pulled
Pullman
Pulmer
pulmonary
pulpit
pump
pumping
Pumps
punctuality
Punctually
punctuated
Pundita
punish
punishable
punished
punishing
Punishment
Punishments
Punitive
Punjab
Punta
pupil
pupils
Pupin
pups
pupæ
purchasable
purchase
purchased
purchaser
purchases
purchasing
Pure
purely
purer
purest
purges
purified
Puritan
purity
purport
purported
purporting
purports
purpose
purposely
purposes
purposing
purse
pursuance
pursuant
pursue
pursued
pursuing
pursuit
pursuits
Pursuivant
Pursuivants
purview
push
pushed
pushing
put
Putnam
puts
putting
Puvis
puzzle
puzzling
pygmies
pylon
pyramid
pyramidal
pyramids
Pythagoras
pyæmia
Pâknam
Père
Pé
Pésé
Q
qtls
qu
quadrangular
quadrants
quadruple
quadrupled
quaint
quaintly
qualification
qualifications
qualified
qualify
qualifying
qualities
Quality
quantities
quantity
quarantine
Quaritch
Quarrel
quarrels
quarries
quarry
quarter
quartered
Quarterly
quartermaster
quartermasters
quarters
quarto
quashes
quashing
quasi
quay
quays
que
QUEBEC
Quebrada
Queen
Queenly
Queens
Queensland
Queenstown
quell
quelled
quelques
Queretaro
queried
Quesnay
QUESTION
questionable
questioned
questioning
questions
qui
quibbling
Quiberon
quick
quicken
quickened
quickening
quicker
quickest
quickly
quiescent
quiet
quieted
quietest
quietly
quietness
Quinalasag
Quincy
Quingua
quinine
Quinta
Quintin
Quinton
quit
quite
quitted
quitting
quivered
quivering
quivers
quo
Quod
quondam
quorum
quota
quotas
quotation
Quotations
quote
quoted
quotes
quoting
R
Raad
Rabbi
rabbinical
Rabbis
rabbit
rabbits
rabble
Rabi
rabid
rabidly
race
raced
RACES
racial
racing
racked
rackets
radical
radically
Radicals
radiometer
radius
Rafael
Raffles
raft
rafts
Rag
rage
raged
rages
raging
Ragsdale
Rahden
raid
raided
raider
raiders
raiding
raids
rail
railing
Railroad
railroading
railroads
rails
Railway
Railways
rain
rained
RAINES
rainfall
rains
rainy
raise
Raised
raises
Raising
Raja
Rajah
Rajpoots
Rajputana
Rajputs
raked
Rale
Raleigh
Ralli
rallied
rally
rallying
RALPH
ram
Ramabai
Ramahavaly
RAMAPO
Ramazan
Rameses
Ramesseum
Ramon
ramp
Rampart
Ramparts
Rampolla
rams
Ramsay
Ramsden
Ramses
ran
RANAVALOMANJAKA
ranches
ranching
rancor
rancour
RAND
Randolph
random
Randt
Ranfurly
rang
Range
ranged
ranges
ranging
rank
ranked
Rankine
ranking
rankled
ranks
ransack
ransacked
ransom
rapacity
rape
raped
Rapid
rapidity
rapidly
Rapido
Rapids
rapine
rapporteur
rapprochement
Rapurrapu
rare
Rarely
rarest
Rarotonga
Ras
rascal
Rashid
rashly
rashness
rata
ratable
rate
ratepayers
rates
Rather
Ratibor
ratification
ratifications
ratified
ratify
ratifying
rating
ratings
ratio
ration
rational
rations
rats
rattle
ravaged
ravages
Ravenni
ravine
ravines
ravishing
Ravndal
Ravololona
raw
rawest
Rawlinson
Ray
rayahs
Rayleigh
RAYS
razed
razor
razors
rd
Rds
Re
reach
reached
reaches
reaching
reaction
reactionaries
reactionary
read
reader
readers
readier
readily
readiness
Reading
readings
readjusting
reads
readvance
READY
reaffirm
reaffirmed
reaffirms
real
realisation
realise
realised
realising
realities
reality
realization
realize
realized
realizes
Realizing
really
realm
realty
reap
reaping
reappear
reappearance
reappeared
reapportionment
rear
reared
rearing
rearmost
rearrangement
rearward
reason
reasonable
reasonably
reasoning
reasons
reassemble
reassembled
reassembling
reassert
reasserting
Reassertion
reasserts
reassure
reassured
reassuring
rebate
rebates
rebel
rebelled
rebellion
rebellions
rebellious
rebels
rebuff
rebuilding
rebuilt
rebuke
rebuked
recalcitrancy
recall
recalled
recalling
recalls
recanted
recapitulate
recapitulated
Recapitulation
recapture
recaptured
recast
recasting
recede
receded
receipt
receipts
receivable
receive
received
receiver
receivers
receives
receiving
RECENT
Recently
reception
recess
recesses
recession
recipient
recipients
reciprocal
Reciprocally
reciprocate
reciprocated
RECIPROCITY
recital
recited
recites
reciting
reckless
recklessly
reckon
reckoned
reckoning
reclaim
reclaimed
reclaiming
reclamation
reclassified
Reclus
recognise
recognised
recognises
recognising
Recognition
recognizable
recognize
recognized
recognizes
recognizing
recoin
recoinage
recollections
Recolletos
recombined
recommence
recommend
recommendation
recommendations
recommended
recommending
recommends
recompense
reconcentrado
RECONCENTRADOS
reconcentration
reconcile
reconciled
reconciliation
reconciling
reconcontrados
reconducted
reconnaissance
reconnoiter
reconnoitered
reconnoitering
Reconnoitring
reconquer
reconquered
reconquest
reconsider
reconsideration
reconstitute
reconstituted
reconstitution
reconstructed
reconstruction
reconstructions
reconvened
RECORD
recorded
recorder
recording
records
recounted
recounts
recoup
recourse
recover
recovered
recovering
recovery
recreation
recriminating
recrossed
recrudescence
recruit
recruited
recruiting
recruits
rectification
rectified
rectify
rectitude
rector
recuperation
recuperative
recur
recurred
Recurrence
recurrent
recurring
red
Redcliffe
redeem
redeemable
redeemed
redeemer
redeeming
redemption
redemptions
Redfield
redhanded
redistribute
redistributing
redistribution
redistrict
redistricted
Redjaf
redoubled
redoubt
redoubtable
redound
redress
redressed
Reds
reduce
reduced
reduces
reducing
Reduction
reductions
redundant
Redvers
reed
reeds
reef
reefs
reelected
reelection
reeled
reenacted
reenforce
reenforcements
reenkindle
reestablishment
Reeve
Reeves
refashioning
refer
referee
REFERENCE
references
Referendum
referred
Referring
refers
refined
refinements
refiner
Refineries
refiners
refinery
refining
refitting
reflect
reflected
Reflecting
reflection
reflections
reform
Reformation
reformed
reformer
reformers
reforming
reforms
refracted
refrain
refrained
refraining
refreshing
refreshment
refrigerated
refrigeration
refuge
refugee
Refugees
refund
refunding
Refusal
refuse
refused
refuses
refusing
refute
regain
regained
regaining
regains
regal
Regard
regarded
Regarding
regardless
regards
regatta
regency
regenerate
regenerating
regeneration
REGENT
Regents
regime
regiment
regimental
regiments
Reginald
region
Regional
Regions
Regis
register
registered
registering
registers
Registrar
registrars
registration
registry
regnante
Regolado
regret
regrets
regrettable
Regular
regularity
regularly
REGULARS
regulate
regulated
regulating
regulation
regulations
regulièrement
rehabilitate
rehearsal
rehearsed
rehearsing
Rehoboam
Reichsrath
Reichsrathe
Reichstag
REID
Reign
reigned
reigning
reigns
REILEY
Reilly
reimposing
reimposition
Reina
Reinach
Reinauguration
reincorporate
reindeer
reindeers
Reinet
reinforce
reinforced
reinforcement
reinforcements
reins
reinscribed
reinstate
reinstated
reinstatement
reintroduced
Reis
reissue
reiterate
reiterated
reiterates
reiterating
Reitfontein
Reitz
reject
rejected
rejecting
Rejection
rejects
rejoice
rejoiced
rejoicing
rejoined
rejoining
rekindled
relapse
relapsed
relapsing
relate
related
relates
relating
relation
relations
relationship
relative
relatively
relatives
relax
relaxation
relaxations
relaxed
relay
release
released
releasing
relegate
relegated
relegating
relentless
reliable
reliably
reliance
reliant
relic
relics
relied
Relief
reliefs
relies
relieve
Relieved
relieves
relieving
religion
religionists
religions
religious
religiously
relinquish
relinquished
relinquishes
relinquishment
relish
reluctance
reluctant
reluctantly
rely
relying
rem
remain
remainder
remained
Remaining
remains
remanded
remark
remarkable
remarkably
remarked
remarking
remarks
remarquez
remedial
remedied
remedies
remedy
remedying
remember
remembered
Remembering
remembrance
remind
reminded
reminder
reminding
reminds
Remington
remiss
remission
remit
remits
remitted
Remmel
remnant
remnants
remodeled
remonstrance
Remonstrances
remonstrate
remonstrated
remonstrating
remorse
remote
remotely
remotest
Remounts
removable
removal
removals
remove
removed
removes
removing
remunerated
remuneration
remunerative
remuneratively
renal
Renault
render
rendered
rendering
renders
rending
rendition
Rendsburg
renegade
renew
renewable
renewal
Renewed
renewing
Rennes
Rennie
renomination
renounce
renounced
renouncement
renounces
renouncing
renovating
renovation
renown
renseignemcnts
rent
rental
rentals
rented
renting
rents
Renunciation
René
reoccupied
reoccupy
reopen
reopened
Reopening
reopens
reorganisation
reorganised
Reorganization
reorganize
Reorganized
Reorganizing
Rep
repaid
repair
repaired
repairing
repairs
reparation
repassed
repatriated
repatriation
repay
repayment
repeal
repealed
repealing
repeat
Repeated
repeatedly
repeating
repeats
repel
repelling
repent
repentance
repentant
repetition
replace
replaced
replacing
replant
replanted
replenish
replenishing
replied
replies
reply
replying
report
Reported
reporter
reporters
reporting
reports
repose
reposed
reposes
reposing
reprehensible
represent
Representation
representations
representative
REPRESENTATIVES
represented
representing
represents
repress
represses
repressing
repression
repressive
reprieves
reprimand
reprinted
reprisals
reproach
reproached
reproduce
reproduced
reproducing
reproduction
reprosecute
reprosecuted
reproving
Republic
Republica
Republican
republicanism
republicans
Republics
repudiate
repudiated
repudiates
repudiating
repudiation
repugnance
repugnant
repulse
repulsed
repulsive
reputable
reputation
repute
reputed
reputedly
request
requested
requesting
requests
require
required
requirement
REQUIREMENTS
requires
requiring
requisite
requisites
requisition
requisitioned
Requisitions
requite
requited
Rerum
resale
rescind
rescinded
rescission
Rescript
rescue
rescued
rescuing
RESEARCH
researches
resemblance
resemble
resembled
resembles
resembling
resent
resented
resentment
reservation
reservations
Reserve
reserved
reserves
reserving
Reservoir
reservoirs
Reseña
reshipped
Resht
reside
resided
residence
residences
resident
residential
Residents
resides
residing
residual
resign
resignation
resignations
resigned
resigning
resigns
resist
resistance
resisted
resisting
Resolute
resolutely
resolution
Resolutions
resolve
resolved
resolves
resolving
resonant
resort
resorted
resorting
resorts
resound
resounding
resource
Resources
respect
respectability
respectable
respected
respectful
respectfully
respecting
respective
respectively
respects
respiration
respites
respond
responded
Responding
responds
response
responsibilities
responsibility
responsible
responsive
responsiveness
rest
restaking
restaurants
rested
restful
resting
restitution
restive
restless
restlessness
Restoration
restorations
restore
restored
restores
restoring
restrain
restrained
restraining
restrains
restraint
restraints
restrict
restricted
restricting
restriction
Restrictions
rests
restée
result
resultant
resulted
resulting
Results
resume
resumed
resumes
resuming
resumption
Resurrection
resurvey
resurveying
retail
retain
retained
retainers
retaining
retains
retake
retaliate
retaliated
retaliation
Retaliatory
retard
retarded
retarding
retention
reticent
retinue
retire
retired
Retirement
retirements
retires
retiring
Retiro
retort
retorted
retrace
retraced
Retreat
retreated
Retrenchment
Retribution
retrocession
retrograde
retrogression
retrogressive
retrospective
return
Returned
Returning
returns
Reunion
reunite
reunited
Reuter
Rev
revaluations
reveal
revealed
revealing
reveals
revelation
revelations
reveled
revenge
revenged
revengeful
revenging
revenue
Revenues
reverence
Reverend
reverent
reverently
reversal
reverse
reversed
reverses
reversing
reversion
reversionary
revert
revictual
Review
reviewed
reviewing
reviews
revile
reviled
revise
Revised
revising
Revision
Revival
revive
revived
reviving
revocation
revoked
revoking
Revolt
revolted
revolting
Revolts
Revolution
revolutionaries
revolutionary
revolutionist
revolutionists
revolutionize
revolutionized
revolutionizing
revolutions
revolve
revolved
revolver
revolvers
revolving
Revue
revulsion
reward
rewarded
rewarding
rewards
Rey
Reyna
Reza
reëstablished
Rheinisch
Rhenish
Rhenoster
RHINE
Rhineland
RHODE
RHODES
Rhodesia
Rhodesians
ribbons
Ribot
ribs
RICA
Rican
Ricans
rice
Rich
Richard
Richardson
richer
riches
richest
richly
Richmond
Richthofen
RICO
Ricotti
rid
riddance
ridden
riddled
ride
rider
RIDERS
rides
ridge
ridges
ridiculed
ridiculous
ridiculously
riding
Ridpath
rife
rifle
riflemen
rifles
rift
rigging
Riggs
RIGHT
righted
righteous
righteously
righteousness
rightful
rightfully
righting
rightly
rightminded
rights
rigid
rigidly
rigor
rigorous
rigorously
rigour
Rikken
riksha
rilles
rinderpest
ring
ringing
ringleaders
ringleted
rings
RIO
Rios
riot
rioters
rioting
riotous
riots
riparian
ripe
ripened
ripens
Ripon
rise
risen
rises
Rishon
rising
risings
risk
risked
risks
Ristics
rite
Rites
ritual
Rius
rival
rivalry
Rivals
rive
river
Rivera
Rivers
Riverside
riveting
rivulet
RIZAL
Road
roads
roam
Roanoke
roar
roaring
roast
rob
robbed
robbers
robbery
Robbing
robed
ROBERT
Roberts
Robertson
robing
Robinson
robust
Roca
rocher
Rochesterville
Rochussen
rock
Rockefeller
rocker
rockers
rockets
Rockhill
Rockies
rocking
rocks
rocky
rod
rode
Rodriguez
rods
Roell
Roger
Rogers
Rohl
Rohlfs
Rojas
role
Rolin
roll
rolled
rolling
Rollins
rolls
ROM
Romaine
Roman
Romana
Romans
romantic
Romblon
Rome
Romero
Romulus
Ronald
Roncadore
Ronietta
Rontgen
roof
roofed
roofs
Rooineks
rookeries
Room
rooms
Roosevelt
root
rooted
rooting
rootless
roots
rope
Ropes
Roraima
Rosa
Rosales
rose
ROSEBERY
Rosecrans
Rosetta
rosettes
Rosetti
Rosmead
Ross
Rossi
Rossia
Rosthorn
Rostofski
rotary
rotate
rotating
Rotation
Rothschild
Rothschilds
rotten
rottenness
rotting
rotunda
Roubaix
rouble
roubles
Rouge
Rough
roughed
rougher
roughly
Roughriders
Roughs
roughshod
Rougé
ROUMANIA
Roumanian
Roumanie
Round
rounded
Roundell
rounding
rounds
Rounseville
rouse
roused
rousing
Rousseau
rout
route
routed
Routes
routine
routing
Roux
roving
Row
rowdies
rowed
Rowell
rows
royal
royalist
royalists
royally
Royalty
rubbed
rubber
rubbing
rubbish
rubies
ruble
rubles
Rud
rudder
rude
rudely
ruder
rudest
rudimentary
rudiments
RUDINI
Rudolf
Rudolph
Rue
ruffian
ruffianism
Ruffianly
ruffians
Rufus
rug
Rugby
rugged
ruin
ruined
ruining
ruinous
ruins
Ruis
Rule
ruled
ruler
rulers
rules
Ruling
rum
RUMANIA
Rumanian
Rumanians
rumbling
rumor
rumored
rumors
rumour
rumoured
rumours
run
Rundle
runners
Running
runs
rupee
rupees
rupture
rural
ruse
Ruses
rush
rushed
rushes
rushing
Ruskin
Russel
Russell
Russia
Russian
Russianize
Russianizing
Russians
Russias
Russification
Russify
Russifying
RUSSO
Rustem
rustic
rustle
Ruthenians
Rutherford
ruthless
ruthlessly
ruthlessness
Rutledge
ruts
Ryan
rye
Rykovskaya
RÖNTGEN
règles
régime
régulièrement
Ríos
rôle
Röntgen
s
Saatz
Saban
Sabbath
Sabderat
Sabine
Saburo
sac
sacerdotal
sache
Sacher
Saclemente
sacrament
sacraments
Sacred
sacredness
sacrifice
sacrificed
sacrifices
sacrificial
sacrilege
sad
saddened
sadder
saddled
saddler
saddles
Sadiki
sadly
Sadok
Saenz
safe
safeguard
safeguarded
safeguards
safely
safer
safest
safety
sag
sagacity
SAGASTA
Sage
SAGHALIEN
Sagua
Saham
Sahara
said
Saigo
Saigon
sail
sailed
Sailing
sailor
sailors
sails
Saint
saints
Saionji
saith
sak
sake
SAKHALIN
Sala
salaamed
Salaga
Salamon
Salaria
salaried
salaries
salary
sale
saleable
Salem
sales
salesmen
Salic
salient
Salim
Salinas
Salisbury
salivary
Salles
sallow
Salonica
Saloon
saloons
salt
Salter
saltpeter
salutary
Salutations
salute
saluted
salutes
saluting
Salvador
Salvadorean
salvage
Salvago
Salvation
Sam
Samal
Samar
Samara
Samaria
same
Samekh
Sammun
SAMOA
SAMOAN
Samoans
Samos
samples
SAMPSON
Samuel
San
sanatorium
Sanciano
Sancta
Sancti
sanction
sanctioned
sanctity
sanctuaries
sanctuary
SAND
Sandaken
sandbags
sandbank
Sandeco
Sandherr
sands
sandstone
Sandusky
Sandwith
sandy
Sanford
SANG
sanguinary
sanguine
sanguinis
Sanial
Sanitary
sanitation
sank
Sannikoff
Sans
Sansing
Sant
Santa
Santandar
Santiago
Santo
Santos
Saracco
Sarajevo
Saranguani
Sarawakian
Sarcey
Sargent
Sargon
Sargonic
sarra
Sartain
Sartinski
Sarzec
Sassaks
Sassoun
Sassun
sat
satin
satins
satire
satirical
satirically
satisfaction
satisfactorily
satisfactory
satisfied
satisfy
satisfying
Satolli
Satow
Satrustegui
Satsuma
saturated
Saturday
saturnalia
sauntering
sausage
sausages
Sauter
sauve
savage
savagely
savagery
savages
Save
saved
Savile
saving
Savings
Saviour
Savornin
savour
Savoy
saw
sawed
Sawyer
Saxe
Saxon
Saxony
say
Sayce
saying
sayings
says
Scadding
scaffolding
scale
scaled
scaling
scalping
scamped
Scandal
scandalized
scandalous
scandals
Scandinavia
Scandinavian
scant
scanty
scar
scarce
scarcely
scarcity
scare
scarlatina
scarlet
scathing
scats
scatter
scattered
scattereth
scattering
scatters
scene
scenery
scenes
scenic
scent
scepticism
sceptics
sceptre
Schaeffer
Schalk
Schedule
schedules
Scheil
scheme
schemes
scheming
Schenectady
Scheurer
Schillingsfürst
Schleswig
Schley
Schliemann
scholar
scholarly
scholars
scholarship
scholastic
Schomburgk
Schonborn
school
schoolboys
schoolfellows
schoolhouse
schoolhouses
schooling
schoolmaster
schoolroom
schoolrooms
schools
schooner
Schrader
SCHREINER
Schumann
Schurman
Schuur
Schwan
Schwarzkoppen
Schwerin
Schönerer
sciemment
science
sciences
SCIENTIFIC
scientifically
Scientifique
scientist
scientists
Scimetar
Scoble
scoldings
Scope
scorching
score
scores
scorn
scorned
Scotch
scotched
Scotia
Scotland
Scott
Scottish
scoured
scourge
scourged
scouring
scouts
scramble
scrambling
scrap
scraper
scratch
screen
screened
screw
Scribner
script
scripts
scrolls
scrupled
scrupulous
scrupulously
scrutinize
sculptor
sculptors
sculptural
sculpture
sculptures
scum
scuttered
Scythian
Se
sea
seaboard
seaboards
seacoast
seacoasts
Seagoing
seal
sealed
sealer
sealers
sealing
seals
sealskins
seamed
Seamen
seams
seaport
seaports
sear
search
searched
searches
searching
seas
seashore
season
seasons
Seat
seated
seating
seats
Seattle
Seaver
seaward
seawards
Sebastian
seceded
Secession
secessions
seclusion
Second
secondary
seconder
Secondly
secrecy
Secret
Secretariate
secretaries
Secretary
Secretaryship
secretion
secretly
secrets
secrète
sect
sectarian
sectarianism
Section
sectional
Sectionalism
Sections
sects
secular
Secularist
Secularists
secundus
secure
secured
securely
secures
securing
securities
security
Sedalia
Sedan
Seddon
sedentary
Sedition
seditionary
seditious
seduce
seduction
seductive
sedulously
see
Seebohm
seed
seeds
Seeing
seek
seekers
seeking
seeks
Seeley
seem
seemed
seeming
seems
seen
sees
seething
Segan
segment
segregated
segregation
Seguin
Seidl
Seine
seised
Seiyu
Seiyukai
seize
seized
seizing
seizure
seizures
Selborne
seldom
select
Selected
selecting
selection
selections
selector
selects
self
selfish
selfishness
Selkirk
sell
seller
Sellers
selling
sells
semblance
Semerara
semi
semibarbarous
semicircle
seminaries
seminary
Seminole
SEMINOLES
Semite
SEMITES
Semitic
Semitised
Semitism
senate
senator
senatorial
Senators
sence
send
sending
sends
Seneca
Senefern
SENEGAL
Senegalese
Senegambia
Senior
seniority
Sennacherib
Senor
SENOUSSI
sensation
Sensational
sensations
sense
senseless
sensibilities
sensible
sensibly
sensitive
sensitiveness
sent
sentence
sentenced
sentences
sentiment
sentimental
sentimentality
sentiments
sentinel
sentinelled
sentinels
sentries
sentry
Seoul
separate
separated
separately
separates
Separating
Separation
Sephardists
September
sepulchers
sepulchre
sequel
sequence
sequences
Sequeros
Serapeion
Serbs
Serene
serenity
serfdom
serfs
Sergeant
sergeants
series
Serious
seriously
seriousness
Serjeant
Serjeants
sermon
Serpa
serried
serum
servant
servants
serve
served
serves
Servia
Servian
SERVICE
serviceable
services
serving
servir
servitude
servitudes
serviçal
Seslien
session
Sessions
set
Seth
Sethos
Seti
sets
setting
settings
settle
settled
settlement
settlements
settler
settlers
settles
settling
Seven
seventeen
seventeenth
Seventh
Seventhly
seventies
seventieth
seventy
sever
Several
severally
SEVERALTY
severance
Severe
severed
severely
severest
severing
severity
Sevilla
Seville
sewage
Sewall
Seward
sewed
Sewerage
sewered
sewers
sewing
sex
Sexennate
sexes
Sextant
Sexton
sexually
Seymour
Seyyidieh
Señor
Señorita
Señors
Sfax
sha
shabbiness
shackle
shade
shades
shadow
shadowed
shadows
shaft
Shafter
shafts
Shah
Shahuo
shake
shaken
Shakespeare
shaking
Shakir
shall
shallow
shallowness
shallows
shalt
sham
shambles
shame
shamed
Shameful
shamefully
Shamrock
Shan
Shang
Shanghae
Shanghai
Shanghaikuan
Shanhai
Shanhaikuan
Shanhaikwan
Shankaikuan
Shansi
Shantung
Shao
shape
shaped
shaping
sharaki
share
shared
shareholders
shares
sharing
Sharon
sharp
Sharpe
sharper
sharpest
sharply
sharpshooters
Shashih
Shatt
shattered
Shattuck
Shaw
Shawneetown
shaykhs
She
shear
shed
shedding
sheds
sheep
sheer
sheet
sheets
Sheik
Sheikh
Sheiks
Shelby
Sheldon
Shell
Shelled
shelling
shells
shelter
sheltered
shelters
shelved
shelves
shelving
Shen
Sheng
Shenking
Shensi
shepherds
Sher
Sheriff
sheriffs
Sherman
Shetlands
Sheu
shew
shewn
shi
shia
Shiba
shield
shielded
Shifalu
shift
shifting
shiftless
Shigoku
Shih
Shilka
Shilkhak
shilling
shillings
Shilluk
Shimazu
Shimonoseki
Shims
Shimti
shin
shine
shines
Shingking
shining
Shio
ship
shipboard
shipbuilding
shipmen
shipment
shipments
shipowners
Shipp
shipped
shippers
SHIPPING
ships
shipwrecked
shipyards
SHIRE
shires
shirk
shirt
shirts
Shiré
Shishak
shiver
shivered
Shoa
shoal
shock
shocked
shocking
shockingly
shocks
shod
Shoe
shoes
Shogun
Shogunate
shoot
shooteth
shooting
shoots
Shop
shopkeeper
shopkeepers
Shops
Shore
shores
shorn
short
shortcomings
shorten
shortened
shortening
shorter
shortest
Shortland
shortly
shortness
shot
shots
Shou
Should
shoulder
shouldered
shoulders
Shoushan
shout
shouted
shouting
shoved
Show
showed
Showing
shown
shows
shrank
shrapnel
shred
shrewd
shrieking
shrieks
shrine
shrines
shrink
shrinkage
shrinking
shrinks
shrouded
shrunk
Shu
shudder
shuddering
shui
Shuja
SHUN
shut
shutting
Shuy
Shâsha
Shê
Shên
si
Siah
Siam
Siamese
Sian
siang
Siaoheichan
Siargao
Siassi
Siberia
SIBERIAN
Siboney
Sibutu
Sibuyan
sic
Sicilian
Sicily
Sick
sickening
sickle
sickly
sickness
Siddons
side
sided
sidedness
sidereal
sides
sidetrack
sideways
Sidgwick
Sidi
Sidon
Siege
Sieges
Sieleny
Siemens
sien
SIERRA
sifted
sight
sighted
sights
sign
Signal
signaled
signaler
signalize
signalized
signalled
signally
signals
signatories
Signatory
signature
signatures
signed
signers
signets
Significance
significant
significantly
signification
signified
signifies
signify
signifying
signing
Signor
signs
Sikhs
Silan
Silang
Silas
silence
silenced
silencing
silent
silently
Silesia
Silico
silicon
silk
silken
silks
silkworms
Silvela
silver
Silvestre
Simara
similar
similarity
similarly
simile
similitude
Simla
simmering
Simon
Simonstown
simple
simpler
simplest
simplicity
simplification
simplify
simplifying
Simplon
simply
simultaneous
simultaneously
sin
Sinaitic
since
sincere
sincerely
sincerity
Sind
sine
sinful
sinfully
sing
Singan
Singapore
singing
single
singled
singles
singly
sings
singular
singularity
singularly
sinister
sink
sinking
Sinminting
sins
Sioux
Siquijor
Sir
Sirdar
Sire
Sisran
Sissoi
sister
Sisters
sit
site
sites
sits
sitting
sittings
situate
situated
Situation
situs
Siu
Sivas
six
sixfold
sixpence
sixteen
Sixteenth
Sixth
Sixthly
sixtieth
Sixty
size
sized
sizes
Siècle
Skagway
Skaugh
skeleton
skelter
Skelton
skepticism
Sketch
sketches
skies
skilful
skilfully
skill
Skilled
skillful
skillfully
skimmed
skin
skinned
skins
skirmish
skirmishers
skirmishes
skirmishing
skirt
skirted
skirting
skirts
Skouses
skulls
sky
slab
slabs
slack
slackened
slain
slandering
slate
slaughter
slaughtered
Slav
slave
slaveholding
slavery
slaves
Slavic
Slavo
Slavonic
Slavs
slay
slayers
sledge
sledges
Sledging
sleds
sleep
sleepers
sleeping
Sleigh
slept
SLESWICK
slice
slid
sliding
Slight
slightest
slightly
slip
slipped
slips
slipshod
slogans
slope
Sloping
slot
sloth
Slovak
Slovenes
Slovenian
slow
slowed
slower
slowly
sluice
sluices
slum
slumbered
slumbering
slumberous
smack
small
smaller
smallest
smallness
smallpox
smartness
smashed
smeared
smell
smelters
smile
smiled
smiling
Smit
smite
smites
Smith
Smithmeyer
Smithsonian
smoke
SMOKELESS
smokers
smoking
Smollenske
smooth
smoothed
smoothing
smoothly
smoothness
smothered
smoulder
smouldering
smuggled
smugglers
Smuggling
Smuts
Smyrna
Smyth
snail
Snake
snakes
snap
snapper
snare
snares
snatch
snatched
Snead
sneers
sniper
sniping
Snow
snows
snowy
SO
soaked
soap
soapstone
Sobat
sober
sobering
soberness
sobriety
Socapa
social
socialism
SOCIALIST
socialistic
Socialists
socialization
socially
Sociedad
Societies
Society
Société
sockets
sod
Soden
sodium
soever
Sofia
soft
Softas
soften
softened
softening
softens
softness
Sohm
soil
sojourned
sojourner
sojourning
SOKOTO
solace
Solar
sold
soldered
solders
soldier
soldierly
Soldiers
soldiery
sole
solely
solemn
solemnely
solemnities
solemnity
solemnly
Solent
solicit
solicitation
solicitations
solicitor
solicitous
solicitude
solid
solidarity
solidification
solidified
solidify
solidifying
solidity
solidly
solitary
solitude
Solomon
solution
Solutions
solve
solved
solvency
solvent
Somali
SOMALIS
some
somebody
somehow
somersaults
Somerset
Something
sometidos
sometimes
somewhat
somewhere
somnolence
Son
song
songs
Sonora
sons
Soochow
soon
Sooner
soothe
sorcerer
sorcery
sordid
sore
sorely
Soriano
sorrow
sorrowful
Sorrowfully
sorrows
sorry
sort
sortie
sorts
soshi
Sosian
SOUDAN
Soudanese
soufflet
sought
soul
souls
sound
sounded
sounder
sounding
Soundings
soundness
sounds
source
sources
Sousse
Soutcheou
south
southeast
southeasterly
southeastern
southeastward
southerly
southern
southernmost
Southgate
southward
southwardly
southwards
Southwark
SOUTHWEST
southwesterly
southwestern
southwestward
southwestwards
Southworth
souvenir
souvenirs
Sovereign
sovereigns
sovereignties
Sovereignty
sow
sown
Soziale
space
spaces
spacious
spade
spadeful
Spain
span
Spaniard
Spaniards
Spanish
spanned
spare
spared
sparing
sparingly
spark
sparkling
sparks
sparred
spars
sparse
sparsely
spasmodic
Spaulding
speak
speakee
speaker
speakers
Speaking
speaks
spear
spearmen
spears
special
SPECIALISTS
specialized
specially
specialties
specie
species
specific
specifically
specification
specifications
specified
specify
specimen
specimens
specious
spectacle
Spectator
spectators
spectra
spectre
spectroscopic
Spectrum
speculation
speculative
speculators
Speech
speeches
speechless
speed
speedier
speedily
speeds
speedy
spelt
Spencer
spend
spending
spendthrifts
spent
Speranza
sperm
spermato
Sphakia
sphere
Spheres
spherical
spice
spiders
spies
spill
spilt
spinal
spindle
Spine
spinning
SPION
spirit
spirited
spiritedly
spirits
Spiritual
spiritualistic
spirituous
Spiritus
Spirogyra
spit
spite
Spitzbergen
Spitzkop
splashing
spleen
splendid
splendidly
splendor
splendour
splenic
splints
split
splitting
spoil
spoiled
spoilers
SPOILS
spoilsmen
spoke
spoken
spokesman
spokesmen
spoliation
spongy
sponsor
sponsors
spontaneous
spontaneously
spool
spoon
Spooner
sporadic
spore
spores
sport
sporting
sports
spot
spots
Spouse
sprang
Spray
spread
spreaders
spreading
spreads
Spreckles
Spree
Sprigg
spring
SPRINGFIELD
springing
springs
sprouted
sprung
spur
spurs
spurt
sputtering
spy
Spytfontein
sq
squadron
squadrons
squads
squalls
squandered
Square
squarely
squares
squaring
squeeze
squeezing
Squiers
SS
Ssu
Ssuchuan
Ssü
st
Staal
Staats
stabbed
stability
stable
stables
stablished
stabs
stack
stacked
stacks
Stadden
stades
stadium
Stadling
staff
staffs
stag
stage
stages
staggered
staggering
stagnant
stagnate
stagnation
staid
stain
stained
Stainer
staircase
stake
staked
stakes
staking
stalwart
Stamboul
STAMBOULOFF
stammered
Stamp
stamped
stampede
stamping
stamps
Stanard
stanchest
stanchly
stand
standard
standards
standi
Standing
standpoint
stands
standstill
Stanford
Stanley
staples
star
starboard
starch
stare
staring
Starke
starred
Stars
start
started
Starting
startled
startling
startlingly
starts
starvation
starve
starved
starving
Stasts
Stat
state
statecraft
Stated
Statehood
stately
statement
statements
Staten
staterooms
Staters
States
statesman
statesmanlike
statesmanship
statesmen
stating
Station
stationary
stationed
Stationery
STATIONS
Statist
statistical
statistician
statistics
Statistische
Statsco
statu
statue
statues
stature
status
Statute
Statutes
statutory
staunch
stay
stayed
staying
Stead
steadfast
steadfastly
steadily
steadiness
steading
steady
steal
stealers
stealing
steam
steamboat
steamboats
steamed
steamer
Steamers
steaming
steamship
steamships
steel
Steenstrup
steep
steeped
steeple
steered
steering
steers
Steevens
Stein
Steindorf
Steindorff
stela
stele
Stella
stem
stench
stenographers
stentorian
step
Stephanus
Stephen
Stephens
Stepniak
Steppe
steppes
stepping
steps
stepson
stereotyped
sterile
Sterkfontein
sterling
stern
Sternberg
sterner
stethoscope
Stetson
Stettin
Steubenville
Stevens
STEVENSON
Steward
Stewart
Steyn
stick
sticklets
sticks
stiff
stifled
stifling
stigmatised
Stikine
stiletto
still
stilled
Stillman
Stillé
stimulate
stimulated
stimulating
stimulation
stimulus
stinging
stinking
stipulate
stipulated
stipulating
stipulation
stipulations
stir
stirred
Stirring
stitched
stitches
stock
stockholder
stockholders
Stockholm
stocks
Stoffel
Stokes
stole
stolen
stomach
Stone
stoned
Stonehenge
stones
Stoney
stood
STOOL
stop
stoppage
stoppages
stopped
stopping
stops
storage
store
stored
storehouse
storeroom
stores
storeyed
storied
stories
storing
storm
Stormberg
stormed
storming
storms
Stormy
Storrs
Storthing
story
Stotsenberg
Stoughton
stout
stoutly
stoves
Stowe
stowed
straggling
stragglingly
straight
straightforward
strain
strained
straining
strains
Strait
Straits
Stranahan
strand
strands
Strange
strangely
strangeness
stranger
strangers
strangest
strangle
strangled
Stransky
straps
strata
stratagem
strategic
strategical
strategically
strategy
Strathcona
stratum
Strauss
straw
stray
strays
stream
streamed
streaming
streams
street
streets
STRENGTH
strengthen
strengthened
strengthening
Strenuous
strenuously
stress
stretch
stretched
stretcher
stretchers
stretches
stretching
Stretensk
strewn
Stricken
strict
stricter
strictest
strictly
strictness
stride
strides
strife
Strike
strikers
STRIKES
striking
strikingly
Strindberg
string
stringency
stringent
strings
strip
Stripes
stripped
stripping
strive
striven
striving
strivings
strode
stroke
strokes
stroll
strolled
strolling
strong
stronger
strongest
stronghold
strongholds
strongly
Strouts
strove
struck
structure
structures
Struggle
struggled
struggles
struggling
strung
Stryetensk
Stuart
stubborn
stubbornly
stubbornness
Stubbs
Stuben
stuck
studded
student
STUDENTS
studied
studies
studious
study
studying
stuff
stuffed
stuffs
stultified
stultifies
stumbled
stupa
stupefies
stupendous
stupid
stupidest
stupidities
stupidity
sturdy
Stuttgart
Stuyvesant
Style
styled
styling
Su
Suakim
Suakin
Suarda
sub
subalterns
subbasement
subcommission
subcommissions
subdelegation
subdistricts
subdivide
subdivided
subdivision
subdue
subdued
subduing
Subic
subject
subjected
subjecting
subjection
SUBJECTS
subjoined
subjugate
subjugated
subjugating
Subjugation
subjugator
Sublime
sublimity
submarine
submerged
submersion
submission
submissions
submissive
submit
submits
submitted
submitting
subordinate
subordinated
subordinates
suborn
subornation
subscribe
subscribed
subscriber
subscribers
subscribing
subscription
subscriptions
subsection
subsequent
subsequently
subserve
subserved
subserviency
subsided
subsidence
subsidiary
subsidies
subsidise
subsidised
subsidising
subsidized
subsidizing
subsidy
subsist
subsistence
subsisting
subsoil
substance
substances
substantial
substantially
substantiated
substations
substitute
substituted
substitutes
substituting
Substitution
substructures
subtle
subtly
subtracted
subtraction
subtropical
suburb
suburbs
subvention
subventions
subversion
subversive
subvert
subverted
subverting
Subway
succeed
succeeded
succeeding
succeeds
success
successes
successful
successfully
succession
successive
successor
successors
succinct
succinctly
succinctness
succor
succoured
succumb
succumbed
Such
Suchow
Suda
Sudan
SUDANESE
sudd
Sudden
suddenly
suddenness
sue
sued
sues
Suez
suffer
suffered
sufferers
suffering
sufferings
suffers
suffice
sufficed
suffices
sufficiency
sufficient
sufficiently
suffocated
suffocation
suffrage
suffrages
sugar
sugars
suggest
suggested
suggesting
suggestion
suggestions
suggestive
suggests
Sugita
Sugiyama
Sui
suicidal
Suicide
suing
suit
suitability
suitable
suitably
suite
suited
suitor
suits
Sukkur
Sul
sullen
Sullivan
sulphate
sulphur
Sultan
Sultanate
Sultans
Sulu
sum
Sumatra
SUMER
Sumerian
Sumerians
summarily
summarised
summarized
summarizing
Summary
summed
Summer
Summerall
Summing
summit
summits
summon
summoned
summoning
summons
summum
Sumner
sumptuary
sumptuous
sums
sun
Sunda
Sunday
Sundays
sunder
sundown
Sundry
Sung
Sungari
Sunk
Sunken
sunlight
sunny
sunrise
suns
sunset
Sunshine
superannuated
Superannuation
superb
supercilious
superficial
superfluous
superintend
superintended
superintendence
Superintendent
superintendents
superintending
Superior
superiority
superiors
supernatural
superposed
superposition
supersede
Superseded
superseding
supersession
superstition
superstitions
superstructure
superstructures
supervened
supervise
supervised
supervising
supervision
supervisors
supervisory
supine
Supper
supplant
supplanted
supplanting
supplement
supplemental
supplementary
supplemented
supplements
supplied
supplies
supply
supplying
support
Supported
supporter
supporters
supporting
supports
supposably
suppose
supposed
supposes
supposing
supposition
suppositious
suppress
suppressed
suppressing
suppression
suppuration
Suprema
supremacy
Supreme
supremely
suprême
sur
Surat
sure
surely
surest
surety
surf
surface
surfaced
surfaces
surgeon
surgeons
surgery
surgical
surgically
surmise
surmised
surmising
surmounted
surpass
surpassed
surpassing
surplus
surprise
surprised
surprises
surprising
surprisingly
surrender
surrendered
surrendering
surrenders
surreptitious
surreptitiously
surround
surrounded
surrounding
Surroundings
surveillance
Survey
surveyed
surveying
Surveyor
surveys
survive
survived
survives
surviving
survivor
survivors
Susa
susceptibilities
susceptibility
susceptible
suspect
suspected
suspects
suspend
suspended
Suspending
suspends
suspens
suspense
Suspension
suspicion
suspicions
suspicious
suspiciously
sustain
sustained
sustaining
sustenance
Sutcliffe
sutlers
Sutro
SUWAROFF
suzerain
Suzerainty
Suákin
Svend
Sverdrup
Swallow
swallowed
swallows
swamp
swamped
swamps
swampy
swarm
swarmed
swash
Swat
Swatow
Swats
sway
swayed
Swaziland
Swazis
swear
swears
sweat
sweating
Sweden
Swedes
Swedish
sweep
sweeping
sweepings
sweeps
sweetheart
sweetness
sweets
swell
swelled
swelling
swept
swerved
swift
swiftly
swifty
swim
swimming
swine
swing
Swinging
Swiss
switches
Switzerland
swollen
sword
swords
swore
sworn
swung
Sybel
sycophant
Sydney
syllabic
syllable
symbol
symbolical
symbolized
symbols
Symons
sympathetic
sympathies
sympathise
sympathisers
sympathize
sympathizers
sympathizes
sympathy
symptom
symptoms
synagogue
Syndicate
Syndicates
Synod
synods
synopsis
Syracuse
Syria
Syrian
system
systematic
systematically
systematise
systematization
systematize
systems
Szechuan
Szechuen
Szell
Szilagyi
Sérapeum
T
ta
Taaffe
Taal
tabards
Tabasco
Tabellen
tabernacle
Tablas
TABLE
tableland
TABLES
tablet
tablets
tabooed
taboos
Tabora
tabulated
Tabulinga
tacit
tacitly
Tacitus
tacked
tacking
TACNA
Tacoma
tact
tactfulness
tactical
tactics
tael
taels
Taft
Tagal
Tagalo
Tagalog
TAGALOGS
TAGALOS
Tagals
Tagblatt
Tahiti
Tai
tail
tailoring
tails
Taimoro
tainted
Taiping
Takamori
Takaungu
take
Taken
takers
Takes
taking
Taku
Takutu
Talajit
Talana
Talavera
tale
talent
talents
tales
Taliaferro
TALIENWAN
talisman
talk
talked
talking
talks
tall
Talmud
Tamasese
Tamaulipas
Tamayo
TAMMANY
Tampa
Tan
Tana
Tanamo
Tandubato
tang
Tanganyika
tangents
tangible
tangle
tangled
tank
tanks
Tanner
tanneries
tantamount
Tanu
TAO
Taoist
Taotai
Tapan
tape
taper
tapping
tardily
tardy
Tarfa
target
tariff
TARIFFS
Tarlac
tarnished
tarpaulin
Tartar
Tartary
task
taskmasters
tasks
TASMANIA
taste
tattered
Tau
Tauchnitz
taught
Taungs
taunting
Taussig
taut
Tawai
Tawi
tax
taxable
Taxation
taxed
taxes
taxing
taxpayer
taxpayers
Tayabas
Taylor
Tayug
Tchad
Tchernaieff
Te
tea
teach
teacher
Teachers
teaches
teaching
teachings
tear
tearing
tears
Tebet
technical
technicalities
technicality
technically
Technology
Teck
tedious
teemed
teeming
teems
teeth
teetotalers
Teheran
TEHUANTEPEC
Telegram
telegrams
Telegraph
telegraphed
telegraphic
telegraphing
Telegraphs
telegraphy
Telephone
telephones
telephonic
TELEPHONY
telescope
Telin
Tell
Teller
telling
Tello
Telloh
tells
Tembuland
Temistocle
temper
temperament
temperance
temperate
temperately
temperature
temperatures
tempered
tempest
tempests
temple
temples
Temporal
temporarily
temporary
temporize
Temps
tempt
temptation
temptations
tempting
Ten
tenable
tenacity
tenancy
tenant
tenants
tend
tended
tendencies
tendency
tender
tendered
tenderness
tenders
tending
tendons
tends
Teneriffe
tenet
tenets
TENNESSEE
Tenney
tennis
Tennyson
tenor
tens
tension
tent
tentage
tentative
Tenth
Tenthly
tenths
tents
tenure
tenures
Tepic
Terai
Teresa
term
termed
terminable
terminal
terminals
terminate
terminated
terminates
terminating
termination
terminations
termino
terminos
terminus
terms
terra
terrace
terrazzo
Terrell
terrestrial
terrestrially
terrible
terribly
terrific
terrified
terrify
Territorial
territoriality
Territories
Territory
terror
terrorise
terrorists
terrorized
terrors
tersely
TESLA
Test
testament
testamentary
tested
testifie
testified
testifies
testify
testifying
Testimony
testing
tests
Tetabiate
tetanus
Tetuan
Teuffel
Texan
Texans
Texas
text
textbooks
textile
textiles
texts
texture
th
thalers
thalweg
Thames
than
Thana
thank
thanked
thankful
thankfully
thankfulness
thanking
Thanks
Thanksgiving
that
thatched
thatches
Thayer
THE
theater
theatre
theatrical
Thebes
thee
theft
Their
theirs
them
theme
themselves
then
thence
thenceforth
theocracy
Theodor
Theodore
Theodosius
theologian
theologians
theological
theoretic
theoretical
theoretically
theories
theorist
theorists
Theory
there
Thereafter
thereby
therefor
Therefore
therefrom
therein
thereof
thereon
Theresias
thereto
theretofore
thereunder
thereunto
Thereupon
therewith
Thermometer
Thermopylæ
these
Thessalian
Thessalians
Thessaly
they
thick
thickened
thicker
thickest
thicket
thickly
thickness
Thiers
Thievery
Thieves
thigh
thimble
thin
thine
thing
things
Think
thinking
thinks
thinly
thinned
Third
Thirdly
thirds
thirst
thirteen
Thirteenth
thirtieth
Thirty
This
thither
thitherto
tho
Thomann
Thomas
Thompson
Thomson
thorn
Thornhill
thorns
Thornton
Thoroddsen
thorough
thoroughfare
thoroughfares
thoroughly
thoroughness
those
thou
Though
thought
thoughtful
thoughtless
thoughts
thousand
thousands
thraldom
thrash
thread
threadless
threads
threat
threaten
Threatened
threatening
threatenings
threatens
threats
three
threshold
thresholds
threw
thrice
thrift
thrill
thrilling
thrive
thriven
thrives
thriving
throat
Throndak
throne
throng
thronged
throttled
Through
throughout
throw
throwing
thrown
throws
thrust
Thun
thunder
thundered
thundering
Thurman
Thursday
Thurston
thus
THUTMOSIS
thwart
thwarted
thwarting
thy
Tiber
Tiberias
Tibet
Ticao
ticket
tickets
Tidal
tide
tided
tidewater
tidings
tie
tied
tien
tiens
Tientsin
ties
Tiflis
tightly
Tiglath
Tigris
Tila
Tilden
tile
tiled
tiles
Till
tillage
tilled
tillers
Tillman
timber
timbered
Time
timed
timely
Times
timid
timidity
timidly
Timothy
Tin
Tinagua
tincture
Ting
tinge
tinged
tingling
tinned
Tinneh
tinsel
tiny
tirades
Tirailleurs
tired
Tirol
Tirolese
Tiryns
Tis
tissue
title
titles
titre
titular
Tiumen
Tlaxcala
To
tobacco
Tobago
TOCHI
today
toes
together
Togo
TOGOLAND
Tohoku
toil
toiled
toiler
Toit
Tokat
token
Tokio
Tokiwo
Tokyo
told
TOLEDO
tolerable
tolerance
tolerant
tolerate
tolerated
tolerating
toleration
Toll
tolls
Tolosan
Tolstoi
Tom
Tomas
tomb
tombs
Tommy
tomorrow
Tompkins
Tomsk
ton
tone
tones
tong
Tonga
Tongaland
Tongkew
Tongking
Tongoland
tongue
tongues
Tonnage
Tonquin
Tons
tonsure
too
took
tool
tools
top
topazes
topic
topics
topmost
topographical
topography
topped
topple
toppled
tops
TORAL
torch
torches
torchon
torment
tormented
tormentors
torn
Tornado
Tornielli
Torpedo
torpedoes
Torquemada
Torquino
torrent
torrents
Torres
torrid
tortuous
torture
tortured
tortures
Tory
Toryism
Tosa
Toski
TOTAL
totally
Totals
toto
touch
touched
touches
touching
toughs
Toulon
Toulouse
tour
tourist
tourists
tours
tousled
tout
toute
toward
Towards
towed
tower
towered
towering
towers
Town
Towne
Towns
Townsend
Townshend
township
townships
townspeople
toxic
toxine
toxines
toxins
trace
traced
tracery
traces
tracing
track
trackless
tracks
Tract
tracts
Tracy
trade
traded
trademarks
traders
trades
tradesman
Tradesmen
tradespeople
trading
tradition
traditional
traditions
traffic
trafficking
tragedies
tragedy
tragic
tragical
tragically
Trail
trailing
Traill
Trails
train
trainbands
trained
Training
Trains
trait
traitor
traitors
Traitre
tramcar
tramp
trample
trampled
trampling
tramps
tramway
tramways
tranquil
tranquillity
tranquillizing
trans
transact
transacted
transacting
transaction
transactions
Transbaikalia
Transcaspia
transcend
transcended
transcendent
Transcendental
transcontinental
transcribed
transcriber
transcript
transfer
transference
transferred
transferring
transfers
transform
transformation
transformations
transformed
transformer
transformers
transforming
transgression
transient
transit
transition
transitory
Transkei
translate
translated
translating
translation
Translations
translator
transliteration
transmission
transmissions
transmit
transmittal
transmitted
transmitter
transmitters
transmitting
transmute
transparent
transpired
transport
transportation
transported
transporters
transporting
Transports
transradiable
transubstantiation
TRANSVAAL
Transvaalers
trap
trapping
Trarieux
Trave
travel
traveled
traveler
traveling
travelled
traveller
travellers
travelling
travels
Travers
traverse
traversed
traverses
traversing
trays
treacherous
treacherously
treachery
treacle
tread
Treason
treasonable
treasure
treasurer
Treasurers
treasures
treasuries
treasury
treat
treated
Treaties
treating
treatment
treats
treaty
Trebizond
treble
trebled
trebling
tree
trees
trek
tremble
trembling
tremendous
Tremont
trench
Trenches
trenching
TREND
Trenton
trephined
trespass
trespassers
trespassing
Trevelyan
Treves
tri
Triads
Trial
trials
triangular
Tribal
tribe
TRIBES
tribesmen
TRIBUNAL
Tribunals
Tribune
tributaries
tributary
Tribute
Tributes
trick
tricks
Tricoupis
tridents
tridominium
tried
tries
Trieste
trifled
trifles
trifling
trigger
Trikoupis
Trim
trimmed
trimmings
Trinidad
Trinity
trip
tripartite
triple
Tripler
tripod
Tripoli
tripping
trips
tritithons
Triton
triumph
triumphal
triumphant
triumphantly
triumphed
triumphs
Triune
trivial
Trobriand
Trocadero
trocha
TROCHAS
trod
Troia
Trojan
trolley
Tromsoë
troop
troopers
troops
trop
trophies
tropic
tropical
tropics
trotting
trouble
troubled
troubles
troublesome
troubling
trousers
Trowbridge
TROY
truant
Truce
trucks
truculence
truculent
True
truest
truism
truisms
truly
Trumbull
trumped
trumpet
Trumpeter
Trumpeters
trumpets
trunk
trunks
trunnions
trussed
trusses
trust
trusted
Trustees
trusting
trusts
trustworthy
Trusty
truth
truthfully
truths
try
trying
très
Ts
Tsai
tsang
Tsao
Tsar
Tschiposan
Tse
Tseng
Tshinovniks
tsi
Tsikalaria
tsin
Tsinan
tsing
Tsitsihar
Tsu
tsun
Tsung
Tsushima
Tsz
tsze
Tszechau
Tsü
tu
Tuan
tube
tuberculosis
tuberculous
Tubes
tubs
Tubuai
tubular
Tucker
Tuesday
TUGELA
tugs
Tui
Tuileries
tuition
tumbled
tumbling
tumours
Tumuc
tumult
tumults
tumulus
tun
tundras
tune
TUNG
Tungtschau
tunic
Tunis
Tunisia
Tunisian
Tunisians
tunnel
TUNNELS
Tupper
turbaned
turbine
TURBINES
Turbinia
turbulence
turbulent
Turk
Turkestan
TURKEY
Turkhan
Turkish
Turkistan
Turks
turmoil
turn
Turnavos
turned
Turner
turning
turnpikes
turns
Turpin
Turrettini
Tuscany
tusks
tutelage
tutor
Tutuila
TWAIN
Twan
Twelfth
Twelve
twelvemonth
twentieth
twenty
Twice
twigs
twilight
twin
Twiss
twist
twisted
twitching
Two
twofold
Tyler
Tymovsk
type
types
typhoid
typhoon
typhus
typical
tyrannized
tyranny
tyrant
Tyre
Tyrnavo
Tyrol
Tyrone
Tzar
Tze
Tzetinye
Tzrnagora
tzu
télégramme
u
uan
Ubao
ubiquitous
Uchali
Uganda
ugly
Uitlander
UITLANDERS
ukase
ul
Ulises
Ulloa
Ulster
ult
ulterior
ultima
ultimate
Ultimately
Ultimatum
ultimo
ultra
Ultramontanism
ULYSSES
Umata
Umba
Umpire
Umra
Umtali
Un
unabated
unable
Unabridged
unacceptable
unaccountable
unaccountably
unaccustomed
unacquainted
unadulterated
unaffected
unaided
unalterable
unalterably
unaltered
unanimity
unanimous
unanimously
unanswered
Unappalled
unapproachable
unarmed
unasked
unassailable
unassociated
unattainable
unattended
unauthorised
unauthorized
unavailing
unavoidable
unavoidably
unaware
unbaked
unbearable
unbearded
unbecoming
unblemished
unblushing
unborn
unbounded
unbridled
unbroken
unburied
unbusinesslike
uncanceled
uncaptured
unceasing
unceasingly
uncertain
uncertainties
uncertainty
uncertified
unchain
unchangeable
unchanged
unchecked
unchristian
uncivilized
unclaimed
uncle
unclothed
uncommon
uncompromising
unconcealed
unconcerned
unconditional
unconditionally
unconnected
unconquerable
unconscious
unconsciously
unconsciousness
unconstitutional
unconstitutionally
uncontrolled
uncovered
uncovering
uncurrent
uncurtailed
und
undamaged
undaunted
undeceived
undecided
undeciphered
undefended
undefined
undemocratic
undeniable
undeniably
undenominational
under
undercutting
underestimating
undergo
undergoes
undergoing
undergone
underground
undergrowth
underlie
underlined
underlings
Underlying
undermined
undermines
undermining
underpaid
underrated
underselling
Undersigned
understaffed
understand
understanding
understandings
understated
understatement
understood
undertake
undertaken
undertakers
undertakes
undertaking
undertakings
undertone
undertook
undervalue
underwent
Underwood
undesecrated
undeserved
undeservedly
undesirability
undesirable
undesired
undetermined
undeveloped
undexterous
undignified
undiminished
undischarged
undisciplined
undiscovered
undisputed
undisturbed
undivided
undivulged
undo
undone
undoubted
undoubtedly
undreamed
undue
unduly
undutiable
une
unearned
unearthed
Uneasiness
uneasy
uneducated
unemployed
unequal
unequaled
unequalled
unequally
unequivocal
unessential
unexampled
unexcited
unexecuted
unexpected
unexpectedly
unexpended
unexplored
unexposed
unextinguishable
unfailing
unfair
unfairly
unfairness
unfamiliar
unfavorable
unfavorably
unfettered
unfinished
unfit
unflagging
unflinching
unfolded
unforeseen
unforgettable
unfortified
unfortunate
unfortunately
unfortunates
unfounded
unfriendliness
unfriendly
unfulfilled
unfunded
unfurled
ung
UNGAVA
ungenerous
ungrateful
unground
unguarded
unhampered
unhappily
unhappy
unharmed
unhealthy
unheeded
unhesitating
unhindered
unhistorical
unholy
unhoped
unhurt
unification
unified
uniform
uniformed
uniformity
uniformly
Uniforms
unilateral
unimpaired
unimpassioned
unimpeded
unimportant
unimproved
uninhabitable
uninhabited
uninjured
uninterrupted
uninterruptedly
union
unionism
Unionist
Unionists
unions
unique
uniqueness
unirrigated
unison
unit
unite
united
uniting
units
unity
universal
universally
universe
Universelle
UNIVERSITIES
university
unjust
unjustifiable
unjustified
unjustly
unkind
unkindly
unknown
unlawful
Unless
unlike
unlikely
unlimited
unloading
unlooked
unmanageable
unmarked
unmarred
unmarried
unmeasured
unmindful
unmistakable
unmistakably
unmistakeably
unmixed
unmodified
unmolested
unmortgaged
Unmoved
unnamed
unnatural
unnaturally
unnecessarily
unnecessary
unnerved
unnoticed
unobjectionable
unobstructed
unobtainable
unofficial
unofficially
unopposed
unorganized
unostentatious
unpaid
unpalatable
unparalleled
unpardoned
unpatriotic
unperceived
unpermissible
unpitying
unpleasant
unpleasantly
unpopular
unprecedented
unprejudiced
unprepared
unpreparedness
unprincipled
unproductive
unproductively
unprofitable
unprofitably
unpromising
unpronounceable
Unprotected
unprovided
unprovoked
unpublished
unpunished
unqualified
unquestionable
unquestionably
unquestioned
unratified
unreadiness
unreasonable
unreasonably
unrecognized
unrecorded
unrehabilitated
unremitting
unrepresented
unrepublican
unreserved
unreservedly
unresisted
unrest
unrestrained
unrestricted
unrighteous
unrivalled
unroofed
unruly
unsafe
unsanitary
Unsatisfactory
unsatisfied
unscientific
unscriptural
unscrupulous
unseat
unseating
unsectarian
unseemly
unseen
unselfish
unsettled
unshaken
unshod
unsought
unsound
unspared
unsparing
unspeakable
unstained
unstaked
unsteadiness
unsuccessful
unsuitable
unsuited
unsupported
unsurpassed
unsuspected
unswerving
unswervingly
untamed
untarnished
untaught
untaxable
untaxed
untenable
until
untimely
untiring
unto
untold
untouched
untoward
untrained
untrammeled
untrammelled
untrampled
untried
untroubled
untrue
untrustworthiness
untrustworthy
untruth
untruthfully
unused
unusual
unusually
unvarying
unvexed
unvindicated
unwarrantable
unwarranted
unwavering
unwelcome
unwholesome
unwieldy
unwilling
unwillingly
unwillingness
Unwin
unwisdom
unwise
unwisely
unworkable
unworthily
unworthy
unwritten
Unyoro
Up
upbraid
upbuilding
upheaval
upheavals
upheld
uphill
uphold
upholder
upholders
upholding
upholds
uplift
uplifted
Upolu
Upon
Upper
upright
uprights
uprising
uprisings
uproar
uprooted
uprooting
upset
upsetting
upshot
upward
upwards
UR
Ural
uranium
Urban
urbana
Urga
urge
urged
urgency
urgent
urgently
urges
urging
Uribe
Uriburu
URREA
Urrutia
Uruguay
Uruguayan
Us
usage
usages
Use
used
useful
usefully
usefulness
useless
uselessness
USES
ushered
Using
Usoga
Ussuri
usual
usually
usufruct
usufructuary
usurers
Usuri
usurient
usurpation
usurped
usurper
usurping
Utah
utilitarian
utilities
utility
utilization
utilize
utilized
utilizing
Utman
utmost
Utrecht
utter
utterance
utterances
uttered
uttering
utterly
uttermost
v
va
Vaal
Vaca
vacancies
vacancy
vacant
vacate
vacated
vacating
vacation
vaccination
Vacherot
vacuous
vacuum
vagabonds
vague
vaguely
vagueness
vain
vainly
Vakin
Val
Valdivia
Valencia
Valentine
Valeriano
Vali
valiantly
valid
validated
validity
Valis
Valladolid
Valley
valleys
valor
valorem
valour
Valparaiso
valuable
valuables
valuation
valuations
value
valued
valueless
values
valuing
valve
valves
Valérien
Vamos
Van
Vancouver
Vanderbilt
Vandergrift
vanes
vanished
Vannoffsky
Vannovsky
vanquished
vanquishing
vantage
Varanger
Vardö
variance
variations
varied
varies
varieties
variety
Various
variously
Varipetro
Varley
Varona
vary
Varying
vase
vases
vassal
vassalage
vassals
Vassos
vast
vastly
vastness
Vatican
Vau
vaudeville
vaudevilles
Vaughan
vaulted
vaulting
Vavau
Vecchia
Veeder
Vegas
vegetable
vegetables
Vegetarian
Vegetarians
vegetation
vehemence
vehement
vehemently
vehicle
vehicles
veil
veiled
vein
veins
Velasco
veld
veldt
Velestino
Veliki
velocity
vendetta
venerable
venerated
veneration
Venezuela
Venezuelan
Venezuelans
vengeance
vengefulness
Venice
Venosta
vent
ventilating
ventilation
venture
ventured
ventures
Vera
verb
verbal
verbally
verbaux
Verde
Verdi
Verdict
Vereinigung
Vereins
Verfassungstreue
Vergano
verge
verification
verified
verify
verifying
Verily
veritable
Verkauf
Verlaine
Vermilion
VERMONT
Vernon
versa
Versailles
verse
versed
version
verst
versts
vertebral
vertical
vertically
vertretenen
very
vespers
vessel
vessels
vest
vested
vestige
vestiges
vesting
vestries
vestry
veteran
veterans
veterinarians
veterinary
veto
vetoed
vetoes
Vetter
vex
vexation
vexatious
vexed
VI
Via
viability
Viatka
vibrated
vibration
vibrations
Vicar
vice
Viceroy
Viceroyal
viceroyalty
viceroys
vices
vicinage
vicinities
vicinity
vicious
vicissitudes
Vicksburg
Vicomte
Vict
victim
victimised
victims
Victor
Victoria
Victorian
victories
victorious
victors
victory
vide
Video
vied
Vienna
Viennese
vient
Vieques
VIEQUEZ
view
viewed
views
Vigan
vigilance
vigilant
vigor
vigore
vigorous
vigorously
vigour
VII
VIII
vilayet
vilayets
vile
Villa
village
villagers
villages
Villalon
Villaverde
Villiers
VINCENT
vindicate
vindicated
vindication
vindictive
vindictiveness
vines
vinous
vintage
Vinton
violated
violates
violating
violation
violations
violative
violators
Violence
violent
violently
violet
violé
Viper
Virchow
VIRDEN
vires
virgin
VIRGINIA
VIRGINIUS
virile
virility
virtual
virtually
virtue
virtues
virtuous
virulence
vis
Visayan
VISAYANS
Visayas
VISCONTI
Viscount
visible
visibly
vision
visionary
visit
visitation
visited
visiting
visitor
visitors
visits
vista
vistas
Vistula
vital
vitality
vitals
VIth
vituperation
vive
Vivendi
Vivid
vividly
vividness
Vivien
Vixen
viz
Vizcaya
vizier
viâ
Vladika
Vladikas
Vladivostock
Vladivostok
Vocal
vocation
vocations
Vogel
Vogt
vogue
voice
voiced
voices
void
voir
vol
Vola
volcanic
volcano
Volga
Volkspartei
VOLKSRAAD
Volksraads
Volksrust
volley
volleyed
volleys
Volo
Vologda
voltage
voltaic
volte
volts
Volume
volumes
voluminous
voluntarily
VOLUNTARY
volunteer
volunteered
volunteering
volunteers
von
Vonizongo
Voorhees
Vorarlberg
vortex
Vorwärts
Vossische
Vote
voted
voter
voters
votes
VOTING
votive
votre
vouched
vouchsafe
vouchsafed
vous
vow
vowed
vowing
vows
voyage
voyages
Vroublevsky
Vryburg
Vryheids
vs
Vuitch
vulgar
vulnerable
vultures
Vágó
vérité
W
Wad
WADAI
Wade
Wadi
WADSWORTH
Wady
Wagandas
wage
waged
wager
wages
waggon
waging
Wagner
wagon
wagoner
wagons
Wahis
waifs
wailed
waist
waists
Wait
waited
waiting
waive
waived
wake
wakening
Wakhan
waking
Waldeck
Waldersee
WALDO
WALES
Walfisch
walk
walked
Walker
walketh
Walking
walks
Wall
Wallace
Wallachs
walled
Waller
Walls
Walpole
Walter
Wan
WANA
wander
wandered
Wanderer
Wandering
waned
Wang
wangtao
Wano
want
wanted
wanting
wanton
wantonly
wantonness
wants
war
WARD
wardrobe
wards
Wardwell
warehouses
warehousing
wares
warfare
Waring
Warka
warlike
Warm
Warmbath
warmer
warmest
warmly
warmth
warn
warned
Warner
warning
warnings
Warrant
warranted
warrants
warren
warring
warrior
warriors
wars
warship
warships
Warthe
Was
Washburn
washed
washhouses
washing
WASHINGTON
washtub
Wasp
waste
wasted
wasteful
wastes
wasting
watch
watched
watchers
watchful
watchfulness
watching
watchman
WATER
watered
waterfalls
watering
Waterloo
waterproof
waters
watershed
waterspout
waterway
waterways
waterworks
Watson
Watt
Wattenbach
Wauchope
wave
waved
Waverley
waves
waving
wavy
way
wayfarers
Ways
Wazir
Waziri
WAZIRIS
we
weak
weaken
weakened
weakening
weaker
weakest
weakling
weaklings
weakly
weakness
weaknesses
weal
wealth
wealthiest
wealthy
weapon
Weapons
wear
weariness
wearing
wears
weary
weather
weave
weaving
Weber
Webster
wedded
Weddell
wedding
wedge
wedging
Wednesday
weeded
week
weekly
weeks
weels
ween
weep
weeping
WEI
weigh
weighed
weighing
weighs
weight
weighted
weightier
Weights
weighty
Weih
weir
weird
welcome
welcomed
welcoming
welding
Weldon
welfare
well
Wellington
Wellman
wells
Welsh
weltering
Welti
wen
Wenamu
wended
went
wept
Were
Weser
Wesley
Wessels
west
Westchester
Westcott
westerly
WESTERN
westernmost
Westfälische
Westlake
Westminster
Weston
Westphalia
westward
westwardly
westwards
Wet
Wetmore
Wettek
Weyler
whale
whaler
Whaling
wharf
wharfage
Wharton
wharves
what
Whatever
whatsoever
Wheat
Wheaton
Wheedon
wheel
wheelbarrow
Wheeler
Wheeling
wheels
when
whence
whenever
where
whereabouts
Whereas
whereby
Wherefore
wherein
whereof
whereon
whereto
Whereunto
whereupon
Wherever
wherewith
whether
Which
whichever
while
whilom
whilst
whip
whipper
whips
whirled
whirling
whiskey
Whisky
whisper
whispered
whistled
whistles
whistling
WHITE
Whiteboyism
Whitehall
Whitehead
Whitelaw
whitened
whites
whitewashing
Whitewatersridge
whither
Whiting
Whitman
WHITNEY
Whittier
Who
whoever
Whole
wholesale
wholesome
wholly
whom
whomsoever
whose
Whosoever
Why
Wick
wicked
wickedness
Wickes
Wide
widely
widened
widening
wider
widespread
widest
widow
widowed
widowhood
widows
width
wielded
wields
Wiener
wife
Wiggins
wigglers
Wight
wigwams
WIIS
Wikoff
Wikoft
Wilberforce
Wilcox
wild
Wilde
wilder
wilderness
wildest
wildfire
wildly
Wildman
Wilford
Wilfred
Wilfrid
wilful
wilfully
Wilhelm
Wilhelmina
Wilhelmshafen
Wilkes
Wilkinsburg
will
Willard
Willcocks
willed
willful
William
Williams
willing
Willingly
willingness
Willis
Williston
wills
Willshire
Willson
WILMINGTON
Wilson
Wimereux
win
Winchester
Winchow
wind
Windhoek
winding
windings
Windom
window
windows
winds
Windsor
Windt
Windward
wine
wines
Winfield
Wing
Wingate
wings
Winifred
winking
Winkler
winning
Winnipeg
Winsor
Winter
Wintered
Winterhalder
wintering
Winthrop
wiped
wiping
wire
wireless
wirepullers
wires
WISCONSIN
wisdom
wise
wisely
wiser
wisest
wish
wished
wishes
wishing
wisps
wistfully
wit
Witfontein
with
withdraw
Withdrawal
withdrawals
withdrawing
withdrawn
withdraws
withdrew
withering
withheld
withhold
withholds
Within
Without
withstand
withstood
witness
Witnessed
witnesses
Witt
Witte
Witu
Witwatersrand
wives
Wm
Wodehouse
woe
WOLCOTT
Wolf
Wolmarans
Wolmeraans
Wolseley
Wolsey
wolves
woman
womanhood
womanly
women
won
wonder
wondered
Wonderful
wondering
wonderment
wonders
WOOD
Woodbury
wooded
wooden
Woodford
woodland
Woodruff
Woods
woodsmen
Woodstock
woodwork
wool
woolen
woollens
Woolley
wools
Woolwich
Woosung
Worcester
word
worded
Worden
wording
WORDS
wore
Work
workable
worked
worker
Workers
workhouses
working
workingman
workingmen
workings
workingwoman
workman
workmen
works
Workshop
workshops
workwomen
world
worldly
worn
worry
worse
worship
worshipping
worst
worth
worthily
worthless
worthy
Wortley
Would
wound
WOUNDED
wounding
wounds
wrap
wrapped
wrath
Wray
wreak
wreaking
wreck
wreckage
wrecked
wreckers
wrecking
wrecks
wrest
wrested
wresting
wretched
wretchedly
wriggling
Wright
wring
writ
write
writer
writers
writes
writhing
Writing
writings
writs
written
wrong
wronged
wrongful
wrongfully
wrongly
wrongs
wrote
wrought
wrung
Wu
Wuch
Wuhu
Wurster
Wyck
Wynberg
WYOMING
Wên
Wêng
Würtemberg
Würzburg
x
XCI
XCII
XCIII
xi
xii
XIII
xiv
XIX
XL
XLI
XLII
XLIII
XLIV
XLIX
XLV
XLVI
XLVII
XLVIII
XV
xvi
XVII
XVIII
xx
XXI
xxii
XXIII
xxiv
xxix
XXV
xxvi
XXVII
XXVIII
xxx
XXXI
XXXII
XXXIII
xxxiv
xxxix
XXXV
xxxvi
XXXVII
xxxviii
y
yacht
yachts
Yafa
Yakub
Yale
Yaloo
Yalu
YAMAGATA
Yamagutchi
Yamen
yamên
Yamêns
Yang
Yangtsun
Yangtsze
Yangtze
Yankee
Yao
Yaos
Yaqui
Yaquis
Yard
yards
Yarkand
Yass
Yauco
Ybayat
ye
yea
year
yearly
yearning
yearns
Years
yeas
Yellow
Yells
Yen
Yendi
Yenesei
Yengtai
Yenisei
yeomanry
Yerkes
Yermak
Yersin
Yes
yesterday
yet
Yeu
Yezo
Yi
Yichow
yield
yielded
yielding
yields
Yin
Ying
Yingkow
Yint
Ylin
Yod
yoke
yoked
yokes
Yokohama
Yokoi
Yola
Yonge
Yonkers
YORK
you
Youmans
young
younger
youngest
Younghusband
Youngstown
Your
Yours
yourself
yourselves
yourt
youth
youthful
youths
Youtsey
Ypsiloritis
Yu
yuen
Yugor
Yukon
Yukoners
Yule
Yun
Yung
Yungan
Yungtsin
Yunnan
yuyu
Yü
yüan
Yünnan
Z
zaggi
Zambales
Zambesi
Zambesia
Zambezi
Zamboanga
Zanardelli
Zangwill
Zanjon
Zanzibar
Zanzibarian
Zaragoza
zariba
Zavala
zeal
ZEALAND
Zealander
Zealanders
zealous
zealously
Zeebrugge
Zeitoun
Zeitung
Zelaya
Zembla
Zenta
zero
zest
Zeus
Zeyla
Ziegler
zigzag
Zina
Zinc
Zion
Zionism
Zionist
Zionists
Zionwards
Zirpanit
Zlatoust
Zola
ZONA
Zone
zones
Zoology
Zoshan
Zoutpansberg
Zukunft
Zulfikar
Zulu
ZULULAND
ZULUS
zum
Zurich
Zurlinden
Zygnema
zygote
zygotes
É
Éclair
Éclaireur
Émile
Étienne
à
æolipile
æsthetic
ça
ébranlait
écrit
élite
état
êng
être
üan
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY FOR READY REFERENCE, VOLUME 6 ***