into the Union. On the 11th of January, 1870, Mississippi ratified these amendments, and was readmitted into the Union on the 17th of February, 1870. Texas was the last to return to the Union, but came in during the year, having ratified the amendments to the constitution. The political troubles in the south, however, did not end with the return of the States to the Union. A great deal of lawlessness prevailed in many of the Southern States, and considerable suffering was experienced by the negroes, whose sudden endowment with the rights and privileges of citizenship was resented by a lawless class of white men. The Federal government undertook to remedy these troubles rather than leave them to be dealt with by the States. In the spring of 1871 Congress passed a measure known as the "Enforcement Act," or the "Kuklux Act of 1871," which gave to the Federal officials absolute power over the liberties of the citizens of the States in which these troubles occurred. The president carried out the terms of the act with promptness, and on the 17th of October issued a proclamation suspending the writ of habeas corpus in nine counties in South Carolina, in order that the law might be enforced without the interference of the courts of the State. The evils which these severe measures were intended to remedy were unquestionably very great, but the enforcement bill was nevertheless a dangerous departure from the principles of free government as understood in this country. A free people cannot too jealously guard their liberties. On the 31st of January, 1871, Congress repealed the test oath law, which required all applicants for civil offices to swear that they had not participated in the secession movement. As few southern men could take this oath, this law excluded the genuine inhabitants of the Southern States from office under the general government, and threw the political power of those States into the hands of a class of adventurers, who had been drawn to the south since the war by the hope of obtaining office. The repeal of this law by Congress restored the control of the Southern States to the legitimate citizens and tax-payers thereof. In 1870 the Supreme Court of the United States decided that the act of Congress making "greenbacks," or the notes of the Federal treasury, a legal tender, was unconstitutional as regarded the payment of debts contracted prior to the passage of that act. As this decision had been given by a majority of but one justice, Mr. Hoar, the attorney-general, moved to reconsider it. The case was heard again, and the decision of the court was reversed by a vote of five to four, on the 18th of January, 1871. Thus the constitutionality of the legal tender act was affirmed. In 1870 died Admiral David G. Farragut, on the 14th of August, aged sixty-nine; General George H. Thomas, "the Rock of Chickamauga," and the defender of Nashville, on the 28th of December, aged fifty-three; and General Robert E. Lee, the commander of the Confederate army of northern Virginia during the civil war, on the 12th of October, aged sixty-three. On the 26th of January, 1871, Congress repealed the income tax. It had been retained long after the necessity for it had passed away, and had become odious to the nation, which had only submitted to it at first because of the urgency of the need for it. . Immediately upon the opening of President Lincoln's second term of office, Mr. Charles Francis Adams, the American minister at the court of St. James, was instructed to call the attention of the British, government to the depredations committed upon American commerce by Confederate cruisers, built, equipped, and manned in England, and to insist upon the responsibility of Great Britain for the losses thus incurred by American ship-owners. Mr. Adams discharged this duty in a communication addressed to the British government, on the 7th of April, 1865. This led to a correspondence which continued through the summer of that year. Great Britain refused to admit the validity of the American claim, or to submit the question to the arbitration of any foreign government. The "Alabama question" remained unsettled for several years, and occasioned a considerable amount of ill-feeling between the two countries. Both governments regarded it as full of danger, but to Great Britain it was especially so, as in the event of a war between that country and any foreign power, the United States, following the example of England, might and doubtless would allow cruisers to be sent out from their ports which would seriously cripple, if they did not destroy, the British After Mr. Adams' return from England, his successor, Reverdy Johnson, was directed by the president to reopen the matter. He negotiated a treaty with the Earl of Clarendon on behalf of the British government, in 1869, but this arrangement was unsatisfactory to the Senate, which body refused to ratify it. Two years later the matter was revived, and in 1871 a joint high commission, composed of a number of distinguished public men, appointed by the American and British governments, met at Washington, and arranged a settlement known as the treaty of Washington, which was ratified by both governments. This treaty was ratified by the Senate on the 24th of May, and provided for the settlement not only of the Alabama claims, but of all other questions at issue between the United States and Great Britain. commerce. The Alabama claims were referred by the treaty of Washington to a board of arbitration composed of five commissioners selected from the neutral nations. This board met at Geneva, in Switzerland, on the 15th of April, 1872, and the American and English representatives presented to it their respective cases, which had been prepared by the most learned counsel in both countries. On the 27th of June, the board announced its decision. The claims of the United States were admitted, and the damages awarded to that government were $16,250,000. These were paid in due time. In our account of the administration of Mr. Buchanan we have related the dispute between the United States and Great Britain concerning the possession of the island of San Juan, growing out of the uncertainty as to the true course of the northwestern boundary of the Union. This had been an open question all through the civil war. By the thirty-fourth article of the treaty of Washington the two countries agreed to refer this dispute to the friendly arbitration of the emperor of Germany. Soon after the award of the Geneva conference was made, the boundary question was decided by the Emperor William in favor of the United States, into the possession of which the island of San Juan accordingly passed. Thus were these delicate and dangerous questions satisfactorily adjusted by peaceful methods, and not by the sword. In 1870 the republic of St. Domingo, comprising a large part of the island of Hayti, applied for annexation to the United States. President Grant was very anxious to secure the annexation of this island, and to accomplish it went to the very verge of his constitutional powers-going farther, indeed, than many of his friends believed he had the right. Measures were introduced into Congress for the purpose of securing this union, but were warmly opposed. A commission of eminent gentlemen was appointed by the president to visit the island and examine into its condition. They reported favorably, but after a warm debate in Congress the measures for the annexation of the Dominican republic were defeated by a decisive majority. On the night of Sunday, October 8th, 1871, a fire broke out in the city of Chicago, and raged with tremendous violence for two days, laying the greater part of the city in ashes. It was the most destructive conflagration of modern times. The total area of the city burned over was 2124 acres, or very nearly three and one-third square miles. The num ber of buildings destroyed was 17,450. About 250 persons died from various causes during the conflagration, and 98,000 persons were rendered homeless by it. The entire business quarter was destroyed. The actual loss will never be known. As far as it can be ascertained, it was about $196,000,000. Almost simultaneous with this disaster, extensive forest fires swept |