September 7. —General Lafayette embarked for France in the United States frigate Brandywine.
1826.
July 4.—John Adams, aged 91, of Massachusetts, and Thomas Jefferson, aged 83, of Virginia, both died on the fiftieth anniversary of the independence of their native country.
September 13.—William Morgan, who had published a pamphlet divulging the secrets of Masonry, was abducted from Canandaigua, N. Y., and was never afterward satisfactorily heard of. It was thought that he was drowned in Lake Ontario. This circumstance created a great excitement for a number of years afterward, and not only put a check upon the progress of Masonry, but was the means of creating a pretty powerful anti-Masonic political party.
1827.
Heavy forces were sent against the Winnebago Indians, who had become troublesome They were overawed and gave up a number of murderers in their tribe.
November 14.—Thomas Addis Emmet died, aged 63.
1828.
February I1.—De Witt Clinton, who projected the Erie Canal, and was four times chosen Governor of the State of New York, died, aged 59.
1829.
January 19.—Colonel Richard Taylor, a soldier of the war of the Revolution, and father of President Zachary Taylor, died, aged 85.
March 4.—Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, was inaugurated the seventh President of the United States.
May 27.—John Jay, of New York, Chief-Justice of the United States Supreme Court, died, aged 84.
1830.
Fifth census of the United States. Population, 12,866,020.
January 6. —Daniel Webster made his great speech in the United States Senate in answer to Mr. Hayne, of South Carolina.
May 27. —President Jackson vetoes the Maysville Road bill.
October 5.—The President issues a proclamation declaring the ports of the United States open to British vessels from the West Indies.
1831.
April 19.—Dissolution of President Jackson’s Cabinet and a new Cabinet formed.
July 4.—James Monroe, ex-President of the United States, died on the sixtieth anniversary of American Independence, aged 72.
1832.
January 1.—The national debt of the United States had become reduced to $24,332,234.
July 10.—President Jackson vetoes the bill rechartering the United States Bank.
The Indian chief Black Hawk was captured.
November. —Nullification convention held in South Carolina.
December 11.— President Jackson issued his proclamation in relation to nullification in South Carolina.
1833.
January 16.—President Jackson sent a message to Congress deprecating the action of the State of South Carolina in declaring a determination to nullify certain laws of the United States.
December 26.—The United States Senate passed a resolution declaring that the Executive had assumed authority and power not conferred by the constitution and laws, but in derogation of both.
1884.
February 18.—William Wirt, the anti-Masonic candidate for President in 1824, died in Washington.
April 15.—President Jackson sent a message to the Senate protesting against the resolutions condemning his official acts.
1835.
December 16.—Large fire in New York.
December 23. —Major Dade and his command, consisting of 117 men, were all but one cruelly massacred by the Seminole Indians in Florida.
1836.
January 15.—President Jackson transmitted to Congress his French indemnification message.
March. —Texas declared its independence and separation from Mexico.
March 3.—The United States Bank ceased to exist, President Jackson having vetoed the bill for its recharter.
April 21.— Battle of San Jacinto, in Texas.
June 15.—Arkansas admitted into the Union.
June 28.—James Madison, ex-President of the United States, died, aged 85.
1837.
January 26 —Michigan admitted into the Union. March 4.—Martin Van Buren, of New York, was inaugurated eighth President of the United States.
1838.
April 17. —Destructive fire in Charleston, S. C
1840.
Sixth census of the United States. Population, 17,068,666.
1841.
March 4. —William Henry Harrison, of Ohio, was inaugurated ninth President of the United States.
April 4.— President Harrison, having been in office just one month, died in the White House in Washington, aged 68.
April 5.—John Tyler, Vice President, of Virginia, became the tenth President of the United States, in consequence of the death of William Henry Harrison.
1842.
The Croton Aqueduct, which conveys water from Croton River, in Westchester County, to the city of New York, a distance of forty miles, was completed.
April 1 —The Ashburton treaty was signed. This settled the vexed Northwestern boundary question.
1844.
The first telegraph messages were sent between Washington and Baltimore.
March 1. —Explosion of the large gun on board the man-of-war steamer Princeton, at Alexandria, Va.
1846.
March 3.—Iowa admitted into the Union.
March 4. —James Knox Polk, of Tennessee, was inaugurated eleventh President of the United Slates
June 4. —War declared by the United States against Mexico.
June 8.—Andrew Jackson, ex-President of the United States, died at the Hermitage, Tennessee, aged 78.
July 19.—Great fire in New York.
December 29 — Texas admitted into the Union.
1846.
May 8. — Battle of Palo Alto, in Mexico
May 9. — Battle of Resaca de la Palma, m Mexico.
July 12.—Second battle of Palo Alto.
August 6. —Wisconsin admitted into the Union.
September 21. —Capture of Monterey, Mexico.
1847.
Ten thousand Mormons from Illinois, under the leadership of Brigham Young, entered Desert, now called Utah, and founded Salt Lake City.
March 9. -Landing of the United States troops at Vera Cruz.
March 29 —Surrender of Vera Cruz, Mexico.
April 18. – Battle of Cerro Gordo, Mexico
August 19. – Battle of San Antonio, Mexico.
August 20 — Battle of Cherubusco, Mexico.
September 8 —Battle of Molino del Key, Mexico.
September 13. —Battle of Chapultepec, Mexico.
September 14 —Attack on the City of Mexico, which was taken by the United States soldiers.
1848
February.—Treaty of peace with Mexico, by which California and New Mexico, with 649,762 square miles, were added to the United Stales.
February 23.—John Quincy Adams, ex-President of the United Slates, died in Washington, aged 81.
July 4 —The corner-stone of the Washington Monument was laid in the national capital.
September 9.—Large fire in Albany, N. Y.
1849.
March 3.—Florida admitted into the Union.
March 4.—Zachary Taylor, of Louisiana, was inaugurated the twelfth President of the United States.
May 15.—Great fire in St. Louis.
June 15.—James Knox Polk, ex-President of the United States, died, aged 54.
1850.
Seventh census of the United States. Population, 23,191,074.
March 31.—John C. Calhoun died in Washington, aged 68.
July 9 —Zachary Taylor, President of the United States, died in the White House at Washington, aged 60 years.
July 10.—Millard Fillmore, of New York, Vice-President, became the thirteenth President of the United States in consequence of the death of Zachary Taylor.
1851.
May 3.—Great fire in San Francisco.
July 4.—The corner-stone of the Capitol extension at Washington was laid.
December 5.—Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, visited the United States.
December 21.—The Congressional Library in Washington was destroyed by fire.
1852.
June 29.—Henry Clay died in Washington, aged 75.
1853.
March 4. — Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, was inaugurated the fourteenth President of the United States.
1854.
The Gadsden purchase from Mexico added 27,500 square miles to the area of the United States.
August 25. —Large fires in Damariscotta, Me , Troy, N. Y., and Milwaukee, Wis
1857.
March 4.—James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, was inaugurated the fifteenth President of the United States.
October 13.—Great commercial panic There were 5,123 failures of business houses.
1858.
May 4.—Minnesota was admitted into the Union,
August 6.—First Atlantic cable laid between Ireland and Newfoundland.
1859.
February 13. —Oregon admitted into the Union.
October 17.—John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry.
November 28.—Washington Irving died.
1860.
Eighth census of the United States. Population, 31,443,332.
National debt, $64,769,703.
1861.
January 29.—Kansas admitted into the Union.
March 4.—Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, was inaugurated the sixteenth President of the United States
April 12. —Attack on Fort Sumter.
April 19. —Massachusetts Sixth regiment mobbed in Baltimore.
April 20. —Harper’s Ferry burned. The war of the rebellion was now fully opened.
July 21.—First regular battle of the rebellion, at Bull Run, Va.
July. —General George B. McClellan commenced to organize and discipline the Grand Army of the Potomac.
1862
January 17.—John Tyler, ex-President of the United States, died, aged 72.
February 6. —Surrender of Fort Henry, Tenn.
February 16.—Fort Donelson, Tenn., surrendered.
April 9. —Battle of Shiloh.
June 6. —Memphis surrendered.
June 26.—Commencement of the seven days’ battles around Richmond.
July 1.—The Union Pacific Railroad bill signed by President Lincoln.
August 23. – The massacre at the city of Lawrence, Kan.
September 14. —Battles of South Mountain, Md.
September 15.—Harper’s Ferry, with 11,000 men, surrendered to the rebels.
September 16 —Battle of Antietam, Md.
September 22.—President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation.
October 24. Battle above the clouds, on Lookout Mountain, Tenn.
November 7. —General George B. McClellan removed from the command of the Army of the Potomac
December 13.—Battle of Fredericksburg, Va.
December 27. Mania Van Huron, ex-President of the United States, died, aged 80.
December 31. West Virginia made a State.
1863.
May 3.—Battle of Chancellorsville.
May IT.—Assault on Port Hudson.
June 27.—John Morgan starts on his raid through Ohio.
July 1.—Battle of Gettysburg, Pa.—three days.
July 4. – Vicksburg surrendered.
July 13.—New York riots commenced.
September 19.—Battle of Chickamauga.
1864
March 10.—The disastrous Red River expedition started under General Banks
April 12. Fort Pillow, Tenn., massacre.
May 5. —Battle of the Wilderness.
May 9. Battle of Spottsylvania.
June 3 Battle of Cold Harbor.
June 17. Commencement of the attack on Petersburg Va.
June 19. -The rebel man-of-war Alabama, commanded by Raphael Semmes, which was built in England and manned mostly by Englishmen, was sunk off Cherbourg, France, by the United States man-of-war Kearsarge, under command of Captain Winslow.
August 7.–The forts in Mobile bay attacked by the fleet under Admiral Farragut.
October 19. Battle of Cedar Creek, in the Shenandoah Valley, which General Sheridan changed from defeat to victory by his famous ride from Winchester.
November 16.—General Sherman’s army commenced its “march to the sea ” through Georgia.
December 15. —Battle of Nashville.
1865.
February 27. —General Sheridan left Winchester with 10,000 cavalry on his gallant raid around Richmond.
April 2. Richmond evacuated by the rebels.
April 9. – General Robert E. Lee surrendered the rebel army in the private dwelling of one of the inhabitants at Appomattox Court House, Va. This virtually ended the war of the rebellion.
April 14. – President Lincoln was assassinated by a man named John Wilkes Booth, who was a play-actor in Washington.
April 15.– Abraham Lincoln died of the wounds he received at the hands of the assassin of the previous night.
April 15.—Andrew Johnson, Vice-President, of Tennessee, became seventeenth President of the United States, in consequence of the death of Abraham Lincoln.
April 16 —Jefferson Davis captured.
April 26. -John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln, was shot.
July 7. —Four persons named Harold, Atzerott, Payne, and Mrs. Suratt, who were charged with aiding in the assassination of President Lincoln, were hanged in Washington.
1866.
July 1.—The national debt reached its maximum amount—$2,773,236. m
1867
March 30. -Alaska purchased by the United States from Russia price, $7,000,000,
1868.
May 16.—Vote taken in the United States Senate on the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, President of the United States. Every Senator was in his seat. The impeachment failed.
June 1. -James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, ex-President of the United States, died, aged 77.
1869.
The Pacific Railroad completed.
March 4.- Ulysses Sydney Grant, of Illinois, was inaugurated the eighteenth President of the United States.
October 8.- Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, ex-President of the United States, died, aged 65.
December 24. — Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War during the rebellion, died in Washington.
1870.
Ninth census of the United States. Population, 38,555,983.
1871.
The gold product of the country amounted this year to $66,000,000.
October 9, — Great fire in Chicago.
1872.
November 1.—Great fire in. Boston.
1873.
September 7. The United States received a check from the government of Great Britain for $15,500,000 in gold, being the amount awarded by the mixed Congress at Geneva, Switzerland, on account of what are termed the “Alabama claims.”
1874.
March 8. Millard Fillmore, of New York, ex-President of the United States, died, aged 74.
December 13. King Kalakaua, of the Hawaiian Islands, the first monarch that ever visited this country, arrived in New York.
1875.
July 31. Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, ex-President of the United States, died, aged 67.
For the first time in the history of the nation there was not an ex-President living.
October 12. -Three hundred and eighty-third anniversary of the landing of Christopher Columbus and his followers on San Salvador.
November 2.—Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, Vice-President of the United States, died in Washington.
Our Republic commenced in 1776, 237 years ago, with thirteen States and 815,615 square miles of territory, which was occupied by about 3,000,000 of civilized human beings.
In 1876 it had a population of 43,000,000, who occupied thirty-seven States and nine Territories, which embraced over 3,000,000 square miles. It had 65,000 miles of railroads, more than sufficient to reach twice and a half around the globe. The value of its agricultural productions was $2,500,000,000, and its gold mines were capable of producing $70,000,000 a year. It had over 1,000 cotton factories, 580 daily newspapers, 4,300 weeklies, and 625 monthly publications.