141. Freedmen's Bureau. March 3, 1865 142. Freedom for Soldiers' Families. March 3, 1865 143. Proclamation appointing a Governor for North Carolina. May 29, 144. Thirteenth Amendment. Dec. 18, 1865 145. First Civil Rights Act. April 9, 1866 146. Restoration of Tennessee. July 24, 1866 147. Franchise in the District of Columbia. Jan. 8, 1867 148. Elective Franchise in the Territories. Jan. 31, 1867 149. First Reconstruction Act. March 2, 1867 152. Second Reconstruction Act. March 23, 1867 153. Treaty with Russia for the 158. Act admitting North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida to Representation in Congress. June 25, 161. Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. July 28, 1868. 162. Provisional Governments of Virginia, Texas, and Mississippi. 163. Act to strengthen the Public Credit. 164. Submission of the Constitutions of Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas. 165. Reconstruction of Georgia. Dec. 22, 1869 166. Admission of Virginia to Representation in Congress. Jan. 26, 167. Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution. 168. Act to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment. 169. Act for refunding the National Debt. July 14, 1870 170. Act for the Restoration of Georgia. July 15, 1870 171. Supplementary Act to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment. Feb. 28, 174. Coinage Act. Feb. 12, 1873 175. Resumption of Specie Payments. Jan. 14, 1875 178. Coinage of the Standard Silver Dollar. Feb. 28, 1878. 179. Civil Service Act. Jan. 16, 1883 183. Repeal of the Silver Purchase Act of 1890. 184. Recognition of the Independence of Cuba. 185. Declaration of War. April 25, 1898 186. Annexation of the Hawaiian Islands. July 7, 1898 189. Treaty with Great Britain regarding an Isthmian Canal. Novem- Nov. 1, 1893 No. I. First Charter of Virginia April 10/20, 1606 THE region included in the Virginia grant was claimed by Spain, but the close of the war between Spain and England, in 1604, left the latter free to extend the area of its occupation in America. Various plans for settlement and trade were brought forward soon after the return of Weymouth, in July, 1605. A petition for a charter, signed by Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Hakluyt, and others, was favorably considered by James I., and in April, 1606, the charter passed the seals. The first draft of the charter, accompanying the petition, was probably drawn by Sir John Popham, lord chief justice, but the final form was the work of Sir Edward Coke, attorneygeneral, and Sir John Dodderidge, solicitor-general. Royal orders and instructions for the government of the two colonies and the conduct of their affairs were issued Nov. 20/30 and Dec. 10/20, 1606. An ordinance and constitution of March 9/19, 1607, increased the membership of the council and enlarged its authority. REFERENCES. Text in Stith's History of Virginia (Sabin's ed., 1865), Appendix I. Invaluable documentary material for the early history of Virginia, to 1616, is set forth in Brown's Genesis of the United States; see also the same author's First Republic in America, 1-71. Important contemporary accounts are: John Smith's A True Relation (Deane's ed., 1866, with notes), and General Historie (Arber's reprint); Wingfield's A Discourse of Virginia (Deane's ed., with notes, in Archæologia Americana, IV., 67-163); and A True Declaration of the Estate of the Colonie in Virginia (in Force's Tracts, III.). See further: Neill's Virginia Company; Sainsbury's Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, I. I. JAMES, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. WHEREAS our loving and well-disposed Subjects, Sir Thomas Gates, and Sir George Somers, Knights, Richard Hackluit, Clerk, Prebendary of Westminster, and Edward-Maria Wingfield, Thomas Hanham, and Ralegh Gilbert, Esqrs. William Parker, and George Popham, Gentlemen, and divers others of our loving Subjects, have been humble Suitors unto us, that We would vouchsafe unto them our Licence, to make Habitation, Plantation, and to deduce a Colony of sundry of our People into that Part of America, commonly |