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tokens of approval. He and Keitt were at once re-elected to Congress by acclamation, and no one could have been treated with greater distinction. On the 27th of January, 1857, about eight months after the assault, Brooks died suddenly in great agony, from an attack of croup. Mr. Sumner died in March, 1874.

A disagreement with Spain occurred in 1854. On the 28th of February, the American steamship Black Warrior was seized in Havana harbor, and the vessel and cargo declared confiscated to the Spanish government. It was instantly proposed in the house of representatives to suspend the neutrality laws between Spain and the United States. Matters, however, were not pushed to such an extremity. The presi dent sent a special messenger to Madrid with instructions to our minister to demand indemnity for the seizure of the ship. The quarrel was thus adjusted without trouble, but the affair gave a pretext for other fillibustering attempts against Cuba. Several expeditions were prepared, but the president on the 1st of June issued a proclamation which effectually stopped them. There was such a general wish, however, to add the island to our possessions, that a conference on foreign soil was arranged to discuss the matter. In August, 1854, President Pierce directed Mr. Buchanan, the American minister at London; Mr. Mason, the minister at Paris, and Mr. Soule, envoy at Madrid, to meet at some convenient place to consider the question. These officials met at Ostend on the 9th of October, adjourned three days later to Aix-laChapelle, and from that place addressed a letter to their government on the 18th of the month, recommending that Cuba be purchased, failing in which the United States would be justified "by every law, human and divine," in wresting. it from Spain. This amazing avowal created a tempest of indignation throughout Europe and the northern states, while it was enthusiastically supported in the South. The advice was too audacious to be followed, and so Cuba still remains one of the most turbulent possessions of Spain.

The boundaries between the United States and Mexico were re-adjusted in 1854. The new treaty released the United States from all obligations imposed by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to defend the Mexican frontier against Indians. For such release our government bound itself to pay ten million dollars.

A reciprocity treaty was negotiated with Great Britain, opening to American citizens all the fisheries of British America, excepting those of Newfoundland, and giv ing the British a right to share the American fisheries as far as the 36th degree of north latitude. It provided that between the British provinces and the United States commerce in flour, breadstuffs, fish, animals, lumber and numerous other natural pro. ductions, should be free. The St. Lawrence River and the Canadian canals were opened to American vessels, and our government agreed to urge upon the respective states the admission of British vessels into their canals on similar terms. One of the wisest clauses of the new treaty was that which provided that all disputes arising about the fisheries should be settled by arbitration. How much better it would be if all differences between nations were so adjusted.

Hardly had this question been settled when another dispute arose between Great Britain and the United States. Many citizens of the latter were anxious to possess

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that part of the Isthmus of Panama called the Musquito Coast. It was a wild, unhealthful country, peopled by savages, but it offered great advantages for a short route between the two oceans. For the same reason England wanted the land, across which she believed a canal could be easily cut. A railway had long been in course of construction, and the first trains passed over it from Aspinwall to Panama on the 28th of January, 1855.

General William Walker, an audacious adventurer, began his career as a fillibuster in 1853, by leaving San Francisco and making a descent on La Paz in Lower California. In the following spring, with a hundred men, he marched overland to Sonora, where he raised the standard of revolt. His force was scattered and himself made prisoner. He was tried by the authorities in San Francisco and acquitted. He then raised a band of sixty-two and made his way to Central America. There he was joined by a horde of natives, and gained a victory at Rivas, June 29, 1855. He won another victory at Virgin Bay, and soon became so powerful that he was elected president of Nicaragua. Then came an insurrection, which was aided by the Vander. bilt steamship company, whose rights he had invaded, and on the 1st of May, 1857, he was made prisoner. He was soon released, and straightway gathered another band of adventurers in New Orleans, with whom, on the 25th of November, he landed at Punta Arenas, Nicaragua. A few weeks later he was compelled to surrender to Commodore Paulding of the United States navy. He was a prisoner in New York for a time, but being set free the fi libuster reached Central America a third time in June, 1860, at the head of a considerable force. He made a descent on Truxillo, Honduras, but the president of that state, with the help of a British man-of-war, captured the whole band. Walker was tried on the 3d of September and shot.

I must tell you the interesting story of Martin Koszta, which belongs to this period. Koszta was one of the leaders with Louis Kossuth in the Hungarian revolt against Austria in 1849. When the rebellion was put down he fled to Turkey, whence he was demanded by the Austrian government as a refugee and traitor. Turkey refused to give him up, but agreed that he should be sent in exile to some foreign land, never to return. Naturally, Koszta chose the United States as his asylum, and here he took out partial papers of naturalization. In 1854 he went back to Turkey in violation, as it was alleged, of his pledge. Reaching the city of Smyrna, he received a passport from the American consul and went ashore. The Austrian consul learning this, and having no power to arrest him, hired several bandits to seize and throw him into the water of the bay, where a boat was in waiting, which, picking him up, carried him to an Austrian frigate. The American officials immediately demanded his release, but it was refused. Captain Duncan Ingraham, commanding the American sloop of war St. Louis, was about to open fire on the Austrian vessel, when it was agreed that Koszta should be put in custody of the French government until his nationality could be decided. The question was then turned over to Baron Hülseman, the Austrian minister at Washington, and William L. Marcy, our secretary of state. The correspondence, in point of ability, was one of the ablest on record, and Marcy triumphed; Koszta was remanded to the United States.

1856.]

66

THE KNOW-NOTHING" PARTY.

375

During the administration of Pierce, a secret political party became immensely powerful. The society was formed in New York in 1853, for the purpose of checking foreign influence, especially that of the Irish and of Roman Catholics. The members called themselves "Native Americans," but were generally known as " Know-Nothings," because of their habit when questioned by outsiders regarding their proceedings of saying that they knew nothing. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854, caused a general break-up of the old political parties, and the know-nothings rapidly increased in numbers, its leaders being found in all sections of the country. In the autumn elections of 1854, the know-nothings carried many states, and for a time whigs and democrats were dumfounded by their success. There were hopes among many of the most patriotic members of the new order that it might become a national union party, strong enough to avert the impending strife between the sections; but the quarrel could not be adjusted by such means. In the autumn elections of 1855, the know-nothings carried the states of New York, Massachusetts, and California, but the democrats were successful in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Indiana. It was not long before the new organization went to pieces.

The time had come for a presidential election. The know-nothings met in Philadelphia on Washington's birthday, and nominated for president and vice-president Millard Fillmore and Andrew Jackson Donelson. On the same day a convention assembled at Pittsburg to complete the organization of the republican party, around whose standard it was meant to rally all citizens opposed to the extension of slavery. It was decided to hold a national convention on the 17th of June, the anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill.

At the democratic convention in Cincinnati on the 2d of June, President Pierce was brought forward as a candidate, but he had no strength; Douglas had considerable following, but James Buchanan of Pennsylvania received the nomination, John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky being the choice for vice-president.

On the 17th of June the republican convention met in Philadelphia, and put forward John C. Fremont, the explorer, and William L. Dayton of New Jersey, as its candidates. It is worth remembering that at this convention Abraham Lincoln was given one hundred and ten votes for the vice-presidency. In the election Buchanan received 173 electoral votes, Fremont 114, and Fillmore 8.

CHAPTER XXXIII

ADMINISTRATION OF BUCHANAN AND BRECKINRIDGE.

1857-61.

[AMES BUCHANAN, the fifteenth president of the United States, was born of Irish parentage in Pennsylvania, on the 23d of April, 1791. He was admitted to the bar

JAM

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in 1812, and two years later was elected to the state legislature. He was a member of Congress in 1820, and showed considerable power as a debater. President Jackson ap

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