1868

SEISMIC DISTURBANCES

broke out in a grand volcanic display. Earthquake shocks were felt even in Britain. Earlier in the year a terrific cyclone swept over the island of Mauritius which rendered no less than 50,000 persons homeless. On March 27 the Hawaiian Islands were violently convulsed. A tidal wave sixty feet in height swept in from the sea, destroying villages and drowning the people and their cattle. The great volcano Mauna Loa broke out in dreadful eruption, ejecting fire, rocks, ashes, and molten lava. In Peru and Ecuador, on August 13, a tremendous earthquake occurred, overthrowing numerous structures and destroying thousands of lives. The earth rocked frightfully; crags fell from the summits of the Andes; immense tidal waves rolled in upon the land, sweeping whole towns from their foundations and stranding ships of war and merchant vessels far above highwater mark. The undulations extended over the whole Pacific, breaking in huge rollers on the shores of California, the Sandwich Islands, Japan, and New Zealand. On October 21 an earthquake damaged the city of San Francisco, causing considerable loss of life. On the night of November 14 a shower of meteors, which had been foretold, was seen at many points, and appeared to professional observers to emanate from the constellation Leo. Fully 5,000 meteors were observed from various astronomical stations.

EVENTS OF 1869

Johnson-Clarendon Treaty Adjusts "Alabama" Claims-Congress Passes Fifteenth Amendment, Giving Negroes Right to Vote-Grant is Inaugurated President-Congress Rejects Johnson-Clarendon Treaty and Refers "Alabama" Claims to International Arbitration-Wyoming and Utah Give Women the Suffrage-Notable American Books -Union Pacific Railway is Completed-New York Financiers Bring on Panic by a Corner in Gold-Secretary Boutwell Breaks Corner by Selling Government Gold-Manipulations of Gould and Fisk Cause the "Erie War"-Spain Declines Grant's Offer of Mediation in Cuban Rebellion-Government Suppresses Bourbon Insurrections in Spain-Parliament Abolishes Trish Church Establishment -Deaths of Lamartine, French Poet; Sainte-Beuve, French Critic; Peabody, American Philanthropist; Grisi, Opera Singer, and Gottschalk, Composer-Mikado Moves Capital to Tokio (Formerly Yeddo)-Suez Canal is Opened.

HE American claims against England growing out

T

of the Civil War, notably the "Alabama" claims, were at last adjusted. On January 14 a convention was signed at London by the Earl of Clarendon, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, on behalf of Great Britain, and by Reverdy Johnson, the American Minister at the Court of St. James's, on behalf of the United States. On February 26 Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment to the American Constitution, which provided that "the right to vote shall not be denied or abridged in any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The new President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, took his oath of office on March 4, as customary. Ex-President Johnson refused to sit in the carriage with Grant at his inauguration, nor would he take any part in the proceedings. Congress rejected the Johnson-Clarendon treaty respecting the "Alabama" claims, and the matter had to be referred to international arbitration. Motley, the historian, was appointed Minister to Great Britain. Some embarrassment for Washburn, the new Secretary of State, was provided by a resolution of sympathy with the Cuban insurgents on the part of

1869

THE CORNER IN GOLD

the Representatives. Still the independence of Cuba was not recognized by President Grant. Instead, he entered into negotiations for a peaceable annexation of San Domingo by the United States, and for a long lease of the bay and peninsula of Samana as a naval station.

During this year in America the right of suffrage was granted to women in the Territories of Wyoming and Utah. Whittier brought out his "New England Ballads,” and Parkman his "Discovery of the West." The most popular American literary production of the year was Mark Twain's "Innocents Abroad."

An event of far-reaching industrial and financial importance was the completion of the Union Pacific Railway on May 10 by the junction at Ogden of the Union and Central Pacific Railways. Railway speculation received an immense impetus at New York, where Vanderbilt, Gould, and Fisk dazzled the Stock Exchange by their daring hazards. In September Gould and Fisk joined in a scheme to "corner the gold of the country." In the spring of the year the price of gold had fallen to 131, by reason of the Government's impending resumption of specie payments. A clique of Wall Street speculators purchased several millions at that price. By liberal subsidies to the press they induced several newspapers to prophesy that difficulties with England would arise from the "Alabama" claims, or from the recognition of the Cuban insurrection, or again that war was imminent between Germany and France. Thus they pushed up the price of gold to 135, and gathered a rich harvest. After this the value of gold fell to its former standard of 131, and there was a general belief that it would fall still further. The financial policy of the Government which necessitated the payment of duties in gold again sent up the price of gold. The clique once more took a hand. By their operations the price was advanced to 141 by the 22d of September,

a Wednesday. There it hung in the balance. Then came two days of feverish excitement and speculations surpassing anything hitherto known in the financial annals of America. Important railroad stocks fell by a score of points within an hour. The lesser speculators failed or settled their obligations on the best terms they could. It was a day of wild excitement, of alternating hopes and fears, recalling the Civil War. The day closed with gold at 144. On the morning of Friday-"Black Friday" as it came to be called— every passage leading to the Stock Exchange was blocked by a dense mass of humanity laboring under the greatest state of excitement. At the opening of the Board the price of gold was 150-an advance of six per cent on that of the highest of the day before. It was now well known that Jay Gould and his associates held in gold and contracts for delivery something like $120,000,000, while all the current gold in New York could be scarcely more than $20,000,000. The Government alone could break the corner by the sale of gold in the New York sub-treasury. The conduct of the Treasury officials, if it did not confirm the boast of the clique that members of the Government were in league with them, left scant hope of elief from that quarter. The price of gold rose steadily. In the midst of the wildest excitement, when the price was vibrating at the highest points, a messenger arrived in the Gold Room with the news that Secretary of the Treasury Boutwell had given orders to sell gold on behalf of the Government. The price instantly fell to 135. The power of the clique was broken, and the great crisis was at an end. The calamity of the financial failures of Wall Street had now made itself felt in the commercial circles of New York, and soon spread through the whole country. Intense indignation was aroused against Gould, Fisk, and other members of the gold clique. Persistent efforts were made to implicate President Grant in their trans

actions, and Congress appointed a committee to investigate the charges, but nothing came of it.

Jay Gould, James Fisk, and their associates achieved no less notoriety in America by their reckless dealings culminating in the so-called "Erie War." After seventeen years of discouraging efforts, the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad, connecting the city of Albany with the Erie Railroad at Binghamton, had at last been completed. Early in August the treasurer of this railroad company refused to transfer some stock to the Erie party, on the ground that it had been illegally procured. A war of injunctions followed. The Erie party controlled two corrupt judges in New York, who issued writs in their favor. The threatening assertions of conflicting rights made police intervention necessary. Police officers and deputy sheriffs were bribed right and left. Rival receivers were appointed for the Albany Railroad. In New York, Fisk and his associates in the Erie Ring avoided service of legal writs by barricading themselves in New Jersey, in company with one of their pliant judges. An Erie train waiting at a station was seized. Armed men took charge. Another train filled with 800 armed men was sent against them. As the two trains met both engineers leaped for life. The Erie engine was wrecked and the train thrown off the track. The militia had to interfere. The courts, after some more flagrant attempts at intimidation and corruption, decided against the Erie Railroad.

By way of compromise between the American aspirations toward the recognition of Cuban independence, and the objections of the European chancelleries, President Grant at length tendered an offer of mediation between Spain and its rebellious subjects in Cuba, but the Spanish Government peremptorily declined the offer. Spain made it imperative for the take a strong stand in this matter.

Internal dissersions in new Government there te Early in the year insur