treaty of peace with the commissioners of the United States, at Guadaloupe Hidalgo, which was finally agreed to by both governments. It stipulated the evacuation of Mexico by the American army within three months; the payment of three millions of dollars in hand, and twelve millions of dollars in four annual installments by the United States to Mexico, for the territory acquired by conquest. It also fixed boundaries, and otherwise adjusted several matters in dispute. New Mexico, and California with her gold mines, now became territories of the United States.

TAYLOR'S ADMINISTRATION.

On the 5th of March, 1849 (the 4th being Sunday), Zachary Taylor was inaugurated and occupied the presidential chair for sixteen. months. He was removed by death, on the 9th of July, 1850, after an illness of only four days.

When President Taylor entered upon the duties of office, thousands of adventurers were flocking to California in search of gold which had been discovered on Captain Sutter's mill, on a branch of the Sacramento River, in 1848. Statesmen and politicians perceiving the importance of the new territory began to agitate the question whether slavery should have a legal existence in that section. The inhabitants, in a convention at San Francisco, voted against slavery, and the constitution prepared and' adopted at Monterey, September 1, 1849, excluded slavery from the territory forever.

Delegates and senators having been appointed by the residents of California, the latter asked for the admission of that territory as a free and independent state. The article of the constitution which excluded slavery, caused violent debates in congress, and bitter sectional feeling between the people of the north and south. In January, 1850, Henry Clay, as peacemaker, offered in the senate a plan of compromise which met the difficulty. A bill for this purpose was discussed for four months, and in September the famous "Compromise Act" of 1850, became a law. The most important stipulations were, 1. That California should be admitted as a free state: 2. That the vast country east of California, containing the Mormon settlements, should be formed into a territory called Utah, without mention of slavery: 3. That New Mexico should be made a territory without any stipulations with regard to slavery, and that ten millions of dollars should be paid to Texas, for the purchase of her claims: 4.

That the slave trade in the District of Columbia should be abolished: 5. A law providing for the arrest and return of all slaves escaping to the northern or free states.

FILLMORE'S ADMINISTRATION.

Millard Fillmore, the vice-president, in accordance with the provisions of the constitution, succeeded General Taylor in the presidency, and on the 10th of July, 1850, took the oath of office. The most important measure adopted during the early part of Fillmore's administration, was the Compromise Act, of which some notice has been given. In the spring of 1851, congress made important changes in the general postoffice laws, chiefly in the reduction of letter postage, fixing the rate upon a letter weighing not more than half an ounce and prepaid, at three cents to any part of the United States, at less distances than three thousand miles.

During the summer of 1851, considerable excitement was produced by the movements for the purpose of invading the Island of Cuba. The steamboat Cleopatra was seized at New York, on the charge of a violation of the neutrality laws. Much excitement prevailed in Cuba, and a large Spanish force was concentrated there. In August 1851, General Lopez, a native of Cuba, sailed from New Orleans, and landed on the northern coast of Cuba, with nearly five hundred men. Having left Colonel Crittenden, of Kentucky, with one hundred men, Lopez proceeded toward the interior. Colonel Crittenden and his party were captured, carried to Havana and shot. Lopez was attacked and his little army dispersed. He was arrested, with six of his followers, taken to Havana, and executed by the garote on the 1st of September, 1851.

The first American expedition to the Arctic Regions, left New York in May of 1850. It was sent out by Mr. Henry Grinnell, an opulent merchant of that city, on an errand of humanity, in search of Sir John Franklin, the missing navigator, who, as subsequent discoveries have proved, perished with all of his crews, amid the regions of the icy north. This "first Grinnell expedition," as it is called, consisted of two small vessels, the Advance and the Rescue, under the command of Lieutenant E. De Haven, a young naval officer. Dr. E. K. Kane was surgeon and naturalist, and wrote a history of the expedition which, after a variety of adventures, returned in the autumn of 1851.

In December 1851, Louis Kossuth, the exiled governor of Hungary, arrived in New York from England, on a mission to the United States, in quest of aid for his oppressed country. His great efforts in behalf of freedom, and his extraordinary talents as a writer and orator, secured for him the greatest attention and respect, both in Great Britain and America. The most important of the closing events of Mr. Fillmore's administration, was the creation, by congress, of the territory of Washington, out of the northern section of Oregon. This took place March 2, 1853.

PIERCE'S ADMINISTRATION.

Franklin Pierce, the fourteenth president of the United States, was inaugurated March 4, 1853, and continued in office for four years.

In 1846, our government had unsuccessfully attempted to open negotiations with the Court of Japan, for the purpose of commerce. The Columbus and Vincennes, under the command of Commodore Biddle, in July of that year, entered the Bay of Jeddo, with a letter from President Polk to the Emperor of Japan, defining the objects desired. The reply was short and decisive. "No trade can be allowed with any foreign nation, except Holland." In the years 1853 and 1854, a second expedition, under Commodore Perry, was successful. A treaty was effected which opened the ports of that great nation to the commerce of the civilized world.

In January 1854, Senator Douglas introduced into congress a bill called the "Kansas-Nebraska-bill," which occasioned great agitation on the subject of slavery. A petition against the measure was presented to the senate, signed by three thousand clergymen, principally of New England. Much discussion was had upon it, but congress finally passed the bill in May, 1854.

The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska-bill in effect rendered the Missouri Compromise Act of no avail, if as was claimed, previous legistion had not done so before.* It left all territory belonging to the

*Mr. Douglass, chairman of the committee on territories in his report to the senate on the Kansas-Nebraska-bill, stated it was apparent that the compromise measures of 1850, affirm and rest upon this, among other propositions, viz: "That all questions pertaining to slavery in the territories, and the new states to be formed therefrom, are to be left to the decision of the people residing therein, by their appropriate representatives, to be chosen by them for that purpose."

It was claimed in reply, that even if this proposition was true, it had no application to the territory under consideration for that comprised a part of the original territory of Louisiana, in all of which north of latitude 36 deg. 30 min., under the Missouri Compromise of 1820, slavery was forever prohibited.

United States open to the introduction of slavery. A most desperate . struggle between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery parties now ensued for the political ascendency. Two months after the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, an Emigrant Aid Society was formed in Boston: an act of incorporation having been previously made by the legislature of Massachusetts. This movement excited the friends of slavery to action; and in Missouri combinations under the name of "Blue Lodges," "Sons of the South," etc., were formed to extend their institutions.

A territorial legislature was formed in 1855, and a "reign of terror" commenced, and for more than a year civil war raged. In November, 1855, the free state party met in convention and formed a state constitution, and in the following January elections under it were held. This was denounced by the president as an act of rebellion. Troubles still continued, and acts of violence and bloodshed were committed. The accounts from Kansas, being contradictory and alarming, the United States house of representatives appointed a committee of three to proceed to investigate the whole matter and report.

On the 1st of July, 1856, the majority of the committee reported that the elections held under the organic or alleged territorial law, had been carried by organized invasions from Missouri; that the people of the territory had been prevented from exercising their rights; that the alleged territorial legislature was an illegally constituted body, and that their enactments were null and void. They also reported that neither the sitting delegate, J. W. Whitfield, or A. H. Reeder, his free state opponent, were elected in pursuance of any valid law.

The "Second Grinnell Expedition" to the Arctic regions in search of Sir John Franklin, popularly known as Kane's expedition, sailed from New York in May, 1853, and returned in October, 1855. It consisted of a single vessel, the Advance, a small brig, and was under the command of Dr. Kane. Important additions were made to the geography of the Arctic regions, among which was the discovery of an open and iceless sea toward the pole.

BUCHANAN'S ADMINISTRATION.

James Buchanan, the fifteenth president of the United States, was inaugurated March 4, 1857. The events during his administration,

now in its last quarter, have been full of interest. Among these may be mentioned the final defeat of Colonel Walker in his expedition of conquest to Central America; the Utah Expedition; and the intense sectional agitation, growing out of the diverse views upon the subject of slavery, as held respectively by the people of the free and of the slave states. This agitation will doubtless terminate in ultimate good, for nothing ever becomes a finality until it is settled right. Men, singly or in bodies, by legislation or other means, are powerless to control the march of great events which in their progress advance the general welfare. It is this reflection which in the most gloomy hour gives comfort to the patriot, and inspires him with confidence in the future of the land, rendered sacred by the graves of his ancestors, and loved as his own birthplace, and as the heritage of his children.