Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1904 — THE WEEKLY HISTORIAN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE WEEKLY HISTORIAN

One Hundred Years. Ago. The famous code of Napoleon was adopted by France. Napoleon issued an edict requiring every person in Paris above the age of 15 years to carry an identification card containing his personal description. Moro than sixty t'houans were executed at Bressuire, France, because they had no passes to leave their native province. The House of Representatives passed a bill providing for the protection of American seamen and ships by armed -forces' from the attacks of the Barbary powers! Tlie Emperor of Russia ordered the translation into the vernacular of the works of Tacitus, this being taken as au indication of increasing civilization in Russia. A bill to remove the seat of government to Baltimore was agit at cd in Coagross on the ground that property, rents, living and hotel accommodations were too high priced in Washington. Seventy-five Years Ago. Steamboasts were being built to ply between Green Bay on Lake Michigan and the portage of the Wisconsin, for Hie purpose of carrying lead from mines in the upper Mississippi valley to eastern markets. Lands belonging to the Cherokee Indians in the South Atlantic States were being rapidly settled by the whites. There were reported 130 cotton factories in the State of Rhode Island. The Legislature of Mexico passed a special law expelling all Spaniards from the country. Violent earthquakes occurred in Spain. Fully 6,000 persons perished, and Marcia and other villages were devastated. Schuylkill coal sold for sls a ton in the yards in New’ York. Fifty Years Ago. The confidential correspondence between the Czar and the English government regarding the fate of Turkey was laid before Parliament. The House of Representatives had 23-4 members, and there w’ere 62 Senators, representing thirty-one States. A mutiny broke out on the American clipper ship Sovereign of the Seas, en route from Australia to Liverpool, which was put down by guns and bayonets. Heavy failures were announced in London, Manchester and Glasgow, beginning a period of extraordinary commercial disaster. . There was an exciting debate in Parliament over the rights of British negro seamen in the Southern ports of tlie United Stntes! "The government of Prussia absolutely prohibited the transit of arms from ita territory. Forty Years Ago. The property of eight citizens of Superior, Wis., was confiscated by the United States government because of their Confederate sympathies. Gen. U. S. Grant formally took command of the United States army at Nashville, Tcmi. Arkansas citizens voted for State officers under the newly reconstructed government. The National House of Representatives appointed a commission to select the site for a United States navy yard on the Ohio river. Vote was taken in Congress on proposition of Representative Harding of Kentucky forbidding the use of any'part of the army appropriation to pay negro troops. Great droves of buffaloes were reported in the Cheyenne river valley, followed by hundreds of Indians. Thirty Years Ago. Queen Victoria opened the British Parliament with a speech announcing ths end of the Ashantee war, the Indian famine, and serious labor troubles in England. News first reached the United Staten that Prince Kalaknua had been elected King of the Sandwich Islands, to succeed Lunalilo. Mrs. Do Geers, the temperance crusader, Issued an appeal to Mayor Colvin of Chicago to veto the Sunday saloon license law. The funeral of United States Senator Charles G. Sumner was held in Boston, John G. Whittier and Ralph Waldo Emerson attending. Twenty Years Ago. Gen. James W. Singleton of Illinois nns proposed as Democratic candidate for President of the United States. British Parliament was expected to dissolve owing to split in cabinet over Gladstone’s Egyptian policy. Enemies of Postfnastcr General Gresham were accused of trying to embroil him and Senator (later President) Banjamin Harrison by a petition asking that the former be appointed federal judge. The national House of Representatives voted on the bill for the proposed new congressional library on Capitol Hill. The rush of gold miners for the newly discovered Coeur d'Alene district was begun. Friends of Senator John A. Logan met in Chicago, with E. L. Jayne presiding, to launch his presidential boom.