fisheries is now recognized. The price paid was $7,200,000 in gold.

674. The presidential election in 1868 was decided on the question of approving or disapproving the Republican method of reconstruction. The Republicans nominated General U. S. Grant of Illinois and Schuyler Colfax of Indiana. The Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour of New York and Frank P. Blair of Missouri. Grant and Colfax were elected.

[Grant and Colfax received 214 electoral votes, Seymour and Blair seventy-one. Texas, Mississippi, and Virginia were not allowed to vote, being still out of the Union. Objection was made to counting the vote of Georgia, which sent in returns, although not readmitted to the Union at the time of the election. The House of Representatives sustained the objection, but the Senate did not. Counting Georgia, Seymour and Blair had eighty votes.]

Who are citizens of any state? What change in counting representation was made by the fourteenth amendment? What right had our country to demand the withdrawal of French troops from Mexico? How did the United States acquire Alaska?

For Explanation.-Tribunal; arbitration.

To be Pronounced.-Staempfle (stěm'fle); Sclōp'is; Itajuba (ee-tähoo'bä).

675. Our country began its national life in the war for independence. Feeble at first, our national spirit strengthened with the years, and proved our right to be respected by the rest of the world. It kept its steady course, revealing to the world the new spectacle of a nation whose institutions were designed for the elevation of men. Its great trial came, not in dangers from abroad, but in disunion at home. The systems of slave and free labor had grown side by side until both could no longer live together. In the fires of civil war the slave system had perished. Through the sorrows of this war, we rose again one nation, indivisible forever. When our constitution was formed, in the minds of many Americans state citizenship stood before United States citizenship; when it was amended, the order was reversed. This change represents the constitutional growth

of eighty years. The states stand, the foundation of our Republic. The Union stands, the preserver of American nationality.

676. [Ulysses S. Grant was born in Ohio, in 1822. He was educated at West Point, graduating in 1843. He had no fondness for military life, and would have chosen to teach mathematics at West Point, rather than serve in the field, had the choice been given him. He was assigned to service with an infantry company, which entered the Mexican War under General Taylor (529). Later, he served under General Scott. Grant did brave service, but was not promoted above first lieutenant. In 1851 he was sent to the Pacific coast, where he was promoted to captain. He remained for three years on military duty, seeing a good deal of early California life, and forming the hope of some day making his home in this state. Not being able to provide for his family from his small salary, he resigned his commission in 1854 and became a farmer, living near St. Louis. In 1858 he was a real estate agent in St. Louis, and in 1860 he moved to Galena, Illinois, and became a clerk in his father's store. In 1861 he was commissioned a colonel, and placed in command of a regiment of Illinois volunteers, which went into service in Missouri (611). He soon became a brigadier-general. His further progress is told in the history of the Civil War. As lieutenant-general he continued in command of the United States army until his election as President.]

U. S. GRANT.

677. The Treaty of Washington is the name of a treaty between Great Britain and our country, arranged in 1871. There were several matters in dispute-our boundary line in the northwest corner, our right to fish off the coast of Canada, and damages to commerce during the civil war. The treaty provided for the appointment of tribunals of arbitration, to which should be submitted each question of

dispute. The northwest boundary was left to the Emperor of Germany, who decided in our favor, fixing the boundary through the Pacific inlets, as it now appears on our maps. The arbitrators appointed for the fishery dispute made their decision in 1877, and we paid $5,500,000 to Great Britain for the use that our fishermen had made of waters along the Canada shore.

678. [The Fishery Question.-The right to catch fish along the shore of British possessions was guaranteed to us at the close of the Revolution. By a treaty in 1818 our government agreed that American fishermen should not fish within three miles of inhabited portions of Canada. Disputes arose over the application of this rule, as to whether the distance should be measured from any point of the shore, or from headland to headland. The question of our right to use Canadian fisheries is still at issue (1887).]

679. The Alabama Claims were the estimated damages done to the commerce of the United States by the Alabama (594) and other cruisers fitted out in British ports during our civil war. The appointed arbitrators met at Geneva, Switzerland, examined claims, listened to arguments, and decided, in 1872, that Great Britain should pay to the United States $15,500,000, in full for all damages. This is known as the Geneva Award.

[The Geneva arbitrators were Sir Alexander Cockburn of Great Britain, Charles Francis Adams of the United States, ex-President Staempfle of Switzerland, Count Sclopis of Italy, and Baron Itajuba of Brazil. Citizens of Great Britain had claims against the United States for similar losses, and a separate board of arbitrators decided that the United States should pay Great Britain $1,928,819, in full for all claims.]

680. The West Indies.-Negroes occupying the western half of Hayti established the Republic of San Domingo in 1844. This government desired to be annexed to the United States. President Grant favored annexation, and a treaty was arranged. The Senate, however, refused to ratify the treaty, and the plan of annexation was abandoned. Cuba rebelled against Spain in 1868. In the United States there was much sympathy for Cuba, and in 1873 the Virginius,

an American vessel, was loaded with supplies for the Cubans. While on the open sea, and under the United States flag, she was captured by a Spanish war vessel. Spanish authorities condemned and shot several of the crew and passengers. President Grant indignantly protested, the Spaniards ceased their executions, returned the ship and the surviving prisoners, and made apologies that were accepted.

681. The first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869. It had been planned before the civil war, and work was commenced while the war was in progress. The line from Omaha to San Francisco was constructed by two great companies, the Union Pacific from Omaha to Ogden, and the Central Pacific from Ogden to San Francisco. This line of railway brought the Atlantic and Pacific shores into close communication, while rapid travel and freighting quickened the development of the Pacific coast and added to the wealth of the whole country.

[The building of the Pacific railway was a vast undertaking, too great to be accomplished by private enterprise alone. The government therefore, in 1862 and 1864, gave subsidies, or help, to the companies undertaking the work. It became responsible for interest on bonds, and gave the companies every alternate section of public land for twenty miles each side of the railway so far as it should be constructed. The subsidy in land to the Central Pacific and Union Pacific amounted to 25,000,000 acres. In similar manner the government has since aided the construction of other great railways.]

682. [Great Fires at Chicago and Boston.-In October, 1871, the greatest fire of modern times occurred at Chicago. It lasted for three days. The burnt district included 3,000 acres and the loss of property amounted to $200,000,000. The same month there were terrible forest fires in Wisconsin, in which more than 1,500 persons were burned to death. A great fire occurred in Boston in November, 1872, which caused a loss of $70,000,000 in some of the best property of the city. The whole country sent aid to the sufferers by these fires. The burnt districts in the two cities were quickly rebuilt with larger and finer buildings.]

683. Troubles in the Southern States.-Negro suffrage

681. Find a railroad map and learn how many railway lines now cross the continent of North America.