THE AMERICAN ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA AND REGISTER OF IMPORTANT EVENTS OF THE YEAR 1866. EMBRACING POLITICAL, CIVIL, MILITARY, AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS; PUBLIC DOCU- VOLUME VI. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON & CO., 90, 92 & 94 GRAND STREET. 1868. ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. PREFACE. Ir the close of an internal war forms the most critical moment in the career of a nation, especially when that war has involved the nature and existence of the institutions of a country, then there can be no period so important to the people of the United States as that of the years which intervene until a final settlement of all difficulties with the Southern States. This period is the more highly important here, as it includes circumstances without a parallel in the previous history of mankind. The sudden emancipation of four millions of slaves of another race of men, their immediate investment with civil rights, their rapid elevation to the dignity and power of coequals in the Government with their former masters, is a problem full of intense interest in every step of its solution. In this view the present volume of the ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA CONtains all the measures proposed or adopted in Congress for the reconstruction of the Union; the reports and debates on those measures; the views of the Executive department of the Government; the conflict of opinion between the President and Congress, and the respective measures adopted by each; the change in the condition of the people of the Southern States, arising from their new civil and political relations, together with all those events which illustrate the history of this national crisis. Scarcely less important were the events in Europe, which have so changed the political aspect of the western portion of that continent, and forebode momentous results in the future. The difficulties between Austria, Italy, and Prussia, are explained in these pages, with the details of their negotiations, and the military operations in that short and decisive war, accompanied by topographical and military maps and illustrations. The destruction of the old German Union by the secession of Prussia, and other States, and the formation of a northern confederation under her control and consolidation, resulting in placing her among the great powers of Europe, are fully narrated. The details of the internal affairs of the United States embrace the financial condition of the Government; with the practical operation of its systems of taxation; its currency; debt; the banks; commerce and agriculture; the proceedings in the Southern States to reorganize their civil and social affairs; the position and rights allowed to the freedmen, with the practical operation of the Freedmen's Bureau; the various political conventions of the year, both national and State; the acts of State Legislatures; the results of elections; the progress of educational and charitable institutions under the care of the State governments; the debts and resources of the States, and all those facts which serve to show their growth and development. The intercourse of the United States with foreign nations, as presented in its diplomatic correspondence, is noticed, and the civil, military, and commercial history of all the states of Europe and South America, and the more important kingdoms of Asia, with some countries of Africa, is fully brought up. The progress and peculiar features and effective mode of treatment of those scourges known as the Asiatic Cholera and Cattle Disease, are carefully described. The advance in the various branches of physical science, with the new applications to useful purposes which have been developed, have been extensively described. Geographical explorations were earnestly continued in all quarters of the globe, and the discoveries which have followed are fully presented. The record of Literature is fully as important as that of any previous year, and the works published have been extensively noticed under the various classes to which they belong. Nearly all the religious denominations of the country, with an account of their branches, membership, views on political affairs, and the progress of distinctive opinions, from their official sources, are carefully noticed. A brief tribute has been paid to the memory of deceased persons of note in every department of society. All important documents, messages, orders, treaties, constitutions, and letters from official persons, have been inserted entire. THE ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA. ABYSSINIA, a kingdom or empire in Eastern Africa. On account of our little acquaintance with this country, the statements on its area and population widely differ. Brehm's Geographisches Jahrbuch (vol. i., 1866), one of the best authorities on population, puts down the area at 7,450 geographical square miles and the population at 3,000,000. Dr. Küppell (Reise in Abessinien, 1831-33, Frankfort, 1838) estimates the population in the territory from 12° to 16° north latitude, and from 37° to 40° east longitude, at not more than 500,000 inhabitants; and in the remainder of Abyssinia, comprising the western provinces of Quara, Madsha, and Agov, and the southern provinces of Gudjam, Damot, Amhara, and Begemeder, at 1,000,000, thus giving to the whole of Abyssinia (with the exception of Shoa) a population of 1,500,000. The province of Shoa has, according to the missionary Dr. Krapf, one of the best writers on this country ("Travels, Researches, and Missionary Labors in Eastern Africa," London, 1860), about 1,000,000 inhabitants. These statements, taken together, and the natural increase, indicate a population of about 3,000,000. The same estimate is made by the Roman Catholic bishop Massaja, who for many years lived among the Gallas (Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, January, 1865). According to the missionary Isenberg (Abessinien, Bonn, 1864), the population of Abyssinia, Shoa, and the country between 7° and 16° north latitude and 36° and 42° east longitude, amounts to five or six millions. The whole Ethiopian plateau, comprising Abyssinia, and the Sidama and Galla countries, has, according to Massaja, 12,000,000 of people, 9,000,000 of whom are Sidamas and Gallas. This statement agrees with that of Krapf, according to which the Gallas number from six to eight millions. Abyssinia is ruled by emperors, who are supposed to be descended from King Solomon and VOL. VI.-1 A the Queen of Sheba, but until the present monarch seized the throne, their authority was merely nominal, the real power being in the hands of the governors of the provinces, who gave them a formal allegiance. The present emperor, Theodore, succeeded in 1855, and his attention was soon directed to obtaining recognition and friendly intercourse from the power which holds India, and has established itself in the neighboring stronghold of Aden. A treaty had, therefore, been made between Great Britain and Abyssinia so long ago as 1849, and it was ratified in 1852. In this treaty it was stipulated that each state should receive ambassadors from the other. The emperor, desirous to strengthen his authority, resolved to assert the rights thus assured to him: but, unfortunately, the officer who represented British interests in those regions was suddenly taken away. Mr. Plowden had been for many years English consul at Massowah; though not an accredited agent to Abyssinia, he had been intrusted with presents for the people in authority, and with these he went into the country, where he remained, taking part in a war which broke out at the accession of the present emperor, and thus ingratiated himself extremely with that potentate. Mr. Plowden was killed in 1860, and Mr. Cameron was sent from some other Eastern post to succeed him. Mr. Cameron arrived in 1862, and shortly afterward the emperor told him that he desired to carry out the treaty made so many years before. Toward the end of 1862 he wrote an autograph letter to Queen Victoria, requesting permission to send an embassy to England. This letter reached London in February, 1863, and, for some reason or other, was left unanswered. Then came a quarrel with a missionary, Mr. Stern, who had committed the unpardonable offence of remonstrating against the flogging to death of two interpreters. |