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Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Choctaw Indians, (search)
540. They became allies of the French in Louisiana, where they numbered about 2,500 warriors, and formed forty villages. In the Revolution they were mostly with the English, but were granted peaceable possession of their lands by the United States government. On Jan. 3, 1786, a treaty was made with the leaders of the nation, of the same purport and upon the same terms as that made with the Cherokees the previous year. As early as 1800, numbers of them went beyond the Mississippi, and in 1803 it was estimated that 500 families had emigrated. They served with the United States troops in the second war with England and in that with the Creeks, and in 1820 they ceded a part of their lands for a domain in what is now the Indian Territory. In 1830 they ceded the rest of their lands and joined their brethren west of the Mississippi, where the Chickasaws joined them. In 1861 they had a population of 25,000, with 5,000 negro slaves. They were seduced into an alliance with the Conf
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Christians, (search)
mbers, left the Methodist Episcopal Church in North Carolina and Virginia. On Aug. 4, 1794, they agreed to be known as Christians, and should acknowledge no head over the church but Christ, and should have no creed or discipline but the Bible. Abner Jones, M. D., left the Baptists in New England, and preached similar principles. He established the first churches to have no name but Christian at Lyndon, Vt., in 1800; at Bradford, Vt., in 1802; at Piermont, N. H., and at Haverhill, Mass., in 1803. In April, 1801, a religious excitement, called the falling exercise, began in southern Kentucky. It soon spread northward to the Presbyterian churches at Cane Ridge and Concord, over which Rev. Barton W. Stone was pastor. His usual May meeting was attended by 2,500 persons, many of whom were from other States. This revival lasted for several years, and spread over several States. The enthusiasm going beyond the denominational conservatism of those days, there were many trials for hers
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Civil service, United States colonial. (search)
cease to be Spanish is highly improbable. Their inhabitants are a civilized people, heirs, like ourselves, of a European culture, possessing a noble language, a splendid literature, and a highly developed jurisprudence. This inheritance they will never voluntarily give up, nor can they be forced to sacrifice it without tyrannical oppression. Those who think differently should study the case of French Canada, or, even better, the case of Louisiana. It would have been natural to expect, in 1803, that the inflowing tide of American immigration would soon absorb or overwhelm the scattered little settlements of French creoles, numbering in all, masters and slaves, within the bounds of the present State of Louisiana, not more than 30,000. On the contrary, French life and manners still survive, the civil law has never been displaced by the English common law, and after nearly a century, over one-sixth of the native whites of the State cannot speak the English language. In view of this
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Clay, Henry 1777-1852 (search)
rn in Hanover county, Va., April 12, 1777; received the rudiments of education in a log-cabin school-house; labored on a farm until he was fifteen years of age, when he entered the office of the High Court of Chancery, in Richmond, at which time his mother, who had married a second time, emigrated to Kentucky. He studied law under the direction of Chancellor Wythe, and was admitted to the bar in 1797, when he opened a law-office in Lexington, Ky., where he obtained an extensive practice. In 1803 he was elected to the Kentucky legislature, and was speaker in 1807-8. He became United States Senator in 1808, and member of Congress and Speaker in 1811-14. In 1814 he was a Henry Clay at 40. commissioner to treat for peace with Great Britain, and afterwards, in Congress, was five times elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. Mr. Clay was Secretary of State in the cabinet of John Quincy Adams (1825-29), and again a member of the United States Senate from 1831 till 1842. He w
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Clifford, Nathan 1803-1881 (search)
Clifford, Nathan 1803-1881 Jurist; born in Rumney, N. H., Aug. 18, 1803; graduated at the Hampton Literary Institution; settled in York county, Me., after being admitted to the bar; member of Congress in 1839-43; appointed attorneygeneral of the United States in 1846; and in 1848 went to Mexico as United States commissioner to arrange terms for the cession of California to the United States. In 1849 he resumed practice in Maine; in 1858 was appointed an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, and in 1877 was president of the electoral commission (q. v.). He published United States circuit Court reports. He died in Cornish, Me., July 25, 1881.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Clinton, de Witt 1769-1828 (search)
Statesman; born in Little Britain, Orange co., N. Y., March 2, 1769; graduated at Columbia De Witt Clinton. College in 1786; studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1788, but practised very little. He was private secretary to his uncle George, governor of New York, in 1790-95, in favor of whose administration he wrote much in the newspapers. He was in the Assembly of his State in 1797, and from 1798 to 1802 was a Democratic leader in the State Senate. He was mayor of New York City in 1803-7, 1809-10, and 1811-14. He was an earnest promoter of the establishment of the New York Historical Society and the American Academy of Fine Arts. Opposed to the War of 1812-15, he was the Peace candidate for the Presidency in 1812, but was defeated by James Madison. Mr. Clinton was one of the founders and first president of the Literary and Philosophical Society in New York, and was one of the most efficient promoters of the construction of the Erie Canal. In 1817-22, and in 1824-27, he
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Codes, (search)
Codes, In general terms a collection of laws, the most notable of which in modern times is the Code Napoleon, which was promulgated between 1803 and 1810, and has since been adopted in large part by various countries. In the United States the most notable codes are those prepared by Judge Stephen J. Field (q. v.) for use in California. at the time of its admission into the Union, and the Codes of Civil and criminal procedure prepared by his brother, David Dudley field (q. v.), for the State of New York. The latter, after completing the abovementioned work, was appointed by the legislature chairman of a commission to prepare a political code, a penal code, and a civil code, which, with the codes of procedure alluded to, were designed to take the place of the common law, and to cover the entire range of American law. A number of the States have adopted in whole or in part this last class of codes. Mr. Field also actively urged the preparation of a code of international law, and
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Colonization Society, American (search)
fter the Revolution the effort was renewed by Dr. Hopkins, and he endeavored to make arrangements by which free blacks from America might join the English colony at Sierra Leone, established in 1787, for a home for destitute Africans from different parts of the world, and for promoting African civilization. He failed. In 1793 he proposed a plan of colonization to be carried on by the several States and by the national government. He persevered in his unavailing efforts until his death, in 1803. The subject continued to be agitated from time to time, and in 1815 a company of thirty-eight colored persons emigrated to Sierra Leone from New Bedford. Steps had been taken as early as 1811 for the organization of a colonization society, and on Dec. 23, 1816, the constitution of the American Colonization Society was adopted at a meeting at Washington, and the first officers were chosen Jan. 1, 1817. All reference to emancipation, present or future, was specially disclaimed by the soci
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Colorado (search)
Colorado A State occupying a mountainous and high plateau region, between Kansas and Nebraska on the east, Utah on the west, Wyoming on the north, and New Mexico and Texas on the south, organized as a Territory Feb. 28, 1861, from parts of its several contiguous neighbors, and admitted to the Union July 4, 1876, hence known as the Centennial State. The portion north of the Arkansas River, and east of the Rocky Mountains, was included in the Louisiana purchase of 1803 and the remainder in the Mexican cession of 1848. Francis Vasquez de Coronado is believed to have been the first European explorer of this region in 1540. In 1806 President Jefferson sent an expedition, under Lieut. Z. M. Pike, to explore this region, and it nearly crossed the territory from north to south in the mountain region, and discovered State seal of Colorado. the mountain known as Pike's Peak. In 1820 another expedition, under Col. S. H. Long, visited this region; and in 1842-44 Col. John C. Fremont cr
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Cowell, Benjamin 1781-1860 (search)
Cowell, Benjamin 1781-1860 Historian; born in Wrentham, Mass., in 1781; graduated at Brown University in 1803; settled in Providence, R. I., became chief-justice of the Court of Common Pleas; and was author of The spirit of ‘76. He died in Providence, R. I., May 6, 186
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