1789 George Washington inaugurated first president, April 30th." Convention of Episcopal clergy in Philadelphia; the first Epis copal convention in America. Dr. Carrol, of Maryland, consecrated bishop of the Roman 1790 Dr. Franklin died, aged 85. 1792 National mint established at Philadelphia. 1793 Yellow fever in Philadelphia, 4,000 persons died. John Hancock, Henry Laurens, Arthur Lee, and Roger Sher. man, died this year. 1794 Whiskey insurrection in Pennsylvania. Destructive frost in New England, May 24th. 1796 Detroit given up by the British to the United States. 1797 John Adams elected president. 1798 Yellow fever in Philadelphia. 1799 Washington died, aged 68. 1800 Seat of government transferred from Philadelphia to Washington. The inoculation of the kine pock introduced into America by Professor Waterhouse of Cambridge, Mass. 1801 Thomas Jefferson elected president of the United States.. 1802 Merino sheep introduced into the United States by Mr. Living ston and Gen. Humphreys. 1803 Louisiana purchased of the French government for 15 millions of dollars. 1804 Gen. Hamilton killed in a duel by Col. Aaron Burr, vice-president of the United States. 1807 First steamboat built in this country. Col. Aaron Burr arrested on a charge of treason. Several meteoric stones fell in the county of Fairfield, Conn., one weighing 35 p unds, Dec. 4th. 1809 James Madison elected president. 1811 Richmond theatre burnt, Dec. 26; many persons lost their lives. 1814 Meeting of the Hartford Convention, Dec. 15. 1816 American Bible Society formed, May 8. Colonization Society formed. Cold summer.-Frost every month in the year in the northern states. Bank of the United States, with a capital of 35 millions of dollars, incorporated in April. 1817 Grand canal in the state of New York commenced. James Monroe elected president. 1820 First mariner's church erected at New York. 1821 Florida ceded to the United States. 1824 Gen. Lafayette arrived at New York. 1825 John Quincy Adams elected president. 1826 Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, two ex-presidents, died, July 4th, on the fiftieth anniversary of American independence. American Temperance Society formed at Boston, Mass. 1829 Andrew Jackson elected president. United States steam frigate Fulton blown up at New York; between 30 and 40 persons killed, June 4th. 1831 Insurrection of slaves in Southampton county, Virginia; about 60 men, women, and children, murdered, August. Riot in Providence, R. I., several persons killed by the military, 1832 The cholera appears in the city of New York, June 27. Ordinance of S. Carolina "nullifying" the operation of the ta riff laws in that state. 1833 The funds of the Government withdrawn from the U. S. bank. 1835 Major Dade, with upward of 100 men, killed by the Seminole Indians, in Florida, Dec. 28. Arkansas admitted into the Union. Great fire in New York-loss upward of seventeen millions of dolls 1836 Battle of San Jacinto, in Texas-Santa Anna taken prisoner. Texan independence established, April 21. 1837 Martin Van Buren president. Great financial distress; banks suspend specie payments. Steamboat Caroline burnt at Niagara, by the British, Dec. 30 1838 U. S. exploring expedition sailed from Hampton Roads, Aug. 19 1841 Alexander McLeod, of Upper Canada, one of the party who burnt the steamboat Caroline, arrested Jan. 27. U. S. Bank of Pennsylvania stopped payment, Feb. 5. William H. Harrison president. He died April 4, and was succeeded by John Tyler. 1842 Dorr insurrection in Rhode Island, between the adherents of Thomas W. Dorr, of the suffrage, and those of the charter party. Dorr imprisoned. Treaty settling the boundary of Maine ratified, Aug. 20. Conspiracy detected on board U. S. brig Somers. Three executed, 1844 Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, killed at Carthage, Ill., June 27. 1845 Texas annexed to the United States. James K. Polk, president. Quelled in 1845. Mormon disturbances renewed in Illinois, Sept. 10. Gen. Andrew Jackson died, near Nashville, Tenn., June 8. 1846 President Polk, by proclamation, declares war to exist between Mexico and the United States, May 13. Mexicans defeated by Gen. Taylor, on the Rio Grande, May 8th Santa Fe, New Mexico, taken by Gen. Kearney, June 18. Tampico taken, Nov. 14. 1847 Battle of Buena Vista. General Taylor forced Santa Anna to retreat with great loss. Colonels Hardin, M'Kee, and Clay, killed, Feb. 23. Vera Cruz surrendered to General Scott, March 26. Battle of Cerro Gordo, Mexicans defeated with great loss, April 19. Battles of Contreras and Churubusco, August 20. Molina del Rey taken, Sept. 8. Chapultepec stormed, Sept. 13. 1848 Treaty of peace between Mexico and the United States, signed Feb. 2. 1849 Zachary Taylor inaugurated President, March 5. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Signed on the 4th of July, 1776, by a Congress of Delegates, assembled at Philadelphia, from the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. WHEN, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind, requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident-that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, ac cordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are most disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former system of government. The history of the present king of Great Britain, is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of imme diate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operations till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended; he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws, for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature— a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies, at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large, for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time, exposed to all the danger of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the condition of new appropriations of lands. He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing Judiciary Powers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers, to harass our people and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in time of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislature. He has effected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction, foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation. us: For quartering large bodies of armed troops among For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world: For imposing taxes on us without our consent: For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury: For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offences: For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighbouring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies: For taking away our charters, abolishing our most |