ing by any of the clauses in Sec. 3, Article 7, of the constitution of Alabama; that I will never countenance or aid in the secession of this State from the United States; that I accept the civil and political equality of all men; and agree not to attempt to deprive any person or persons, on account of race, color, or previous condition, of any political or civil right, privilege, or immunity, enjoyed by any other class of men; and, furthermore, that I will not in any way injure, or countenance in others any attempt to injure, any person or persons, on account of past or present support of the Government of the United States, the laws of the United States, or the principle of the political and civil equality of all men, or for affiliation with any political party.

A memorial to Congress, praying a change of the reconstruction law, in relation to voting on the ratification of the constitution, so that a majority either way should decide, instead of a majority of the registered votes, was adopted-yeas 50, nays 5.

A number of ordinances were passed by the Convention which were not properly a part of the constitution authorized by the reconstruction acts, and which were not submitted with the constitution to a vote of the people. These ordinances do away with all civil courts of justice for two years; they exempt from levy and sale more property than nineteen-twentieths of the people possessed, thus tending to destroy credit and to diminish advances to laborers. They provided that the homestead of a family should not be touched for the debts of the decedent so long as his children are minors. They opened the accounts of all exeentors and administrators, and declared void all settlements made on the basis of the currency existing during the war.

It was estimated that the first two disfranchising provisions of the franchise article would take the suffrage away from forty thousand whites, and the last clause of the same would take it away conscientiously from all but the lowest classes, who care nothing for the sanctity of an oath. Their effect would be to place the State government and the municipal government of all but six counties in the State in the hands of the blacks, who had had no opportunities to prepare themselves for such duties. The 4th of February, 1868, was fixed for the vote on the ratification of the constitution by the people. The opposition concentrated under the direction of the Conservative State Committee, who issued an address to the conservative people recommending the formation of dlabs in every county, and announced that after full consultation they would recommend a course to be pursued.

The order of Major-General Pope, fixing the time of election, was issued on December 20th. This order directed that the vote should be For the Constitution," and "Against the Constitution," and further provided as follows:

III. It shall be the duty of Boards of Registration, in Alabama, in accordance with said acts, commencing fourteen (14) days prior to the election herein rdered, and giving reasonable public notice of the time and place thereof, to revise for a period of five

days the registration lists, and upon being satisfied that any person not entitled thereto has been registered, to strike the name of such person from the lists, and such person shall not be allowed to vote. The Boards of Registration shall aiso, during the same period, add to such registry the names of all persons who at that time possess the qualifications required by said acts, who have not been already registered.

IV. The said election shall be held in each county under the superintendence of the Boards of Registration as provided by law, and polls will be opened, after due and sufficient notice, at as many points in each county as in the opinion of the said Boards may be required for the convenience of voters. have removed from the county in which he was V. Any registered voter of the State, who may registered, shall be permitted to vote in the county to which he has removed, upon making affidavit before a member of the Board of Registration, or a Judge of Election, that he was registered, naming the county in which he was so registerod, and that he has not voted at this election. Blanks for such affidavits will be supplied by the Boards of Registration, and the name of the voter making oath must be indorsed on his ballot, and all such affidavits forwarded with the returns of the election.

At the same time State officers were to be elected.

At the close of the year the white population of the State had risen up in all parts for the purpose of combining their efforts to defeat the ratification of the new constitution.

During the year, many local officers were removed by order of Major-General Pope; such as judges of probate, sheriffs, clerks of courts. At the commencement of 1868, Major-General Swayne was removed by order of General Grant, and Major-General Pope, by order of President Johnson. Major-General Meade was appointed to the position of the latter.

The credit of the State was maintained by the payment of the interest'on her debt. The bonded debt of the State at the close of the year was $3,445,000; of which $2,109,000 was payable in New York, and $1,336,000 in London. In the constitutional convention the Committee on Finance stated the indebtedness of all kinds at $6,130,910, and reported the following resolution, which was adopted unanimously by the convention :

Resolved, That it is the determination of this convention to recognize all legitimate indebtedness of the State of Alabama, and we hold that said indebtedness should ever be held sacred.

In this list of obligations we enumerate:

1. The entire bonded debt due January 10, 1861. 2. The bonded debt created since 1865, in funding coupons due and unpaid.

3. Bonds issued in extending matured debts of 1866.

4. Bonded or other indebtedness created during the last two years, together with "tax receipts" or "certificates," issued by authority of law for paying legitimate expenses of the provisional government Provided, however, That no indebtedness (bonded or otherwise), created by the State of Alabama during the late rebellion, or indebtedness created during the last two years, for the benefit, directly or remotely, of any interest of the rebel State, or Confederate Government, shall in any manner be recognized by this committee.

Great destitution of provisions prevailed

throughout the northern part of the State during the earlier part of the year. This was finally removed by the crops of summer. But much suffering and want were anticipated among the blacks in the ensuing winter.

A great deterioration in the price of lands prevailed, and a scarcity of purchasers at the low rates.

On December 19th Governor Patton issued his proclamation stating that the number of copies of the revised code of Alabama had been delivered to him by the author, as required by law, and that the same would take effect as specified by statute, sixty days from that date.

ALDRIDGE, IRA, a negro tragedian of remarkable reputation, widely known as "The African Roscius," died in Lodz, Polonia, August 7, 1867. His early history and the place and date of his birth are involved in much obscurity; some of his biographers stating that he was born in Bellair, near Baltimore, about 1810, that he was a mulatto, and that he was apprenticed in his boyhood to a ship-carpenter, and acquired a knowledge of German from the German immigrants in that part of Maryland, and accompanied Edmund Kean to England as a servant, where his natural talent for the stage was cultivated; and that he subsequently returned to the United States, and in 1830 or 1831 appeared on the stage in Baltimore, but was not successful. He soon returned to England, say these biographers, and there, ere long, attained a high reputation.

Others, who seem to us better informed, as having probably derived their information from the tragedian himself, say that he was born in New York City about 1805; that his father, a full-blooded negro, and a native of Senegal, where he had been a chief, was brought to this country, converted, educated, and became the pastor of a colored church in Church Street, New York, and intended his son Ira for the same profession. The boy had, however, an irresistible penchant for the stage, and in amateur performances demonstrated his ability. His father, disapproving strongly of his course, sent him to England to be educated for the ministry; he obeyed for a time, but his fondness for the stage was such that he soon broke away from his studies, and, after some time spent in preparation, made his début at the Royalty Theatre, London, as Othello. He met with distinguished success at once, and though in England he was generally preferred in those plays to which his color was most appropriate, such as Othello, Merchant of Venice, Zanga Orozembo, Zarambo, Rolla, Hugo (in the Padlock), etc., he was very generally regarded as one of the ablest and most faithful interpreters of Shakespeare's best characters. On the Continent he ranked as one of the ablest if not the ablest tragedian of his time, and his representations of Shakespeare's and other tragedies of the first class were received with acclamation by crowded and delighted audiences, who seemed

never to weary of hearing him. He received from the King of Prussia the first-class medal of Arts and Sciences, with an autograph letter accompanying it; from the Emperor of Austria, the Grand Cross of Leopold; a similar decoration from the Emperor of Russia; a splendid Maltese cross with the Medal of Merit from Berne, Switzerland; and similar medals and honors from other crowned heads in Europe. He was a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts and Sciences, and holder of its large gold medal; member of the Imperial and Archducal Institution of "Our Lady of the Manger" in Austria; of the Russian Hoff Versamlung of Riga; and honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Beaux Arts and Sciences of St. Petersburg, etc., etc.

His head was said to have been of uncommon size, being full twenty-three and a half inches in circumference. He left a widow, an English lady, in London. At the time of his death, he was on his way to St. Petersburg, where he had an engagement, and expected to appear in one of the New York theatres in the latter part of September.

ALIASKA, or ALASKA. The extensive tract of land forming the northwestern limb of the North American continent, formerly known as Russian America (see ANNUAL CYCLOPEDIA, 1866, RUSSIAN AMERICA). By a treaty, signed by the plenipotentiary of the Emperor Alexander of Russia, and by President Johnson of the United States, on the 30th of March, 1867, the ratifications of which, by the respective powers, were exchanged on the 20th of June following, this territory was ceded to the Government of the United States, in consideration of the sum of seven million two hundred thousand dollars. The actual transfer was made on the 9th of October of the same year, General Rousseau of the United States service taking formal possession, on behalf of the Federal Government, at New Archangel, on the Island of Sitka. Its present name, Aliaska, was formerly confined in its application to the long and narrow peninsula which projects into the Pacific Ocean from the western angle of the country.

By this purchase the United States acquired an additional extent of sea-coast on the Pacific and Arctic Oceans greater than its entire coast line on the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, and has added 500,000 square miles to its territory. The country had been held, previous to its cession to the United States, since 1799 chiefly by the Russian-American Company, which was incorporated for the purpose of carrying on a fur-trade with the natives, and of conducting fisheries upon the coast. The nominal occupancy by the Russian Government was, however, maintained by a small military garrison stationed at New Archangel, which, at the time of the treaty of cession, was under the command of a Russian governor, Prince Macsautoff. The Russian-American Company had established trading-posts for carrying on

states, and which, though it had subsided, had left manifest and permanent evidences of its power. The history occupied twenty octavo volumes, and though the first was published in 1833, the work was not completed till 1850. The work gave evidence of unremitting toil, extended research, and generally of accuracy and patience in the collection and arrangement of facts. Its rhetorical merits were not great; diffuseness of style, an overweening fondness for metaphors, which were often obscure and not unfrequently sadly mixed, and too often, repetitions and bald commonplaces, mar the work and render it any thing but a model of elegant and forceful English composition. Another serious defect in the work is, that the historian belonged by birth, education, and connection, to the Tory or Conservative party; and in writing of events which had so recently occurred, he was greatly and undoubtedly often unconsciously influenced, by his hatred of revolutions, to do gross injustice to men who were the principal actors in the events which he described. Still, despite these failings, his work possesses great value for its accumulation of facts, and the generally good use made of them; and while other histories of the same period, of which there are now many, written from a different stand-point, should be read in connection with it, to correct its errors, it is a work with which we could not well dispense. Its sale was unprecedented. Of the costly library edition one hundred and eight thousand volumes, and of the less expensive people's edition four hundred and thirty-nine thousand volumes were sold. In 1852-1856 Sir Archibald (he was raised to a baronetcy by the Derby ministry in 1852) followed his great work by a "History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon to the Accession of Louis Napoleon," and eventually extended it to the coup d'état of December, 1852. This work was comprised in four volumes. He also found time to prepare two legal works, "The principles of the Criminal Law of Scotland," and The Practice of the Criminal Law of Scotland," a "Life of Marlborough" in three volumes, Essays, Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous," originally published in Blackwood's Magazine, in three volumes, and the "Principles of Population," in two volumes. His great history and his essays have been republished in this country, and his history has been translated into all the languages of Europe, as well as into Arabic and Hindostanee. In 1853 he received the degree of D. C. L. from Oxford University; in 1855 he was appointed Lord Rector of Marischal College, Aberdeen; and in 1861 he was elected to the same honor by the University of Glasgow.

66

ALLIANCE, EVANGELICAL. One of the most important religious assemblies held in the year 1867 was the meeting of the "Evangelical Alliance," which began at Amsterdam, Holland, on August 18th. The "Evangelical Alliis intended to be the common bond of union of all those Protestant denominations of

ance

the world which are generally called "Evangelical," and which, while disagreeing in some points of their creeds, agree in believing in the divinity of Christ, in the plenary inspiration of the Bible, and in the sufficiency of the Bible as the sole rule of faith.

The idea of the Alliance was first elaborated in 1845 at a conference held in Liverpool, which was preparatory in its character, and which, after a long discussion of the points common to Evangelical denominations, adopted the following declaration of the doctrinal basis of the organization:

persons as shall hold and maintain what are usually That the parties composing this Alliance be such understood to be evangelical views in regard to the matters of doctrine.

1. Divine inspiration, authority, and sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures.

terpretation of Holy Scripture. 2. Right and duty of private judgment in the in

3. Unity of the Godhead, and trinity of persons therein.

4. Utter depravity of human nature in consequence of the fall.

5. The incarnation of the Son of God; His work of atonement for sinners of mankind, and His mediatorial intercession and reign.

6. The justification of the sinner by faith alone. 7. The work of the Holy Spirit in the conversion and sanctification of the sinner.

S. The immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, the judgment of the world by the Lord Jesus Christ, with the eternal blessedness of the righteous, and the eternal punishment of the wicked. and the obligation and perpetuity of the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper.

9. The divine institution of the Christian ministry,

It is, however, distinctly declared, first, that this brief summary is not to be regarded, in any formal or ecclesiastical sense, as a creed or confession, or the adoption of it as involving any assumption of the right to define the limits of Christian brotherhood, but simply as an indication of the class of persons whom it is desirable to embrace in the Alliance. Second, that the selection of certain tenets and the omission of others are not to be held as implying that the former constitutes the whole body of important truth, or that the latter is unimportant.

The "Evangelical Alliance" has thus far held five General Assemblies, to which all the evangelical churches of the world were invited: at London, in 1846; at Paris, in 1855; at Berlin, in 1857; at Geneva, in 1860. The fifth was the one which took place at Amsterdam in August, 1867. The meeting was largely attended. There were delegates from France, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Great Britain, the United States, the British American Provinces, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and Eastern countries. Baron Van Wassenaar Catwijk presided. Among the more prominent delegates were Dr. Krummacher, Professor Herzog, Dr. Tholuck, and Professor Lange, of Germany; Pasteur Bersier, Dr. de Pressensé, and Professor St. Hilaire, of France; Dr. Guthrie, of Scotland; John Pye Smith, Archdeacon Philpot, and S. Gurney, M. P., of England; Merle d'Aubigné, of Switzerland; the Rev. Dr. Prime, of the United States, and many others. The opening sermon was preached by Professor Van Oosterzee. Among