History for ready reference, Volume 1, A-Elba (part 8 of 15)

History for ready reference, Volume 1, A-Elba (part 8 of 15)

"We have no certain information of the directive tendency of the natural magnet being known earlier than the middle or end of the 11th century (in Europe, of course). ... That it was known at this date and its practical value recognized, is shown by a passage from an Icelandic historian, quoted by Hanstien in his treatise of Terrestrial Magnetism. In this extract an expedition from Norway to Iceland in the year 868 is described; and it is stated that three ravens were taken as guides, for, adds the historian, 'in those times seamen had no loadstone in the northern countries.' This history was written about the year A. D. 1068, and the allusion I have quoted obviously shows that the author was aware of natural magnets having been employed as a compass. At the same time it fixes a limit of the discovery in northern countries. We find no mention of artificial magnets being so employed till about a century later."

Sir W. Thompson, quoted by R. F. Burton in Ultima Thule, volume 1, page 312.

{493}

COMPIEGNE: Capture of the Maid of Orleans (1430).

See FRANCE. A. D. 1429-1431.

COMPOUND HOUSEHOLDER, The.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1865-1868.

COMPROMISE, The Crittenden.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1860 (DECEMBER).

COMPROMISE, The Flemish, of 1565.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1562-1566.

COMPROMISE, The Missouri.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1818-1821.

COMPROMISE MEASURES OF 1850, The.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1850.

COMPROMISE TARIFF OF 1833, The.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1828-1833.

COMPURGATION.

Among the Teutonic and other peoples, in early times, one accused of a crime might clear himself by his own oath, supported by the oaths of certain compurgators, who bore witness to his trustworthiness.

See WAGER OF LAW.

COMSTOCK LODE, Discovery of the.

See NEVADA: A. D. 1848-1864.

COMUM, Battle of (B. C. 196).

See ROME: B. C. 295-191.

CONCIONES, The Roman.

See CONTIONES, THE.

CONCON, Battle of (1891).

See CHILE: A. D. 1885-1891.

CONCORD. Beginning of the War of the American Revolution.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (APRIL).

CONCORDAT OF BOLOGNA, The.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1515-1518.

CONCORDAT OF NAPOLEON, The.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1801-1804.

CONCORDAT OF 1813, The.

See PAPACY: A. D. 1808-1814.

CONDÉ, The first Prince Louis de, and the French wars of religion.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1560-1563, and 1563-1570.

CONDÉ, The Second Prince Louis de (called The Great). Campaigns in the Thirty Years War, and the war with Spain.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1642-1643; 1643; GERMANY: A. D. 1640-1645; 1643-1644.

In the wars of the Fronde.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1647-1648; 1649; 1650-1651; 1651-1653.

Campaigns against France in the service of Spain.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1653-1656, and 1655-1658.

Last campaigns.

See NETHERLANDS (HOLLAND): A. D. 1672-1674 and 1674-1678.

CONDÉ, The House of.

See BOURBON, THE HOUSE OF,

CONDÉ: A. D. 1793.-Siege and capture by the Austrians.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (JULY-DECEMBER).

CONDÉ: A. D. 1794. Recovery by the French.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1794 (MARCH-JULY).

----------CONDÉ: End----------

CONDORE, OR KONDUR, Battle of (1758).

See INDIA: A. D. 1758-1761.

CONDOTTIERE.

In the general meaning of the word, a conductor or leader; applied specially, in Italian history, to the professional military leaders of the 13th and 14th centuries, who made a business of war very much as a modern contractor makes a business of railroad construction, and who were open to engagement, with the troops at their command, by any prince, or any free city whose offers were satisfactory.

CONDRUSI, The.

See BELGÆ.

CONESTOGAS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SUSQUEHANNAS.

CONFEDERACY OF DELOS, OR THE DELIAN.

See GREECE: B. C. 478-477, and ATHENS: B. C. 466-454, and after.

CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. Constitution and organization of the government.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (FEBRUARY).

CONFEDERATION, Articles of (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA)

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1777-1781.

CONFEDERATION, Australian.

See AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1885-1892.

CONFEDERATION, The Germanic, of 1814.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1814-1820.

Of 1870.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1870 (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER).

CONFEDERATION, The North German.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1866.

CONFEDERATION, The Swiss.

See SWITZERLAND.

CONFEDERATION OF THE BRITISH AMERICAN PROVINCES.

See CANADA: A. D. 1867.

CONFEDERATION OF THE RHINE, The.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1805-1806; 1806 (JANUARY-AUGUST); and 1813 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER); also, FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (JANUARY-MARCH).

CONFESSION OF AUGSBURG.

See PAPACY: A. D. 1530-1531.

CONFLANS, Treaty of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1461-1468.

CONFUCIANISM.

See CHINA: THE RELIGIONS.

CONGO FREE STATE, The Founding of the.

"Since Leopold II.'s accession to the throne [of Belgium], his great object has been to secure colonial possessions to Belgium for her excess of population and production. To this end he founded, in October, 1876, with the aid of eminent African explorers, the International African Association. Its object was to form committees in several countries, with a view to the collection of funds, and to the establishment of a chain of stations across Africa, passing by Lake Tanganyika, to assist future explorers. Accordingly committees were formed, whose presidents were as follows: in England, the Prince of Wales; in Germany the Crown Prince; in Italy the King's brother; in France, M. de Lesseps; and in Belgium, King Leopold. Sums of money were subscribed, and stations were opened from Bagomoyo (just south of Zanzibar) to Lake Tanganyika; but when toward the close of 1877, Stanley reappeared on the Atlantic coast and revealed the immense length of the marvelous Congo River, King Leopold at once turned his attention in that direction. That he might not put himself forward prematurely, he acted under cover of an association and a committee of exploration, which were in reality formed and entirely supported by the King's energy and by the large sums of money that he lavished upon them. Through this association King Leopold maintained Stanley for five years on the Congo. During this time a road was made from the coast to Stanley Pool, where the navigable portion of the Upper Congo commences; and thus was formed the basis of the future empire. During this period Stanley signed no less than four thousand treaties or concessions of territory, on which upward of two thousand chiefs had placed their marks in sign of adhesion. {494} At a cost of many months of transportation, necessitating the employment of thousands of porters, light steamers were placed on the upper river which was explored as far as Stanley Falls. Its numerous tributaries also were followed up as far as the rapids that interrupt their courses. Many young Belgian officers and other adventurous explorers established themselves on the banks of the Congo and the adjoining river, the Kouiliou, and founded a series of stations, each occupied by one or two Europeans and by a few soldiers from Zanzibar. In this way the country was insensibly taken possession of in the most pacific manner, without a struggle and with no bloodshed whatever; for the natives, who are of a very gentle disposition, offered no resistance. The Senate of the United States, which was called upon, in 1884, to give an opinion on the rights of the African Association, made a careful examination of the matter, and recognized the legality of the claims and title deeds submitted to them. A little later, in order to mark the formation of a state, the Congo Association adopted as its flag a gold star on a blue ground. A French lawyer. M. Deloume, in a very well-written pamphlet entitled 'Le Droit des Gens dans l'Afrique Equatoriale,' has proved that this proceeding was not only legitimate, but necessary. The embryo state, however, lacked one essential thing, namely, recognition by the civilized powers. It existed only as a private association, or, as a hostile publicist expressed it, as 'a state in shares, indulging in pretensions of sovereignty.' Great difficulties stood in the way of realizing this essential condition. Disputes, on the one hand with France and on the other with Portugal, appeared inevitable. ... King Leopold did not lose heart. In 1882 he obtained from the French government an assurance that, while maintaining its rights to the north of Stanley Pool, it would give support to the International Association of the Congo. With Portugal it seemed very difficult to come to an understanding. ... Prince Bismarck took part in the matter, and in the German Parliament praised highly the work of the African Association. In April, 1884, he proposed to France to come to an understanding, and to settle all difficulties by general agreement. From this proposition sprang the famous Berlin conference, the remarkable decisions of which we shall mention later. At the same time, before the conference opened, Germany signed an agreement with the International Association of the Congo, in which she agreed to recognize its flag as that of a state, in exchange for an assurance that her trade should be free, and that German subjects should enjoy all the privileges of the most favored nations. Similar agreements were entered upon with nearly all the other countries of the globe. The delegates of the Association were accepted at the conference on the same footing as those of the different states that were represented there, and on February 26, the day on which the act was signed, Bismarck expressed himself as follows: 'The new State of the Congo is destined to be one of the chief safe-guards of the work we have in view, and I sincerely trust that its development will fulfill the noble aspirations of its august founder.' Thus the Congo International Association, hitherto only a private enterprise, seemed now to be recognized as a sovereign state, without having, however, as yet assumed the title. But where were the limits of its territory. ... Thanks to the interference of France, after prolonged negotiations an understanding was arrived at on February 15, 1885, by which both parties were satisfied. They agreed that Portugal should take possession of the southern bank of the Congo, up to its junction with the little stream Uango, above Nokki, and also of the district of Kabinda forming a wedge that extends into the French territory on the Atlantic Ocean. The International Congo Association--for such was still its title--was to have access to the sea by a strip of land extending from Manyanga (west of Leopoldville) to the ocean, north of Banana, and comprising in addition to this port, Boma and the important station of Vivi. These treaties granted the association 931,285 square miles of territory, that is to say, a domain eighty times the size of Belgium, with more than 7,500 miles of navigable rivers. The limits fixed were, on the west, the Kuango, an important tributary of the Congo; on the south, the sources of the Zambesi; on the east, the Lakes Bangweolo, Moero, and Tanganyika, and a line passing through Lake Albert Edward to the river Ouelle; on the north, a line following the fourth degree of latitude to the Mobangi River on the French frontier. The whole forms one eleventh part of the African continent. The association became transformed into a state in August 1885, when King Leopold, with the authorization of the Belgian Chambers, notified the powers that he should assume the title of Sovereign of the Independent State of the Congo, the union of which with Belgium was to be exclusively personal. The Congo is, therefore, not a Belgian colony, but nevertheless the Belgian Chambers have recently given valuable assistance to the King's work; first, in taking, on July 26, 1889, 10,000,000 francs' worth of shares in the railway which is to connect the seaport of Matadi with the riverport of Leopoldville, on Stanley Pool, and secondly by granting a loan of 25,000,000 francs to the Independent State on August 4, 1890. The King, in a will laid before Parliament, bequeaths all his African possessions to the Belgian nation, authorizing the country to take possession of them after a lapse of ten years."

_E. de Laveleye, The Division of Africa (The Forum, January, 1891)._

ALSO IN: _H. M. Stanley, The Congo, and the Founding of its Free State._

CONGREGATION OF THE ORATORY, The.

"Philip of Neri, a young Florentine of good birth (1515-1595; canonised 1622) ... in 1548 instituted at Rome the Society of the Holy Trinity, to minister to the wants of the pilgrims at Rome. But the operations of his mission gradually extended till they embraced the spiritual welfare of the Roman population at large, and the reformation of the Roman clergy in particular. No figure is more serene and more sympathetic to us in the history of the Catholic reaction than that of this latter-day 'apostle of Rome.' From his association, which followed the rule of St. Augustine, sprang in 1575 the Congregation of the Oratory at Rome, famous as the seminary of much that is most admirable in the labours of the Catholic clergy."

A. W. Ward, The Counter-Reformation, page 30.

{495}

"In the year 1766, there were above a hundred Congregations of the Oratory of S. Philip in Europe and the East Indies; but since the revolutions of the last seventy years many of these have ceased to exist, while, on the contrary, within the last twelve years two have been established in England."

Mrs. Hope, Life of S. Philip Neri, chapter 24.

ALSO IN: H. L. S. Lear, Priestly Life in France, chapter 4.

CONGREGATIONALISM.

See INDEPENDENTS.

CONGRESS, Colonial, at Albany.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1754.

CONGRESS, Continental, The First.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1774 (SEPTEMBER), and (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER).

The Second.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (MAY-AUGUST).

CONGRESS, The First American.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1690.

CONGRESS, The Pan-American.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1889-1890.

CONGRESS, The Stamp Act.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1765.

CONGRESS OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, The.

See AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, THE CONGRESS AND TREATY.

CONGRESS OF BERLIN.

See TURKS: A. D. 1878.

CONGRESS OF PANAMA.

See COLOMBIAN STATES: A. D. 1826.

CONGRESS OF PARIS.

See RUSSIA: A. D. 1854-1856, and DECLARATION OF PARIS.

CONGRESS OF RASTADT, The.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1799 (APRIL-SEPTEMBER).

CONGRESS OF VERONA, The.

See VERONA, THE CONGRESS OF.

CONGRESS OF VIENNA.

See VIENNA, CONGRESS OF.

CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES.

"The Constitution created Congress and conferred upon it powers of legislation for national purposes, but made no provision as to the method by which these powers should be exercised. In consequence Congress has itself developed a method of transacting its business by means of committees. The Federal Legislature consists of two Houses--the Senate, or Upper and less numerous branch, and the House of Representatives, or the Lower and more numerous popular branch. The Senate is composed of two members from each State elected by the State legislatures for a term of six years, one third of whom retire every two years. The presiding officer is the Vice-President. Early in each session the Senate chooses a President pro tempore, so as to provide for any absence of the Vice-President, whether caused by death, sickness, or for other reasons. The House of Representatives is at present [1891] composed of 332 members and four delegates from the Territories. These delegates, however, have no vote, though they may speak. The House is presided over by a Speaker, elected at the beginning of each [Congress]. A quorum for business is, in either House, a majority. Congress meets every year in the beginning of December. Each Congress lasts two years and holds two sessions--a long and a short session. The long session lasts from December to midsummer [or until the two Houses agree upon an adjournment]. The short session lasts from December, when Congress meets again, until the 4th of March. The term of office then expires for all the members of the House and for one-third of the Senators. The long session ends in even years (1880 and 1882, etc.), and the short session in odd years (1881 and 1883). Extra sessions may be called by the President for urgent business. In the early part of the November preceding the end of the short session of Congress occurs the election of Representatives. Congressmen then elected do not take their seats until thirteen months later, that is, at the reassembling of Congress in December of the year following, unless an extra session is called. The Senate frequently holds secret, or, as they are called, executive sessions, for the consideration of treaties and nominations of the President, in which the House of Representatives has no voice. It is then said to sit with closed doors. An immense amount of business must necessarily be transacted by a Congress that legislates for nearly 63,000,000 of people. ... Lack of time, of course, prevents a consideration of each bill separately by the whole legislature. To provide a means by which each subject may receive investigation and consideration, a plan is used by which the members of both branches of Congress are divided into committees. Each committee busies itself with a certain class of business, and bills when introduced are referred to this or that committee for consideration, according to the subjects to which the bills relate. ... The Senate is now divided between 50 and 60 committees, but the number varies from session to session. ... The House of Representatives is organized into 60 committees [appointed by the Speaker], ranging, in their number of members, from thirteen down. ... The Committee of Ways and Means, which regulates customs duties and excise taxes, is by far the most important. ... Congress ordinarily assembles at noon and remains in session until 4 or 5 P. M., though towards the end of the term it frequently remains in session until late in the night. ... There is still one feature of Congressional government which needs explanation, and that is the caucus. A caucus is the meeting of the members of one party in private, for the discussion of the attitude and line of policy which members of that party are to take on questions which are expected to arise in the legislative halls. Thus, in Senate caucus, is decided who shall be members of the various committees. In these meetings is frequently discussed whether or not the whole party shall vote for or against this or that important bill, and thus its fate is decided before it has even come up for debate in Congress."

_W. W. and W. F. Willoughby, Government and Administration of the U. S. (Johns Hopkins University Studies, series ix., numbers 1-2), chapter 9._

ALSO IN: W. Wilson, Congressional Government, chapter 2-4.

J. Bryce, The American Commonwealth, part 1, chapter 10-21 (volume l).

A. L. Dawes, How we are Governed, chapter 2.

The Federalist, numbers. 51-65.

_J. Story, Commentaries on the Constitutional of the United States, book 3, chapters 8-31 (volumes 2-3)._

CONI. Sieges (1744 and 1799).

See ITALY: A. D. 1744; and FRANCE: A. D. 1799 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).

CONIBO, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ANDESIANS.

CONNAUGHT, Transplantation of the Irish people into.

See IRELAND: A. D. 1653.

{496}

CONNECTICUT: The River and the Name.

"The first discoveries made of this part of New England were of its principal river and the fine meadows lying upon its bank. Whether the Dutch at New Netherlands, or the people of New Plymouth, were the first discoverers of the river is not certain. Both the English and the Dutch claimed to be the first discoverers, and both purchased and made a settlement of the lands upon it nearly at the same time. ... From this fine river, which the Indians call Quonehtacut, or Connecticut, (in English the long river) the colony originally took its name."

B. Trumbull, History of Connecticut, chapter 2.

According to Dutch accounts, the river was entered by Adriaen Block, ascended to latitude 41° 48', and named Fresh River, in 1614.

See NEW YORK: A. D. 1610-1614.

CONNECTICUT: The Aboriginal inhabitants.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1631. The grant to Lord Say and Sele, and others.

In 1631, the Earl of Warwick granted to Lord Say and Sele, Lord Brooke, Sir Richard Saltonstall, and others, "the territory between Narragansett River and southwest towards New York for 120 miles and west to the Pacific Ocean, or, according to the words of President Clap of Yale College, 'from Point Judith to New York, and from thence a west line to the South Sea, and if we take Narragansett River in its whole length the tract will extend as far north as Worcester. It comprehends the whole of the colony of Connecticut and more. This was called the old patent of Connecticut, and had been granted the previous year, 1630, by the Council of Plymouth [or Council for New England] to the Earl of Warwick. Yet before the English had planted settlements in Connecticut the Dutch had purchased of the Pequots land where Hartford now stands and erected a small trading fort called 'The House of Good Hope.'"

C. W. Bowen, Boundary Disputes of Connecticut, page 15.

In 1635, four years after the Connecticut grant, said to have been derived originally from the Council for New England, in 1630, had been transferred by the Earl of Warwick to Lord Say and Seal and others, the Council made an attempt, in connivance with the English court, to nullify all its grants, to regain possession of the territory of New England and to parcel it out by lot among its own members. In this attempted parcelling, which proved ineffectual, Connecticut fell to the lot of the Earl of Carlisle, the Duke of Lennox, and the Duke of Hamilton. Modern investigation seems to have found the alleged grant from the Council of Plymouth, or Council for New England, to the Earl of Warwick, in 1630, to be mythical. "No one has ever seen it, or has heard of anyone who claims to have seen it. It is not mentioned even in the grant from Warwick to the Say and Sele patentees in 1631. ... The deed is a mere quit-claim, which warrants nothing and does not even assert title to the soil transferred. ... Why the Warwick transaction took this peculiar shape, why Warwick transferred, without showing title, a territory which the original owners granted anew to other patentees in 1635, are questions which are beyond conjecture."

A. Johnston, Connecticut, chapter 2.

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1635.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1634-1637. The pioneer settlements.

"In October, 1634, some men of Plymouth, led by William Holmes, sailed up the Connecticut river, and, after bandying threats with a party of Dutch who had built a rude fort on the site of Hartford, passed on and fortified themselves on the site of Windsor. Next year Governor Van Twiller sent a company of seventy men to drive away these intruders, but after reconnoitering the situation the Dutchmen thought it best not to make an attack. Their little stronghold at Hartford remained unmolested by the English, and, in order to secure the communication between this advanced outpost and New Amsterdam, Van Twiller decided to build another fort at the mouth of the river, but this time the English were beforehand. Rumours of Dutch designs may have reached the ears of Lord Say and Sele and Lord Brooke--'fanatic Brooke,' as Scott calls him in 'Marmion'--who had obtained from the Council for New England a grant of territory on the shores of the Sound. These noblemen chose as their agent the younger John Winthrop, son of the Massachusetts governor, and this new-comer arrived upon the scene just in time to drive away Van Twiller's vessel and build an English fort which in honour of his two patrons he called 'Say-Brooke.' Had it not been for seeds of discontent already sown in Massachusetts, the English hold upon the Connecticut valley might perhaps have been for a few years confined to these two military outposts at Windsor and Saybrooke. But there were people in Massachusetts who did not look with favour upon the aristocratic and theocratic features of its polity. The provision that none but church-members should vote or hold office was by no means unanimously approved. ... Cotton declared that democracy was no fit government either for church or for commonwealth, and the majority of the ministers agreed with him. Chief among those who did not was the learned and eloquent Thomas Hooker, pastor of the church at Newtown. ... There were many in Newtown who took Hooker's view of the matter; and there, as also in Watertown and Dorchester, which in 1633 took the initiative in framing town governments with selectmen, a strong disposition was shown to evade the restrictions upon the suffrage. While such things were talked about, in the summer of 1633, the adventurous John Oldham was making his way through the forest and over the mountains into the Connecticut valley, and when he returned to the coast his glowing accounts set some people to thinking. Two years afterward, a few pioneers from Dorchester pushed through the wilderness as far as the Plymouth men's fort at Windsor, while a party from Watertown went farther and came to a halt upon the site of Wethersfield. A larger party, bringing cattle and such goods as they could carry, set out in the autumn and succeeded in reaching Windsor. ... In the next June, 1636, the Newtown congregation, a hundred or more in number, led by their sturdy pastor, and bringing with them 160 head of cattle, made the pilgrimage to the Connecticut valley. Women and children took part in this pleasant summer journey; Mrs. Hooker, the pastor's wife, being too ill to walk, was carried on a litter. Thus, in the memorable year in which our great university was born, did Cambridge become, in the true Greek sense of a much-abused word, the metropolis or 'mother town' of Hartford. The migration at once became strong in numbers. {497} During the past twelvemonth a score of ships had brought from England to Massachusetts more than 3,000 souls, and so great an accession made further movement easy. Hooker's pilgrims were soon followed by the Dorchester and Watertown congregations, and by the next May 800 people were living in Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield. As we read of these movements, not of individuals, but of organic communities, united in allegiance to a church and its pastor, and fervid with the instinct of self-government, we seem to see Greek history renewed, but with centuries of added political training. For one year a board of commissioners from Massachusetts governed the new towns, but at the end of that time the towns chose representatives and held a General Court at Hartford, and thus the separate existence of Connecticut was begun. As for Springfield, which was settled about the same time by a party from Roxbury, it remained for some years doubtful to which state it belonged."

J. Fiske, The Beginnings of New England., chapter 3.

ALSO IN: J. G. Palfrey, History of New England, volume 1, chapter 11.

G. L. Walker, History of the First Church in Hartford, chapter 4-5.

M. A. Green, Springfield, 1636-1886, chapter 1.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1636-1639. The constitutional evolution.

"It must be noted that [the] Newtown, Watertown, and Dorchester migrations had not been altogether a simple transfer of individual settlers from one colony to another. In each of these migrations a part of the people was left behind, so that the Massachusetts towns did not cease to exist. And yet each of them brought its Massachusetts magistrates, its ministers (except Watertown), and all the political and ecclesiastical machinery of the town; and at least one of them (Dorchester) had hardly changed its structure since its members first organized in 1630 at Dorchester in England. The first settlement of Connecticut was thus the migration of three distinct and individual town organizations out of the jurisdiction of Massachusetts and into absolute freedom. It was the Massachusetts town system set loose in the wilderness. At first the three towns retained even their Massachusetts names; and it was not until the eighth court meeting, February 21 1636 (7), that it was decided that the plantacon [c tilde] nowe called Newtowne slalbe called & named by the name of Harteforde Towne, likewise the plantacon [c tilde] nowe called 'Watertowne shalbe called & named Wythersfeild,' and the plantacon [c tilde] called Dorchester shalbe called Windsor.' On the same day the boundaries between the three towns were 'agreed' upon, and thus the germ of the future State was the agreement and union of the three towns. Accordingly, the subsequent court meeting at Hartford, May 1, 1637, for the first time took the name of the 'Genrall Corte,' and was composed, in addition to the town magistrates who had previously held it, of 'comittees' of three from each town. So simply and naturally did the migrated town system evolve, in this binal assembly, the seminal principle of the Senate and House of Representatives of the future State of Connecticut. The Assembly further showed its consciousness of separate existence by declaring 'an offensive warr ag' the Pequoitt,' assigning the proportions of its miniature army and supplies to each town, and appointing a commander. ... So complete are the features of State-hood, that we may fairly assign May 1, 1637, as the proper birthday of Connecticut. No king, no Congress, presided over the birth: its seed was in the towns. January 14, 1638 (9), the little Commonwealth formed the first American Constitution at Hartford. So far as its provisions are concerned, the King, the Parliament, the Plymouth Council, the Warwick grant, the Say and Sele grant, might as well have been non-existent: not one of them is mentioned. ... This constitution was not only the earliest but the longest in continuance of American documents of the kind, unless we except the Rhode Island charter. It was not essentially altered by the charter of 1662, which was practically a royal confirmation of it; and it was not until 1818 that the charter, that is the constitution of 1639, was superseded by the present constitution. Connecticut was as absolutely a state in 1639 as in 1776."

_A. Johnston, The Genesis of a New England State (Johns Hopkins University Studies, number 11)._

The following is the text of those "Fundamental Orders" adopted by the people dwelling on Connecticut River, January 14, 1638 (9), which formed the first of written constitutions: "FORASMUCH as it hath pleased the Allmighty God by the wise disposition of his diuyne pruidence so to Order and dispose of things that we the Inhabitants and Residents of Windsor, Harteford and Wethersfield are now cohabiting and dwelling in and vppon the River of Conectecotte and the Lands thereunto adioyueing; And well knowing where a people are gathered togather the word of God requires that to mayntayne the peace and vnion of such a people there should be an orderly and decent Gouerment established according to God, to order and dispose of the affayres of the people at all seasons as occation shall require; doe therefore assotiate and conioyne our selues to be as one Publike State or ComonweIth; and doe, for our selues and our Successors and such as shall be adioyned to vs att any tyme hereafter, enter into Combination and Confederation togather, to mayntayne and prsearue the liberty and purity of the gospell of our Lord Jesus wch we now prfesse, as also the disciplyne of the Churches, wch according to the truth of the said gospell is now practised amongst vs; As also in or Ciuell Affaires to be guided and gouerned according to such Lawes, Rules, Orders and decrees as shall be made, ordered & decreed, as followeth:--1. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that there shall be yerely two generall Assemblies or Courts, the one the second thursday in Aprill, the other the second thursday in September following; the first shall be called the Courte of Election, wherein shall be yerely Chosen fro tyme to tyme soe many Magestrats and other publike Officers as shall be found requisitte: Whereof one to be chosen Gouernour for the yeare ensueing and vntill another be chosen, and noe other Magestrate to be chosen for more than one yeare; pruided allwayes there be sixe chosen besids the Gouernour; wch being chosen and sworne according to an Oath recorded for that purpose shall haue power to administer iustice according to the Lawes here established, and for want thereof according to the rule of the word of God; wch choise shall be made by all that are admitted freemen and haue taken the Oath of Fidellity, and doe cohabitte wthin this Jurisdiction, (hauing beene admitted Inhabitants by the maior prt of the Towne wherein they liue,) or the mayor prte of such as shall be then prsent. {498} 2. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that the Election of the aforesaid Magestrats shall be on this manner: euery prson prsent and quallified for choyse shall bring in (to the prsons deputed to receaue the) one single papr wth the name of him written in yt whom he desires to haue Gouernour, and he that hath the greatest nuber of papers shall be Gouernor for that yeare. And the rest of the Magestrats or publike Officers to be chosen in this manner: The Secretary for the tyme being shall first read the names of all that are to be put to choise and then shall seuerally nominate them distinctly, and euery one that would haue the prson nominated to be chosen shall bring in one single paper written vppon, and he that would not haue him chosen shall bring in a blanke: and euery one that hath more written papers then blanks shall be a Magistrat for that yeare; wth papers shall be receaued and told by one or more that shall be then chosen by the court and sworne to be faythfull therein: but in case there should not be sixe chosen as aforesaid, besids the Gouernor, out of those wch are nominated, then he or they wch haue the most written paprs shall be a Magestrate or Magestrats for the ensueing yeare, to make up the foresaid nuber. 3. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that the Secretary shall not nominate any prson, nor shall any prson be chosen newly into the Magestraey wch was not prpownded in some Generall Courte before, to be nominated the next Election; and to that end yt shall be lawfull for ech of the Townes aforesaid by their deputyes to nominate any two who they conceaue fitte to be put to election; and the Courte may ad so many more as they, iudge requisitt. 4. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed that noe prson be chosen Gouernor aboue once in two yeares, and that the Gouernor be always a meber of some approved congregation, and formerly of the Magestracy wthin this Jurisdiction; and all the Magestrats Freemen of this Comonwelth: and that no Magestrate or other publike officer shall execute any prte of his or their Office before they are seuerally sworne, wch shall be done in the face of the Courte if they be prsent, and in case of absence by some deputed for that purpose. 5. It is Ordered, senteneed and decreed, that to the aforesaid Courte of Election the seurall Townes shall send their deputyes, and when the Elections are ended they may prceed in any publike searuice as at other Courts. Also the other Generall Courte in Septemher shall be for makeing of lawes, and any other publike occation, wch conserns the good of the Comonwelth. 6. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that the Gournor shall, ether by himselfe or by the secretary, send out sumons to the Constables of eur Towne for the cauleing of these two standing Courts, on month at lest before their seu'all tymes: And also if the Gournor and the gretest prte of the Magestmts see cause vppon any spetiall occation to call a generall Courte, they may giue order to the secretary soe to doe wthin fowerteene dayes warneing; and if vrgent necessity so require, vppon a shorter notice, giueing sufficient grownds for yt to the deputyes when they meete, or els be questioned for the same; And if the Gournor and Mayor prte of Magestrats shall ether neglect or refuse to call the two Generall standing Courts or ether of the, as also at other tymes when the occutions of the Comonwelth require, the Freemen thereof, or the Mayor prte of them, shall petition to them soe to doe: if then yt be ether denyed or neglected the said Freemen or the Mayor prte of them shall haue power to giue order to the Constables of the seuerall Townes to doe the same, and so may meete togather, and chuse to themselues a Moderator, and may prceed to do any Acte of power, wch any other Generall Courte may. 7. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed that after there are warrants giuen out for any of the suid Generall Courts, the Constable or Constables of ech Towne shall forthwth give notice distinctly, to the inhabitants of the same, in some Pubhke Assembly or by goeing or sending fro howse to howse, that at a place and tyme by him or them lymited and sett, they meet and assemble the selues togather to elect and chuse certen deputyes to be att the Generall Courte then following to agitate the afayres of the comonwelth; wch said Deputyes shall be choseu by all that are admitted Inhabitants in the seurall Townes and haue taken the oath of fidellity; pruided that non be chosen a Deputy for any Generall Courte wch is not a Freeman of this Comonwelth. The foresaid deputyes shall be chosen in manner following; euery prson that is prsent and quallified as before exprssed, shall bring thr names of such, written in seurrall papers, as they desire to haue chosen for that Imployment, and these 3 or 4, more or lesse, being the nuber agreed on to be chosen for that tyme, that haue greatest nuber of papers written for the shall be deputyes for that Courte; whose names shall be endorsed on the backe side of the warrant and returned into the Courte, wth the Constable or Constables hand vnto the same. 8. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that Wyndsor, Hartford and Wethersfield shall haue power, ech Towne, to send fower of their freemen as deputyes to euery Generall Courte; and whatsoeuer other Townes shall be hereafter added to this Jurisdiction, they shall send so many deputyes as the Courte shall judge meete, a reasonable prportion to the nuber of Freemen that are in the said Townes being to be attended therein; wch deputyes shall have the power of the whole Towne to giue their voats and alowance to all such lawes and orders as may be for the publike good, and unto wch the said Townes are to be bownd. 9. It is ordered and decreed, that the deputyes thus chosen shall haue power and liberty to appoynt a tyme and a place of meeting togather before any Generall Courte to aduise and consult of all such things as may concerne the good of the publike, as also to examine their owne Elections, whether according to the order, and if they or the gretest prte of them find any election to be illegall they may seclud such for prsent fro their meeting, and returne the same and their resons to the Courte; and if yt proue true, the Courte may fyne the prty or prtyes so intruding and the Towne, if they see cause, and giue out a warrant to goe to a newe election in a legall way, either in prte or in whole. Also the said deputyes shall haue power to fyne any that shall be disorderly at their meetings, or for not coming in due tyme or place according to appoyntment; and they may returne the said fynes into the Courte if yt be refused to be paid, and the tresurer to take notice of yt, and to estreete or levy the same as he doth other fynes. {499} 10. It is Ordered, sentenceJ and decreed, that euery Generall Courte, except such as through neglecte of the Gou'nor and the greatest prte of Magestrats the Freemen themselves doe call, shall consist of the Gouernor, or some one chosen to moderate the Court, and 4 other Magestruts at lest, wth the mayor prte of the deputyes of the seuerall Townes legally chosen; and in case the Freemen or mayor prte of the, through neglect or refusall of the Gouernor and mayor prte of the magestrats, shall call a Courte, yt shall consist of the mayor prte of Freemen that are prsent or their deputyes, wty a Moderator chosen by the: In wch said Generall Courts shall consist the supreme power of the Comonwelth, and they only shall haue power to make laws or repeale the, to graunt leuyes, to admitt of Freemen, dispose of lands vndisposed of, to seuerall Townes or prsons, and also shall haue power to call ether Courte or Magestrate or any other prson whatsoeuer into question for any misdemeanour, and may for just causes displace or deale otherwise according to the nature of the offence; and also may deale in any other matter that concerns the good of this comon welth, excepte election of Magestrats, wch shall be done by the whole boddy of Freemen. In wch Courte the Gouernour or Moderator shall haue power to order the Courte to giue liberty of spech, and silence vncensonable and disorderly speakeings, to put all things to voate, and in case the voate be equall to haue the casting voice. But non of these Courts shall be adiorned or dissolued wthout the consent of the maior prte of the Court. 11. It is ordered, sentenced and decreed, that when any Gemerall Courte vppon the occations of the Comonwelth haue agreed vppon any sume or somes of mony to be leuyed vppon the seuerall Townes wthin this Jurisdiction, that a Comittee be chosen to sett out and appoynt wt shall be the prportion of euery Towne to pay of the said leuy, prvided the Comittees be made vp of an equall nuber out of each Towne. 14th January, 1638, the 11 Orders abouesaid are voted."

Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, volume 1.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1637. The Pequot War.

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1637.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1638. The planting of New Haven Colony.

"In the height of the Hutchinson controversy [see MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1636-1638], John Davenport, an eminent nonconformist minister from London, had arrived at Boston, and with him a wealthy company, led by two merchants, Theophilus Eaton and Edward Hopkins. Alarmed at the new opinions and religious agitations of which Massachusetts was the seat, notwithstanding very advantageous offers of settlement there, they preferred to establish a separate community of their own, to be forever free from the innovations of error and licentiousness. Eaton and others sent to explore the coast west of the Connecticut, selected a place for settlement near the head of a spacious bay at Quinapiack [or Quinnipiack], or, as the Dutch called it, Red Hill, where they built a hut and spent the winter. They were joined in the spring [April, 1638] by the rest of their company, and Davenport preached his first sermon under the shade of a spreading oak. Presently they entered into what they called a 'plantation covenant,' and a communication being opened with the Indians, who were but few in that neighborhood, the lands of Quinapiack were purchased, except a small reservation on the east side of the bay, the Indians receiving a few presents and a promise of protection. A tract north of the bay, ten miles in one direction and thirteen in the other, was purchased for ten coats; and the colonists proceeded to lay out in squares the ground-plan of a spacious city, to which they presently gave the name of New Haven."

R. Hildreth, History of the U. S., volume 1, chapter 9.

"They formed their political association by what they called a 'plantation covenant,' 'to distinguish it from a church covenant, which could not at that time be made.' In this compact they resolved, 'that, as in matters that concern the gathering and ordering of a church, so likewise in all public offices which concern civil order, as choice of magistrates and officers, making and repealing of laws; dividing allotments of inheritance, and all things of like nature,' they would 'be ordered by the rules which the Scriptures hold forth.' It had no external sanction, and comprehended no acknowledgment of the government of England. The company consisted mostly of Londoners, who at home had been engaged in trade. In proportion to their numbers, they were the richest of all the plantations. Like the settlers on Narragansett Bay, they had no other title to their lands than that which they obtained by purchase from the Indians."

J. G. Palfrey, History of New England, volume 1, chapter 13.

ALSO IN: C. H. Levermore, The Republic of New Haven, chapter 1.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1639. The Fundamental Agreement of New Haven.

"In June, 1639, the whole body of settlers [at Quinnipiack, or New Haven] came together to frame a constitution. A tradition, seemingly well founded, says that the meeting was held in a large barn. According to the same account, the purpose for which they had met and the principles on which they ought to proceed were set forth by Davenport in a sermon. 'Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out seven pillars,' was the text. There is an obvious connection between this and the subsequent choice of seven of the chief men to lay the foundation of the constitution. ... Davenport set forth the general system on which the constitution ought to be framed. The two main principles which he laid down were, that Scripture is a perfect and sufficient rule for the conduct of civil affairs, and that church-membership must be a condition of citizenship. In this the colonists were but imitating the example of Massachusetts. ... After the sermon, five resolutions [followed by a sixth, constituting together what was called the 'fundamental agreement' of New Haven Colony], formally introducing Davenport's proposals, were carried. If a church already existed, it was not considered fit to form a basis for the state. Accordingly a fresh one was framed by a curiously complicated process. As a first step, twelve men were elected. These twelve were instructed, after a due interval for consideration, to choose seven out of their own number, who should serve as a nucleus for the church. At the same time an oath was taken by the settlers, which may be looked on as a sort of preliminary and provisional test of citizenship, pledging them to accept the principles laid down by Davenport. Sixty-three of the inhabitants took the oath, and their example was soon followed by fifty more. By October, four months after the original meeting, the seven formally established the new commonwealth. They granted the rights of a freeman to all who joined them, and who were recognized members either of the church at New Haven or of any other approved church. The freemen thus chosen entered into an agreement to the same effect as the oath already taken. They then elected a Governor and four Magistrates, or, as they were for the present called, a Magistrate and four Deputies. ... The functions of the Governor and Magistrates were not defined. Indeed, but one formal resolution was passed as to the constitution of the colony, namely, 'that the Word of God shall be the only rule attended unto in ordering the affairs of government.'"

J. A. Doyle, The English in America: The Puritan Colonies, volume 1, chapter 6.

{500}

"Of all the New England colonies, New Haven was most purely a government by compact, by social contract. ... The free planters ... signed each their names to their voluntary compact, and ordered that 'all planters hereafter received in this plantation should submit to the said foundamentall agreement, and testifie the same by subscribing their names.' It is believed that this is the sole instance of the formation of an independent civil government by a general compact wherein all the parties to the agreement were legally required to be actual signers thereof. When this event occurred, John Locke was in his seventh year, and Rousseau was a century away."

C. H. Levermore, The Republic of New Haven, page 23.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1640-1655. The attempted New Haven colonization on the Delaware. Fresh quarrels with the Dutch.

See NEW JERSEY: A. D. 1640-1655.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1643. The confederation of the colonies. The progress and state of New Haven and the River Colony.

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1643.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1650. Settlement of boundaries with the Dutch of New Netherland.

See NEW YORK: A. D. 1650.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1656-1661. The persecution of Quakers.

See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1656-1661.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1660-1663. The beginning of boundary conflicts with Rhode Island.

See RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1660-1663.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1660-1664. The protection of the regicides at New Haven.

"Against the colony of New Haven the king had a special grudge. Two of the regicide judges, who had sat in the tribunal which condemned his father, escaped to New England in 1660 and were well received there. They were gentlemen of high position. Edward Whalley was a cousin of Cromwell and Hampden. ... The other regicide, William Goffe, as a major-general in Cromwell's army, had won such distinction that there were some who pointed to him as the proper person to succeed the Lord Protector on the death of the latter. He had married Whalley's daughter. Soon after the arrival of these gentlemen, a royal order for their arrest was sent to Boston. ... The king's detectives hotly pursued them through the woodland paths of New England, and they would soon have been taken but for the aid they got from the people. Many are the stories of their hairbreadth escapes. Sometimes they took refuge in a cave on a mountain near New Haven, sometimes they hid in friendly cellars; and once, being hard put to it, they skulked under a wooden bridge, while their pursuers on horseback galloped by overhead. After lurking about New Haven and Milford for two or three years, on hearing of the expected arrival of Colonel Nichols and his commission [the royal commission appointed to take possession of the American grant lately made by the king to his brother, the Duke of York], they sought a more secluded hiding place near Hadley, a village lately settled far up the Connecticut river, within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. Here the avengers lost the trail, the pursuit was abandoned, and the weary regicides were presently forgotten. The people of New Haven had been especially zealous in shielding the fugitives. ... The colony, moreover, did not officially recognize the restoration of Charles II. to the throne until that event had been commonly known in New England for more than a year. For these reasons, the wrath of the king was specially roused against New Haven."

J. Fiske, The Beginnings of New England, pages 192-194.

ALSO IN: G. H. Hollister, History of Connecticut, volume 1, chapter 11.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1662-1664. The Royal Charter and annexation of New Haven to the River Colony.

"The Restoration in England left the New Haven colony under a cloud in the favor of the new government: it had been tardy and ungracious in its proclamation of Charles II.; it had been especially remiss in searching for the regicide colonels, Goffe and Whalley; and any application for a charter would have come from New Haven with a very ill grace. Connecticut was under no such disabilities; and it had in its Governor, John Winthrop [the younger, son of the first governor of Massachusetts], a man well calculated to win favor with the new King. ... In March, 1660, the General Court solemnly declared its loyalty to Charles II., sent the Governor to England to offer a loyal address to the King and ask him for a charter, and laid aside £500 for his expenses. Winthrop was successful, and the charter was granted April 20, 1662. The acquisition of the charter raised the Connecticut leaders to the seventh heaven of satisfaction. And well it might, for it was a grant of privileges with hardly a limitation. Practically the King had given Winthrop 'carte blanche,' and allowed him to frame the charter to suit himself. It incorporated the freemen of Connecticut as a 'body corporate and pollitique,' by the name of 'The Governor and Company of the English Collony of Conecticut in New England in America.' ... The people were to have all the liberties and immunities of free and natural subjects of the King, as if born within the realm. It granted to the Governor and Company all that part of New England south of the Massachusetts line and west of the 'Norroganatt River commonly called Norroganatt Bay' to the South Sea, with the 'Islands thereunto adioyneinge.' ... It is difficult to see more than two points in which it [the charter] altered the constitution adopted by the towns in 1639. There were now to be two deputies from each town; and the boundaries of the Commonwealth now embraced the rival colony of New Haven. ... New Haven did not submit without a struggle, for not only her pride of separate existence but the supremacy of her ecclesiastical system was at stake. For three years a succession of diplomatic notes passed between the General Court of Connecticut and 'our honored friends of New Haven, Milford, Branford, and Guilford.' ... {501} In October, 1664, the Connecticut General Court appointed the New Haven magistrates commissioners for their towns, 'with magistraticall powers,' established the New Haven local officers in their places for the time, and declared oblivion for any past resistance to the laws. In December, Milford having already submitted, the remnant of the New Haven General Court, representing New Haven, Guilford, and Branford, held its last meeting and voted to submit, 'with a salvo jure of our former rights and claims, as a people who have not yet been heard in point of plea.' The next year the laws of New Haven were laid aside forever, and her towns sent deputies to the General Court at Hartford. ... In 1701 the General Court ... voted that its annual October session should thereafter be held at New Haven. This provision of a double capital was incorporated into the constitution of 1818, and continued until in 1873 Hartford was made sole capital."

A. Johnston, The Genesis of a New England State, pages 25-28.

ALSO IN: B. Trumbull, History of Connecticut, volume 1, chapter 12.

Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, 1665-78.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1664. Royal grant to the Duke of York, in conflict with the charter.

See NEW YORK: A. D. 1664.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1666. The New Haven migration to Newark, N. J.

See NEW JERSEY: A. D. 1664-1667.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1674-1675. Long Island and the western half of the colony granted to the Duke of York.

In 1674, after the momentary recovery of New York by the Dutch, and its re-surrender to the English, "the king issued a new patent for the province, in which he not only included Long Island, but the territory up to the Connecticut River, which had been assigned to Connecticut by the royal commissioners. The assignment of Long Island was regretted, but not resisted; and the island which is the natural sea-wall of Connecticut passed, by royal decree, to a province whose only natural claim to it was that it barely touched it at one corner. The revival of the duke's claim to a part of the mainland was a different matter, and every preparation was made for resistance. In July, 1675, just as King Philip's war had broken out in Plymouth, hasty word was sent from the authorities at Hartford to Captain Thomas Bull at Saybrook that Governor Andros of New York was on his way through the Sound for the purpose, as he avowed, of aiding the people against the Indians. Of the two evils, Connecticut rather preferred the Indians. Bull was instructed to inform Andros, if he should call at Saybrook, that the colony had taken all precautions against the Indians, and to direct him to the actual scene of conflict, but not to permit the landing of any armed soldiers. 'And you are to keep the king's colors standing there, under his majesty's lieutenant, the governor of Connecticut; and if any other colors be set up there, you are not to suffer them to stand. ... But you are in his majesty's name required to avoid striking the first blow; but if they begin, then you are to defend yourselves, and do your best to secure his majesty's interest and the peace of the whole colony of Connecticut in our possession.' Andros came and landed at Saybrook, but confined his proceedings to reading the duke's patent against the protest of Bull and the Connecticut representatives."

A. Johnston, Connecticut, chapter 12.

Report of Regents of the University on the Boundaries of the State of New York, page 21.

ALSO IN: C. W. Bowen, The Boundary Disputes of Connecticut, pages 70-72.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1674-1678. King Philip's War.

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1674-1675; 1675; 1676-1678.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1685-1687. The hostile king and the hidden charter. Sir Edmund Andros in possession of the government.

"During the latter years of the reign of Charles II. the king had become so reckless of his pledges and his faith that he did not scruple to set the dangerous example of violating the charters that had been granted by the crown. Owing to the friendship that the king entertained for Winthrop, we have seen that Connecticut was favored by him to a degree even after the death of that great man. But no sooner had Charles demised and the sceptre passed into the hands of his bigoted brother, King James II., than Connecticut was called upon to contend against her sovereign for liberties that had been affirmed to her by the most solemn muniments known to the law of England. The accession of James II. took place on the 6th day of February 1685, and such was his haste to violate the honor of the crown that, early in the summer of 1685, a quo warranto was issued against the governor and company of Connecticut, citing them to appear before the king, within eight days of St. Martin's, to show by what right and tenor they exercised certain powers and privileges." This was quickly followed by two other writs, conveyed to Hartford by Edward Randolph, the implacable enemy of the colonies. "The day of appearance named in them was passed long before the writs were served." Mr. Whiting was sent to England as the agent of the colony, to exert such influences as might be brought to bear against the plainly hostile and unscrupulous intentions of the king; but his errand was fruitless. "On the 28th of December another writ of quo warranto was served upon the governor and company of the colony. This writ bore date the 23d of October, and required the defendants to appear before the king' within eight days of the purification of the Blessed Virgin.' ... Of course, the day named was not known to the English law, and was therefore no day at all in legal contemplation." Already, the other New England colonies had been brought under a provisional general government, by commissioners, of whom Joseph Dudley was named president. President Dudley "addressed a letter to the governor and council, advising them to resign the charter into the king's hands. Should they do so, he undertook to use his influence in behalf of the colony. They did not deem it advisable to comply with the request. Indeed they had hardly time to do so before the old commission was broken up, and a new one granted, superseding Dudley and naming Sir Edmund Andros governor of New England. Sir Edmund arrived in Boston on the 19th of December, 1686, and the next day he published his commission and took the government into his hands. Scarcely had he established himself, when he sent a letter to the governor and company of Connecticut, acquainting them with his appointment, and informing them that he was commissioned by the king to receive their charter if they would give it up to him."

G. H. Hollister, History of Connecticut, volume 1, chapter 14.

{502}

On receipt of the communication from Andros, "the General Court was at once convened, and by its direction a letter was addressed to the English Secretary of State, earnestly pleading for the preservation of the privileges that had been granted to them. For the first time they admitted the possibility that their petition might be denied, and in that case requested to be united to Massachusetts. This was construed by Sir Edmund as a virtual surrender; but as the days went by he saw that he had mistaken the spirit and purpose of the colony. Andros finally decided to go in person to Connecticut. He arrived at Hartford the last day of October, attended by a retinue of 60 officers and soldiers. The Assembly, then in session, received him with every outward mark of respect. After this formal exchange of courtesies, Sir Edmund publicly demanded the charter, and declared the colonial government dissolved. Tradition relates that Governor Treat, in calm but earnest words, remonstrated against this action. ... The debate was continued until the shadows of the early autumnal evening had fallen. After candles were lighted, the governor and his council seemed to yield; and the box supposed to contain the charter was brought into the room, and placed upon the table. Suddenly the lights were extinguished. Quiet reigned in the room, and in the dense crowd outside the building. The candles were soon relighted; but the charter had disappeared, and after the most diligent search could not be found. The common tradition has been, that it was taken under cover of the darkness by Captain Joseph Wadsworth, and hidden by him in the hollow trunk of a venerable and noble oak tree standing near the entrance-gate of Governor Wyllys's mansion. The charter taken by Captain Wadsworth was probably the duplicate, and remained safely in his possession for several years. There is reason to believe that, some time before the coming of Andros to Hartford, the original charter had been carefully secreted, and the tradition of later times makes it probable that, while the duplicate charter that was taken from the table was hidden elsewhere, the original charter found a safe resting place in the heart of the tree that will always be remembered as The Charter Oak. This tree is said to have been preserved by the early settlers at the request of the Indians. 'It has been the guide of our ancestors for centuries,' they said, 'as to the time of planting our corn. When the leaves are the size of a mouse's ears, then is the time to put it in the ground.' The record of the Court briefly states that Andros, having been conducted to the governor's seat by the governor himself, declared that he had been commissioned by his Majesty to take on him the government of Connecticut. The commission having been read, he said that it was his Majesty's pleasure to make the late governor and Captain John Allyn members of his council. The secretary handed their common seal to Sir Edmund, and afterwards wrote these words inclosing the record: 'His Excellency, Sir Edmund Andros, Knight, Captain-General and Governor of his Majesty's Territory and Dominion in New England, by order from his Majesty, King of England, Scotland and Ireland, the 31st of October, 1687, took into his hands the government of this colony of Connecticut, it being by his Majesty annexed to the Massachusetts and other colonies under his Excellency's government. Finis.' Andros soon disclosed a hand of steel beneath the velvet glove of plausible words and fair promises."

E. B. Sanford, History of Connecticut, chapter 16.

ALSO IN: J. G. Palfrey, History of New England, book 3, chapter 13 (volume 3).

See, also, NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1686, and MASSACHUSETTS: 1671-1686.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1689-1697. King William's War.

See CANADA (NEW FRANCE): A. D. 1689-1690; and 1692-1697.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1689-1701. The reinstatement of the charter government.

"April, 1689, came at last. The people of Boston, at the first news of the English Revolution, clapped Andros into custody. May 9, the old Connecticut authorities quietly resumed their functions, and called the assembly together for the following month. William and Mary were proclaimed with great fervor. Not a word was said about the disappearance or reappearance of the charter; but the charter government was put into full effect again, as if Andros had never interrupted it. An address was sent to the king, asking that the charter be no further interfered with; but operations under it went on as before. No decided action was taken by the home government for some years, except that its appointment of the New York governor, Fletcher, to the command of the Connecticut militia, implied a decision that the Connecticut charter had been superseded. Late in 1693, Fitz John Winthrop was sent to England as agent to obtain a confirmation of the charter. He secured an emphatic legal opinion from Attorney General Somers, backed by those of Treby and Ward, that the charter was entirely valid, Treby's concurrent opinion taking this shape: 'I am of the same opinion, and, as this matter is stated, there is no ground of doubt.' The basis of the opinion was that the charter had been granted under the great seal; that it had not been surrendered under the common seal of the colony, nor had any judgment of record been entered against it; that its operation had merely been interfered with by overpowering force; that the charter therefore remained valid; and that the peaceable submission of the colony to Andros was merely an illegal suspension of lawful authority. In other words, the passive attitude of the colonial government had disarmed Andros so far as to stop the legal proceedings necessary to forfeit the charter, and their prompt action, at the critical moment, secured all that could be secured under the circumstances. William was willing enough to retain all possible fruit of James's tyranny, as he showed by enforcing the forfeiture of the Massachusetts charter; but the law in this case was too plain, and he ratified the lawyers' opinion in April, 1694. The charter had escaped its enemies at last, and its escape is a monument of one of the advantages of a real democracy. ... Democracy had done more for Connecticut than class influence had done for Massachusetts."

A. Johnston, Connecticut, chapter 12.

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"The decisions which established the rights of Connecticut included Rhode Island. These two commonwealths were the portion of the British empire distinguished above all others by the largest liberty. Each was a nearly perfect democracy under the shelter of a monarchy. ... The crown, by reserving to itself the right of appeal, had still a method of interfering in the internal affairs of the two republics. Both of them were included among the colonies in which the lords of trade advised a complete restoration of the prerogatives of the crown. Both were named in the bill which, in April, 1701, was introduced into parliament for the abrogation of all American charters. The journals of the house of lords relate that Connecticut was publicly heard against the measure, and contended that its liberties were held by contract in return for services that had been performed; that the taking away of so many charters would destroy all confidence in royal promises, and would afford a precedent dangerous to all the chartered corporations of England. Yet the bill was read a second time, and its principle, as applied to colonies, was advocated by the mercantile interest and by 'great men' in England. The impending war with the French postponed the purpose till the accession of the house of Hanover."

G. Bancroft, History of the U. S. (Author's last revision), part 3, chapter 3 (volume 2).

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1690. The first Colonial Congress.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1690.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1702-1711. Queen Anne's War.

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1702-1710; and CANADA (NEW FRANCE): A. D. 1711-1713.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1744-1748. King George's War and the taking of Louisbourg.

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1744; 1745; and 1745-1748.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1753-1799. Western territorial claims. Settlements in the Wyoming Valley. Conflicts with the Penn colonists.

See PENNSYLVANIA; A. D. 1753-1799.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1754. The Colonial Congress at Albany, and Franklin's plan of union.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1754.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1755-1760. The French and Indian War, and conquest of Canada.

See CANADA (NEW FRANCE): A. D. 1750-1753; 1755; 1756; 1756-1757; 1758; 1759; 1760; NOVA SCOTIA: A. D. 1749-1755; 1755; Ohio (VALLEY): A. D. 1748-1754; 1754; 1755; CAPE BRETON ISLAND: A. D. 1758-1760.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1760-1765. The question of taxation by Parliament. The Sugar Act. The Stamp Act. The Stamp Act Congress.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1760-1775; 1763-1764; 1765; and 1766.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1765. The revolt against the Stamp Act.

"The English government understood very well that the colonies were earnestly opposed to the Stamp Act, but they had no thought of the storm of wrath and resistance which it would arouse. It was a surprise to many of the leaders of public affairs in America. ... Governor Fitch and Jared Ingersoll, with other prominent citizens who had done all in their power to oppose the scheme of taxation ... counselled submission. They mistook the feeling of the people. ... The clergy were still the leaders of public opinion, and they were united in denunciation of the great wrong. Societies were organized under the name of the Sons of Liberty, the secret purpose of which was to resist the Stamp Act by violent measures if necessary. ... Mr. Ingersoll, who had done all in his power to oppose the bill, after its passage decided to accept the position of stamp agent for Connecticut. Franklin urged him to take the place, and no one doubted his motives in accepting it. The people of Connecticut, however, were not pleased with this action. ... He was visited by a crowd of citizens, who inquired impatiently if he would resign." Ingersoll put them off with evasive replies for some time; but finally there was a gathering of a thousand men on horseback, from Norwich, New London, Windham, Lebanon and other towns, each armed with a heavy peeled club, who surrounded the obstinate stamp agent at Wethersfield and made him understand that they were in deadly earnest. "'The cause is not worth dying for,' said the intrepid man, who would never have flinched had he not felt that, after all, this band of earnest men were in the right. A formal resignation was given him to sign. ... After he had signed his name, the crowd cried out, 'Swear to it!' He begged to be excused from taking an oath. 'Then shout Liberty and Property,' said the now good-natured company. To this he had no objection, and waved his hat enthusiastically as he repeated the words. Having given three cheers, the now hilarious party dined together." Ingersoll was then escorted to Hartford, where he read his resignation publicly at the court-house.

E. B. Sanford, History of Connecticut, chapter 29.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1766. The repeal of the Stamp Act. The Declaratory Act.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1766.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1766-1768. The Townshend duties. The Circular Letter of Massachusetts.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1766-1767, and 1767-1768.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1768-1770. The quartering of troops in Boston. The "Massacre" and the removal of the troops.

See BOSTON: A. D. 1768, and 1770.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1769-1784. The ending of slavery.

See SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D. 1769-1785.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1770-1773. Repeal of the Townshend duties except on tea. Committees of Correspondence instituted. The tea ships and the Boston Tea-party.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1770, and 1772-1773; and BOSTON: A. D. 1773.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1774. The Boston Port Bill. The Massachusetts Act. The Quebec Act. The First Continental Congress.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1774.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1775. The beginning of the War of the American Revolution. Lexington. Concord. New England in arms and Boston beleaguered. Ticonderoga. Bunker Hill. The Second Continental Congress.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1776. Assumes to be a "free, sovereign and independent State."

"In May, 1776, the people had been formally released from their allegiance to the crown; and in October the general assembly passed an act assuming the functions of a State. The important section of the act was the first, as follows: 'That the ancient form of civil government, contained in the charter from Charles the Second, King of England, and adopted by the people of this State, shall be and remain the civil Constitution of this State, under the sole authority of the people thereof, independent of any king or prince whatever. And that this Republic is, and shall forever be and remain, a free, sovereign and independent State, by the name of the State of Connecticut.' The form of the act speaks what was doubtless always the belief of the people, that their charter derived its validity, not from the will of the crown, but from the assent of the people. And the curious language of the last sentence, in which 'this Republic' declares itself to be 'a free, sovereign, and independent State,' may serve to indicate something of the appearance which state sovereignty doubtless presented to the Americans of 1776-89."

A. Johnston, Connecticut, chapter 16.

See, also, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776-1779.

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CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1776-1783. The war and the victory. Independence achieved.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 to 1783.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1778. The massacre at the Wyoming settlement.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778 (JULY).

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1779. Tryon's marauding expeditions.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778-1779.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1786. Partial cession of western territorial claims to the United States. The Western Reserve in Ohio.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1781-1786; PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1753-1799; and OHIO: A. D. 1786-1796.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1788. Ratification of the Federal Constitution.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1787-1789.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1814. The Hartford Convention.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1814 (DECEMBER).

----------CONNECTICUT: End----------

CONNECTICUT TRACT, The.

See NEW YORK: A. D. 1786-1799.

CONNUBIUM.

See MUNICIPIUM.

CONON, Pope, A. D. 686-687.

CONOYS.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

CONRAD I., King of the East Franks (Germany), (the first of the Saxon line), A. D. 911-919.

Conrad II., King of the Romans (King of Germany), A. D. 1024-1039; King of Italy, 1026-1039; King of Burgundy, 1032-1039; Emperor, 1027-1039.

Conrad III., King of Germany (the first of the Swabian or Hohenstauffen dynasty), 1137-1152.

Conrad IV., King of Germany, 1250-1254.

CONSCRIPT FATHERS.

The Roman senators were so called,--"Patres Conscripti." The origin of the designation has been much discussed, and the explanation which has found most acceptance is this: that when, at the organization of the Republic, there was a new creation of senators, to fill the ranks, the new senators were called "conscripti" ("added to the roll") while the older ones were called "patres" ("fathers"), as before. Then the whole senate was addressed as "Patres et Conscripti," which lapsed finally into "Patres-Conscripti."

H. G. Liddell, History of Rome, book 1, chapter 4.

CONSCRIPTION, The first French.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1798-1799 (AUGUST-APRIL).

CONSCRIPTION IN THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (MARCH).

CONSERVATIVE PARTY, The English.

The name "Conservative," to replace that of Tory (see ENGLAND: A. D. 1680 for the origin of the latter) as a party designation, was first introduced in 1831, by Mr. John Wilson Croker, in an article in the Quarterly Review. "It crept slowly into general favour, although some few there were who always held out against it, encouraged by the example of the late leader of the party, Lord Beaconsfield, who was not at all likely to extend a welcome to anything which came with Mr. Croker's mark upon it."

L. J. Jennings, The Croker Papers, volume 2, page 198.

CONSILIO DI CREDENZA.

See ITALY: A. D. 1056-1152.

CONSISTORY, The Papal.

See CURIA, PAPAL.

CONSISTORY COURTS OF THE BISHOPS.

"The duties of the officials of these courts resembled in theory the duties of the censors under the Roman Republic. In the middle ages, a lofty effort had been made to overpass the common limitations of government, to introduce punishment for sins as well as crimes, and to visit with temporal penalties the breach of the moral law. ... The administration of such a discipline fell as a matter of course, to the clergy. ... Thus arose throughout Europe a system of spiritual surveillance over the habits and conduct of every man, extending from the cottage to the castle, taking note of all wrong dealing, of all oppression of man by man, of all licentiousness and profligacy, and representing upon earth, in the principles by which it was guided, the laws of the great tribunal of Almighty God. Such was the origin of the church courts, perhaps the greatest institutions yet devised by man. But to aim at these high ideals is as perilous as it is noble; and weapons which may be safely trusted in the hands of saints become fatal implements of mischief when saints have ceased to wield them. ... The Consistory Courts had continued into the sixteenth century with unrestricted jurisdiction, although they had been for generations merely perennially flowing fountains, feeding the ecclesiastical exchequer. The moral conduct of every English man and woman remained subject to them. ... But between the original design and the degenerate counterfeit there was this vital difference,--that the censures were no longer spiritual. They were commuted in various gradations for pecuniary fines, and each offence against morality was rated at its specific money value in the Episcopal tables. Suspension and excommunication remained as ultimate penalties; but they were resorted to only to compel unwilling culprits to accept the alternative. The misdemeanours of which the courts took cognizance were 'offences against chastity,' 'heresy,' or 'matter sounding thereunto,' 'witchcraft,' 'drunkenness,' 'scandal,' 'defamation,' 'impatient words,' 'broken promises,' 'untruth,' 'absence from church,' 'speaking evil of saints,' 'non-payment of offerings,' and other delinquencies incapable of legal definition."

J. A. Froude. History of England, chapter 3.

CONSPIRACY BILL, The.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1858-1859.

CONSTABLE, The.

"The name is derived from the 'comes stabuli' of the Byzantine court, and appears in the west as early as the days of Gregory of Tours. The duties of the constables of France ... and those of the constables of Naples ... are not exactly parallel with [those of] the constables of England. In Naples the constable kept the King's sword, commanded the army, appointed the quarters, disciplined the troops and distributed the sentinels; the marshals and all other officers being his subordinates. The French office was nearly the same. In England, however, the marshal was not subordinate to the constable. Probably the English marshals fulfilled the duties which had been in Normandy discharged by the constables. The marshal is more distinctly an officer of the court, the constable one of the castle or army. ... The constable ... exercised the office of quartermaster-general of the court and army and succeeded to the duties of the Anglo-Saxon staller."

William Stubbs, Constitutional History of England, chapter 11, section 122, and note.

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CONSTABLE OF FRANCE.

"No other dignity in the world has been held by such a succession of great soldiers as the office of Constable of France. The Constable was originally a mere officer of the stables, but his power had increased by the suppression of the office of Grand Seneschal, and by the time of Philip Augustus he exercised control over all the military forces of the crown. He was the general in chief of the army and the highest military authority in the kingdom. The constables had for four centuries been leaders in the wars of France, and they had experienced strange and varied fortunes. The office had been bestowed on the son of Simon de Montfort, and he for this honor had granted to the king of France his rights over those vast domains which had been given his father for his pious conquests. [See ALBIGENSES: A. D. 1217-1229.] It had been bestowed on Raoul de Nesle, who fell at Courtrai, where the French nobility suffered its first defeat from Flemish boors; on Bertrand de Guesclin, the last of the great warriors, whose deeds were sung with those of the paladins of Charlemagne; on Clisson, the victor of Roosebeck [or Rosebecque]; on Armagnac, whose name has a bloody preeminence among the leaders of the fierce soldiery who ravaged France during the English wars; on Buchan, whose Scotch valor and fidelity gained him this great trust among a foreign people; on Richemont, the companion of Joan Darc; on Saint Pol, the ally of Charles the Bold, the betrayer and the victim of Louis XI.; on the Duke of Bourbon, who won the battle of Pavia against his sovereign, and led his soldiers to that sack of Rome which made the ravages of Genseric and Alaric seem mild; on Anne of Montmorenci, a prominent actor in every great event in France from the battle of Pavia against Charles V. to that of St. Denis against Coligni; on his son, the companion of Henry IV. in his youth, and his trusted adviser in his age. ... The sword borne by such men had been bestowed [1621] on Luines, the hero of an assassination, who could not drill a company of infantry; it was now [1622] given to the hero of many battles [the Duke of Lesdeguières], and the great office was to expire in the hands of a great soldier."

J. B. Perkins, France under Mazarin, volume 1, page 94.

CONSTANCE, The Council of.

See PAPACY: A. D. 1414-1418.

CONSTANCE, Peace of (1183).

See ITALY: A. D. 1174-1183.

CONSTANS I., Roman Emperor, A. D. 337-350.

Constans II., Roman Emperor (Eastern), A. D. 641-668.

CONSTANTINA, The taking of (1837).

See BARBARY STATES: A. D. 1830-1846.

CONSTANTINE, Pope, A. D. 708-715. Constantine I. (called The Great), Roman Emperor, A. D. 306-337.

The Conversion.

See ROME: A. D. 323.

The Forged Donation of.

See PAPACY: A. D. 774 (?).

Constantine II., Roman Emperor, A. D. 337-340.

Constantine III., Roman Emperor in the East, A. D. 641.

Constantine IV. (called Pogonatus), Roman Emperor in the East, A. D. 668-685.

Constantine V. (called Copronymus), Emperor in the East (Byzantine, or Greek), A. D. 741-775.

Constantine VI., Emperor in the East (Byzantine, or Greek), A. D. 780-797.

Constantine VII. (called Porphyrogenitus), Emperor in the East (Byzantine, or Greek), A. D. 911-950.

Constantine VIII. (colleague of Constantine VII.), Emperor in the East (Byzantine, or Greek), A. D. 944.

Constantine IX., Emperor in the East (Byzantine, or Greek), A. D. 963-1028.

Constantine X., Emperor in the East (Byzantine, or Greek), A. D. 1042-1054.

Constantine XI., Emperor in the East (Byzantine, or Greek), A. D. 1059-1067.

Constantine XII., nominal Greek Emperor in the East, about A. D. 1071..

Constantine XIII. (Polæologus), Greek Emperor of Constantinople, A. D. 1448-1453.

Constantine the Usurper.

See BRITAIN: A. D. 407.

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 330. Transformation of Byzantium.

"Constantine had for some time contemplated the erection of a new capital. The experience of nearly half a century had confirmed the sagacity of Diocletian's selection of a site on the confines of Europe and Asia [Nicomedia] as the whereabouts in which the political centre of gravity of the Empire rested. At one time Constantine thought of adopting the site of ancient Troy, and is said to have actually commenced building a new city there. ... More prosaic reasons ultimately prevailed. The practical genius of Constantine recognized in the town of Byzantium, on the European side of the border line between the two continents, the site best adapted for his new capital. All subsequent ages have applauded his discernment, for experience has endorsed the wisdom of the choice. By land, with its Asian suburb of Chrysopolis [modern Scutari], it practically spanned the narrow strait and joined Europe and Asia: by sea, it was open on one side to Spain, Italy, Greece, Africa, Egypt, Syria; on the other to the Euxine, and so by the Danube it had easy access to the whole of that important frontier between the Empire and the barbarians; and round all the northern coasts of the sea it took the barbarians in flank. ... The city was solemnly dedicated with religious ceremonies on the 11th of May, 330, and the occasion was celebrated, after the Roman fashion, by a great festival, largesses and games in the hippodrome, which lasted forty days. The Emperor gave to the city institutions modelled after those of the ancient Rome."

E. L. Cutts, Constantine the Great, chapter 29.

"The new walls of Constantine stretched from the port to the Propontis ... at the distance of fifteen stadia from the ancient fortification, and, with the city of Byzantium, they enclosed five of the seven hills which, to the eyes of those who approach Constantinople, appear to rise above each other in beautiful order. About a century after the death of the founder, the new buildings ... already covered the narrow ridge of the sixth and the broad summit of the seventh hill. ... The buildings of the new city were executed by such artificers as the reign of Constantine could afford; but they were decorated by the hands of the most celebrated masters of the age of Pericles and Alexander. ... By his commands the cities of Greece and Asia were despoiled of their most valuable ornaments."

E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 17. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25717

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"The new city was an exact copy of old Rome. ... It was inhabited by senators from Rome. Wealthy individuals from the provinces were likewise compelled to keep up houses at Constantinople, pensions were conferred upon them, and a right to a certain amount of provisions from the public stores was annexed to these dwellings. Eighty thousand loaves of bread were distributed daily to the inhabitants of Constantinople. ... The tribute of grain from Egypt was appropriated to supply Constantinople, and that of Africa was left for the consumption of Rome."

G. Finlay, Greece under the Romans, chapter 2.

ALSO IN: J. B. Bury, History of the later Roman Empire, book 1, chapter 5 (volume 1).

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 363-518. The Eastern Court from Valens to Anastatius. Tumults at the capital.

See ROME: A. D. 363-379 to 400-518.

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 378. Threatened by the Goths.

See GOTHS: A. D. 379-382.

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 400. Popular rising against the Gothic soldiery. Their expulsion from the city.

See ROME: A. D. 400-518.

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 511-512. Tumults concerning the Trisagion.

During the reign of Anastatius, at Constantinople, the fierce controversy which had raged for many years throughout the empire, between the Monophysites (who maintained that the divine and the human natures in Christ were one), and the 'adherents of the Council of Chalcedon (which declared that Christ possessed two natures in one person), was embittered at the imperial capital by opposition between the emperor, who favored the Monophysites, and the patriarch who was strict in Chalcedonian orthodoxy. In 511, and again in 512, it gave rise to two alarming riots at Constantinople. On the first occasion, a Monophysite or Eutychian party "burst into the Chapel of the Archangel in the Imperial Palace and dared to chant the Te Deum with the addition of the forbidden words, the war-cry of many an Eutychian mob, 'Who wast crucified for us.' The Trisagion, as it was called, the thrice-repeated cry to the Holy One, which Isaiah in his vision heard uttered by the seraphim, became, by the addition of these words, as emphatic a statement as the Monophysite party could desire of their favourite tenet that God, not man, breathed out his soul unto death outside the gates of Jerusalem. ... On the next Sunday the Monophysites sang the verse which was their war-cry in the great Basilica itself." The riot which ensued was quieted with difficulty by the patriarch, to whom the emperor humbled himself. But in the next year, on a fast-day (Nov. 6) the Monophysites gave a similar challenge, singing the Trisagion with the prohibited words added, and "again psalmody gave place to blows; men wounded and dying lay upon the floor of the church. ... The orthodox mob streamed from all parts into the great forum. There they swarmed and swayed to and fro all that day and all that night, shouting forth, not the greatness of the Ephesian Diana, but 'Holy, Holy, Holy,' without the words' 'Who wast crucified.' They hewed down the monks,--a minority of their class,--who were on the side of the imperial creed, and burned their monasteries with fire." After two days of riot, the aged emperor humbled himself to the mob, in the great Circus, offered to abdicate the throne and made peace by promises to respect the decrees of Chalcedon.

T. Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, book 4, chapter 10.

See, also, NESTORIAN AND MONOPHYSITE CONTROVERSY.

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 532. The Sedition of Nika.

See CIRCUS, FACTIONS OF THE ROMAN.

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 542. The Plague.

See PLAGUE: A. D. 542-594.

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 553. General Council.

See THREE CHAPTERS, THE DISPUTE OF THE.

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 626. Attacked by the Avars and Persians.

See ROME: A. D. 565-628.

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 668-675. First siege by the Saracens.

"Forty-six years after the flight of Mahomet from Mecca his disciples appeared in arms under the walls of Constantinople. They were animated by a genuine or fictitious saying of the prophet, that, to the first army which besieged the city of the Cæsars, their sins were forgiven. ... No sooner had the Caliph Moawiyah [the first of the Ommiade caliphs, seated at Damascus,] suppressed his rivals and established his throne, than he aspired to expiate the guilt of civil blood by the success of this holy expedition; his preparations by sea and land were adequate to the importance of the object; his standard was entrusted to Sophian, a veteran warrior. ... The Greeks had little to hope, nor had their enemies any reasons of fear, from the courage and vigilance of the reigning Emperor, who disgraced the name of Constantine, and imitated only the inglorious years of his grandfather Heraclius. Without delay or opposition, the naval forces of the Saracens passed through the unguarded channel of the Hellespont, which even now, under the feeble and disorderly government of the Turks, is maintained as the natural bulwark of the capital. The Arabian fleet cast anchor and the troops were disembarked near the palace of Hebdomon, seven miles from the city. During many days, from the dawn of light to the evening, the line of assault was extended from the golden gate to the Eastern promontory. ... But the besiegers had formed an insufficient estimate of the strength and resources of Constantinople. The solid and lofty walls were guarded by numbers and discipline; the spirit of the Romans was rekindled by the last danger of their religion and empire; the fugitives from the conquered provinces more successfully renewed the defence of Damascus and Alexandria; and the Saracens were dismayed by the strange and prodigious effects of artificial fire. This firm and effectual resistance diverted their arms to the more easy attempts of plundering the European and Asiatic coasts of the Propontis; and, after keeping the sea from the month of April to that of September, on the approach of winter they retreated four score miles from the capital, to the isle of Cyzicus, in which they had established their magazine of spoil and provisions. So patient was their perseverance, or so languid were their operations, that they repeated in the six following summers the same attack and retreat, with a gradual abatement of hope and vigour, till the mischances of shipwreck and disease, of the sword and of fire, compelled them to relinquish the fruitless enterprise. They might bewail the loss, or commemorate the martyrdom, of 30,000 Moslems who fell in the siege of Constantinople. ... The event of the siege revived, both in the East and West, the reputation of the Roman arms, and cast a momentary shade over the glories of the Saracens. ... A peace, or truce of thirty years was ratified between the two Empires; and the stipulation of an annual tribute, fifty horses of a noble breed, fifty slaves, and 3,000 pieces of gold, degraded the majesty of the commander of the faithful."

E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 52. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25717

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CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 680. General Council.

See MONOTHELITE CONTROVERSY.

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 717-718. The second siege by the Saracens.

"When Leo [the Isaurian] was raised to the [Byzantine] throne [A. D. 717], the empire was threatened with immediate ruin. Six emperors had been dethroned within the space of twenty-one years. ... The Bulgarians and Sclavonians wasted Europe up to the walls of Constantinople; the Saracens ravaged the whole of Asia Minor to the shores of the Bosphorus. ... The Caliph Suleiman, who had seen one private adventurer succeed the other in quick succession on the imperial throne, deemed the moment favourable for the final conquest of the Christians; and, reinforcing his brother's army [in Asia Minor], he ordered him to lay siege to Constantinople. The Saracen empire had now reached its greatest extent. From the banks of the Sihun and the Indus to the shores of the Atlantic in Mauretania and Spain, the order of Suleiman was implicitly obeyed. ... The army Moslemah led against Constantinople was the best-appointed that had ever attacked the Christians: it consisted of 80,000 warriors. The Caliph announced his intention of taking the field in person with additional forces, should the capital of the Christians offer a protracted resistance to the arms of Islam. The whole expedition is said to have employed 180,000 men. ... Moslemah, after capturing Pergamus, marched to Abydos, where he was joined by the Saracen fleet. He then transported his army across the Hellespont, and marching along the shore of the Propontis, invested Leo in his capital both by land and sea. The strong walls of Constantinople, the engines of defence with which Roman and Greek art had covered the ramparts, and the skill of the Byzantine engineers, rendered every attempt to carry the place by assault hopeless, so that the Saracens were compelled to trust to the effect of a strict blockade for gaining possession of the city. ... The besiegers encamped before Constantinople on the 15th August 717. The Caliph Suleiman died before he was able to send any reinforcements to his brother. The winter proved unusually severe." Great numbers of the warriors from the south were destroyed by the inclemency of a climate to which they had not become inured; many more died of famine in the Moslem camp, while the besieged city was plentifully supplied. The whole undertaking was disastrous from its beginning to its close, and, exactly one year from the pitching of his camp under the Byzantine walls, "on the 15th of August 718, Moslemah raised the siege, after ruining one of the finest armies the Saracens ever assembled. ... Few military details concerning Leo's defence of Constantinople have been preserved, but there can be no doubt that it was one of the most brilliant exploits of a warlike age. ... The vanity of Gallic writers has magnified the success of Charles Martel over a plundering expedition of the Spanish Arabs into a marvellous victory, and attributed the deliverance of Europe from the Saracen yoke to the valour of the Franks. A veil has been thrown over the talents and courage of Leo, a soldier of fortune, just seated on the imperial throne, who defeated the long-planned schemes of conquest of the Caliphs Welid and Suleiman. It is unfortunate that we have no Isaurian literature. ... The war was languidly carried on for some years and the Saracens were gradually expelled from most of their conquests beyond Mount Tauris."

_G. Finlay, History of the Byzantine Empire from 716 to 1057, chapter 1._

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 747. The Great Plague.

See PLAGUE: A. D. 744-748.

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 754. The Iconoclastic Council.

See ICONOCLASTIC CONTROVERSY.

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 865. First attack by the Russians.

"In the year 865, a nation hitherto unknown made its first appearance in the history of the world, where it was destined to act no unimportant part. Its entrance into the political system of the European nations was marked by an attempt to take Constantinople, a project which it has often revived. ... In the year 862, Rurik, a Scandinavian or Varangian chief, arrived at Novgorod, and laid the first foundation of the state which has grown into the Russian empire. The Russian people, under Varangian domination, rapidly increased in power, and reduced many of their neighbours to submission. ... From what particular circumstance the Russians were led to make their daring attack on Constantinople is not known. The Emperor Michael [III.] had taken the command of an army to act against the Saracens, and Oryphas, admiral of the fleet, acted as governor of the capital during his absence. Before the Emperor had commenced his military operations, a fleet of 200 Russian vessels of small size, taking advantage of a favourable wind, suddenly passed through the Bosphorus, and anchored at the mouth of the Black River in the Propontis, about 18 miles from Constantinople. This Russian expedition had already plundered the shores of the Black Sea, and from its station within the Bosphorus it ravaged the country about Constantinople, and plundered the Prince's Islands, pillaging the monasteries and slaying the monks as well as the other inhabitants. The Emperor, informed by Oryphas of the attack on his capital hastened to its defence. ... It required no great exertions on the part of the imperial officers to equip a force sufficient to attack and put to flight these invaders; but the horrid cruelty of the barbarians, and the wild daring of their Varangian leaders, made a profound impression on the people of Constantinople."

G. Finlay, History of the Byzantine Empire, book 1, chapter 3, section 3.

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 907-1043. Repeated attacks by the Russians.

Notwithstanding an active and increasing commercial intercourse between the Greeks and the Russians, Constantinople was exposed, during the tenth century and part of the eleventh, to repeated attacks from the masterful Varangians and their subjects. In the year 907, a fleet of 2,000 Russian vessels or boats swarmed into the Bosphorus, and laid waste the shores in the neighborhood of Constantinople. "It is not improbable that the expedition was undertaken to obtain indemnity for some commercial losses sustained by imperial negligence, monopoly or oppression. The subjects of the emperor were murdered, and the Russians amused themselves with torturing their captives in the most barbarous manner. {508} At length Leo [VI.] purchased their retreat by the payment of a large sum of money. ... These hostilities were terminated by a commercial treaty in 912." There was peace under this treaty until 941, when a third attack on Constantinople was led by Igor, the son of Rurik. But it ended most disastrously for the Russians and Igor escaped with only a few boats. The result was another important treaty, negotiated in 945. In 970 the Byzantine Empire was more seriously threatened by an attempt on the part of the Russians to subdue the kingdom of Bulgaria; which would have brought them into the same dangerous neighborhood to Constantinople that the Russia of our own day has labored so hard to reach. But the able soldier John Zimisces happened to occupy the Byzantine throne; the Russian invasion of Bulgaria was repelled and Bulgaria, itself, was reannexed to the Empire, which pushed its boundaries to the Danube, once more. For more than half a century, Constantinople was undisturbed by the covetous ambition of her Russian fellow Christians. Then they invaded the Bosphorus again with a formidable armament; but the expedition was wholly disastrous and they retreated with a loss of 15,000 men. "Three years elapsed before peace was re-established; but a treaty was then concluded and the trade at Constantinople placed on the old footing. From this period the alliance of the Russians with the Byzantine Empire was long uninterrupted; and as the Greeks became more deeply imbued with ecclesiastical prejudices, and more hostile to the Latin nations, the Eastern Church became, in their eyes, the symbol of their nationality, and the bigoted attachment of the Russians to the same religious formalities obtained for them from the Byzantine Greeks the appellation of the most Christian nation."

G. Finlay, History of the Byzantine Empire, from 716 to 1057, book 2, chapter 3, section 2.

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 1081. Sacked by the rebel army of Alexius Comnenus.

Alexius Comnenus, the emperor who occupied the Byzantine throne at the time of the First Crusade, and who became historically prominent in that connection, acquired his crown by a successful rebellion. He was collaterally of the family of Isaac Comnenus, (Isaac I.) who had reigned briefly in 1057-1059,--he, too, having been, in his imperial office, the product of a revolution. But the interval of twenty-two years had seen four emperors come and go--two to the grave and two into monastic seclusion. It was the last of these--Nicephorus III. (Botaneites) that Alexius displaced, with the support of an army which he had previously commanded. One of the gates of the capital was betrayed to him by a German mercenary, and he gained the city almost without a blow. "The old Emperor consented to resign his crown and retire into a monastery. Alexius entered the imperial palace, and the rebel army commenced plundering every quarter of the city. Natives and mercenaries vied with one another in license and rapine. No class of society was sacred from their lust and avarice, and the inmates of monasteries, churches, and palaces were alike plundered and insulted. This sack of Constantinople by the Sclavonians, Bulgarians, and Greeks in the service of the families of Comnenus, Ducas, and Paleologos, who crept treacherously into the city, was a fit prologue to its sufferings when it was stormed by the Crusaders in 1204. From this disgraceful conquest of Constantinople by Alexius Comnenus, we must date the decay of its wealth and civic supremacy, both as a capital and a commercial city. ... The power which was thus established in rapine terminated about a century later in a bloody vengeance inflicted by an infuriated populace on the last Emperor of the Comnenian family, Andronicus I. Constantinople was taken on the 1st of April, 1081, and Alexius was crowned in St. Sophia's next day."

G. Finlay, History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires, from 716 to 1453, book 3, chapter 1.

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 1204. Conquest and brutal sack by Crusaders and Venetians.

See CRUSADES: A. D. 1201-1203; and BYZANTINE EMPIRE: A. D. 1203-1204.

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 1204-1261. The Latin Empire and its fall. Recovery by the Greeks.

See ROMANIA, THE EMPIRE OF, and BYZANTINE EMPIRE: A. D. 1204-1205.

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 1261. Great privileges conceded to the Genoese. Pera and its citadel Galata given up to them.

See GENOA: A. D. 1261-1299.

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 1261-1453. The restored Greek Empire.

On the 25th of July, A. D. 1261. Constantinople was surprised and the last Latin emperor expelled by the fortunate arms of Michael Palæologus, the Greek usurper at Nicæa. (See GREEK EMPIRE OF NICÆA.) Twenty days later Michael made his triumphal entry into the ancient capital. "But after the first transport of devotion and pride, he sighed at the dreary prospect of solitude and ruin. The palace was defiled with smoke and dirt and the gross intemperance of the Franks; whole streets had been consumed by fire, or were decayed by the injuries of time; the sacred and profane edifices were stripped of their ornaments; and, as if they were conscious of their approaching exile, the industry of the Latins had been confined to the work of pillage and destruction. Trade had expired under the pressure of anarchy and distress, and the numbers of inhabitants had decreased with the opulence of the city. It was the first care of the Greek monarch to reinstate the nobles in the palaces of their fathers. ... He repeopled Constantinople by a liberal invitation to the provinces, and the brave 'volunteers' were seated in the capital which had been recovered by their arms. Instead of banishing the factories of the Pisans, Venetians, and Genoese, the prudent conqueror 'accepted their oaths of allegiance, encouraged their industry, confirmed their privileges and allowed them to live under the jurisdiction of their proper magistrates. Of these nations the Pisans and Venetians preserved their respective quarters in the city; but the services and power of the Genoese [who had assisted in the reconquest of Constantinople] deserved at the same time the gratitude and the jealousy of the Greeks. Their independent colony was first planted at the seaport town of Heraclea in Thrace. They were speedily recalled, and settled in the exclusive possession of the suburb of Galata, an advantageous post, in which they revived the commerce and insulted the majesty of the Byzantine Empire. The recovery of Constantinople was celebrated as the era of a new Empire." {509} The new empire thus established in the ancient Roman capital of the east made some show of vigor at first. Michael Palæologus "wrested from the Franks several of the noblest islands of the Archipelago--Lesbos, Chios, and Rhodes. His brother Constantine was sent to command in Malvasia and Sparta; and the Eastern side of the Morea, from Argos and Napoli to Cape Tænarus, was repossessed by the Greeks. ... But in the prosecution of these Western conquests the countries beyond the Hellespont were left naked to the Turks; and their depredations verified the prophecy of a dying senator, that the recovery of Constantinople would be the ruin of Asia." Not only was Asia Minor abandoned to the new race of Turkish conquerors--the Ottomans--but those most aggressive of the proselytes of Islam were invited in the next generation to cross the Bosphorus, and to enter Thrace as partisans in a Greek civil war. Their footing in Europe once gained, they devoured the distracted and feeble empire piece by piece, until little remained to it beyond the capital itself. Long before the latter fell, the empire was a shadow and a name. In the very suburbs of Constantinople, the Genoese podesta, at Pera or Galata, had more power than the Greek Emperor; and the rival Italian traders, of Genoa, Venice and Pisa, fought their battles under the eyes of the Byzantines with indifference, almost, to the will or wishes, the opposition or the help of the latter. "The weight of the Roman Empire was scarcely felt in the balance of these opulent and powerful republics. ... The Roman Empire (I smile in transcribing the name) might soon have sunk into a province of Genoa, if the ambition of the republic had not been checked by the ruin of her freedom and naval power. A long contest of 130 years was determined by the triumph of Venice. ... Yet the spirit of commerce survived that of conquest; and the colony of Pera still awed the capital and navigated the Euxine, till it was involved by the Turks in the final servitude of Constantinople itself."

E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 62-63. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25717

ALSO IN: G. Finlay, History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires, book 4, chapter 2.

See, also, TURKS (THE OTTOMANS): A. D. 1240-1326; 1326-1359; 1360-1389; 1389-1403, &c.

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 1348-1355. War with the Genoese. Alliance with Venice and Aragon.

John Cantacuzenos, who usurped the throne in 1347, "had not reigned a year before he was involved in hostilities with the Genoese colony of Galata, which had always contained many warm partisans of the house of Paleologos [displaced by Cantacuzenos]. This factory had grown into a flourishing town, and commanded a large portion of the Golden Horn. During the civil war, the Genoese capitalists had supplied the regency with money, and they now formed almost every branch of the revenue which the imperial government derived from the port. ... The financial measures of the new emperor reduced their profits. ... The increased industry of the Greeks, and the jealousy of the Genoese, led to open hostilities. The colonists of Galata commenced the war in a treacherous manner, without any authority from the republic of Genoa (1348). With a fleet of only eight large and some small galleys they attacked Constantinople while Cantacuzenos was absent from the capital, and burned several buildings and the greater part of the fleet he was then constructing. The Empress Irene, who administered the government in the absence of her husband, behaved with great prudence and courage and repulsed a bold attack of the Genoese. Cantacuzenos hastened to the capital, where he spent the winter in repairing the loss his fleet had sustained. As soon as it was ready for action, he engaged the Genoese in the port, where he hoped that their naval skill would be of no avail, and where the numerical superiority of his ships would insure him a victory. He expected, moreover, to gain possession of Galata itself by an attack on the land side while the Genoese were occupied at sea. The cowardly conduct of the Greeks, both by sea and land, rendered his plans abortive. The greater part of his ships were taken, and his army retreated without making a serious attack. Fortunately for Cantacuzenos, the colonists of Galata received an order from the Senate of Genoa to conclude peace. ... Their victory enabled them to obtain favourable terms, and to keep possession of some land they had seized, and on which they soon completed the construction of a new citadel. The friendly disposition manifested by the government of Genoa induced Cantacuzenos to send ambassadors to the Senate to demand the restoration of the island of Chios, which had been conquered by a band of Genoese exiles in 1346. A treaty was concluded, by which the Genoese were to restore the island to the Emperor of Constantinople in ten years. ... But this treaty was never carried into execution, for the exiles at Chios set both the republic of Genoa and the Greek Empire at defiance, and retained their conquest." The peace with Genoa was of short duration. Cantacuzenos was bent upon expelling the Genoese from Galata, and as they were now involved in the war with the Venetians which is known as the war of Caffa he hoped to accomplish his purpose by joining the latter. "The Genoese had drawn into their hands the greater part of the commerce of the Black Sea. The town of Tana or Azof was then a place of great commercial importance, as many of the productions of India and China found their way to western Europe from its warehouses. The Genoese, in consequence of a quarrel with the Tartars, had been compelled to suspend their intercourse with Tana, and the Venetians, availing themselves of the opportunity, had extended their trade and increased their profits. The envy of the Genoese led them to obstruct the Venetian trade and capture Venetian ships, until at length the disputes of the two republics broke out in open war in 1348. In the year 1351, Cantacuzenos entered into an alliance with Venice, and joined his forces to those of the Venetians, who had also concluded an alliance with Peter the Ceremonious, king of Aragon. Nicholas Pisani, one of the ablest admirals of the age, appeared before Constantinople with the Venetian fleet; but his ships had suffered severely from a storm, and his principal object was attained when he had convoyed the merchantmen of Venice safely into the Black Sea. Cantacuzenos, however, had no object but to take Galata; and, expecting to receive important aid from Pisani, he attacked the Genoese colony by sea and land. His assault was defeated in consequence of the weakness of the Greeks and the lukewarmness of the Venetians. {510} Pisani retired to Negropont, to effect a junction with the Catalan fleet; and Pagano Doria, who had pursued him with a superior force, in returning to Galata to pass the winter, stormed the town of Heracleia on the Sea of Marmora, where Cantacuzenos had collected large magazines of provisions, and carried off a rich booty, with many wealthy Greeks, who were compelled to ransom themselves by paying large sums to these captors. Cantacuzenos was now besieged in Constantinople, ... The Genoese, unable to make any impression on the city, indemnified themselves by ravaging the Greek territory on the Black Sea. ... Early in the year 1352, Pisani returned to Constantinople with the Catalan fleet, under Ponzio da Santapace, and a great battle was fought between the allies and the Genoese, in full view of Constantinople and Galata. The scene of the combat was off the island of Prote, and it received the name of Vrachophagos from some sunken rocks, of which the Genoese availed themselves in their manœuvres. The honour of a doubtful and bloody day rested with the Genoese. ... Pisani soon quitted the neighbourhood of Constantinople, and Cantacuzenos, having nothing more to hope from the Venetian alliance ... concluded a peace with the republic of Genoa. In this war he had exposed the weakness of the Greek empire, and the decline of the maritime force of Greece, to all the states of Europe. The treaty confirmed all the previous privileges and encroachments of the colony of Galata and other Genoese establishments in the Empire."

G. Finlay, History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires, 716-1453, book 4, chapter 2, section 4.

The retirement of the Greeks from the contest did not check the war between Genoa and Venice and the other allies of the latter, which was continued until 1355. The Genoese were defeated, August 29, 1353, by the Venetians and Catalans, in a great battle fought near Lojera, on the northern coast of Sardinia, losing 41 galleys and 4,500 or 5,000 men. They obtained their revenge the next year, on the 4th of November, when Paganino Doria surprised the Venetian admiral, Pisani, at Portolongo, opposite the island of Sapienzu, as he was preparing to go into winter-quarters. "The Venetians sustained not so much a defeat as a total discomfiture; 450 were killed; an enormous number of prisoners, loosely calculated at 6,000, and a highly valuable booty in prizes and stores, were taken." In June, 1355, the war was ended by a treaty which excluded Venice from all Black Sea ports except Caffa.

_W. C. Hazlitt, History of the Venetian Republic, chapter 18-19 (volume 3)._

ALSO IN: F. A. Parker, The Fleets of the World, pages 88-94.

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 1453. Conquest by the Turks.

Mahomet II., son of Amurath II. came to the Ottoman throne, at the age of twenty-one, in 1451. "The conquest of Constantinople was the first object on which his thoughts were fixed at the opening of his reign. The resolution with which he had formed this purpose expressed itself in his stern reply to the ambassadors of the Emperor, offering him tribute if he would renounce the project of building a fort on the European shore of the Bosporus, which, at the distance of only five miles from the capital, would give him the command of the Black Sea. He ordered the envoys to retire, and threatened to flay alive any who should dare to bring him a similar message again. The fort was finished in three months and garrisoned with 400 janizaries; a tribute was exacted of all vessels that passed, and war was formally declared by the Sultan. Constantine [Constantine Palæologus, the last Greek Emperor] made the best preparations in his power for defence; but he could muster only 600 Greek soldiers." In order to secure aid from the Pope and the Italians, Constantine united himself with the Roman Church. A few hundred troops were then sent to his assistance; but, at the most, he had only succeeded in manning the many miles of the city wall with 9,000 men, when, in April, 1453, the Sultan invested it. The Turkish army was said to number 250,000 men, and 420 vessels were counted in the accompanying fleet. A summons to surrender was answered with indignant refusal by Constantine, "who had calmly resolved not to survive the fall of the city," and the final assault of the furious Turks was made on the 29th of May, 1453. The heroic Emperor was slain among the last defenders of the gate of St. Romanos, and the janizaries rode over his dead body as they charged into the streets of the fallen Roman capital. "The despairing people--senators, priests, monks, nuns, husbands, wives and children--sought safety in the church of St. Sophia. A prophecy had been circulated that here the Turks would be arrested by an angel from heaven, with a drawn sword; and hither the miserable multitude crowded, in the expectation of supernatural help. The conquerors followed, sword in hand, slaughtering those whom they encountered in the street. They broke down the doors of the church with axes, and, rushing in, committed every act of atrocity that a frantic thirst for blood and the inflamed passions of demons could suggest. All the unhappy victims were divided as slaves among the soldiers, without regard to blood or rank, and hurried off to the camp; and the mighty cathedral, so long the glory of the Christian world, soon presented only traces of the orgies of hell. The other quarters of the city were plundered by other divisions of the army. ... About noon the Sultan made his triumphal entry by the gate of St. Romanos, passing by the body of the Emperor, which lay concealed among the slain. Entering the church, he ordered a moolah to ascend the bema and announce to the Mussulmans that St. Sophia was now a mosque, consecrated to the prayers of the true believers. He ordered the body of the Emperor to be sought, his head to be exposed to the people, and afterwards to be sent as a trophy, to be seen by the Greeks, in the principal cities of the Ottoman Empire. For three days the city was given up to the indescribable horrors of pillage and the license of the Mussulman soldiery. Forty thousand perished during the sack of the city and fifty thousand were reduced to slavery."

_C. C. Felton, Greece, Ancient and Modern: Fourth course, lecture 6._

ALSO IN: _G. Finlay, History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires from 716 to 1453, book 4, chapter 2._

E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 68. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25717

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 1453-1481. The city repopulated and rebuilt. Creation of the Turkish Stamboul.

{511}

"It was necessary for Mohammed II. to repeople Constantinople, in order to render it the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The installation of an orthodox Patriarch calmed the minds of the Greeks, and many who had emigrated before the siege gradually returned, and were allowed to claim a portion of their property. But the slow increase of population, caused by a sense of security and the hope of gain, did not satisfy the Sultan, who was determined to see his capital one of the greatest cities of the East, and who knew that it had formerly exceeded Damascus, Bagdad and Cairo, in wealth, extent and population. From most of his subsequent conquests Mohammed compelled the wealthiest of the inhabitants to emigrate to Constantinople, where he granted them plots of land to build their houses. ... Turks, Greeks, Servians, Bulgarians, Albanians, and Lazes, followed one another in quick succession, and long before the end of his reign Constantinople was crowded by a numerous and active population, and presented a more flourishing aspect than it had done during the preceding century. The embellishment of his capital was also the object of the Sultan's attention. ... Mosques, minarets, fountains and tombs, the great objects of architectural magnificence among the Mussulmans, were constructed in every quarter of the city. ... The picturesque beauty of the Stamboul of the present day owes most of its artificial features to the Othoman conquest, and wears a Turkish aspect. The Constantinople of the Byzantine Empire disappeared with the last relics of the Greek Empire. The traveller who now desires to view the vestiges of a Byzantine capital, and examine the last relics of Byzantine architecture, must continue his travels eastward to Trebizond."

G. Finlay, History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires, from 716 to 1453, book 4, chapter 2, section 7.

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 1807. Threatened by a British fleet.

See TURKS: A. D. 1806-1807.

----------CONSTANTINOPLE: End----------

CONSTANTINOPLE, Conference of (1877).

See TURKS: A. D. 1861-1877.

CONSTANTIUS I., Roman Emperor, A. D. 305-306.

Constantius II., A. D. 337-361.

CONSTITUTION, The battles of the frigate.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1812-1813, and 1814.

CONSTITUTION OF ARAGON AND CASTILE (the old monarchy).

See CORTES, THE EARLY SPANISH.

----------CONSTITUTION OF ARAGON AND CASTILE: End----------

CONSTITUTION OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.

The subjoined text of the Constitution of the Argentine Republic is a translation "from the official edition of 1868," taken from R. Napp's work on "The Argentine Republic," prepared for the Central Argentine Commission on the Centenary Exhibition at Philadelphia, 1876. According to the "Statesman's Year-Book" of 1893, there have been no modifications since 1860:

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Part I

Article I. The Argentine Nation adopts the federal-republican, and representative form of Government, as established by the present Constitution.

Article 2. The Federal Government shall maintain the Apostolic Roman Catholic Faith.

Article 3. The authorities of the Federal Government shall reside in the city which a special law of Congress may declare the capital of the Republic, subsequently to the cession by one or more of the Provincial Legislatures, of the territory about to be federalized.

Article 4. The Federal Government shall administer the expenses of the Nation out of the revenue in the National Treasury, derived from import and export duties; from the sale and lease of the public lands; from postage; and from such other taxes as the General Congress may equitably and proportionably lay upon the people; as also, from such loans and credits as may be decreed by it in times of national necessity, or for enterprises of national utility.

Article 5. Each Province shall make a Constitution for itself, according to the republican representative system, and the principles, declarations and guarantees of this Constitution; and which shall provide for (secure) Municipal Government, primary education and the administration of justice. Under these conditions the Federal Government shall guarantee to each Province the exercise and enjoyment of its institutions.

Article 6. The Federal Government shall intervene in the Provinces to guarantee the republican form of Government, or to repel foreign invasion, and also, on application of their constituted authorities, should they have been deposed by sedition or by invasion from another Province, for the purpose of sustaining or re-establishing them.

Article 7. Full faith shall be given in each Province to the pubic acts, and judicial proceedings of every other Province; and Congress may by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.

Article 8. The citizens of each Province shall be entitled to all the rights, privileges and immunities, inherent to the citizens of all the several Provinces. The reciprocal extradition of criminals between all the Provinces, is obligatory.

Article 9. Throughout the territory of the Nation, no other than the National Custom-Houses shall be allowed, and they shall be regulated by the tariffs sanctioned by Congress.

Article 10. The circulation of all goods produced or manufactured in the Republic, is free within its borders, as also, that of all species of merchandise which may be dispatched by the Custom-Houses of entry.

Article 11. Such articles of native or foreign production, as well as cattle of every kind, which pass from one Province to another, shall be free from all transit-duties, and also the vehicles, vessels or animals, which transport them; and no tax, let it be what it may, can be henceforward imposed upon them on account of such transit.

Article 12. Vessels bound from one Province to another, shall not be compelled to enter, anchor, or pay transit-duties; nor in any case can preferences be granted to one port over another, by any commercial laws or regulations.

Article 13. New Provinces may be admitted into the Nation; but no Province shall be erected within the territory of any other Province, or Provinces, nor any Province be formed by the junction of various Provinces, without the consent of the legislatures of the Provinces concerned, as well as of Congress.

{512}

Article 14. All the inhabitants of the Nation shall enjoy the following rights, according to the laws which regulate their exercise: viz.. to labor and to practice all lawful industry; to trade and navigate; to petition the authorities; to enter, remain in, travel over and leave, Argentine territory; to publish their ideas in the public-press without previous censure; to enjoy and dispose of their property; to associate for useful purposes; to profess freely their religion; to teach and to learn.

Article 15. In the Argentine Nation there are no slaves; the few which now exist shall be free from the date of the adoption of this Constitution, and a special law shall regulate the indemnity acknowledged as due by this declaration. All contracts for the purchase and sale of persons is a crime, for which those who make them, as well as the notary or functionary which authorizes them, shall be responsible, and the slaves who in any manner whatever may be introduced, shall be free from the sole fact that they tread the territory of the Republic.

Article 16. The Argentine Nation does not admit the prerogatives of blood nor of birth; in it, there are no personal privileges or titles of nobility. All its inhabitants are equal in presence of the law, and admissible to office without other condition than that of fitness. Equality is the basis of taxation as well as of public-posts.

Article 17. Property is inviolable, and no inhabitant of the Nation can be deprived of it, save by virtue of a sentence based on law. The expropriation for public utility must be authorized by law and previously indemnified. Congress alone shall impose the contributions mentioned in Article 4. No personal service shall be exacted save by virtue of law, or of a sentence founded on law. Every author or inventor is the exclusive proprietor of his work, invention or discovery, for the term which the law accords to him. The confiscation of property is henceforward and forever, stricken from the Argentine penal-code. No armed body can make requisitions, nor exact assistance of any kind.

Article 18. No inhabitant of the Nation shall suffer punishment without a previous judgment founded on a law passed previously to the cause of judgment, nor be judged by special commissions, or withdrawn from the Judges designated by law before the opening of the cause. No one shall be obliged to testify against himself; nor be arrested, save by virtue of a written order from a competent authority. The defense at law both of the person and his rights, is inviolable. The domicil, private papers and epistolary correspondence, are inviolable; and a law shall determine in what cases, and under what imputations, a search-warrant can proceed against and occupy them. Capital punishment for political causes, as well as every species of torture and whippings, are abolished for ever. The prisons of the Nation shall be healthy and clean, for the security, and not for the punishment, of the criminals detained in them, and every measure which under pretext of precaution may mortify them more than such security requires, shall render responsible the Judge who authorizes it.

Article 19. Those private actions of men that in nowise offend public order and morality, or injure a third party, belong alone to God, and are beyond the authority of the magistrates. No inhabitant of the Nation shall be compelled to do what the law does not ordain, nor be deprived of anything which it does not prohibit.

Article 20. Within the territory of the Nation, foreigners shall enjoy all the civil rights of citizens; they can exercise their industries, commerce or professions, in accordance with the laws; own, buy and sell real-estate; navigate the rivers and coasts; freely profess their religion, and testate and marry. They shall not be obliged to become citizens, nor to pay forced contributions. Two years previous residence in the Nation shall be required for naturalization, but the authorities can shorten this term in favour of him who so desires it, under the allegation and proof of services rendered to the Republic.

Article 21. Every Argentine citizen is obliged to arm himself in defense of his country and of this Constitution, according to the laws which Congress shall ordain for the purpose, and the decrees of the National Executive. For the period of ten years from the day on which they may have obtained their citizenship, this service shall be voluntary on the part of the naturalized.

Article 22. The people shall not deliberate nor govern save by means of their Representatives and Authorities, created by this Constitution. Every armed force or meeting of persons which shall arrogate to itself the rights of the people, and petition in their name, is guilty of sedition.

Article 23. In the event of internal commotion or foreign attack which might place in jeopardy the practice of this Constitution, and the free action of the Authorities created by it, the Province or territory where such disturbance exists shall be declared in a state of siege, all constitutional guarantees being meantime suspended there. But during such suspension the President of the Republic cannot condemn nor apply any punishment per se. In respect to persons, his power shall be limited to arresting and removing them from one place to another in the Nation, should they not prefer to leave Argentine territory.

Article 24. Congress shall establish the reform of existing laws in all branches, as also the trial by Jury.

Article 25. The Federal Government shall foment European immigration; and it cannot restrict, limit, nor lay any impost upon, the entry upon Argentine territory, of such foreigners as come for the purpose of cultivating the soil, improving manufactures, and introducing and teaching the arts and sciences.

Article 26. The navigation of the interior rivers of the Nation is free to all flags, subject only to such regulations as the National Authority may dictate.

Article 27. The Federal Government is obliged to strengthen the bonds of peace and commerce with foreign powers, by means of treaties which shall be in conformity with the principles of public law laid down in this Constitution.

Article 28. The principles, rights and guarantees laid down in the foregoing articles, cannot be altered by any laws intended to regulate their practice.

Article 29. Congress cannot grant to the Executive, nor the provincial legislatures to the Governor of Provinces, any "extraordinary faculties," nor the "sum of the public power," nor "renunciations or supremacies" by which the lives, honor or fortune of the Argentines shall be at the mercy of any Government or person whatever. Acts of this nature shall be irremediably null and void, and shall subject those who frame, vote, or sign them, to the pains and penalties incurred by those who are infamous traitors to their country.

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Article 30. This Constitution can be reformed in whole or in part. The necessity for the reform shall be declared by Congress by at least a two-thirds vote; but it can only be accomplished by a convention called ad hoc.

Article 31. This Constitution, and the laws of the Nation which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made or which shall be made with Foreign Powers, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the authorities of every Province shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any Province to the contrary notwithstanding, excepting in the case of Buenos-Aires, in the treaties ratified after the compact of November 11th, 1859.

Article 32. The Federal Congress shall not dictate laws restricting the liberty of the press, nor establish any federal jurisdiction over it.

Article 33. The enumeration in this Constitution of certain rights and guarantees, shall not be construed to deny or disparage other rights and guarantees, not enumerated; but which spring from the principle of popular sovereignty, and the republican form of Government.

Article 34. The Judges of the Federal courts shall not be Judges of Provincial tribunals at the same time; nor shall the federal service, civil as well as military, constitute a domicil in the Province where it may be exercised, if it be not habitually that of the employé; it being understood by this, that all Provincial public-service is optional in the Province where such employé may casually reside.

Article 35. The names which have been successively adopted for the Nation, since the year 1810 up to the present time; viz., the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata, Argentine Republic and Argentine Confederation, shall henceforward serve without distinction, officially to designate the Government and territory of the Provinces, whilst the words Argentine Nation shall be employed in the making and sanction of the laws.

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II. Section I

Article 36. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress composed of two Chambers, one of National Deputies, and the other of Senators of the Provinces and of the capital.

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Chapter I

Article 37. The Chamber of Deputies shall be composed of representatives elected directly by the people of the Provinces, for which purpose each one shall be considered as a single electoral district, and by a simple plurality of votes in the ratio of one for each 20,000 inhabitants, or for a fraction not less than 10,000.

Article 38. The deputies for the first Legislature shall be nominated in the following proportion: for the Province of Buenos-Aires, twelve; for that of Córdoba, six; for Catamarca, three; Corrientes, four; Entre-Rios, two; Jujui, two; Mendoza, three; Rioja, two; Salta, three; Santiago, four; San Juan, two; Santa-Fé, two; San Luis, two; and for that of Tucumán, three.

Article 39. For the second Legislature a general census shall be taken, and the number of Deputies be regulated by it; thereafter, this census shall be decennial.

Article 40. No person shall be a Deputy who shall not have attained the age of twenty-five years, have been four years in the exercise of citizenship, and be a native of the Province which elects him, or a resident of it for the two years immediately preceding.

Article 41. For the first election, the provincial Legislatures shall regulate the method for a direct election of the National Deputies. Congress shall pass a general law for the future.

Article 42. The Deputies shall hold their place for four years, and are re-eligible; but the House shall be renewed each biennial, by halves; for which purpose those elected to the first Legislature, as soon as the session opens, shall decide by lot who shall leave at the end of the first period.

Article 43. In case of vacancy, the Government of the Province or of the capital, shall call an election for a new member.

Article 44. The origination of the tax-laws and those for the recruiting of troops, belongs exclusively to the House of Deputies.

Article 45. It has the sole right of impeaching before the Senate, the President, Vice-President, their Ministers, and the members of the Supreme Court and other inferior Tribunals of the Nation, in suits which may be undertaken against them for the improper discharge of, or deficiency in, the exercise of their functions; or for common crimes, after having heard them, and declared by a vote of two thirds of the members present, that there is cause for proceeding against them.

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Chapter II

Article 46. The Senate shall be composed of two Senators from each Province, chosen by the Legislatures thereof by plurality of vote, and two from the capital elected in the form prescribed for the election of the President of the Nation. Each Senator shall have one vote.

Article 47. No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained the age of thirty years, been six years a citizen of the Nation, enjoy an annual rent or income of two thousand hard-dollars, and be a native of the Province which elects him, or a resident of the same for the two years immediately preceding.

Article 48. The Senators shall enjoy their trust for nine years, and are indefinitely re-eligible; but the Senate shall be renewed by thirds each three years, and shall decide by lot, as soon as they be all re-united, who shall leave at the end of the first and second triennial periods.

Article 49. The Vice-President of the Nation shall be President of the Senate; but shall have no vote, except in a case of a tie.

Article 50. The Senate shall choose a President pro-tempore who shall preside during the absence of the Vice-President, or when he shall exercise the office of President of the Nation.

Article 51. The Senate shall have sole power to try all impeachments presented by the House of Deputies. When sitting for that purpose they shall be under oath. When the President of the Nation is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside. No person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present.

Article 52. Judgment in case of impeachment, shall not extend farther than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the Nation. But the party convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment according to law, before the ordinary tribunals.

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Article 53. It belongs, moreover, to the Senate, to authorize the President to declare martial law in one or more points of the Republic, in case of foreign aggression.

Article 54. When any seat of a Senator be vacant by death, resignation or other reason, the Government to which the vacancy belongs, shall immediately proceed to the election of a new member.

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Chapter III

Article 55. Both Chambers shall meet in ordinary session, every year from the 1st May until the 30th September. They can be extraordinarily convoked, or their session be prolonged by the President of the Nation.

Article 56. Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members. Neither of them shall enter into session without an absolute Majority of its members; but a smaller number may compel absent members to attend the sessions, in such terms and under such penalties as each House may establish.

Article 57. Both Houses shall begin and close their sessions simultaneously. Neither of them whilst in sessions can suspend its meetings for more than three days, without the consent of the other.

Article 58. Each House may make its rules of proceeding, and with the concurrence of two-thirds punish its members for disorderly behavior in the exercise of their functions, or remove, and even expel them from the House, for physical or moral incapacity occurring after their incorporation; but a majority of one above one half of the members present, shall suffice to decide questions of voluntary resignation.

Article 59. In the act of their incorporation the Senators and Deputies shall take an oath to properly fulfil their charge, and to act in all things in conformity to the prescriptions of this Constitution.

Article 60. No member of Congress can be indicted, judicially interrogated, or molested for any opinion or discourse which he may have uttered in fulfilment of his Legislative duties.

Article 61. No Senator or Deputy, during the term for which he may have been elected, shall be arrested, except when taken 'in flagrante' commission of some crime which merits capital punishment or other degrading sentence; an account thereof shall be rendered to the Chamber he belongs to, with a verbal process of the facts.

Article 62. When a complaint in writing be made before the ordinary courts against any Senator or Deputy, each Chamber can by a two-thirds vote, suspend the accused in his functions and place him at the disposition of the competent judge for trial.

Article 63. Each of the Chambers can cause the Ministers of the Executive to come to their Hall, to give such explanations or information as may be considered convenient.

Article 64. No member of Congress can receive any post or commission from the Executive, without the previous consent of his respective Chamber, excepting such as are in the line of promotion.

Article 65. The regular ecclesiastics cannot be members of Congress, nor call the Governors of Provinces represent the Province which they govern.

Article 66. The Senators and Deputies shall be remunerated for their services, by a compensation to be ascertained by law.

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Chapter IV

Article 67. The Congress shall have power:--

1. To legislate upon the Custom-Houses and establish import duties; which, as well as all appraisements for their collection, shall be uniform throughout the Nation, it being clearly understood that these, as well as all other national contributions, can be paid in any money at the just value which may be current in the respective Provinces. Also, to establish export duties.

2. To lay direct taxes for determinate periods, whenever the common defense and general welfare require it, which shall be uniform throughout the territory of the Nation.

3. To borrow money on the credit of the Nation.

4. To determine the use and sale of the National lands.

5. To establish and regulate a National Bank in the capital, with branches in the Provinces, and with power to emit bills.

6. To regulate the payment of the home and foreign debts of the Nation.

7. To annually determine the estimates of the National Administration, and approve or reject the accounts of expenses.

8. To grant subsidies from the National Treasury to those Provinces, whose revenues, according to their budgets, do not suffice to cover the ordinary expenses.

9. To regulate the free navigation of the interior rivers, open such ports as may be considered necessary, create and suppress Custom-Houses, but without suppressing those which existed in each Province at the time of its incorporation.

10. To coin money, regulate the value thereof and of foreign coin, and adopt a uniform system of weights and measures for the whole Nation.

11. To decree civil, commercial, penal and mining Codes, but such Codes shall have no power to change local jurisdiction; their application shall belong to the Federal or Provincial courts, in accordance with such things or persons as may come under their respective jurisdiction; especially, general laws embracing the whole Nation, shall be passed upon naturalization and citizenship, subject to the principle of native citizenship; also upon bankruptcy, the counterfeiting of current-money and public State documents; and such laws as may be required for the establishment of trial by Jury.

12. To regulate commerce by land and sea with foreign nations, and between the Provinces.

13. To establish and regulate the general post-offices and post-roads of the Nation.

14. To finally settle the National boundaries, fix those of the Provinces, create new Provinces, and determine by a special legislation, the organization and governments, which such National territories as are beyond the limits assigned to the Province, should have.

15. To provide for the security of the frontiers; preserve peaceful relations with the Indians, and promote their conversion to Catholicism.

16. To provide all things conducive to the prosperity of the country, to the advancement and happiness of the Provinces, and to the increase of enlightenment, decreeing plans for general and university instruction, promoting industry, immigration, the construction of railways, and navigable canals, the peopling of the National lands, the introduction and establishment of new industries, the importation of foreign capital and the exploration of the interior rivers, by protection laws to these ends, and by temporary concessions and stimulating recompenses.

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17. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court, create and suppress public offices, fix their attributes, grant pensions, decree honors and general amnesties.

18. To accept or reject the resignation of the President or Vice-President of the Republic, and declare new elections; to make the scrutiny and rectification of the same.

19. To ratify or reject the treaties made with other Nations and the Concordats with the Apostolic See, and regulate the patronage of advowsons throughout the Nation.

20. To admit religious orders within the Nation, other than those already existing.

21. To authorize the Executive to declare war and make peace.

22. To grant letters of marque and reprisal, and to make rules concerning prizes.

23. To fix the land and sea forces in time of peace and war: and to make rules and regulations for the government of said forces.

24. To provide for calling forth the militia of all, or a part of, the Provinces, to execute the laws of the Nation, suppress insurrections or repel invasions. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining said militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the Nation, reserving to the Provinces respectively, the appointment of the corresponding chiefs and officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.

25. To permit the introduction of foreign troops within the territory of the Nation, and the going beyond it of the National forces.

26. To declare martial law in any or various points of the Nation in case of domestic commotion, and ratify or suspend the declaration of martial law made by the executive during the recess.

27. To exercise exclusive legislation over the territory of the National capital, and over such other places acquired by purchase or cession in any of the Provinces, for the purpose of establishing forts, arsenals, warehouses, or other needful national buildings.

28. To make all laws and regulations which shall be necessary for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all others vested by the present Constitution in the Government of the Argentine Nation.

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Chapter V

Article 68. Laws may originate in either of the Houses of Congress, by bills presented by their members or by the Executive, excepting those relative to the objects treated of in Article 44.

Article 69. A bill being approved by the House wherein it originated, shall pass for discussion to the other House. Being approved by both, it shall pass to the Executive of the Nation for his examination; and should it receive his approbation he shall publish it as law.

Article 70. Every bill not returned within ten working-days by the Executive, shall be taken as approved by him.

Article 71. No bill entirely rejected by one House, can be presented again during that year. But should it be only amplified or corrected by the revising House, it shall return to that wherein it originated; and if there the additions or corrections be approved by an absolute majority, it shall pass to the Executive. If the additions or corrections be rejected, it shall return to the revising House, and if here they be again sanctioned by a majority of two-thirds of its members, it shall pass to the other House, and it shall not be understood that the said additions and corrections are rejected, unless two-thirds of the members present should so vote.

Article 72. A bill being rejected in whole or in part by the Executive, he shall return it with his objections to the House in which it originated; here it shall be debated again; and if it be confirmed by a majority of two-thirds, it shall pass again to the revising House. If both Houses should pass it by the same majority, it becomes a law, and shall be sent to the Executive for promulgation. In such case the votes of both Houses shall be by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons so voting shall be recorded, as well as the objections of the Executive, and shall be immediately published in the daily-press. If the Houses differ upon the objections, the bill cannot be renewed during that year.

Article 73. The following formula shall be used in the passage of the laws: "The Senate and Chamber of Deputies of the Argentine Nation in Congress assembled, etc.. decree, or sanction, with the force of law."

Section II.--Chapter I.

Article 74. The Executive power of the Nation shall be exercised by a citizen, with the title of "President of the Argentine Nation."

Article 75. In case of the sickness, absence from the capital, death, resignation or dismissal of the President, the Executive power shall be exercised by the Vice-President of the Nation. In case of the removal, death, resignation, or inability of the President and Vice-President of the Nation, Congress will determine which public functionary shall then fill the Presidency, until the disability be removed or a new President be elected.

Article 76. No person except a natural-born citizen or a son of a natural-born citizen brought forth abroad, shall be eligible as President or Vice-President of the Nation; he is required to belong to the Apostolic-Roman-Catholic communion, and possess the other qualifications required to be elected Senator.

Article 77. The President and Vice-President shall hold office during the term of six years; and cannot be re-elected except after an interval of an equal period.

Article 78. The President of the Nation shall cease in his functions the very day on which his period of six years expires, and no event whatever which may have interrupted it, can be a motive for completing it at a later time.

Article 79. The President and Vice-President shall receive a compensation from the National Treasury, which cannot be altered during the period for which they shall have been elected. During the same period they cannot exercise any other office nor receive any other emolument from the Nation, or any of its Provinces.

Article 80. The President and Vice-President before entering upon the execution of their offices, shall take the following oath administered by the President of the Senate (the first time by the President of the Constituent Congress) in Congress assembled: "I (such an one) swear by God our Lord, and by these Holy Evangelists, that I will faithfully and patriotically execute the office of President (or Vice-President) of the Nation, and observe and cause to be faithfully observed, the Constitution of the Argentine Nation. If I should not do so, let God and the Nation indict me."

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Chapter II

Article 81. The election of the President and Vice-President of the Nation, shall be made in the following manner:-The capital and each of the Provinces shall by direct vote nominate a board of electors, double the number of Deputies and Senators which they send to Congress, with the same qualifications and under the same form as those prescribed for the election of Deputies. Deputies or Senators, or officers in the pay of the Federal Government cannot be electors. The electors being met in the National-capital and in that of their respective Provinces, four months prior to the conclusion of the term of the out-going President, they shall proceed by signed ballots, to elect a President, and Vice-President, one of which shall state the person as President, and the other the person as Vice-President, for whom they vote. Two lists shall be made of all the individuals elected as President, and other two also, of those elected as Vice-President, with the number of votes which each may have received. These lists shall be signed by the electors, and shall be remitted closed and sealed, two of them (one of each kind) to the President of the Provincial Legislature, and to the President of the Municipality in the capital, among whose records they shall remain deposited and closed; the other two shall be sent to the President of the Senate (the first time to the President of the Constituent Congress).

Article 82. The President of the Senate (the first time that of the Constituent Congress) all the lists being received, shall open them in the presence of both Houses. Four members of Congress taken by lot and associated to the Secretaries, shall immediately proceed to count the votes, and to announce the number which may result in favor of each candidate for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency of the Nation. Those who have received an absolute majority of all the votes in both cases, shall be immediately proclaimed President and Vice-President.

Article 83. In case there be no absolute majority, on account of a division of the votes, Congress shall elect one of the two persons who shall have received the highest number of votes. If the first majority should have fallen to a single person, and the second to two or more, Congress shall elect among all the persons who may have obtained the first and second majorities.

Article 84. This election shall be made by absolute plurality of votes, and voting by name. If, on counting the first vote, no absolute majority shall have been obtained, a second trial shall be made, limiting the voting to the two persons who shall have obtained the greatest number of suffrages at the first trial. In case of an equal number of votes, the operation shall be repeated, and should the result be the same, then the President of the Senate (the first time that of the Constituent Congress) shall decide it. No scrutiny or rectification of these elections can be made, unless three-fourth parts of all the members of the Congress be present.

Article 85. The election of the President and Vice-President of the Nation, shall be concluded in a single meeting of the Congress, and thereafter, the result and the electoral lists shall be published in the daily-press.

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Chapter III

Article 86. The President of the Nation has the following attributes:--

1. He is the supreme chief of the Nation, and is charged with the general administration of the country.

2. He issues such instructions and regulations as may be necessary for the execution of the laws of the Nation, taking care not to alter their spirit with regulative exceptions.

3. He is the immediate and local chief of the National capital.

4. He participates in making the laws according to the Constitution; and sanctions and promulgates them.

5. He nominates the Judges of the Supreme Court and of the Inferior Federal tribunals, and appoints them by and with the consent and advice of the Senate.

6. He has power to pardon or commute penalties against officers subject to Federal jurisdiction, preceded by a report of the proper Tribunal, excepting in case of impeachment by the House of Deputies.

7. He grants retiring-pensions, leaves of absence and pawnbrokers' licences, in conformity to the laws of the Nation.

8. He exercises the rights of National Patronage in the presentation of Bishops for the cathedrals, choosing from a ternary nomination of the Senate.

9. He grants letters-patent or retains the decrees of the Councils, the bulls, briefs and rescripts of the Holy Roman Pontiff, by and with the consent of the Supreme Court, and must require a law for the same when they contain general and permanent dispositions.

10. He appoints and removes Ministers Plenipotentiary and Chargé d'Affaires, by and with the consent and advice of the Senate; and himself alone appoints and removes the Ministers of his Cabinet, the officers of the Secretary-ships, Consular Agents, and the rest of the employés of the Administration whose nomination is not otherwise ordained by this Constitution.

11. He annually opens the Sessions of Congress, both Houses being united for this purpose in the Senate Chamber, giving an account to Congress on this occasion of the state of the Nation, of the reforms provided by the Constitution, and recommending to its consideration such measures as may be judged necessary and convenient.

12. He prolongs the ordinary meetings of Congress or convokes it in extra session, when a question of progress or an important interest so requires.

13. He collects the rents of the Nation and decrees their expenditure in conformity to the law or estimates of the Public expenses.

14. He negotiates and signs those treaties of peace, of commerce, of navigation, of alliance, of boundaries and of neutrality, requisite to maintain good relations with foreign powers; he receives their Ministers and admits their Consuls.

15. He is commander in chief of all the sea and land forces of the Nation.

16. He confers, by and with the consent of the Senate, the high military grades in the army and navy of the Nation; and by himself on the field of battle.

17. He disposes of the land and sea forces, and takes charge of their organization and distribution according to the requirements of the Nation.

18. By the authority and approval of Congress, he declares war and grants letters of marque and reprisal.

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19. By and with the consent of the Senate, in case of foreign aggression and for a limited time, he declares martial law in one or more points of the Nation. In case of internal commotion he has this power only when Congress is in recess, because it is an attribute which belongs to this body. The President exercises it under the limitations mentioned in Article 23.

20. He may require from the chiefs of all the branches and departments of the Administration, and through them from all other employés, such reports as he may believe necessary, and they are compelled to give them.

21. He cannot absent himself from the capital of the Nation without permission of Congress. During the recess he can only do so without permission on account of important objects of public service.

22. The President shall have power to fill all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions, which shall expire at the end of their next session.

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Chapter IV

Article 87. Five Minister-Secretaries; to wit, of the Interior; of Foreign Affairs; of Finance; of Justice, Worship and Public Instruction; and of War and the Navy; shall have under their charge the dispatch of National affairs, and they shall counter-sign and legalize the acts of the President by means of their signatures, without which requisite they shall not be efficacious. A law shall determine the respective duties of the Ministers.

Article 88. Each Minister is responsible for the acts which he legalizes, and collectively, for those which he agrees to with his colleagues.

Article 89. The Ministers cannot determine anything whatever, by themselves, except what concerns the economical and administrative regimen of their respective Departments.

Article 90. As soon as Congress opens, the Ministers shall present to it a detailed report of the State of the Nation, in all that relates to their respective Departments.

Article 91. They cannot be Senators or Deputies without resigning their places as Ministers.

Article 92. The Ministers can assist at the meetings of Congress and take part in its debates, but they cannot vote.

Article 93. They shall receive for their services a compensation established by law, which shall not be increased or diminished, in favor or against, the actual incumbents.

Section III.--Chapter I.

Article 94. The Judicial Power of the Nation shall be exercised by a Supreme Court of Justice, and by such other inferior Tribunals as Congress may establish within the dominion of the Nation.

Article 95. The President of the Nation cannot in any case whatever, exercise Judicial powers, arrogate to himself any knowledge of pending causes, or reopen those which have terminated.

Article 96. The Judges of the Supreme Court and of the lower National-Tribunals, shall keep their places quamdiu se bene gesserit, and shall receive for their services a compensation determined by law, which shall not be diminished in any manner whatever during their continuance in office.

Article 97. No one can be a member of the Supreme Court of Justice, unless he shall have been an attorney at law of the Nation for eight years, and shall possess the qualifications required for a Senator.

Article 98. At the first installation of the Supreme Court, the individuals appointed shall take an oath administered by the President of the Nation, to discharge their functions, by the good and legal administration of Justice according to the prescriptions of this Constitution. Thereafter, the oath shall be taken before the President of the Court itself.

Article 99. The Supreme Court shall establish its own internal and economical regulations, and shall appoint its subaltern employés.

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