1808. Two Indian treaties were made this year, by which territory was ceded to the United States. The Choctaws ceded the territory lying between the settlements about Natchez, and those on the Tombigbee, now forming the southern part of Mississippi. The consideration was $50,000 to pay their debts to traders, a present of $500 to each of the three principal chiefs, with an annuity during their chieftainship of $50, and a yearly payment to the tribe of $3000 in goods. The Ottawas, Chippeways, Wyandots, and Pottawatomies ceded the territory north of the Maumee, from the junction of the Au Glaze, extending to the Detroit River and Lake Huron, including a large part of Michigan. The consideration was $10,000 in goods, and an annuity of $2400. 1808, JANUARY 8.- Congress passed an act supplementary to the embargo. All coasting and fishing-vessels were required to give bonds to reland their cargoes in the United States, all vessels violating it to be confiscated with their cargoes, the masters being fined, and the owners liable for double the value of the vessel and cargo. The coasting-vessels were found to take advantage of the act as passed before, to engage in the West India trade. 1808, MARCH 2.-A betterment law was passed by the legis lature of Massachusetts. This was intended to quiet the disaffection of the actual settlers upon the unimproved territory of Maine and Massachusetts. The Plymouth Company had exercised their claims with great harshness, and the people were consequently very much discontented. Writs of right were limited to forty years, and writs of entry to thirty. It provided that the settler should pay the value of the land within a year. 1808. AN act was passed by the Massachusetts legislature limiting the issue of bank-bills. Banks should not issue bills less than five dollars to a greater amount than fifteen per cent. of their capital. 1808, MARCH 12.- Another act supplementary to the embargo was passed by Congress. Foreign Boats and vessels of all kinds were made subject to the embargo. vessels were forbidden to carry cargoes from one part of the United States to another without first giving bonds not to proceed to a foreign country. The masters of fishing-vessels were forced to declare, on oath, that they had landed no fish at any foreign port. Land-carriages were submitted to the same restrictions, under penalty of forfeiture with their loads and horses. 1808, MARCH 18.-The envoy from England returned home. He had demanded the recall of the proclamation forbidding British ships from entering American waters, as a preliminary to an offer on his part of reparation. To the promise that the proclamation would be withdrawn should his offer prove satisfactory he would not accede, and returned to consult his government. 1808. CONGRESS passed an act making an addition to the regarmy of six thousand men. ular They were to be enlisted for five years, unless sooner discharged. The Pres ident was also authorized to call out 100,000 militia, and $300,000 were appropriated for the purchase of munitions. 1808, APRIL 8.- Gallatin, the secretary of the treasury, made a report on the subject of internal improvements. It stated that a great number of roads had been built in the eastern and middle states, while few had been constructed south of the Potomac. The roads were chiefly turnpikes, varying in cost from less than a thousand dollars a mile to fourteen thousand. The toll collected paid an interest on the investment varying from less than three to eleven per cent. Connecticut since 1803 had incorporated fifty turnpike companies. In New York, in less than seven years, sixty-seven companies, with a nominal capital of about five millions, had been incorporated to build roads; and twenty-one, with a capital of four hundred thousand dollars, had been incorporated to build toll-bridges. It was recommended that two millions of the revenue be spent yearly for ten years in improving the communication between different parts of the Union, and several special measures for this were mentioned. 1808. THE Theological Seminary at Andover was founded. 1808. THE legislature of Kentucky enacted that free negroes coming into the state should give security to leave within twenty days, or should be sold for a year. If twenty days after the expiration of the year they were remaining in the state, the process was repeated. 1808, APRIL 25.- Congress passed a third act supplementary to the embargo. All lake, river, and bay craft were required to clear in due form, and furnish proof within two months that their cargoes had been relanded in the United States. Sea-going vessels were forbidden to take in any cargo except under the inspection of a custom-house officer. Collectors were authorized to seize all suspected vessels. Except with the permission of the President, no clearances were to be granted to vessels for ports adjacent to foreign territories. Unusual collections of goods in any such ports were to be seized and detained until their owners should give bonds not to carry them out of the United States. All coasting-trade was entirely forbidden to foreign vessels. 1808, APRIL. Congress passed an act empowering the President to appoint agents to grant licenses for the transportation of flour from one American seaport to another. The permits to do this were to be given only to those who could be relied upon not to make use of them for the exportation of merchandise. 1808. SOUP-KITCHENS were opened in Boston, Massachusetts, in Portland, Maine, and in other places. The embargo had caused a great deal of commercial distress. 1808. JOSEPH CHARLESS, in July, commenced in St. Louis, Missouri, the Missouri Gazette. This was the first newspaper in St. Louis, and the first west of the Mississippi. It is now continued as the Missouri Republican. 1808. THE laws of Louisiana (Territory), printed this year in St. Louis, was the first book printed west of the Mississippi. 1808. THE first newspaper in Indiana appeared in Vincennes. 1808, JUNE 23.- Importation of merchandise of American growth or manufacture to Great Britain was permitted by an act of parliament. They were permitted in either British or American vessels, and were subject to such duties only as the same commodities from other countries paid. 1808, SEPTEMBER 15. The viceroy of Mexico, Don José Iturrigaray, was deposed by an insurrection, and sent as a captive to Spain. It was the Spaniards who made the insurrection; they favored the French policy of Napoleon; the Creoles supported the Bourbons, having publicly burned a proclamation of King Joseph, whom Napoleon had made king of Spain. Iturrigaray was succeeded as viceroy by Vanegas. 1808. THE South Carolina Homespun Society was incorporated with a capital of thirty thousand dollars, to promote domestic manufactures. 1808, OCTOBER.-The American Patriot appeared in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was established by William Hoit. In 1809 it was purchased by Isaac Hill, and its name changed to the New Hampshire Patriot. It was a Democratic sheet. 1801-1809.-THIRD administration. President, Vice-Presidents, Secretary of State, Secretaries of Treasury, { Secretary of War, Postmasters-General, Attorneys-General, Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia. Aaron Burr, of New York, 1801. George Clinton, of New York, March 4, 1805. Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina, Seventh Congress, 1801. 1809, JANUARY 9.— Congress passed an act "more effectually to enforce the embargo." Collectors It was called "the enforcing act." Every attempt to avoid the embargo worked the forfeiture of the ship, boat, or vehicle, and was subject to a fine of four times the value of the merchandise, one half the fine to go to the informer. were given ample power to seize suspected goods. The President was given power to employ the army and navy to enforce the provisions of the embargo, and addressed a circular to the governors of the states, calling upon them to use the militia. The summer before, troops had been used to prevent the inland trade through Lake Champlain to Canada, and blood had been shed. The commercial towns of New England suffered the most severely from the embargo, and were most violent in their protests against it. 1809, FEBRUARY 3.-The embargo was repealed by Congress. The act to take effect on the 15th of March. 1809. CONGRESS erected the territory of Illinois. It embraced the present states of Illinois and Wisconsin. Kaskaskia was made the seat of government, and Ninian Edwards was appointed governor. 1809, FEBRUARY 27.- Congress passed a non-intercourse act. It forbade all commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain, France, or their dependencies, after the 20th of May. In case either of these nations should repeal its offensive orders or decrees, the President was authorized to reopen trade with that country by proclamation. 1809.- THE Athenian Society was formed at Baltimore, Maryland. It was incorporated the next year with a share capital of $20,000. Its object was to encourage domestic manufactures by advances made on their products, and selling them on commission. Its sales were over $17,000 the first year. 1809. ROBERT FULTON took out his first patent in the United States for improvements in steamboats, they being the adaptation of paddle-wheels to the axle of the crank of Watts' engine. He was granted a second patent in 1811, and the same year appointed a commissioner by New York to explore the route of an inland navigation from the Hudson River to the Lakes. 1809, MARCH 4.- James Madison was inaugurated President. He took the oath of office in the Hall of Representatives, the Senate, the Cabinet, and foreign ministers, with citizens, being present. 1809. THE legislature of Pennsylvania passed an act making education free. Children between the ages of five and twelve, whose parents should report themselves as too poor to pay for their schooling, could attend the most convenient school at the public expense. 1809, MARCH 10. The committee of the Rhode Island legislature, appointed to inquire into the situation of the Farmers' Exchange Bank of Gloucester, reported. The bank went into operation in 1804. On February 9, 1809, it had issued $648,043 of its bills, of which $580,000 were then out, and the bank had in specie $86.16. 1809. AN Englishman built a mill on the present site of Rochester, which was still a wilderness. 1809, APRIL 19.-The President, in a proclamation, announced the cessation of the non-intercourse act with Great Britain and her dependencies after June 10. Great Britain, in reparation for the Chesapeake, agreed to return the men, and make a "suitable provision for the unfortunate sufferers on that occasion;" also to send an envoy extraordinary with full powers to conclude a treaty on all points of dispute, and withdraw the orders in council, if the President would issue a proclamation for the renewal of intercourse with her. 1809, August 9.—A proclamation by the President recalled that of April 19. The British government had refused to ratify the arrangement made by their minister. This recall left in force the non-importation act which forbade all importation from France or England or their dependencies. Erskine, the minister who had made the arrangement, was replaced by Francis James Jackson. 1809, NOVEMBER 13.- The British minister, Jackson, withdrew from Washington, and asked for special passports to return to England. In his official correspondence with the American government, he had made statements which were used as a reason to refuse to receive further communications from him, and a ground for asking his recall. 1809, NOVEMBER.-The Columbian Agricultural Society for the Promotion of Rural and Domestic Economy was formed at Georgetown, D. C. It held an exhibition with premiums the next year, which is said to have been the first held in the country. 1809. THE sixth volume of the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society contained a Geological Survey of the United States by William Maclure. It was dated January 10, and was the first of the kind. Mr. Maclure had made the survey at his own expense, and had travelled extensively about the country for the purpose of his survey. He had also made a geological map of the United States. 1809. THE Consul at Lisbon, William Jarvis, of Vermont, sent over to the country some thousands of merino sheep. He purchased fourteen hundred of the crown flocks of the Escurial, which were sold by order of Napoleon, and also shipped about two thousand more. Others made further shipments. Though a few specimens of merino sheep had been before imported, this was the immediate cause of their general introduction. |