1826. engaged in its construction.-The Quincy Rail road was opened on the 7th of October.-New Faneuil Hall Market, in Boston, was completed. The whole length is 536 feet, by about 50 feet wide, and 2 stories high. It is believed to be "one of the boldest, most useful, and splendid public improvements, that have lately taken place in the eastern states." Rail road. Rochester. Home Mis ciety. A daily newspaper, called The Daily Rochester Advertiser, was established in the village of Rochester. The population of this village, by the 7th census taken in December, was 7669. A third bridge was begun here across the Genesee river, by a company of land proprietors and others. The second presbyterian church was organized. The seventh house for public worship was built.2 The American Home Missionary Society was instituted in the sionary So- city of New York by a convention of the friends of missions from 13 states and territories, and of the Presbyterian, Congregational, Reformed Dutch, and Associate Reformed churches. The object of this Society is to assist congregations that are unable to support the gospel ministry, and to send the gospel to the destitute within the United States. In the first year from its formatian, it rendered aid to 196 congregations and missionary districts in the support of 169 ministers. Wastenaw Wastenaw county, in Michigan, which three years before did county. not contain a single white inhabitant, now had a population of Cambridge 3000.-Cambridgeport, contiguous to Boston, contained 221 houses, 22 stores, and 402 rateable persons upwards of 16 years of age. port. Canal of the 3 The federal republic of Central America made a contract with a company formed at New York, for the purpose of effecting a navigable communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean. It was proposed that the canal should pass Nicaragua, one of the states of Central America. The contemplated route was by the river St. John, into the lake of Nicaragua, whence, from its western extremity, a canal was to be cut for about 17 miles to the Pacific. A descendant of the Great Uncas, who was the friend and protector of the whites in the infancy of their settlement, died 1 A quantity of stone weighing 16 tons, taken from the ledge belonging to the Bunker Hill Association, and loaded on 3 wagons, which together weighed 5 tons, making a load of 21 tons, was moved with ease, by a single borse, from the quarry to the landing above Neponset bridge, a distance of more than 3 miles. 2 Account of Rochester, 1826. By the United States census in 1820, Rochester contained only 1503 inhabitants. Ib. During the year ending in August 1826, were manufactured at Ely's mills, in Rochester, 31,812 barrels of flour; the quantity made at the several mills in the village was estimated at 150,000 barrels. Rochester Telegraph. 3 See NOTE XIV. this year, and was buried in the royal burial place of the Mo- 1826. heagans.1 Divinity Hall, the public building for the Theological school at Divinity Cambridge, was finished and dedicated. Hall. The first volume of Commentaries on American Law, by PublicaJames Kent, was published at New York. tion. at White On the 28th of August there were tremendous avalanches, or Land slip slides of the White Mountains in New Hampshire. By great Mountains. rains the streams had become swollen to a very unusual extent. The Saco, at length, so far overflowed its banks, that at Fryeburg, the town below Conway, great quantities of corn, potatoes, meadow hay, and fences were destroyed, and some cattle drowned. At Conway and Bartlett a severer loss was sustained in the destruction of crops, mills, and bridges. Farther up the river every thing was destroyed. At Mr. Crawford's, 8 miles east from the entrance of the gap, the water rose two feet into his house, situated at some distance from the river, and his farm was either destroyed or covered up. But the most melancholy disaster was in the destruction of the family of Mr. Wylley, who lived in what was called the Notch-house, where the mountain on each side of the river is about 3000 feet in height.2 Adams and On the 4th of July, John Adams died at Quincy, in the 91st Death of year of his age; and Thomas Jefferson, at Monticello, in Vir- Presidents ginia, in his 83d year. Both were in the foremnost rank of Jefferson. statesmen and patriots who vindicated the rights of their country; and, having lived to receive the gratulations of the fiftieth anniversary of her Independence, expired. Without the aid of panegyric, of painting, or of sculpture, their names will be preserved in the Declaration of Independence, and interwoven with the history of the United States; their actions will present their true portraits to posterity; and the respect of the Republic to their memory will be their noblest monument. Of the three centuries which have elapsed since the discovery of America, two hundred and twenty years have passed since 1 See NOTE XV. 2 A part of the mountain slipped from its resting place, and fell into the road and river, filling it up for about a mile south of the house. The barn was carried away, and 2 horses were killed; but the house remained untouched, the rocks passing about 6 feet from it. The family fled from their beds and from the house, and were overwhelmed in the mass of earth and rocks. The family consisted of Mr. Wylley and his wife, 5 children, and 2 hired men. The bodies of Mr. Wylley and his wife, and one of the hired men were found, about 60 rods from the house, dreadfully mangled. This disaster was supposed to have occurred about 11 o'clock at night. The house was 6 miles distant from any human habitation. Along the Notch the road was much filled up. Other parts of the mountain fell about the same time. More than 1000 acres from Mount Pleasant slipped off, and covered a large part of a pasture, of 30 or 40 acres, 2 miles distant. 1826. the settlement of Virginia. It is the principal design of these Annals to relate the most important events of this period, comprising one hundred and seventy years of colonial history, and fifty years of the history of the United States. The means by which ten millions of people have, within this period, become planted in a wilderness; have established free constitutions of government, and risen to opulence, to independence, and to national distinction, merit investigation. Much, unquestionably, is to be ascribed to the salubrity of the climate of North America; to the fertility and variety of its soil; to the extent of its sea coast; to its many navigable rivers; to the agriculture and fisheries of the north, and the valuable products of the south; to the enterprise, industry, simplicity of manners, and unconquerable love of liberty, which have characterized the inhabitants; to the early establishment of schools and seminaries of learning, and the general diffusion of knowledge; to the early formation of churches, and the regular maintenance of public worship; and to the union and cooperation of the several colonies and states for the defence and interests of the whole. But, whatever has been the influence of these causes, there is no less truth, than piety, in the remark of Washington: "No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the affairs of men, more than the people of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency." Following his own valedictory counsel, and favoured with the benediction of Heaven, may the Republic be preserved through all the revolving years of future Time. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. NOTE I. p. 46. THE Computation of time by the Christian era appears to have been introduced by Dionysius, a Roman abbot, A. D. 567. Historians widely differ in regard to the year of its introduction. Prideaux places it in the year of our Lord 527; Blair, in 516; and Priestley, in 360. I rely on "Venerable Bede," who expressly says, 567. Dionysius Paschales scribit circulos, incipiens ab anno dominicæ incarnationis DXXXII, qui est annus Diocletiani cCXLVIII." Bædæ Opera Hist. (Chronicon) p. 28. The authority of Bede is the more to be regarded, because he took the Christian era from Dionysius, and used it in all his writings; and, by that recommendation of it, occasioned its adoption and use in Great Britain, and the western parts of Europe. The era of Diocletian, commencing with the reign of that emperor 29 August, A. D. 284, was used by ecclesiastical writers, Epiphanius, Ambrose, and others, until the time abovementioned, when Dionysius, unwilling to number the years from the reign of a persecutor, introduced the reckoning from the Incarnation of Christ. This event (the Nativity being fixed 25 December) was placed 25 March. An old writer, quoted by Alsted, among other reasons for the pre-eminence of that day, mentions the Incarnation: 66 . . DEUS hâc descendit ab astris He also observes, that the vernal equiuox was formerly on that day: hâc quoque quondam Auræus equales se sol referebat ad ortus." It was on that day, in the time of Julius Cæsar. “Equinoctium: sol in Ariete. Tempore Cæsaris 25 Martii." Monkish writers assign various reasons for commencing the computation of the year on that day; but it was doubtless chosen, at the introduction of the Christian era, from a regard to the Incarnation. 20 21 Anachronisms have been occasioned in American history through the inattention of historians to a circumstance attending the old style. It was customary to give a double date from the 1st of January to the 25th of March. Thus, February 8, 1721, was written February 8, 17 The omission of the lower figures, in transcribing or quoting, would cause an error of one year. Such omissions sometimes occur. Similar errors have arisen from inattention to the mode of reckoning the months of the year, used in the early periods of New England. Instead of being called January, February, March, &c. they were called the first month, second month, third month, &c.; yet March was called the first month; April, the second; May, the third, &c. Thus, for the 29th of May, our ancestors wrote Mo. 3. 29; or, more briefly, the day of the month, the month, and the year, by figures only. Example: A letter from Roger Williams to the General Court of Massachusetts, written on the 17th of May, 1656, is dated thus: "Boston 17. 3. 56." highest NOTE II. p. 47. Thermometrical Tables, from Drayton's "View of South Carolina." The greatest and least height of Fahrenheit's Thermometer, in the shaded air; taken in Charlestown, South Carolina, for the years 1750 1751 1752 | 1753 | 1754 | 1755 | 1756 | 1757 | 1758 | 1759 highest highest highest highest lowest highest highest lowest lowest highest medium of rain in inches Spring 85|27|84|30| 87|32|81|34| 84|22|81|27| 79|45| 78|25| 85|29| 71|31| 6 09 Summer 96|52| 94|67| 101|60| 91|59| 93|54|90|53| 96|49|89|50| 94 46|93|51| 12 73 Autumn 91 44 91|40| 96 |55| 90|44| 88|48| 87|33| 90|41|90|49| 92|43|90|45| 16 90 Winter 73|23|76|18| 81 |32| 76|28| 75|31| 70|26| 71|27| 75|31|77|25| 79|28| 6 01 Year |96|25| 94|23| 101|18| 91|28| 93|22|90|27|96|26|90|25| 94|25|93|27|42 03 The greatest and least height of Fahrenheit's Thermometer in the shaded air; taken in Charleston, South Carolina, for the years 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 Year 90 28 93 30 89 30 91 34 92 29 89 17 88 22 88 31 The first table of the above observations, it is believed, was made by Dr. Chalmers; the second was by governor Drayton. It appears by the 18 years' observations in Carolina, that the mercury at no time rose above 101° or fell below 17° from the freezing point, or 15° above zero. The different methods of observation had occasioned a slight mistake. Governor Drayton has informed me, that it was his "practice, in estimating extreme cold, to count from freezing point, instead of the commencement of the scale;' and his observations are here adjusted accordingly. By my thermometrical register, kept at Midway, 30 miles southwestward of Savannah, in Georgia, from December 1787 to June 1791 (not uniformly through the year, nor generally through the summer months), the greatest maximum of heat was 99°, which was in June 1791, and the greatest maximum of cold was 17° above zero, which was in January of that year. Governor Drayton afterwards saw the mercury at 13° below freezing point, or 19° above zero, having " exposed the thermometer in the open air on the north side of his house, at 8 o'clock for about 20 minutes, On the 9th of January last, the same ther mometer," he writes, "was here in my breakfasting room, 9 degrees below freezing point, in the house, at breakfast time; and the day before, milk, which was on the breakfast table, actually commenced freezing there. Out in the air, on the north side of my house, the thermometer fell to 14 below freezing point [18° above zero]. My plantation is in the N E. part of this state." Letter to the author, dated " Hopeland, February 18th 1810." In a postscript he subjoins: "past 2 o'clock P.M. I have just finished my letter; and looking at the thermometer which is hanging up by me in the house, it now stands at 75° summer heat: our doors and windows all open and no fires."-From my register, kept in Georgia, are selected the following observations: "1790. January. Mercury, highest 81°, lowest 26 above zero. Winds S. W. and N. W. Jonquils, jessamin, and woodbines in blossom. Mercury at and below 32o seven days in this month.-May. Mercury, highest 98°, lowest 70°. Winds southerly. The mercury rose to 98° on the 28th and 29th; and was at and above 90° four days in the month. 1791. January. Highest 79°, lowest 17°. Winds generally N. W. Weather fair. The mercury rose twice to 79. It was at and below 32° eleven days in this month. On the 31st peas were up in the garden." See Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, iii. 107-112. |