SIXTH DECADE.
1851
Revolutionary activities continue throughout the world. President Fillmore warns American and foreign adventurers against developing plots or enterprises in this country in connection with Cuba and Mexico. Notwithstanding this, Lopez projects his second expedition against Cuba, and meets with overwhelming defeat; his trial, conviction, and execution follow. Slavery agitation becomes more and more marked; the question is not yet the existence of slavery within the States, but its admission into the Territories. The Federal enforcement of the unpopular Fugitive Slave Law produces riots in the North. Work begun upon the extensive wings of the National Capitol, the laying of the foundation stone being the occasion of one of the last great patriotic orations of Daniel Webster, Secretary of State.
Webster's tilt of the preceding year with Austrian diplomats in the matter of our alleged "interference" in the struggle of Hungary for freedom had further aroused American patriotism. It had also increased sympathy for the brave people from whom success had been plucked by the intervention of Russian arms in behalf of Austria. By authority of Congress, Louis Kossuth, Hungarian patriot chief, is given an asylum on an American war vessel. He visits England and later the United States, and is received with great distinction and respect by the President and all officers of the government, acting unofficially.
Founding of the Congressional Library at Washington, and of the University of Wisconsin at Madison. United States begins soundings for an Atlantic cable. The New York Times and New York Ledger appear. Death of J.F. Cooper, American novelist, and J.J. Audubon, American naturalist.
In England, the year opens with great excitement due to the discovery of gold in Australia. The first great World's Fair is opened in London, in Hyde Park, and is a great success; exhibition building subsequently removed to Sydenham, and known as the "Crystal Palace." American yacht America wins international prize cup at the Cowes Regatta in a match around the Isle of Wight. The English colonists wage fierce warfare with Kafir and Hottentot natives in South Africa. France and England are connected by telegraphic cable. Invention of the opthalmoscope by Helmholtz. Death of Oersted, discoverer of relation between electricity and magnetism.
In France, on the night between December 2 and 3, the president, Louis Napoleon, successfully plans and executes his famous coup d'état, making himself practically a dictator. Officers of the government and leaders opposing him are quietly arrested and locked up; later many are banished, including M. Thiers. The legislative assembly is dissolved and universal suffrage proclaimed. Paris being declared in a state of siege, there are barricades and sanguinary conflicts. On the 21st an election throughout France confirms Napoleon as president of the republic for ten years. In England, Lord Palmerston is dismissed from the ministry because of official indiscretion in expressing congratulations over events in France (see 1852). Death of Thomas Moore, Irish poet; in France, of Daguerre, inventor of first photographic process.
POPULATION—Washington, D.C., 40,001; Chicago, 29,963; New York, 515,547; London, 2,362,236; United States (census of 1850), 23,191,876; Great Britain and Ireland, 27,368,736.
RULERS—United States, Millard Fillmore, President; Great Britain, Victoria; France, Louis Napoleon, President; Spain, Isabella II; Prussia, Frederick William IV; Russia, Nicholas I; Austria, Francis Joseph; Pope, Pius IX.