madman; in Portugal his confidence was most treacherously abused, and in England his brother Bartholomew obtained the consent of Henry VII., only when too late. After many obstacles, arising from the ignorance and religious scruples of those to whom his project was submitted, Columbus sailed with three small vessels from Palos in Andalusia, 3d August, 1492. On the night of the 11th October, land was seen after a tedious voyage, during which the commander had to contend against the cowardly and rebellious spirit of his crew. San Salvador or Guanahani, one of the Bahama chain stretching between Florida and St. Domingo, was the island first discovered. Cuba and Hayti were reached soon after. Columbus, now directing his course homeward, returned to the harbor of Palos, seven months and eleven days after his departure. He was received with great kindness by Ferdinand and Isabella, who ennobled his family, and ratified all the privileges of the treaty of Santa Fe. By the articles of this treaty, drawn up before Columbus sailed, he was created high admiral, with hereditary right in the seas he should discover; viceroy also, with hereditary possession of the lands; he was to receive a tithe of the profits of commercial undertakings, and be supreme judge in all mercantile disputes in the newly-discovered countries While Europe was still re-echoing with the news of this voyage, the navigator had again sailed towards the west with seventeen vessels, having on board numerous settlers eager to reap the golden harvest which the descriptions of travelers had placed in the Indies. Isabella, in the island of Cuba, was the first city founded in the New World. In his third voyage, 1498, Columbus reached the continent of America, near the mouth of the Orinoco. Columbus died in 1506, after being treated by the Spanish court with the greatest ingratitude His body was pompously interred in the Cathedral of Seville; and over it was erected a monument, with the simple inscription that Columbus had given a new world to Castile and Leon. His remains were afterwards transported to the Island of Hayti, and buried in the Cathedral of St. Domingo, in 1536, whence, two hundred and sixty years afterwards, they were transferred to Havana. In 1499, Alonzo de Ojeda sailed to the new continent, accompanied by a Florentine merchant named Amerigo Vespucci, under whose direction the enterprise was chiefly conducted. Returning to Europe, he published an account of his adventures, and claimed the honor of being the first to discover the mainland of the New World. The imposture of Vespucci has long been known, and his dishonest narrative has in no degree injured the glory of Columbus. As to the honor of first reaching the shores of the new continent, it probably belongs to the English mariners, who, under Cabot, a Bristol seaman of Venetian parents, sailed along the coasts of North America from Labrador to Florida, 1498. The oldest town in the United States is St. Augustine, in Florida, settled by the Spaniards in 1565; but the first permanent settlement made by the English was that of Jamestown, in Virginia, in 1603. In 1620 a body of emigrants, 101 in number, landed at or near Cape Cod, and in honor of their home in the Old World named their home in the New, Plymouth; and they are known to history as the Puritan Fathers. They were soon followed by others, and thus was laid the broad corner stone of civil and religious liberty The young colonies were, of course, subject to Great Britain; and as that country, with a policy very different from that pursued by her at present, was constantly engaged in war, its national debt was heavy and its own resources were so nearly exhausted as to make it a serious question from whence their money was to come; and the ministers decided to tax the provinces to raise the means to relieve the necessities of the parent Kingdom; and accordingly the notorious Stamp Act was passed in 1765; but the colonists refused to recognize or comply with it, on the ground of their having no representation in the Parliament, and the offensive act was repealed; but the right of taxation-denied by Americans-was insisted upon by the ministers, and the duty removed from one article was doubled upon others; and the resistance of the people resulted in the long struggle known as the Revolutionary War. When there seemed but two ways of settling grievances and wrongs that grew each hour more deep and oppressive—either by unconditional submission, or by separation from England-they chose the latter, and on the 4th of July, 1776, Congress, on behalf of the Colonies, declared their independence of Great Britain, and a committee was appointed, consisting of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and John Living ston, to draw up a Declaration of Independence. The Colonists were aided by France and Spain, and at length the treaty of Versailles, 1783, acknowledged them "free, sovereign, and independent States." The Articles of Confederation, which had heretofore bound the Colonists, were found too incomplete and imperfect for a National Government, and a new Constitution, drawn up with the greatest care and deliberation, was adopted by the States, and George Washington was elected first President of the new American Republic, with John Adams Vice President, and they were re-elected in 1792. FORMATION OF THE ORIGINAL UNION. N Monday, the 5th September, 1774, there were assembled at Carpenter's Hall, in the city of Philadelphia, a number of men who had been chosen and appointed by the several colonies in North America to hold a Congress for the purpose of discussing certain grievances imputed against the mother-country. This Congress resolved, on the next day, that each colony should have one vote only. On Tuesday, the 2d July, 1776, the Congress resolved, "That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent States," etc., etc.; and on Thursday, the 4th July, the whole Declaration of Independence having been agreed upon, it was publicly read to the people. Shortly after, on the 9th September, it was resolved that the words. "United Colonies" should be no longer used, and that the "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA " should thenceforward be the style and title of the Union. On Saturday, the 15th November, 1777, "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union of the United States of America" were agreed to by the State delegates, subject to the ratification of the State legislatures severally. Eight of the States ratified these articles on the 9th July, 1778; one on the 21st July; one on the 24th July; one on the 26th November of the same year; one on the 22d February, 1779; and the last one on the 1st of March, 1781. Here was a bond of union between thirteen independent States, whose delegates in Congress legislated for the general welfare, and executed certain powers, so far as they were permitted by the articles aforesaid. The following are the names of the Presidents of the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1788: Peyton Randolph, Virginia........ -5th Sept. 1774 ..22d Oct. 1774 John Hancock, Massachusetts. .. 10th May, 1775 --24th May, 1776 Henry Laurens, South Carolina.. Samuel Huntingdon, Connecticut.. 1st Nov. 1777 .. 10th Dec. 1778 28th Sept. 1779 10th July, 1781 -5th Nov. 1781 -4th Nov. 1782 -3d Nov. 1783 -30th Nov. 1784 6th Jan. 1786 ..2d Feb. 1787 ....22d Jan. 1788 The seat of government was established as follows: at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, commencing September 5, 1774, and May 10, 1775; at Baltimore, Maryland, December 20, 1776; at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 4, 1777; at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, September 27, 1777; at York, Pennsylvania, September 30, 1777; at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 2, 1778; at Princeton, New Jersey, June 30, 1783; at Annapolis, Maryland, November 26, 1783; at Trenton, New Jersey, November 1, 1784; and at New York City, New York, January 11, 1785. On the 4th March, 1789, the present Constitution, which had been adopted by a convention and ratified by the requisite number of States, went into operation |