ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA AND REGISTER OF IMPORTANT EVENTS OF THE YEAR 1876. EMBRACING POLITICAL, CIVIL, MILITARY, AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS; PUBLIC DOCUMENTS; BIOGRAPHY, STATISTICS, COMMERCE, FINANCE, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AGRICULTURE, AND MECHANICAL INDUSTRY. NEW SERIES, VOL. I. WHOLE SERIES, VOL. XVI. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 1, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET. 1885. PREFACE. THIS Volume of the ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA is the first of a new series, and the sixteenth of the whole series. It is uniform with the AMERICAN CYCLOPÆDIA, and will supplement the latter work so far as relates to the events of history, the records of religious movements, science, politics, literature, biography, etc. It is, indeed, a worthy and fitting complement to the sixteen volumes of the revised CYCLOPÆDIA, and is bound up in the same style. The compass of this work embraces the world's history during the year, in every department of human activity of sufficient importance to be a matter of record. A special article is devoted to the affairs of every country, which contains a sketch of its history during the year, and all official and reliable information on area, population, religion, education, finances, army, navy, commerce, industry, military operations, the public questions agitated, and the reforms effected. Great efforts are made to secure the completest material from all parts of the world, and the superiority of this work over all other publications of a similar scope is each year more generally appreciated and recognized. It is felt that in its several departments the work may be safely consulted as the completest and most reliable book of reference. The details of American affairs in these pages embrace the administration of the Federal Government; its finances and systems of revenue and taxation; the banking system; the currency, and public questions relating thereto; commerce, manufactures, and the general state of the country, and the important subjects that agitate the public mind; the finances of the States, their debts and resources; their educational, charitable, and reformatory institutions; the various political conventions, national and State, assembled during the year, with their nominations and platforms; the results of elections; also, commercial and other conventions, and their proceedings; the important questions before Congress, such as counting the presidential vote, amnesty, various constitutional amendments, specie payments, etc., with the debates and decisions of that body; important decisions of State and Federal courts; the proceedings of State Legislatures on the various local matters; the extension of railroads, telegraphs, and all those great improvements of every kind involved in the rapid progress of the country. The most important feature in the international relations of the world during the year 1876 was the thickening of the impending war-cloud in the East. The efforts of Turkey to suppress the insurrectionary movements in the Christian provinces proved unsuccessful. The Government of Servia, yielding to the impetuous sympathies of its subjects with the insurrectionists, declared war against Turkey ; and, although the disparity of the military forces made success impossible, yet the |