Page images
PDF
EPUB

Russia for the Confederacy. He acted as professor, first of political economy and then of law, in the University of Mississippi. He served in the Forty-third and Forty-fourth Congress, and in 1876 was elected to the Senate. He was re-elected, but resigned in order to accept the post of Secretary of the Interior in President Cleveland's Cabinet. In January, 1888, his nomination as Associate-Justice of the Supreme Court was confirmed by the Senate.

L'Amistad Case. (See Amistad Case, The.)

Land Grants. By this name is known the grant of land to corporations to encourage and aid the construction of railroads in portions of the country in which it would otherwise be unprofitable. These grants are usually made. directly to the companies. Before 1862 they were made to the States in order to enable them to extend aid to corporations within their borders. To every State, at its admission, Congress has granted five per cent. of the public lands within its limits on condition of the exemption of the remainder from State taxation. In 1850 the first grant for railroad purposes was made. It consisted of about 2,500,000 acres granted to the State of Illinois, and it was used to aid the Illinois Central Railroad. In 1856 about 2,000,000 acres went to Florida, a similar amount was received by Arkansas, while various other States received large tracts all more or less used to encourage railroad building. But the grant of colossal areas began with the construction of the Pacific Railroads (which see.) The Union Pacific received 2,000,000; the Kansas Pacific 6,000,000; the Central Pacific (as successor of the Western Pacific) 1,100,000, and on its Oregon Branch 3,000,000; the Oregon and California 3,500,000; the Southern Pacific 6,000,000; and the Southern Pacific branch line 3,500,000 acres. Among others that received large grants were the Burlington and Missouri River and the Hannibal and St. Joseph. But the most stupendous grants were those of 47,000,000 acres to the Northern Pacific and of 42,000,000 acres to the Atlantic and Pacific. From these generous grants a revulsion has set in, and at every session of Congress bills are now introduced and every effort is made to forfeit such portions of the land as are not earned by a strict compliance with the terms of the grant, thus saving the land for settlement.

Bills revoking the grant of lands not as yet earned have been passed; among the principal roads affected are the Atlantic and Pacific, Texas Pacific and Iron Mountain, and over 50,000,000 acres have thus been recovered. (See Subsidies.)

Land of Steady Habits. The State of Connecticut is sometimes so called.

Late Unpleasantness, The, is a euphemistic phrase sometimes used in speaking of the Civil War.

Latter-Day Saints.

call themselves.

The name by which the Mormons

Lava Beds. (See Indian Wars.)

Law and Order League. (See Citizens' Law and Order League of the United States.)

Law and Order Party. While there have been many local parties calling themselves by the above name, it is generally understood in United States history as applying to the opponents of Dorr in the Dorr Rebellion (which see). Law of Nations. (See International Law.)

Laws, Sumptuary. Sumptuary laws are those intended to limit the expenses of citizens in the matters of food, clothing and the like. They were very common in ancient times and still exist in many countries. In the colonies, before the formation of the United States, sumptuary laws were generally adopted, but at present they are rare, or, if found on the statute books, are seldom enforced. The tendency of to-day is to supply their place by levying higher taxes on luxuries than on other articles.

Laying Pipes. A politician is said to be laying pipes when he is making extensive plans and preparations to accomplish some particular end, frequently his own political advancement.

League, Republican. (See Republican League of the United States.)

Lecompton Constitution. In 1857 the majority of the inhabitants of the Territory of Kansas were of the Free State party. In former years the intimidation and frauds of armed bands from Missouri, called border ruffians, had invariably resulted in the election of pro-slavery Legisla tures. The election of October, 1857, resulted in the choice of a Free State Legislature. The old Legislature, foresee

ing this, had met at Lecompton, in September, 1857, and had adopted a pro-slavery Constitution. The Free State party had never recognized the old Territorial Legislature, and had not voted on the only clause of the Constitution that was submitted for popular approval, and so that clause was of course carried. The new Free State Legislature submitted the whole Constitution to the people and it was overwhelmingly rejected. President Buchanan favored the Lecompton Constitution, as did also the Senate, but the opposition of the Northern Democrats sufficed to turn the House against it. A conference committee of Congress therefore submitted a proposition for certain changes to the people of Kansas, and it was agreed to regard the rejection thereof as the rejection of the Lecompton Constitution. The vote was largely against it.

Legislature. This word as applied to the Federal Government refers to Congress, composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and is discussed under those heads. In the States and Territories the term is commonly used to designate the legislative branch of the government, though the official title in twenty-three of the States is "general assembly," in two "general court," and in one State and the Territories "legislative assembly," the remaining twelve using "legislature" as the official as well as the popular title. In all the States the Legislature is composed of two houses, though Pennsylvania up to 1790 and Vermont up to 1836 had but one house. The upper House is called the Senate in the States and the Council in the Territories; the lower is called the House of Representatives in the Territories and in most of the States, but is known as the House of Delegates, the Assembly or the General Assembly in a few of the States.

Legal Tender Notes. (See Currency.)

Legislative Caucus. (See Caucus, Legislative.)

Let No Guilty Man Escape. When the revelations in regard to the Whisky Ring in 1875 were laid before Presi dent Grant, he endorsed the above sentence on one of the papers.

Letters of Marque and Reprisal. (See Privateer.)
Lewisites. (See Clintonians.)

Liberator, The. An anti-slavery paper published at Boston, Massachusetts, 1831-65, edited by William Lloyd Garrison.

Liberal Republican Party. Many Republicans were dissatisfied with Grant's first term as President. They believed that the National government had exceeded the proper limits of its power in its treatment of reconstruction problems. These Republicans met in convention at Cincinnati in 1872. Carl Schurz was elected chairman. A platform was adopted demanding civil service reform, local self-government and universal amnesty, recognizing the equality of all men, recommending the resumption of specie payments, but remitting the questions of protection and free trade to Congress because of the existence in the convention of "honest but irreconcilable differences of opinion" on that subject. Horace Greeley and B. Gratz Brown were named for President and Vice-President. This platform and these nominations were adopted by the regular Democratic convention of that year. Nevertheless, about 30,000 members of that party voted for Charles O'Conor, of New York, and John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, the nominees of a purely Democratic convention, notwithstanding that these candidates had declined the nomination. Some of the members of the Cincinnati convention, deeming the nominations there made to be a mistake, met in New York in June and named William S. Groesbeck, of Ohio, and Frederick L. Olmstead, of New York. The Republican nominee, Grant, was elected by an enormous majority, and the Liberal Republican party was thereafter practically dead, although a few Congressinen still clung to the name.

Liberty and Union Now and Forever, One and Inseparable. The concluding words of Daniel Webster's second speech in reply to Hayne in the debate of Foot's Resolution (which see.)

Liberty Party. A meeting of abolitionists held at Warsaw, New York, in 1839, had incidentally nominated James G. Birney for President and Francis J. Lemoyne for VicePresident. The nominations were confirmed by a convention, ostensibly national, that met at Albany, April 1, 1840, and here the name "Liberty party" was adopted. Its platform was the abolition of slavery. These candidates re

[graphic][merged small][subsumed]
« PreviousContinue »