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CONFUCIUS steps to withdraw from the Union and establish a separate government. A convention assembled at Columbia, South Carolina, Dec. 17, 1860, but adjourned on the same date to Charleston, where, on the 20th, a resolution was passed declaring that the union hitherto existing between South Carolina and the other states under the name of The United States of America was dissolved. Other states were quick to follow. In less than six weeks Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas passed ordinances of secession and withdrew from the Union. On the 4th of February, 1861, delegates from six of these states met in convention at Montgomery, Alabama, and organized a new government, with the title of The Confederate States of America. On the 8th of the same month, the organization was completed by the choice of Jefferson Davis of Mississippi as president and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia as vice-president. The seceded states at once seized, with few exceptions, all the forts, arsenals, navy-yards, military stores and other Federal property within their limits.

The Civil War followed, beginning with the attack on Fort Sumter on April 12. On the 17th Virginia seceded and joined the Confederacy. Arkansas followed on May 6, North Carolina on the 20th of the same month and Tennessee on June 6, making 11 states in all. The history of the Confederacy is confined to the years of the Civil War, and it ceased to exist with the surrender of the Confederate army at Appomattox, Va., April 9, 1865.  Confu′cius, the great Chinese sage, was born in the state of Lu, in 551 B. C. His father, an old soldier, died when Confucius was three years old, leaving him and his mother very poor. For a while he had charge of the public stores and the public herds. At 22 he began his career as a teacher. In 501 a new ruler made him governor of the town of Chung-tu, where he brought about a striking reformation in the manners and morals of the people. Soon after, he became a minister of state and the most powerful man in Lu. For three years he was as successful in ruling and reforming the people as he had been when only a town-governor. Under his rule dishonesty was unknown; loyalty and good faith were the characteristics of men. Confucius was now the idol of the people. But soon a breach was made between him and his ruler, and for 12 years, with a company of disciples, he traveled through other Chinese states, teaching as he went. Sometimes the company were welcomed by high princes; at others they had not enough to eat, and even were in danger of their lives. A new ruler summoned the sage back to Lu, where he died the eleventh day of the fourth month, 479

B. C. Confucius thought his life a failure, but he was hardly dead when a temple was built in his honor, and to-day every market-town has its Confucius temple, and twice a year the emperor does honor to the greatest and wisest of Chinese philosophers. Of no ancient person do we know more than we do of Confucius. Not only what he taught, but just how he looked and acted at court, while talking to his disciples, at his table or in his bed has been handed down to us. Confucius was a great moral teacher and his supreme teaching was his negative golden rule: “What you do not wish done to yourself, do not do to others.” He never pretended to be anything more than a man, but he knew the right way for each man to live and to be right himself, and for the ruler so to rule as to make men happy and good. China is his monument.  Congo Free State grew out of the International Association, which was formed in 1878 with King Leopold of Belgium at its head. The European powers recognized the state in 1885, and in 1890 its territories were declared inalienable, though a convention between Belgium and the Independent State reserved to the former the right of annexing the latter after a period of ten years. In 1901 this right was renewed. Treaties with various interested nations have defined the boundaries. It has a narrow seacoast, with the Congo as its northern boundary, and in the interior widens north and south, extending to Lakes Albert Edward and Tanganyika. It is governed by an official living in the country and by another at Brussels under the headship of King Leopold. The people of the Congo basin are of the Bantu race. They are harmless, and born traders, and are lighter in color than the Sudanese. The European population in 1910 numbered 3,399, chiefly Belgians, Portuguese, Italians, English and Americans. The chief districts are Boma, Bangala, Aruwimi, Lualaba, Kwango, Equator, Ubangi and Stanley Pool. The area is estimated at 900,000 square miles. Population possibly 15,000,000 or 16,000,000.

There has been a rapid expansion of commerce, and it is being pushed and developed with full regard for the welfare of the country. In 1905 the imports were 45,961,295 francs and exports 121,573,949 francs. (The franc is about 19 cents.)

The chief imports are fabrics, food, machinery, steamboats, drink, metals, arms and ammunition; the exports consist of rubber, ivory, palm-nuts and oil, white copal, coffee and cocoa. Tobacco is being successfully grown. A railway of about 250 miles connects Matadi with Stanley Pool. A local railway of 50 miles is open for traffic in Mayumbe, and a Belgian company is constructing 900 miles of railway from the Congo