Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/606

 570 ANTIPHON starved them into submission. After the death of Perdiccas (321), Antipater made a new di- vision of the provinces, giving a part of the ter- ritory of Perdiccas to Antigonus, part to Lysim- achus, and part to Seleucus. ANTIPHON, an Athenian orator, son of So- philus the sophist, born at Rhamnus in Attica about 480 B. C., died in 411. He taught rhet- oric at Athens, composed orations for others, was the first who received money for such ser- vices, and is believed to be the first who sub- jected the art of oratory to strict theoretical rules. He was the most active leader in the revolution which established the oligarchy of the 400 in 411 ; and his only public speech was the one he delivered in his own defence on its overthrow in the same year. Thucydides called it the ablest that was ever made in simi- lar circumstances, but it is now lost. Antiphon was condemned to death. There are 15 of his orations extant, the best edition of which is that of Dobson (London, 1828). ANTIPHONY (Gr. avrrtuvia, response), the re- sponse which, in the Roman Catholic service, one side of the choir makes to the other in the chant. Antiphonal or responsive singing is the most ancient form of church music, and is said by the historian Socrates to have been first in- troduced among the Greeks by Ignatius, and among the Latins by St. Ambrose. The chant- ing of the psalms alternately is doubtless older than Christianity, and prevailed in the temple service of the Jews, many of the psalms being composed in alternate verses as if with a view to this mode of singing. In the cathedral wor- ship of the Catholic church, two full choirs are stationed one on each side of the sanctuary, one of which, having chanted a verse, remains silent, while the opposite choir replies in the verse succeeding; and at the end of each psalm the Gloria Patri is sung by the united choirs in chorus. ANTI-RENTISM. The Dutch West India com- pany authorized its members in New York to take up land upon the banks of the streams and rivers, on condition of introducing within a limited time 50 settlers for every mile of land. The proprietor was invested with the title and Erivileges of a lord patroon or protector, and is colony or manor was governed by the same customs and laws as were the feudal manors of the United Provinces. After the revolution a very large proportion of the land in the settled parts of New York was held by the patroons, and the cultivators occupied their farms on leases for one or more lives, or from year to year, stipulating for the payment of rents, dues, and services, copied from the feudal tenures of England and Holland. In 1779 and 1785 laws were enacted by the legislature of the state abolishing feudal tenures, but the proprietors of manor grants, unwilling to give up all their feudal claims, contrived a form of deed by which the grantees covenanted to perform services, and pay rents and dues, precisely sim ilar to the feudal incidents thus abolished. ANTI-RENTISM The counties of Albany, Rensselaer, Columbia, Greene, Ulster, Delaware, Schoharie, Mont- gomery, Herkimer, Otsego, and Oneida include within their limits most of these manors. In 1839 associations were formed to devise means for getting rid of these burdens, and soon be- came known as anti-rent associations. The anti-rent feeling manifested itself in open re- sistance to the service of legalprocess for the collection of manorial rents. The first conflict which awakened general attention happened hi the town of Grafton, Rensselaer county, where a band of anti-renters in disguise killed a man named Smith during an altercation on the highway. A legal investigation, at which more than 200 persons were from time to time examined, failed to disclose the author of the deed. In his messages of 1841 and 1842, Gov. Seward discussed the grievances complained of by the tenants. He recommended a reference of the matters in dispute to arbitrators, and appointed three men to investigate and report to the legislature. This commission failed to accomplish anything. The disaffection and ex- citement increased, until, after a tragical affair at Andes in Delaware county in 1845, Gov. Wright issued a proclamation, declaring the county in a state of insurrection. The trials and convictions at Delhi in that county, and the convictions of certain anti-renters at Hud- son, Columbia county, for conspiracy and re- sistance to law, put an end to operations by the disguised bands. The anti-rent associations determined to form a political party, whose policy should be to elect all town and county officers from their own ranks, and to vote for no state, civil, judicial, or executive officers unfriendly to them, or unpledged to their cause. In the legislatures of 1842-'7 about one eighth of the members were elected in the interest of the anti-renters. In the constitu- tional convention of 1846 some of the ablest men were avowedly anti-renters, or advocates of their measures and principles. Their influ- ence procured the insertion of a clause in the new constitution abolishing all feudal tenures and incidents, and forbidding the leasing of agricultural land for a term exceeding 12 years. The legislature at successive sessions passed laws which bore heavily upon the landlord interest, and tended gradually to ameliorate the condition of the tenants. In 1846 Gov. Wright, who was a candidate for reelection, was de- feated by 10,000 majority for John Young, whom the anti-renters had nominated. Gov. Young pardoned from the state prison all the so-called anti-rent convicts, on the ground that their offences were rather political than crimi- nal, and that it was the wise policy of all good governments to forgive and restore to citizen- ship political offenders, after the law had been vindicated and order and peace restored. After 1847 the excitement died out, the anti-rent in- fluence ceased to be a disturbing force in poli- tics, and the anti-rent organization contented itself with efforts to contest in the courts the