Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/208

{|width="100%" of the negotiations respecting the annexation of Santo Domingo (1869-'71), see , vol. viii., p. 160. Since the outbreak of the Cuban rebellion, the relations between Spain and the United States have frequently been disturbed. The capture of the steamer Virginius on the high seas under the United States flag on Oct. 31, 1873, by the Spanish man-of-war Tornado, for a time threatened war. The Virginius was taken to a Cuban port, and several of those on board were summarily shot on the charge of being connected with the insurrection. On Dec. 16 the steamer was given up to the United States, and two days after the survivors of those on board were surrendered. In the spring of 1876 Spain paid the United States $80,000 for the relief of the families of those executed. In 1868 a secret organization, known as the Ku-Klux Klan, made its appearance in the south, and numerous outrages were committed by its members on colored citizens and others who favored the congressional plan of reconstruction. On April 20, 1871, congress passed an act to enforce the provisions of the fourteenth amendment, by which cognizance of these offences was given to the United States courts, and several convictions were had under its provisions. On May 31, 1870, an act had been passed (amended Feb. 28, 1871) to enforce the provisions of the fifteenth amendment, the design of which was to protect colored citizens in their right to vote. An act of March 1, 1875, prohibited the denial of equal rights in inns, public conveyances, theatres, &c., to any one on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. On May 10, 1876, an exhibition of American and foreign arts, products, and manufactures was opened at Philadelphia, under the auspices of the government, in accordance with the act of congress of March 3, 1871. The undertaking has been carried on chiefly by private enterprise and state appropriations, but the act of congress of Feb. 16, 1876, appropriated $1,500,000. (See .)—The following is a list of the presidents and vice presidents of the United States:
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 * width="40%" align="center"|UNITED STATES
 * align="center"|UNITED STATES
 * } not yet (1876) been organized. For a notice

The chief justices have been as follows: John Jay of New York, Sept. 26, 1789, to June 29, 1795; John Rutledge of South Carolina, July 1, 1795, to Dec. 15, 1795 (appointed in the recess of the senate, presided at the August term, rejected by the senate); Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, March 4, 1796, to October, 1800; John Marshall of Virginia, Jan. 31, 1801, to July 6, 1835; Roger Brooke Taney of Maryland, March 15, 1836, to Oct. 12, 1864; Salmon Portland Chase of Ohio, Dec. 6, 1864, to May 7, 1873; and Morrison Remich Waite of Ohio, appointed Jan. 21, 1874. William Cushing of Massachusetts, appointed Jan. 27, 1796, and John Jay, reappointed Dec. 19, 1800, declined.  UNITED STATES, Literature of the. The literary history of the United States may be treated under three distinctly marked periods, viz.: a colonial or ante-revolutionary period (1620-1775), during which the literature of the country was closely assimilated in form and