Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/839

* YANCEY. 709 YANKEE. born at Ogeechee Shoals, Ga. He studied law at Greenville, S. C, was admitted to the bar in 1834, and Desides practieinj; liis profes- sion edited a Unionist paper and spolce against nullidcation. In 18;3(i he removed to a planta- tion at Oakland, near Catawba, Ala. His slave's having been accidentally poisoned, he reentered law and jonrnalisni, was prominent as an anti- ^'hig orator in the Presidential campaign of 1840, and from 1841 to 1844 was a member of the State Legislatnrc. From 1844 to 184 he was a member of Congress, and soon after taking his seat attracted national attention by his par- tieipation in a bloodless duel with Kepreaentative Clingman of North Carolina. Resigning from Congress, be became a bitter opponent of com- promise between the North and the South, was the author of the famous "Alabama Platform" of 1847, fought vigorously against the com- promise measures of 1850, anticipated the coming conflict between the sections, and Iiccanie the recognized leader of the more radical clement in the Sonth. In the period immediately preceding the Civil War his remarkable oratory contributed perhaps more than anything else to 'fire the South- ern heart,' and he was preeminently the 'orator of .secession.' He was a member of the national Deraoeratie Nominating Convention at Charles- ton in 1860 ; led from that convention the seced- ers, who afterwards met at Baltimore; and then made a canvass of the North, speaking to great audiences in the Middle, New England, and Western States. "It was he more than any other," says Woodrow AA'ilson, "who taught the South what Douglas really meant, he more than any other who s]dit the ranks of the Democratic Party at Charleston, made the election of Doug- las impossible, and brought Mr. Lincoln in." Slightly before the outbreak of the Civil War, Yancey w-as sent by the Confederate Government as the head of a commission, consisting besides himself of P. A. Rost and Dudley Mann, to se- cure the recognition of the Confederacy by the various European governments ; but after vain attempts in London and Paris to accomplish his purpose, he returned in the early spring of 1802, and thereafter until his death was a member of the Confederate Senate. Consult: Du Bose, Life and Times of William Loirndes Yancey (Birmingham, 1892) ; and a chapter in W. G. Brown's The Lower South in American History (New York, 1902). YANG-TSE-KIANG, yiing'tse'kyilng' (the Yang-tse Rirr). The longest and most im- portant river of China, having a length of over 3000 miles and a drainage area of between 6.50,000 and 700.000 square miles (Map: China, C 5). It has its origin in a number of small rivulets which at a height of over 16,000 feet above the level of the sea dash down the north- ern slope of the snow-covered Tang-la Jlountains of Tibet, near latitude 33° 45' N., and longitude 90° E. LTnder the name of the Murui-usu or 'Tor- tuous Stream' it flows east and northeast for some distance, receives two important affluents — the Napchi-tai and the Toktonai — from the Kuen- lun Mountains in the northwest, and gets the name of Di-chu or Dr^-chu. At about 98° E. longitude it takes a southerly course and for sev- eral hundred miles — with the Tibetan name of Ngeh-chu or the Chinese name of Kin-sha-kiang, 'River of Golden Sand' — it parallels its great tributary the Ya-lung-kiang (q.v.). In latitude 2° N. it enters the Chinese Province of Yun-nan, Imrsts tlirongli its rocl<y barriers on the east, takes a nortlicasterly direction, receives from the north the turliulent waters of the Ya-Uing in lati- tude 26° 35' N. and the name of Pei- (or ['ai-) shni ( 'wliitc waters'), forms in part of its course the boundary between Yunnan and Sze-chuen, and enters Sze-chuen, which it traverses in a north- easterly direction. Here it receives from the south the Witters of the HPng or Ta-kwan, the Xan-kwang, the Yungning, the Chili-sliiii, the IC'i- kiang, and from Kwci-chow the Vu or Kung-t'an at the city of l'"u-ehow, 72 miles east of Ch'ung- k'ing. From the north it receives the Min at llsii-ehow or Sui-fu (taking the name of Min- kiang), the T'o at Lu-ehow fu. and the Kia-ling at Ch'ung-k'ing (q.v.) in latitude 29° 34' N. and longitude 107° 2' E., all navigable liy native craft for hundreds of miles. Between 500 and 600 miles farther east, at a point 15 miles west of I-chang (q.v.), it escapes from the mountains, and w ith slackened pace and many a benil and de- tour pursues a generally east and east-southeast course through the very heart of China, receiv- ing the entire drainage of the provinces of IIu- peh, Hu-nan, Ngan-hwei, Kiang-si, and Kiang-su, and near the little island of Sha-wei-shan, in latitude 31° 25' N., and longitude 122° 14' E., it pours into the Yellow Sea 770,000 cubic feet of water per second, and annually deposits in it about 6,000,000,000 cubic feet of suspended mat- ter. From the city of Fu-chow, in Sze-chuen, as far east as Ngan-hwei and beyond, it is known as the Ta-kiaitff or 'Great River,' the Ch'ang- Iciang or 'Long River,' or simply as Kiang or 'The River.' From Ngan-hwei — the old Province of Yang — to the sea, it is properly known as the Yang-tse, but foreigners are in the habit of ap- plying the name to the whole river. With its numerous tributaries and feeders the Yang-tse ]jrovides an unrivaled system of internal com- munication, which is now practically open to foreign commerce. Hankow, 600 miles from the sea, maj- be reached by the largest ocean steam- ships trading with the East, and I-chang, 500 miles farther up, by light-draught steamboats. Above this the river presents a succession o/ gorges and rapids, with a very strong and swift current up Avhich native craft (up to 60 or 70 tons burden) are hauled at great risk and expense, and frequent loss of life, by large crews of native trackers, at the rate of a few miles a day. All attempts to use stetim as far as Ch'ung-k'ing have resulted in failure. P'ing-shui-hion, 200 miles above Ch'ung-k'ing. is the limit of native navigation. Toward the end of summer the river frequently rises as much as 50 feet, flooding the fields and toAvns on its banks over a vast area, and sometimes causing terrible destruction of life. YANINA, yii'ne-na. See Janina. YANKEE (of uncertain etymology). Yankee was long the popular name given to a New Eng- lander in America, and in Europe has been often applied indiscriminately to the entire popula- tion of the I'nitcd States. One explanation of its origin, which is, jierhaps, the most plausible, is that it is a corruption of the word Eng- lish as pronounced by the Indians (Yenghies,