1868 | Political Events
Political Events
The U.S. Senate votes 35 to 16 January 13 that President Johnson's temporary dismissal of Secretary of War Stanton last August violated the Tenure of Office Act; the president dismisses Stanton permanently February 18. Johnson's efforts to "protect" Southern whites against racial equality and his otherwise moderate treatment of the former Confederate states have antagonized Radical Republicans, led by House Ways and Means Committee chairman Thaddeus Stevens (R. Pa.), now 75, who is so frail that he must be carried into the House by supporters; he has proposed more severe Reconstruction measures in the South while President Johnson has sided with the Democrats in favoring more lenient treatment, as proposed by the late President Lincoln. Rep. George Sewall Boutwell (R. Mass.), 50, and Rep. Benjamin F. Butler (R. Mass.), now 49, help lead the attack on the president. Congress restores Stanton to office and the House votes February 24 for a resolution to impeach Johnson for "high crimes and misdemeanors." (Squabbles within the Republican ranks aborted two impeachment attempts last year; the 126-to-47 vote comes after just 3 days of debate.) The 11 articles of impeachment deal almost exclusively with the Tenure of Office Act, the Senate is sworn in as a court March 6, but when the substantive part of the trial begins March 30, with Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase presiding, a mass of other charges are brought forward; 37 days of speeches ensue, with Rep. Butler saying at one point, "By murder most foul he succeeded to the presidency and is the elect of an assassin to that office." Johnson makes a secret promise to moderate Republicans that he will not stand in the way of their Reconstruction plans if acquitted, and although he enjoys little popularity in the country, seven Republicans join with Democrats May 16 to acquit him; influenced by sculptor Vinnie Ream, 21, Sen. Edmund G. Ross (R. Kan.) casts the deciding vote for acquittal, and the 35-to-19 decision fails by that one vote to achieve the necessary two-thirds majority. (Sen. Ross is ostracized for his action, which will later be credited with having preserved constitutional government in the United States.)
Former president James Buchanan dies at his Wheatland estate near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, June 1 at age 77; former director of Union intelligence General LaFayette C. Baker at Philadelphia July 3 at age 41; Rep. Thaddeus Stevens (R. Pa.) at Washington, D.C., August 11 at age 76. He is buried at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, amid the graves of blacks, "that I might illustrate [as he has written in his own epitaph] in my death the principles which I advocated through a long life—Equality of Man before his Creator."
Military rule continues in the South, and Congress votes in June to authorize readmission of the seven Confederate states on condition that black suffrage be retained. Radical Republicans have opposed reunification of the country pending guarantees of full civil and voting rights for freed slaves. President Johnson issues a second proclamation of amnesty, permitting the return of former Confederate officials (such as diplomat James Mason, who has been in Canada since 1866).
A Tory government headed by Benjamin Disraeli comes to power in Britain February 29. Crimean War cavalry officer James G. Brudenell, 7th earl of Cardigan, dies at his Deene Park, Northamptonshire, home March 28 at age 70 from injuries sustained in a riding accident. Parliament passes an Irish Reform Bill and a Scottish Reform Bill July 13, but the Liberal Party scores sweeping victories in the general elections in November. Disraeli resigns December 2, and William E. (Ewart) Gladstone, 59, begins a ministry that will continue until 1874. Gladstone's family fortune was based on slave labor, he has cloaked himself in a mantle of morality, and he opposes the imperialist policies of Disraeli, which many Britons support as a means of expanding trade while bringing peace, order, stability, and civilization to the "benighted heathen."
Irish-born writer-orator Thomas D'Arcy McGee is assassinated at Ottawa April 7 at age 42, having played a conspicuous role in the movement that led to last year's confederation of the Canadian colonies. He has evidently made disparaging remarks about Canada's Fenians (Irish nationalists).
Spain's prime minister Ramon Maria Narvaez, duque de Valencia, dies at Madrid April 23 at age 68 and a revolutionary proclamation issued at Cádiz September 18 by Admiral Juan Bautista Topete y Carballo, 47, ends absolutist rule. The press has attacked Isabella II for making her court favorite (an actor) Spain's minister of state, and the Battle of Alcolea September 28 ends in defeat for her general Manuel Pavía y Lacy, now 44, who has tried to seize a strategic bridge at Alcolea and been badly wounded by troops under the command of Marshal Juan Prim y Prats, 54. Isabella II flees to France September 29, her enemies declare her deposed, and Marshal Prim forms a provisional government October 5 under the regency of Francisco Serrano y Dominguez. Isabella has twice exiled engineer Práxides Mateo Sagasta, now 43, for opposing her, but he returns to help overthrow her. The new regime annuls reactionary laws, abolishes the Jesuit order and other religious orders, and establishes universal suffrage and a free press; the third Carlist pretender, Don Juan de Borbón, abdicates his claims in favor of his 20-year-old son Carlos María de los Dolores de Borbón y Austria-este, duque de Madrid (Don Carlos) (see 1870).
Greece's George I responds to British pressure in January and dismisses his prime minister Aléxandros Koumondhouros, who has mobilized troops following a new Cretan revolt against Ottoman rule once again (see 1866). Koumondhouros has headed six ministries and will head three more between 1870 and 1882.
The Serbian prince Michael III Obrenovic is assassinated at Kosutnjak, outside Belgrade, the night of June 10 at age 43 (see 1860). Having freed Serbia from Ottoman rule, organized a conscript army (supplied by the Russians), instituted the rule of law, reformed the judicial system, established a state mortgage bank and the first Serbian coinage since medieval times, Michael is succeeded by his cousin Milan, 13, who will gain full independence for Serbia, take the title king in 1882, and reign until 1889, but the Balkan League that Michael has founded in an effort to unite all southern Slavs against the Turks soon collapses (see 1876).
Liechtenstein disbands her 80-man army and declares permanent neutrality, having regained complete independence since the dissolution of the German Confederation (see 1719; 1919).
Russian forces under the command of General Konstantin Petrovich Kaufmann, 50, occupy Samarkand. Formerly governor general of Lithuania, Kaufmann was transferred last year to Turkistan as that region's first Russian governor general, and he makes the khanate of Bukhara north of the Afghan border a Russian protectorate, extending the czar's domain toward the east and posing a threat to British ambitions in Central Asia (see 1873).
Japan's Meiji Restoration formally ends the Tokugawa shōgunate that has held power since 1603 (see 1867). Troops under the command of radical samurai leader Takamori Saigo, 39, seize control of the shōgun's palace gates at Edo before dawn January 3, the coup d'état has the support of Satsuma and Choshu leaders, of Issei Maebara, Tomomi Iwakura, Toshimichi Okubo, 36, and the feudal lord Koshaku Shimazu Hisamitsu (who has come under the influence of his vassals Saigo and Okubo), they overthrow the Tokugawa family and return power to the emperor in the person of the 15-year-old Mutsuhito, who signs a Charter Oath April 6 promising to be guided in his rule by a deliberative assembly responsive to public opinion. "We shall summon assemblies, and in ruling the nation we shall have regard to public opinion . . . Knowledge will be sought out among the nations of the world, and thus the well-being of the empire will be ensured." Yoshinobu Tokugawa accepts the change in regime, but his advisers do not; their forces are defeated July 4 in the Battle of Ueno at Edo, which is renamed Tokyo (eastern capital) in November after Takamori Saigo defeats the last supporters of the shōgunate in the north. Yoshinobu Tokugawa forces the shōgunal forces to surrender and is allowed to retire to Mito; the imperial family moves from Kyoto and takes over Kyuju Palace, a fortress-castle in the center of Tokyo that has been used by shōguns for centuries, but the proimperial samurai loyalist Ryoma Sakamoto is murdered by proshogunal samurai at Kyoto December 10 at age 31 (see 1869).
Explorer-diplomat Ernest Doudart de Lagrée dies on an expedition in northern Ya-nan (Yunan) Province March 12 at age 44, having secured French suzerainty over Cambodia.
The rajah of Sarawak Sir James Brooke dies at Burrator, Devon, June 11 at age 65 after a 27-year reign (see 1850). His Somersetshire-born nephew Sir Charles (Anthoni Johnson) Brooke, 39, has adopted his uncle's surname and will reign until his death in 1917 (see British protectorate, 1888).
Siam's Phra Chom Klao Mongkut (Rama IV) dies at his native Bangkok October 15 at age 63 after a 17-year reign in which he has opened his country to Western influences and initiated reforms. He leaves generous bequests to Anna Leonowens and her son Lewis, although the king's executors will withhold those bequests. The king's own 15-year-old son Somdeth Phra Paraminda Maha Chulalongkorn studied under Mrs. Leonowens from 1862 to 1867 and promised her that if he ever became king he would rule over "a free, not an enslaved, nation." He is crowned November 11 after recovering from the same fever that killed his father and will reign until 1910 as Rama V, abolishing the feudal system and slavery, improving the country's laws and education, introducing the telegraph (1883), opening the first Siamese railroad, and visiting European capitals (1897).
The Ethiopian emperor Theodore is defeated April 10 in the Battle of Arogee by an Anglo-Indian force under Sir Robert Napier, 58. Theodore commits suicide, the British reach Magdala April 13, and they free traders, missionaries, and envoys imprisoned since 1864 by the cruel and eccentric Theodore. Ethiopia falls into anarchy following the withdrawal of Napier, who will be created first Baron Napier of Magdala by Queen Victoria (see 1872).
Lesotho's King Moshoeshoe I persuades the British crown to make his remaining realm a protectorate (see 1838). His country will not gain independence until 1960.
The British annex Basutoland following defeat of the Basutos by the Orange Free State, whose leaders protest the British action. Transvaal forces attempt to occupy Delagoa Bay but withdraw under pressure from the British (see 1871).
Madagascar's Merina queen Rashoherina dies after a 5-year reign and is succeeded by Ranavalona II, who will reign as queen until 1883. True power remains in the hands of her husband and first minister, Rainilaiarivony, a Christian who was married to Rashoherina, signs a commercial treaty with Paris, will sign a similar treaty in 1877 with Britain, and will retain power until 1896 by marrying Ranavalona's successor, outlawing polygamy and the slave trade, promulgating new legal codes, and encouraging the spread of education and the Protestant religion. Paris recognizes Merina (Hova) supremacy in Madagascar August 8.
Puerto Ricans take up arms against the Spanish colonial government (see 1809), but the El Grito de Lares revolt that begins September 23 is quickly suppressed and reprisals are taken against all liberals on the island (see 1898).
Cubans begin a 10-year war with Spain, which has not adopted some promised reforms and will continue to permit slavery on the island until the 1880s. Corrupt Spanish administrators have levied high taxes, allowed no political representation, and ruled inefficiently; landowners in the eastern provinces have united behind Bayamo-born planter Carlos Manuel de Céspedes (y Borja del Castillo), 49, who declares independence in October with "The Cry of Yara" ("El Grito de Yara") and moves out October 10 with a poorly armed group of 147 men. Dominican-born farmer Máximo Gómez y Báez, 31, enlists as a sergeant in the rebel army, which has 12,000 volunteers by the end of the month (Céspedes favors only gradual emancipation and allows slaves to join his ranks only with their masters' permission); by 1870 Gómez will be commander in chief, directing guerrilla forces against the well-equipped Spaniards (see 1869).
Argentina's president Bartolomé Mitre leaves office after a 6-year term in which he has suppressed the rural bosses (caudillos), established new courts, organized public finances, increased foreign trade, extended the postal service and telegraph lines, and encouraged immigration. Mitre is elected to the Senate, where he will be a leader in championing middle-class interests. He is succeeded as president by educator-author Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, now 57, who ends the war with Paraguay and will devote his 6-year term to building a new, democratic society, establishing primary and secondary schools in a largely illiterate country plus normal schools (teacher's colleges), schools for professional and technical training, libraries, and museums.
Coalition forces occupy Asunción December 31 after 4 years of war. Nearly two-thirds of Paraguay's adult population have died or disappeared; President López remains at large (see 1870).
The Republican Party rejects President Johnson and nominates Civil War hero Ulysses S. Grant for the presidency, selecting Schuyler Colfax, 45, of Indiana as his running mate. The Democrats nominate former New York governor Horatio Seymour, 58, but the Republicans "wave the bloody shirt" and label the Democratic Party the party of treason. Grant wins 53 percent of the popular vote with 214 electoral votes to Seymour's 80.