Part 158

"Since Leopold II.'s accession to the throne [of Belgium], his great object has been to secure colonial possessions to Belgium for her excess of population and production. To this end he founded, in October, 1876, with the aid of eminent African explorers, the International African Association. Its object was to form committees in several countries, with a view to the collection of funds, and to the establishment of a chain of stations across Africa, passing by Lake Tanganyika, to assist future explorers. Accordingly committees were formed, whose presidents were as follows: in England, the Prince of Wales; in Germany the Crown Prince; in Italy the King's brother; in France, M. de Lesseps; and in Belgium, King Leopold. Sums of money were subscribed, and stations were opened from Bagomoyo (just south of Zanzibar) to Lake Tanganyika; but when toward the close of 1877, Stanley reappeared on the Atlantic coast and revealed the immense length of the marvelous Congo River, King Leopold at once turned his attention in that direction. That he might not put himself forward prematurely, he acted under cover of an association and a committee of exploration, which were in reality formed and entirely supported by the King's energy and by the large sums of money that he lavished upon them. Through this association King Leopold maintained Stanley for five years on the Congo. During this time a road was made from the coast to Stanley Pool, where the navigable portion of the Upper Congo commences; and thus was formed the basis of the future empire. During this period Stanley signed no less than four thousand treaties or concessions of territory, on which upward of two thousand chiefs had placed their marks in sign of adhesion. {494} At a cost of many months of transportation, necessitating the employment of thousands of porters, light steamers were placed on the upper river which was explored as far as Stanley Falls. Its numerous tributaries also were followed up as far as the rapids that interrupt their courses. Many young Belgian officers and other adventurous explorers established themselves on the banks of the Congo and the adjoining river, the Kouiliou, and founded a series of stations, each occupied by one or two Europeans and by a few soldiers from Zanzibar. In this way the country was insensibly taken possession of in the most pacific manner, without a struggle and with no bloodshed whatever; for the natives, who are of a very gentle disposition, offered no resistance. The Senate of the United States, which was called upon, in 1884, to give an opinion on the rights of the African Association, made a careful examination of the matter, and recognized the legality of the claims and title deeds submitted to them. A little later, in order to mark the formation of a state, the Congo Association adopted as its flag a gold star on a blue ground. A French lawyer. M. Deloume, in a very well-written pamphlet entitled 'Le Droit des Gens dans l'Afrique Equatoriale,' has proved that this proceeding was not only legitimate, but necessary. The embryo state, however, lacked one essential thing, namely, recognition by the civilized powers. It existed only as a private association, or, as a hostile publicist expressed it, as 'a state in shares, indulging in pretensions of sovereignty.' Great difficulties stood in the way of realizing this essential condition. Disputes, on the one hand with France and on the other with Portugal, appeared inevitable. … King Leopold did not lose heart. In 1882 he obtained from the French government an assurance that, while maintaining its rights to the north of Stanley Pool, it would give support to the International Association of the Congo. With Portugal it seemed very difficult to come to an understanding. … Prince Bismarck took part in the matter, and in the German Parliament praised highly the work of the African Association. In April, 1884, he proposed to France to come to an understanding, and to settle all difficulties by general agreement. From this proposition sprang the famous Berlin conference, the remarkable decisions of which we shall mention later. At the same time, before the conference opened, Germany signed an agreement with the International Association of the Congo, in which she agreed to recognize its flag as that of a state, in exchange for an assurance that her trade should be free, and that German subjects should enjoy all the privileges of the most favored nations. Similar agreements were entered upon with nearly all the other countries of the globe. The delegates of the Association were accepted at the conference on the same footing as those of the different states that were represented there, and on February 26, the day on which the act was signed, Bismarck expressed himself as follows: 'The new State of the Congo is destined to be one of the chief safe-guards of the work we have in view, and I sincerely trust that its development will fulfill the noble aspirations of its august founder.' Thus the Congo International Association, hitherto only a private enterprise, seemed now to be recognized as a sovereign state, without having, however, as yet assumed the title. But where were the limits of its territory. … Thanks to the interference of France, after prolonged negotiations an understanding was arrived at on February 15, 1885, by which both parties were satisfied. They agreed that Portugal should take possession of the southern bank of the Congo, up to its junction with the little stream Uango, above Nokki, and also of the district of Kabinda forming a wedge that extends into the French territory on the Atlantic Ocean. The International Congo Association—for such was still its title—was to have access to the sea by a strip of land extending from Manyanga (west of Leopoldville) to the ocean, north of Banana, and comprising in addition to this port, Boma and the important station of Vivi. These treaties granted the association 931,285 square miles of territory, that is to say, a domain eighty times the size of Belgium, with more than 7,500 miles of navigable rivers. The limits fixed were, on the west, the Kuango, an important tributary of the Congo; on the south, the sources of the Zambesi; on the east, the Lakes Bangweolo, Moero, and Tanganyika, and a line passing through Lake Albert Edward to the river Ouelle; on the north, a line following the fourth degree of latitude to the Mobangi River on the French frontier. The whole forms one eleventh part of the African continent. The association became transformed into a state in August 1885, when King Leopold, with the authorization of the Belgian Chambers, notified the powers that he should assume the title of Sovereign of the Independent State of the Congo, the union of which with Belgium was to be exclusively personal. The Congo is, therefore, not a Belgian colony, but nevertheless the Belgian Chambers have recently given valuable assistance to the King's work; first, in taking, on July 26, 1889, 10,000,000 francs' worth of shares in the railway which is to connect the seaport of Matadi with the riverport of Leopoldville, on Stanley Pool, and secondly by granting a loan of 25,000,000 francs to the Independent State on August 4, 1890. The King, in a will laid before Parliament, bequeaths all his African possessions to the Belgian nation, authorizing the country to take possession of them after a lapse of ten years."

_E. de Laveleye, The Division of Africa (The Forum, January, 1891)._

ALSO IN: _H. M. Stanley, The Congo, and the Founding of its Free State._

CONGREGATION OF THE ORATORY, The.

"Philip of Neri, a young Florentine of good birth (1515-1595; canonised 1622) … in 1548 instituted at Rome the Society of the Holy Trinity, to minister to the wants of the pilgrims at Rome. But the operations of his mission gradually extended till they embraced the spiritual welfare of the Roman population at large, and the reformation of the Roman clergy in particular. No figure is more serene and more sympathetic to us in the history of the Catholic reaction than that of this latter-day 'apostle of Rome.' From his association, which followed the rule of St. Augustine, sprang in 1575 the Congregation of the Oratory at Rome, famous as the seminary of much that is most admirable in the labours of the Catholic clergy."

_A. W. Ward, The Counter-Reformation, page 30._

{495}

"In the year 1766, there were above a hundred Congregations of the Oratory of S. Philip in Europe and the East Indies; but since the revolutions of the last seventy years many of these have ceased to exist, while, on the contrary, within the last twelve years two have been established in England."

_Mrs. Hope, Life of S. Philip Neri, chapter 24._

ALSO IN: _H. L. S. Lear, Priestly Life in France, chapter 4._

CONGREGATIONALISM.

See INDEPENDENTS.

CONGRESS, Colonial, at Albany.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1754.

CONGRESS, Continental, The First.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1774 (SEPTEMBER), and (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER).

The Second.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (MAY-AUGUST).

CONGRESS, The First American.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1690.

CONGRESS, The Pan-American.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1889-1890.

CONGRESS, The Stamp Act.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1765.

CONGRESS OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, The.

See AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, THE CONGRESS AND TREATY.

CONGRESS OF BERLIN.

See TURKS: A. D. 1878.

CONGRESS OF PANAMA.

See COLOMBIAN STATES: A. D. 1826.

CONGRESS OF PARIS.

See RUSSIA: A. D. 1854-1856, and DECLARATION OF PARIS.

CONGRESS OF RASTADT, The.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1799 (APRIL-SEPTEMBER).

CONGRESS OF VERONA, The.

See VERONA, THE CONGRESS OF.

CONGRESS OF VIENNA.

See VIENNA, CONGRESS OF.

CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES.

"The Constitution created Congress and conferred upon it powers of legislation for national purposes, but made no provision as to the method by which these powers should be exercised. In consequence Congress has itself developed a method of transacting its business by means of committees. The Federal Legislature consists of two Houses—the Senate, or Upper and less numerous branch, and the House of Representatives, or the Lower and more numerous popular branch. The Senate is composed of two members from each State elected by the State legislatures for a term of six years, one third of whom retire every two years. The presiding officer is the Vice-President. Early in each session the Senate chooses a President pro tempore, so as to provide for any absence of the Vice-President, whether caused by death, sickness, or for other reasons. The House of Representatives is at present [1891] composed of 332 members and four delegates from the Territories. These delegates, however, have no vote, though they may speak. The House is presided over by a Speaker, elected at the beginning of each [Congress]. A quorum for business is, in either House, a majority. Congress meets every year in the beginning of December. Each Congress lasts two years and holds two sessions—a long and a short session. The long session lasts from December to midsummer [or until the two Houses agree upon an adjournment]. The short session lasts from December, when Congress meets again, until the 4th of March. The term of office then expires for all the members of the House and for one-third of the Senators. The long session ends in even years (1880 and 1882, etc.), and the short session in odd years (1881 and 1883). Extra sessions may be called by the President for urgent business. In the early part of the November preceding the end of the short session of Congress occurs the election of Representatives. Congressmen then elected do not take their seats until thirteen months later, that is, at the reassembling of Congress in December of the year following, unless an extra session is called. The Senate frequently holds secret, or, as they are called, executive sessions, for the consideration of treaties and nominations of the President, in which the House of Representatives has no voice. It is then said to sit with closed doors. An immense amount of business must necessarily be transacted by a Congress that legislates for nearly 63,000,000 of people. … Lack of time, of course, prevents a consideration of each bill separately by the whole legislature. To provide a means by which each subject may receive investigation and consideration, a plan is used by which the members of both branches of Congress are divided into committees. Each committee busies itself with a certain class of business, and bills when introduced are referred to this or that committee for consideration, according to the subjects to which the bills relate. … The Senate is now divided between 50 and 60 committees, but the number varies from session to session. … The House of Representatives is organized into 60 committees [appointed by the Speaker], ranging, in their number of members, from thirteen down. … The Committee of Ways and Means, which regulates customs duties and excise taxes, is by far the most important. … Congress ordinarily assembles at noon and remains in session until 4 or 5 P. M., though towards the end of the term it frequently remains in session until late in the night. … There is still one feature of Congressional government which needs explanation, and that is the caucus. A caucus is the meeting of the members of one party in private, for the discussion of the attitude and line of policy which members of that party are to take on questions which are expected to arise in the legislative halls. Thus, in Senate caucus, is decided who shall be members of the various committees. In these meetings is frequently discussed whether or not the whole party shall vote for or against this or that important bill, and thus its fate is decided before it has even come up for debate in Congress."

_W. W. and W. F. Willoughby, Government and Administration of the United States (Johns Hopkins University Studies, series ix., numbers 1-2), chapter 9._

ALSO IN: _W. Wilson, Congressional Government, chapters 2-4._

_J. Bryce, The American Commonwealth, part 1, chapters 10-21 (volume 1)._

_A. L. Dawes, How we are Governed, chapter 2._

_The Federalist, numbers 51-65._

_J. Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, book 3, chapters 8-31 (volumes 2-3)._

CONI. Sieges (1744 and 1799).

See ITALY: A. D. 1744; and FRANCE: A. D. 1799 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).

CONIBO, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ANDESIANS.

CONNAUGHT, Transplantation of the Irish people into.

See IRELAND: A. D. 1653.

{496}

CONNECTICUT: The River and the Name.

"The first discoveries made of this part of New England were of its principal river and the fine meadows lying upon its bank. Whether the Dutch at New Netherlands, or the people of New Plymouth, were the first discoverers of the river is not certain. Both the English and the Dutch claimed to be the first discoverers, and both purchased and made a settlement of the lands upon it nearly at the same time. … From this fine river, which the Indians call Quonehtacut, or Connecticut, (in English the long river) the colony originally took its name."

_B. Trumbull, History of Connecticut, chapter 2._

According to Dutch accounts, the river was entered by Adriaen Block, ascended to latitude 41° 48', and named Fresh River, in 1614.

See NEW YORK: A. D. 1610-1614.

CONNECTICUT: The Aboriginal inhabitants.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1631. The grant to Lord Say and Sele, and others.

In 1631, the Earl of Warwick granted to Lord Say and Sele, Lord Brooke, Sir Richard Saltonstall, and others, "the territory between Narragansett River and southwest towards New York for 120 miles and west to the Pacific Ocean, or, according to the words of President Clap of Yale College, 'from Point Judith to New York, and from thence a west line to the South Sea, and if we take Narragansett River in its whole length the tract will extend as far north as Worcester. It comprehends the whole of the colony of Connecticut and more. This was called the old patent of Connecticut, and had been granted the previous year, 1630, by the Council of Plymouth [or Council for New England] to the Earl of Warwick. Yet before the English had planted settlements in Connecticut the Dutch had purchased of the Pequots land where Hartford now stands and erected a small trading fort called 'The House of Good Hope.'"

_C. W. Bowen, Boundary Disputes of Connecticut, page 15._

In 1635, four years after the Connecticut grant, said to have been derived originally from the Council for New England, in 1630, had been transferred by the Earl of Warwick to Lord Say and Seal and others, the Council made an attempt, in connivance with the English court, to nullify all its grants, to regain possession of the territory of New England and to parcel it out by lot among its own members. In this attempted parcelling, which proved ineffectual, Connecticut fell to the lot of the Earl of Carlisle, the Duke of Lennox, and the Duke of Hamilton. Modern investigation seems to have found the alleged grant from the Council of Plymouth, or Council for New England, to the Earl of Warwick, in 1630, to be mythical. "No one has ever seen it, or has heard of anyone who claims to have seen it. It is not mentioned even in the grant from Warwick to the Say and Sele patentees in 1631. … The deed is a mere quit-claim, which warrants nothing and does not even assert title to the soil transferred. … Why the Warwick transaction took this peculiar shape, why Warwick transferred, without showing title, a territory which the original owners granted anew to other patentees in 1635, are questions which are beyond conjecture."

_A. Johnston, Connecticut, chapter 2._

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1635.

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1634-1637. The pioneer settlements.

"In October, 1634, some men of Plymouth, led by William Holmes, sailed up the Connecticut river, and, after bandying threats with a party of Dutch who had built a rude fort on the site of Hartford, passed on and fortified themselves on the site of Windsor. Next year Governor Van Twiller sent a company of seventy men to drive away these intruders, but after reconnoitering the situation the Dutchmen thought it best not to make an attack. Their little stronghold at Hartford remained unmolested by the English, and, in order to secure the communication between this advanced outpost and New Amsterdam, Van Twiller decided to build another fort at the mouth of the river, but this time the English were beforehand. Rumours of Dutch designs may have reached the ears of Lord Say and Sele and Lord Brooke—'fanatic Brooke,' as Scott calls him in 'Marmion'—who had obtained from the Council for New England a grant of territory on the shores of the Sound. These noblemen chose as their agent the younger John Winthrop, son of the Massachusetts governor, and this new-comer arrived upon the scene just in time to drive away Van Twiller's vessel and build an English fort which in honour of his two patrons he called 'Say-Brooke.' Had it not been for seeds of discontent already sown in Massachusetts, the English hold upon the Connecticut valley might perhaps have been for a few years confined to these two military outposts at Windsor and Saybrooke. But there were people in Massachusetts who did not look with favour upon the aristocratic and theocratic features of its polity. The provision that none but church-members should vote or hold office was by no means unanimously approved. … Cotton declared that democracy was no fit government either for church or for commonwealth, and the majority of the ministers agreed with him. Chief among those who did not was the learned and eloquent Thomas Hooker, pastor of the church at Newtown. … There were many in Newtown who took Hooker's view of the matter; and there, as also in Watertown and Dorchester, which in 1633 took the initiative in framing town governments with selectmen, a strong disposition was shown to evade the restrictions upon the suffrage. While such things were talked about, in the summer of 1633, the adventurous John Oldham was making his way through the forest and over the mountains into the Connecticut valley, and when he returned to the coast his glowing accounts set some people to thinking. Two years afterward, a few pioneers from Dorchester pushed through the wilderness as far as the Plymouth men's fort at Windsor, while a party from Watertown went farther and came to a halt upon the site of Wethersfield. A larger party, bringing cattle and such goods as they could carry, set out in the autumn and succeeded in reaching Windsor. … In the next June, 1636, the Newtown congregation, a hundred or more in number, led by their sturdy pastor, and bringing with them 160 head of cattle, made the pilgrimage to the Connecticut valley. Women and children took part in this pleasant summer journey; Mrs. Hooker, the pastor's wife, being too ill to walk, was carried on a litter. Thus, in the memorable year in which our great university was born, did Cambridge become, in the true Greek sense of a much-abused word, the metropolis or 'mother town' of Hartford. The migration at once became strong in numbers. {497} During the past twelvemonth a score of ships had brought from England to Massachusetts more than 3,000 souls, and so great an accession made further movement easy. Hooker's pilgrims were soon followed by the Dorchester and Watertown congregations, and by the next May 800 people were living in Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield. As we read of these movements, not of individuals, but of organic communities, united in allegiance to a church and its pastor, and fervid with the instinct of self-government, we seem to see Greek history renewed, but with centuries of added political training. For one year a board of commissioners from Massachusetts governed the new towns, but at the end of that time the towns chose representatives and held a General Court at Hartford, and thus the separate existence of Connecticut was begun. As for Springfield, which was settled about the same time by a party from Roxbury, it remained for some years doubtful to which state it belonged."

_J. Fiske, The Beginnings of New England, chapter 3._

ALSO IN: _J. G. Palfrey, History of New England, volume 1, chapter 11._

_G. L. Walker, History of the First Church in Hartford, chapters 4-5._

_M. A. Green, Springfield, 1636-1886, chapter 1._

CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1636-1639. The constitutional evolution.