Part 2 — CHAPTER IV. Concerning the infallible teaching of the Roman Pontiff: (continued 80)

R. Frothingham, The Rise of the Republic, chapter 11.

ALSO IN: H. B. Grigsby, The Virginia Convention of 1776.

W. C. Rives, Life and Times of Madison, volume 1, chapter 5.

K. M. Rowland, Life of George Mason, volume 1, chapter 7.

See, also, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776-1779.

The following is the text of the Declaration of Rights:

"A Declaration of Rights, made by the Representatives of the good People of Virginia, assembled in full and free Convention, which rights do pertain to them and their posterity as the basis and foundation of government.

I. That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.

II. That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them.

III. That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection and security of the people, nation or community; of all the various modes and forms of government, that is best which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration; and that, when a government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, unalienable and indefeasible right to reform, alter or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal.

{3637}

IV. That no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges from the community but in consideration of public services, which not being descendible, neither ought the offices of magistrate, legislator or judge to be hereditary. V. That the legislative, executive and judicial powers should be separate and distinct; and that the members thereof may be restrained from oppression, by feeling and participating the burthens of the people, they should, at fixed periods, be reduced to a private station, return into that body from which they were originally taken, and the vacancies be supplied by frequent, certain and regular elections, in which all, or any part of the former members to be again eligible or ineligible, as the laws shall direct.

VI. That all elections ought to be free, and that all men having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and attachment to the community, have the right of suffrage, and cannot be taxed, or deprived of their property for public uses, without their own consent, or that of their representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not in like manner assented, for the public good.

VII. That all power of suspending laws, or the execution of laws, by any authority, without consent of the representatives of the people, is injurious to their rights, and ought not to be exercised.

VIII. That in all capital or criminal prosecutions, a man hath a right to demand the cause and nature of his accusation, to be confronted with the accusers and witnesses, to call for evidence in his favor, and to a speedy trial by an impartial jury of twelve men of his vicinage, without whose unanimous consent he cannot be found guilty; nor can he be compelled to give evidence against himself; that no man be deprived of his liberty, except by the law of the land or the judgment of his peers.

IX. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

X. That general warrants, whereby an officer or messenger may be commanded to search suspected places without evidence of a fact committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, or whose offence is not particularly described and supported by evidence, are grievous and oppressive, and ought not to be granted.

XI. That in controversies respecting property, and in suits between man and man, the ancient trial by jury of twelve men is preferable to any other, and ought to be held sacred.

XII. That the freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments.

XIII. That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural and safe defence of a free State; that standing armies in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.

XIV. That the people have a right to uniform government; and therefore, that no government separate from or independent of the government of Virginia, ought to be erected or established within the limits thereof.

XV. That no free government, or the blessing of liberty, can be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality and virtue, and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.

XVI. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love and charity towards each other.

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1776-1779. The war in the north. The Articles of Confederation. Alliance with France.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776, to 1779.

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1776-1808. Antislavery opinion and the causes of its disappearance.

See SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D. 1776-1808.

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1778. Suppression of the Transylvania Company in Kentucky.

See KENTUCKY: A. D. 1765-1778.

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1778-1779. Clark's conquest of the Northwest and its organization under the jurisdiction of Virginia.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778-1779 CLARK'S CONQUEST.

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1779. British coast raids, at Norfolk and elsewhere.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778-1779 WASHINGTON GUARDING THE HUDSON.

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1779-1786. Settlement of boundaries with Pennsylvania. The Pan-handle.

"In 1779 commissioners appointed by the two States met at Baltimore to agree upon the common boundaries of Pennsylvania and Virginia. … On both sides there was an evident desire to end the dispute. Various lines were proposed and rejected. On August 31 the commissioners signed this agreement: 'To extend Mason and Dixon's line due west five degrees of longitude, to be computed from the River Delaware, for the southern boundary of Pennsylvania, and that a meridian line drawn from the western extremity thereof to the northern limit of the said State be the western boundary of Pennsylvania forever.' This contract was duly ratified by the legislatures of the two States. In 1785 Mason and Dixon's line was extended, and the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania established. The 'Pan-handle' is what was left of Virginia east of the Ohio River and north of Mason and Dixon's line, after the boundary was run from this point to Lake Erie in 1786. … It received its name in legislative debate from Honorable John McMillan, delegate from Brooke County, to match the Accomac projection, which he dubbed the Spoonhandle."

B. A. Hinsdale, The Old Northwest, page 109 and foot-note.

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1780-1783. The war in the South. Arnold's ravages. Lafayette's campaign. Surrender of Cornwallis. Peace with Great Britain.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1780, to 1783.

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1784. Cession of Western territorial claims to the United States.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1781-1786.

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1787-1788. The formation and adoption of the Federal Constitution.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1787; and 1787-1789.

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1791-1792. Separation of Kentucky and its admission to the Union as a State.

See KENTUCKY: A. D. 1789-1792.

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1798. The Nullifying Resolutions of Madison.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1798.

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1808. The Embargo and its effects.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1804-1809; and 1808.

{3638}

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1813. The coasts raided by British naval parties.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1812-1813 INDIFFERENCE TO THE NAVY.

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1831. The Nat Turner insurrection of Slaves.

See SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D. 1828-1832.

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1859. John Brown's invasion at Harper's Ferry.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1859.

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (January-June). Attempted peace-making. The State carried into rebellion. Separation of West Virginia, which adheres to the Union.

"Early in January, 1861, the Virginia Assembly met at Richmond to determine the action of the Commonwealth in the approaching struggle. It was plain that war was coming unless the authorities of the United States and of the seceding States would listen to reason; and the first proceedings of the Assembly looked to peace and the restoration of fraternal union. Virginia recommended to all the States to appoint deputies to a Peace Convention. …

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (FEBRUARY) THE PEACE CONVENTION].

Thus ended in failure the first attempt of Virginia to preserve the national peace; and the crisis demanded that she should promptly decide upon her course. On February 13 (1861) a Convention assembled at Richmond, and a Committee was appointed on Federal Relations. On March 10 (1861), this Committee reported fourteen resolutions protesting against all interference with slavery; declaring secession to be a right; and defining the grounds on which the Commonwealth would feel herself to be justified in exercising that right, namely: the failure to obtain guarantees; the adoption of a warlike policy by the Government of the United States; or the attempt to exact the payment of duties from the seceded States, or to reënforce or recapture the Southern forts. These resolves clearly define the attitude of Virginia at this critical moment. After prolonged discussion, all but the last had passed the Convention when intelligence came that war had begun. The thunder of cannon from Charleston harbor broke up the political discussion. … Mr. Lincoln had expressed himself in his inaugural with perfect plainness. Secession was unlawful, and the Union remained unbroken; it was his duty to execute the laws, and he should perform it. To execute the laws it was necessary to have an army; and (April 15, 1861) President Lincoln issued his proclamation calling for 75,000 troops from the States remaining in the Union. The direct issue was thus presented, and Virginia was called upon to decide the momentous question whether she would fight against the South or against the North. … As late as the first week in April the Convention had refused to secede by a vote of 89 to 45. Virginia was conscientiously following her old traditions and would not move. Now the time had come at last. … On the 17th of April, two days after the Federal proclamation, the Convention passed an ordinance of secession and adhesion to the Southern Confederacy, by a vote of 88 to 55, which was ratified by the people by a majority of 96,750 votes, out of a total of 161,018. West Virginia refused to be bound by the action of the Convention, and became a separate State, but the Virginia of the Tidewater and Valley went with the South."

J. E. Cooke, Virginia, part 3, chapter 22.

"Of the 46 delegates from the territory now comprising West Virginia, 29 voted against [the ordinance of secession], 9 for it, 7 were absent and one excused. Those who voted against it hastened to leave the city," and, on reaching their homes, became generally the leaders of a movement to separate their section of the State from the Old Dominion. On the 13th of May a convention of delegates from the counties of Northwestern Virginia was held at Wheeling, by the action of which a more general convention was called and held at the same place on the 11th day of June. The latter convention assumed the power to reorganize the government of the State of Virginia.

V. A. Lewis, History of West Virginia, chapter 21-23.

ALSO IN: J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay, Abraham Lincoln, volume 3, chapter 25, and volume 4, chapter 19.

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (April). Governor Letcher's reply to President Lincoln's call for troops.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (APRIL).

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (April). Seizure of Harper's Ferry and Norfolk Navy Yard.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (APRIL). ACTIVITY OF REBELLION.

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (June-November). The loyal State government organized in West Virginia. Steps taken toward separation from the old State.

A Convention held on the 11th of June in West Virginia declared the State offices of Virginia vacant by reason of the treason of those who had been elected to hold them, and proceeded to form a regular State organization, with Francis H. Pierpont for the executive head. Maintaining that the loyal people were entitled to speak for the whole State they declared that their government was the government of Virginia. They subsequently admitted delegates from Alexandria and Fairfax Counties in Middle Virginia and from Accomac and Northampton Counties on the eastern shore. Thus organized, the government was acknowledged by Congress as the government of Virginia and senators and representatives were admitted to seats. The Pierpont Government, as it was called, then adopted an ordinance on the 20th of August, 1861, providing "for the formation of a new State out of a portion of the territory of this State." The ordinance was approved by a vote of the people, and on the 26th of November the Convention assembled in Wheeling to frame a constitution for the new government.

J. G. Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, volume 1, chapter 21.

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (July). Richmond made the capital of the Southern Confederacy.

"The Conspiracy had no intention originally of establishing its seat of government at Richmond. That was a part of the price exacted by Virginia for her secession, and it was not paid without reluctance. It is to be remembered that at that time every thing seemed to turn on what the Border States would do. … By establishing the seat of government at Richmond, it became certain that the most powerful of the Southern armies would always be present in Virginia. If Virginia had been abandoned, all the Border States would have gone with the North. … The Confederates having determined on the transfer of their seat of government to Richmond, the necessary preparations were completed, and their Congress opened its first session in that city on the 20th of July, 1861."

J. W. Draper, History of the American Civil War, chapter 39 (volume 2).

{3639}

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861-1865. The Battleground of the Civil War.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (MAY: VIRGINIA), and after.

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1862 (April-November). The separation of West Virginia consummated.

See WEST VIRGINIA: A. D. 1862 (APRIL-DECEMBER).

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1865. The last meeting of the Secession Legislature. President Lincoln's Permit.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (APRIL: VIRGINIA).

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1865. Recognition of the Pierpont State Government by President Johnson.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (MAY-JULY).

VIRGINIA: A. D. 1865-1870. Reconstruction.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (MAY-JULY), to 1868-1870.

—————VIRGINIA: End————

VIRGINIA, University of.

"In 1816 the Legislature of Virginia authorized the president and directors of the Literary Fund to report a plan for a university at the next session of the Assembly. The committee made a full report as requested, but nothing was accomplished beyond bringing the subject of education prominently before the people. At the legislative session of 1817-18 that part of the bill relating to a university and the education of the poor was passed. … In the bill authorizing the establishment of the university, it was provided that the sum of $45,000 per annum should be given for the education of the poor, and $15,000 to the university. The commissioners having reported in favor of Central College as the most convenient place in Albemarle County, the Legislature decided, after much discussion, to locate the university at Charlottesville, and to assume the property and site of Central College. The commissioners embodied in their report an exhaustive plan for a university, chiefly from the pen of Thomas Jefferson."

F. W. Blackmar, History of Federal and State Aid to Higher Education in the United States, (Bureau of Education, Circular of Information, 1890, number 1), pages 174-175.

ALSO IN: H. B. Adams, Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia (Bureau of Education, Circular of Information, 1888, number 1).

VIRGINIA, West.

See WEST VIRGINIA.

VIROCONIUM.

See URICONIUM.

VISCONTI, The House of the.

See MILAN: A. D. 1277-1447.

VISIGOTHS.

See GOTHS.

VITALIAN, Pope, A. D. 657-672.

VITELLIAN CIVIL WAR.

See ROME: A. D. 69.

VITELLIUS, Roman Emperor, A. D. 69.

VITEPSK, Battle of.

See RUSSIA: A. D. 1812 (JUNE-SEPTEMBER).

VITTORIA, Battle of (1813).

See SPAIN: A. D. 1812-1814.

VIZIR, VIZIER.

"Like the Sassanian emperors, the Caliph was not only the divinely appointed ruler, but the embodiment of the government itself. His word was literally law, and his caprice might at any moment overturn the most careful calculations of the ministers, or deprive them of life, power, or liberty, during the performance of their most active duties, or at a most critical juncture. It was very seldom, however, that this awful personage condescended to trouble himself about the actual details of the executive government. The Vizier, as the word implies [Vizier, in Arabic Wazir, means 'One who bears a burden,'—Foot-note], was the one who bore the real burden of the State, and it was both his interest and that of the people at large to keep the Caliph himself as inactive as possible, and to reduce him, in fact, to the position of a mere puppet."

E. H. Palmer, Haroun Alraschid, Caliph of Bagdad, chapter. 1.

See, also, SUBLIME PORTE.

VLADIMIR I. (called The Great) Duke of Kiev, A. D. 981-1015.

VLADIMIR II., Duke of Kiev, 1113-1126.

VOCATES, The.

See AQUITAINE: THE ANCIENT TRIBES.

VOCLAD, OR VOUGLÉ, Battle of.

See GOTHS (VISIGOTHS): A. D. 507-509.

VOCONIAN LAW.

The object of the Voconian Law, passed at Rome about 169 B. C. under the auspices of Cato the censor, "was to limit the social influence of women, by forbidding rich citizens to make them heiresses of more than one half of their whole estate."

W. Ihne, History of Rome, book 6, chapter 12 (volume 4).

VODIÆ, The.

See IRELAND: TRIBES OF EARLY CELTIC INHABITANTS.

VOIVODES, WOIWODES.

See POLAND: A. D. 1578-1652; also BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: A. D. 1341-1350 (SERVIA).

VOLATERRÆ, Siege of.

Some remnants of the armies defeated by Sulla, in the civil war which ended in his mastery of Rome and the Roman state (B. C. 82), took refuge in the strong Etruscan town of Volaterræ, and only capitulated after a siege of two years.

W. Ihne, History of Rome, book 7, chapter 19 (volume 5).

VOLCÆ, The.

"When the Romans entered the south of France, two tribes occupied the country west of the Rhone as far at least as Tolosa (Toulouse) on the Garonne. The eastern people, named the Volcae Arecomici, possessed the part between the Cebenna or Cevenna range (Cevennes), the Rhone, and the Mediterranean, and according to Strabo extended to Narbonne. The chief town of these Volcae was Nemausus (Nismes). The Volcae Tectosages had the upper basin of the Garonne: their chief town was Tolosa."

G. Long, Decline of the Roman Republic, volume 1, chapter 21.

VOLSCIAN WARS OF ROME.

See ROME: B. C. 489-450.

VOLSCIANS, The.

See OSCANS; also ITALY, ANCIENT; and LATIUM.

VOLTA, Battle of (1848).

See ITALY: A. D. 1848-1849.

VOLTURNO, Battle of the (1860). See ITALY: A. D. 1859-1861.

VOLUNTII, The.

See BRITAIN, CELTIC TRIBES; also, IRELAND: TRIBES OF EARLY CELTIC INHABITANTS.

VRACHOPHAGOS, Battle of (1352).

See CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 1348-1355.

VROEDSCHAP, The.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1584-1585 LIMITS OF THE UNITED PROVINCES.

VULCANAL AT ROME, The.

"The Vulcanal, or, as it is called by Livy, the Area Vulcani, must have been close to the Senaculum [early meeting place of the Senate], on the slope of the Capitol. It seems to have been originally an open space of some extent, used for public meetings, especially those of the Comitia Tributa, and dedicated to Vulcan. Sacrifices of small fish were offered to Vulcan here, and a temple dedicated to that god stood also here in the earliest times, but it was afterwards, on the enlargement of the pomœrium beyond the Palatine, removed for religious reasons to the Circus Flaminius, and the Vulcanal became simply a consecrated area."

R. Burn, Rome and the Campagna, chapter 6, part 1.

C. I. Hemans, Historic and Monumental Rome, page 209.

{3640}

VULGAR ERA.

See ERA, CHRISTIAN.

W.

WAARTGELDERS.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1603-1619.

WABASH RIVER: Called the River St. Jerome by the French (1712).

See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1698-1712.

WABENAKIES, OR ABNAKIS.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ABNAKIS.

WACOS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: PAWNEE (CADDOAN) FAMILY.

WAGER OF BATTLE. TRIAL BY COMBAT. JUDICIAL COMBAT.

"Trial by combat does not seem to have established itself completely in France till ordeals went into disuse, which Charlemagne rather encouraged, and which, in his age, the clergy for the most part approved. The former species of decision may, however, be met with under the first Merovingian kings (Greg. Turon, l. vii. c. 19, l. x. c. 10), and seems to have prevailed in Burgundy. It is established by the laws of the Alemanni or Suabians. Baluz. t. i. p. 80. It was always popular in Lombardy. … Otho II. established it in al disputes concerning real property. … God, as they deemed, was the judge. The nobleman fought on horseback, with all his arms of attack and defence; the plebeian on foot, with his club and target. The same were the weapons of the champions to whom women and ecclesiastics were permitted to intrust their rights. If the combat was intended to ascertain a civil right, the vanquished party, of course, forfeited his claim and paid a fine. If he fought by proxy, the champion was liable to have his hand struck off: a regulation necessary, perhaps, to obviate the corruption of these hired defenders. In criminal cases the appellant suffered, in the event of defeat, the same punishment which the law awarded to the offence of which he accused his adversary. Even where the cause was more peaceably tried, and brought to a regular adjudication by the court, an appeal for false judgment might indeed be made to the suzerain, but it could only be tried by battle. And in this, the appellant, if he would impeach the concurrent judgment of the court below, was compelled to meet in combat everyone of its members; unless he should vanquish them all within the day, his life, if he escaped from so many hazards, was forfeited to the law. If fortune or miracle should make him conqueror in every contest, the judges were equally subject to death, and their court forfeited their jurisdiction for ever. … Such was the judicial system of France when St. Louis [A. D. 1226-1270] enacted that great code which bears the name of his Establishments. The rules of civil and criminal procedure, as well as the principles of legal decisions, are there laid down with much detail. But that incomparable prince, unable to overthrow the judicial combat, confined himself to discourage it by the example of a wiser jurisprudence. It was abolished throughout the royal domains." Trial by combat "was never abolished by any positive law, either in France [at large] or England. But instances of its occurrence are not frequent even in the fourteenth century."

H. Hallam, The Middle Ages, chapter 2, part 2 (volume 1).

"Nor was the wager of battle confined to races of Celtic or Teutonic origin. The Slavonic tribes, as they successively emerge into the light of history, show the same tendency to refer doubtful points of civil and criminal law to the arbitrament of the sword. The earliest records of Hungary, Bohemia, Poland, Servia, Silesia, Moravia, Pomerania, Lithuania, and Russia, present evidences of the prevalence of the system." The last recorded instance of the wager of battle in France was in 1549. "In England, the resolute conservatism, which resists innovation to the last, prolonged the existence of the wager of battle until a period unknown in other civilized nations. … It was not until the time of Elizabeth that it was even abolished in civil cases. … Even in the 17th century, instances of the battle ordeal between persons of high station are on record." As late as 1818 the right was claimed and conceded by the judges, in a criminal case which caused much excitement. "The next year the act 59 Geo. III. chap. 46, at length put an end for ever to this last remnant of the age of chivalry."

H. C. Lea, Superstition and Force, chapter 2.

See, also, LAW, CRIMINAL: A. D. 1818.

WAGER OF LAW.

"This was the remarkable custom which was subsequently known as canonical compurgation, and which long remained a part of English jurisprudence, under the name of the Wager of Law. The defendant, when denying the allegation under oath, appeared surrounded by a number of companions—'juratores,' 'conjuratores,' 'sacramentales,' 'collaudantes,' 'compurgatores,' as they were variously termed—who swore, not to their knowledge of the facts, but as sharers and partakers in the oath of denial. This curious form of procedure derives importance from the fact that it is an expression of the character, not of an isolated sept, but of nearly all the races that have moulded the destinies of Europe. The Ostrogoths in Italy, and the Wisigoths of the South of France and Spain were the only nations in whose codes it occupies no place, and they, … at an early period, yielded themselves completely to the influence of the Roman civilization. … The church, with the tact which distinguished her dealings with her new converts, was not long in adopting a system which was admirably suited for her defence in an age of brute force."

H. C. Lea, Superstition and Force, chapter 1.

On the abolition of the Wager of Law.

See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1833.

WAGNER, Fort, The assault on, the siege, and the final reduction of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (JULY: SOUTH CAROLINA), and (AUGUST-DECEMBER: SOUTH CAROLINA).

WAGRAM, Battle of.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1809 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).

{3641}

WAHABEES, The.

"The Wahabees derive their name from Abdul Wahab, the father of Sheikh Muhammad, their founder, who arose about the beginning of the last century, in the province of Najd, in Arabia. The object of the Wahabee movement was to sweep away all later innovations, and to return to the original purity of Islam, as based upon the exact teaching of the Koran and the example of Mahomet. The principles of the sect rapidly spread among the Arab tribes, and were adopted by the sovereign princes of Darayeh, in Najd. Impelled by religious zeal and political ambition, and allured by the prospect of plunder, the Wahabees soon acquired nearly the whole of Arabia, and menaced the neighbouring Pashaliks of Turkey and Egypt. Mecca and Medina soon fell into their hands, the shrine was despoiled of its rich ornaments, and the pilgrim route to the Kaaba closed for some years. Early in this century (1811), Muhammad Ali, the Pasha of Egypt, at the bidding of the Sultan, set himself to check the progress of this aggressive sect; and his son Ibrahim Pasha completed the work (1818). … The following particulars of the Wahabee reform need only be added. They reject the decisions of the 'four orthodox doctors,' and the intercessions of saints; they condemn the excessive reverence paid to Mahomet, and deny his mediation, until the last day. They also disapprove of the ornamenting of tombs, &c."

J. W. H. Stobart, Islam and its Founder, chapter 10, with foot-note.

ALSO IN: W. C. Taylor, History of Mohammedanism and its Sects, chapter 11.

T. Nöldeke, Sketches from Eastern History, page 103.

WAHLSTADT, Battle of (1241).

See MONGOLS: A. D. 1229-1294; and LIEGNITZ, THE BATTLE OF.

WAHPETONS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SIOUAN FAMILY.

WAIILATPUAN FAMILY, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: WAIILATPUAN FAMILY.

WAIKAS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: CARIBS AND THEIR KINDRED.

WAITANGI, Treaty of.

See NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1642-1856.

WAITZEN, Battles of(1849).

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1848-1849.

WAIWODES, WOIWODES, VOIVODES.

See POLAND: A. D. 1578-1652; and BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: A. D. 1341-1356 (SERVIA).

WAKASHAN FAMILY, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: WAKASHAN FAMILY.

WAKEFIELD, Battle of (1460).

Queen Margaret, rallying the loyal Lancastrians of the north of England, met her enemy, the Duke of York, and the enemies of her party, on Wakefield Green, December 30, 1460, and defeated them with great slaughter, the Duke of York being found among the slain. But her fruitless victory was soon reversed by young Edward, Earl of March, eldest son of the deceased Duke of York, who deposed King Henry VI. and planted himself on the throne, before the same winter had passed.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1455-1471.

WAKEFIELD SYSTEM, The.

See AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1800-1840.

WALCHEREN EXPEDITION, The.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1809 (JULY-DECEMBER).

WALDEMAR.

See VALDEMAR.

WALDENSES, VAUDOIS, The.

"Let me at the outset express my conviction that the whole attempt to ascribe to the Waldenses an earlier date than the latter half of the 12th century, to throw back their origin some two hundred years, or sometimes much more than this, even to the times of Claudius of Turin (d. 839), is one which will not stand the test of historical criticism; while the endeavour to vindicate for them this remote antiquity has introduced infinite confusion into their whole history. The date of Waldo, who, as I cannot doubt, is rightly recognized as their founder, we certainly know. When it is sought to get rid of their relation to him as embodied in the very name which they bear, and to change this name into Vallenses, the Men of the Valleys or the Dalesmen, it is a transformation which has no likelihood, philological or historic, to recommend it. … Peter Waldo,—for we will not withhold from him this Christian name, although there is no authority for it anterior to the beginning of the 15th century,—was a rich citizen and merchant of Lyons [in the later half of the 12th century]. Not satisfied with those scanty portions of Scripture doled out to the laity in divine services, and yearning above all for a larger knowledge of the Gospels, he obtained from two friends among the priesthood a copy of these last and of some other portions of Scripture translated into the Romance language; a collection also of sayings from the Fathers. The whole movement remained to the end true to this its first motive—the desire namely for a fuller acquaintance with the Word of God. That Word he now resolved to make the rule of his life. … He …, as a first step, sells all that he has, and bestows it upon the poor. In the name which he adopts for himself and for the companions whom he presently associates with him, the same fact of a voluntary poverty, as that which above all they should embody in their lives, speaks out. On this side of the Alps they are Poor Men of Lyons; on the Italian, Poor Men of Lombardy. … And now he and his began to preach in the streets of Lyons, to find their way into houses, to itinerate the country round. Waldo had no intention herein of putting himself in opposition to the Church, of being a Reformer in any other sense than St. Francis or St. Bernard was a Reformer, a quickener, that is, and reviver of the Church's spiritual life. His protest was against practical mischiefs, against negligences and omissions on the part of those who should have taught the people, and did not. Doctrinal protest at this time there was none. But for Rome all forms of religious earnestness were suspicious which did not spring directly from herself. … In 1178 the Archbishop of Lyons forbade their preaching or expounding any more. Such as did not submit had no choice but to quit Lyons, and betake themselves elsewhere. And thus it came to pass that not the city, already so illustrious in ecclesiastical story, where Irenæus taught and Blandina suffered, … but the Alpine mountains must shelter these outcasts, and in turn be made famous by their presence." In 1209, Pope Innocent III. made an attempt to absorb Waldo's society in an "Order of Poor Catholics," which he instituted. "Failing this, he repeated, a few years later, at the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), the Church's sentence against the Waldenses, including them under a common ban with the Cathari and the whole rabble rout of Manichæans and others with whom they have so often since been confounded. … {3642} Enemies have sought to confound, that so there might be imputed to the Waldenses any evil which had been brought home to the Albigenses. … Friends have sought to identify them out of the wish to recruit the scanty number of witnesses for Scriptural and Apostolical truth in the dark ages of the Church; as certainly it would prove no small numerical addition if the Albigenses might be counted among these." It seems to be certain that the Waldenses were not spared by the crusaders who exterminated the Albigenses of southern France between 1209 and 1229. They fled before that storm into the recesses of the Alps. "But they were numerous in North Italy as well; and far more widely scattered over the whole of central Europe than their present dwelling place and numbers would at all suggest. They had congregations in Florence, in Genoa, in Venice, above all in Milan; there were Waldensian communities as far south as Calabria; they were not unknown in Arragon; still less in Switzerland; at a later day they found their way to Bohemia, and joined hands with the Hussites there."

R. C. Trench, Lectures on Mediæval Church History, lecture 17.

"The valleys which the Vaudois have raised into celebrity lie to the west of Piemont, between the province of Pignerol and Briançon, and adjoining on the other side to the ancient Marquisate of Susa, and that of the Saluces. The capital, La Tour, being about 36 miles from Turin, and 14 from Pignerol. The extent of the valleys is about 12 Italian miles, making a square of about 24 French leagues. The valleys are three in number, Luzern, Perouse, and St. Martin. The former (in which the chief town is now Catholic) is the most beautiful and extensive."

J. Bresse, History of the Vaudois, part 1, chapter i.

The Waldenses are sometimes confused, mistakenly, with the Albigenses, who belonged to an earlier time.

See ALBIGENSES.

ALSO IN: A. Muston, The Israel of the Alps.

E. Comba, History of the Waldenses of Italy..

WALDENSES: A. D. 1526-1561. Identification with the Calvinists. Persecuting war of the Duke of Savoy. The tolerant treaty of Cavour.

See SAVOY AND PIEDMONT: A. D. 1559-1580.

WALDENSES: A. D. 1546. Massacre of the remnant in Provence and Venaissin.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1532-1547.

WALDENSES: A. D. 1655. The second Persecution and Massacre. Cromwell's intervention.

"They [the Vaudois, or Waldenses] had experienced persecutions through their whole history, and especially after the Reformation; but, on the whole, the two last Dukes of Savoy, and also Christine, daughter of Henry IV. of France, and Duchess-Regent through the minority of her son, the present Duke, had protected them in their privileges, even while extirpating Protestantism in the rest of the Piedmontese dominions. Latterly, however, there had been a passion at Turin and at Rome for their conversion to the Catholic faith, and priests had been traversing their valleys for the purpose. The murder of one such priest, and some open insults to the Catholic worship, about Christmas 1654, are said to have occasioned what followed. On the 25th of January, 1654-5, an edict was issued, under the authority of the Duke of Savoy, 'commanding and enjoining every head of a family, with its members, of the pretended Reformed Religion, of what rank, degree, or condition soever, none excepted, inhabiting and possessing estates in the places of Luserna … &c., within three days, to withdraw and depart, and be, with their families, withdrawn out of the said places, and transported into the places and limits marked out for toleration by his Royal Highness during his good pleasure,' … unless they gave evidence within 20 days of having become Catholics. Furthermore it was commanded that in every one even of the tolerated places there should be regular celebration of the Holy Mass, and that there should be no interference therewith, nor any dissuasion of anyone from turning a Catholic, also on pain of death. All the places named are in the Valley of Luserna, and the object was a wholesale shifting of the Protestants of that valley out of nine of its communes and their concentration into five higher up. In vain were there remonstrances at Turin from those immediately concerned. On the 17th of April, 1655, the Marquis di Pianezza, entered the doomed region with a body of troops mainly Piedmontese, but with French and Irish among them. There was resistance, fighting, burning, pillaging, flight to the mountains, and chasing and murdering for eight days, Saturday, April 24, being the climax. The names of about 300 of those murdered individually are on record, with the ways of the deaths of many of them. Women were ripped open, or carried about impaled on spikes; men, women, and children, were flung from precipices, hacked, tortured, roasted alive; the heads of some of the dead were boiled and the brains eaten; there are forty printed pages, and twenty-six ghastly engravings, by way of Protestant tradition of the ascertained variety of the devilry. The massacre was chiefly in the Valley of Luserna, but extended also into the other two valleys. The fugitives were huddled in crowds high among the mountains, moaning and starving; and not a few, women and infants especially, perished amid the snows. … There was a shudder of abhorrence through Protestant Europe, but no one was so much roused as Cromwell. … On Thursday the 17th of May, and for many days more, the business of the Savoy Protestants was the chief occupation of the Council. Letters, all in Milton's Latin, but signed by the Lord Protector in his own name, were despatched (May 25) to the Duke of Savoy himself, to the French King, to the States General of the United Provinces, to the Protestant Swiss Cantons, to the King of Sweden, to the King of Denmark, and to Ragotski, Prince of Transylvania. A day of humiliation was appointed for the Cities of London and Westminster, and another for all England." A collection of money for the sufferers was made, which amounted, in England and Wales, to £38,000—equal to about £137,000 now. Cromwell's personal contribution was £2,000—equivalent to £7,500 in money of the present day. The Protector despatched a special envoy to the court of Turin, who addressed very plain and bold words to the Duke. Meanwhile Blake with his fleet was in the Mediterranean, and there were inquiries made as to the best place for landing troops to invade the Duke's dominions. "All which being known to Mazarin, that wily statesman saw that no time was to be lost. {3643} While Mr. Downing [second commissioner sent by Cromwell] was still only on his way to Geneva through France, Mazarin had instructed M. Servien, the French minister at Turin, to insist, in the French King's name, on an immediate settlement of the Vaudois business. The result was a 'Patente di Gratia e Perdono,' or 'Patent of Grace and Pardon,' granted by Charles Emanuel to the Vaudois Protestants, August 19, in terms of a Treaty at Pignerol, in which the French Minister appeared as the real mediating party and certain Envoys from the Swiss Cantons as more or less assenting. As the Patent substantially retracted the Persecuting Edict and restored the Vaudois to all their former privileges, nothing more was to be done." These events in Piedmont drew from Milton his immortal sonnet, beginning: "Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints."

D. Masson, Life of John Milton, volume 5, book 1, chapter 1, section 2.

ALSO IN: J. B. Perkins, France under Mazarin, chapter 16 (volume 2).

A. Muston, The Israel of the Alps, volume 1, part 2, chapters 6-9.

WALDENSES: A. D. 1691. Toleration obtained by William of Orange.

"In the spring of 1691, the Waldensian shepherds, long and cruelly persecuted, and weary of their lives, were surprised by glad tidings. Those who had been in prison for heresy returned to their homes. Children, who had been taken from their parents to be educated by priests, were sent back. Congregations, which had hitherto met only by stealth and with extreme peril, now worshipped God without molestation in the face of day. Those simple mountaineers probably never knew that their fate had been a subject of discussion at the Hague, and that they owed the happiness of their firesides and the security of their humble temples to the ascendency which William [of Orange] exercised over the Duke of Savoy," who had lately joined the Grand Alliance against Louis XIV. of France.

Lord Macaulay, History of England, chapter 17.

—————WALDENSES: End————

WALDSHUT: Capture by Duke Bernhard (1637).

See GERMANY: A. D. 1634-1639.

—————WALES: Start————

WALES: Origin of the name.

See WELSH.

WALES: Ancient tribes.

See BRITAIN, CELTIC TRIBES.

WALES: 6th Century. The British states embraced in it.

See BRITAIN: 6TH CENTURY.

WALES: A. D. 1066-1135. The Norman Conquest.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1087-1135.

WALES: A. D. 1282-1284. The final conquest.

"All the other races had combined on the soil of Britain, the Welsh would not. The demands of feudal homage made by the kings of England were evaded or repudiated; the intermarriages by which Henry II. and John had tried to help on a national agreement had in every case failed. In every internal difficulty of English politics the Welsh princes had done their best to embarrass the action of the kings; they had intrigued with every aspirant for power, had been in league with every rebel. … The necessity of guarding the Welsh border had caused the English kings to found on the March a number of feudal lordships, which were privileged to exercise almost sovereign jurisdictions, and exempted from the common operation of the English law. The Mortimers at Chirk and Wigmore, the Bohuns at Hereford and Brecon, the Marshalls at Pembroke, and the Clares in Glamorgan, were out of the reach of the King, and often turned against one another the arms which had been given them to overawe the Welsh. … So long as the Welsh were left free to rebel the Marchers must be left free to fight. … Llewelyn, the prince of North Wales, had, by the assistance given to Simon de Montfort, earned as his reward a recognition of his independence, subject only to the ancient feudal obligations. All the advantages won during the early years of Henry III. had been thus surrendered. When the tide turned Llewelyn had done homage to Henry; but when he was invited, in 1273, to perform the usual service to the new king, he refused; and again, in 1274 and 1275, he evaded the royal summons. In 1276, under the joint pressure of excommunication and a great army which Edward brought against him, he made a formal submission; performed the homage, and received, as a pledge of amity, the hand of Eleanor de Montfort in marriage. But Eleanor, although she was Edward's cousin, was Earl Simon's daughter, and scarcely qualified to be a peacemaker. Another adviser of rebellion was found in Llewelyn's brother David, who had hitherto taken part with the English, and had received special favours and promotion from Edward himself. … The peace made in 1277 lasted about four years. In 1282 the brothers rose, seized the border castles of Hawarden, Flint, and Rhuddlan, and captured the Justiciar of Wales, Roger Clifford. Edward saw then that his time was come. He marched into North Wales, carrying with him the courts of law and the exchequer, and transferring the seat of government for the time to Shrewsbury. He left nothing undone that might give the expedition the character of a national effort. He collected forces on all sides; he assembled the estates of the realm, clergy, lords, and commons, and prevailed on them to furnish liberal supplies; he obtained sentence of excommunication from the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Welsh made a brave defence, and, had it not been for the almost accidental capture and murder of Llewelyn in December, England might have found the task too hard for her. The death of Llewelyn, however, and the capture of David in the following June, deprived the Welsh of their leaders, and they submitted. Edward began forthwith his work of consolidation. … In 1284 he published at Rhuddlan a statute, called the Statute of Wales, which was intended to introduce the laws and customs of England, and to reform the administration of that country altogether on the English system. The process was a slow one; the Welsh retained their ancient common law and their national spirit; the administrative powers were weak and not far-reaching; the sway of the lords Marchers was suffered to continue; and, although assimilated, Wales was not incorporated with England. It was not until the reign of Henry VIII. that the principality was represented in the English Parliament, and the sovereignty, which from 1300 onwards was generally although not invariably bestowed on the king's eldest son, conferred under the most favourable circumstances little more than a high-sounding title and some slight and ideal claim to the affection of a portion of the Welsh people. The task, however, which the energies of his predecessors had failed to accomplish was achieved by Edward. All Britain south of the Tweed recognised his direct and supreme authority, and the power of the Welsh nationality was so far broken that it could never more thwart the determined and united action of England."

W. Stubbs, The Early Plantagenets, chapter 10.

ALSO IN: D. Hume, History of England, chapter 13.

J. Lingard, History of England, volume 3, chapter 3.

C. Knight, Popular History of England, chapter 25.

C. H. Pearson, History of England during the Early and Middle Ages.

{3644}

WALES: A. D. 1402-1413. Owen Glendower's Rebellion.

"Since the day when it was conquered by Edward I. Wales had given the kings of England very little trouble. The Welsh remained loyal to the son and grandson of their conqueror, and were the most devoted friends of Richard II., even when he had lost the hearts of his English subjects. But on the usurpation of Henry [IV.] their allegiance seems to have been shaken: and Owen Glendower, who was descended from Llewelyn, the last native prince of Wales, laid claim to the sovereignty of the country [A. D. 1402]. He ravaged the territory of Lord Grey of Ruthin, and took him prisoner near Snowdon; then, turning southwards, overran Herefordshire and defeated and took prisoner Sir Edmund Mortimer, uncle to that young Earl of March, who should have been heir to the crown after Richard according to the true order of descent. In this battle upwards of a thousand Englishmen were slain, and such was the fierce barbarity of the victors that even the women of Wales mutilated the dead bodies in a manner too gross to be described, and left them unburied upon the field till heavy sums were paid for their interment. It was necessary to put down this revolt of Glendower, and the King collected an army and went against him in person. It was the beginning of September; but owing, as the people thought, to magical arts and enchantments practised by the Welshman, the army suffered dreadfully from tempests of wind, rain, snow, and hail before it could reach the enemy. In one night the King's tent was blown down, and he himself would have been killed if he had not retired to rest with his armour on. Finally the enterprise had to be abandoned. … Glendower continued as troublesome as ever, and the King was unable from various causes to make much progress against him. At one time money could not easily be raised for the expedition. At another time, when he actually marched into the borders of Wales [A. D. 1405], his advance was again impeded by the elements. The rivers swelled to an unusual extent, and the army lost a great part of its baggage by the suddenness of the inundation. The French, too, sent assistance to Glendower, and took Carmarthen Castle. Some time afterwards [A. D. 1407] the King's son, Henry Prince of Wales, succeeded in taking the castle of Aberystwith; but very soon after Owen Glendower recovered it by stealth. In short, the Welsh succeeded in maintaining their independence of England during this whole reign, and Owen Glendower ultimately got leave to die in peace." On the accession of Henry V. (A. D. 1413), "the Welsh, who had been so troublesome to his father, admired his valour and claimed him as a true prince of Wales, remembering that he had been born at Monmouth, which place was at that time within the principality. They discovered that there was an ancient prophecy that a prince would be born among themselves who should rule the whole realm of England; and they saw its fulfilment in King Henry V."

J. Gairdner, The Houses of Lancaster and York, chapter. 4, section 3; and chapter 5, section 1.

ALSO IN: J. H. Wylie, History of England under Henry IV., volume 1, chapter 14.

—————WALES: End————

WALES, Prince of.

"When Edward I. subdued Wales, he is said to have promised the people of that country a native prince who could not speak English, and taking advantage of the fact that his queen, Eleanor, was delivered of a child at Carnarvon Castle, in North Wales, he conferred the principality upon his infant son Edward, who was yet unable to speak. By the death of his eldest brother Alphonso, Edward became heir to the throne, to which he afterwards succeeded as Edward II.; but from this time forward, the principality has been appropriated solely to the eldest sons of the kings of England, who previous to this period had only borne the title of 'Lord Prince.' In 1841, for the first time, the dukedom of Saxony was introduced among the reputed titles of the Prince of Wales. This dignity his Royal Highness derives merely in right of his own paternal descent. … Without any new creation, and previous to his acquiring the title of Prince of Wales, the heir-apparent of the sovereign is Duke of Cornwall, the most ancient title of its degree in England. Edward the Black Prince … was created the first Duke of Cornwall in 1337. … The dukedom merges in the Crown when there is no heir apparent, and is immediately inherited by the prince on his birth, or by the accession of his father to the throne, as the case may be. … The earldom of Chester is one of the titles conferred by patent, but it was formerly a principality, into which it had been erected by the 21st of Richard II. In the reign of Henry IV., however, the act of parliament by which it had been constituted was repealed, and it has ever since been granted in the same patent which confers the title of Prince of Wales. As the eldest sons of the kings of Scotland have enjoyed the titles of Duke of Rothsay, Earl of Carrick, Baron Renfrew, and Hereditary Great Steward of Scotland, those dignities are also invariably attributed to the Prince of Wales."

C. R. Dodd, Manual of Dignities, part 2.

WALI.

An Arabian title, given to certain governors of extensive provinces under the caliphate. It seems to have had a viceroyal significance, marking the bearer of it as an immediate representative of the caliph.

T. P. Hughes, Dictionary of Islam.

WALID I., Caliph, A. D. 705-715.

Walid II., Caliph, 743-744.

WALKER, William: Filibustering in Nicaragua.

See NICARAGUA: A. D. 1855-1860.

WALL IN BRITAIN, Roman.

See ROMAN WALLS IN BRITAIN.

WALL OF CHINA, The Great.

See CHINA: THE ORIGIN OF THE PEOPLE.

WALL OF PROBUS.

See GERMANY: A. D. 277.

WALLACE, William, and the Scottish struggle for independence.

See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1290-1305.

{3645}

WALLACHS, WALLACHIANS. WALLACHIA: The name.

This is one of the forms of a name which the ancient Germanic peoples seem to have given to non-Germanic nations whom they associated in any wise with the Roman empire.

See WELSH.

For an account of the Wallachians of southeastern Europe, and their country.

See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.

WALLENSTEIN, Campaigns of.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1624-1626; 1627-1629; 1630; 1631-1632; and 1632-1634.

WALLHOF, Battle of (1626).

See SCANDINAVIAN STATES (SWEDEN): A. D. 1611-1629.

WALLINGFORD, Treaty of.

A treaty concluded, A. D. 1153, between King Stephen and Matilda, who claimed the English crown as the heir of her father, Henry I. By the treaty Stephen was recognized as king and Matilda's son Henry (who became Henry II.) was made his heir.

WALLOONS, The.

"In Namur, Liege, and Luxembourg, the speech is what is called Walloon, the same word as Welsh, and derived from the German root 'wealh,' a foreigner. By this designation the Germans of the Flemish tongue denoted the Romano-Belgic population whose language was akin to the French, and whom a hilly and impracticable country (the forest districts of the Ardennes) had more or less protected from their own arms. Now the Walloon is a form of the Romano-Keltic so peculiar and independent that it must be of great antiquity, i. e., as old as the oldest dialect of the French, and no extension of the dialects of Lorraine, or Champagne, from which it differs materially. It is also a language which must have been formed on a Keltic basis. … The Walloons, then, are Romano-Keltic; whereas the Flemings are Germans, in speech and in blood."

R. G. Latham, Ethnology of Europe, chapter 3.

See, also, NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1494-1519.

WALPOLE, The administration of.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1714-1721, and 1727-1741.

WALPOLE COMPANY, The.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1765-1768.

WÄLSCH, The.

See VENEDI.

WALTER, the Penniless, Crusade of.

See CRUSADES: A. D. 1096-1099.

WAMPANOAGS, POKANOKETS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY; also, NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1674-1675, 1675, 1676-1678.

WAMPUM.

"Wampum, or wompam, according to Trumbull was the name of the white beads made from stems or inner whorls of the Pyrula Carica or Canaliculata periwinkle shells so common on all the south Coast of New England. When strung they were called wampon or wampom—peage or peake or peg, equivalent to 'strings of white beads,' for peage means 'strung beads.' Color was the basis of the nomenclature, as well as of the difference in value. 'Wompi' was white; 'Sacki' was black; 'Suckauhock' was the black beads made from the dark part of the poquauhock, the common quahog, Venus' mercenaria or round clam shell. The value of the black was generally twice that of the white. … The word generally used among the Dutch who led in introducing the bead currency of the Indians, Sewan or Zeewand, was more general in its application than wampum. But whatever the difficult Indian linguistic process may have been, the New England men soon settled on wampum and peage as the working names for this currency. The shell cylinders, black or white, were about one-eighth of an inch in diameter and one-quarter long. There were shorter beads used for ornaments, but there is hardly any trace of them in the currency. … The Indians strung the beads on fibres of hemp or tendons taken from the flesh of their forest meat. … The strings of peage were embroidered on strips of deer-skin, making the 'Máchequoce,' a girdle or belt 'of five inches thicknesse,' or more, and to the value of ten pounds sterling or more, which was worn about the waist or thrown over the shoulders like a scarf. More than 10,000 beads were wrought into a single belt four inches wide. These belts were in common use like the gold and jewelry of our day. They also played the same symbolic part which survives in the crown jewels and other regalia of civilized nations. … Whenever the Indians made an important statement in their frequent negotiations, they presented a belt to prove it, to give force to their words. … It gave to the words the weight of hard physical facts and made the expression an emblem of great force and significance. The philologists call this literary office, this symbolic function of wampum, an elementary mnemonic record. The same was fulfilled by the quippus, knotted strings or quipu of the ancient Peruvians. … 'This belt preserves my words' was a common remark of the Iroquois Chief in council. … The Iroquois were a mighty nation, almost an incipient state. Their only records were in these mnemonic beads. … Tradition gives to the Narragansetts the honor of inventing these valued articles, valuable both for use and exchange. … The Long Island Indians manufactured the beads in large quantities and then were forced to pay them away in tribute to the Mohawks and the fiercer tribes of the interior. Furs were readily exchanged for these trinkets, which carried a permanent value, through the constancy of the Indian desire for them. … After the use of wampum was established in colonial life, contracts were made payable at will in wampum, beaver, or silver. … The use began in New England in 1627. It was a legal tender until 1661, and for more than three quarters of a century the wampum was current in small transactions."

W. B. Weeden, Indian Money as a Factor in New England Civilization.

See, also, MONEY AND BANKING: 17th CENTURY; QUIPU; and MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1623-1629.

WANBOROUGH, Battle of.

See HWICCAS.

WANDIWASH, Battle of (1760).

See INDIA: A. D. 1758-1761.

WAPANACHKIK, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

WAPENING, The.

The mediæval armed assembly of Ghent and other Flemish towns.

J. Michelet, History of France, book 12, chapter 1.

WAPENTAKE, The.

See HUNDRED, THE.

WAPISIANAS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: CARIBS AND THEIR KINDRED.

WAPPINGERS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

WAR OF 1812, The.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1804-1809; 1808; and 1810-1812, to 1815 (JANUARY).

WAR OF JENKINS' EAR, The.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1739-1741.

WAR OF LIBERATION.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1812-1813, to 1813 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).

{3646}

WAR OF THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION.

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1740, to 1744-1745; NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1745, and 1746-1747; ITALY: A. D. 1741-1743, to 1746-1747; AIX-LA-CHAPELLE: THE CONGRESS.

WAR OF THE FEDERATION.

See VENEZUELA: A. D. 1829-1886.

WAR OF THE LOVERS, The.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1578-1580.

WAR OF THE QUEEN'S RIGHTS.

See NETHERLANDS (THE SPANISH PROVINCES): A. D. 1667.

WAR OF THE REBELLION (of the American Slave States), or War of Secession.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1860 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER), and after.

Statistics.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (MAY) STATISTICS.

WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1702, and after; NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1702-1704, and after; GERMANY: A. D. 1702, and after; ITALY: A. D. 1701-1713; NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1702-1710; and UTRECHT: A. D. 1712-1714.

WAR OF THE THREE HENRYS.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1584-1589.

WARAUS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: CARIBS AND THEIR KINDRED.

WARBECK, PERKIN, Rebellion of.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1487-1497.

WARBURG, Battle of.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1760.

WARD, General Artemas, and the American Revolution.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (APRIL-MAY), (MAY-AUGUST), and (JUNE).

WARINGS, The.

See VARANGIANS.

WARNA, VARNA, Battle of (1444).

See TURKS: A. D. 1402-1451.

WARREN, Dr. Joseph, and the American Revolution.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (MAY), and (JUNE).

WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE, The.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1560-1563, to 1593-1598.

WARS OF THE ROSES.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1455-1471.

WARSAW: A. D. 1656. Three days battle with Swedes and Brandenburgers. Defeat of the Poles.

See BRANDENBURG: A. D. 1640-1688; and SCANDINAVIAN STATES (SWEDEN): A. D. 1644-1697.

WARSAW: A. D. 1792-1794. Occupied by the Russians. Their forces expelled. Capture of the city by Souvorof. Its acquisition by Prussia.

See POLAND: A. D. 1791-1792; and 1793-1796.

WARSAW: A. D. 1807. Created a Grand Duchy, and ceded to the King of Saxony.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1807 (JUNE-JULY).

WARSAW: A. D. 1815. The Grand Duchy given to Russia.

See VIENNA, THE CONGRESS OF.

WARSAW: A. D. 1830-1831. Revolt. Attack and capture by the Russians.

See POLAND: A. D. 1830-1832.

WARTBURG, Luther at.

See PAPACY: A. D. 1521-1522.

German students' demonstration (1817).

See GERMANY: A. D. 1817-1820.

WARTENBURG, Battle of.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1813 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER).

WARWICK, the King-maker.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1455-1471.

WARWICK PLANTATION.

See RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1641-1647.

WASHAKIS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES, SHOSHONEAN FAMILY.

WASHINGTON, George: First campaigns.

See OHIO (VALLEY): A. D. 1754, and 1755.

In the War of the American Revolution.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (MAY-AUGUST), to 1783 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER).

The framing of the Federal Constitution.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1787.

Presidential election and administration.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1789, to 1796.

Farewell Address.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1796.

—————WASHINGTON (City): Start————

WASHINGTON (City): A. D. 1791. The founding of the Federal Capital.

"One important duty which engaged the President's [Washington's] attention during part of the recess [of Congress] related to the purchase and survey of the new Federal city. The site chosen on the Potomac by himself and the commissioners, in conformity with law [see UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1789-1792], lay a few miles to the north of Mount Vernon on the Maryland side of the river, at the confluence of the Eastern Branch, and just below Georgetown. The tradition goes that, while a young surveyor scouring the neighboring country, Washington had marked the advantages of this spot for a great city. … The entire soil belonged in large parcels to a few plain, easy, Maryland farmers, who rode over to Georgetown for their flour and bacon. One of these only, David Burns, was obstinate about making terms; and the subsequent rise of land in the western quarter of the city, which his farmhouse now occupied, rendered his little daughter in time the heiress of Washington, and confirmed his claims to historical consideration as the most conspicuous grantor of the National Capital. For procuring this choice spot on behalf of his countrymen, the President conducted the negotiations in person, and the purchase of the Federal city was concluded upon just and even generous terms. Each owner surrendered his real estate to the United States with no restriction except that of retaining every alternate lot for himself. The government was permitted to reserve all tracts specially desired at £25 an acre, while the land for avenues, streets, and alleys should cost nothing. Thus the Federal Capital came to the United States as substantially a free conveyance of half the fee of the soil in consideration of the enhanced value expected for the other half. … Major l'Enfant, a French architect, was selected to plan and lay out the new city. The highways were mapped and bounded substantially as they exist at this day, being so spacious and so numerous in comparison with building lots as to have admitted of no later change, in the course of a century, except in the prudent direction of parking, enlarging sidewalks, and leaving little plats in front of houses to be privately cared for. Streets running due north and south from the northern boundary to the Potomac were intersected at right angles by others which extended east and west. {3647} To mar the simplicity of this plan, however, which so far resembled that of Philadelphia, great avenues, 160 feet wide, were run diagonally, radiating like spokes, from such main centres as Capitol Hill and the President's house. … This new Capital, by the President modestly styled 'the Federal City,' but to which the commissioners, by general acclamation, proceeded in September to affix his illustrious name, was America's first grand essay at a metropolis in advance of inhabitants. … The founder himself entered with unwonted ardor into the plans projected for developing this the new Capital. Not only did he picture the city which bore his name as an instructor of the coming youth in lessons of lofty patriotism, but he prophesied for it national greatness apart from its growth as the repository of the nation. He believed it would become a prosperous commercial city, its wharves studded with sails, enjoying all the advantages of Western traffic by means of a canal linking the Potomac and Ohio rivers, so as to bring Western produce to the seaboard. The ten-mile square which comprised the territorial District of Columbia, inclusive of the Capital, stretched across the Potomac, taking Georgetown from the Maryland jurisdiction, and Alexandria from Virginia. … The first corner-stone of this new Federal district was publicly laid with Masonic ceremonies, and though the auction sale of city lots in autumn proved disappointing, the idea prevailed that the government would gain from individual purchasers in Washington city a fund ample enough for erecting there all the public buildings at present needed."

J. Schouler, History of the United States, chapter 2, section 2 (volume 1).

ALSO IN: M. Clemmer, Ten Years in Washington, chapters 1-3.

C. B. Todd, The Story of Washington, chapters 1-2.

J. A. Porter, The City of Washington (Johns Hopkins University Studies, series 3, numbers 11-12).

WASHINGTON (City): A. D. 1814. In the hands of the British. Destruction of public buildings.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1814 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER).

WASHINGTON (City): A. D. 1861 (April). The threatening activity of rebellion. Peril of the national capital.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (APRIL) ACTIVITY OF REBELLION.

WASHINGTON (City): A. D. 1861 (April-May). The coming of the first defenders of the national capital.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (APRIL), and (APRIL-MAY: MARYLAND).

WASHINGTON (City): A. D. 1862 (April). Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (APRIL-JUNE).

WASHINGTON (City): A. D. 1864. Approached and threatened by Early.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (JULY: VIRGINIA-MARYLAND).

WASHINGTON (City): A. D. 1867. Extension of suffrage to the Negroes.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1867 (JANUARY).

—————WASHINGTON (City): End————

WASHINGTON, Fort: A. D. 1776. Capture by the British.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).

WASHINGTON, The proposed state, to be formed west of Pennsylvania.

See NORTHWEST TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1784.

WASHINGTON (State): A. D. 1803. Was it embraced in the Louisiana Purchase? Grounds of American possession.

See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1798-1803.

WASHINGTON (State): A. D. 1846. Possession for the United States secured by the settlement of the Oregon boundary question with England.

See OREGON: A. D. 1844-1846.

WASHINGTON (State): A. D. 1889. Admission to the Union.

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

WASHINGTON, Treaty of (1842).

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1842 THE ASHBURTON TREATY.

Treaty of (1871).

See ALABAMA CLAIMS: A. D. 1871.

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, St. Louis.

See EDUCATION, MODERN: REFORMS &c.: A. D. 1865-1886.

WASHOAN FAMILY, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: WASHOAN FAMILY.

WAT TYLER'S REBELLION.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1381.

WATAUGA ASSOCIATION, The.

See TENNESSEE: A. D. 1769-1772.

WATERFORD: A. D. 1170. Stormed and taken by Strongbow.

See IRELAND: A. D. 1169-1175.

WATER-LILY SECT, The.

See TRIAD SOCIETY.

WATERLOO CAMPAIGN, Napoleon's.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1815 (JUNE).

WATERLOO FIELD, in Marlborough's Campaigns:

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1705.

WATERWAYS.

See (in Supplement) COMMERCE, MODERN.

WATHEK, Al, Caliph, A. D. 841-847.

WATLING STREET.

The Milky Way was known to our early English ancestors as Watling Street, signifying the road "by which the hero-sons of Waetla marched across" the heavens. When they settled in England they transferred the name Watling Street to the great Roman road which they found traversing the island, from London to Chester. Portions of the road, in London and elsewhere, still bear the name. Even in Chaucer's time the Milky Way appears to have been sometimes called Watling Street.

J. R. Green, The Making of England, page 166.

ALSO IN: T. Wright, The Celt, the Roman and the Saxon.

See ROMAN ROADS IN BRITAIN.

WATT, James, and the Steam Engine.

See STEAM ENGINE: A. D. 1765-1785.

WATTIGNIES, Battle of (1793).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (JULY-DECEMBER) PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

WAUHATCHIE, Battle of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER: TENNESSEE).

WAYNE, General Anthony, and the storming of Stony Point.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778-1779 WASHINGTON GUARDING THE HUDSON.

Chastisement of the Northwestern Indians.

See NORTHWEST TERRITORY: A. D. 1790-1795.

WAYNESBOROUGH, Battle of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (FEBRUARY-MARCH: VIRGINIA).

WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE.

See CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES.

WEALH.

See THEOW.

WEAVING BROTHERS, The.

See BEGUINES.

{3648}

WEBSTER, Daniel, and the Dartmouth College case.

See (in Supplement) DARTMOUTH COLLEGE.

The Tariff Question.

See TARIFF LEGISLATION (UNITED STATES): A. D. 1816-1824; and 1828.

Debate with Hayne.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1828-1833.

In the Cabinet of President Tyler.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1841; and 1842 THE ASHBURTON TREATY.

Seventh of March Speech.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1850.

In the Cabinet of President Fillmore. The Hülsemann Letter.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1850-1851.

WECKQUAESGEEKS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

WEDMORE, Peace of.

A treaty of peace concluded between King Alfred and the Danes, by which the latter were bound to remain peacefully on that side of England which lay north and east of "Watling Street" (the Roman road from London to Chester) and to submit to baptism.

E. A. Freeman, Norman Conquest, chapter 2, section 4 (volume l).

See ENGLAND: A. D. 855-880.

WEHLAU. Treaty of (1657).

See BRANDENBURG: A. D. 1640-1688.

WEIMAR.

For an account of the origin of the Duchy of Saxe Weimar;

See SAXONY: A. D. 1180-1553.

"Small indeed is the space occupied on the map by the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar; yet the historian of the German Courts declares, and truly, that after Berlin there is no Court of which the nation is so proud. … Small among German princes is mine, poor and narrow his kingdom, limited his power of doing good.' Thus sings Goethe in that poem, so honourable to both, wherein he acknowledges his debt to Karl August. … Weimar is an ancient city on the Ilm, a small stream rising in the Thuringian forests, and losing itself in the Saal, at Jena; this stream on which the sole navigation seems to be that of ducks, meanders peacefully through pleasant valleys, except during the rainy season, when mountain-torrents swell its current and overflow its banks. The Trent, between Trentham and Stafford—'the smug and silver Trent' as Shakespeare calls it—will give an idea of this stream. The town is charmingly placed in the Ilm valley, and stands some eight hundred feet above the level of the sea. 'Weimar,' says the old topographer, Mathew Merian, 'is Weinmar, because it was the wine market for Jena and its environs. Others say it was because some one here in ancient days began to plant the vine, who was hence called Weinmayer. But of this each reader may believe just what he pleases.' On a first acquaintance, Weimar seems more like a village bordering a park, than a capital with a Court, having all courtly environments. … Saxe-Weimar has no trade, no manufactures, no animation of commercial, political, or even theological activity. This part of Saxony, be it remembered, was the home and shelter of Protestantism in its birth. Only a few miles from Weimar stands the Wartburg, where Luther, in the disguise of Squire George, lived in safety, translating the Bible, and hurling his inkstand at the head of Satan, like a rough-handed disputant as he was. In the marketplace of Weimar stand, to this day, two houses from the windows of which Tetzel advertised his indulgences, and Luther afterwards in fiery indignation fulminated against them. These records of religious struggle still remain, but are no longer suggestions for the continuance of the strife. … The theologic fire has long burnt itself out in Thuringia. In Weimar, where Luther preached, another preacher came, whom we know as Goethe. In the old church there is one portrait of Luther, painted by his friend Lucas Kranach, greatly prized, as well it may be; but for this one portrait of Luther, there are a hundred of Goethe. It is not Luther, but Goethe, they think of here; poetry, not theology, is the glory of Weimar. And, corresponding with this, we find the dominant characteristic of the place to be no magnificent church, no picturesque ancient buildings, no visible image of the earlier ages, but the sweet serenity of a lovely park. The park fills the foreground of the picture, and always rises first in the memory. … Within its limits Saxe Weimar displayed all that an imperial court displays in larger proportions: it had its ministers, its army, its chamberlains, pages, and sycophants. Court favour, and disgrace, elevated and depressed, as if they had been imperial smiles, or autocratic frowns. A standing army of six hundred men, with cavalry of fifty hussars, had its War Department, with war minister, secretary, and clerk. As the nobles formed the predominating element of Weimar, we see at once how, in spite of the influence of Karl August, and the remarkable men he assembled round him, no real public for Art could be found there. Some of the courtiers played more or less with Art, some had real feeling for it; but the majority set decided faces against all the beaux esprits. … Not without profound significance is this fact that in Weimar the poet found a Circle, but no Public. To welcome his productions there were friends and admirers; there was no Nation. Germany had no public."

G. H. Lewes, The Life and Works of Goethe. book 1, chapter 1.

WEISSENBURG, Battle of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1870 (JULY-AUGUST).

WELATABIANS, The.

See WILZEN.

WELDON RAILROAD, Battles on the.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (AUGUST: VIRGINIA).

WELFS.

See GUELFS.

WELLESLEY, MARQUIS OF. The Indian Administration of.

See INDIA: A. D. 1798-1805.

WELLESLEY COLLEGE.

See EDUCATION, MODERN: REFORMS &c.: A. D. 1804-1891.

WELLINGHAUSEN, KIRCHDENKERN, Battle of(1761).

See GERMANY: A. D. 1761-1762.

WELLINGTON. Campaigns of.

See INDIA: A. D. 1798-1805; SPAIN: A. D. 1808-1809, to 1812-1814; and FRANCE: A. D. 1815.

Ministry.

See ENGLAND: A. D.1827-1828; 1830.

WELSH, The Name of the.

"The Germans, like our own ancestors, called foreign, i. e. non-Teutonic nations, Welsh. Yet apparently not all such nations, but only those which they in some way associated with the Roman Empire: the Cymry of Roman Britain, the Romanized Kelts of Gaul, the Italians, the Roumans or Wallachs of Transylvania and the Principalities. It does not appear that either the Magyars or any Slavonic people were called by any form of the name Welsh."

J. Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire, chapter 17, foot-note.

"Wealhas, or Welshmen; … it was by this name, which means 'strangers,' or 'unintelligible people,' that the English knew the Britons, and it is the name by which the Britons, oddly enough, now know themselves."

J. R. Green, The Making of England, page 122.

{3649}

WENCESLAUS, WENZEL, VACSLAV I., King of Bohemia, A. D. 1230-1253.

Wenceslaus I., King of Hungary, 1301-1305;

Wenceslaus III. of Bohemia, 1305-1306.

Wenceslaus II., King of Bohemia, 1278-1305.

Wenceslaus IV., King of Bohemia, 1378-1419; King of Germany, 1378-1400.

WENDS, The.

"The Germans call all Slavonians Wends. No Slavonian calls himself so."

R. G. Latham, The Germany of Tacitus; Prolegomena, section 15.

See, also, SLAVONIC PEOPLES; VENEDI; VANDALS; and AVARS: 7TH CENTURY.

WENTWORTH, Thomas (Earl of Strafford).

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1634-1637, 1640, 1640-1641; and IRELAND: A. D. 1633-1639.

WENZEL.

See WENCESLAUS.

WERBACH, Battle of.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1866.

WERBEN, The camp of Gustavus Adolphus at.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1631.

WERGILD.

"The principle that every injury to either person or property might be compensated by a money payment was common to all the northern nations. It was introduced into Gaul by the conquering Franks, and into Britain by the English invaders. Every man's life had a fixed money value, called the 'wergild.' In the case of a freeman, this compensation for murder was payable to his kindred; in that of a slave, to his master. The amount of the wergild varied, according to a graduated scale, with the rank of the person slain."

T. P. Taswell-Langmead, English Constitutional History, page 41.

WEROWANCE.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: POWHATAN CONFEDERACY.

WESLEYS, The, and early Methodism.

See METHODISTS.

WESSAGUSSET, Weston's settlement at.

See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1622-1628.

WESSEX, The Kingdom of.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 477-527.

WEST INDIA COMPANY, The Dutch.

See NEW YORK: A. D. 1621-1646.

WEST INDIA COMPANY, The French.

See CANADA: A. D. 1663-1674.

WEST INDIES, The.

"The name West Indies recalls the fact that the discovery of the new world originated in an attempt to find a western route to the eastern seas, and that, when Columbus crossed the Atlantic and sighted land on the other side, he fancied he had reached the further coasts of the Indies.

See AMERICA: A. D. 1484-1492, and 1492.

'In consequence of this mistake of Columbus,' says Adam Smith, 'the name of the Indies has stuck to those unfortunate countries ever since.' The islands, or some of them, have long borne the name of Antilles. Antillia or Antigua was a mythical island [see ANTILLES] which found a place on mediæval maps, and the name was applied by geographers to Hispaniola and Cuba upon their first discovery. In modern times Cuba, Hispaniola or Hayti, Jamaica, and Porto Rico have usually been known as the Greater Antilles; and the ring of smaller islands, including the Windward and the Leeward Islands, as the Lesser Antilles. The terms Windward and Leeward themselves demand some notice. The prevailing wind in the West Indies being the north-east trade wind, the islands which were most exposed to it were known as the Windward islands, and those which were less exposed were known as the Leeward. According]y, the Spaniards regarded the whole ring of Caribbean islands as Windward islands, and identified the Leeward islands with the four large islands which constitute the Greater Antilles as given above. The English sailors contracted the area of Windward and Leeward, subdividing the Caribbean islands into a northern section of Leeward islands and a southern section of Windward islands, which project further into the Atlantic. In 1671 this division was made a political one, and the English Caribbean islands, which had before constituted one government, were separated into two groups, under two Governors-in-chief; the islands to the north of the French colony of Guadeloupe forming the government of the Leeward islands, the islands to the south of Guadeloupe forming the government of the Windward islands. Latterly the signification has been again slightly modified; and, for administrative purposes under the Colonial Office, the Leeward islands group now includes the more northerly section of the Caribbean islands belonging to Great Britain, from the Virgin islands to Dominica [embracing Antigua, St. Christopher or St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, the Virgin Islands, Dominica, Barbuda, Redonda, and Anguilla]; while the Windward islands are artificially restricted to St. Lucia, St. Vincent, the Grenadines, and Grenada, the two most windward of all, Barbados and Tobago, being separated from the group." Barbados is a distinct crown colony, and Tobago is joined with Trinidad to form another.

C. P. Lucas, Historical Geography of the British Colonies, volume 2, section 2. chapters 1, and 4-7.

ALSO IN: C. H. Eden, The West Indies.

T. Southey, Chronological History of the West Indies.

See, also, CUBA; HAYTI; and JAMAICA.

WEST POINT.

"The importance of fortifying the Hudson River at its narrow passes among the Highlands was suggested to the Continental Congress by the Provincial Assembly of New York at an early period of the war [of Independence]. On the 6th of October, 1775, the former directed the latter to proceed to make such fortifications as they should deem best. On the 18th of November, Congress resolved to appoint a commander for the fortress, with the rank of colonel, and recommended the New York Assembly, or Convention, to empower him to raise a body of 200 militia from the counties of Dutchess, Orange, and Ulster, and a company of artillery from New York city, to garrison them." As the result of these proceedings a fort named "Constitution" was constructed on Martelaer's Rock (now Constitution Island) opposite West Point, under the direction of an English engineer, Bernard Romans. "After the capture of Forts Clinton and Montgomery, near the lower entrance to the Highlands, in 1777, and the abandonment of Fort Constitution by the Americans a few days afterward, public attention was directed to the importance of other and stronger fortifications in that vicinity. … Washington requested General Putnam to bestow his most serious attention upon that important subject. He also wrote to Governor Clinton, at the same time, desiring him to take the immediate supervision of the work; but his legislative duties, then many and pressing, made it difficult for him to comply. Clinton … made many valuable suggestions respecting the proposed fortifications. He mentioned West Point as the most eligible site for a strong fort."

{3650}

In the spring of 1778, "a committee of the New York Legislature, after surveying several sites, unanimously recommended West Point as the most eligible. Works were accordingly commenced there under the direction of Kosciuszko. … Kosciuszko arrived on the 20th of March, and the works were pushed toward completion with much spirit. The principal redoubt, constructed chiefly of logs and earth, was completed before May, and named Fort Clinton. … At the close of 1779, West Point was the strongest military post in America. In addition to the batteries that stood menacingly upon the hilltops, the river was obstructed by an enormous iron chain. … West Point was considered the keystone of the country during the Revolution, and there a large quantity of powder, and other munitions of war and military stores, were collected. These considerations combined made its possession a matter of great importance to the enemy, and hence it was selected by Arnold as the prize which his treason would give as a bribe.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1780 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER)].

When peace returned, it was regarded as one of the most important military posts in the country, and the plateau upon the point was purchased by the United States Government. … The Military Academy at West Point was established by an act of Congress which became a law on the 16th of March, 1802. Such an institution, at that place, was proposed by Washington to Congress in 1793; and earlier than this, even before the war of the Revolution had closed, he suggested the establishment of a military school there. But little progress was made in the matter until 1812."

B. J. Lossing, Field-book of the Revolution, volume 1, pages 702-706.

ALSO IN: E. C. Boynton, History of West Point.

—————WEST VIRGINIA: Start————

WEST VIRGINIA: A. D. 1632. Partly embraced in the Maryland grant to Lord Baltimore.

See MARYLAND: A. D. 1632.

WEST VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (April-June). Opposition to Secession. Loyal State Government organized.

See VIRGINIA; A. D. 1861 (JANUARY-JUNE).

WEST VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (JUNE-JULY). General McClellan's successful campaign. The Rebels driven out.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (JUNE-JULY: WEST VIRGINIA).

WEST VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (JUNE-NOVEMBER). Steps taken toward separation from Virginia. Constitutional Convention at Wheeling.

See VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (JUNE-NOVEMBER).

WEST VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (AUGUST-DECEMBER). The campaign of Rosecrans against Lee.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (AUGUST-DECEMBER: WEST VIRGINIA).

WEST VIRGINIA: A. D. 1862 (APRIL-DECEMBER). The completed separation from Old Virginia. Admission to the Union.

The work of the convention at Wheeling which framed a constitution for the new State of West Virginia was satisfactorily performed, and "on the first Thursday of April, 1862, the people approved the constitution by a vote of 18,862 in favor of it with only 614 against it. The work of the representatives of the projected new State being thus ratified, the Governor called the Legislature of Virginia together on the 6th day of May, and on the 13th of the same month that body gave its consent, with due regularity, to 'the formation of a new State within the jurisdiction of the said State of Virginia.' A fortnight later, on the 28th of May, Senator Willey introduced the subject in Congress by presenting a memorial from the Legislature of Virginia, together with a certified copy of the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention and the vote of the people. The constitution was referred to the Committee on Territories and a bill favorable to admission was promptly reported by Senator Wade of Ohio. The measure was discussed at different periods, largely with reference to the effect it would have upon the institution of slavery, and Congress insisted upon inserting a provision that 'the children of slaves, born in the State after the 4th day of July, 1863, shall be free; all slaves within the said State who shall at that time be under the age of ten years shall be free when they arrive at the age of twenty-one years all slaves over ten and under twenty-one shall be free at the age of twenty-five years; and no slave shall be permitted to come into the State for permanent residence therein.' This condition was to be ratified by the convention which framed the constitution, and by the people at an election held for the purpose, and, upon due certification of the approval of the condition to the President of the United States, he was authorized to issue his proclamation declaring West Virginia to be a State of the Union. … On the 14th of July, three days before Congress adjourned, the bill passed the Senate by a vote of 23 to 17. Mr. Rice of Minnesota was the only Democrat who favored the admission of the new State. … Mr. Chandler and Mr. Howard of Michigan voted in the negative because the State had voluntarily done nothing towards providing for the emancipation of slaves; Mr. Sumner and Mr. Wilson, because the Senate had rejected the anti-slavery amendment [proposed by Mr. Sumner, declaring immediate emancipation in the new State]; Mr. Trumbull and Mr. Cowan, because of the irregularity of the whole proceeding. The bill was not considered in the House until the next session. It was taken up on the 9th of December," and was warmly debated. "On the passage of the bill the ayes were 96 and the noes were 55. The ayes were wholly from the Republican party, though several prominent Republicans opposed the measure. Almost the entire Massachusetts delegation voted in the negative, as did also Mr. Roscoe Conkling, Mr. Conway of Kansas and Mr. Francis Thomas of Maryland. The wide difference of opinion concerning this act was not unnatural. But the cause of the Union was aided by the addition of another loyal commonwealth, and substantial justice was done to the brave people of the new State. … To the old State of Virginia the blow was a heavy one. In the years following the war it added seriously to her financial embarrassment, and it has in many ways obstructed her prosperity."

J. G. Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, volume 1, chapter 21.

In the legislative Ordinance of 1861 the proposed new State was called Kanawha; but in the Constitutional Convention this name was changed to West Virginia.

ALSO IN: V. A. Lewis, History of West Virginia, chapters 25-26.

E. McPherson, Political History of the United States during the Great Rebellion, pages 377-378.

J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay, Abraham Lincoln, volume 6, chapter 14.

WEST VIRGINIA: A. D. 1862 (MAY-JUNE). Fremont's Mountain Department.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (MAY-JUNE: VIRGINIA).

{3651}

WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

See AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1800-1840.

WESTERN EMPIRE, The.

See ROME: A. D. 394-395, and 423-450; and GERMANY: A. D. 800.

WESTERN LANDS, Cession of, to the United States by the States.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1781-1786.

WESTERN RESERVE OF CONNECTICUT.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1781-1786; PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1753-1799; and OHIO (VALLEY): A. D. 1786-1796.

WESTFALIA.

See WESTPHALIA.

WESTMINSTER, Provisions of.

See OXFORD, PROVISIONS OF.

WESTMINSTER, Statutes of.

See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1275, and 1285.

WESTMINSTER, Treaty of.

See NETHERLANDS (HOLLAND): A. D. 1674.

WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES.

See ENGLAND: A. D.1643 (JULY); and 1646 (MARCH).

WESTMINSTER PALACE.

"Westminster was from the days of Edward the Confessor the recognised home of the great council of the nation as well as of the king. How this came about, history does not record; it is possible that the mere accident of the existence of the royal palace on the bank of the Thames led to the foundation of the abbey, or that the propinquity of the abbey led to the choice of the place for a palace; equal obscurity covers the origin of both. … At Westminster Henry I held his councils, and Stephen is said to have founded the chapel of his patron saint within the palace. … From the very first introduction of representative members the national council had its regular home at Westminster. There, with a few casual exceptions, … all the properly constituted parliaments of England have been held. The ancient Palace of Westminster, of which the most important parts, having survived until the fire of 1834 and the construction of the New Houses of Parliament, were destroyed in 1852, must have presented a very apt illustration of the history of the Constitution which had grown up from its early simplicity to its full strength within those venerable walls. It was a curious congeries of towers, halls, churches, and chambers. As the administrative system of the country had been developed largely from the household economy of the king, the national palace had for its kernel the king's court, hall, chapel, and chamber. … As time went on, every apartment changed its destination: the chamber became a council room, the banquet hall a court of justice, the chapel a hall of deliberation. … The King's Chamber, or Parliament Chamber, was the House of Lords from very early times until the union with Ireland, when the peers removed into the lesser or White Hall, where they continued until the fire. The house of commons met occasionally in the Painted Chamber, but generally sat in the Chapter House or in the Refectory of the abbey, until the reign of Edward VI, when it was fixed in S. Stephen's chapel. … After the fire of 1834, during the building of the new houses, the house of lords sat in the Painted Chamber, and the house of commons in the White Hall or Court of Requests. It was a curious coincidence, certainly, that the destruction of the ancient fabric should follow so immediately upon the great constitutional change wrought by the reform act, and scarcely less curious that the fire should have originated in the burning of the ancient Exchequer tallies, one of the most permanent relics of the primitive simplicity of administration."

W. Stubbs, Constitutional History of England, chapter 20, sections 735-736 (volume 3).

WESTMINSTER SCHOOL.

See EDUCATION, MODERN: EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.—ENGLAND.

WESTPHALIA: The country so named.

See SAXONY: THE OLD DUCHY.

WESTPHALIA, The Circle of.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1493-1519.

WESTPHALIA, The Kingdom of.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1807 (JUNE-JULY); 1813(SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER), and (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).

WESTPHALIA, The Peace of.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1648.

WESTPORT, Battle of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (MARCH-OCTOBER: ARKANSAS-MISSOURI).

WETTIN, House of.

See SAXONY: A. D. 1180-1553.

WEXFORD: Stormed by Cromwell (1649).

See IRELAND: A. D. 1649-1650.

WHIG PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1834.

WHIGS (WHIGGAMORS): Origin of the name and the English Party.

"The southwest counties of Scotland have seldom corn enough to serve them round the year: and the northern parts producing more than they need, those in the west come in summer to buy at Leith the stores that come from the north: and from a word 'whiggam,' used in driving their horses, all that drove were called the 'whiggamors,' and shorter the 'whiggs.' Now in that year [1648], after the news came down of Duke Hamilton's defeat [at the battle of Preston—see ENGLAND: A. D. 1648 (APRIL-AUGUST)], the ministers animated their people to rise and march to Edenburgh; and they came up marching on [at] the head of their parishes, with an unheard-of fury, praying and preaching all the way as they came. The marquis of Argile and his party came and headed them, they being about 6,000. This was called the 'whiggamors' inroad; and ever after that all that opposed the court came in contempt to be called 'whiggs': and from Scotland the word was brought into England, where it is now one of our unhappy terms of distinction."

G. Burnet, History of My Own Time, book 1 (Summary), section 43 (volume 1).

"We find John Nicoll, the diarist, in 1666, speaking of the west-country Presbyterians as 'commonly called the Whigs, implying that the term was new. The sliding of the appellation from these obscure people to the party of the opposition in London a few years later, is indicated by Daniel Defoe as occurring immediately after the affair of Bothwell Bridge in 1679. The Duke of Monmouth then returning from his command in Scotland, instead of thanks for his good service, found himself under blame for using the insurgents too mercifully. 'And Lauderdale told Charles, with an oath, that the Duke had been so civil to the Whigs because he was himself a Whig in his heart. This made it a court-word; and in a little while all the friends and followers of the Duke began to be called Whigs.'"

R. Chambers, Domestic Annals of Scotland, volume 2, page 172.

ALSO IN: J. H. Burton, History of Scotland, chapter 74 (volume 7).

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1680.

{3652}

WHIPS, Party.

The "party whips," in English politics, are "an extremely useful and hard-working body of officials. Being charged with the duty of keeping the respective sides in readiness for all emergencies, they are generally to be found in the lobby, where they make themselves acquainted with the incomings and outgoings of members, and learn a good deal as to their prospective movements. The whips are the gentlemen who issue those strongly underlined circulars by which legislators are summoned on important nights; and who, by their watchfulness and attention, can generally convey reliable intelligence to the party chiefs. If the Ministers, for example, are engaged in any controversy, and their whips are not absolutely certain of a majority, they would make arrangements for a succession of men to keep on talking till the laggards could be brought to their places." The whips also arrange "pairs," by which members of opposite parties, or on opposite sides of a given question, agree in couples, not to vote for a certain fixed period of time, thereby securing freedom to be absent without causing any loss of relative strength to their respective parties. This arrangement is common in most legislative bodies. "In addition to these duties, the whips of the opposing forces have to move for the issue of new writs in the place of deceased members—task never undertaken till they have a candidate ready for the fray."