fore dark. Friends of the Union, be vigilant!"

[Sidenote: Wendell Phillips]

These events inspired Wendell Phillips, who was present at a meeting in
Faneuil Hall, Boston, called to approve these outrages, to take an open
stand in favor of the rights of the people, which were threatened, and gave
to the cause for thirty years his active brain and eloquent tongue.

[Sidenote: Compromise tariff]

As a counterpart to the popular excesses in behalf of slavery, the
Catholics of New England had to suffer persecution. At Charlestown, in
Massachusetts, a mob burned the Ursuline Convent. Another indignation
meeting was held at Faneuil Hall in Boston to denounce this outrage. As a
concession to the Southern agitators, the American Congress, on February
26, adopted a so-called "Compromise tariff." The new bill cut down all
duties of over twenty per cent by one-tenth of the surplus of each year,
so as to bring about a uniform rate of twenty per cent within a decade. On
the other hand, Congress passed a "force bill," which empowered the
President to execute the revenue laws in South Carolina by force of arms. A
State Convention in South Carolina for its part repealed the ordinance of
nullification, but proceeded to declare the new Federal force bill null and
void.

[Sidenote: Death of Randolph]

On May 24, John Randolph of Roanoke, Virginia, a descendant of Pocahontas,
died at the age of sixty. He commenced public life in 1799, and served
thirty years in Congress. There he became distinguished for his eccentric
conduct, his sharpness of wit, and his galling sarcasm, which made him
feared by all parties. He had to resign from the Cabinet under odious
charges. In 1830, Jackson appointed him Minister to Russia. Randolph's
speeches are still widely read.

[Sidenote: Texas filibusters]

In the extreme South the American settlers of Texas, aided by Davy
Crockett's filibusters from the United States, began a war for independence
against Mexico.

[Sidenote: English abolition movement]

[Sidenote: Gladstone's first speech in Parliament]

[Sidenote: Misgovernment in Ireland]

[Sidenote: Irish resentment]

The abolition of slavery was likewise the most absorbing topic that came up
during this year in the Parliament of England. Young Gladstone, the newly
elected member from Newark, taunted with his father's slave-holding methods
at Demerara, made his maiden speech in Parliament on this subject. One who
heard the rising orator re