ts and
demonstrations of facts, and his profound earnestness. Webster said
concerning him that he had "the indisputable basis of high character,
unspotted integrity, and honor unimpeached. Nothing grovelling, low, or
mean, or selfish came near his head, or his heart."

[Sidenote: Death of President Taylor]

[Sidenote: Fillmore's Presidency]

On July 9, President Taylor died, and Vice-President Fillmore succeeded
him. He received the resignations of all the Cabinet. His new Cabinet was
headed by Webster, Secretary of State (succeeded by Everett in 1852). The
new fugitive slave bill was signed by Fillmore. But the law was defied in
the North as unconstitutional. Benton called the measure "the complex,
cumbersome, expensive, annoying and ineffective fugitive slave law." In
Boston occurred the cases of the fugitives Shadrach, Simms and Anthony
Burns. Fillmore and Webster came to be looked upon in the North as traitors
to the anti-slavery cause. But for this Fillmore would have had a fair
chance of re-election to the Presidency.

[Sidenote: "Uncle Tom's Cabin"]

[Sidenote: "The Scarlet Letter"]

Then appeared in the "National Era" at Washington the opening chapters of
Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin." A million copies of the book
were sold in America and in Europe. It spread and intensified the feeling
against slavery. Emerson published "Representative Men"; Hawthorne "The
Scarlet Letter"; and Whittier brought out his "Songs of Labor." Parodi,
the Italian singer, made her first appearance in America. She was eclipsed
presently by Jenny Lind, whose opening concert at Castle Garden in New York
netted $30,000 to her manager, Barnum.

[Sidenote: Russian conscription]

[Sidenote: Schleswig-Holstein abandoned]

[Sidenote: Ibsen]

Under the stress of another Mohammedan rising against the Christians in
Syria and the Balkans, Emperor Nicholas of Russia decreed a notable
increase of the Russian army. Out of every thousand persons in the
population seven men were mustered into the ranks in western Russia, thus
adding some 180,000 men to the total strength of the Russian force. In
midsummer, the city of Cracow, in Poland, was nearly destroyed by fire.
Later in the year occurred the death of the Polish general Bem, in Turkey,
who had won such distinction while serving the cause of Hungary. Another
attempt to win Schleswig-Holstein from Denmark was made in summer. Unaided
by the Germans, the Schleswig-Holsteiners, u