GRESHAM, WALTER QUINTON (1832-1895), American statesman and jurist, was born near Lanesville, Harrison county, Indiana, on the 17th of March 1832. He spent two years in an academy at Corydon, Indiana, and one year at the Indiana State University at Bloomington, then studied law, and in 1854 was admitted to the bar. He was active as a campaign speaker for the Republican ticket in 1856, and in 1860 was elected to the State House of Representatives as a Republican in a strong Democratic district. In the House, as chairman of the committee on military affairs, he did much to prepare the Indiana troops for service in the Federal army; in 1861 he became colonel of the 53rd Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and subsequently took part in Grant's Tennessee campaign of 1862, and in the operations against Corinth and Vicksburg, where he commanded a brigade. In August 1863 he was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, and was placed in command of the Federal forces at Natchez. In 1864 he commanded a division of the 17th Army Corps in Sherman's Atlanta campaign, and before Atlanta, on the 20th of July, he received a wound which forced him to retire from active service, and left him lame for life. In 1865 he was brevetted major-general of volunteers. After the war he practised law at New Albany, Indiana, and in 1869 was appointed by President Grant United States District Judge for Indiana. In April 1883 he succeeded Timothy O. Howe (1816-1883) as postmaster-general in President Arthur's cabinet, taking an active part in the suppression of the Louisiana Lottery, and in September 1884 succeeded Charles J. Folger as secretary of the treasury. In the following month he resigned to accept an appointment as United States Judge for the Seventh Judicial Circuit. Gresham was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1884 and 1888, in the latter year leading for some time in the balloting. Gradually, however, he grew out of sympathy with the Republican leaders and policy, and in 1892 advocated the election of the Democratic candidate, Grover Cleveland, for the presidency. From the 7th of March 1893 until his death at Washington on the 28th of May 1895, he was secretary of state in President Cleveland's cabinet. Entry: GRESHAM
The state provides for higher education in the University of Illinois, situated in the cities of Champaign and Urbana. It was founded in 1867, through the United States land grant of 1862, as the Illinois Industrial University, and received its present name in 1885; since 1870 it has been co-educational. Associated with the University are the State Laboratory of Natural History, the State Water Survey, the State Geological Survey, the State Entomologist's Office, and Agricultural and Engineering Experiment Stations. The University confers degrees in arts, science, engineering, agriculture, law, medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, music, and library science; besides the usual subjects, it has a course in ceramics. The University publishes _Bulletins_ of the Agricultural and Engineering Experiment Stations; _Reports_ of the State Water Survey, of the State Natural History Survey, of the State Geological Survey, and of the State Entomologist's Office; _University Studies_; and _The Journal of English and Germanic Philology_. The schools of medicine, pharmacy and dentistry are in Chicago. The faculty in 1907 numbered 408, and the total enrolment of students in 1907-1908 was 4743 (of whom 991 were women), distributed (with 13 duplicates in the classification) as follows: Graduate School, 203; Undergraduate Colleges, 2812; Summer Session, 367; College of Law, 186; College of Medicine, 476; College of Dentistry, 76; School of Pharmacy, 259; Academy, 377. In 1908 the University had a library of 103,000 volumes. The trustees of the institution, who have legislative power only, are the governor, the President of the Board of Agriculture, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and nine others elected by the people. There were in 1907 more than forty other universities and colleges in the state, the most important being the University of Chicago, North-western University at Evanston, Illinois Wesleyan University at Bloomington, Knox College, Galesburg, and Illinois College at Jacksonville. There were also six normal colleges, five of them public: the Southern Illinois State Normal College at Carbondale, the Eastern Illinois State Normal School at Charleston, the Western Illinois State Normal School at Macomb, the Chicago Normal School at Chicago, the Northern Illinois State Normal School at DeKalb, and the Illinois State Normal University at Normal. Entry: ILLINOIS
BISHÂRÎN BLENDE BISHOP, SIR HENRY ROWLEY BLENHEIM BISHOP, ISABELLA BLENNERHASSETT, HARMAN BISHOP BLERA BISHOP AUCKLAND BLESSINGTON, MARGUERITE BISHOP'S CASTLE BLIDA BISHOP STORTFORD BLIGH, WILLIAM BISKRA BLIND, MATHILDE BISLEY BLIND HOOKEY BISMARCK, OTTO LEOPOLD VON BLINDING BISMARCK (North Dakota, U.S.A.) BLINDMAN'S-BUFF BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO BLINDNESS BISMILLAH BLISS, CORNELIUS NEWTON BISMUTH BLISTER BISMUTHITE BLIZZARD BISMYA BLOCK, MARK ELIEZER BISON BLOCK, MAURICE BISQUE BLOCK BISSELL, GEORGE EDWIN BLOCKADE BISSEXT BLOCKHOUSE BISTRE BLOEMAERT, ABRAHAM BIT BLOEMEN, JAN FRANS VAN BITHUR BLOEMFONTEIN BITHYNIA BLOET, ROBERT BITLIS BLOIS, LOUIS DE BITONTO BLOIS BITSCH BLOIS (Countship of) BITTER, KARL THEODORE FRANCIS BLOMEFIELD, FRANCIS BITTERFELD BLOMFIELD, SIR ARTHUR WILLIAM BITTERLING BLOMFIELD, CHARLES JAMES BITTERN (bird) BLOMFIELD, EDWARD VALENTINE BITTERN (liquor) BLONDEL, DAVID BITTERS BLONDEL, JACQUES FRANÇOIS BITUMEN BLONDIN BITURIGES BLOOD BITZIUS, ALBRECHT BLOOD-LETTING BIVOUAC BLOOD-MONEY BIWA BLOODSTONE BIXIO, NINO BLOOM BIZERTA BLOOMER, AMELIA JENKS BIZET GEORGES BLOOMFIELD, MAURICE BJÖRNEBORG BLOOMFIELD, ROBERT BJÖRNSON, BJÖRNSTJERNE BLOOMFIELD BLACHFORD, FREDERIC ROGERS BLOOMINGTON (Illinois, U.S.A.) BLACK, ADAM BLOOMINGTON (Indiana, U.S.A.) BLACK, JEREMIAH SULLIVAN BLOOMSBURG BLACK, JOSEPH BLOUNT, CHARLES BLACK, WILLIAM BLOUNT, EDWARD BLACK APE BLOUNT, THOMAS BLACKBALL BLOUNT, SIR THOMAS POPE BLACKBERRY BLOUNT, WILLIAM BLACKBIRD BLOUSE BLACK BUCK BLOW, JOHN BLACKBURN, COLIN BLACKBURN BLOW-GUN BLACKBURN, JONATHAN BLOWITZ, HENRI GEORGES ADOLPHE DE BLACKBURN BLOWPIPE BLACKBURNE, FRANCIS BLÜCHER, GEBHARD LEBERECHT VON BLACKCOCK BLUE BLACK COUNTRY, THE BLUEBEARD BLACK DROP BLUE-BOOK BLACKFOOT BLUESTOCKING BLACK FOREST BLUFF BLACK HAWK BLUM, ROBERT FREDERICK BLACKHEATH BLUMENBACH, JOHANN FRIEDRICH BLACK HILLS BLUMENTHAL, LEONHARD BLACKIE, JOHN STUART BLUNDERBUSS BLACK ISLE BLUNT, JOHN HENRY BLACKLOCK, THOMAS BLUNT, JOHN JAMES BLACKMAIL BLUNT, WILFRID SCAWEN BLACKMORE, SIR RICHARD BLUNTSCHLI, JOHANN KASPAR BLACKMORE, RICHARD DODDRIDGE BLYTH BLACK MOUNTAIN B'NAI B'RITH, INDEPENDENT ORDER OF BLACKPOOL BOA BLACK ROD BOABDIL BLACK SEA (body of water) BOADICEA BLACK SEA (district of Russia) BOAR BLACKSTONE, SIR WILLIAM BOARD BLACK VEIL BOARDING-HOUSE BLACKWATER BOARDING-OUT SYSTEM BLACKWATER FEVER BOARDMAN, GEORGE DANA BLACKWELL, THOMAS BOASE, HENRY SAMUEL BLACKWOOD, WILLIAM BOAT BLADDER BOATSWAIN BLADDER AND PROSTATE DISEASES BOBBILI BLADDER-WORT BOBBIO BLADES, WILLIAM BOBER BLAENAVON BOBRUISK BLAGOVYESHCHENSK BOCAGE, MANUEL MARIA BARBOSA DE BLAIKIE, WILLIAM GARDEN BOCAGE BLAINE, JAMES GILLESPIE BOCCACCIO, GIOVANNI BLAINVILLE, HENRI DUCROTAY DE BOCCALINI, TRAJANO BLAIR, FRANCIS PRESTON BOCCHERINI, LUIGI BLAIR, HUGH BOCCHUS BLAIR, JAMES BOCHART, SAMUEL BLAIR, ROBERT BOCHOLT BLAIR ATHOLL BOCHUM BLAIRGOWRIE BÖCKH, PHILIPP AUGUST BLAKE, EDWARD BÖCKLIN, ARNOLD BLAKE, ROBERT BOCLAND BLAKE, WILLIAM BOCSKAY, STEPHEN BLAKELOCK, RALPH ALBERT BODE, JOHANN ELERT BLAKENEY, WILLIAM BLAKENEY BODEL, JEHAN BLAKESLEY, JOSEPH WILLIAMS BODENBACH BLAMIRE, SUSANNA BODENSTEDT, FRIEDRICH MARTIN VON BLANC, LOUIS BODHI VAMSA BLANC, MONT BODICHON, BARBARA LEIGH SMITH BLANCHARD, SAMUEL LAMAN BODIN, JEAN BLANCHE, JACQUES ÉMILE BODKIN BLANCHE OF CASTILE BODLE BLANCH FEE BODLEY, GEORGE FREDERICK BLANDFORD BODLEY, SIR THOMAS BLANDRATA, GIORGIO BODMER, JOHANN JAKOB BLANE, SIR GILBERT BODMIN BLANFORD, WILLIAM THOMAS BODÖ BLANK BODONI, GIAMBATTISTA BLANKENBERGHE BODY-SNATCHING BLANKENBURG BOECE, HECTOR BLANKETEERS BOEHM, SIR JOSEPH EDGAR BLANK VERSE BOEHM VON BAWERK, EUGEN BLANQUI, JERÔME ADOLPHE BOEHME, JAKOB BLANQUI, LOUIS AUGUSTE BOEOTIA BLANTYRE (town of Central Africa) BOER BLANTYRE (parish of Scotland) BOERHAAVE, HERMANN BLARNEY BOETHUS BLASHFIELD, EDWIN HOWLAND BOETIUS, ANICIUS MANLIUS SEVERINUS BLASIUS, SAINT BOG BLASPHEMY BOGATZKY, KARL HEINRICH VON BLASS, FRIEDRICH BOGHAZ KEUI BLASTING BOGIE BLAUBEUREN BOGNOR BLAVATSKY, HELENA PETROVNA BOGÓ BLAYDES, FREDERICK HENRY MARVELL BOGODUKHOV BLAYDON BOGOMILS BLAYE-ET-STE LUCE BOGORODSK BLAZE BOGOS BLAZON BOGOTÁ BLEACHING BOGRA BLEAK BOGUE, DAVID BLEEK, FRIEDRICH BOGUS BLEEK, WILHELM HEINRICH IMMANUEL BOHEA Entry: BISHÂRÎN
_Education._--Indiana has a well-organized free public school system. Provision was made for such a system in the first state constitution, to utilize the school lands set aside in all the North-West Territory by the Ordinance of 1787, but the existing system is of late growth. The first step toward such a system was a law of 1824 which provided for the election of school trustees in every township and for the erection of school buildings, but made no provision for support. Therefore, before 1850 what schools there were were not free. The constitution of 1851 made further and more complete provisions for a uniform system, and on that basis the general school law of 1852 erected the framework of the existing system. It provided, for the organization of free schools, supported by a property tax, and for county and township control. The movement, however, was retarded in 1858 by a decision of the supreme court holding that under the law of 1852 the system was not "uniform" as provided for by the constitution. In 1865 a new and more satisfactory law was passed, which with supplemental legislation is still in force. Under the existing system supreme administrative control is vested in a state superintendent elected biennially. County superintendents, county boards, and township trustees are also chosen, the latter possessing the important power of issuing school bonds. Teachers' institutes are regularly held, and a state normal school, established in 1870, is maintained at Terre Haute. There are normal schools at Valparaiso, Angola, Marion and Danville, and a Teachers' College at Indianapolis, which are on the state's "accredited" list and belong to the normal school system. In 1897 a compulsory education law was enacted. In 1906-1907 the state school tax was increased from 11.6 cents per $100 to 13.6 cents per $100; an educational standard was provided, coming into effect in August 1908, for public school teachers, in addition to the previous requirement of a written test; a regular system of normal training was authorized; uniform courses were provided for the public high schools; and small township schools with twelve pupils or less were discontinued, and transportation supplied for pupils in such abandoned schools to central school houses. The proportion of illiterates is very small, in 1900, 95.4% of the population (of 10 years old or over) being able to read and write. The total school revenue from state and local sources in 1905 amounted to $10,642,638, or $13.85 per capita of enumeration ($19.34 per capita of enrolment). In 1824 a state college was opened at Bloomington; it was re-chartered in 1838 as the State University. Purdue University (1874) at Lafayette, maintained under state control, received the benefit of the Federal grant under the Morrill Act. Other educational institutions of college rank include Vincennes University (non-sectarian), at Vincennes; Hanover College (1833, Presbyterian), at Hanover; Wabash College (1832, non-sectarian), at Crawfordsville; Franklin College (1837, Baptist), at Franklin; De Pauw University (1837, Methodist Episcopal), at Greencastle; Butler University (1855, Christian), at Indianapolis; Earlham College (1847, Friends), at Richmond; Notre Dame University (1842, Roman Catholic), at Notre Dame; Moore's Hill College (1856, Methodist Episcopal), at Moore's Hill; the University of Indianapolis (non-sectarian), a loosely affiliated series of schools at Indianapolis, centring around Butler University; and Rose Polytechnic Institute (1883, non-sectarian), at Terre Haute. Entry: INDIANA
BRACE, JULIA (1806-1884), American blind deaf-mute, was born at Newington, Connecticut, on the 13th of June 1806. In her fifth year she became blind and deaf, and lost the power of speech. At the age of eighteen she entered the asylum for the deaf and dumb at Hartford. The study of blind deaf-mutes and their scientific training was then in its infancy; but she learnt to sew well, was neat in her dress, and had a good memory. Dr S.G. Howe's experiments with her were interesting as leading to his success with Laura Bridgman. She died at Bloomington, Conn., on the 12th of August 1884. Entry: BRACE
Examination of Table VI. shows that the needle continued to move to the east for some time after 1750 even in the Eastern States. But the rate of movement was clearly diminishing, and about 1765 the extreme easterly position was reached in Eastport, Maine, the needle then beginning to retrace its steps to the west. The phenomena visible at Maine are seen repeating themselves at places more and more to the west, in Boston about 1785, in Albany about 1800, in Washington, D.C., about 1805, in Columbus (Ohio) about 1815, in Montgomery (Alabama) about 1825, in Bloomington (Ill.) about 1830, in Des Moines (Iowa) about 1840, in Santa Rosa (New Mexico) about 1860 and in Salt Lake about 1870. In 1885 the needle was moving to the west over the whole United States with the exception of a comparatively narrow strip along the Pacific coast. Even an acute observer would have been tempted to prophesy in 1885 that at no distant date the secular change would be pronouncedly westerly right up to the Pacific. But in a few years a complete change took place. The movement to the east, which had become exceedingly small, if existent, in the Pacific states, began to accelerate; the movement to the west continued in the central, as in the eastern states, but perceptibly slackened. In 1905 the area throughout which the movement to the west still continued had greatly contracted and lay to the east of a line drawn from the west end of Lake Superior to the west of Georgia. If we take a station like Little Rock (Arkansas), we have the secular change to the west lasting for about sixty years. Further west the period shortens. At Pueblo (Colorado) it is about forty years, at Salt Lake under thirty years, at Prescott (Arizona) about twenty years. Considering how fast the area throughout which the secular change is easterly has extended to the east since 1885, one would be tempted to infer that at no distant date it will include the whole of the United States. In the extreme north-east, however, the movement of the needle to the west, which had slackened perceptibly after 1860 or 1870, is once more accelerating. Thus the auspices do not all point one way, and the future is as uncertain as it is interesting. Entry: 11
From law, however, Lincoln was soon drawn irresistibly back into politics. The slavery question, in one form or another, had become the great overshadowing issue in national, and even in state politics; the abolition movement, begun in earnest by W. L. Garrison in 1831, had stirred the conscience of the North, and had had its influence even upon many who strongly deprecated its extreme radicalism; the Compromise of 1850 had failed to silence sectional controversy, and the Fugitive Slave Law, which was one of the compromise measures, had throughout the North been bitterly assailed and to a considerable extent had been nullified by state legislation; and finally in 1854 the slavery agitation was fomented by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise and gave legislative sanction to the principle of "popular sovereignty"--the principle that the inhabitants of each Territory as well as of each state were to be left free to decide for themselves whether or not slavery was to be permitted therein. In enacting this measure Congress had been dominated largely by one man--Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois--then probably the most powerful figure in national politics. Lincoln had early put himself on record as opposed to slavery, but he was never technically an abolitionist; he allied himself rather with those who believed that slavery should be fought within the Constitution, that, though it could not be constitutionally interfered with in individual states, it should be excluded from territory over which the national government had jurisdiction. In this, as in other things, he was eminently clear-sighted and practical. Already he had shown his capacity as a forcible and able debater; aroused to new activity upon the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, which he regarded as a gross breach of political faith, he now entered upon public discussion with an earnestness and force that by common consent gave him leadership in Illinois of the opposition, which in 1854 elected a majority of the legislature; and it gradually became clear that he was the only man who could be opposed in debate to the powerful and adroit Douglas. He was elected to the state House of Representatives, from which he immediately resigned to become a candidate for United States senator from Illinois, to succeed James Shields, a Democrat; but five opposition members, of Democratic antecedents, refused to vote for Lincoln (on the second ballot he received 47 votes--50 being necessary to elect) and he turned the votes which he controlled over to Lyman Trumbull, who was opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and thus secured the defeat of Joel Aldrich Matteson (1808-1883), who favoured this act and who on the eighth ballot had received 47 votes to 35 for Trumbull and 15 for Lincoln. The various anti-Nebraska elements came together, in Illinois as elsewhere, to form a new party at a time when the old parties were disintegrating; and in 1856 the Republican party was formally organized in the state. Lincoln before the state convention at Bloomington of "all opponents of anti-Nebraska legislation" (the first Republican state convention in Illinois) made on the 29th of May a notable address known as the "Lost Speech." The National Convention of the Republican Party in 1856 cast 110 votes for Lincoln as its vice-presidential candidate on the ticket with Fremont, and he was on the Republican electoral ticket of this year, and made effective campaign speeches in the interest of the new party. The campaign in the state resulted substantially in a drawn battle, the Democrats gaining a majority in the state for president, while the Republicans elected the governor and state officers. In 1858 the term of Douglas in the United States Senate was expiring, and he sought re-election. On the 16th of June 1858 by unanimous resolution of the Republican state convention Lincoln was declared "the first and only choice of the Republicans of Illinois for the United States Senate as the successor of Stephen A. Douglas," who was the choice of his own party to succeed himself. Lincoln, addressing the convention which nominated him, gave expression to the following bold prophecy:-- Entry: LINCOLN
DECATUR, a city and the county-seat of Macon county, Illinois, U.S.A., in the central part of the state, near the Sangamon river, about 39 m. E. of Springfield. Pop. (1890) 16,841; (1900) 20,754, of whom 1939 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 31,140. Decatur is served by the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton, the Illinois Central, the Wabash (which maintains car shops here), and the Vandalia railways, and is connected with Danville, Saint Louis, Springfield, Peoria, Bloomington and Champaign by the Illinois Traction System (electric). Decatur has three large parks and a public library; and S.E. of Fairview Park, with a campus of 35 acres, is the James Millikin University (co-educational; Cumberland Presbyterian), founded in 1901 by James Millikin, and opened in 1903. The university comprises schools of liberal arts, engineering (mechanical, electrical, and civil), domestic economy, fine and applied arts, commerce and finance, library science, pedagogy, music, and a preparatory school; in 1907-1908 it had 936 students, 440 being in the school of music. Among the city's manufactures are iron, brass castings, agricultural implements, flour, Indian corn products, soda fountains, plumbers' supplies, coffins and caskets, bar and store fixtures, gas and electric light fixtures, street cars, and car trucks. The value of the city's factory products increased from $5,133,677 in 1900 to $8,667,302 in 1905, or 68.8%. The city is also an important shipping point for agricultural products (especially grain), and for coal taken from the two mines in the city and from mines in the surrounding country. The first settlement in Decatur was made in 1829, and the place was incorporated in 1836. On the 22nd of February 1856 a convention of Illinois editors met at Decatur to determine upon a policy of opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. They called a state convention, which met at Bloomington, and which is considered to have taken the first step toward founding the Republican party in Illinois. Entry: DECATUR