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was declared the candidate. Henry Wilson of festations of popular enthusiasm. NotwithMassachusetts and a few other delegates, on standing, however, his great personal popularthis result being announced, withdrew from ity, the numerical preponderance of the demothe convention, and subsequently formed the cratic party in the country enabled it to elect freesoil party on the basis of opposition to the a sufficient number of members of congress to extension of slavery. They justified their se- give the opposition a decided majority not only cession from the convention and from the whig in the senate but in the house of representaparty, not only by the fact that Gen. Taylor tives. In the latter body a few freesoil memwas a slaveholder and not opposed to the ex- bers elected by the anti-slavery party held the tension of slavery, but also by maintaining that balance of power between the whigs and demohe was not really a whig, and especially that crats. On the opening of the 31st congress, he was so unqualified by natural talent or ac- Dec. 3, 1849, the house proved to be divided quired experience for the office of president, as follows: democrats, 112; whigs, 105; freethat his nomination was one "not fit to be soilers, 13. Under these circumstances it was made," as was subsequently said in a public found impracticable to elect a speaker till Dec. speech by Mr. Webster, who for a time refused 22, when the plurality rule was adopted, and to acquiesce in the action of the convention. on the 63d ballot Howell Cobb of Georgia, a After the nomination of Gen. Taylor the whig democrat, was elected. Immediately afterward a convention proceeded to ballot for a candidate vehement struggle commenced with regard to for the vice-presidency, and on the second bal- the organization of the new territories, the adlot Millard Fillmore of New York was nominat- mission of California as a state, and the question ed. The democratic national convention had of the boundary between Texas and New Mexalready nominated at Baltimore, May 22, 1848, ico, all of these subjects being connected with Lewis Cass for the presidency; but a powerful the great and absorbing question of the extensection of the New York democracy, familiarly sion of slavery. California had applied for adknown as barnburners, refused their support to mission into the Union with a constitution exMr. Cass, partly because of his pro-slavery po- cluding slavery, which had been framed by a sition, and partly to punish him and his south- convention of the people without the usual preern partisans for preventing the nomination of liminary authorization from congress. There Martin Van Buren by the democratic national being at this time an equal number of free and convention of 1844, when Mr. Van Buren was slave states in the Union, the proposition to adset aside for a comparatively obscure politician, mit California and thus give the free states a Mr. Polk. On Aug. 9, 1848, these freesoil dem- preponderance in the senate excited throughocrats assembled in a great mass and delegate out the South the most violent opposition. At convention at Buffalo, N. Y., together with the the same time New Mexico and Utah, or Desefreesoil whigs who had rejected the nomination ret, as it was called by the Mormons who occuof Gen. Taylor, and the liberty party men who pied it, were without governments, while the had previously supported James G. Birney as boundary question between New Mexico and the distinctive anti-slavery candidate for the Texas was creating great agitation in the southpresidency. A fusion of these parties was ef- west, the people of Texas threatening to take fected on the basis of a platform of which op- possession of the disputed territory by force. position to the extension of slavery was the President Taylor in his messages to congress leading principle, and Martin Van Buren was recommended, as the easiest way of settling the nominated for president and Charles Francis dispute, that California should be admitted, and Adams of Massachusetts for vice-president. that the other territories should form state conThe election took place in November, and for stitutions to suit themselves, and should be adTaylor and Fillmore' 163 electors were chosen mitted into the Union with or without slavery to 127 for Cass and Butler, the democratic can- as their constitutions might prescribe. These didates. The Van Buren and Adams party did recommendations were not acceptable to the not succeed in carrying a single elector, their slaveholding leaders, many of whom made open popular vote being 291,678, while that for Gen. threats of secession in case of the admission of Taylor was 1,362,031, and that for Cass 1,222,- California. Scenes of violence occurred in the 455. Gen. Taylor was inaugurated president senate, and great excitement and agitation exon Monday, March 5, 1849, and on the follow- isted at Washington and throughout the couning day appointed as his cabinet John M. Clay- try. Henry Clay in the senate, to settle the ton of Delaware, secretary of state; William controversy, introduced propositions for “an M. Meredith of Pennsylvania, secretary of the amicable arrangement of all questions in contreasury; George W. Crawford of Georgia, troversy between the free and the slave states secretary of war; William B. Preston of Vir- growing out of the subject of slavery." These ginia, secretary of the navy; Thomas Ewing propositions provided for the admission of Caliof Ohio, secretary of the interior; Jacob Col-fornia as a state; the formation of territorial lamer of Vermont, postmaster-general; and Reverdy Johnson of Maryland, attorney-general. During the summer the president made a tour through the middle states as far as Lake Erie, and was everywhere received with maniVOL. XV.—21

governments in all the rest of the territory recently acquired from Mexico, without any restriction as to slavery; the determination of the boundary of Texas; the payment of the debt of Texas; declaring against the abolition

of slavery in the district of Columbia; declaring that the slave trade in the district ought to be abolished, but that congress has no right to prohibit or obstruct the slave trade between the states; and lastly that a more stringent fugitive slave law should be passed. (See CLAY, HENRY, vol. v. p. 322.) Mr. Clay's propositions were still the subject in one form or another of exciting debates in congress and of earnest discussion among the people, when on the 4th of July, 1850, Gen. Taylor was seized with bilious fever, of which he died on the 9th at the presidential mansion.-In person Gen. Taylor was of middle stature and stout form, with dark complexion, high forehead, and keen penetrating eyes, with a face more remarkable for intelligence than for elegance, and an expression of much kindness and good nature. His manners and appearance were very plain and simple. As president he fully maintained the popularity which had led to his election, and was personally one of the most esteemed of those who have filled the chief executive office of the country. His administration will be ever memorable as the period in which the antagonism between the free states and the slave states reached a crisis that seriously threatened the Union-a crisis then avoided, however, by a compromise. It was during this administration that the secession party in the South first manifested itself in considerable force outside of the state of South Carolina. To the schemes of this party Gen. Taylor was sternly opposed, and in reply to a delegation of its congressional leaders, who waited upon him with threats of disunion and civil war, he said that if the standard of revolt were raised, he would himself take the field to suppress it at the head of an army of volunteers, and should not for that purpose deem it necessary to call upon a single soldier from the North.

TAZEWELL. I. A S. W. co. of Va., bordering on Ky., drained by the head streams of Clinch and Sandy rivers; area, 1,300 sq. m.; pop. in 1860, 9,920, of whom 1,202 were slaves. Clinch mountain and other ranges traverse the county. The soil of the valleys is very fertile. The productions in 1850 were 235,126 bushels of Indian corn, 125,214 of oats, 21,327 of wheat, and 135,910 lbs. of butter. There were 6 tanneries, 15 churches, a bank, and 654 pupils attending public schools. Capital, Jeffersonville. II. A central co. of Illinois, bounded N. W. by the Illinois river and intersected by the Mackinaw; area, 550 sq. m.; pop. in 1860, 21,471. The surface is level, consisting mostly of prairies, and the soil highly fertile. The productions in 1850 were 1,114,640 bushels of Indian corn, 144,241 of wheat, 146,992 of oats, 9,986 tons of hay, and 186,350 lbs. of butter. There were 8 grist mills, 11 saw mills, 17 churches, 2 newspaper offices, and 2,941 pupils attending publie schools. Capital, Tremont.

TCHAD, or TSAD, a lake of Soodan, in central Africa, lying between lat. 12° 30′ and 14° 80′ N. and long. 13° and 15° E. It is about

150 m. long from N. to S. and 125 wide from E. to W., and has a probable area of 15,000 sq. m., varying greatly however in the dry and the rainy season. Its depth rarely exceeds 15 feet, and many portions of it during the dry season are rather a reedy swamp than a lake; the inkibul or open water in the dry season occupies only the central and S. W. part; its elevation above the sea level is 850 feet. The water is fresh and sweet, though that in the marshy pits along the shores is brackish in the dry season from the presence of natron. It has two considerable tributaries, the Komadugu and the Shary, the former flowing from the W., and the latter from the S., but no outlet. The shores abound with rushes and reeds, and the lagoons and shallower portions of the lake are covered with aquatic plants, among which the most conspicuous are the lotus (nymphaa lotus) and a floating plant called by the natives fanna bellabago or homeless fanna. A species of antelope, which Barth supposes to be the antilope Arabica, feed in large herds on the shores of the lake, and the native cattle thrive on its rich pasturage. The hippopotamus and crocodile wallow in great numbers in the shallow lagoons, and turtles and fish are abundant. The southern banks of the Tchad are flat and low, and are extensively inundated; but the northern are high and woody, and here ele phants are found in vast herds. Water fowl are also numerous, principally of the duck tribe. There are extensive islands in the lake, which are densely inhabited by a pagan race called Biddoomahs, distinct from the surrounding Mohammedan tribes. (See BIDDOOMAHS.) The existence of this lake was known to Leo Africanus in the 16th century, but the first Europeans who visited it in more modern times were Denham and Clapperton in 1823, and Barth, Overweg, and Vogel in 1851-'5. Dr. Overweg died on its banks, Sept. 27, 1852.

TCHERNIGOV, a S. W. government of European Russia, province of Ukraine, bounded by Smolensk, Orel, Koorsk, Pultowa, Kiev, Minsk, and Mohilev; area, 21,250 sq. m.; pop. in 1856, 1,401,879. The surface, with the exception of the western portion, is flat, and the soil is particularly fertile. It is well watered by numerous streams, the most important of which are the Dnieper, which flows on the W. boundary, and its affluent the Desna, which intersects the government. Horses, horned cattle, and sheep are abundant, and the breeds of the two first are particularly good. Much honey and wax are obtained from bees; and locusts are often very destructive. The manufactures are confined chiefly to articles for domestic use. A large quantity of brandy is distilled. The largest place in the government is Nieshin, a manufacturing town.TOHERNIGOV, the capital, on the Desna, 80 m. N. N. E. from Kiev, is one of the oldest towns in the Ukraine, and has a large trade; pop. 12,000. It was formerly held by the Tartars and Poles.

TCHIHATCHEF, PETER, a Russian geologist and naturalist, born at Gatchina, near St. Petersburg, in 1812. Early in life he was employed in the Russian bureau of foreign affairs, and between 1841 and 1844 was attached to the embassy at Constantinople. In the latter year he quitted the public service in order to devote himself exclusively to scientific pursuits, and soon after was commissioned by the government to explore the Altai mountains, of which he published an account under the title of Voyage scientifique dans l'Altaï et dans les contrées adjacentes (4to., Paris, 1846). His next undertaking was the scientific exploration of Asia Minor, which was accomplished, amid great perils and difficulties, in the space of 6 years. His time has since been mainly devoted to the preparation of his elaborate work, L'Asie Mineure; description physique, statistique et archéologique de cette contrée, of which only the first two parts, relating to the physical geography, climatology, and botany of the subject, have as yet appeared (2 vols. 8vo., Paris, 1853'6, with atlas and plates). The remaining portion, treating of geology, statistics, and archæology, are in preparation. The author has also published in the transactions of scientific bodies many minor papers on subjects connected with his studies. He resides in Paris.

TEA (Chinese, tcha, cha, or tha), the dried leaves of several plants of the genus thea, belonging to the natural order Ternströmiacea. The plants are evergreen shrubs belonging to the same family as the camellias, and the two principal species of Linnæus, also recognized by Lindley, T. bohea and T. viridis, have also been called camellia bohea and C. viridis. They are now however only regarded as varieties of the T. Sinensis. The plants are bushy, with numerous leafy branches, and grow to the height of from 3 to 5 feet, and sometimes much higher. The leaves are 2 or 3 inches long and half an inch to an inch broad, of elliptical oblong shape, serrated except at the base, marked with transverse veins, of shining green color, and are supported alternately on short channelled foot-stalks. The flowers are white, of considerable size, and resemble those of the myrtle; they are either solitary, or 2 or 3 together on separate pedicels, at the axils of the leaves; calyx short, green, divided into 5 segments; corolla with 5 to 9 petals cohering at the base; stamens numerous, with yellow anthers; pistil with a 3-parted style; capsules 3celled and 3-seeded. The two species are distinguished by botanists chiefly by the shape of the leaves. De Candolle admits but one species, with two varieties, viz.: the viridis, with "lanceolate flat leaves, 3 times as long as they are broad," and the bohea, with "elliptical, oblong, subrugose leaves, twice as long as broad. These specific names have no relation to the kinds of tea known as green and bohea, as both are produced from either one of the plants, as will be explained below. The plants are indigenous in China and Japan, and are said by the

Chinese writers to have been first discovered in the hills of the central provinces, where they are still abundant. No certain allusion to tea is traced back further than the 9th century. Two Arabian travellers, as translated in the work of Renaudot, Anciennes relations des Indes et de la Chine, describe it as being in use as a beverage by the Chinese in the latter half of the 9th century. The Japanese, to whom the tea plant is almost as valuable as it is to the Chinese, affirm that the latter obtained it about the year 828 from Corea; but this is not credited. Tea was first made known in Europe by the Portuguese, who imported it early in the 16th century; and in 1589 a notice of it was published in the Historia Indica of Giovanni Pietro Maffei, and also by Giovanni Botero. Travellers in China and other eastern countries, in the early part of the 17th century, gave most extravagant accounts of the virtues of tea, which appears to have been in very general use at that time throughout a large portion of Asia. The Persians are described by Adam Olearius (1637) as boiling the leaves till the water acquires a bitterish taste and a blackish color, when they add to it fennel, anise seed, cloves, and sugar; the Hindoos, he adds, put it into seething water. About the same time the peculiar method of preparing it by the Japanese, which is still in practice, was described by Mandelslo of the Danish embassy; this consists in reducing the leaf to powder, and putting this into porcelain cups full of boiling water. The Dutch East India company introduced tea into Europe in the first half of the 17th century, and it was known several years previous to 1657 in England as a choice and very rare article in occasional great entertainments. It had long been the custom in European countries to make use of hot infusions of leaves as beverages, and in England those of the sage were much employed, and are even said to have been carried to China by the Dutch to be there exchanged for the Chinese tea leaf. Tea at that early period was valued at £6 to £10 a pound weight. It was offered for sale in 1657 by Thomas Garway, the founder of the London coffee house, still known as "Garraway's," at prices varying from 15 to 50 shillings a pound. He also sold it, in the infusion, "made according to the directions of the most knowing merchants and travellers into those eastern countries." This appeared in a printed sheet by Garway, entitled "An exact Description of the Growth, Quality, and Virtues of the Tea Leaf." In 1660, by act of parliament, tea, with chocolate and sherbet, was made subject to a tax of 8d. on every gallon made and sold. The article still continued very rare, as in 1664 a present of 2 lbs. 2 oz., costing 408. a pound, was made to the king by the East India company; and two years afterward another present, also obtained from the continent, was made of 224 lbs., for which the directors paid 50s. a pound. In 1677 the East India company took the first step toward im

porting teas, in an order to their agents for teas of the best kind "to the amount of £100." There was received the next year 4,713 lbs., which seems to have glutted the market. The recorded import by the company for 6 years afterward was only 410 lbs.; but some tea appears to have been introduced through other means. About the close of the century the average importation amounted to about 20,000 lbs. a year; in 1703 to over 100,000 lbs., at an average value of about 168.; and in 1721 it reached 1,000,000 lbs. Thus the tea trade rapidly grew to great importance, and the article being regarded as one of luxury rather than of necessity, it was made the subject of enormous duties, which, while they added largely in the 18th century to the revenues of the kingdom, led to an extensive system of smuggling, and also to adulteration of genuine and fabrication of counterfeit teas. The East India company had the monopoly of the trade until it was thrown open on April 22, 1834, with low duties, ranging from 1s. 6d. to 3s8. a pound. The importations of 1833 amounted to 32,057,852 lbs., and those of 1835 to 44,360,550 lbs. In 1859 the receipts were 83,500,000 lbs., which, at the present duty of 1s. 5d. per pound, yielded a revenue of £5,914,000. The extent of the trade in the United States will be noticed at the close of this article.-The range and culti vation of the tea plant is over a large portion of China between lat. 20° and 40° N., extending east over the Japan islands, and stretching west about the 30th parallel to Nepaul and the Himalaya. The most important district in China is near the coast from about lat. 25° to 32°, or to Shanghai. The productive districts in China are Fo-kien and Canton for black tea, and Kiang-nan, Kiang-si, and Che-kiang for green. The most important of these are Fokien and Kiang-nan: Robert Fortune, the botanical collector to the horticultural society of London, observed that both the black and green teas of the northern districts are obtained from the T. viridis, while those of both sorts shipped from Canton are produced from the T. bohea. Tea is also an important product in Japan, Tonquin, and Cochin China. The plant is also cultivated in the mountainous parts of Ava. In the mountains which separate China from the Burmese territories the tea plant is indigenous, and abounds especially in Upper Assam, bordering on the province of Turman. Its culture has been encouraged by the government of British India in the N. W. provinces and the Punjaub. In Nepaul, lat. 27° 42′ N., the plant is cultivated at an elevation of 4,784 feet above the bay of Bengal. The tea from these districts sometimes brings in India from $1.50 to $1.75 per pound. The Dutch have introduced the culture with considerable success upon the hills of the island of Java. The plant has been introduced into Brazil, and, with the assistance of Chinese laborers, some tea has been produced near Rio Janeiro. The cultivation of tea in the United

States was attempted at Greenville, in the mountainous parts of South Carolina, by the late Dr. Junius Smith, from 1848 to 1852. He imported plants of 5 to 7 years' growth from China, and stocked a small plantation with them in that region, where they were exposed without injury to severe frosts during the winters, and to snow which covered the ground 8 or 9 inches deep. From his experiments it would appear that the climate and soil are very well adapted to the cultivation of the plant; but the want of experienced labor, and the abundance of other more profitable employments, will probably long prevent the culture from attaining any importance in this country. It may perhaps soonest succeed in California, where Chinese laborers can conduct the manipulations, and the processes may be simplified and economized by the introduction of improved apparatus and machinery. But although the high cost of transportation from the interior districts of China to the coast, and the long sea voyage to the United States, are important points in favor of introducing the culture into the United States, there are on the other hand to be considered the extremely low cost of labor in China, which is worth only from $3 to $4 per month, and that this is the chief item of expense in the production of tea. Ordinary congou tea in the tea-producing districts is rated at from 6 to 8 taels per picul, or from 8 to 9 cts. per pound. The packing and transportation add to this about 3 cts., and the export duties and charges about 3 cts. more, making the cost to the shippers about 15 cts. So it appears that even with a high protective duty there is little probability that the culture could be made profitable. The districts of southern China are mostly of a mountainous character, and too rocky to be much cultivated. It is not until passing the sterile granitic regions that the more fertile districts devoted to the tea culture are met with further north, near the river Min, in the provinces of Fo-kien and Chekiang. The lands here spread out into broad plains, some of which are at a lower level than the surface of the rivers and canals which pass through them, but the soil of these is usually a stiff clay, more unproductive than the. soil of plains elevated a few feet above the level of the rivers and canals, as is the case with much of the cultivated lands of Shanghai. The tea carefully cultivated upon these plains is known as "garden tea," while that grown upon the more elevated lands is called "hill tea." In several of the provinces very good tea is produced upon hills where the soil is rich. The geological formations in some of the districts are granitic, and in some they consist of silurian slates with red calcareous sandstone, and in the bohea tea lands of Woo-e-shan of clay slate, associated with beds of quartz cut through by dikes and veins of black granite, and overlaid by sandstones and conglomerates composed of quartzose grains and pebbles held together by a calcareous paste. The hillsides in

this region often present nothing green excepting the tea shrubs.-The soil best adapted for the growth of the tea plant is a light loam more or less stony, containing considerable vegetable matter, and which, while retentive of moisture, is at the same time well drained, and sufficiently porous to be permeable to the delicate fibres of the roots. The seeds, gathered in October, are kept in sand till the next spring, when they are sown either in the rows in which they are to grow, or in a bed from which they are afterward transplanted to the tea fields. The seeds are planted 6 or 8 together in holes ranged in rows about 4 feet apart, and as the plants germinate, if the season is dry, they are watered with water in which rice has been washed, and sometimes treated with liquid manure or the dung of silkworms. Water lodging about the roots is apt to destroy the plants, and manure is thought to impair the flavor of the tea. In the winters, if the cold is severe, the young tender shrubs are often protected by a wrapping of straw around them. The first gathering of the leaves does not take place until the second or third year. The young leaf buds are sometimes gathered early in April, for the kind of tea known as pekoe, which is the choicest of black teas. The plants might be seriously injured by the loss of the young buds, but for the copious rains which fall about this season. New leaves soon appear, and these, gathered the last of April or early in May, constitute the most important crop. The third gathering, early in July, furnishes leaves of inferior quality. In some parts of the country a fourth crop is gathered in August or September, of large and old leaves of little value. The duration of the plants is 10 or 12 years, when they are dug up, and replaced by seedlings. The leaves are stripped off rapidly without much care, into baskets of split bamboo, and are carried to the building where, after being sorted, they are subjected to the drying process. The buildings used for this purpose appear to be low sheds more or less open at the sides, and furnished within with rows of pans in stacks of brickwork. The drying is variously conducted according to the quality of the tea, some kinds being exposed to the open air in shallow pans, some being tossed up in the air, and some, too choice for handling, are whirled round in sieves. They are then exposed in the pans to sufficient heat to dispel their moisture without impairing the aroma of the tea, and this is effected by a person tending each pan and keeping the leaves constantly in motion with his hands. A brisk fire of dry wood is kept up under the pans during this roasting process. In a few minutes the leaves become soft and pliable and moist upon the surface. They are then thrown upon a table of split bamboo, and a number of workmen around take them up in their hands and roll them, by which they acquire the curled form common to the commercial tea. As soon as this is done, the leaves are exposed upon a

bamboo screen to the action of the air, when they are again roasted with less heat over a charcoal instead of a wood fire. They are again rolled, and sometimes the processes are again repeated. The final drying is commonly in the pans, of the finest sorts at a very gentle heat over a charcoal fire. The difference between green and black teas is owing to the longer exposure of the latter to the air before the drying, and during the different stages of the drying process. Instead of the leaves being taken directly to the drying pans, they are left, if intended for black tea, spread out sometimes a whole night on bamboo mats, and are afterward tossed about and exposed to the air. The heating and rolling processes may also be repeated as many as 4 times; and the final drying is slowly conducted, a workman opening and stirring the leaves with his hands to afford free passage to the vapors. The effect of this is to induce a partial fermentation and oxidation of the leaves, accompanied with a change of color to black. By rapid drying, with the least exposure to the air, the leaves not only remain green, but they retain more of the active properties of the plant, as appears from the greater effect of green teas upon the nervous system. It is also stated that the difference between green and black teas is owing in part at least to difference of soil, climate, and age of the leaves, the plants furnishing the black teas being grown in hilly and mountainous places, and the green tea shrubs being cultivated on level lands, in soils enriched with manure. Some of the varieties of green tea are produced by sorting a single kind by sifting through sieves of different sizes, and the finer kinds thus separated are sometimes roasted after this 3 or 4 times. Since the great demand for green teas for the United States in 1832 and 1833, the Chinese have been in the habit of artificially coloring inferior or damaged black teas, so as to make them pass for the higher priced green teas, and by similar methods of improving the color of the poorer sorts of green tea. As witnessed by Sir John Davis, the method of coloring consists in first stirring among the leaves, while heated in the pans, a little pulverized yellow turmeric, and then adding a mixture of finely pulverized Prussian blue and gypsum. Indigo and porcelain clay are also used for this purpose. To such an extent is this adopted, that it is believed that all green teas exported from China are glazed or colored; and according to Dr. Hassall, when they are not colored there is little to distinguish green from black tea, the chief difference in color being that the former is sometimes inclined to olive. Some varieties of black teas, as the scented caper or black gunpowder and orange pekoe, are also made to present a peculiarly smooth and glossy appearance by rolling the leaves with pulverized graphite or black lead. None of these fine varieties are ever found in England otherwise than adulterated, but the souchong and congous are generally free from this deception.

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