St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-03-03
To-DAY's ANNIVERSARIES.

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In the war scare of 1899 congress had
ordered the construction of number
OF vessels, which, being built of unsea-
soned wood soon became unfit for sery-
ice. With the returning prospect of
peace March 3, 1901, congress author
ized the secretary of the navy to sell al
except fourteen of the largest of these
vessels, and directing that six of the
fourteen remaining ships should be
Kept constantly in commission. All
officers of the navy were to be dis
charged except nine captains, thirty
SIX lieutenants and $50 midshipmen. 1t
appeared that the material had been
collected for the building of six seventy
tours, and that the ground had been
purchased for the establishment of
navy yards at Boston, Portsmouth, New
York, Philadelphia, Washington and
Norfolk. For this reason the secretary
OF the navy urged an annual apprOpria-
ton for the ultimate establishment of
naval force of twelve seventy-fours
and twenty-four heavy frigates, and the
collection of material so that these
ships could be put up at any time.
The close of the last session of the
Second congress on March 3, 1898, re-
calls an important act of that body
which is little remembered. The Sec
ond congress enacted the first fugitive
slave law, which originated in the sem
ate and was passed by the house with
out debate. This statute directed that
in case of the escape from any state OF
territory OF any person held to service
or labor, the master, agent or attor-
ney OF the owner might seize the person
held to such service and take him be-
fore any United States judge or local
magistrate. and on proof, oral or aft
davlt, that such person was fugitive
from service, the judge or magistrate
was directed to grant a certificate to
that effect, which certificate should be
sufficient for the removal of the fugi-
tive to his former owner. To aid in the
escape of a fugitive slave rendered the
party liable to fine Of $500. Several
Northern states soon enacted laws for
bidding local magistrates to execute the
federal act, which consequently became
dead letter until its revival in the
famous fugitive slave law of 1850.
o - O
The last Official act of President Mad
lson was the veto of John G.. Calhoun's
famous bill appropriating Sl,5OO.OOO for
internal improvements, which sum was
to be divided among the several states
pro rata. This bills passed the house
by vote OF Sc to 81, and the senate by
vote of 20 to 10. Madison pronounced
such an employment of the federal sur
plus to be unconstitutional, notwith-
standing the fact that Jefferson had in
dorsed such use of the surplus, and
that he himself had swallowed the prop
Osition of national bank and had rec
commended the establishment of ma
fInnat fnr iah
no constitutional warrant could be dis
covered. The presidents inconsistent
action on Calhoun's bill was possibly
suggested by the cloSeneSS of the vote
III the two houses.
The annals of English poetry present |
but few names of greater distinction
than that of George Herbert, who died
on the Sd of March, 1858. He was born
on April Sd, 1898, and educated at the
university of Oxford. Herbert's fame
rests on posthumous publication. At
his death he left manuscript of poems
to be given to his brother, with the di-
rection that they be published or burnt,
lished at Cambridge in 1888, and in 1910
10000 copies of the poems had been
sold, an extraordinary number for the
seventeenth century. The present en-
ioyment of his verses is married Ivy his
quaint conceits and fantastic imagery,
by which his pious and often pro-
found thoughts are obscured rather
than illustrated. Herbert had passion
for music and wrote many of his hymns
that he might sing them to his lutte and
viol.
o O O
March 8 is the anniversary of the
birth of three English poets-Edmund
Waller in 1905, Sir William Davenant in
1906. and Thomas Otway in 1861. AS a
specimen of Walters ''smoothness,
which was the admiration of Pope, the
following passage from one of his lyrical
poems is good example:
go, lovely Rose,
Tell her that wastes her time and me,
That now she knows,
When l resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be-
''Then die. that she
The common fate of all things rare
May read in thee;
How small part of time they share
That are so Wondrous sweet and fair"