CHAPTER XXXVIII.

THE Centennial of American Independence was now at hand. As the event drew near the people made ready to celebrate it with appropriate ceremonies. It was determined to hold in Philadelphia a great International Ex position of Arts and Industries, the exhibition to continue from the 10th of May to the 10th of November, 1876. An appropriation of a million five hundred thousand dollars was voted by Congress to promote the enterprise, and the sum was increased by contributions from every State and Territory of the Union. The city of Philadelphia opened for the Exposition Fairmount Park, one of the largest and most beautiful in the world. A commission was constituted with General Joseph R. Hawley, of Connecticut, as President; Alfred T. Goshorn, of Ohio, as Director-General; and John L. Campbell, of Indiana, as Secretary.

Under direction of this commission five principal buildings were projected and brought to completion by the spring of 1876. The largest structure, called the Main Building, was eighteen hundred and seventy-six feet in length within the walls and four hundred and sixty-four feet wide, covering an area of more than twenty acres. The cost of the structure was $1,580,000. Second in importance was the Memorial Hall, or art gallery, built of granite, iron and glass, and covering an area of seventeen thousand six hundred and fifty square feet. This was by far the most ele gant and permanent of all the Centennial buildings. Machinery Hall, third of the great edifices, had the same form

and appearance of the Main Building, but was less grand and beautiful. The ground floor covered an area of nearly thirteen acres. The cost of the structure was $542,000. Agricultural Hall occupied a space of a little more than ten acres, and was built at a cost of $260,000. Horticultural Hall was an edifice of the Moorish pattern, covering a space of one and three-fifths acres, costing about $300,000. To these five principal structures others of interest were added: the United States Government Building; the Woman's Pavilion; the Department of Public Comfort; the Govern ment Buildings of Foreign Nations; Modern Dwellings and Bazaars; School Houses, Restaurants and Model Factories. The reception of articles for the Exposition was begun as early as January, 1876. A system of awards was adopted, and on the 10th of May the inaugural ceremonies were held under direction of the Centennial Commission, President Grant making the opening address. The attention of the people was fully aroused to the importance of the event and the grounds were crowded from the first day with thousands and hundreds of thousands of visitors. The Exposition was perhaps the grandest and most interesting of its kind ever witnessed up to that year of history. All summer long citizens and strangers from every clime poured into the spacious and beautiful park. Distinguished personages, among them Dom Pedro II., Emperor of Brazil, came from abroad to gather instruction from the arts and industries of mankind.

The Fourth of July, centennial anniversary of the great Declaration, was celebrated throughout the country. In Philadelphia on that day about two hundred and fifty thousand strangers were present. The Declaration was read in Independence Square by Richard Henry Lee, grandson of him by whom the resolution to be free was first offered in Congress-read from the original manuscript. A

National Ode was recited by the poet Bayard Taylor, and a Centennial Oration delivered by William M. Evarts. At night the city was illuminated and the ceremonies were concluded with fireworks and jubilee.

The Centennial grounds were opened for one hundred and fifty-eight days. The daily attendance varied from five thousand to two hundred and seventy-five thousand persons. The total receipts for admission were $3,761,000. The total number of visitors was nine million seven hundred and eighty-six thousand. On the 10th of November the Exposition was formally closed by President Grant, attended by General Hawley and Director Goshorn, of Cincinnati. The Memorial Building was preserved intact as a permanent ornament of Fairmount Park. The Main Building was sold by auction and the materials removed. Machinery Hall was purchased by Philadelphia and afterwards removed from the grounds. The Woman's Pavilion was presented to Philadelphia, together with most of the gov ernment buildings of foreign nations. It cannot be doubted that the Centennial Exposition left a permanent impression for good and contributed to the harmony of the civilized States of the world.

In the last year of Grant's administration a war broke out with the Sioux Indians. This fierce nation had in 1867 agreed with the government to relinquish all of the territory south of the Niobrara, west of the one hundred and fourth meridian and north of the forty-sixth parallel of latitude. The terms were such as to confine the Sioux to a large reservation in southwestern Dakota. To this reservation they agreed to retire by the 1st of January, 1876. Meanwhile gold was discovered among the Black Hills, lying within the limits of the Sioux reservation. No treaty could keep the hungry horde of white gold-diggers and adventurers from overrunning the interdicted region. This gave the

Sioux good cause for breaking over the limits of their reservation and roaming at large, and also a certain excuse for the ravages which they committed in Wyoming and Montana.

The government, however, must needs drive the Sioux back upon their reservation. A force of regulars under Generals Terry and Crook was sent into the mountainous country of the upper Yellowstone, and the Indians, numbering several thousand, led by their chieftain, Sitting Bull, were crowded back against the Big Horn Mountains and River. Generals Custer and Reno were sent forward with the Seventh Cavalry to discover the whereabouts of the Indians. They came upon the Sioux in a large valley extending along the left bank of the Little Big Horn. Custer led the advance. It was the 25th of June, 1876. With Custer, to see the enemy was to fight. What ensued has never been adequately determined. It appears that the general, under-estimating the number of the Indians with whom he had to contend, charged headlong with his division of the cavalry into the upper end of the town. He was at once assailed by thousands of yelling warriors. Custer and every man in his command fell in the fight. The conflict surpassed in desperation and disaster any other battle ever fought between the whites and Indians. The whole loss of the Seventh Cavalry was two hundred and sixty-one killed and fifty-two wounded. Reno, who engaged the savages at the lower end of their town, held his position on the bluffs of the Little Big Horn until General Gibbon arrived with reinforcements and saved the rest from destruction.

Other detachments of the army were hurried to the scene of war. During the summer and autumn the Indians were routed in several engagements. Negotiations were opened with the chiefs for the removal of the Sioux nation to the Vol. III.-14

Indian Territory; but desperate bands of the red men still remained on the warpath. The civilized Indians of the Territory objected to having the fierce savages out of the North sent into their country. The war went on till the 24th of November, when the Sioux were decisively defeated by the Fourth Cavalry in a pass of the Big Horn Mountains. The Indians suffered heavy losses and their town of a hundred and seventy-three huts was totally destroyed. Active operations continued until the 6th of January, 1877, when the remnant of the Sioux was completely routed by the division of General Miles.

The remaining bands of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse now made their escape into Canada. There they remained until the following fall, when a commission, headed by General Terry, met Sitting Bull and his principal warriors at Fort Walsh, on the Canadian frontier. A conference was held on the 8th of October and pardon was offered the Indians for all past offenses, on condition of future good behavior. But Sitting Bull and his chiefs rejected the proposals. The conference was broken off and the Sioux remained in the British Dominions, north of Milk River. Not until 1880 and then through the intervention of the Canadian government-were Sitting Bull and his band induced to return to the reservation of the Yankton Sioux, on the west bank of the Missouri River, Dakota.

Before the end of the war the twenty-third presidential election had been held. At the Republican National Convention of 1876 General Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, and William A. Wheeler, of New York, were chosen as the standard-bearers of their party. Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, and Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, were nominated by the Democrats. The Independent Greenback party appeared in the field and presented as candidates Peter Cooper, of New York, and Samuel F. Cary, of Ohio.