the conclusion of the war, our government
intimated to Emperor Napoleon that it would be politic for him to
withdraw from Mexico, although we were quite willing to allow Maximilian
to remain emperor if it was the wish of the Mexicans. Napoleon acted on
the warning, but the misguided victim chose to stay, and was captured by
the Mexicans in 1867 and shot. That was the end of the attempt to
establish an empire in Mexico, which has long been a prosperous and
well-governed republic.

ADMISSION OF NEBRASKA.

Nebraska was admitted to the Union in 1867. It was a part of the
Louisiana purchase and was made a Territory in 1854, by the
Kansas-Nebraska act. Being located much further north than Kansas, it
escaped the strife and civil war which desolated that Territory. It has
proven to be a rich agricultural region, though it suffers at times from
grasshoppers, drought, and storms.

The attempts to lay an Atlantic telegraph cable resulted in failures
until 1866, when a cable was laid from Ireland to Newfoundland. Since
then other cables have been successfully stretched beneath the ocean
until it may be said the world is girdled by them.

PURCHASE OF ALASKA.

In 1867 our country purchased from Russia the large tract in the
northwest known as Russian America. The sum paid was $7,200,000, a price
which many deemed so exorbitant that it was considered a mere pretext of
Secretary Seward, who strongly urged the measure, in order to give
Russia a bonus for her valuable friendship during the Civil War.
Inclusive of the islands, the area of Alaska is 577,390 square miles.
The country was looked upon as a cold, dismal land of fogs and storms,
without any appreciable value, but its seal fisheries and timber have
been so productive of late years that it has repaid its original cost
tenfold and more.

WIDENING OF THE BREACH BETWEEN CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT.

One of the acts passed by Congress in March, 1867, forbade the President
to dismiss any members of his cabinet without the consent of the Senate.
The President insisted that the Constitution gave him the right to do
this. Secretary of War Stanton, who had resigned by his request, was
succeeded by General Grant, who gave way to Stanton, when the latter was
replaced by the Senate, in January, 1868. On the 21st of February the
President dismissed him and appointed Adjutant-General Thomas secretary
_ad interim_. Stanton refused to yield, and remained at his office night
and da