ALDEIDGE, IEA. 



ALIASKA, OR ALASKA. 



throughout the northern part of the State 

 during the earlier part of the year. This was 

 finally removed by the crops of summer. But 

 much suffering and want were anticipated among 

 the blacks in the ensuing winter. 



A great deterioration in the price of lands 

 prevailed, and a scarcity of purchasers at the 

 low rates. 



On December 19th Governor Patton issued his 

 proclamation stating that the number of copies 

 of the revised code of Alabama had been deliv- 

 ered to him by the author, as required by law, 

 and that the same would take effect as specified 

 by statute, sixty days from that date. 



ALDEIDGE, IRA, a negro tragedian of re- 

 markable reputation, widely known as "The 

 African Eoscius," died in Lodz, Polonia, August 

 7, 1867. His early history and the place and 

 date of his birth are involved in much ob- 

 scurity ; some of his biographers stating that he 

 was born in Bellair, near Baltimore, about 

 1810, that he was a mulatto, and that he was 

 apprenticed in his boyhood to a ship-carpenter, - 

 and acquired a knowledge of German from the 

 German immigrants in that part of Maryland, 

 and accompanied Edmund Kean to England as 

 a servant, where his natural talent for the stage , 

 was cultivated ; and that he subsequently re- 

 turned to the United States, and in 1830 or 

 1831 appeared on the stage in Baltimore, but 

 was not successful. He soon returned to Eng- 

 land, say these biographers, and there, ere long, 

 attained a high reputation. 



Others, who seem to us better informed, as 

 having probably derived their information from 

 the tragedian himself, gay that he was born in 

 New York City about 1805 ; that his father, a 

 full-blooded negro, and a native of Senegal, 

 where he had been a chief, was brought to this 

 country, converted, educated, and became the 

 pastor of a colored church in Church. Street, 

 New York, and intended his son Ira for the 

 same profession. The boy had, however, an 

 irresistible penchant for the stage, and in 

 amateur performances demonstrated his abil- 

 ity. His father, disapproving strongly of his 

 course, sent him to England to be educated for 

 the ministry; he obeyed for a time, but his 

 fondness for the stage was such that he soon 

 broke away from his studies, and, after some 

 time spent in preparation, made his debut at 

 the Royalty Theatre, London, as Othello. He 

 met with distinguished success at once, and 

 though in England he was generally preferred 

 in those plays to which his color was most 

 appropriate, such as Othello, Merchant of 

 Venice, Zanga Orozembo, Zarambo, Eolla, 

 Hugo (in the Padlock), etc., he was very 

 generally regarded as one of the ablest and 

 most faithful interpreters of Shakespeare's 

 best characters. On the Continent he ranked 

 as one of the ablest if not the ablest tra- 

 gedian of his time, and his representations 

 of Shakespeare's and other tragedies of the 

 first class > were received with acclamation by 

 crowded and delighted audiences, who seemed 



never to weary of hearing him. He received 

 from the King of Prussia the first-class medal 

 of Arts and Sciences, with an autograph letter 

 accompanying it ; from the Emperor of Austria, 

 the Grand Cross of Leopold ; a similar decora- 

 tion from the Emperor of Russia ; a splendid 

 Maltese cross with the Medal of Merit from 

 Berne, Switzerland ; and similar medals and 

 honors from other crowned heads in Eu- 

 rope. He was u member of the Prussian 

 Academy of Arts and Sciences, and holder of 

 its large gold medal ; member of the Imperial 

 and Archducal Institution of " Our Lady of 

 the Manger " in Austria ; of the Russian Hoff 

 Versarnlung of Riga ; and honorary member 

 of the Imperial Academy of Beaux Arts and 

 Sciences of St. Petersburg, etc., etc. 



His head was said to have been of uncom- 

 mon size, being full twenty-three and a half 

 inches in circumference. He left a widow, an 

 English lady, in London. At the time of his 

 death, he was on his way to St. Petersburg, 

 where he had an engagement, and expected to 

 appear in one of the New York theatres in the 

 latter part of September. 



ALIASKA, or ALASKA. The extensive tract 

 of land forming the northwestern limb of 

 the North American continent, formerly known 

 as Russian America (see ANNUAL CYCLOPAE- 

 DIA, 1866, RUSSIAN AMEP.ICA). By a treaty, 

 signed by the plenipotentiary of the Em- 

 peror Alexander of Russia, and by President 

 Johnson of the United States, on the 30th of 

 March, 1867, the ratifications of which, by the 

 respective powers, were exchanged on the 

 20th of June following, this territory was 

 ceded to the Government of the United 

 States, in consideration of the sum of seven 

 million two hundred thousand dollars. The 

 actual transfer was made on the 9th of October 

 of the same year, General Rousseau of the 

 United States service taking formal possession, 

 on behalf of the Federal Government, at New 

 Archangel, on the Island of Sitka. Its present 

 name, Aliaska, was formerly confined in its ap- 

 plication to the long and narrow peninsula 

 which projects into the Pacific Ocean from the 

 western angle of the country. 



By this purchase the United States acquired 

 an additional extent of sea-coast on the Pacific 

 and Arctic Oceans greater than its entire coast 

 line on the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of 

 Mexico, and has added 500,000 square miles to 

 its territory. The country had been held, pre- 

 vious to its cession to the United States, since 

 1799 chiefly by the Russian-American Com- 

 pany, which was incorporated for the purpose 

 of carrying on a fur-trade with the natives, and 

 of conducting fisheries upon the coast. The 

 nominal occupancy by the Russian Government 

 was, however, maintained by a small military 

 garrison stationed at New Archangel, which, 

 at the time of the treaty of cession, was under 

 the command of a Eussian governor, Prince 

 Macsautoff. The Eussian- American Company 

 had established trading-posts for carrying on 



