PREFACE. 



THE year 1886, though not notable for any political movement in our coun- 

 try, or any great war in foreign lands, presents so much that is interesting and 

 important in the movement of peaceful events, that there is an embarrassment of 

 riches for this volume of the ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA. The usual excellent digest 

 of the proceedings in Congress, this time covering a long session, will be found 

 under its appropriate head ; the year's history for all the great countries of the 

 world is given, with the usual classifications ; and most of the articles on the 

 States of our Union are very full. The remarkable progress of American cities 

 in the past ten years is shown in " Cities, Recent Growth of," where eighty-six 

 of them are recorded in a form convenient for ready reference and comparison. 

 These articles have been carefully condensed from a large mass of matter ob- 

 tained from good authorities in the several cities ; and the intention is to con- 

 tinue the subject with other cities in the next volume. Besides the general 

 city articles, those on Albany and New York are especially interesting the one 

 for its bi-centennial celebration, and the other for the unveiling of Bartholdi's 

 Statue of Liberty. The article on Music, showing what has been done, in recent 

 years, in the higher walks of the art, is a new feature, supplementing the record 

 of Fine Arts, which was introduced for the first time last year and is continued 

 in this volume. 



The death-roll is the most remarkable of any in recent years. It includes 

 the names of one ex-President of the United States, Chester Alan Arthur, three 

 candidates for the presidency Horatio Seymour, Samuel J. Tilden, and Win- 

 field Scott Hancock and two candidates for the vice-presidency Charles 

 Francis Adams and John Alexander Logan the candidacy of the two last 

 named being more than a generation apart, and separated by the mightiest 

 events of our history. The power of these events is illustrated in the con- 

 trasted careers of the two men. When Adams was the Free-Soil candidate, Lo- 

 gan was a pro-slavery Democrat : but at the time of their death, Logan was one 

 of the extremists of the party that wrought emancipation, while Adams had 

 practically gone over to the Democrats. Besides these, we lost in 1886 other 

 historical characters, including General David Hunter, who anticipated Presi- 

 dent Lincoln in the policy of emancipation ; Hon. David Davis, Mr. Lincoln's 

 intimate friend ; Asher B. Durand, the Nestor of American artists ; and John 



