LEBANON 



3364 



LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 



Lebanon, wherever used, suggests this fragrant 

 and beautiful evergreen tree; moreover, the 

 species which clothed the slopes of the Syrian 

 range has become the most widely known of 

 all the cedars (see CEDAR, subhead Cedars oj 

 Lebanon}. The poet Spenser has quaintly ex- 

 pressed, in the following lines, the kinship be- 

 tween tree and mountain : 



High on a hill a goodly Cedar grewe, 

 Of wond'rous length and streight proportion, 

 That farre abroad her daintie odours threwe ; 

 'Mongst all the daughters of proud Libanon, 

 Her match in beautie was not anie one. 



The name is derived from the Semitic laban, 

 meaning to be white, and is supposed to refer to 

 the bare, white walls of chalk or limestone that 

 form a striking feature pf the entire range. The 

 Mountains of Lebanon extend northward from 

 the River Litany, or Leontes, which empties 

 into the Mediterranean near Tyre, to the 

 stream called Nahr el-Kebir, north of Tripoli. 

 East of this chain, and extending parallel to 

 it, is the range known as Anti-Lebanon, the two 

 being separated by a narrow, fertile valley. 



The Lebanon is the loftier of the two ranges, 

 having an average elevation of from 6,000 to 

 7,000 feet, while the summits of its highest 

 peaks, Dahr el-Kodib, el-Miskiyeh and Jebel 

 Makmal, are over 10,000 feet above the sea. 

 On the barren and desolate slopes only a few 

 groves of the famous cedars may now be seen. 

 A narrow-gauge railway extends over the 

 mountains from Beirut to Damascus. 



LEBANON, PA., the county seat of Lebanon 

 County, is situated in a rich iron ore region in 

 the southeastern part of the state. It is sixty- 

 six miles northwest of Philadelphia and twenty- 

 six miles northeast of Harrisburg, and is on 

 the Philadelphia & Reading, the Cornwall & 

 Lebanon and the Cornwall railroads, and on 

 interurban lines. The population, which in 

 1910 was 19,240, in 1916 had increased to 20,779 

 (Federal estimate). 



The city is in the fertile Lebanon Valley, 

 between the Blue and South mountains. Iron 

 ore from the Cornwall mines, five miles dis- 

 tant, and limestone and brick clay taken from 

 the near-by hills give rise to the principal in- 

 dustries of the city. These include furnaces 

 and foundries, rolling-mills, steel plants, exten- 

 sive nut and bolt works, iron and steel plants, 

 machine shops and brick-making plants. There 

 are also shoe factories, silk, knitting and textile 

 mills, and a creamery. 



Lebanon contains a Federal building, court- 

 house, city hall, armory, Y. M. C. A. building, 



public library and hospitals, and in addition to 

 the public schools a business college and school 

 of telegraphy. 



German emigrants settled at Lebanon in 

 1700. The borough, platted by George Steitz 

 in 1750, was first called Steitztown. It was 

 incorporated as a borough in 1820 and char- 

 tered as a city in 1885. The commission form 

 of government was adopted in 1913. F.W.T. 



LECKY, lek'i, WILLIAM EDWARD HARTPOLE 

 (1838-1903), an historical writer, whose works 

 rank among the most interesting and valuable 

 literary products of his time. His History oj 

 the Rise and Influence oj the Spirit oj Ration- 

 alism in Europe, published in 1865, attracted a 

 great deal of attention, and has done more than 

 any other of his works to perpetuate his fame. 

 His History oj European Morals from Augus- 

 tus to Charlemagne appeared in 1869. More 

 than one-third of the first volume is devoted 

 to a discussion of the intuitive character of 

 morality. His essay on the Conversion oj 

 Rome was the subject of much scholarly and 

 theological debate and helped to make the 

 book a subject of wide popular interest. In 

 1878 he published the first two volumes of a 

 History oj England in the Eighteenth Century; 

 six more volumes, completing the work, were 

 published within the next ten years. In 1891 

 Lecky published a volume of poems, and in 

 1896 a two-volume work, Democracy and Lib- 

 erty. He was a native of Ireland, and received 

 his education at Trinity College, Dublin. He 

 represented the University of Dublin in Par- 

 liament, and later was honored with member- 

 ship in the Privy Council, from which he 

 resigned in 1902. 



LECOMP'TON CONSTITUTION, in United 

 States history, a constitution adopted by a 

 convention held at Lecompton, Kan., in 1857, 

 when the antislavery struggle was at its height. 

 According to this constitution, slavery was to be 

 legalized in Kansas, the legislature could not 

 pass any act of emancipation, and the consti- 

 tution itself could not be amended for seven 

 years. The people were allowed to vote only 

 upon the question whether they would have 

 the "constitution with slavery" or the "consti- 

 tution with no slavery," and as most of the 

 free-state men declined to vote in the election, 

 the "constitution with slavery" was adopted. 

 In January, 1858, in an election held under the 

 auspices of the free-state legislature, the in- 

 strument was rejected. Congress having or- 

 dered another vote on the question before 

 Kansas should be admitted* to statehood, the 



