THE AMERICAN YAM 



YANCEY 



man a year. The yarn the Chinese ra 



md not of China. 1 



yam raised for food, the Chinese prow another 

 y:im. from which they ob- 

 tain the tan and dark brown color for dyeing 



: coarse cot- 

 ton cloth and 

 their fishing nets. 



yam is the only 



plant cult 



by the natives. 



and it furnishes 



food. The natives 

 dig the huge 

 roots out of the 

 ground with 

 primitive tools 

 called yam sticks, 

 which are three-foot stakes broadened and 

 sharpened at one end. The edible yam con- 

 tains less starch than the Irish potato, but has 

 more nitrogen matter and more sugar. Usu- 

 ally it has an acrid taste, which disappears 

 when it is baked, boiled or roasted. 



YANCEY, yan'si, WILLIAM LOWXDES (1814- 

 1863), "the orator of secession," born near the 

 Falls of the Ogeechee, Ga. At the age of 

 twenty he began the practice of law in Green- 

 ville, S. C., at the same time editing a news- 

 paper which strongly opposed nullification. 

 After two years he removed to Alabama, where 

 he was destined to become the leading political 

 figure of the period before the War of Seces- 

 sion. Three years in the state legislature were 

 followed by two years (1844-1846) in Congress. 

 Yancey had by that time, however, changed 

 his political views and had become convinced 

 that compromise between the North and the 

 South was impossible. He resigned from Con- 

 gress and henceforth preached the doctrine of 

 no compromise. 



He drew up an Alabama political platform 

 protesting against the doctrine of squatter 

 sovereignty, and when the Democratic national 

 convention of 1848 refused to accept its princi- 

 ples he opposed in fervent speeches Lewis Cass, 

 the Democratic candidate for President. He 

 bitterly fought the Compromise of 1850 and 

 tried zealously to secure the secession of Ala- 

 bama; but the time was not yet. ripe. The 

 results of squatter sovereignty, which had been 

 disappointing to the South, soon turned public 

 sentiment toward Yancey's view. In the 

 Democratic national convention of 1860, at 



YANG-TSE-KIANG 



Charleston, Yancey appeared as the acknowl- 

 edged leader and spokesman of the Southern 

 delegates. His attitude was already clear from 

 his action in 1S58, when he urged the organiza- 

 tion of committees of safety to "fire the South- 

 ern heart, instruct the Southern mind, give 

 confidence to each other, and at the proper 

 moment, by an organized, concerted action, 

 precipitate the Cotton states into revolution." 

 When the convention refused to accept his 

 views on the slavery question, Yancey with- 

 drew, followed by the delegates from eight of 

 the Southern states. He seems to have felt 

 that even a united Democratic party could not 

 prevent the election of a Republican President, 

 and his withdrawal from the convention was 

 intended not to disrupt the Democratic party 

 but to stand as a flaming warning to the South. 



In the campaign that followed, he delivered 

 many speeches throughout the North, osten- 

 sibly to urge the election of Stephen A. Doug- 

 las, but really to present to the North a defense 

 of the South. Later he refused office in the 

 Confederate Cabinet of President Davis, but 

 accepted an appointment as one of three com- 

 missioners to secure European recognition of 

 the independence of the Confederacy. While 

 he was absent in Europe, Alabama chose him 

 as one of its representatives in the Confederate 

 Senate. As a Senator he frequently criticized 

 the Confederate government as inefficient, and 

 demanded a more vigorous prosecution of the 

 war. 



In the history of the United States Yancey is 

 one of the few public men whose influence and 

 importance cannot be measured by the offices 

 they have held. Except for two brief periods 

 Yancey held no office whatever, yet he was 

 responsible, perhaps more than any other one 

 man, for the general belief among Southerners 

 in the right of secession. Right or wrong, he 

 felt that he was a man with a mission. He was 

 a great orator, fiery and inspired; his influence 

 remained long after his actual words were for- 

 gotten, and it was through no fault of his that 

 his mission was destined to failure. W.F.Z. 



YANG-TSE-KIANG, yahng'tseh kc ahng' , 

 the longest river in China, which has its source 

 in the lofty Tang-la Mountains of Tibet, more 

 than 16,000 feet above the sea. The river flows 

 eastward, southeastward and then south, en- 

 ters the Chinese province of Yun-nan, and, 

 after winding about in a great double curve, 

 flows across the province of Sze-chuen in a 

 northeasterly direction. It then follows an 

 irregular eastern course through the central 



