PECCI, JOACHIM. 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



629 



izing the Smithsonian Institution, and in 1846 

 became one of its regents and chairman of its 

 building committee. In 1860 he was elected a 

 member of the Convention which amended the 

 Constitution of Indiana, and became chairman 

 of its revision committee. In that Convention, 

 and afterward in the Legislature, he introduced 

 measures securing to the women of Indiana 

 independent rights of property. In 1853 he 

 was appointed charge d'affaires at Naples, and 

 in 1855 minister, remaining there till 1858. In 

 the spring of 1860 he had a discussion on di- 

 vorce with Horace Greeley, which appeared 

 originally in the Tribune, and afterward in a 

 pamphlet which obtained a circulation of 60,- 

 000 copies. During the civil war he published 

 various letters to members of the cabinet, and 

 to the President, advocating the policy of 

 emancipating the slaves. In 1863 he published 

 an address to the citizens of Indiana, showing 

 the disastrous consequences that would follow 

 from the success of the effort then making by 

 certain politicians to reconstruct the Union 

 with New England left out. Of this address 

 the Union League of New York published 50,- 



000 copies, and the Philadelphia Union League 

 25,000 copies. He was for many years a prom- 

 inent believer in the phenomena called spiritu- 

 alism. His principal works are : " An Outline 

 of the System of Education at New Lanark " 

 (Glasgow, 1824) ; " Moral Physiology " (New 

 York, 1831) ; " Discussion with Origen Bach- 

 elor on the Personality of God and the Au- 

 thenticity of the Bible " (1832) ; " Pocahontas," 

 an historical drama (1837); "Hints on Public 

 Architecture," with 113 illustrations (1849') ; 

 " Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World " 

 (Philadelphia, 1860) ; " The Wrong of Shivery, 

 and the Right of Emancipation " (1864) ; " Be- 

 yond the Breakers," a novel (1870) ; u The De- 

 batable Land between this World and the 

 Next" (New York, 1872); and "Threading 

 my Way," being 27 years of autobiography 

 (1874). His "Footfalls" treats of the spon- 

 taneous phenomena of spiritualism, and u The 

 Debatable Land " opens with an address to the 

 Protestant clergy on the present attitude of the 

 religious world, while the body of the work 

 sets forth the evidences of spiritual phenomena 

 in general. 



PECCI, JOACHIM, was born at Carpineto, in 

 the Diocese of Anagni, in Italy, on March 2, 

 1810, and is descended from an ancient and illus- 

 trious house. As soon as he was of the proper 

 age, he was sent to the Roman College, where 

 he completed the usual course of studies, and 

 entered the Academy of Ecclesiastical Nobles, 

 and pursued the studies of law and theology 

 until he entered the priesthood. On March 

 16, 1837, he was appointed, by Pope Gregory 

 XVI., domestic prelate and private referendary, 

 and received the title of Protonotary Aposto- 

 lic. Subsequently he was sent by the same 

 Pope as the Delegate to direct the government 

 of Benevento. This was the smallest of the 

 Papal districts ruled by a Delegate, containing 

 60 square miles, and about 24,000 inhabitants. 

 The customs service there was paralyzed, and 

 travel, except by the contrabandists, attended 

 with the greatest danger. By his firmness and 

 decision the Delegate soon restored complete 

 order. He was soon removed to the charge of 

 Spoleto, a district 20 times larger; thence he 

 was afterward advanced to be Delegate at 

 Perugia. In 1843, he was preconized Arch- 

 bishop of Damietta, Egypt, and sent as Apos- 

 tolic Nuncio to the King of Belgium, 

 health becoming affected, he solicited a recall 

 from Belgium. The Pope on January 19, 1846, 

 preconized him Bishop of Perugia, transferring 

 him from the see of Damietta, and on Decem- 

 ber 9, 1853, he was created by Pius IX. a Car- 

 dinal of the order of Priests, and assigned to 

 the Congregations of the Council of Immunity, 

 of Rites, and of Regular Discipline. On Feb- 

 ruary 20th, the second day of the Conclave, 



after a duration of 40 hours, he was, on the 

 third ballot, elected Pope, having received the 

 vote of 61 Cardinals. 



PEDRO II., DE ALCANTARA (John Charles 

 Leopold Salvador Bibiano Francis Xavier de 

 Paula Leocadio Michael Gabriel Raphael Gon- 

 zaga), Emperor of Brazil.* His Majesty, with 

 the Empress and suite, returned to Petropolis, 

 near Rio de Janeiro, on September 24, 1877, 

 after an absence of nearly eighteen months 

 spent in visiting the United States, Europe, the 

 Holy Land, Egypt, etc. Immediately after his 

 return, important reforms were projected in 

 the various branches of the Government, one 

 of the most noteworthy being the calling of 

 the Liberal party to power, on January 6, 1878. 

 Senator Sinimbu was appointed Minister of 

 Agriculture and President of the new cabinet. 

 Reduction of expense is the order of the day; 

 and of the success likely to be achieved in this 

 direction, an idea may be formed from the fact 

 that, instead of a deficit of $4,600,000 in the 

 new budget, as proposed by the Conservatives, 

 there will be a surplus of $1,500,000. It may 

 be mentioned in this connection that tho new 

 iron-clad, built in England at such an enormous 

 cost for the Brazilian Government, and likely 

 to prove as useless as expensive, was sold to 

 the British for 600,000. 



PENNSYLVANIA. Tho Legislatnreof this 

 State opened its session of 1877 at the bopn 

 ning of January. Soon after their first inw 

 ing the two Houses passed the following joi 

 preambles and MBdntioM eonceraingaj*; 



' * For biographical notice,** AHKOAI ClCMr^U fcr 1878, 

 p. 015. 



