Mr. Lincoln was in 1865 triumphantly re-elected to the presidency, with Andrew Johnson as vice-president. On April 14, while the north was rejoicing over the capture of Richmond and the surrender of the confederate armies, the president was assassi nated at a theater in Washington, by John Wilkes Booth, an actor; while an accomplice attacked and nearly killed Mr. Seward, secretary of state. The assassin was pursued and killed, and several of his accomplices tried and executed. Andrew Johnson became president. Jefferson Davis and the members of the confederate government were supposed to be privy to the assassination of president Lincoln, and large rewards were offered for their apprehension. Mr. Davis was captured in Georgia, and placed in fortress Monroe, but was released without trial in May 1867. An amendment to the constitution, for ever abolishing slavery in the states and territories of the union, was declared ratified by two-thirds of the states, Dec. 18, 1865. The vast change in the .organization of the republic made by this new fundamental law was completed by the 14th and 15th amendments, passed in 1868 and 1870, which gave to the former slaves all the rights and privileges of citizenship. The seceded states were readmitted to the union on condition of their adhesion to the constitution as thus amended. In 1867, the United States acquired by purchase the whole of Russian America (see ALASKA). In 1872, the Alabama (q.v.) court of arbitration gave its decree in favor of the United
States, while the San Juan boundary dispute with Great Britain was settled on the same side by the emperor of Germany. The outrages of a secret organization known as the Ku-Klux-Klan, in the southern states, necessitated the passing of an act in 1861, giving of such offenses to the U. S. courts. In 1875, great excitement was created in the states by the discovery of grave malversations on the part of citizens holding high rank in the public service.
The year 1876, memorable in the annals of the republic as the hundredth anniversary of the declaration of independence, was celebrated by a great centennial exhibition at Philadelphia. The presidential election of the same year was of more than usual interest. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant (q.v.) chosen president in 1869, had been re-elected in 1873. When the result of the keenly contested election toward the close of 1876 was made known, it seemed as if fortune had favored the democratic party. But many of the returns from the various states were disputed; and for several months the intensest •excitement prevailed. At last, a special tribunal, selected from the senate, the house of and the judges of the supreme court, was appointed to examine the election returns. The result was that Mr. Hayes, the republican candidate, was declared to have been elected president, and inaugurated Mar. 4, 1877.