where French and Spanish and colored troops were all contending, Toussaint declared for France, which had proclaimed freedom for the slaves. He joined the French leader, drove the English and Spanish from the island, and was made commander-in-chief of Santo Domingo. The civil war between the mulattoes and blacks ended in the whole island becoming subject to Toussaint, who governed it under the French. He selected a council of nine members, composed of eight white citizens and one mulatto, which chose him president for life. The constitution adopted was sent to France; but Napoleon, the first consul, said: “He is a revolted slave whom we must punish.” A fleet of 30,000 men and 66 war-vessels was sent to Haiti to re-establish slavery, and after ineffectual efforts to conquer the island offers of peace were made, promising with solemn oaths the liberty of the people and that Toussaint should be retained in power. He signed the treaty of peace on these conditions, but was seized treacherously with his family, and sent to France, where he was imprisoned without trial or accusation in a cold, underground dungeon at Besançon. He sent appeals for trials and his defense to Napoleon, but got no answer. At last, worn out with cold and left four days without food or drink, he was found dead in his cell on April 27, 1803. Whittier and Wordsworth have embalmed the name of Toussaint L'Ouverture in their poems. Wendell Phillips made him the theme of an oration.
Tow′er, Charlemagne, an American diplomat, was born at Philadelphia on April 17, 1848. He graduated from Harvard University (1872), spent four years in Europe, and in 1878 was admitted to the bar. He became active in business affairs, including railroad interests and mining, for some years; but in 1891 he began to devote himself exclusively to history and archæology, and became a professor in the University of Pennsylvania. He was appointed United States minister to Austria-Hungary in 1897, ambassador to Russia in 1899, and ambassador to Germany in 1902, retiring in 1908. He has published The Marquis de La Fayette in the American Revolution and A Catalog of a Collection of American Colonial Laws.
Tower of Lon′don, a famous ancient citadel erected by William the Conqueror about 1078 to dominate the city. It is in the oldest part of the British metropolis, on the north bank of the Thames, about a mile below London Bridge. It is surmounted by a keep, known locally as the White Tower, — the council chamber of the early kings. The Tower is historically notable for the many distinguished persons — traitors and others — who have been confined within its walls as prisoners of state or have met death on the scaffold or at the headsman's block on the adjoining Tower Hill. In modern days it has become the repository of the national arms; and since the restoration the regalia or crown-jewels have been kept in the Tower on exhibition.
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Towhee or Cheewink, member of the finch family. The bird is smaller than the robin, the color of its sides a rich, reddish chestnut, below white, upper part black, tail tipped with white. The call-notes give it its names; its song, simple and pleasing, is heard from among the branches. Favorite haunts are thicket and scrubby wood. It forages on the ground, is expert in unearthing wire-worms, beetles and larvæ, and has special liking for hairy caterpillars and potato-bugs. It nests on the ground, the nest seeming a very part of the soil, the eggs white marked with dull brown, in number four or five. The birds migrate in April, September and October, the breeding-range extending from the lower Mississippi valley and Georgia northward to Maine, Ontario and Manitoba. It sometimes is called ground-robin.
Town-Meet′ings are held annually in the New England towns for general discussion, the election of officials and the voting of taxes. A town in New England does not necessarily mean a small city; but, rather, a unit for the administration of local government, often mainly rural. The township system is much more important in New England than elsewhere. It dates from the days of independent, local governments by the Pilgrim Fathers and the Puritans, when the town was essentially the church, and the church was almost the state. The New England town-church was intensely democratic. Thus the town-meeting as still practiced in New England affords the most perfect example of a completely democratic government. All the legal voters of the town may appear, and discharge the duties of government, as in some of the Swiss cantons, not through their representatives but in person. The colonial legislatures left the townships to govern themselves almost without interference, except where the colonial laws might happen to be transgressed. Town-
