Yancey
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
WILLIAM LOWNDES an American statesman; born in Ogeechee , Shoals, Ga., Aug. 10, 1814; went to Alabama in his youth, and there studied law and began to practice in Montgomery. For a while he was engaged in journalism, and afterward served in both branches of the Alabama legislature. He was a member of Congress in 1844-1847, and while there exerted a strong influence as a leader of the Pro-slavery party in the South. As early as 1858 he advised the organization of committees of safety all over the cotton-growing States. He reported the Alabama ordinance of secession to the convention in Montgomery, which was adopted in January, 1861. In February following he was appointed a Confederate commissioner to the governments of Europe to obtain the recognition of the Confederate States. He entered the Confederate Congress early in 1862, and served till his death, near Montgomery, Ala., July 28, 1863. YANGTZE- Asia; popularly known as the "Girdle of KIANG, the chief river of China"; uniting all the central provinces of that country. It lies between Tibet and Kokonor on the W. and the Pacific Ocean on the E., and, including its many windings, has an estimated length of 3,400 miles. Its source is found in the elevated region of central Asia, and it flows first S. through a level country and then S. E. through the province of Yun-nan, and finally N. by E. with several turns to the S. If its many tributaries, their fertile valleys, and the vast population they support, be considered, the Yangtze- Kiang is the greatest river in the world.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's 1921 sketch of William Lowndes Yancey still holds in outline "" the Georgia-born Alabama fire-eater who reported the state's secession ordinance in January 1861, went to Europe as a Confederate commissioner, and died near Montgomery in July 1863. What later scholarship added is the failure of that mission: Britain and France never recognized the Confederacy, Yancey came home disillusioned in 1862, and modern historians treat him less as a regional "leader of the Pro-slavery party" than as the most effective agitator of the secession movement, whose 1858 "committees of safety" letter is a standard document in Civil War courses. The Yangtze entry crammed in beside him has dated more sharply: the river is now measured at about 6,300 km (3,915 miles), not 3,400, and since 2012 it has been dammed at the Three Gorges by the largest power station on earth, a project that displaced well over a million people and drowned the gorges the 1921 text still described as untouched scenery.
Written for this edition, 2026.