With England, Blaine found negotiations upon the Isthmian Canal pending, having been taken up by Hayes. His attitude in his notes of 1881 failed to meet the approval of Great Britain, and ignored obligations that the United States had long before accepted. But it pointed to an American canal and was part of his larger scheme. His America was inclusive of both continents, and drew him to hope for larger trade relations in the Western Hemisphere. With the approval of Garfield he had started to mediate in South America, in a destructive war between Chile and Peru. He had on foot, when Garfield died, a scheme for a congress of the American States in the interest of a greater friendliness among them. The invitations for this gathering had just been issued when Arthur reorganized his Cabinet, brought F.T. Frelinghuysen in as Secretary of State, and let Blaine out. There was no public office ready for him at this time, so he retired to private life and the historical research upon which his _Twenty Years of Congress_ was founded. Jefferson Davis had just brought out his _Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government_, while the Yorktown centenary, like the centennial of independence, had stimulated the market for historical works. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE The United States Census of 1880 is more elaborate and reliable than its predecessor of 1870, and may be supplemented to advantage by H.V. Poor, _Manual of the Railroads of the United States for 1880_, which contains a good sketch of railroad construction, and by R.P. Porter, _The West from the Census of 1880_ (1882). E.E. Sparks, _National Development_ (in _The American Nation_, vol. 23, 1907), is a useful survey of the years 1877 to 1885, and contains a good bibliographical chapter. The bibliographies in Channing, Hart, and Turner's _Guide to the Study and Reading of American History_ (1912) are specially valuable for the years 1876 to 1912. E.B. Andrews, _The United States in Our Own Time_ (1903), is discursive and entertaining. Special phases of material development may be reached through D.R. Dewey, _Financial History of the United States_; T.V. Powderly, _Thirty Years of Labor_ (1889); H. George, _Progress and Poverty_ (1879; and often reprinted), and the Aldrich Report on Prices (52d Congress, 2d session, Senate Report, No. 1394). Many interesting details are to be found in W.C. Hudson, _Random Recollections of an Old Political Reporter_ (1911); and J.F. Rhodes has touched upon this period in his essays, among which are "A Review of President Hayes's Administration in the Light of Thirty Years" (_Century Magazine_, October, 1909); "The Railroad Riots of 1877" (_Scribner's Magazine_, July, 1911); and "The National Republican Conventions of 1880 and 1884" (_Scribner's Magazine_, September, 1911). Among the economic journals started in the eighties, and containing a wealth of scholarly detail for contemporary history, are the _Quarterly Journal of Economics_ and the _Political Science Quarterly_.